Springtime

I love springtime around here. Flowers blooming, Buzzing bees, birds chirping.
the smell of fresh cut grass.
Lots of stuff to do outside of course but the longer warmer days are a welcome site.

We are getting things ready for our EPIC Motorcycle trip next month. ( more to come about that in another post).

Back to the garden now.

ENJOY>

NEW Photo LINK cart race

Photobucket Album

photos of the race weekend links

share and enjoy!

Roslyn race Photo slide show link

Here is a link of the weekend to view and share
ENJOY!!!!

Happy 20th anniversary ALPINE OUTFITTERS

We are celebrating 20 years of our business in 2008.
In 1988 I was looking for a home based business to do so I could stay at home with Jessica. She was 1 year old then.
I could not have imaged that learning to sew sled dog harness's
would grow to what it is today.
The sky's the limit for the future for us and we expand and develop new products and ideas. The URBAN dog enthusiasts is our newest challenge and an exciting one. I will be traveling a lot more this year around the country and perhaps around the world to share our vision and help get this boom in a forward mode.

We started the celebration off with a Spring sled dog dryland event in Roslyn, WA this weekend. AN awesome group of mushers and dog sport enthusiasts attended, we ran dogs, pigged out on hot dogs and cake and visited.
Thanks to all who attended your support means a lot to us.

Look for more anniversary fun the entire year and Alpine Outfitters looks to the future and 20 more years!!

Bill's 80th Birthday Video

Passing of a great man

Last night at 7:03 PM William A. Lee passed to a better place.
He was a great man in my life.
I was blessed to have him as my "DAD" growing up in my teenage years.
He taught me patience, kindness, a love for the garden and growing things.
His tomato plants are legendary. Al tho he will be sorely missed by me and others , he is now out of pain and onto gardening full time.
I love you and miss you Bill
Becky

Southern California Sunshine?

Carmen( my business partner with Alpine Outfitters) and I just returned from So CA.
we were invited to host an URBAN DOG MUSHING seminar. We were greeted with rain, wind , clouds and a peek of the sun here and there.
Perfect weather for the dogs:)
We borrowed dogs and scootered their trails , muddy and FUN..what a great area.
This is the nicest group of dog folks I have met in along time. Eager to learn and commited to applying the knowledge to improving their skills and quality of life to their dogs. I will have to come up with some NEW material for next year for sure.

Training of a different kind

Seems the serious sled dog racing is over for us this year. It always seems to end to early around here. The recent sunshine and relatively mild weather has inspired us to get in a bit of road time. ( above 30 degrees is toasty for us)

We are heading out in June for a 3 week adventure on the Harley Davidson exploring the West, seeing old friends and enjoying each other. Last year we were riding 6+ hours at a time to get our back ends conditioned for this event. Our trip was delayed due to Joe's cancer treatment so THIS YEAR with his remission we are ready to get back to it.

We headed towards Mount Rainier and ended up turning back a bit early. Snow covered roads and a motorcycle are not a good combination. Many great days ahead for us to get out and ride yet this spring.

Watch you may see us out there.

TTFN Becky

Old Man Winter has his say..

I LOVE to snow shoe especially with a K-9 companion.
A new rescue dog named FRED joined us and he had a great time. I think I have a new hiking pal.

We depend on good snow conditions for our winter racing circuit.
With global warming we have ALL been doing a snow dance, perhaps to much dancing this year.. Two of our 4 planed races have been Cancelled due to too much snow. AGHHHH.... Epic weather conditions have changed race trails on many races around the country this season.

We did get to go to a local race this year for the first time.
Joe ran the 12 dog class at Conconully, WA. The dogs ran 35 miles a day.
Joe placed 3rd.
The bonus for us was he won the Sporstmanship award and we won the BEST CARED for 12 dog team!! WOW what a weekend..

We are currently hanging out in Canada at the cabin thru the 4th of Feb. Running the dogs, snowshoeing, soaking in the hot tub. Paula and Richard make it hard for us to come back home after a week of this.
Back to reality in a few days for us.

Wishing you Mid-Winter Cheers
Becky & Joe

Winter is my time of year

Seems like this time of year the conversation is dominated by dogs.

Then my sister sent me this Video and made my day
With my 50th birthday this year I can relate..It made me laugh...Stan Boreson
Life is too short to look at your self in the mirror naked...IMHO anyway..


Joe and Jessica went to Central Oregon this past weekend to a sprint race.
I was unable to go because of too much work right now.
I am working day and night right now trying to keep up with orders.

They connected with old friends and had a great time. Jessica even ran 2 teams in the race and did pretty good. Sled dogs are FUN.
We are heading out for 11 days on Friday. Starting with a race in eastern WA, then to Canada for some training and finally to Idaho for another race.
Slower more laid back pace this year racing..Just trying to get it all done without going insane..

The sunshine makes me want to hop on the motorcycle and ride away but man is it COLD.. We will have to settle for Harley Davidson dreams for now.

TTFN
Becky

Sled dogs

We just got home from BC.( Canada). Plenty of snow and good trails. We ran the dogs 5 of the 7 days we were there. The last two runs were 40 milers up a nice hill. Dogs doing well in general, all tho we are down to 11 reliable dogs now. Early injuries, limited number of dogs and training opportunities make it hard for us to keep more dogs in training. Not like this is a new problem just a long standing frustrating annual issue not likely solved unless we quit our jobs and MOVE!.( not) Our first major race was just canceled due to too much snow and bad weather. We are still debating a big Montana race in FEB 2008. Not sure if the dogs or Joe are ready for the challenge but we may just go anyway:):)
NOTHING VENTURED, NOTHING GAINED.

Jessica is back home for 4 months, John is in IRAQ. Tight quarters and 2 stubborn women will make life a challenge but we will get thru it!!
Poor Joe...
Leanne starts a NEW job tomorrow, better pay and nicer group to work with. Jeff has started college part time while he works, 3-4 years to get his computer engineering degree. It is never to late to start, way to go Jeff. My business Alpine outfitters grew 40% last year and the way orders are rolling in already we should see that percentage rise. Nice to see the momentum but the work load has been rough on me. I have 2 full time employees and 1 part time bookkeeper. Being the boss has it moments..
Right now I would rather be in Wyoming running dogs.
Seems the old adage is still true for us:
It is either Time & NO Money or Money and NO Time.
Oh for a winning Lotto ticket:)
Back to the grind for now..

Becky 1-6-2008