TONECOUGHLIN.COM

…I’ve been getting my life back in order.

• Moving
• New dog
• Bike Race
• Work
• Playing

That pretty much sums it up.

Mary Black and Michelle Ethun ran the 150 mile race this year with Black Magic Dogs.  The Beargrease organization decided to extend the marathon by 60 miles and take away 4 hours of rest, which is completely retarded if you ask any experienced musher.

This was the best handling crew yet since we had Mark.  Chel’s boy and his friends helped her out and kinda drove us all nuts.  Teenage boys are pretty funny.  We’ll just leave it at that.

I’m headed up to their cabin in a couple of weeks to run dogs for the first time, that should be fun!  I hope to get some more video and pictures of that adventure.

I helped out Mark and Mary Black this weekend at the sled dog race in Deer River. This handling crew was the best! None of us were stressed out, we all knew what we had to do and agreed on strategies.  Besides the obvious lack of sleep, I think everything went very well.

Beth’s father used to race dogs and she did as well.  She was really good at picking out injuries and understanding the multiple feeding processes.  Bob was quiet, but a very hard worker.  He only had a few questions, otherwise he understood what was going on and just did it. The Luttinen family was new and inexperienced, but super eager to work.  By the end I think Mark understood what was going on.  Looking back on it now, I don’t think we could have had a better crew.

Last year’s Beargrease handling crew was an experience, I’ll just leave it at that.

Mary ended up taking 6th place and Mark with the young dogs 15th.  They decided that both teams were not ready for the full Beargrease this year, training has been really tough, too much snow.  I think they are both doing the mid distance event, we’ll see.

As you can see in the video, the dogs are ready to go.  Add 60 more teams and you can’t hear anything and resort to shouting.  Every time we led the dogs up I kept thinking Mary was yelling at me trying to tell me something but it was just all the noise.

Come down and check out the Beargrease on the 25th, but don’t bring your dogs down there unless you are trying to cause a fight.

I almost forgot about this!

Thank you very much to the private land owners in the Lakewood Township for letting me harvest on their land.

• 9 deer harvested (7 bow, 2 slug gun) 2 males, 7 females
• 5 arrows lost
• 3 broken arrows
• 10 deer missed, either by bad shot or arrow branch deflection
• 173 hours of hiking in the woods
• lots of harvesting lessons learned
• plenty of meat in the freezer

I’m itching to go more!  I just replaced the cables on my bow and should start shooting again soon.  I’m looking into a trip out to Idaho Elk harvesting next fall.  One of my former swimmers moved out there to Moscow, I hope I can make it happen!

#8 is tagged and registered.  Perfect shot that passed through both lungs and the larynx. She ran about 1/2 mile before falling, but cleaned out quick and easily.

It’s been pretty damn cold the last 2 weeks. Harvesting deer has been a tremendous challenge because of the weather and the situations I’ve been in.

The last 8 deer have been;
1. too far away
2. a fawn or two
3. facing me, including an 11-point buck
4. spooked by something
5. saw me and ran
6. my arrow bounced off a sapling

To add to that, either my toes were frozen or my hands were extremely cold. When the conditions were right, no deer came in! I can’t hunt on the ground anymore because the snow makes more noise than the leaves, and the deer can see you better and you them. So I’m stuck sitting and waiting which is so damn boring I’d rather watch paint dry. But when I do see a deer come in, I can’t sit still and my heart rate goes up along with my breathing and the buck fever is on.

Twelve more days to harvest, hope to get a couple more!

My seniors plus Aimee bought me this book at the mall when we were at the state meet.

Here are some of my favorites:

• Superman wears Chuck Norris pj’s to bed at night
• The film “Anaconda” was filmed in Chuck Norris’ pants
• Chuck Norris is the only person on the planet that can kick you in the back of the face
• WWII is what happened when Chuck Norris took a nap
• Rosa Parks refused to get out of her seat because she was saving it for Chuck Norris
• Chuck Norris hit puberty in the 2nd trimester
• Chuck Norris lost his virginity before his dad
• Chuck Norris can speak braille
• When Chuck Norris gives you the finger, he’s telling you how many seconds you have to live
• Chuck Norris drives Optimus Prime to work
• There are two types of women: those that want to sleep with Chuck Norris, and those that want to sleep with Chuck Norris again
• The day Chuck Norris sleeps with your wife is the happiest day of your life
• Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting implies the possibility of failure.  Chuck Norris goes killing

Chuck Norris rules!