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naughtystiel · 2 years ago

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DEANCAS AU FIC REC MASTERPOST

Although I loved all of these fics, the ones with stars next to them are my absolute favourites! Happy reading! ♡

One million fires burning ☆

Dean Winchester teaches three classes a day, tutors after school, and chairs the English Department for Lawrence High School. He does enough.

Unfortunately, his boss doesn't feel the same and informs him that he has a new job: co-coaching the school's trivia team. His co-coach? None other than the school's golden boy, Castiel Milton. Who Dean can't stand, for various reasons, all of which are valid, thank you very much. And the fact that Dean can't stop talking about the stick up Cas's, sorry, Milton's ass?

Completely irrelevant.

Should have just asked ☆

Despite their age gap and differing social circles, Castiel has struck up a warm friendship with Mary Winchester, a wealthy widowed socialite. When Castiel needs a place to stay, Mary invites him into her house, where there’s loads of spare room. Castiel’s aware that they make an odd pair, but he doesn’t fully realize how things look to outsiders, especially to Mary’s eldest son. All Dean Winchester sees is that his mom has apparently hooked up with a hot young guy (who is totally Dean’s type) and that makes things… weird.

Living in agony ☆

Dean Winchester's life is... well, it's not great. He's a gym teacher, he's in his thirties, and he can't seem to keep any part of his life straight. When the aftermath of a one-night stand goes awry, Dean is dragged kicking and screaming out of his cozy little closet and into the harsh light of reality.

Enter: Castiel Novak, the new history teacher, who knows full well that life gets crappy when you don't allow yourself to live it in the way it needs to be lived.

The last great race

There is a race that takes place every year in Alaska called the Iditarod, a thousand mile journey across the Alaskan wilderness by dog sled team that has come to be known as "The Last Great Race on Earth”. It is a test of endurance, of the relationship between dogs and their people, traversing mountain ranges, frozen rivers, forest and tundra.

When writer Castiel Milton is forced to spend two and a half months in Alaska at Winchester Kennels to cover the race preparations and the Iditarod itself, the only person more dismayed than he is Dean Winchester, one of his hosts. Castiel views his assignment as a punishment and is less than impressed by his surly host, and Dean distrusts the sheltered city-born writer who has invaded their home and their lives. But soon, as the Winchesters prepare for their race and Castiel learns about sled dogs and what a musher’s lifestyle is all about, they forget to hate each other and their relationship evolves into something neither of them expected.

Starstruck ☆

From the outside Castiel Novak looks like a regular guy: a good job, two teenage kids, a nice house and a crappy car he’s way too attached to.

But there’s one thing no one knows about him: that, over twenty years ago, he used to live next to none other than Dean Winchester – back then a brash and loud-mouthed boy and nowadays a huge movie star and Hollywood’s sweetheart.

Castiel never bothered to tell anyone about his childhood friend because frankly, who would believe him? Probably even Dean himself already forgot about his former awkward and weird neighbor, so Castiel seriously doesn’t see any point in mentioning the whole thing ever.

But then an interview on national TV happens where Dean reveals way more about his past than ever before … and Castiel - as well as the rest of the world - suddenly realizes that he left a much bigger impact on Dean’s life than he originally thought.

Russian to the altar ☆

“I need you to marry Castiel.”

They weren’t the words Dean expected to hear from his business partner’s mouth before their bakery-slash-chocolate shop opened for the day. He’d been quite happy being single—and who the fuck was Castiel, anyway?

It turned out that Castiel was a Russian erotic novelist in need of a ticket to America, and Dean… well, Dean was a last resort.

I wanna get outside (of me) ☆

Dean is a novice in the dom/sub world asked by his employer as a desperate last resort to be a sub for his recluse of a brother, Castiel. Castiel is a diagnosed OCD suffering from PTSD and agoraphobia, mysophobia, and dystychiphobia. Needless to say—he’s a mess who hasn’t stepped out of his home in literally seven years. The only times Gabriel can see traces of the way his brother used to be is when he feels in control—specifically when he has control over a sub. However, due to his idiosyncrasies and paranoia, keeping a sub around has been impossible. Enter Dean, who’s not a very traditional submissive, to try his hand at subbing for the hermit.

Painted angels ☆

Author Castiel Novak has finally hit the big time, with a book based on his failed college relationship with a brilliant painter. He's put all his pain behind him, but at a book signing, he comes face to face with Dean Winchester for the first time in twelve years, and the reunion doesn't go like Cas hoped. Dean's a broken man, with a lot of scars and secrets, shoulders weighed down by his demons and self loathing.

Cas sees a second chance with the man he's never stopped loving, but Dean's moved on, and is about to get married. Sam launches a "brilliant" plan to reunite his brother and his best friend, but Cas is worried it will all blow up in their faces, and he'll go through the agony of losing Dean a second time.

Texas state of mind

Dean Winchester was once an award winning country music star, but fame came too early. Now, he’s fifteen years sober and owns a ranch in western Texas. He’s happy with his life. He has horses, a nice herd of cattle and so what, if he’s alone. He tells his friends that he’s happily single. Back when he was touring, men and women threw themselves at him – but he knew they only wanted him for his fame.

Cas Novak just won his fifth CMA award. He loves singing, but the touring was getting old. Living in a bus nine months out of the year was slowly destroying his creativity. He hasn’t written anything new in over a year. Then he hears an old song on the radio. He vaguely remembers the handsome singer and wondered whatever happened to him. Before he knew it, he'd written a new song. The only problem was…it was a duet. A duet that could only be sung with a voice like Winchester’s.

After locating the man’s ranch, Cas makes a surprise visit. Will he be able to talk Dean into joining him on stage after all these years? Will the two men find what they’ve been looking for all their lives – someone to share a future with?

If angels were men

Castiel Novak was raised by a hunting father, but he left that life behind for college and a flower shop. When his father is killed by a demon, Cas jumps back in the game and finds himself constantly running in the presence of the Winchester brothers, who are searching for their own father. They seem to be everywhere he turns, and at some point they become friends, then a team, then, maybe, in the case of Dean Winchester, something more.

Vagabonds ☆

Dean is a sheriff in a tiny town in Colorado, restless and unsatisfied with his life. It's not like what he's read about in the dime novels since he was little, capturing dangerous outlaws and being the last word of the law. More like tossing the town drunk in a cell to sober up when they get a little too rowdy.

But Dean's chance comes when a thief rolls through their town. He pursues the thief, which puts him right into the path of Emmanuel, a notorious outlaw. When he is captured by the outlaw and his gang to be held for ransom, Dean starts off on a journey he could have never envisioned, and learns that perhaps there's more to Emmanuel than meets the eye.

Four letter word for intercourse ☆

As a grease monkey turned college freshman, Dean's constantly three seconds away from being stressed out of his mind. It hardly helps that he's finally figuring out his sexuality in his thirties.

What might help with that stress is a little phone number (and a big credit card bill). If he can't figure out how to be bisexual in person, he can at least give it a go over the phone, right?

(It's probably a bad idea, but he really can't help himself.)

Any little heartbreak ☆

Dean Winchester knows everything there is to know about the human heart.

Well.

Anatomically speaking.

Get some

Very slowly, Dean turns. 'How'd you know I was here about a room?'

'Power of deduction,' says Castiel, leaning against the doorway. 'I mean, you're not after pot, and I'm pretty sure we haven't slept together.' He grins wolfishly, gaze sliding over Dean's body. 'You, I'd remember.'

Dean's been hit on by guys before, but never so blatantly, let alone by a semi-naked dude in a kimono. A hot blush warms his cheeks, and he covers his shock with cockiness, tilting his head and grinning. 'Sorry to disappoint you, Cas, but I don't swing that way.'

Castiel throws back his head and laughs. 'And you want to live here? What, did your friends put you up to this?'

'Actually, yeah.' Dean raises an eyebrow. 'Is that a problem for you?'

What i need

A joking phrase commonly heard between a surgeon and his tech is "Give me what I need, not what I ask for." Dr. Novak and his tech Dean will soon learn the impact this phrase has on life outside the operating room.

Mad at your dad? ☆

Dean wasn’t sure why he was even scrolling through Craigslist. Especially not the casual encounters section. It was four days before Thanksgiving. Not like he was gonna try and hook up with someone before that shitstorm. After, sure, but not before.

He kept scrolling, though, not clicking anything until a title caught his eye.

Alone on Thanksgiving? Mad at your dad? I am a 28 year old male felon who has no degree, but has studied enough theologies of the world, behavioral psychology, and philosophy to set your whole family’s teeth on edge—no matter which way they lean, politically, religiously or in terms of neuroses. I drive a van the same age as me that’s got a mural on the side of an angel holding an orgy. I can play between the ages of 20-30 depending on whether I shave. I live off an inheritance, and sell weed on the side. If you’d like to have me as your strictly platonic date for Thanksgiving, but have me pretend to be in a very long or serious relationship (monogamous or polyamorous, whichever sounds most like it would freak out su familia) with you (and/or others), to torment your family, I’m game...

(dis)affection ☆

When Dean and Castiel are tricked to go on a date, neither is happy about this. To get back at their deceitful friends, they hatch the perfect plan: pretend to be dating, and gross out their friends with their over-the-top, disgustingly cute romantic relationship – and then break up in the most despicable manner imaginable. As it turns out, you can learn a lot from someone just by pretending affection.

Ninety one whiskey ☆

In the spring of 1944, the 104th Medical Battalion of the United States Army is disbanded, and its men reassigned to various infantry companies in preparation for their invasion of occupied France. For First Lieutenant Novak, this is less than helpful, as he has so far met his platoon’s designated medic a grand total of twice, and has both times found Sergeant Winchester to be the optimum combination of reckless, arrogant, and downright insufferable so as to make cohesive platoon function near impossible. When the time comes to move out, however, Castiel has to reconcile himself to the fact that men are going to go down and trust that Dean Winchester may well be the only person who can put them back together again. WW2 ETO infantry AU.

The breath of all things

Dean Winchester was twenty-six years old when a car accident killed his father and left him paralysed from the waist down. A year and a half later, Dean is in a wheelchair and lives in a care home in Kansas, where he spends his days waiting to die. It's only when Castiel Novak starts volunteering at the care home that Dean starts to wonder if a changed life always equals a ruined one.

If you'd have been the one

A boy sits on the front steps, his dark hair a wild mess. A gingerbread boy, Dean thinks. Dressed in pressed slacks and a sweater-vest to match his father’s. He looks about Dean’s age; maybe they’ll be in the same class. That wouldn’t be too bad, unless he’s mean. He could be mean; a lot of kids are mean to him, so he has to be mean back.

He hopes this one is nice.

...

In the year 1986, at seven years old, Dean Winchester meets Castiel Novak.

Eleven years go by, then eight, then three.

Somewhere along the way, things start to change.

Spirit of the west ☆

Dean grew up on a horse farm and can't imagine any other life. There are drawbacks to working for his father, but they're worth it if it means remaining with his beloved horses. Besides, between his broken arm and his lack of prospects, he hasn't got much else.

Something of an outsider, Dean always feels like there's something he's missing. But this tense summer brings back a figure from his past: years ago, a teenaged Cas worked for a season at the Winchester ranch. His return could change everything.

If you ever wanted a 90s horse girl book, but starring a young Dean Winchester, this is your fic.

Guns and wings

Dean Winchester is the sheriff in the small town of Sioux Falls, along with his deputy (and brother) Sam. Life there is calm and normal, easy to manage with the occasional problems. That is until the Garrison gang sends an assassin to kill one of their beloved citizens. Dean is ready to hang the man for his crimes, when the outlaw gives him a deal he can't pass up. The whole Garrison gang. Dean and the criminal, Castiel, set off to find the gang; enemies working towards a common goal. Dean is determined to hate Castiel, but the longer they journey together and the more he finds out about the outlaw the harder it becomes to deny the feelings he begins to have for the man. But he's the sheriff and he has a job to do, he can't fall in love with a criminal... Right?

Life was a willow

When Dean’s favorite author becomes a regular at his bar, Dean knows he’s done for. He never could have anticipated the intense feelings that blossomed for the talented Castiel. There’s just one thing standing in his way of being with Castiel the way he truly wants: Castiel is waiting for his soulmate.

Dean has spent his entire life hating the concept of soulmates. He just wants to live his life without the universe intervening. If the only way he can keep Castiel in his life is by swallowing his feelings, then that’s what he’ll do.

300cc ☆

300 Complementary Characters: a forum on Kansas City University’s student website. You can write whatever you want, but it has to be 300 characters or less.

Dean is crushing hard on Sam’s TA, but it feels different than it has before; it feels like he needs to do it properly, to have a grand declaration and to prove that romance isn’t dead. What better way to profess his feelings than posting a poem on 300cc?

Castiel is torn. There’s no mistaking the poem is for him, but who could be posting them? Despite being very tempted by the very attractive new light and sound engineer that will be working on the play he has written, Castiel can’t ignore the feeling that he and the anonymous Poet are meant to be together.

A comedy of errors, mutual pining, and erotic poetry.

Satin and sawdust ☆

When Castiel moves out of Jimmy's house and into his own place for the first time, he saves money on buying a home by investing in a Fixer-Upper. He knows nothing about how to fix the many problems the house has, but he figures he's smart enough to figure it out. Unfortunately it's not too long before he learns that he's way in over his head.

Thankfully his new neighbor Dean is a handyman, and agrees to help him out. He knows Dean has a bit of a crush on him, but he's not taking advantage of it, really. Dean's a great guy, and quickly becomes a good friend.

But a flash of satin under Dean's toolbelt changes everything.

Stay with me, sweetheart ☆

“Alright Cas, here comes the hard part. We’re gonna get you out of here, but we’ve gotta take the roof off and while we do that, we’re gonna have to cover you with a sheet to protect you from the glass. I’ll be right here though. I’m not going anywhere.”

As he starts to drift away, he suddenly feels the press of Dean’s forehead against his own through the rough fabric and hears that warm, sunlit voice murmer quietly in his ear, too low to be overheard by the firefighters currently working to remove the SUV’s roof, “Stay with me, Sweetheart.”

A single moment's distraction ends with a serious car accident that leaves Castiel trapped in his vehicle. Fortunately for him, fire fighter Dean Winchester is there, never leaving Castiel's side as the rest of his company work to free him from the mangled remains of his SUV.

When the two meet again in the ICU, Castiel finds himself just as drawn to and comforted by the handsome fireman as he was during his accident. Dean is certainly attractive, but single father Castiel doesn't have time or space in his life for a romantic relationship.

Then again, there's no harm in making a new friend, is there?

And this, your living kiss

Only a very few people in the world know that the celebrated and reclusive poet Jack Allen is just Kansas mechanic Dean Winchester, a high school dropout with a few bucks to his name. Not that it matters anymore; life has left him so wrung out he never wants to pick up another pen.

Until, that is, a string of coincidences leads Dean to auditing a poetry course with one Dr. Castiel Novak. The professor is wildly intelligent, devastatingly handsome...and just so happens to be academia's foremost expert on the poetry of Jack Allen.

Sometimes you'll find that i'm out of my mind ☆

Castiel returns from the Empty, and Dean worries obsessively. Dean also sleeps on the floor in Cas' room, which he admits is weird, but at least he's sleeping.

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brywrites · 4 years ago

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Flight Risk IV

Summary: An answer to the age old CM question, “who’s flying the plane?” And the story of a pilot and a profiler. Part IV: In which airplane food is disappointing and the context of a case is heavy.

( Series Masterlist ) ( Previous | Next )

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Arthur stands waiting for her outside the jet stairs. “So you’re on speaking terms again?”

She freezes, hands still lifted in the middle of adjusting her cap. “What do you mean?”

Arthur gives half a shrug and begins climbing up into the plane. He’s not one to pry into the lives of other people, but she’s discovered he does make occasional exceptions to this rule. “Simply that you seem much happier to be around Dr. Reid today. Your scowl is gone.”

Her face flushes and she’s grateful he can’t see it as they file into the cockpit. “We talked, yes. I think we’ve reached an understanding.”

Arthur gives a noncommittal, mmmm, and gets to work adjusting Geff’s controls. She does the same, going through routine checks, only to be interrupted by a quiet, “Just be careful. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Y/N blinks, then looks down quickly. She doesn’t ask him to elaborate; Captain Dobson isn’t one for sentimental attachments or expressions. The fact that he’s saying this at all speaks volumes. It makes her happy, to know he considers her someone close. The BAU is obviously close-knit, she’s heard them refer to themselves more than once as a “family.” But the two of them, bound by similar schedules and shared challenges, they’re something of that sort too. Perhaps that makes them distant cousins of the FBI.

The team boards the plane, they’re cleared for takeoff, and it’s all smooth flying and blue skies for a solid three hours. They’re both tired, and the thought of being able to go home and sleep in her own comfortable bed lifts her spirits – until the cockpit door slides open and Agent Rossi steps in.

“I’m afraid I have some bad news,” he says. “We just got word of a case in Houston. Two previous victims and now there’s a kid missing.”

A kid. Oh, god. Rossi looks genuinely apologetic, but Arthur nods.

“We’ll change course immediately.” Rossi murmurs a thank you, then slides the door closed once more, muffling the voices of the other agents, already discussing the case behind them.

Y/N follows all orders, gets in touch with the air traffic controller, telling Indianapolis Center that they’ll be changing directions and heading for Houston. Other than exchanges with ATC and instructions to shift speeds and change controls, they fly in silence. It’s a heavy quiet, weighed both by an acknowledgement that somewhere, something horrible has happened, as well as the fact that they won’t be going home tonight.

It’s harder for Arthur, he has a boyfriend to go home to, people who need him. She has less attachments, but has no desire to spend more time in a small motel once again. Still, things could be worse. It’s important work.

“I think we’ve still got lunches prepared that I could heat up,” she offers. “What do you want – the chicken or the pasta?”

“Pasta,” he replies, without missing a beat.

“You always take the pasta.”

“I’m the captain. When your epaulets have four stripes, you can claim it first.”

“I don’t know why we even bother with the chicken,” she grumbles. “We both hate airplane meat.”

“You know the rules. We can’t have the same meal.”

Y/N carefully clambers to the sliding door. “I know. But honestly, how many planes have gone down as a result of the food?”

“There have been some close calls. Japan Air, 1975, omelets. Overseas National, 1982, tapioca. British Airways, 1984, hors d’oeuvres.” She rolls her eyes, but begrudgingly goes to fetch the saran-wrapped meals. Slipping out of the cockpit, she catches bits and pieces of conversation as the team begins to work. The previous victims were a little older, most in their early and mid-twenties. All women with blonde hair.

“But Caroline Chapman is only twelve,” Morgan adds. “Though she fits the physical type.” Twelve years old. Her stomach turns, and it has nothing to do with the plane. She swallows hard and grabs the meals from the warm tray, hurrying back to the cockpit before she can hear anything else.

Their world is so different from hers. Their work is so heavy. Sometimes, in the silence of the flight, she pretends she’s a commercial pilot, bringing passengers somewhere cheerful. Maybe part of the crew on one of those Make-A-Wish flights.

The pilots eat in silence, then Arthur, sensing she needs a distraction, begins one of their infamous verbal games.

“Fortunately,” begins Arthur, thinking it over, “I’m taking a vacation in Seattle.”

“Unfortunately,” she counters, “climate change has turned Seattle to a frozen wasteland.”

“Fortunately, I’m an Iditarod champion and getting around won’t be an issue.”

“Unfortunately, the number of confused squirrels on the snow is distracting the sled dogs.”

Back and forth they continue, trying to create the most complicated situation until one of them has no counterpoint, or says something so absolutely outlandish they must concede. Sometimes their games can carry on for almost an hour; depending on which one they’re playing. This one finally ends when Arthur claims he’s saved up enough vacation time, and she rebuttals that the BAU has called in an emergency and he has to come fly the plane.

“Ah,” says Arthur, “fortunately Seattle is a frozen wasteland and no planes can take off.”

Y/N admits defeat. They sit in silence, cloud rushing past them. Then she says, “They’re only twelve.”

“I heard,” he says, starting straight ahead at the sky. She shifts in her seat, searching for the words to explain how she’s feeling. Arthur adds, “You can’t think about it too much. That’s their job.”

That’s all he has to say. A few hours later, they touch down just outside of Houston, and the agents file off to SUVs. She and Arthur prepare Geff for his overnight stay at the little airport they’ve landed at, before going off to the hotel. It’s been a long day, and they end up staying at the same one as the team. After a nap, she takes a long hot shower, and they order takeout, exhausted from the long flight.

Dinner arrives at nearly 8 pm; Arthur takes his to his room, and she makes herself comfortable in the lobby. Wet hair thrown up in a bun, a sweatshirt and leggings. That’s the nice thing about traveling. Nobody knows her. She can be anyone in a new city, only to disappear a few days later and leave only faint traces of herself. The sun has nearly disappeared outside the lobby window, when half of the team comes in, looking entirely drained. They head off in different directions, and she’s pleasantly surprised when Reid goes not to his room, but to join her on the hotel lobby couch. Y/N tries not to look too excited.

“You look tired,” she remarks. Holds out the container of pad thai and chopsticks. “Have you eaten yet?”

He politely refuses. “I have, thanks. Besides, I don’t know how to use chopsticks.”

“What? We’re going to have to fix this.” Her joking smile shrinks to one of hesitancy when she asks, “How are you doing?”

Reid shrugs, runs his hand through his long hair. It seems the more stressed he is, the messier it gets, and something makes her want to sit him down and brush her fingers through it until he looks calm.

“We’ve got enough for a partial profile, but that’s it. We still don’t have – I mean, we still can’t find the girl.”

Arthur explicitly warned her not to get involved, not to think about it. And yet, she asks, “So… what does that mean?” She knows enough to realize it’s not good.

Reid purses his lips. “The first hour is the most important. When a stranger abducts a child, it doesn’t always mean they’ll be killed. But of the children who are, almost half die within the first hour. Nearly all of them are killed within the first twenty-four, and we just passed that mark. Hotch, JJ, and Rossi are still out looking, with the CARD team. In five hours, they’ll come back and I’ll go out with Morgan and Kate.”

Kate Callahan is the newest member of their team, a short woman with dark hair and no time for anyone’s crap. She likes the way they look out for each other, making sure they have a chance to rest. But twenty-four hours, it’s such a short timespan. Gone too soon already. What does that mean for Caroline Chapman?

“Are you okay?” Reid asks, tilting his head. His voice is gentle, making it easy to admit to him what she hates to admit to herself.

“This job – it’s different for us, you know? As pilots,” she says. “You’re trained for this. It’s what you know you’ll be doing, going off to fight evil and save lives. I never thought I’d be involved with that. I mean, I like this job, don’t get me wrong. But I love flying. And lately, every time I get a call from work, my heart breaks because I know the only reason I’m going up in the air is because something terrible has happened to someone, and I just don’t know how to reconcile that. Every time I get into that plane, every time we get Geff off the ground, we’re taking you all to danger, and I only get to do what I love because someone else has suffered a tragedy.”

It’s so complicated, to have her great love for the sky tangled up in this mess she feels when the phone rings. It’s fear and it’s anxiety and it’s sorrow – grief for people she will never even meet. And flying back can be just as difficult. A case closing may mean a happy ending, but it also might mean that a victim is dead, or that an unsub – she’s picked up their lingo – is dead. Either way, there has almost always been some sort of loss. Perhaps in the form of innocence or hope or comfort. She can see it when they board before heading home. This job takes things from them. Will a day come when they have nothing left?

“I know it might sound selfish, but it’s just hard for me to understand. And you,” she adds. “I’m always so happy to see you and talk to you, but that only happens when there’s a case. I feel like I shouldn’t feel that way, not when someone’s life is on the line.”

Does it make sense to him? She hopes it does, because otherwise it’s going to sound so self-centered. Of course his job is more emotionally taxing. Of course she’d rather be a pilot than a profiler. But it hurts her heart each time she hears there’s a case. She grieves for them too. And she worries for the team, her team, their team.

He must understand though, because he places one hand over hers, just long enough for her to understand it’s meant as a comforting gesture, and not purely accidental. Reid doesn’t touch many people, she never sees him shake hands with anyone he doesn’t know. Crossing that barrier is a big deal, and that’s what leaves her all the more surprised.

“It’s okay,” he tells her. “It’s okay to feel whatever you feel – about this job, or a case. You don’t have to disconnect from things or stop being affected by them. But you also don’t have to feel guilty about liking your work. You shouldn’t – you’re a great pilot, and a really good person.”

“Thanks, Doctor.”

Reid gives her half a smile, then looks nervously down at the floor. His pulls at his fingers. “You know, maybe we could meet sometime outside of work. That way we can actually talk for a normal amount of time, and we don’t have to worry about anything else.”

“That would be really, really nice.” At that, his smile widens, and she can feel her own mouth mirroring his expression. “Maybe after all this, when we’ve both had enough sleep, we could go get coffee or something? Go to a library?”

Reid’s grin makes his eyes seem less tired, and for a moment it’s so easy to forget the circumstances. “I’d like that.”

#criminal minds fanfiction #spencer reid fanfiction #reid x reader #spencer reid x reader #flight risk

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blueeyesspitfire · 4 years ago

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Another One

Someone asked when (and maybe, subconsciously, why) I decided to add another dog (Atlas!) to the team. While it might not seem like it, especially not to the average pet-owner, I have always been extremely strategic when increasing my numbers. I always tell non-mushers: comparatively, I actually have a very small team! It has also taken me more than ten years to get to ten dogs, so I consider my expansion pretty slow.

To answer the question, I started thinking back to how I got started in this sport (and hobby... and lifestyle). I had always wanted a Siberian Husky, but as a 20-year-old college student living in an apartment with a tiny, unfenced yard, no rescue would let me adopt one. My then-boyfriend (hi Rob) and I ended up adopting Dexter from a foster family that could tell we were more prepared than your average idiot kids. At this point, I was aware of mushing, but it was not part of my plan. I just wanted a dog that could accompany me on hikes and other outdoor adventures.

A few years later, and after volunteering for both a husky rescue and a wolf/wolfdog rescue, I finally had the credentials for husky ownership. I still had a hard time finding the right dog through adoption organizations, so I ended up looking into reputable breeders. One of them invited me to the Pine Barrens to attend a training meetup and "see the dogs in action". I was intrigued; this was New Jersey, where our winters weren’t known for their snow. It was also autumn, so there definitely wasn't snow on the ground. This is where it all began.

I met folks with only a few dogs and some with over a dozen. They used bikes, scooters, and non-motorized carts that looked like a mix between a shopping cart and a horse chariot. I started biking with Dexter and I was even able to hook him up with some borrowed dogs to see what true dog propulsion felt like. I was hooked before I even had my husky.

Denali was my first true sled dog and she paved the way for us. I started biking with her and Dexter, but I knew I wanted to get a third to pull a cart and, eventually, a sled. I adopted Knox six months after Denali came home. I remember everyone being shocked at this point. Three dogs? Wild.

For a time, the trio met my needs. I started a new job that required me to go into NYC a few times a week. I hung out with friends a lot. I traveled often. We mushed, too, but it wasn't all encompassing. Then Dexter started slowing down a bit. After all, he wasn't really built to keep up with two athletic young huskies. I started thinking about an eventual replacement for him. Denali's littermate, Mia, was due to have a litter, and I was quick to jump on the opportunity. Willow joined us in 2015, and shortly thereafter, I made my first "mistake".

When Willow was old enough to join the team, I kept Dexter on the line, since we were doing short and relatively easy runs that he could still handle. I was surprised to see him get a sort of second wind once he had a consistent running partner. In fact, the entire team seemed to do better in pairs. Eventually I had the girls leading with the boys in wheel, and Dex lasted through the whole season. And I realized, shit, I want to run a team of four.

Dexter's second wind was short lived, which I expected, and it wasn't long before I started thinking about another dog to take his place (for real this time). So a year after Willow, I added Blitz to the team. Ok, good, great, I should have been satisfied at this point, right? I wanted a team of four and I had it. Except there was a thought creeping in the back of my mind, almost since the beginning of this whole crazy journey. A friend had told me that you probably want at least six dogs to carry a passenger. I also really liked the idea of having leaders, team dogs, and wheel dogs. So I got to work.

I secured a fully remote job and found myself easing into a life more centered around mushing. Hubble joined the pack in 2017, a year after Blitz, and right before I moved to California. I thought, hell, let's make five work and see what comes next.

In 2018 I moved back to the Northeast, and finally had the space and setup to complete the six pack. Laika joined us in early 2019 and the following season was my first time competing in 6-dog classes. So now, certainly, I should be all set—right? Except...

Except it had taken me so long to build my six dog team that my oldest, Denali and Knox, were starting to show their age. Knox, a rescue with less than ideal structure, was having trouble keeping up with the younger dogs. Denali could still hold her own, but she seemed to be getting bored with the repetitive training we do at home. If I wanted to keep this whole thing going, I knew I had to start thinking about filling their places on the line.

So, later on in 2019, I found Sagan and Hopper to join the pack. I wanted to "try out" some Alaskan Huskies (mixed breeds specifically bred for mushing, not to adhere to a specific standard) and their lines synced up nicely with my existing dogs. Hopper is even half related to my existing crew, so I knew he’d fit well.

If you're keeping count, this brought me to nine dogs: one fully retired, two semi-retired, and six active team members. At this point in the journey, I'd been saying that my limit was ten. Mainly, I'm constrained by vehicle space: the dog van fits eight crates, two of which are big enough to be doubled up in. The dog truck has eight boxes with two dogs fitting in the cab. So, ten is possible, but was it really necessary?

When the pandemic first hit, and I knew I wouldn't be traveling for awhile, the thought of raising a pup crossed my mind. Then came the chaos of the Denali/Willow fights and my broken thumb, which quickly squashed the idea of adding more dogs to the mix. I didn't think about it again until the fall, when some exciting litters were planned, and my favorite breeder mentioned plans of moving to Alaska. I was training for my first mid-distance race with the 6-dog team. I knew I had room for one more, but I wasn't sure I had the justification for it.

Then Blitz had a seizure. This rocked me to my core and I'm still dealing with the shockwaves of PTSD it caused. Blitz has since been 100% fine and we've figured out a schedule that ensures his blood sugar levels stay in a safe range. All the races we were aiming for ended up canceled due to Covid, but I'm not sure we would've been ready to run them given how slow we got back on track with training.

Most "real" mushers have a larger pool of dogs than those they run in races. Many train an A team and a B team, or run larger strings than necessary for the class they intend to compete in. Then, when race day comes, they select the dogs who are running their best. If a dog gets a sore paw, or is more sensitive to warm temperatures, or refuses to eat, or just generally isn't enthusiastic, they can get "benched" without impacting the team's race. It felt like a gamble to train all season for some big (to me) races, only to have the possibility of being at a disadvantage (with a 5-dog team, if one dog couldn't run—most 6-dog classes allow as few as five) or not able to compete at all (if two couldn't run).

A seventh, active team member adds a bit of buffer, so I can more confidently chase after my goals. And yes, I also made the same mistake of running the semi-retirees with their yearling replacements. An 8-dog team is awesome to behold, but I didn't let myself get too comfortable with it. That's not to say things won't change as my goals and situation changes. If you couldn't tell, that's been the theme of this whole wild ride.

To conclude, I guess I should more specifically answer "why Atlas?", since he's the pup I chose. Atlas comes from some of my very favorite lines. Knowing that his breeder, Jaye, will be leaving the area to compete in Iditarod 2022 (go Jaye!!), I figured this might be my last opportunity for a pup from Sibersong. And of course, I’m still grounded from travel for several more months, making now an ideal time for puppy raising.

So, there you have it. A very long-winded explanation that nobody really asked for, but I hope it gives you some insight behind the decisions I've made.

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meirimerens · 5 years ago

Note

If you're accepting fandom questions could we have some elaboration about those mgs jupiter family alaskan daydreams please? Also your amazing TEW art got me into the series so thanks, I'm liking it a lot!!

first of all, i’m so deeply honored that my art could get you into a game, and also : god i’m fucking sorry lol

second of all

oh god oh fuck alaskan daydreams time

okay so long /, the read mores don’t work, you’re gonna have to bear with it

so tldr i have… EXTENSIVE imaginated stories about dave, hal and sunny living in a little remote cabin in alaska.

BACKSTORY

i’d imagine it’d come somewhere post-mgs2 even though sunny is already a bit grown so maybe like just disregard canon OR imagine a different timeline i don’t know, and it’s from a place where hal and dave don’t have anything to do after the mgs2 incidents (so no mgs4 and love of god NO accelerated aging i can’t deal with this), and there is this atmosphere of… “we’ve been sticking together for so long, i can’t see ourselves just parting ways (plus we have a kid to raise and i can’t imagine raising her alone) so how about we make the rest of our lives together” and dave is just like… “hey, we’ve been running all across the country, jumping from shitty motel to shitty motel to shittier apartments, and i have this cabin i once lived in, how about we just all move into it and re-inhabit it” and that’s just how it starts.

THE CABIN

it’s a cabin i have extensively thought about (because i’m obsessed with cabins and being a hermit, so that helps). it’d be near the shore of the Twin Lakes, Alaska (taken from the canon fact that this is where snake lived pre-MGS1), so they’d live off-the-grid and in almost-self-sufficiency (they become more and more self-sufficient as time goes on and they make more adjustments to the cabin).

i imagine it would look similar to Proenneke’s cabin (which incidentally is also near Twin Lakes), maybe on the other shore, all wood with a vegetation/moss roof + a slight porch/elevation to protect the entrance from a bit of the snow. it’d be surrounded by wooden little dog kennels/crates for the huskies (more on that later) similar to the ones in [this video] around the 0:59 min mark (warning for animal death/general stuff that goes on in a trapper’s lifestyle for the vid).

it here’s a floor plan of the cabin, not to proportions because i’m just shit at it :

(good luck reading that)

not pictured : when sunny was smaller (before the addition), her bed was like a little shelf just above the big bed (that hal and dave share) with little like “walls” so she doesn’t fall and a thick mattress, which was discarded when she got her new room.

later would be added an outdoor kitchen and a chicken coop (more on that…….. later)

EATING THERE

as i said, they’d first be living in semi-dependency : every ¾ weeks they’d have to go to Port Alsworth/Anchorage or somewhere else to stock tf up. Snake would fish (you can fish for subsistence if you’ve been living in Alaska for over a year according to law) and hunt (seems to be the same type of law when hunting for food, YES i’ve researched this, leave me alone) for food. As he has done odd jobs to afford his cabin, I imagine he’d have done crabbing, and would show up to help on crabbing boats from time to time to get some of them crabs.

later, I imagine they would get 4 rescue hens to get some of them fresh eggs. snake would build a chicken scoop from forest wood. 1 of the hens wouldn’t be able to make eggs because she was traumatized from the industry but they still took her in because she was close friends with the other hens and they didn’t want to separate them.

I imagine Snake had been growing his own herbs in the kitchen but maybe they’d get a greenhouse ready.

they’d go foraging for berries, fruits and mushrooms according to the seasons and make a SHITTON of jams and preserves.

LIVING THERE

i imagine there would be a lot of solidarity with the surrounding populations. for exemple, Hal would help set up and manage online dictionaries for Iñupiat, Yup'ik or Alutiiq languages with the local communities, maybe help wire up some schools, things like that, and as thanks some people would go check on them and give em veggies or something.

THE DOGS :

Snake is getting them.

since we don’t know what happened to his huskies around mgs1, i suppose/guess they were at some time confiscated from him, so first, he’s get a lovely husky female from a shelter (i also have long thought about how he’d never go to a breeder and only adopt, because the whole “creature created with a man’s ideal in mind” hits a bit too close for him you feel) that would later be revealed as pregnant with like 5 puppies (it will come back later as relevant as promise). Then he’d do his best to regain contact with his huskies, maybe setting up a call on social media (THIS WILL BE PART OF A BRAIN ROTTING DEGENERACY I WILL EXPAND ON IN A MINUTE) to find them again. i imagined he would get to see one of his old huskies, who has well aged, who was adopted by some nice nice people. then said nice people, after his visit, insisting on him getting his husky back because “since you left she hasn’t been herself, she refused to eat. we think she misses you too much. we love her tons and it breaks our heart to let her go, but we think she would be so much happier by your side” type of deal, i’m fucking crying just thinking about it.

of course, once his team is back in shape, he’s run the Iditarod again. Hed keep contact with hal over walkietalkie during the race. hal would jump in his arms when he crosses the finish line, the pic would circulate in the news. it’d be cute i’m saying.

THE HENS :

as I said, adopted, in a little scoop snake built himself. they give eggs. sometimes they let them roam free and they bully hal when he peels vegetables (i’ve drawn smth about this). sunny feeds them in the mornings. things are good.

MORNING ROUTINE :

Snake wakes up around 5AM because he don’t need no sleep and goes to his huskies. feeds them. then make them run. when he gets back around 8 to 8:30, hal is still asleep. snake makes breakfast. the scents wake hal up. things are good.

SUNNY?

Sunny is taught by snake how to chop wood. he makes a tiny axe for her tiny hands. he and hal teach her how to swim in the Twin Lakes. the waters cold but she grows immune to it, strong and stronger. she learns how to differenciate which mushrooms and berries are edible.

they try to send her to school but she’s WAY too advanced and is bored to death. she stays at home. she’s outside all day or she learns astrophysics with Hal, who’s taking online classes in his free time. she learns some Athabaskan languages at a community class once in a while, she makes some friends.

HOW’S THE WEATHER

They go on hikes a lot. Often, and long ones. At first, sunny is in a little baby back carrier (i have drawn about this), then she walks just right. Alaska has gorgeous national parks, they explore them, year after year. They arrive in a town, exhausted and beat, they find a hotel room. It has a bathtub and warm water. Hal is OVERJOYED.

in the earliest hints of spring, snake takes them to Fairbanks through the beautiful alaskan railroad. they see the most beautiful and powerful of northern lights during the full season. hal and sunny can’t tear their eyes from the skies.

THIS IS WHERE I GO CRAZY GO STUPID.

ok…. so bear with me.

i mentioned an internet/social media presence.

it’s because in a deviation of this daydream, snake has a little youtube channel (and an instagram to go with it).

it’s not much. it’s really not, but hal has a few cameras and more that he finds and fixes.

it’s mostly lowkey, chill vlogs. stuff like

“slow alaskan winter day (no talking)”

“sprintime berry picking ( + jams recipes!)”

“alaskan summer outdoor fire cookout ( + wild moose and caribou near the lake)”

“denali national park hike (day 1)”

stuff that like you know. as well as some more…

“i ran the iditarod (and won)”

“we got hens (building a chicken scoop, meeting the rescue hens and more)”

“musher’s morning routine (i’d recommend you didn’t try this at home if you are not the genetically engineered clone of a super-soldier, for your sake)”

and as you guessed…

“so our rescue husky was pregnant… (i’m an idiot who didn’t notice, trip to the vet, building a whelping pen, whelping, bottlefeeding tiny pup + all the puppies’ pictures!)”

where dave would teach hal how to bottlefeed a puppy and you’d be able to hear hal’s “oh god oh god oh god oh god”s from out of frame as the camera focuses on dave’s hands holding his to have him perfectly cup the puppy in his palm and carry the bottle. this type of deal.

then follow-up videos of the puppies climbing the bed where hal is, playing on his gameboy. he chuckles nervously and then heartily when a puppy licks his face.

some winter days, the videos have snake bringing all the huskies in the small cabin. some of them sit calmly on the wide bed where hal studies his astrophysics.

and an instagram with wilderness pictures… all except a few taken by hal. some of snake posing in front of the snowed in cabin. some of warm drinks made on winter days. you know the deal.

and they’d have such a nice… positive… lowkey and easy-going comment section. dave would reply to a lot of them.

he’d get quite a share of “hey man, i love your vids so much, thank you for posting this content. i was wondering, sorry if it’s a bit too personal, are you and your roommate dating? you two seem very close, but i don’t want to assume anything 😅 absolutely love your content either way, you’re the only youtuber i have notifs on” to which he’d reply “thank you so much, really appreciate it. and we’re not, we’ve just known each other for a long, long time. we’re aware two straight guys raising a child and living together isolated makes for a bit of confusion, but it’s totally platonic between us. thanks for sticking around.” but one day he uploads a vid that’s like

“crabbing in juneau ! + life update (please read description)”

and the desc + the first 20 seconds of the vid is a text superimposed over embarassing pictures of hal and it reads “hey all / quick personal update, i’ll make it quick / otacon and i realized we loved each other / (as more than friends that is) / so if we seem just a bit closer in the videos from now on this is why / no idea how this is going to turn out for up / but yeah. if he seems a bit more affectionate it’s because we’re dating now, or something like that / and to everyone whom i told ‘it’s just strictly platonic between us’: / well. ha ha. whoops. / anyway thank you for reading / enjoy the video” and all the comments would be like “that’s so dope i’m so happy for you” and other “tbf we saw that coming” and snake would smash that like button on these comments.

and he’d have a video of the whole iditarod race as taken from a camera on his jacket/on his sled… and he’d have videos of him filming hal film the landscape through the window of the train during their trip to fairbanks… and of hal and sunny in said train sharing a tangerine… and of him building a little axe for sunny…. and he’d always ask her if she is okay with being on camera, and when she’d say no he’d make sure she doesn’t appear on here or add a cute husky sticker on her face so she’s not seen.

just lowkey. chill. upbeat. simple life moments. he’d disappear off the internet for a month because he’s just enjoying the life and when he’d come back everyone would be very understanding and glad to see some cool pictures or vids. you know? just chilling. just chilling. just living.

one day before a “hiking through lake clark national park” he has the same little life update thing and it goes “hey / so otacon and i got married / sunny and aksinya [rescued pregant husky] were our flower girls / otacon cried / i cried / anyway, enjoy the video” over pictures of the tiny alaskan wedding. and it’s well.

#anonymous #long post /#I MEAN IT #ok. god.#otasune #jupiter family #its it it's just that. bro.#ring ring (answers)#neigh (blabbers)#GOD FUCKING STUPID GO FUCKING CRACKHEADY.......#it's. it's that basically. long enough. i think i have more but i can't bro. not tonite.#alaskan living au

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sharkfish · 6 years ago

Note

Do you know of any long fics? I’m going on vacation tomorrow and I need something to read. Preferably, >100,000 words

i decided to ignore your request and give you fics over 75k xD i trolled through my bookmarks and this is what i found! these are almost all E rated.

(if anyone knows any of the writers that i didn’t tag, feel free to tag in replies, i always like to know when someone is recing me)

Appoggiatura by ceeainthereforthat 121k

Castiel leaves the religious commune of Heaven Farms to study classical piano after winning a full scholarship paid for by the Deanna Campbell Memorial Foundation, and answers an ad in the campus newspaper: 1 bedroom to let. Meals provided. 50mb wifi, quiet odd music student preferred.

A Room Of One’s Own by NorthernSparrow 94k

All Dean wants is a little privacy. Cas doesn’t understand.

a turn of the earth by mishcollin 95k

Dean’s your typical half-orphaned, monster-killing 22-year-old until a trenchcoated stranger crashes into his back windshield one September night, claiming he’s an angel that knows him from the future and that he’s on the run.

Frigging fantastic.

(Or, in which Castiel gets stuck in Dean’s timeline preseries and Dean kind of hates it—until he doesn’t.)

C-S-T-L by komodobits 90k

It’s been nineteen years since the beginning of the Last War, and the Alliance Army is losing land faster than it can supply good men to defend it. Their hope is the synthesis of Android Angeles, a series of humanoid machines designed without the capacity to feel, and thus enabling them to be the perfect super soldiers. In order to check their battle suitability, the first prototypes are sent down with a landing party of the men they will later replace, and Sergeant Dean Winchester is paired with Unit 5284-C-S-T-L for the assignment. Cas, as Dean nicknames him, is easy enough to work with - once you get past the emotional vacancy and blatant disregard for human life, that is - but as the squad’s tour goes on, Dean gets to wondering whether the Android Angeles are really as unfeeling as he’s been told, or if the fear of a reality in which malfunctioning prototypes will be shut down is too great for them to exist any other way.

Clean Air by anactoria 121k

Centuries after the surface of the earth was devastated by an unknown disaster, the remnants of humanity live in a series of vast underground silos, each unaware of the existence of the others.

For the inhabitants of Silo 34, the silo is the world, and the only world they know. Questions about the outside world are forbidden, and asking them is what got Dean Winchester’s parents killed. He isn’t even sure himself that they weren’t crazy.

That all changes when he hears a voice on the radio – a voice from another world.

Dream of Now by Sass_Master (series) 136k

Dean’s getting some pancakes together for breakfast when Cas saunters in after a run.

He’s trying to focus on whisking batter, unfairly distracted by Cas a few feet away, breathing heavily and shining with perspiration. Dean’s been painfully aware for a long time that Cas is pretty easy on the eyes, but he’s used to seeing Cas buttoned-up and unflappable, looking straight-laced in a stiff oxford and an unflattering trenchcoat.

Now Cas is sweating, Dean’s borrowed t-shirt clinging to his skin, flushed from exertion and Dean really can’t deal with that in his kitchen right now.

For All You Young Hockey Players Out There, Pay Attention bythursdaysfallenangel 143k

Dean Winchester knows two things about hockey, two things his dad made sure he knew. One, hockey is a guy’s sport, and two, hockey is family. Hockey meant Sam and Bobby and Benny and Victor and Gabriel and hell, his entire team. So when Victor gets traded, Russian-star-turned-new-teammate Castiel Krushnic becomes a threat. As much as Dean hates him for that, the longer he sticks around, the more he begins to threaten that first rule too. Dean’s been taught his whole life that those who play hockey should not be captivated by deep accented voices and the way a guy handles his stick, so how the hell is he supposed to justify what he’s starting to think about Cas? All Dean wanted at the beginning of the season was to win, and now all he wants to do is figure out how he feels about Cas and how to deal with it without ruining his career and tearing his family apart.

Grown-Ups Making Grown-Up Choices by Carrieosity @carrieosity 81k

Dean is a grown-ass man - he can take perfectly good care of himself, thank you very much. Except that sometimes the easier or more fun choices aren’t always the right or best ones, and, all right, maybe thinking ahead and working the long game isn’t his strongest suit. It’s fine! He’s fine.

When he meets Castiel, he realizes that flying by the seat of his pants may not be the best way to attract the super-serious (gorgeous, funny, genius) Alpha. Dean’s shrink has been telling him he needs to start making “grown-up choices,” and if that’s what he has to think about in order to make Cas fall for him, then he’ll give it a whirl.

Halflings by Unforth @unforth-ninawaters 103k

Ever since his wife Lisa died, Dean Winchester has been willing to do anything for his son Ben. When Ben decided he wanted to adopt a halfling, Dean said yes without hesitation - provided they did so the right way, by giving whichever half-human they decided to bring home the respect and dignity it deserved. Half-octopi Castiel isn’t exactly what they were looking for in a pet, but, then, they aren’t exactly what Castiel was expecting for owners, either.

I Can Make You Scared by Dangerousnotbroken @dangerousnotbroken 136k

So this is how it goes. Best day of Dean Winchester’s life. Loses his job, finds out he’s been cheated on, gets dumped, all in the course of one fucked up Thursday. Drinking himself into oblivion is the natural response, right? A chance encounter in a dingy dive bar gives Dean a new friend who sees his problems and likes him anyway. Now, as Dean struggles to pick up the pieces of his life, Castiel just might help him put them back together in a way he never expected.

I Wanna Get Outside (Of Me) by emwebb17 142k

Living in Agony by ChasingRabbits 120k

Dean Winchester’s life is… well, it’s not great. He’s a gym teacher, he’s in his thirties, and he can’t seem to keep any part of his life straight. When the aftermath of a one-night stand goes awry, Dean is dragged kicking and screaming out of his cozy little closet and into the harsh light of reality.

Enter: Castiel Novak, the new history teacher, who knows full well that life gets crappy when you don’t allow yourself to live it in the way it needs to be lived.

Plus One by ceeainthereforthat 90k

Castiel Novak might have to attend three weddings in two months, but he’s not about to let his brother play matchmaker. His family’s Internet streaming company is too important to let a relationship steal his time, but he knows exactly what to do–hire someone to pretend to be his boyfriend.

Dean Winchester has worked five-star hospitality long enough to know how to fit in with Castiel’s crowd, and this job could score him the connections to make his acting career take off. It’s a business deal, no matter how they’re drawn to each other. When the lines of their contract start to blur into real feelings, can they withstand Castiel’s family and jealous fans working to split them up?

Satin and Sawdust by Ltleflrt @ltleflrt 159k

When Castiel moves out of Jimmy’s house and into his own place for the first time, he saves money on buying a home by investing in a Fixer-Upper. He knows nothing about how to fix the many problems the house has, but he figures he’s smart enough to figure it out. Unfortunately it’s not too long before he learns that he’s way in over his head.

Thankfully his new neighbor Dean is a handyman, and agrees to help him out. He knows Dean has a bit of a crush on him, but he’s not taking advantage of it, really. Dean’s a great guy, and quickly becomes a good friend.

Should’ve Just Asked by Annie D (scaramouche)

The Last Great Race by wincechesters 82k

There is a race that takes place every year in Alaska called the Iditarod, a thousand mile journey across the Alaskan wilderness by dog sled team that has come to be known as “The Last Great Race on Earth”. It is a test of endurance, of the relationship between dogs and their people, traversing mountain ranges, frozen rivers, forest and tundra.

ok this is sterek and tagged with watersports and underage but hear me out — i love this fic. stiles gets peed on at the beginning of ch9 if you want to skip it, but it’s really just about as weird in a werewolf verse as you’d imagine, and i still love the fic so.

Sell Your Body to the Night by Dira Sudis (dsudis) 121k

“No,” he repeated impatiently. “I’m not a cop. I’m someone who wants to exchange my money for your sexual services. I was told you were in that line of work.”

“I, uh, yeah, sorry,” Stiles said. He glanced around again and then up–the full moon was almost directly overhead. Just one of those nights, maybe. “Yeah, I am. I do that.”

also sterek, but hear me out – this is the first sterek fic i ever loved, and if it weren’t for this fic, i probably wouldn’t have gotten into it in the first place.

Cornerstone by Vendelin

Suffering from PTSD, ex-Marine Derek Hale moves back to Beacon Hills to open a bookshop and find a calmer life. That’s where he meets Stiles, completely by accident. Stiles is talkative, charming and curious. Somehow, despite the fact that he’s blind, he’s able to read Derek like no one else.

if you read and like any of these, give the writer some comment love!!!

and have a great vacation!!!!

#origin-void #sharkrecs #sharklists #destiel #sterek

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anamuseinglife · 6 years ago

Text

Iditapod Bonus: The True Story Behind Dillon, The Would Be Iditarod Dog

Casey Grove: Welcome to another bonus edition of the Iditapod. We have another extended interview for you, it’s rather extended, longer than some of the other ones. But it’s a good explanation of what happened with a dog, named Dillon, who ran down the trail after the Iditarod teams from the Finger Lake checkpoint all the way up to Rainy Pass. It’s like 30 miles. Dillon lives at the Winter Lake Lodge, which is on Finger Lake, and Quince Mountain talked to the owner and the manager of the lodge, to get kind of the real story behind what happened with Dillon. So, here’s that interview. I will let Quince introduce everybody. Enjoy.

Lisa Ratton: We’re saving Dillon’s reputation. [laughs] No one’s going to think Dillon is a stray dog.

Carl Dickson: That he is not.

Quince Mountain: So this is for Iditapod, which is a podcast about the Iditarod from Alaska Public Media.

CD: Cool.

QM: So, we want to set the record straight a little about Dillon [laughter]. But first, can I ask you just to say your names and who you are?

CD: Yeah I’m Carl Dickson, the owner and operator of Winter Lake Lodge. Uh… which is the third checkpoint now on the Iditarod trail, up in the Matanuska Valley, near the Hayes River junction. Along with my wife, Kirsten, we operate the lodge here.

LR: And I’m Lisa Ratton, I’m the front of house manager here at the lodge. The first piece of news that came out was from KTU, and they, nobody called the lodge to ask any questions, and so the headline said “a stray dog ran down the trail”.

CD: Dillon is most certainly not a stray, we’re very proud of Dillon, he’s a gift from Dee Dee Jonrowe’s kennel, he’s certainly has Iditarod genes running through his body, and he’s well bred, well mannered, he’s just full of energy.

QM: And he’s what, like 19 years old?

CD: [laughs] I think he just turned two. He’s two years old. So that, that’s a young dog, there are some two year olds on some Iditarod teams, but he has not run the Iditarod, he’s just started in harness this last year, so.

QM: And which one of you was the one who discovered Dillon was missing?

CD: One of our crew went to do the morning souping of the dogs, which is what we do every morning, we get some water in them before we run them later in the day, and I got a call on the radio, said “hey, somebody’s missing, has anyone seen Dillon? His chain is gone, he’s gone, and we don’t see him anywhere around.” So, it was one of our crew that tried to track him down. We thought well, he broke his chain, he broke his s-hook, he’s just visiting one of the other dogs. So, our crew member followed the track of dragged chain, if there’s such a thing, and it wound around the dog yard here and there, it went behind one of the cabins, and then all of a sudden it disappeared. [laughter] And then,

LR: Well, then we went on a search party [laughs]. We were really concerned that he was missing, and we had some guests here that helped. We took the snow machines out, we went different directions and tried to look for signs of dragged chain, and we couldn’t turn anything up. Um, so we were quite worried, especially because he’s new here. I mean, some of the other dogs - in the summertime, we let all of the dogs run around the property, free. Because we can’t mush. And so they’re really familiar with the whole area, and the smells, and they really know that this is there home. Um, when did we get Dillon again?

CD: We got Dillon in early January, right?

LR: So he’s only been here for a couple of months, so we weren’t sure with him missing - and all the dogs, they get really excited, the Iditarod trail goes right past our dog yard. And so the dogs all run around and are barking and we thought, maybe this was really stressful for him. And so it was kind of alarming that he was missing.

CD: So, we knew that he wasn’t around the yard and I’m thinking, Dee Dee is gonna kill me. So, [laughs], so we have the comms group with the Iditarod, checkers and so on, are down on the ice. So we got ahold of them and said ‘hey can you do us a favor? Maybe call ahead and see if, for some reason, any of the mushers approach the next checkpoint, ask them if they saw a dog on the way.’

LR: So, our, yeah, [laughs]. Leslie is head of communications down here at the Finger Lake checkpoint, and she called ahead and said ‘it appears that there is a dog that followed Ryan Reddington’s team - or he was between two of the teams - and he seems to match the description of your dog,’. He’s really distinctive looking, he’s a beautiful dog, he’s mostly white with brown spots. And um, these cool patches over his eyes. And he was dragging a length of chain [laughs]. And, um, they saw him approaching Rainy Pass.

QM: Which is, okay how far is Rainy Pass and what’s the terrain like between here and there?

CD: Well, it’s some of the most difficult part of the trail. It’s about 32 miles, 34 depending which way you go. But it begets rolling hills to the west of us here, I guess he has to cross lakes and he has to climb up a ridge and then he has to go down, and then about ten miles from here he has to go down the Happy River steps, he has to go around the mouth of the Happy River, and he has to go back up the other side, cross Shirley Lake, cross Long Lake, before he gets to the next checkpoint.

QM: So that’s quite a journey. And he went all the way to the next checkpoint?

CD: He did, somebody found him, one of the guys from the flying service happened to be up there and somebody said ‘oh, there’s a stray dog here at the vet station, and he’s munching on a snack, and he matched the description of our dog.’

LR: He had a Dee Dee Jonrowe collar on, still, yeah, and so then they kind of put together, how did one of Dee Dee’s dogs arrive all the way here, and so, once we were in touch with them, it was pretty easy to put together that that was our missing dog. And fortunately, actually, we had some guests who were departing that day, and the flying service, the plane went to Rainy Pass first and was coming from Rainy Pass to Winter Lake, and so we already had a plane scheduled, for noon. And they just put him on the plane and sent him back home.

QM: So what did Dee Dee have to say?

CD: I don’t know yet. She’s on the trail, she’s west of McGrath, further up the trail, reporting on trail progress, so I haven’t talked to her, so I don’t even know if she’s heard of this yet.

QM: So, how are you feeling about Dillon’s media exposure? I mean, he made the front page of ADN [Anchorage Daily News] is that correct?

LN: Yeah, yeah we got word back from town that he was on the front page of the news, so, that’s quite a story [laughs]. Um, but we kind of feel like the spotlight has actually been stolen, and one of our other dogs actually, Fiona, who is now in retirement, she’s 14, she made the trip two weeks ago. And it was a much more of a stunning feat, at such an old age, and she made it. And she didn’t get any media attention, nobody called to fact check on a Fiona story, so we kind of feel it’s been stolen from her.

QM: So how did it go with Fiona, how did you get her back?

CD: Well, Fiona just free ranges around the yard, she’s profoundly deaf and she just kind of hangs out and visits the other dogs, she’s pretty harmless. However, two Italian fat tire bike riders were on their way to Nome. And they didn’t stop in here, but they took the trail which bisects our property. And we don’t know if they lured her with snacks, or if Fiona said ‘hey, that looks like fun, let’s follow these guys’. And next thing we know, I get a call from up at the next checkpoint saying ‘hey, you missing a dog?’ [all laugh]

LR: Little fact check there. So, she took off up the trail, and we realized she was missing, kind of the same thing, you know went out. We realized she was missing, but because she’s free range and she kind of putzes around the cabin, we weren’t really concerned about it, because we wouldn’t expect her to be in any one spot. And then it got to be early afternoon and still no one had seen her, so we started to look around and we realized she was missing. And, at that point, there was kind of no traffic, it was before the Iditarod, it was before the Iditarod invitational, and so we looked down the Iditarod trail, and there were two weaving fat tire bikes and paw prints, stepping over the tires. And so we realized she followed these bikers. And, again we followed her paws, and we couldn’t, they could see her turn around, like she was thinking ‘oh should I go back or keep going’ and she kept on going. And, but eventually they kind of lost sight of the paw prints, I think maybe they got blown over. So we knew that she headed that direction, but we didn’t know how far she made so. So then it was later afternoon, we called Rainy Pass Lodge and said, um ‘hey this is kind of a long shot, have two Italians shown up on bikes?’ and Steve, the owner over there, said ‘yeah, actually I got word, um, they have a dog with them, right?’ So these two, one of the Iditarod air force planes, one of them had seen overhead, the bikers with the dog, running alongside them. And at that point, she was about 20 miles from here and 12 miles before Rainy Pass. And he said ‘you know, we’ll keep an eye out for her’ - I think he was expecting them to arrive at the lodge around 8pm, and he said ‘you know, we’ll keep an eye out for her and let you know if she makes it’. And lo and behold, that evening they called back, right around staff dinner time, and said ‘Fiona is at the lodge. She made it.’ [all laugh]

CD: She overnightered there, right?

LR: Yeah, how did that work? She spent the night there, and he said ‘yeah, actually she was in great shape’ and, you know, they did kind of a brief physical assessment and she seemed to be doing fine, and um, the next day they had a drop off for something at the lodge, and the pilot was nice enough to swing by here on his way back to bring her back. So. She was a little hungry, a little more tired, but otherwise fine [laughs]

QM: Any changes in Dillon, since he’s been back? CD: No, he’s back to his old safe. He’s running around the yard, anxious to run, so, we’ll be getting him out again tomorrow. One of my Wiseacre friends in town, Chris Owen, sent me an email, saying ‘have you counted your dogs lately?’ [all laugh]

QM: And, so, people can come here mushing and meet Dillon and Fiona?

CD: Sure, they could. Dillon is the youngest one and Fiona is the oldest one.

QM: Wonderful. Well, thank you so much, I’m so glad to hear they’re both back safe, and I think our listeners will be too. They now have a lot of fans and I hear they can follow you on instagram. Carl, what’s your instagram?

LR: Are you, are you Carl Dickson?

CD: Space AK I think.

LR: Yeah, @carldickson_ak

CD: I just posted my first photo today after instruction from the crew, so I’m not too hip on that.

QM: I have a feeling you’re about to get some followers, Carl.

CD: Yeah, that would be great [all laugh]

QM: Thank you both

CD: Two dogs, that’s never, we’ve been here a long time and that’s never happened before. We randomly let the dogs have a day off and if they don’t run, we let them have a day off and like Lisa said, they don’t leave the yard, they hang around with each other, run around in the snow, we just never thought that would happen.

LR: Yeah, we gotta send a nice basket up to Rainy Pass Lodge for taking such good care of our dogs

QM: Maybe send some dog food

CD: Yeah, yeah dog biscuits for the next time.

Casey Grove: Thanks for listening to that interview with Quince Mountain and the owner and manager of the WInter Lake Lodge. Stay tuned for another full episode of the Iditapod.

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bdotson46-blog · 8 years ago

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THE NORTHEAST BLIZZARD BRINGS MEMORIES OF THE IDITAROD SLED DOG RACE NOW UNDERWAY IN ALASKA. People there embrace failure. Fear of failing paralyzes progress. Learning from mistakes pushes us forward. Rachael Scdoris taught me that. She was about to race a sled dog team eleven hundred miles over a treacherous trail she could barely see, but figured the biggest barrier to her success was “being blonde.” Rachael’s stunning good looks caused some to underestimate her ability. She was born with Congenital Achromatopsia, a rare disorder that left her sight fuzzy and without color. “People say my eyes are a huge disadvantage, but I’m an athlete,” Rachael said, strapping her dogs into harness. “I can easily jump off the sled and run up a three-mile hill, if I have to.” Rachael and her Huskies had jogged fourteen miles that day we first met. She needed to run two thousand more to qualify for the Iditarod, an incredible race through the Alaskan Outback, across a wilderness so vast it would stretch from Maine to the tip of Florida. Some other mushers were questioning her ability. Rachael shrugged and stepped back onto her sled runners, “Quitting is just not something I’m really into.” She was eighteen, sleeping under the stars with her dogs, getting them comfortable with life on the trail. Her dad, Jerry, said Rachael grew up listening to his Huskies sing lullabies. "Dad used to take me on runs when I was a baby to put me down for a nap." She started raising her own team in the second grade. “Rachael camped outside with her puppies for an entire year,” Jerry said with an incredulous smile. Race rules require that she harness her Huskies without help, slip protective booties over tender paws, two thousand times, and dish out three tons of food and water, all by herself. “They’ll burn eight to ten thousand calories a day out there,” Rachael explained. She would have to stash huge pallets of food along the eleven hundred mile trail. “Winning the Iditarod is basically who can take the best care of their dogs -- the fastest," Rachael said, wiping ice from a puppy’s paw. The only concession for her blindness -- an extra pair of eyes. Rachael’s dad became her practice spotter, driving a sled ahead of hers and using a two-way radio to alert her to dangers. “There’s a boulder up ahead…” Jerry cried. Rachael swerved to steer around it. To her the beauty of the Alaskan outback is only a black and white smudge, but she won’t let anything hold her back. “If there’s a barrier,” she said, “I’m determined to break it.” Rachael would be the first musher in Iditarod history to be allowed a spotter. One long time racer, four-time champ, Martin Buser was concerned for her dogs’ safety. “If you had a blind person driving your school bus you would probably yank your kid out of that bus,” he said, but at fifteen, Rachael finished a five hundred mile sled dog race, over mountain passes with tricky turns and blowing snow, the youngest ever to do so. She started with sixteen Huskies and finished with all sixteen. None was injured. “My dogs come first,” she said. “Anything that will keep them safe, I’ll do it.” The biggest races in life begin far from the starting line. That's why Jerry Scdoris maxed out his credit cards and drove twenty five hundred miles - to the top of the Globe - in the dead of winter to help his daughter chase that dream she cannot see. He did not ask her to reconsider. “Not allowing her to accomplish her goals would be a set up for failure in life,” he said, loading the last dog into his truck. "Hopefully, she will make it easier for the next young person who comes along,” with a dream stronger than life's problems. Rachael raised most of her team from puppies at her home atop a forty-acre hill near Bend, Oregon. Second graders in her old classroom marveled at what she had accomplished since she was their age. One asked Rachael the day before she set off for Alaska, “How is it being legally blind?” “It’s pretty difficult to be all the way back here and have your lead dogs over there by the wall. You can’t see exactly what’s going on.” Just getting to the starting line was a victory for a woman who sees only possibilities. Rachael pumped her fist as she passed through a tunnel of screaming fans. "The important thing is that I'm here,” Rachael said as she skidded to a stop. "I don't worry about falling anymore, because I've fallen before. So I just deal with whatever's out there." “Five!” cried the race starter. The dogs began to yelp. The crowd roared. “Four!” “Whoa!” yelled Rachael, stomping on her snow brake, holding back her team. “Three!” "A lot of people tell me I'm crazy,” she smiled over her shoulder. “Two!” Paul Ellering slid his team in front of Rachael’s. The five-time Iditarod champ would be her spotter along the trail. "Even in my dreams it's hard,” he said, straightening his sled. "It's hard for me, a former champion. People tell Rachael all the time she won’t be able to do this.” “One!” Four little girls stood on tip toes to see Rachael pass. Ellering grinned, “The American dream is just pulling up your socks and putting your pants on and getting it done." “GO!” "Hi! Chee!” Rachael shouted. Her dogs skittered off into a fog of ice. She was heading into some of the deepest snow in decades. The mushers ran through a crystal swamp, bone chilling ice that pulled at legs and made each day's trip seem like two. Rachael successfully navigated the most treacherous sections of the Iditarod, but after reaching the Eagle Island checkpoint (732 miles into the 1,200 mile race), her dogs got sick with a virus they had picked up along the way. Rather than risk their health – Rachael dropped out. “The pride of Norway!” cried the race announcer, as Robert Sorlie schussed into Nome, Alaska, winning that Super Bowl of Sled Dog races. Rachael was heartbroken. She wondered, “What am I doing out here?" -- in the hardest race on earth, but then her toughest race had been the one she set for herself. Her dream seemed foolish only to those who dared not try. A year later, on March 18, 2006, Rachael Scdoris passed under the Burled Arch in Nome and slid into the history books, becoming the first legally blind athlete to finish the famed Iditarod. It took her twelve days, ten hours and forty-two minutes. She was seventh out of the twenty rookies who started the race. History is not just for winners. Sometimes there is more to remember -- than, "Who crossed the finish line first?"

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wildlyhardphilosopher-blog · 5 years ago

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Train your Dog to STOP CHASING & LUNGING at CARS: Where to Start, | how to potty train an older dog

New Post has been published on https://dogtraining.dknol.com/english/train-your-dog-to-stop-chasing-lunging-at-cars-where-to-start-how-to-potty-train-an-older-dog/?utm_source=Tumblr&utm_medium=Tumblr+%230+Freda+K+Pless&utm_campaign=SNAP%2Bfrom%2BBest+Dog+Training

Train your Dog to STOP CHASING & LUNGING at CARS: Where to Start, | how to potty train an older dog

Return from Puppy Training to Training Your Dog and You Pawpular Posts Hill’s® Science Diet® Youthful Vitality Adult 7+ Small & Toy Breed Chicken & Rice Recipe Dog Food Search the Library Catalog Sign Up based on a sound understanding of dog behavior and learning theory. 1. Take time off to housetrain your dog. Someone needs to take your dog out for midday bathroom breaks, so experts recommend taking time off work when you first get your dog. If that’s not an option, you could also hire a dog walker. Hold a treat close to your puppy’s nose and slowly move it up and towards the back of her head 17 Jan 2018, 3:45pm Kit & Kaboodle® Privacy Policy (Updated) Get In Touch Earlier this year, we got a new poodle puppy. Grunt, the chocolate brown miniature, is the 5th poodle to grace my world. Some think poodles are silly, but actually as dogs go, they are among the smartest, most versatile, and most loveable canines. One guy actually had them pull a sled for the Iditarod. In fact, they are so amazing, I have never really understood why people would bother crossing them with a Labrador to create the abomination called labradoodles. Potty training is obviously one of the first things you’ll want to teach your puppy. If done properly, potty training is not difficult. The key is to be consistent. 181 COMMENTS jigsawðŸ‘¸ “Leave it” to interrupt a distraction like a food item on the ground or another dog walking by. Some General Rules: Small Dog Classes Scouts & Groups Quizzes Just type and press ‘enter’ Just walk back and forth, and don’t make a big deal about anything. Dogs can be easily distracted and love to get attention, so if you give her attention, she’ll never figure it out! You will be training your puppy from the moment you bring it home and start to house train. Puppies start learning from birth and good breeders begin handling and socialization right away. Some training can begin as soon as the puppy can open its eyes and walk. Young puppies have short attention spans but you can expect them to begin to learn simple obedience commands such as “sit,” “down,” and “stay,” as young as 7 to 8 weeks of age. How to Train a Puppy to Use a Pad & Go Outside Financial Reports (276) Getting Your Pup Started On The Right Path We Recommend New Skete Dog Training Nuestra Casa Su Casa (Our Home is Your Home) Best suited to: Everybody! I highly recommend using a crate during the house training process because it’s so effective. Find a Store Google NaturVet NUTRO To train this, get your dog into a sit then you can coax him to the down position by moving your hand with a treat, toward the ground. He will follow your hand and will get into the down position. Rachael Ray Nutrish Put your left hand on his shoulders while holding a treat in your right hand in front of his face. Say “Down” and slowly lower the treat straight down to the floor between the dog’s paws, then slowly pull it straight out and away from the pup. (Imagine making an “L” shape.) Once he’s down, praise him and give him the treat. Applied Mathematics Stop Dogs from Biting When placing the puppy in the crate, use word “kennel” or “kennel up”. Dandie Dinmont Terrier Among the step to housetraining success is being able to foretell when your dog needs to eliminate. Your puppy is likely to need to relieve himself:

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fbq('track', 'ViewContent', content_ids: 'dogtraining.dknol', ); Live Chat Cages & Stands After your puppy has given you 20 or 30 seconds of attention, give him the toy. Play with him a bit, then relax and try walking again. Gradually increase the time you walk together during your training sessions, then gradually stop using the toy. Eventually your dog will walk happily at your side whenever he’s on his leash. Titles & Abbreviations You got a puppy partly because they’re really cute. But mostly because you look forward to the companionship of a friendly, easy-going, behaviorally healthy dog. Socialization is how you get from cute now to cool later. SBI! The first step of teaching your dog to go potty only outside is deciding where his potty area will be. Will it be in your back yard, front yard, on the balcony? Or will you take him out for a walk and let him go out at the curb or on the little patch of grass down at the corner? Or maybe you’d like to train him to go in the yard sometimes and sometimes out on his walk. All of these options are possible, but you’ll need to make a decision and be clear with your dog where you want him to go so he doesn’t get confused. You have no items in your cart. Jerseys & Team Sports Whining, crying and howling often result when a puppy is left alone. Puppies will whine and cry when separated from their owners. The puppy is afraid he is being abandoned by his pack and is sounding the alarm so that he can be rescued. At other times, a puppy whines, crys, or barks because they need or want something. Subscribe to our newsletter. Monks of New Skete (1978). How to be Your Dog’s Best Friend: A Training Manual for Dog Owners, London : Little Brown (1) You said potty first thing in the morning. Let’s say 7:30 am. Then if I feed him at 7:45, does he need to potty again before 8:00, less than half an hour from the previous go? Martin Park, Boulder CO When you first wake up, last thing at night and very regularly during the day, take your puppy outside to a place in your garden that you have chosen. If you use newspaper or puppy pads overnight, pop some of the soiled paper in this area as the smell will help your puppy to know where to go to the toilet. Let your puppy walk up and down or run about and sniff the area (both exercise and sniffing help stimulate going to the loo). It’s best to let your puppy out in the garden without a lead on as it will be too restrictive, however if your puppy needs to be on lead for whatever reason, an extendable lead is a good solution as this will give them the freedom they need to toilet. No Progress? It Could Be Due To Medical Issues Recommend1 Potty Training Puppy Training Comments (4) Pets First First and foremost, WE LOVE DOGS! We want to see them succeed just as much as you do. Our team is here to help YOU achieve the goals you’ve set for your dog, and we will do whatever it takes to meet those expectations. East Side Collection Toggle Mobile Menu Shoes & Socks It also sometimes helps to give your dog something else to do in the moments when he is excited. For example, you might enter your home with one of your dog’s toys in hand, toss it away from you, walk past your dog while he retrieves it, then greet your dog several minutes later once the initial excitement worn off. So although when home I’m vigilant and very actively house training my puppy to toilet outside, I also have to paper train them for the odd occasion I’m not home. After speaking with many friends and owners, I know this is a common scenario for many. Swap Your Classes Check all that interest you. Subscription Hip Doggie When placing the puppy in the crate, use word “kennel” or “kennel up”. Colby’s Favorite & Sponsored Puppy Products View Adopt × Enhance Your Cat’s Social Life FM Browns Updated: October 14, 2016 Tip #6: Get Out of Bed Dogs are pack animals EARLY CHILDHOOD, PRESCHOOL & YOUTH Shy Dog (Wallflowers) Private Training Ron and Don puppies Topics: Crate Training, Crate training puppies at night, Crate training dogs, Crate training puppies, Puppy crate training tips, Crate training tips, Crate training schedule, Crate training a puppy, Crate training your dog puppy training for kids | potty training for dogs puppy training for kids | potty training yorkies puppy training for kids | potty training older dogs Legal | Sitemap

#Puppy Training 101: This is What a Typical Day Should Look Like #puppy training classes prices

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darkwood-sleddog · 4 years ago

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Your dogs are beautiful, and I love them! Out of curiosity, what first got you interested in mushing? Did you get your dogs with the intention of training them for mushing, or did you get into it after you already had one or more of them?

I’ve been interested in mushing since I was in first grade, we did an Iditarod unit in my school where we tracked the racers and at the end of the unit a sled dog team visited the school and I became obsessed.

Later when I was in fourth grade I got the flu real bad and couldn’t go see a local sled dog race with my family, it was SUPER disappointing.

In sixth grade I had a birthday where we visited a local wolf dog rescue and I forced my friends to watch all the balto movies. All three of them. Around this time my little sister and I had a couple pavement accidents hitching our golden retriever up to razer scooters and trying to mush that way.

One year dating anniversary with now husband while in college. He takes me dryland dog sledding at a local kennel. He now realizes this as the....”moment our life was set in motion to be what it is now...nuts.” the obsession started to come back. Obsessively looked at sled dog rescues from junior through senior year.

Graduated college, but lived with my future mother in law and her pets. Still wishfully looking at sled dog rescues and working siberian breeders. Was in an out of jobs for a few years. Wish I had the notion to handle at a local kennel at this time, but I was really intent on using my art degree lmao.

In 2016 we bought my husband’s childhood home so I officially started looking at breeders again. Met one of my husband’s old family friends, lifelong malamute people. Met their dogs. Obsessed with this dog, can’t stop thinking about this dog. I had never considered malamutes before but the temperament really stuck with me. Messaged show malamute breeders, radio silence. Perusing youtube I find videos of malamutes doing EXACTLY what I want to do with my dog (sledding and dryland mushing), they’re two hours from my house, the breeder does extensive health testing and titling and checks all my boxes. They message me back! Would be happy to have me come take a kennel tour. Take kennel tour & meet ~working bred~ Alaskan Malamutes. They’re incredible, put a downpayment on a puppy. House sat the neighbor’s malamute & samoyed friend for two weeks. Dogs destroyed yard and a couch pillow and I loved every second of it.

2017 Sigurd & Zombie were born (Zombie was not mine at first). We get Sigurd at eight weeks and we adore him. Husband is a born again dog person. I start laying the groundwork for pull sports with Sigurd from an early age. My obsession comes back FULL FORCE. For my birthday that year my parents buy me a dog sled.

2018, want a Second Dog. Put downpayment on puppy with breeder. Zombie becomes available to us at that time because her temperament was not what our breeder was looking for with her program (she was a keeper puppy originally). Breeder sends photos, husband falls head over heels. I like the idea of two adult dogs. We bring Zombie home at a little over 1 year of age. Life is grand. We start mushing for real that year and do a couple short runs in the 2018-2019 season.

2019-2020, we went HAM this year. Mushing every weekend. Got husband a fat bike so we could go longer distances. Started scootering the dogs during dryland season. We’re really falling in love with the sport. We still have puppy fever. Put down payment on puppy everything is good. A little while after breeder offers us Slash, one of her keeper puppies from her 2019 litter, because he is cryptorchid (undescended testicle) and can’t be used in the breeding program. He is much higher drive than Sigurd & Zombie and his mother and grandfather are her respective lead dogs. I have an internal crisis because it wasn’t what I planned but I love the idea of him. I cut my bangs for the first time since I was like 6. We end up getting Slash. Aquire Dryland Rig, 3 dog set up, and navigate having a pack vs being a two dog household. The rest is history.

#faq #long post #sorry the whole story really needed explanation #i just have always been in love with this sport #its something that has never left me #its actually amazing that we got slash when we did #right before covid hit #otherwise if we hadn't gotten him #we'd probably not been able to get a puppy in 2020 #or maybe even in 2021 #the border restrictions are CRAZY #yumantimatter

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lostinlit-becca · 6 years ago

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I am so excited to be teaming up with @tlcbooktours and @williammorrowbooks to talk about The Wild Inside by @jameybee ! The paranormal romance aspects have me so excited to read this one! It is already in stores and I will leave the synopsis below for you all to check out! ______________________________________ A promising talent makes her electrifying debut with this unforgettable novel, set in the Alaskan wilderness, that is a fusion of psychological thriller and coming-of-age tale in the vein of Jennifer McMahon, Chris Bohjalian, and Mary Kubica. . A natural born trapper and hunter raised in the Alaskan wilderness, Tracy Petrikoff spends her days tracking animals and running with her dogs in the remote forests surrounding her family’s home. Though she feels safe in this untamed land, Tracy still follows her late mother’s rules: Never Lose Sight of the House. Never Come Home with Dirty Hands. And, above all else, Never Make a Person Bleed. . But these precautions aren’t enough to protect Tracy when a stranger attacks her in the woods and knocks her unconscious. The next day, she glimpses an eerily familiar man emerge from the tree line, gravely injured from a vicious knife wound—a wound from a hunting knife similar to the one she carries in her pocket. Was this the man who attacked her and did she almost kill him? With her memories of the events jumbled, Tracy can’t be sure. . Helping her father cope with her mother’s death and prepare for the approaching Iditarod, she doesn’t have time to think about what she may have done. Then a mysterious wanderer appears, looking for a job. Tracy senses that Jesse Goodwin is hiding something, but she can’t warn her father without explaining about the attack—or why she’s kept it to herself. . It soon becomes clear that something dangerous is going on . . . the way Jesse has wormed his way into the family . . . the threatening face of the stranger in a crowd . . . the boot-prints she finds at the forest’s edge. Her family is in trouble. Will uncovering the truth protect them—or is the threat closer than Tracy suspects? #thewildinside #jameybradbury #paranormalromance https://www.instagram.com/p/BrdQFGdlyH5/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1cd2k67a2g51b

#thewildinside #jameybradbury #paranormalromance

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caredogstips · 7 years ago

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Mitch Seavey becomes oldest and fastest musher to triumph Iditarod dog race

Veteran musher acquires third Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, becoming the most wonderful and oldest champion at age 57

Mitch Seavey acquired his third Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Tuesday, becoming the fastest and oldest champion at age 57 and facilitating plaster his familys caste as mushing royalty.

The Seward, Alaska, musher introduced his dogs off the frozen Bering Sea and onto Front Street in the Gold Rush town of Nome after traversing practically 1,000 miles of Alaska wilderness.

He outran his son, representing endorse Dallas Seavey, and lapped the oldest musher record that he set at age 53 in 2013. He previously won the hasten in 2013 and 2004.

Seavey too specified a period enter of eight daylights, three hours, 40 instants and 13 seconds, the Iditarod mentioned. That shaved several hours off the record his son mounted last year: eight eras, 11 hours, 20 minutes and 16 seconds.

Sweet was the first thing Mitch Seavey remarked after going off the sled at the finishing line for the purposes of the famed burled arch. It was broadcast live statewide.

His wife, Janine, accosted him with a hug. Oh, my gosh, look at what youve just done, she told him. Youve changed the sport.

After talking to his wife, Seavey saluted each of his hounds and expressed thanks with a frozen snack. He subsequently posed with his two lead hounds, Pilot and Crisp.

They get frustrated when they go too slow, so I just let them rotation, which was terrifying because Ive never gone that rapidly, that far ever, but thats what they wanted to do, he said.

Seavey said the dogs know only one thing 9 to 10 mph.

They hit their peak, they hit their speeding, and thats what they do, Seavey said at the finish line. They trusted me to stop them when they needed to stop and feed them, and I did that, and they gave me all they could.

Seavey picked up $ 75,000 and the keys to a brand-new station wagon for acquiring the worlds most well known sled pup race.

The Seaveys have now won the last six hastens. Dallas Seavey prevailed four, and “his fathers” finished second the last two years. The two are close but competitive.

He and I have such a great relationship, Mitch Seavey articulated. Theres no malice, we just adore ranging sled dogs. No question.

Dallas Seavey ended up in second place, five minutes ahead of France native Nicolas Petit.

The familys ties to the hasten go back to the first Iditarod, held in 1973, when Mitch Seaveys papa, Dan, mushed in the event. The younger Seavey, who is 30, had wins in 2012 and from 2014 to 2016.

The race started 6 March in Fairbanks, with 71 teams. Five mushers scratched.

Fans strung the finish, applauding and clapping on Seavey. As his crew finished the last few cubes of the race, Seavey screeched, Good boys! Hep!

Just before reaching the trough, he got off his sled and ran with the dogs a bit.

Four pups associated with the race have died this year, including a 4-year-old male mentioned Flash who collapsed on the line early Tuesday when his musher, Katherine Keith, was about 10 miles outside the checkpoint in Koyuk.

Read more: www.theguardian.com

The post Mitch Seavey becomes oldest and fastest musher to triumph Iditarod dog race appeared first on caredogstips.com.

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alaska-now · 8 years ago

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Alaska National Organization for Women and Mat-Su College Present their Third Annual Equinox Women’s Film Festival

Film Schedule:

Friday

6:00PM – 8:00PM

Grace

Knowing she could never prepare her for everything the future holds, a mother tries to impart life’s most essential lessons to her daughter in a single letter.

Under A Stone

A woman returns to her hometown for a family obligation. She reunites with her brother, but they clash in how they cope with their awful past.

Color

A young woman tries to create a piece of art.

Rosetta's Blues

‘Rosetta’s Blues’ is the story of a young woman finding it difficult to come to terms with her father’s passing. Acting out in theatrical and amusing ways as methods of coping, this is a coming of age tale of how Rosetta is inspired to move forward in life rather than being weighed down by her loss.

Won't Somebody Think of the Children?!

Amanda and Catherine, both in third grade, are writing a comic book together about feminist superheroine Sergeant Laser. They are hurrying to finish as their deadline approaches, and their "publisher," their classmate Andy, refuses to give them another extension.

Everything It Takes

Shortly before Mary Helwig signed up to fulfill her dream of running the 2016 Iditarod, a 1,000- mile long sled dog race across Alaska, she lost her home and her dogs' houses, plus almost all her racing gear and possessions to the Sockeye Fire. Everything It Takes documents the year of Mary's life leading up to race day as she and her dogs struggle to ready themselves for the challenge of a lifetime.

Saturday

BLOCK I - 10AM - 12:50PM

You're Just Projecting

Shot in Paris, and later projected in Rhode Island onto walls and objects, You’re Just Projecting is an intentional fragmentation of the female body wherein legs, breasts, stomachs hands and feet have been placed in or near pieces of architecture that give the illusion of being separate from an actual body to create a sense of entrapment. The concept of the popular image of women in the 1950's-60’s, and today is repurposed by altering and satirizing the male gaze which is only accentuated by the incorporation of the male voice.

Nanny

From the writer of Solo Dios Sabe (Diego Luna, Alice Braga; Sundance 2006), Niñera looks at the bitter ironies many nannies face.

Emerald Ice

Emerald Ice is a cinematic journey exploring the mind of the American poet Diane Wakoski. This experimental short brings to the screen her work--the sprawling beauty that is Diane's emotional spectrum.

Five Awake

Five Louisiana women -- outraged over husbands shooting their wives-- set out to strengthen domestic violence laws, including a controversial proposal to restrict the gun rights of domestic abusers. In Louisiana, this was considered lunacy. Not the part about armed abusers. The part about wanting to disarm them. This is the story of what happens when women, armed with passion, pluck and political savvy, wake up and refuse to take no for an answer.

Midnight Poetry

A young mother, Tilda, has escaped London with her 7-year-old daughter in order to end an abusive relationship. In Sydney, the pressure of guilt and memory challenge her new life.

Home Invasion for the Holidays

A freshly divorced mom and her daughter foil a dimwitted burglar's plans.

Real Artists

Real Artists, a dark tale set in the near future, is based on Ken Liu’s short story of the same name. Sophia just scored every animator’s dream interview at world famous Semaphore Animation Studios. Was it Sophia’s rebel ethos and creative instincts that landed her the invitation?

Crocuses

On the final day of packing up her home, Rita can’t shake the regret she feels about her late husband, Bernard.

Alice

One night, eight-year-old Alice is forced to stay with her distant father, after overhearing a big fight between her parents and witnessing her mother leave.

Klocked: Women with Horsepower

The desolate, alien landscape of the Bonneville Salt Flats, barren, gleaming white…in the distance, the faint, high whine of motorcycles shifting through gears…and then three-woman stream into view on their roaring machines. Designed as a feature length documentary, Klocked: Women with Horsepower focuses on women motorcycle land speed record holders Laura Klock and her two daughters Erika and Karlee Cobb.

BLOCK II - 1PM - 4PM

Proclamation Punctuation

“Proclamation Punctuation” is an enthralling fashion film centered on a fabulously fascinating woman reciting a short soliloquy paying homage to her love for using exclamation points in her missives.

Feeling Wanted

Charell, age 6, woke up to find herself alone. She made breakfast, dropped her baby sister off with a neighbor, and walked to school. With a dad incarcerated for murder, a mom on drugs and a childhood in foster care, Charell knew it was time to break the cycle.

Love Somehow

"Genius is a terrible thing.” Caitlin Thomas was a dancer, writer and woman behind the famous Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas. She partied as hard as him, advised him, loved him, kept him sober enough to write and brought up their family on no money, finally surviving his early death. Very little is written about Caitlin, her role in their legend or her recovery, and most portrayals are laughably inaccurate. This is Caitlin’s lyrical version of her life with Dylan, adapted from a one woman play written by Welsh poet Phil Bowen.

Relation Shipwreck: The Great Boob Debate

Brooke has to make a difficult decision regarding her most recent acting role.

Chill

Chill is an inspirational documentary about a single woman fighting to preserve her fertility and dreams of motherhood through egg freezing in her mid-thirties. Weeks before she decided to freeze her eggs, actor, Jennifer Frappier began documenting her thoughts on fertility and parenthood.

Aether

A young artist, dissatisfied with her efforts to draw, opens a portal that absorbs her within the pages of her sketchbook.

The Highway

All Henley wants to do is get home in time for his anniversary. He has a 17-hour drive from his last business trip stop. He tries to drive straight through, but he gets too tired, and he decides to stop for the night.

Silent No More - Louise Pentz: A Voice for Social Change

No longer willing to remain silent about the injustice she sees, Nova Scotia ceramist Louise Pentz uses her art as a force for social change. Her sculptures give voice to women around the world who are silenced by social, political, religious or family circumstances.

Mom

'Mom' is about Alex--a young woman who rents a room in a house with an older woman, with what little money she has left. But Alex must ultimately decide what she is willing to do for money.

Northfound

Iris and Finn are two sisters with a special affinity for hot dogs and sexy cartoon animals. Devastated by Iris's recent diagnosis, the two are left to navigate their time left together.

Find Me

After the death of his father, a young man falls victim to the darkest parts of his own mind.

BLOCK III - 5PM - 8PM

The Last Farewell

An honorable soldier must choose between the woman he loves or the country he had pledged to die for. The story takes place in the year 1973 when the Philippine republic is under Martial Law.

In-between the Scripts

An experimental film about A male suffering from mental health issues, and his physical and psychological experience with anti- psychotic medications.

The Baby Lu`au

Brooke Cho, an ambitious young attorney, confronts her estranged family after a 5-year absence, only to discover that not everything is what it seems to be. She soon must race against time to uncover the truth or lose what she loves most.

America Heard: Refuge of Hope

Syracuse, New York is an unlikely home to over 10,000 former refugees. Two women at the forefront of this community reflect on what their presidential vote means to those whose only true home is the American town that took them in.

Earworm

A lonely man does battle with a relentless piece of music.

Hole

After moving into a new apartment, a young woman discovers a hole in her living room wall.

Tucker Noir

Take a brief look into the life of Northern California's drag king sweetheart, Tucker Noir. Watch as he hosts Chico California's 2016 gay pride weekend and gives us a little insight on what performing drag is all about.

Bombing

Sophie is an unmotivated comedian. When her estranged young daughter is unexpectedly thrust back into her life, Sophie's plans have to be reshuffled.

BETWEEN

Shades of Winter’s BETWEEN, a Red Bull Media House co-production, is the latest film by Austrian pro skier and filmmaker Sandra Lahnsteiner who keeps redefining women in action sports movies since her first release in 2010. Between earth and sky, ocean and snow, old friends and new, between the day-to-day challenges and the once-in-a-lifetime thrills of travelling to some of the most exotic and challenging slopes in the world and then mastering them, not missing the moments between. The new UHD 4K action sports feature film with a documentary aspect, not only follows the crème de la crème of female skiing including Olympic gold medalist and alpine skier Julia Mancuso and many more on compelling journeys and to thrilling destinations; it also features three-time world surf champion Carissa Moore. For Between, the long-term duo Sandra Lahnsteiner and director of photography Mathias Bergmann teamed up with German film editor Thomas Kohler known for the documentary “Cerro Torre” (2013).

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bdotson46-blog · 8 years ago

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anamuseinglife · 6 years ago

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Iditapod: Mushing the Mighty Yukon

Alison Lifka: So very rustic and not technical but it worked!

Ben Matheson: Whatever works! I mean, you’re here

AL: Yeah!

[theme music plays]

Casey Grove: Welcome to the Iditapod, a podcast about the Iditarod where we are all about rustic and not being too technical. We are a production of Alaska Public Media, and KNOM in Nome. I’m your host, Casey Grove, that was Iditarod rookie musher Alison Lifka you just heard from. Before we fix up our sleds and get out on the trail, here’s a word from our sponsor.

[ad plays]

CG: Well, it’s the weekend. We told you Friday about Nicolas Petit, the Girdwoods musher, being the first to be at the Yukon River, winning that five course meal. And right now it’s Saturday, we’ve seen some leapfrogging at the front of the pack. As I’m recording this, Bethel’s Pete Kaiser has been in the lead for a bit. Petit’s team is right behind him heading up the Yukon River out of Eagle Island. Jessie Royer and Joar Ulsom, the defending champ, not far behind. We’re going to hear more from Ulsom here in a minute about how he is carrying the ashes of a friend of his and a former Iditarod musher, Rudy Demoski, out on the trail, that’s coming up. Ulsom was the first out of the Grayling checkpoint last night. It looked like mushers were a little bunched up there, and taking rests before setting out for Eagle Island. We had heard that planes were unable - again, for the second year in a row - to get drop bags into Eagle Island, and so mushers may have been adjusting their plans in Grayling and staying there longer than they had anticipated. The front of the pack mushers are all spread out between Grayling, Eagle Island, and Kaltag, and when they get to Kaltag, they’re gonna start heading west towards the coast where they reach the edge of Alaska, the coast of Alaska. We have more in this upcoming story from Alaska Public Media’s Zachariah Hughes about the trouble in Eagle Island. He was in Anvik, again that’s the beginning of the Yukon River portion of the Iditarod. We’re going to jump right into his story, where he talked to Nicolas Petit about how Petit has been camping out more in this year’s Iditarod.

Zachariah Hughes: Unlike previous years, Petit has mostly blown through checkpoints, opting instead to rest his team along the trail. [to Petit] How has it been for you, camping out at checkpoints along the way? Nicolas Petit: I didn’t have to deal with this, no offense, but we’re tired people and we’ve got a lot of work to do.

ZH: Is it more for you or more for the dogs?

NP: The both of us.

ZH: The ride to the Iditarod checkpoint was rough, with barely any snow and vicious tundra tussocks that kept nearly bucking him off of his sled.

NP: That was the roughest trip to Iditarod I’ve ever been on. Jokingly saying to myself, we’re at tussock level number five, probably close to the highest rating, you know?

ZH: Even with a group of reporters, vets, race officials, and spectators, Petit was so focused on his dogs that his baggy, overwhite pants kept falling to his knees as he walked up and down the line. He seemed to hardly notice, until the task at hand was over and he would hike them back up to his belly, until they dropped again. In the tribal hall next to the checkpoint, Petit sat down at a folding table to a five course meal of steak, scallops, salad, and bison chili, prepared over two camp stoves.

NP: [to people] Excellent, 2019, I’ll carry on.

[champagne pops]

ZH: Petit left for a nap, but he didn’t sleep long. He pulled out of Anvik after about four hours. Weather along the Yukon has been messy. As the next wave of mushers came in, race judges had to give Jessie Royer and other the bad news that the second year in a row, there were problems getting supplies to the checkpoint in Eagle Island.

Woman: Did you hear, um, they still, they don’t have the food to Eagle Island yet.

Jessie Royer: Oh, I just asked them in Shageluk, and they told me they did. There’s no food-

Woman: As of right now. But they’re making the effort to bring it down from Kaltag.

JR: Oh.

Woman: By snow machine. So.

JR: Okay.

Woman: So by the time you get to Grayling -

JR: I’m doing my 8 in Grayling, so

Woman: You might want to grab a bag

ZH: Although there was straw and fuel available, Iditarod crews were trying to carry in mushers drop bags with food and other supplies. Last year, weather shut down the Eagle Island checkpoint, prompting mushers to load up on supplies for the long run between Grayling and Kaltag. Now, with a similar situation, mushers are having to adjust their plans on the fly, as they begin moving north up the Yukon. In Anvik, I’m Zachariah Hughes.

Casey Grove: Well, one of the Iditarod’s pioneers is taking one last run. Joar Ulsom is carrying the ashes of longtime musher Rudy Demoski to spread along the trail. As he prepared to pass through Demoski’s hometown of Anvik, Ulsom says he’s humbled.

Joar Leifseth Ulsom: It’s an honor to do that.

CG: Demoski was a familiar face along the Iditarod trail for decades, and was instrumental in starting the Kuskokwim 300 out of Bethel. Demoski died last year at the age of 72. During Leifseth Ulsom’s rookie race in 2013, he met Demoski, who was running his final race. He was nicknamed “The Happy Musher” and Leifseth Ulsom says Demoski came to Willow a lot, to help him train dogs.

JLU: He would just sit, and have fun in the side by the side, and look a the dogs and tell stories from the old days. And yeah. I think the main thing I learned from him was just to enjoy life. He was just such a happy guy, and even the little, the smallest thing would get him fired up and laughing, and all the way to the end, you know, he was just super happy.

CG: Demoski’s roots with the race could be traced all the way back to the beginning. He ran the 2nd Iditarod, and placed 4th as a rookie. Now, back to this year’s race. The moves that we’re seeing at the front of the pack and other mushers making their way up the ranks right now, that all was setting up back when they were taking their 8 hour rests, or planning them out anyways. That dangerous chase pack of mushers was setting themselves up to capitalize on any opportunity that may come up. Speaking off Pete Kaiser, for example, he was leading the Iditarod as I record this. It’s been this cat and mouse game between Nicolas Petit and Joar Ulsom, and you’ve got teams like Pete that have been building up and building up and they’re now moving into the lead of this race. And this pack that’s chasing, that’s sometimes overtaking Petit and Ulsom, all of that shaped up before the Yukon River, back when those musher’s were planning their 8 hour breaks. KNOM’s Ben Matheson has more.

Ben Matheson: Pete Kaiser had one of the fastest runtimes Friday into Shageluk, but what he’s focused on is consistency.

Pete Kaiser: One run you’re fast and then the next run, you’re not. So, we’re trying to string more of those together in a row now, and try and get some more consistency, because the first half of the race for us has been real up and down and real inconsistent.

BM: Kaiser has often been conservative in the early parts of the race, and waited to make a big push with a more rested team. Matthew Failor got into Shageluk to time his 8 hour break to avoid the heat of the day. He’s being extra careful to prepare his team for the big runs ahead, including the longer stop in Iditarod.

Matt Failor: That gave me five hours of rest there, when other mushers were staying for four, and then I’ll stay here for 8. So I’m starting to bank rest to build up for this last leg, if you will. So, I don’t know. I’m not really thinking about other mushers, but trying to make sure that we’re doing what we’re supposed to do, right.

BM: The Yukon trails are well traveled by local snow machines, but there’s snow in the forecast that could shake things up, if the trail becomes marginal. Mushers will never speak openly about their exact plans for getting their teams to the coast, but last years Rookie of the Year, Jessie Holmes, says he has a few tricks up his sleeve.

Jessie Holmes: These dogs have the ability to go long and fast, so, I haven’t used that quite yet. I used it one time and that’s what I did all the rest and implemented all the rest for, so I could try to make big moves and if they’re suitable and the dogs are ready for them and I made one already.

BM: Fresh off his 24, Holmes made a long run from Ophir to Iditarod to climb the standings across the rugged terrain. The race is switching from the rolling hills of gold rush country, to the wide plains of the Yukon River. Paige Drobny arrived into Shageluk in the 9th position, and is eager to hit the river.

Paige Drobny: They really like trails that they can move on, and we haven’t had that for a little bit. The run into Iditarod when we would hit some ice or a road like this, then they would just get cruising along really fast, um, seems like that makes everybody really happy, than the bumpy trails where they’re constantly getting pulled on by the sled, we’re pulling and pushing constantly, I don’t think it’s probably very comfortable for them.

BM: And as more teams finish their breaks, they’ll run with fresh legs throughout the night. With KNOM, I’m Ben Matheson, in Shageluk.

Casey Grove: We’ve got more from that interview that Ben conducted with Paige Drobny, that’s posted as a bonus, extended interview here, and I may have said in the intro to that recording that she arrived in Shageluk in 10th, I think Ben said 9th, I’m not sure which one was right but she was in the top 10 either way. Also looking at posting a long version of the Martin Apayauq Reitan interview in a little bit, Reitan, he is one of the mushers who has had to do some serious sled repairs. For these Iditarod mushers, sled problems can really upend a race. They can also give a critical edge. Some mushers try out new designs or even modifications made out on the trail to give them an advantage; others have to try to patch up malfunctions and damage that has occurred out on the trail with just about anything they can find. It’s really a struggle that inspires some creative resourcefulness. Again, here’s Alaska Public Media’s Zach Hughes, with his reporting.

ZH: Jeff King likes to experiment with his equipment.

Jeff King: Pulling a Jeff King… magic trick.

ZH: He’s cranking a wrench, and augering bigger holes in wide, runner plastic that he hopes will help him float on top of powdery, deep snow. This takes a lot more effort than swapping out regular runner plastic, but he’s tried it in the past and been pleased with the results. His sled bag though, that is new. King tinkered with a design that doesn’t have zippers or velcro, and that lets him open the bag from behind like a hatch while he stands on the runners, almost like he’s checking a baby in a stroller.

JK: I love it! Really love it, because I had no idea how often I want to get in my sled and I didn’t because it’s such a hassle to get in there. I just flip it up while I’m hauling [bleeped] down the trail. Yeah, I’m in in all the time. Really like that.

ZH: So far this race, King’s equipment story is one of success. That’s not the case for everyone. And rookies in particular face a challenge when their gear breaks down, because for many, there are inevitable problems they didn’t anticipate or build a contingency plan for. Martin Reitan hit trouble early in his run during the Alaska range. A stanchin, one of the load bearing pieces of the sled’s frame, broke.

Martin Apayauq Reitan: I had to go and chop down a tree and, uh, lash it on with string.

ZH: Reitan rode his tree patched sled to the next checkpoint, then shored it up some more.

MAR: That took like three hours. To do it nice.

ZH: It was enough to get him past the Dalzell Gorge, and the burn. It sort of had to. Reitan hadn’t sent equipment down the trail for these kinds of repairs, nor did he out a backup sled in case his got busted. And, even after he finishes the Iditarod, this same sled has further to go.

MAR: And I have to bring that sled to Nome, because we’re going to Kaktovik after.

ZH: Reitan and his father planned to mush their team all the way from the Seward Peninsula all the way back to Kaktovik, on the eastern side of the north slope. But, he wasn’t too bothered about the situation. Alison Lifka, another rookie, was trying to sort out sled troubles of her own during her 24 hour rest in Takotna.

Alison Lifka: There is a certain downhill that I lost control of the team and veered off the trail a little bit, and found the stump.

ZH: The stump bent a runner and tore away a big chunk of the sled.

AL: And it’s one thing to run a sled with the back part of the runner broken, but when it’s the front part it just destroys the structural integrity, so it was like just collapsing as it ran.

ZH: Lifka gerryrigged a splint, but the sled kept warping. At Nikolai, she had some good luck, Another musher, Shaynee Traska, had just scratched, and let Lifka take her sled. But the situation was not ideal. Lifka could barely fit all of her equipement, and there was no seat to rest on. Which wouldn’t be such a problem if she hadn’t injured her back when she crashed her sled into that stump.

AL: It’s just sore and stiff, and it’s, it’s just me trying to make my next - what is it, 600 more miles? - more comfortable.

ZH: Lifka was hoping to borrow a bigger sled that another musher had left behind. Race rules allow competitors to exchange equipment with one another. And if that didn’t work out, she had been advised to try tying an upside down bucket to her runners with twin from a bale of straw. But, she said, that wouldn’t help with the storage problem. In Takotna, I’m Zachariah Hughes.

Casey Grove: There’s one very important piece of equipment out there that helps a musher stay sane mushing over hundreds and hundreds of miles. That is a way to play music. And apparently, Matt Hall out of Two Rivers, he had to buy some headphones during the race this year for that very reason. He was at a checkpoint purchasing some headphones. It might be more music, podcasts, books on tape - they kind of do it all. You hear about mushers having their friends load up iPods with different tunes that they’ve never heard before that surprise them in shuffle mode as different stuff comes up randomly. At the Takotna checkpoint, Zach spoke with two mushers. We heard from them here a minute ago, Martin Reitan as well as Meredith Mapes, who finished the Iditarod in 2018. This year, she’s not a musher in the race but helping out at different checkpoints. It turns out that they are both very big Harry Potter fans - Martin, a self-described Gryffindor, listens to the Harry Potter books on tape and by his 24 hour rest, was on the 3rd installment. Meredith Mapes, on the other hand, self identifies as Hufflepuff, whatever that means. Both insist their house values align with dog mushing, something Zach, who knows a lot more about this, asked them about. And this is a disclaimer for people like me: if you already have no idea what any of this terminology means, because you signed up for a mushing podcast not a Harry Potter fan club podcast, you should probably skip ahead about two and half minutes. Here is Zachariah Hughes with Martin Reitan and Meredith Mapes.

Martin Reitan: Well it depends, you know, you could be… you could be a Slytherin about it and play mind games with people and stuff, but uh… you know… sometimes you’ll do, if there’s a bad weather but you think you could do it, but then the weather’s really bad and you just do it, that’s pretty, it’s a little bit stupid but it’s also brave? That’s a very Gryffindor thing to do. And yeah. Obviously I have to be brave to even start a thousand miler.

Zachariah Hughes: Meredith, you have finished a thousand miler, but you identify as a Hufflepuff, do you think Hufflepuff is a good mushing house?

Meredith Mapes: I would say so, I think that the Gryffindors and the Slytherins and the Ravenclaws are more for the front, because they’re the ones that have the strategy and the guts and the glory, and some of the stupidity as well, as Martin was saying. And then the Hufflepuffs are those like me that are just there to have fun, to be at the back of the pack, and enjoy what they’re doing while they’re out there travelling with their dog teams.

ZH: What are, your Harry Potter litter, what are their names? MM: The three that I still have are Hagrid, Luna, and Nymphadora, but she gets called Dora most of the time.

ZH: Not Nympho.

MM: Yeah. Exactly. [all laugh]

ZH: And what, so, have you made your way through books 1-3 so far, while you’ve been listening, or did you just start at 3?

Martin Apayauq Reitan: Um…. I started listening from Book 1, so I’m on Book 3 now. I’ll probably have time to listen to all of them, but I’m mixing it up by listening to music and some other books too.

ZH: Is it also Harry Potter themed music? MAR: No [Meredith laughs] It’s quite a lot of jazz, and Arctic Monkeys, and a whole bunch of other stuff

ZH: And Meredith, did you listen to music last year, or books on tape? Or just the sound of silence?

MM: I usually listen to books on tape when I’m training a lot, mostly Game of Thrones is what I’m listening to, but I do have Harry Potter as well. And last year in the race, I listened to music on one run, on the first run on the Yukon River out of Grayling, and then after that I was just enjoying it too much, I didn’t want to mess with what I was listening to with the dogs, and with Alaska.

ZH: Now, at any point, did you scream from your sled runners “Winter is Coming” while you were mushing through a storm, last year? MM: I did not, I did not, but it would have been a good opportunity.

Casey Grove: Well now, well you know more about that. And we’d like to spread knowledge around here, that’s why we take questions on the Iditapod. This one is from Ruthan, University Heights Ohio, she writes, “is the race named after one checkpoint, or is the checkpoint named after the race? I assumed the checkpoints reflected the nearest settlement name.” And she’s asking this because there’s a checkpoint in the Iditarod called Iditarod. I’m going to let Zach Hughes answer this question.

ZH: Hey, great question. So right now, I’m standing on the Iditarod River, which goes past the checkpoint of Iditarod, on the Iditarod sled dog race, through the historic gold mining town of Iditarod in the Iditarod mining district. All of which is to say, the name has a lot of different overlapping meanings, and actually the race is named after the Iditarod trail. So, this is kind of confusing, but back when they struck gold in Iditarod, and it was the largest settlement in all of Alaska, population wise, they hoped they’d haul gold, freight, passengers through a trail that went from here all the way down to Seward and up through different overlapping trails to Nome. So, in 1973 when the race was getting started, they decided that this long, cross Alaska sled dog race would go through the historic Iditarod trail, and one of the routes that they go through - the Southern route, which we’re running this year - goes through the ghost town of Iditarod, which, looking around, I can tell you is indeed a ghost town. There’s dilapidated buildings all over the place, from back when this used to have rooming houses and churches, and a bank, and now it’s mostly just an Iditarod checkpoint with just a few buildings on a river.

CG: Thanks for that answer, Zach, from the checkpoint of Iditarod, in the 2019 Iditarod. As always, on the Iditapod, we like to take listener questions, you can send those to [email protected]. You can type them out in an email, you can also record them in a voice memo - most smart phones have an app to record voice memos - you can record those there and send those into, again, [email protected]. And you can maybe get in the podcast, and it’s always good to ask questions. And, I have some questions. I guess there are some major weather issues happening out on the race and we don’t know how that’s affecting the mushers, but also our crew out there, trying to get from checkpoint to checkpoint, the last email I got from our reporter Zach Hughes was that there was some trouble flying between some checkpoints, that Ben was trying to get to Unalakleet, and might have to skip Kaltag, we may not hear from mushers again until Unalakleet, and everybody’s just trying to be safe out there is the main thing. It’s hard to tell when you look at the map of the race, or the GPS tracker that there’s a lot of weather happening on the ground. Might be snow, wind, we’ve heard reports that it’s been pretty warm, and folks out there are getting wet just from sweat, or rain at some points. I guess Zach, he’s at Unalakleet, he found a sauna, he sounds pretty happy about that. We will be back tomorrow, we will have another episode of the Iditapod, we will explain how daylight savings time changes affect, or do not affect the race. And we will have an interview with Kristen Knight Pace, she’s an Iditarod veteran who is sitting out the race this year, but who has a new book out this year called “This Much Country”, we have a nice chat, I talked to her husband Andy Pace for a minute too. And whatever else we can rustle up in the Iditapod. Our theme music is by the band Sassafrass, I am your host Casey Grove, and until next time - happy trails.

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