ArcticArtique

Wow. Hard times. 30 below in Alaska. We've still got a roof over our heads. We're not belly up yet and we've got a shot. We're both scared to death but if I can make a sale tomorrow or Saturday I think we will make it.

These are what I'm trying to sell. This is Kitty's final sled. She's an old musher and dog handler. Her first job back in the day was for a musher that has won both theYukon Quest and the Iditarod. Her last job was for a couple of brothers that raced sprint dogs. The last year Kitty trained dogs (kind of ironic don't you think?) the brothers took third place in the Championship series. They've never done any good after that.

Anyway, back to Kitty's sled. She was out exercising a team on the Chena one night when a drunk snow machiner drove over the top of her sled and dogs. Lot of stupid people. An old timer heard about it and offered her sled...for a price. Kitty paid that price. After we met she never mushed again. Mainly because of a very dumb Missouri boy that didn't know he was autistic yet. It just took me ten years to get to the moment now of realizing just how much she changed her life for me.

This was the lady's original training sled. She raced back in the day. This is a hand made Inuit sled that has been around a very long time. It is still in remarkable shape. We used it as furniture in our home back when it was still green. It sold our house to the first looker. They bought their Alaska experience....Kitty's vision. Kitty wanted me to strip and refinish it last winter. I got about half way through stripping and had to move on to other projects.

It was time to finish it. Remember now, we are in a small cabin that is very full with people and dogs. I got it inside and went to work. I finished up sanding and a few minor repairs. Next was to bring the sled back to life. Gunstock is the stain I used. It gave the wood a nice aged look. To make the color pop, I used all the shellac I had left. About three coats. The strings were all highlighted and returned to white with an acrylic paint. This sled is somewhere around 90 years old and now looks like it could be new. I'm proud of this job. I learned a lot about how these old sleds were made. As we are now in the days of titanium and kevlar and carbon fiber (yes, composites are even in dogsledding), this one example of a dying art form is now a living piece of history.

Check out this old print that Kitty found in our local thrift store. It's a limited edition 1995 mushing print. We've carried it around a couple years with Kitty always wanting me to get it framed. Due to desperation and running out of ideas the framing finally happened. I cut down what were going to be the legs for the doll house stand for the frame, did a little shaping, cut the glass from another old picture we had stashed, and here you have it...a 1995 hard to get Limited Edition D, Leffler print in custom hand made frame. I'm doing a Blackhawk helicopter as son as the weather breaks.

This old dog harness, Kitty pulled from an estate in New York while we were still in our home. It really looked cool hanging on the wall. Nobody else knew what it was. She paid more for shipping for this that what she bought it for.

This is a turn of the century wooden dog harness that traveled the Chilkoot Trail during the gold rush. They only made them three or four years because the design sucked. Can you imagine being a dog and being tied to one of those? The old boy left his home in New York to seek fortune in Alaska. He staid a couple years, guess he did okay with the gold, then went home with his harness treasure. We believe this to be the only complete harness of its kind left in existence. The original leather is still there. I really wish I had the ability to market it properly. This is living history.