So, gather up your jackets, move it to the exits
I hope you have found a friend
Closing time, every new beginning
Comes from some other beginning’s end, yeah
–“Closing Time” Dan Wilson, Semisonic
It’s time for Ian and I to gather up our jackets (and heavy coats) and move to the plane exit as we depart our lives in the south and start a new beginning up north.
The last few years have brought a lot of changes to our lives. A lot of those changes have been hard to navigate on a daily basis, and it has left me with little desire to write and chronicle where we are at in life. So many good things have happened during this time. Ian earned a spot to race at the USFSS world championships last fall and won a bronze medal for junior four dog rig. To prepare for this race, he bought two new dogs to add to his rig time: Colt and Uzi. These two Alaskan huskies came from way up north in Michigan. Ian needed more power on his line since Shallot and Carly were having trouble keeping up with Ian’s growth spurts, and old man Falcon decided he was completely done with running in harness. Colt provided some much needed power and Uzi stepped in to provide another lead dog for Ian’s overburdened girls.
In addition to Ian’s third place finish, he also made some leaps in his music education. He had the opportunity to hear both Nickel Creek and Ricky Skaggs play in concert at the Tennessee Theater. Ian even got to meet Ricky Skaggs and take a photo with him! Ian continues playing violin and mandolin, and even did a semester of drum lessons. He knows with certainty that he has no desire to ever play percussion. So now it’s back to just violin and mandolin. We were also able to get on the water a couple of times this year. Ian hard boated once on the Hiwassee, and our friend Josh took us down the Ocoee near the end of the summer. These were some pleasant diversions.
Some of the harder parts of the year included saying goodbye to Falcon, and later to Ghost –my last remaining horse. The hardest challenges included saying goodbye to some former friends. Our family structure changed, and some old friends chose to not move forward into our newly configured family. It’s taken a while for me to understand that this is okay, and someone else’s opinion of me is none of my business. But Ian is my business, and now he and I are moving forward together into a new life that’s taking us away from everything we’ve known in Tennessee. We’re moving to the land of ice and snow with midnight sun where the hot springs flow. Hah, we’re not actually moving to Scandinavia to experience the hammer of the gods with Led Zeppelin, but to the land that Ian has yearned for since he was 6 years old. After 8 years of his constant begging, Ian is becoming a full time dog handler. He will not only be caring for his own dogs, but now he’s back at Battle Dawgs to learn everything he can about taking care of sled dogs in a big kennel. Colt and Uzi are right there with Ian, learning how they do it up north. Balto and Jenna think that the 32 degree highs are downright divine, and love scooping snow up in their snouts while we go for daily hikes.
This is my last post on Appreciate the Adventure. Our Tennessee adventures have come to a close, and with our new chapter of life, we need a new container to hold descriptions of our new adventures. I’m not completely sure what that will look like. But soon we’ll be ready to chat about it.
