When I arrived in Nikolai, I remember for the first time not being able to remember what the order of my chores were. there are beautiful little spots where the light hits just right and I think, Woah, In the week leading up to Bjorn's Jr. Iditarod we were visited by the media. Recipe by The Not-so-Modern Housewife. When I trained here in the nineties, the traffic was a fraction of what it is today, and the trail options were numerous. I've been struggling with this for years, but the difference now is that I'm finally able to start recognizing the signs before I'm so far into a funk that I can't pull myself out of it. Even as I write this, I shake my head, because I know what still lies ahead. We enjoyed the awards banquet where Bjorn received a plethora of wonderful gifts donated by the multitude of generous sponsors who, along with all the volunteers and the Iditarod Trail Committee, make this event possible. After completing my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in the spring of 2001, I spent the summer backpacking 500 miles across Colorado's Rocky . The fact that they can sleep in the snow bank, doesnt mean they want to. Yes, we do want to take care of the basics in life, but we also want to be careful we dont start using them as excuses to keep us from our yesses, especially if those responsibilities are consistently contributing to low vibrational frequencies. We started to pick up the pace in proportion to the reduction in wind resistance, and predictably, I quickly fell asleep. Every Day! He instructed me how to carefully ladle out broth only (no solid food) for this dog, because if she ate ANY solid food she would get fat quickly. (Apparently a lot of drag sleds crashed on a particularly sharp turn, but Gaia stuck it!). The Anchorage Daily News printed a beautiful one page spread in the Sunday paper titled Family Affair. Hey, Jeremy. The most important component of your outfit is your boots. All the overwhelm he was holding at the starting line was gone, shaken loose and left behind as debris along the trail. He had dared to say yes to his Yes and all of us standing there on the street were basking and rejoicing in the reverberation of it. It has fortunately healed quickly. Hes doing all of this for me. The reason for this has to do with how our eyes work in sub-optimal light as well as the way we form habits governing the placement of our attention. Truth be told, those steaks in Takotna were the only meals I ate the entire race that went down easily. And most importantly, which dogs got stronger the whole way, and what he thought their shifting perspectives looked like throughout this adventure. The wheeler was launched forward, effectively whipping Liam backwards, and then offinto the ditch. Charlie enjoyed a bush plane ride into Willow where he got to play with another dropped dog while he waited for us to pick him up. In the season of the least light, Alaska makes sure it's extra magical. We reached a compromise. Is it in the cheddar or is it in our mouths? Jeremy persevered and some of his tales from the trail can be read about in his blog, After Jeremys 2007 Iditarod, although he wanted to run the race again the following year, he looked at the realities on the ground and felt he could not ask me to support him through another race. Their younger son, Liam, (nine) is keeping everyone laughing! Needless to say, the recovery process was long, yet Jeremy would find himself standing, the very next winter, as a rookie with his small team of 13 dogs at the starting line of the 2007 Iditarod saying a big fat Yes! So I could ultimately see Koyuk hours before I would arrive, but struggled to see my dogs or the trail markers most of the way. Humanity is the ultimate Internet, and every time you say yes to your Yes, big or small, you add to the web of love and light in which we all need to play. So our strategy has had to change. The winner and top finishers had already crossed the line several days before. All of our dogs took a beating. They were over the shock of the storm and their own confusion as to what exactly we were doing. As cold as it was and as hard as I worked for those fifteen and a half days, I am aware of no adequate bio-chemical explanation for how I did what I did on the amount of food that I did it on. (LogOut/ Im better at She didnt even skid until impact. I am intimately aware of how big this Yes is, not because I am a competitive musher; I happen to be married to one. Yes, please! And so I made my way to a table and sat down to eat. Attitude. He hit the trail at 7:00am for another 11 hour run. She captured lots of great video and edited that as well. When he came through he had a big smile on his face. They are very different beasts. In the spring of 2002, he took me out on our first date.fittingly, a dog sled ride. Until your routine becomes a tried and true habit that you literally can do while you sleep walk, you are at constant risk of a paralyzing delirium, that, while not particularly unpleasant, is an entirely unsuitable mindset for leading a dog team. I came home feeling so incredibly inspired. They take many fewer steps as a consequence of their longer legs. Actually, Im not nervous, I just like that emoji! We arrived at the parking lot at noon and had three and a half hours before his start time. Bjorn Keller, 14, helps with chores in the dog yard. Were Instead of a quick dinner My experience with the puppies has been fun. Many of the mushers scratched early due to a blizzard and horrendous trail conditions that were ripping up sleds and breaking a few bones. I followed that race closely, of course, and it was a tough year out there on the trail. And when we got home, we fed them all the chicken they could eat. And isnt that the way of it for all of us? We were in Iditarod, taking care of our dogs, after the brutal run over from Ophir. Liam asked me yesterday if I was worried or scared about running this years Iditarod. Then, Im headed back to the basement to continue the rebuilding of one of our two dog sleds, so that we may park the four wheeler and finally get on the runners we have drivable snow! I had no idea who he was but I had a small notion, from following the race, what he must have been through to get there. So we will be very careful with them. I told them that I couldnt get to Nome without her. Did I finish a project? Likewise, I can produce an equally long list of grace-filled moments, some nothing short of miraculous, that carried Jeremy and his dogs, not just past the starting line, but all the way to Nome. +380662407506. Now he was just running dogs on a beautiful, sunny afternoon. God willing and the crick dont rise. A little before bed crafting + knitting sessionlast night was definitely good for the soul. This team could not have been better cared for. What an odd and delightful description! While this new set up doesn't make me dislike my job any less, it does make it a hundred, While I'm disappointed that it took me longer than I had hoped to finish this project, I'm proud of myelf for seeing it through and sharing with you all in true. and work until midnight every night busy. We're in the home stretch of 31 Days, and I'm hoping to finish strong with some fun projects ahead. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. You can donate to our race efforts, including Bjorns Willow Jr 100 and Jr Iditarod, here at All Roads Lead to Dog, or at the GoFundMe link on Facebook. It is like the wardrobe in The Chronicles of Narnia- for those with the vision its the way into the mystery but to most, it is just a wardrobe.I feel certain that for each and every one of us, there is a wardrobe out there somewhere waiting for us to find it. Alison here. Win for me. Alison Keller writes from Alaska where she homesteads and homeschools with her husband, Jeremy, and their two sons, Bjorn (14) and Liam (8). upstairs to my office/studio for some serious crafting until bedtime. For obvious reasons, the competitive mushers Yes has to be big, otherwise they would not devote so much of their time and resources into such an endeavor. I had every intention on logging on to post, but what my soul needed instead was to be unplugged for a bit. From the very first bite of that first steak, I could feel myself coming back from the void. Jeremy Keller, age 48, ran the 2007 Iditarod and then focused on farming and raising a family with his lovely wife, Alison. Oh, and replacing carpet in the living room with hardwood. And painting/furnishing the extra bedroom that we've never used. The dogs, once attached to your sled, begin to yank and pull at their lines with gleeful and robust vigor because, not only are they saying yes to their yes, they are in a collective of like-minded beings, yourself included, who are also saying yes to the same Yes. I expected the camping trip to be easy comparatively speaking. Before I left for Nome, former Iditarod champion Dean Osmar asked me if I was nervous about the race. Most dog teams in that situation, left to their own devices in a storm in hostile territory with no driver to direct and lead them, would make the very rational choice to turn around and enjoy a significant tail wind back to the place they last saw straw and warm food. He chose to stop and rest and fully assess the situation. What a relief! Boys, lets rest them a moment and let this vehicle pass us. Bjorn and I were looking directly at the approaching truck with bright headlamps. This is why falling in love feels so amazing and light, like walking on air. I bought supplies for a new project last night, but still have so many things already purchased that need to be worked on. Many of the mushers scratched early due to a blizzard and horrendous trail conditions that were ripping up sleds and breaking a few bones. Jeremy frequently speaks about the importance of leading his dog team from behind. Fast forward 12 years and, if anything, our financial reality is no better than it was back in 2007. The family and theiruniquelifestyle became a point of interest on Discovery Channels Edge of Alaska reality TV series. We are a closed system, a platoon if you will. The only thing holding your sled in place is a very serious, two-prong metal hook jabbed into the hard packed snow and with each new dog you add to the line, you must have faith the hook will hold. nothing is really getting accomplished. (). She didnt brake, and she didnt try to avoid us. In McCarthy, we of course had no traffic to contend with, and I got used to that. In the spring of 2002, he took me out on our. To those of you who have just joined the mailing list, welcome and enjoy! I made my way to the buffet line. We figured getting himself up was going to be the biggest challenge for Bjorn, being a teen who enjoys sleeping in, but he executed flawlessly. Over the next few hundred miles of trail, once the process started, I would fall asleep at the wheel, over and over again, all the while being otherwise wide awake. Fortunately it was daylight, so I could see what I was getting into. to create a home that was brighter, more modern, and more to our taste. My sled bag is in the shop for repairs and critical modifications. Seven months later, on a bright, frosty morning in September, while Jeremy was making his way across a damp footbridge (perhaps a bit too hastily), he slipped out on a wet board and, with quite a bit of momentum, crashed into the boulders of the riverbank and shattered his leg.Major surgery was required to put his leg back together with a steel rod inserted from knee to ankle. Today we continue, but on a sled, and with Allies help, we will be firming up this new habit soon and safely. What frequency do you suppose worry resonates at? And every time I would come back to lucid with a jolt, I was shocked to find myself flying down the trail on a beautiful, fast moving dog team, and having no idea how long I had been out. This sourdough pizza crust is by far my favorite crust, but it will take most of the day to rise. To hear more about leading from behind, tune into Green Ink Radio for an interview with Jeremy where he talks about this principle. Bite by bite, and by every savory mouth watering, animal fat dense mouth full, I felt my mental and emotional stance returning. Nervous? From the friends and family chiming in with well wishes and helping hands, to the hundreds of volunteers who flock to the Iditarod from far and wide, year after year, to support the race, to the fans who gather at the starting line to see the teams off and to the ones who show up on Front Street at all hours of the day and night to cheer the mushers and their dogs to their finish, and to the thousands of inspired children following the mushers from their classrooms every year, we are all saying yes just by showing up. He is a very sweet puppy. Meat, veggie. And it is very important to understand something about the mind of a hardworking sled dog. A little yes can be as simple as taking the time you think you dont have to read a good book. Low to the earth, never reaching more than a few degrees above the horizon, the glowing orb of the sun seems so much more distant as it both rises and sets across the southern skyline in a shallow gentle arc. rough day. They can put more raw physicality into the work, and the prototypical large male leader with adequate competitive fire can make the sled go the speed he wants it to go, entirely independent of the opinion of the rest of the team. Ever. Being fully alert on a dog team at night on ridiculously rough trail and watching yourself fight with all your strength to stop the curtain from coming down on your consciousness, all to no avail, over and over again.