Oh man, does it only feels like work is never ending???
Look at this…
After a whole weekend of work it still seems like the wood pile is not getting smaller. Ok, maybe that’s because it was not only wood work. Also using half a day to get to the city to buy some more building material, go on with ceiling and floor in Joël’s room, cutting bushes in the free run, etc.
But let me tell you a bit more about the last few weeks: after some warm days end of April it was colder again and at Pentecost – believe it or not – we had 12cm of new snow over night, most in Sweden as you can see on the picture that I stole from Glommersträsk’s Instagram account 😉
So the cold days we used to build new dog houses, meanwhile 3 of 5 are done 🙂 We also made plans about the old house on the yard that we first thought to be the guest house later. But now we decided to use it as bakery (what it is already now), as dog kitchen and medical room, guest toilet and food and equipment storage. But for this we need to put water in the house, so more work on the yard to get water and dirt water pipes connected. And of course, we make plans for a new guest house. But since we anyway had to postpone the longer tours for one season we thought the innovations above are a good step in between 😉
We also got the delivery of more elements for the new dog cages. One we could already add because we prepared the ground last autumn. Three more are waiting for ground preparations that were postponed due to the slowly melting and fresh snow. But within this month the new cages will be ready I guess and also the grillkåta should be in place (maybe the painting will take until July). Except if we are using too much time and energy for our wood pile 😉 We will let you know and show you pictures of the results 🙂
While it is almost summer in Mid-Europe we still have snow up in the north. But after a week with 10-15° already a lot is melted and even some new snow the last days and temperatures below zero can’t deny that the summer is on its way to take over. We already have 16,5h between sunrise and sunset and even longer daylight if you count the time before and after that.
So, we are busy with making plans for all our construction work as soon as the snow is gone… new dog cages, new dog houses, a new grill kåta (a typical hexagonal wooden cabin with a fireplace in the middle), finishing our little relax place in the free run, etc.
Anyway we took some time to add the shorter husky adventures to our web page. So, if you are in the area or travelling trough Lapland in summer don’t miss a visit with us. Below you can get a first impression but read the full descriptions behind the links…
Have you changed the clock at night, it’s summertime now 😊☀️🏕 Ok, here in Lapland it’s not summer but spring is coming with big steps. It is so warm since days that even the good driven trails are very soft and you have to be careful not to make too big holes when you are walking on them 👣 we would love to keep the winter a bit longer but on the other side it will still take some weeks to melt all the snow and that’s necessary before we can start building new cages.
Meanwhile we use the time for more photo shootings in the snow 📷❄️😃
Yesterday we got a visit of a snow bunting couple. They were really shy and stayed a bit away from our “food tree” for the birds that are here regularly.
But the bullfinches were not interested in them even not in the camera man because mating season has started and the male only had eyes for his females and to hold away other males 😉
The great tit is a common guest here.
Our puppies are getting bigger and bigger and it’s so much fun to play around with them.
The adult dogs enjoy the sun after the training.
And last but not least some very good news from the authorities. Bolagsverket (company register) has approved our name. We are still waiting for the confirmation of the company registration at Skatteverket (tax office) but with the approval of our name we can start to print some marketing material.
A big, big thanks to Barbara Schallert who created our company logo. Barbara made several different drafts from which we had to choose, all with respect to our wish to show the combination of (sled) dogs and nature (hills and trees). It was fantastic drafts, all being a bit different from what is already used by other husky companies even if it’s impossible to find something completely new when you have the same topic. In the end we decided not to take an abstract dog silhouette but a real picture from one of our dogs. That led to the fact that we had to take out the hills to prevent the logo from being overloaded but it is absolutely authentic and our own. We guess you know who was the model for it 😉
First of all, sorry to let you wait for new blog posts so long. Unfortunately we have a lot to do with all the other things like „normal“ work, running dogs, walking and cuddling puppies, etc. so that we often don’t have the time to write longer posts for the blog and/or don’t have the pictures on the same device what we have with us when we have time. But what is often much faster is to put some pictures or videos on Instagram (as post or story) and Facebook. So if you are not already following us please do so, you will be happy to see more of our pack on many days. You find us here:
And if you are wondering what we are doing these days: using all free time we have to enjoy our beautiful surroundings with our dogs, search and find new trails and be impressed what a great area we live in 😉
Here comes one of my favourite pictures from the last days
I can’t believe, our little „Lion Kings“ are already two months old, almost, and they are getting cuter and cuter every day 😃
Would you like to get some updates on how they have developed? Ok, here it comes…
Simba is, of course, still the smallest puppy. But that doesn’t mean anything. His broken leg couldn’t stop him from exploring the world around him, running, jumping, climbing, etc. Indeed, it seems that he is the bravest of them all. At the same time he listens very well. That probably comes because of much extra care like saving an extra portion food for him, taking him on the arm when it seems the little boy is freezing, protecting him from his siblings when they play too hard with him, and so on, and so on.
Nala is our small little girl, the only one in the litter. She is always keeping her head up, looking where you are to get some cuddles. She is very social with all humans but also with her brothers.
Mufasa is one of the big boys. He likes to be outside in the snow. In the beginning he was one of those kind of puppies you can easily overlook because he doesn’t cause trouble and is just there. But now he wants to have more and more attention, especially if he gets too less cuddles – in his opinion 😂🙈
Rafiki is our little malamute. From being the smallest boy after Simba he has become the biggest of all puppies and with his fluffy fur and special color it is really not difficult for him to attract new visitors. Beside this he is a little monster when it comes to feeding. If you don’t stop him, he comes like a bulldozer and within seconds all food is gone 😋
Zazu developed a bit in the other direction. As long as the puppies lived in our house he was always the first out of the bed to see what is happening and was often barking excited on persons that came closer. Now he is a bit more calm, sometimes even shy in some situations and always wants to be close to humans or his siblings to be safe. By the way, did you recognize the change of his fur color? From being more or less black (with a bit white) in the beginning he is now grey, a very special color and also his eye color is quite special. It still can change but at the moment it is neither brown nor blue but a light green instead.
Timon is still very special in his „painting“. Also his color changed. His dots are no longer black but grey and I really appreciate the mixed color on his ears. He is a really nice little puppy, not too crazy but very social.
Pumba is our third big guy next to Rafiki and Mufasa. He likes to be cuddled – ok, who doesn’t? ☺️ He listens very well and always pays attention to what you say and what is happening around him.
You love them all? We truly understand that 😉 So we have an idea: if you are in the area or plan to visit Lappland the next weeks, come and visit us. Our puppies are two months old now, best time for cuddling and playing around with them. So, contact us to book a kennel visit. Coronasafe outside, with a lot of information about dogs and mushing, enjoy cuddles with the adult dogs in our free run area while we are cooking coffee over open fire and of course take wonderful photos of the young ones. Time flies, so take your chance now 😊🐶🐾
And last but not least one more topic for today: In the last weeks we got a lot of questions about what a husky or husky puppy costs and if it is possible to adopt or sponsor them. To answer these questions: if you buy an Alaskan husky puppy it often costs between 6000 and 12000 SEK, depending on the bloodlines behind, the breeder, if they already have passport and vaccinations, etc. So, one could think that breeding your own puppies is much better. Yes, it is for many reasons, especially because you know the parents very good and have the chance to socialize the puppies from the first day on. But of course, there are also reasons to buy puppies, e.g. you want a new bloodline in your kennel or you want to have only one or two young dogs. Anyway, the decision to breed your own puppies is not to safe money. You need a lot for food, supplements like milk powder if necessary (like in our case for little Simba), veterinarian costs, deworming, vaccinations, chips, passports, etc. But having dogs is never cheap, you forego on monetary values to live a life with the dogs that gives so much more than money can. Nevertheless it is our goal to give our dogs the best possible care with good food, good equipment and also vet visits and medicine whenever needed. And if you want to support us with that by sponsoring one of our dogs we would be very happy about that. Please write us an email which dog is your favorite and we can give you more information on how a dog sponsoring can look like.
Today some impressions from yesterday‘s run in our winterwonderland.
After the last snow storm the trail is very deep but the dogs (and musher 😉) enjoy it so much. You can read in their faces, they love to be out together.
And one picture from today, finally we did the frozen water picture 🙂
Long time we have waited for snow this winter… now we have more than enough of this wonderful white stuff. Already in the beginning of January we had a lot of snow and wind and high „snow mountains“ on our yard. But after this weekend it’s just crazy.
On Friday we had an appointment in Piteå but it was cancelled in the morning because of the snow storm. Good for us so we had time to shovel snow. Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures from the yard and our way to the dogs before we took the snow away, but it was some hours of work. Saturday morning I had to go to work, so Raffi stood up one hour earlier just to clean the path to got out of the yard. But it was still snowing and when I came back in the afternoon the whole way to the dogs was closed again. No need to talk about the puppy cage. It is so full of snow that they probably stay inside not only for few more days but weeks 😉
Today Raffi shovelled the roof of our barn. The snow up there was almost as high as Raffi himself, so about 1,80m. And when he finished he had to make a tunnel to the entrance…
Maybe he finds some time to use the clear sky and light today to search for our dog trail???
By the way: our puppies are growing but Simba gave us reason to worry one more time. On Wednesday he suddenly stopped to put his right front leg on the ground and you could immediately see that something is wrong. We let it check from the vet the next day and indeed his leg is broken. Probably Lumene tapped on it when laying down. Simba is too small to do something with the leg but if he is really lucky it will grow without any damages later on. And if not, no matter, then he will be a family dog. Anyway, he is a fighter and he is already using it again and trying to climb out of the puppy bed area.
Our puppies are now 13 days old and we thought it’s time to make their names official 🙂 As you may know we choose a topic when we give puppy names, for Luna and Stella it was moon and star, this time it’s „The Lion King“… and no, we don’t take „Scar“ – the bad uncle – or „Shenzi“ – one of the hyenas – because all our dogs are so friendly.
First of all, our future king: Simba. He was the first one born and already at this time the smallest, he is only half as big and heavy as his siblings. We were very scared that he might don’t make it. We tried to give him extra milk but he refused to take it. Anyway, he was always drinking from his mom and even if he is so much smaller than the others he is fighting. Two days ago he managed to be over 500g (he was only a little bit more than 200g when he was born) and we think he really deserves his name. By the way the meaning of Simba is „lion“.
Next are Nala and Mufasa. In the film Nala is Simba’s best friend from their childhood, Mufasa is Simba’s father and learns him to be a good leader. Nala and Mufasa are two of four puppies that have a lot of white fur plus some black in the face and Mufasa also a black dot on his left side. We really don’t know where this color comes from, because neither Lumene nor Ranger have it and also not the grandparents. But Ranger had a litter in Finland before and there was also one puppy – Panda – who was white with black dots. The names mean „present“ (Nala) and „king“ (Mufasa).
Then we have Zazu and Rafiki. Both are advisors from Mufasa. Zazu means „movement“ and Rifiki means „friend“. Zazu was the second black puppy (with some white in the face and around the neck) when he was born but now the colour gets brighter and we think that it probably goes in his father’s direction (Ranger). Rafiki is grey-brown probably looking similar to his mother Lumene when he is older.
Last but not least we have Timon and Pumba, best friends of Simba. Timon means „to honour“, Pumba means „free of worry“ or „clumsy“. Timon looks very special, white with black dots. What it makes special is the symmetry, three dots over his back, one more right in front of his tale and also really funny ears, black with white in the middle. Pumba is the biggest and most days heaviest of the puppies, also white and black, with a bit bigger black part on his right side.
We are so excited to see how they will develop. For sure, they will be really strong and crazy dogs – in a positive way, of course.
But next to all this puppy talk don’t forget the rest of the pack. Today it was Raffi’s most favourite weather, snow and a lot of wind, reminding him on the Femundløpet, a race he took part three years ago. So, he couldn’t even wait until the sun has risen but went out for a run with Barolo, Ruby, Luna, Ranger and Stella. First time stormy conditions for the (bigger) puppies but they didn’t care about it. The opposite was the case, coming home they immediately wanted to do another run – reminds me of their father *haha*
Today was the day many people are waiting for: winter solstice. That means the shortest day of the year. Wait! Is it not 24h? Yes, of course, also the 21st of December has 24 hours, but it is the day with the shortest time of daylight on the Northern hemisphere. From now on days are getting longer and nights shorter. Many people in the north are missing the sun and are happy to have passed this day.
I don’t really care about how long days and nights are, especially now since we are – unfortunately – not longer living above the Arctic Circle. So, to be correct, we don’t have polar night and also no midnight sun in summer. But we are so close that it is almost as if. Anyway, for me it’s not important if in theory we get more daylight from now on. I am more waiting for nice winter weather, cold and sunny with snow diamonds all around. But it is still much too warm, +2°, not much snow and what we have is very soft now, lakes are not frozen, etc.
So, we can only live from memories of great colors also during the darkest time of the year. And hope we will see it again soon.
