Sanka W. Dog

Sanka’s Weekly Challenge – Buying Booties

On the day of the June Volunteer/Musher Signup Picnic, two musher’s names are drawn at the end of the day to receive the $3,000 entry fee. Anja Radano and Jeff Deeter were the lucky winners!  Mushers have a lot of expenses, including dog booties.  One bootie costs $3,  but most mushing supply companies offer a quantity …

Sanka’s Weekly Challenge – AM or PM?

How do race officials avoid a mix up between times before noon and times after noon?  In civiliam time, an AM or PM is added to the time.  During the race, times are reported using the 24-hour clock known as Military time. Briefly, 12:00 AM or midnight is written as 0000 hours.  1:00 AM is written …

Sanka’s Weekly Challenge – Start Times

There are 53 teams registered to run Iditarod XLVII.  The Ceremonial start will be on March 2, 2019 in downtown Anchorage. The honorary musher will wear Bib 1.  The competing mushers will wear bibs 2 thru 54. Bib 1 will leave the starting line at exactly 10:00.  Teams will follow at two-minute intervals.  What time …

Booties and Boots

Musher, handler, and even the kids in the family wear BIG boots out in the dog yard during the winter. I hear they wear boots to keep their feet warm and prevent a bad thing know as frostbite. I’ve seen pictures of Iditarod dogs wearing tiny little sock like things called booties. We sometimes wear …

Sanka’s Zoom Lens: Jinx, Dream a Dream’s Cat

Dream a Dream Dog Farm is not only home to forty sled dogs and a border collie, but Jinx lives there too.  Jinx reminds me of Danger, a cat that lived with Libby Riddles.  Who is Libby Riddles?  What is she famous for in the world of Iditarod?  Libby has written Danger the Dog Yard …

Sanka’s Zoom Lens – Harnessing & Booting

It’s a tradition at Iditarod Summer Teacher’s camp – Harnessing and Booting.  Teachers pair up to harness and boot a dog.  Each member of the team has to put the harness on properly and then apply four booties.  After completing the task and removing the harness and the boots, it’s the next team members turn. …

Zoom Lens by Sanka – Candy Bars

There are eleven 8 week old puppies at Dream A Dream Dog Farm.  They are enthusiastic, energetic and cute.  Everyday the puppies go for walks with mushers Vern Halter and Cindy Abbott.  This week the teachers attending Iditarod Summer Teacher’s Camp have joined the walks on the trails through the woods.  Brian Hickox, Iditarod’s 2019 …

Zoom Lens – Pizza

Andrew Nolan fed his dogs and went to the checkpoint for some sourdough pancakes and bacon.  Then he slept for a couple of hours. When he came back to where his dogs were resting, it looked as if they had called Peace on Earth, the pizzeria in Unalakleet, and ordered a pizza to share.  A …

Zoom Lens: S’Mores

I was invited to a bon-fire up on Army Hill.  The menu includes s’mores.  I went to the store to see what it would cost to purchase the s’more ingredients.  Here are photos of the Graham Crackers, Hershey Bars and Marshmallows from the Alaska Commercial Store in Unalakleet.  Compare the cost of the same ingredients …

Zoom Lens: Problem/Solution

In setting up the Unalakleet checkpoint, the straw the mushers use to bed their dogs was all stacked behind the checkpoint.  There are sixty-three mushers expected into Unalakleet.  Sixty-three bales of straw need to go down to the slough.  There’s the problem.  What will the solution be?  It’s Saturday so kids were around.  They jumped …