I recently started a 2nd job to not only help financially but to sort of help get me out and doing a little more. I was pointed in the direction of a guy named Kirk who had a listing at the University Center (UC) message board. So after a very informal interview I was told to come back & start working the very next weekend. There are 4 people that have started working for Kirk, Christopher being one of them!, & we will be "picked off" Survivor style. I've been told that Chris & I are shoe-ins considering our passion for the animals & our experience working w/ them. I'm sure I will post more photos as winter passes.
I guess I should go a little more into what I am doing. Kirk is a professional sled dog musher. In fact he is training his dogs for the 2008 Iditarod. Check out his musher profile @: http://www.iditarod.com/race/musherprofiles/musherbio_282.html . In the beginning I am only helping as a kennel assistant, the usually cleaning, feeding, medicating, playing w/ puppies, ect. However, soon I will start
learning how to mush and driving my own team to help train some of the younger dogs to prepare. For now though, I am very content just to be playing w/ dogs again. And besides, how many people can say they know someone who's run in the Iditarod, let alone say that the helped the man & the dogs get there?!
One of the MANY beautiful views on my drive to work.
In the summer Kirk uses a Quad to train the dogs w/. They are so powerful that he has to tie the quad up to a tree or they will easily run away w/ it.
Hey all! It's getting so close to Thanksgiving break & I'm very excited! After talking w/ my seester the other night I decided to make a post just to give her a little something to keep her sane at work. So why not have some views of Montana to enjoy back in Ohio. Both of the pics above are some of the MANY BEAUTIFUL views I get to experience on my way to work w/ the IditaDogs.
I have only 1 more class to take tomorrow then I am done for Thanksgiving break. This year will be a special year for me because I will be cooking my own and very first Thanksgiving dinner. Thanks to the help of Mrs. Williams as well as my own mother I have a full menu ready to cook on Thursday. After this break I've got 2 week of classes, a week of finals, then it's only a quick flight back to the east coast. Time has been flying by this semester!
Above: Driving home from working w/ the IditaDogs on Sunday I got to see my first glimpse of a bald eagle in Montana. My animal experiences have been coming in twos thus far: first I saw elk and buffalo on the same day, next came bighorn sheep & later that night the wild bugle of an elk, and earlier in the morning of the eagle sighting, while at work I finally got to meet the snowshoe hare that lives in the dog kennels under a fallen tree.
Above: It started snowing last night and I awoke to a winter wonderland here in Missoula. Pantzer Hall is where I live & is pictured above. It's by far the nicest dorm on campus & what I am calling home for the year. Since there was easily 8 inches of snow this morning when the sun rose, students were out in full force throwing snowballs & making snowmen. The one pictured here is probably about 7 or 8 ft tall.
I recently started a 2nd job to not only help financially but to sort of help get me out and doing a little more. I was pointed in the direction of a guy named Kirk who had a listing at the University Center (UC) message board. So after a very informal interview I was told to come back & start working the very next weekend. There are 4 people that have started working for Kirk, Christopher being one of them!, & we will be "picked off" Survivor style. I've been told that Chris & I are shoe-ins considering our passion for the animals & our experience working w/ them. I'm sure I will post more photos as winter passes.
learning how to mush and driving my own team to help train some of the younger dogs to prepare. For now though, I am very content just to be playing w/ dogs again. And besides, how many people can say they know someone who's run in the Iditarod, let alone say that the helped the man & the dogs get there?!
One of the MANY beautiful views on my drive to work.
In the summer Kirk uses a Quad to train the dogs w/. They are so powerful that he has to tie the quad up to a tree or they will easily run away w/ it.
