Feeding the Dogs

We feed the dogs twice each day. There are 36 full-grown dogs and 12 puppies (2 litters that are about 5 months old). We usually feed them at around 8am, and around 6pm…..though if we go on runs with them sometimes the time changes.

The dogs get a mixture of Redpaw Kibble, raw beef (10lbs per feeding), fat, and a variety of powders to help them digest the raw meat and keep their bones strong. Ken is sponsored by Redpaw which means he gets all the kibble for free. You can see all the silver bags of kibble in the picture that shows the food tank. We use one bag of kibble during each feeding (40lb bag). The food tank is where we mix up the food, and store it to keep it from freezing. There is a meat saw that we use to cut up the raw meat. It’s broken at the moment so we’ve just been using an ax to chop up the meat (probably less dangerous for fingers!). It’s quite a process – a little different than what most people give there pet dogs. You get strong arms carrying around the food too.

Photos from Sheep Mountain

More Photos from the Sheep Mountain Race

Sheep Mountain Race

We went to our first race last weekend. The race was the Sheep Mountain 150. There were three legs of 50 miles. After the first 50 miles there was a 5-hour mandatory rest where the mushers could sleep and the dogs got feed and rested. Then there was another 50-mile section, followed by another 5-hour rest. The last 50 miles finished off the race. It was really fun to see how the races are run, and meet lots of different mushers. There were a lot of really cute dogs!

One evening Megan and I were playing cribbage and Jeff King came and sat down to talk with us. Jeff King is a pretty famous musher (he has won first place in 4 Iditarod races), and he was racing in Sheep Mountain. Basically the conversation consisted of him making fun of me because I was having some trouble with the simple addition required in cribbage. Pretty funny. Other than that, the race was quite uneventful…..a good thing. At one point I had to back up his huge trailer (see pictures) and I was very happy to back it up without much trouble. Driving his diesel manual truck with that trailer is a little nerve-racking.