Dog Sled Team

Working Dog week would not be complete without a picture of a classic dog team and sled. This picture was taken in the early 1900's. The picture shows Dr. Sutherland, and his party preparing to depart Fairbanks for Kantishna. I don't have any info on Dr. Sutherland.

Pack Dog

I found this picture from early 1900's Alaska interesting. The dog is being used to haul camp equipment on its back. I see there is no snow, so perhaps it was not sledding season, yet the dogs were still expected to work.

Dogs and Mail

Good Wednesday Morning to you all. Dirty Dogs week continues today with this picture from Alaska. The picture was taken in the early 1900's. The dog team was used to deliver the mail. I wonder when the last US mail was delivered by dog team?

Dogs and Trains

Today's picture is from the early 1900's, and it was taken in Alaska. The picture shows a setup called a "Pup-mobile". There is a small cart being pulled along the tracks by a dog team. It looks like the cart could hold three or four people. I would hope the operator was mindful of real trains, and that the cart was not too hard to get off the track if a real train was coming.

Working Dogs

Today's picture was taken in Alaska in the early 1900's. It shows a dog team being used to pull a laundry delivery cart. I guess that dogs that are trained to pull sleds can be used to pull other things in the warm season. I bet during the snowy season the laundry was delivered by dog sled instead.

Dirty Dogs

I will admit that when I posted yesterday's Mystery Person contest I intended for this to be "Union Thug" week, where each day we would look at a Union Thug or examples of Union Thuggery. After looking through some pictures, I concluded that they were a bunch of Dirty Dogs, and then decided to make this "Dirty Dog" week instead. So, we start with the picture above, which was taken in Alaska in 1916. These are no doubt sled dogs, but in the off season they are being used to pull a cart. I like the picture, and I like studying the different ways people have used dogs as "workers".

Domestic Update:

OK, I am sorry I have not had a domestic update in a while. Things are very busy around here, and sometimes I just do not have time to pull it off. So, here goes . . .  

First off, it looks like Handsome Jack is finishing up his project out behind Chickie Town. It looks like he has built a rather magnificent structure for himself.

We will keep our eyes on the construction project. Hopefully he is going to put some doors on those big openings.

Things continue to go well out in the Bean Barn. With the days getting longer things are growing very fast. The new lettuce system is really producing an abundance of lettuce . . . much more than we can eat, sell, or give away.

You can see we are growing Bib, Romain, and Purple lettuce. The trick is to plant in stages so every day you have heads that are ready to pick. In addition to the lettuce, we are getting lots of cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, squash, zucchini, and sweet peas. I really like having everything growing, so when Mrs. PJM is cooking, she just tells me what to go out and pick. It is like having a fresh vegetable market right in the back yard.

Now, I am in the process of trying to figure out what the project will be for this summer. I am thinking about putting in a corn and black eyed pea patch, expanding the orchard, or drilling for water, and putting in a wind mill. I have not exactly figured out what to do, but I will need a challenging summer project.