February 23, 2010
Clients Joining 2010 Arctic Expedition Soon!
Wooo-eee! It’s been a whirlwind around here lately.
Joe’s first group of clients will be joining him for a 22-day expedition on Wednesday, so I spent the weekend shopping, cooking, packaging, freezing, and boxing up 515 lbs. of food (which will likely last most of the season)! It seems like I butchered and packaged 1/4 of a beef, 1/2 a pig, and a couple of chickens. 
I cooked goulash, quinoa-vegetable soup, cabbage burgers, and breakfast burritos. I ground 7 lbs. of coffee beans in my teeny tiny grinder. I repackaged and consolidated items from their original packaging to save space, like tea, rice, candy bars, granola bars, powdered milk, trail mix, and breakfast sausages. I had to hit an entirely separate grocery store just to get cheese. I was walking around with a cart of about 25 or so lbs. of cheddar. Were people staring? Ohhh, you betcha. 
The woman in line behind me at checkout asked what I was making with all that cheese. Kind of an embarrassing purchase, but folks eat a lot of cheese on the expedition. It’s a great, high protein, high calorie snack with plenty of fat to keep them warm.
I didn’t manage to snap any photos of the expedition food supply (though I wish desperately that I had), but aside from the aforementioned items, I also packed a lot of frozen fruits and vegetables. Our clients will be eating well! We don’t go for freeze-dried foods. People need real, whole foods on an expedition and why skimp on food when our malamutes can haul 4000 lbs. of supplies?! Gotta love those malamutes!
I finally got all the food down to the Carlile Transportation facility today. The folks at their office are always super nice and their truckers are the greatest! They are always flexible with their schedule and are sure to meet Joe at the rendezvous point when they say they will.
So, now I’m just left with the aftermath. My kitchen looks like a tornado came through, but that’s okay. Nothing I can’t fix! Thank God I love to cook!
Of course, I made some time for puppy fun on Sunday. The pups ran around in the snow.
Guess whose ears are starting to come up?
He likes to sleep sprawled out with his tummy on the nice, cool tiles, just like his dad.
On a separate note, Joe and team are doing great in the Arctic. Joe’s navigated a route around all the open water. He’s had some unseasonably warm temperatures (above zero), which have allowed the snow to settle a bit, making traveling in the deep snow all the better. Temperatures dropped back down again today and it’s about –42 Fahrenheit. The dogs are all pulling with joy and enthusiasm.
Joe usually runs in front of the team on snowshoes every day, which means he runs anywhere from a half-marathon to a marathon almost every single day on snowshoes!! He checked his resting heart rate yesterday, and it’s about 50 beats per minute, which, according to this chart, categorizes him as an athlete! Nice!
Joe did report that a VERY large wolf was stalking them last week. Mr. Wolf was so sneaky that one night he came within 100 ft. of the dogs’ picket line but the team never noticed…if they had, they would’ve alerted Joe to it. But Mr. and Mrs. Wolf have not been spotted since, and with any luck they won’t be back.
