Serenity

The definition of serenity is “a state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled.”  For me I have found my place of serenity in my cabin.  The cabin is located about an hour north of Duluth and 50 min away from Ely MN.  It is in the middle of the woods with few people around, no city or town lights to be found anywhere.  At night the sky is amazing with millions of stars for light.  The cabin is not luxurious without any running water, heat, or indoor toilets.  If you want to have water you have to get it from the well nearby.  If you want to be warm and comfortable you have a wood stove that you feed wood to keep warm, at night this would often mean getting up once to keep the fire going.  If you are looking for a nice fishing cabin or hunting cabin to go with your friends my cabin would probably be like a piece of coal.

However if you can look past it you can see a diamond underneath all of it.  For me my cabin is a place to unplug from the rest of the world, since phones get no service.  It is a place that is very basic but makes you appreciate some of the things houses in cities have.  But above all I love it because it is a great place to reflect and see the important parts in your life.

Anyone who does know anything about my cabin knows about the dogs up there.  This is the diamond to the place.  The owner of our timeshare cabin, and year round resident named kathleen has between 34-39 Alaskan Huskies.  In the winter she uses the dogs to run mostly women only dogsled trips for individuals and groups that are nature lovers.  In the summer she offers canoeing trips.  The dogs she uses and sometimes breeds are called Alaskan Huskies, they are a working breed of dog and need the work to be mentally and physically healthy.  They are NOT considered a pure breed dog and therefore are not recognized by the AKC, and honestly that is probably a good thing for this breed.  They are a mix of many northern breeds of dogs that are breed with the focus on making the best pulling dogs possible.  Her dogs range in age between 1 year and 14 years old.  From the time I first came there about 20 years ago when I was 2 years old I loved all the dogs.  All the dogs love to do their job and get love from all the guests who visit up there.

Of course dogs come with a lot of work everyday, if it is weather that allows for dogsledding usually they go very early about 7:30 am.  A team of dos usually is around 3 dogs to 5 to 6 if you are brave enough!  Usually those who are there will walk/run dogs as well, meaning that you put a belt around your waist and one dog in harness and go walking/running down the driveway.  Now I am not a great runner however it is amazing how much faster you go when you have a large dog pulling you down the driveway.  Since it is quite cold up there and water will freeze if the dogs do not drink it quickly enough it is usual to mix in dog food with the water to entice the dogs to drink before it freezes.  The sled dogs are like any other dogs where whatever goes in one end has to come out the other so everyday you have to pick up after them.  At night they are fed their mostly dog food and some water.

When you are up there is no need for any gym.  Everyday you are splitting wood, moving the wood and piling the wood.  If you are not doing anything with wood there is almost always work to be done on the trail to maintain and keep trees and weeds from growing or sometimes making a new trail.  In the summer you can always work on the garden she grows in order to eat freshly grown veggies.  And if nothing else there is always things that can be done to improve the cabins.  The main point being you always have another project that needs doing and work.

In conclusion it is an amazing place with simple living.  I love being up there with the dogs, a place to unplug, place to be untroubled and find some peace from our crazy day to day life.  Going up there I always learn a new thing or two about working with the Alaskan huskies.  I personally consider myself to have a pretty good hand with dogs and training and working with them, I have many different things I have done with them before but there is always new things they can teach you.  One day I do hope to have my own team or two of huskies I can call my own, it is probably a long time away but for now I will keep expanding my knowledge of working with dogs.

Once again the blog has ended up longer that I first had hoped, but hope you enjoy it and leave a comment if you would like.

Ps, the dogs in the picture are, on the left is Nome and on the right is Limmikki.  You cannot see him however the dog being Limmikki is Mose who is a puppy still in his training phase.

Thanks, Jackie