Saturday brought our first snow that stuck to the ground.  What a welcome site, a magical experience to be out in that first snow.  With the smell of pumpkin pie still in the air from Thanksgiving, and the anticipation of Christmas right around the corner, this snow seemed to signify the beginning of “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” if I may borrow the line from the famous song.  Now, I know many people dread the winter season for many reasons.  But, there are those, including myself, who look forward to cold weather, snow, skiing, ice skating, sledding, firewood cutting, days off school, and, oh yeah, taking the dog sled out. 

 Not only was Saturday the first snow of the year, it was our Alaskan Husky, Willow’s first snow of her life. For those of you who don’t know, I brought Willow back from Alaska this past summer at the end of the Summer Teacher Conference. So, she is a true Alaskan Husky, born and bred.  She enjoyed the snow immensely.  First, I allowed her to have some play time before we got down to work (pulling the sled.)  We live back in, off the road, so our dogs are lucky to be able to get some supervised, free running time. She was a natural at running full bore down some of our hills, slipping onto her belly and sliding as her back end tried to pass her front end. 

How was that Dad?

And of course she went and teased her Uncle Bo by trying to do a paw stand.  That didn’t work out very well. 

She even went on a hunt and pounced on imaginary mice under the snow.

I know you're under there!

Gotcha!!!

 And finally, she pranced like a reindeer getting ready to pull Santa’s sleigh.

On Dasher! On Dancer! On Willow! ...

Willow has been practicing pulling with the other dogs for about a month now.  She has taken to it naturally.  I believe, she is the most enthusiastic and motivated dog out of my four dogs. A natural athlete, a future Iditarod champion in the ruff, or is that rough?  Oh well, I was never two good at spelling anyway.  Take a look at the Pennsylvania winter landscape below.  Enjoy!!! Don’t be influenced by that cranky old weatherman on TV. Get out in the weather and enjoy it!!!