Lappland Nature Dreams

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  • 19.04.2022

    End of Season

    Time flies. It feels like winter season has just started some days ago… and suddenly it’s already spring 😬

    So, time to look back on our first winter tour season and look forward to what is coming…

    As you may have realized we never found the time to write blog posts during the season and we really feel sorry for that but dog care is always first and now, we take the time to let you participate retrospectively 😉

    The cold came early this winter but for the snow we had to wait long and even when it was snowing it was nothing compared to the last winter. But hey, that had the advantage that we didn’t need to shovel that much snow this year what was really good because with two full time jobs beside our tour business it can be hard sometimes to manage everything. It also got quite warm already in the middle of March, we even needed to cancel some tours because the trails were so soft that it was not possible for guests to drive the dogs. So, we were fearing not even to have snow until end of March. But luckily the cold came back and in April we even had some snow storms and got 30-50cm of fresh snow. So, in theory we could have done some nice tours. And, yes, we did but not as much as we would liked to have done, because Yvonne was sick for almost three weeks and had to stay home and mostly inside for that time cause her lungs couldn’t manage cold air. But in time for Easter everyone was fit again so that we could enjoy a great weekend with early morning tours in the rising sun and full moon camping nights. What a great final of this winter season 🥰 now it is really, really warm and the snow is melting rapidly, so there will be only few morning/evenings left to run the dogs at home. But Yvonne hopes that the snow in the mountains stay a week longer so that she can do one more tour there when she has completely recovered. Cross your fingers 🤞

    Some words about the dogs: our dogs did great the whole winter. Barolo is our main leader and he always does a great job, ok sometimes he is a bit distracted when there are girls in heat 🤪 Ruby is his girl and both are very disappointed if they are not allowed to run together… what can happen because we regularly change teams and Ruby shall also learn to run with the others, especially the youngsters in the guest teams. The puppies have developed so much this winter. Some of them are great leaders in the guest teams, some are hard workers like their father and some are not caring about anything, just running, running, running. But all of them enjoys cuddles a lot 😍 We also have two new dogs in the team, Rubin and Jade who came in the beginning of March. They are fantastic dogs and have integrated in the family already after a few days. Now they all relax on their dog houses when sun is shining and wait to go out early in the morning or late in the evening.

    And what are the plans for the future? As said, Yvonne would love to do a tour in the mountains next week. After that the construction work will start again. While there is still snow outside or at least wet ground we start with some dog houses inside and as soon as the snow is gone we can build more cages outside to have space when new puppies come 😉 beside this we are still working on a guest house solution. During summer it will be possible to do some outdoor adventures with and without dogs and next winter we will do some week tours also. We will put the whole description and dates on the web page a bit later but if you are interested you can already contact us, so maybe we can adjust dates according to your wishes 😃

    Many thanks for a great winter season to our dogs, guests and partners. We are happy to welcome you back soon!

    And now enjoy some pictures 🐕❄️☀️

  • 06.01.2022

    Our First Winter Season

    Since the preparation of our first winter season took so much time there was unfortunately no time left to update the blog. But we hope you follow us on Instagram or Facebook to regularly see new photos and videos of our daily life. 

    Before we go on with an update about the start of the winter we would like to wish you all a happy new year. Take all the good memories from the past with you and go into new adventures and experiences with hope and happiness; so 2022 has no other chance than to become a good year 😃🎉🥳

    As you may know Corona slowed down our plans of building up the kennel for adventurous longer tours with dogs and guests but anyway we wanted to start the business and decided to offer half day and day tours this winter. 

    While the snow ❄️ was waiting for the new year to come the cold 🥶 was present already in the early winter. From mid of November until first week of December we had low temperatures of -20°C, many days much colder with -30°C to -35°C at home what means even colder on the trail. Since there was not much snow isolating the ground we were a bit afraid of freezing pipes in the dog food kitchen the whole time. It looked quite good… until the last day of this freezing period. Coming out to prepare the dog food the bad surprise was waiting: no water 💦 in the dog food kitchen and guest toilet 😬 that meant a lot of work to defrost the pipes before they break. Since it was below -30°C and Raffi was working in the dog food kitchen while Yvonne had to go to Arvidsjaur we put on the electric heating in the main house and additional heaters in the dog food kitchen. While Raffi was trying all tricks you could find on the internet (beside a warming cable in the pipe) like putting salt or rödsprit into the pipe, the use of electricity seemed to reach the maximum amount of what was possible… and in the afternoon even all electricity ⚡️ was gone for some hours 😖 and that meant also that you couldn’t heat the main house anymore. These typical old heating systems in Sweden are possible to use with fire wood (what we do most of the time) or electricity. Sounds as if a lack of electricity is no problem. That was what I was thinking before we moved here and I learned that even when you are heating with wood you need electricity for the pump because otherwise the water is not transported trough the system. Ok, so take some blankets, let the water run to prevent it from freezing in the main house too and wait for the electricity to come back 😏 at least the electricity was back after a while and Raffi went on to defrost the pipe until half past ten in the evening… with no success so far. But the measures were taking effect over night and in the morning we had water again 😀 but this was just beginning of December and more cold days were supposed to come. 

    But you are probably more interested to hear something about the dogs 🐕 and tours. Already the first weekend in December we did our first tours with guests. The trails were bumpy and difficult to drive because there was so few snow that it was difficult at all to find trails you could already run on. But the guests were motivated, no question about the motivation of the dogs needed 😉 we had some nice tours with a glimpse of sun ☀️ and yes, cold temperatures most of the time. Since Christmas the high season is on and we have tours every day – except the resting days for the dogs of course. The dogs are doing a great job, always motivated and happy. One week ago our puppies had their first birthday, so officially they are no puppies anymore. And indeed, they are neither looking like puppies nor can you see a difference in the work. But they stay our „puppies“ until we have the next ones 😂

    With the new year also the snow found its way to us. With snow and wind the trails were gone several times the last days. So, Raffi got up early in the morning to prepare the trails to make it a little easier for the dogs and me on tour. But I can just repeat: the dogs are so motivated that they also jump through deep snow like it’s nothing to search for the trail and pull a sled at the same time. 

    Today they have a resting day and beside taking care and cuddle dogs we have time to shovel some more snow out of the dog yards, from the roofs, etc. 😅 then we have some more busy days before it gets a bit less next week and we hopefully can prepare more trails and maybe do another private tour for us. 

    For all who are waiting for pictures… they follow now 😉 and if you want to join a tour, just take contact and we arrange it. 

  • 14.11.2021

    R.i.p. Ranger

    It could have been a great day. We had some good trainings on Friday and yesterday, all dogs were so happy. Today it is Sunday, in the morning it was crispy cold and sunshine was promised. But everything went different than expected.

    Coming with the morning soup for the dogs Ranger was not waiting on the dog house. But that was not so special, sometimes he waited in the dog house until I reached his cage. Anyway, I had a strange feeling and I knew there must be something wrong when he didn’t came to the cage door when I was opening it…

    When I checked the dog house he was already gone, absolutely unexpected.

    The following text is my tribute to my „once-in-a-lifetime“ dog

    R.i.p. Ranger – my best friend, my motivation, my everything 💔😰💔 You left this world absolutely unexpected and much too early but you will stay in my heart forever. The happiest dog I ever met, unstoppable in front of the sled. Never tired, not even after a race. In your head you stayed a puppy. And, oh my god, how will I miss this crazy jumping and barking at the start or in every break. And who will help me cleaning the buckets after feeding? My world will not be the same without you but I know when I am driving under the stars you are watching me. Ranger, I love you ❤️ 

    There are so many more stories to tell about Ranger. When I started working with sleddogs in 2014 he was two years old and it was his first year in the race team in Äkäskero. During the season he decided that I will be his human and it was not difficult to convince me about that. Ranger was a so happy dog, it’s not possible to be angry when he smiles at you. No matter if he is chewing on the new built dog house, „escaping“ from the cage to lick out the food buckets, jumping and barking like crazy on the line before you start training… he is just my dog. During the years in Äkäskero he developed to one of the best race dogs in the team, never tired and – I have to repeat – always happy. Even after a race he was coming home and running around Gizmo like crazy just to play around. He learned from Gizmo to sleep on the sofa and both together waited patiently until food was ready… oh wait – that changed later on 😉

    2017 we moved to Emil and Barbara to Norway and Ranger was not only the hero on the trampoline he also got the possibility to race with me. And, of course, he did great. We had so many great moments together with the other race dogs and on tours with Gizmo.

    2018 we had been with Mats in Kiruna, more great experience for all of us. 2019 we spend almost a year in Germany, of course Ranger and Gizmo joined us. And you can’t imagine how many funny things they did together when you left them home alone or didn’t look at them for a while. From putting flour over the whole kitchen floor over getting the frying pan from the oven in perfect team work to eating to full boxes of dry food in probably under five minutes. Ranger was even suspected to had become a chicken hunter, mmh, should we believe this??? 🤣🙈

    2020 we came back to Sweden, and in summer we found our place to stay and build up our own small sled dog kennel. Ranger was a big part of that, if not to say the most important. He will stay in our hearts and a little bit of his happy and crazy attitude lives on in his puppies.

    Thank you, Ranger, for our life together. The moments we had will be never forgotten.

  • 13.10.2021

    Northern Lights

    The last two nights „Lady Aurora“ was dancing over the dog kennel. Take a moment and enjoy.

  • 10.10.2021

    New Family Member

    While there was snow ❄️ a bit more in the north the last days our training plan was smashed because of very warm temperatures around 12° and high humidity in the air ☁️💦 of course, we are anyway very flexible with the plan because everything is adapted to the needs of our dogs, especially the puppies who are not completely grown up yet. But after two planned resting days we were looking forward to run them on the weekend. Ok, instead we enjoyed some time in the free run together. 

    And what you might have already seen on Instagram: we have a new family member. His name is Olaf. He is six years old and originally from a small race kennel in Norway. He has been in Sweden since this summer in a medium sized kennel but it turned out that he doesn’t feel comfortable with too many dogs around him. So, we were asked if we want to take him… and look at his nice body, special fur color, and best of all: his smile. Could you regret?

    For the moment he stays together with Lumene who is not as crazy as the puppies and from the first step into the cage it seemed as he feels home 🥰 he can’t get enough cuddles, so he might probably be one of the favourite guest dogs in winter 😉

  • 26.09.2021

    Autumn Impressions

    No words needed …

  • 07.09.2021

    Building Project

    One of our biggest building projects this year – beside dog kennels and grill kota – was the upgrade of „Gammelgården“. That is a very old typical Swedish wood house where you could even find a bakery with a real stone oven. Of course, we haven’t touched this room but the rest was worked on to build a dog food kitchen and treatment room, food storage, equipment storage and a guest toilet. 

    You already heard about that when we were digging for the water 💦 and now it’s done ✅ almost. Some minor details will be made in the next days, also some more shelves for storage place. But everything is usable right now 😃

    And guess what’s special? All wood we used for walls, ceiling, shelves, etc. is waste wood, planned to be thrown away or burned. Can you imagine what a pity that would have been? You can do so many great things out of it. And at the same time do a favor to nature and save the trees 🌲 

    We already put the shoes in place, the jackets and trousers will come later. The outdoor cooking equipment is waiting in a box until another „waste wood shelf“ is ready. And also some decoration will follow. 

    But here you can see pictures of the current status.