Easter 2013
Easter 2013, a set on Flickr.
A wonderful Easter is over. Good trail conditions, eager dogs and very nice weather.
NSHK, Grimsbu 2013
NSHK, Grimsbu 2013, a set on Flickr.
All the pics from this year’s club race at Grimsbu.
NSHK, Grimsbu 2013
NSHK, Grimsbu 2013, a set on Flickr.
The first pictures from NSHK’s race at Grimsbu.
Short report
Summer is nearly over and we can look back at a season with a lot of changes. 5 dogs have left the kennel. We decided early on this year that because of a heavy workload we would reduce the number of dogs in the kennel for the next year at least. Rajah and Luna are now living at Carillo kennel in Østfold, and Bronco and Sirius are living in a small kennel near Holmestrand together with 3 females. Vytok ended his life in May due to a cronic injury in his left thigh. He couldn’t do any training on dirt and we could also see that the injury affected his ability to run on snow. The injury was most likely caused by his intensness in harness over several years. To let him stay at home while training the others was not an option as he would problably have torn down the enitre dogyard. Vytok was our hardest worker with a very good temperament and will be missed. We will of course also miss the dogs that have been sold, but we know they are in the best of hands, and that makes it a lot easier.
The Ermine x Sid litter are now 4,5 months old, and we kept two males from the litter, Wisting and Winther. The entire litter will be big. How big is still too early to say. The reports from the new owners of the other puppies in the litter are very positive,- great temperament and sociable types.
In May our fourwheeler broke down, and after some thinking we bought a brand new one in July. After the selling off of dogs, we will only have 8 dogs in training this upcoming season, 3 which are 12-14 months now. This leaves us uncertain to what sort of racing we will be doing. Time will tell!
A few pictures from this summer:
Bock and Wisting at our cabin in July
Winther, 9 weeks old
We went to Koster in July, a place for long walks and with a relaxed atmosphere
Reservatet, the place we stayed at Koster
Relaxed atmosphere
A bit chilly, but ideal weather for walking during our stay
Dogs were taken good care of!
We went straight to Elin and Stig’s annual barbeque-party at Løten from Koster. This is the hostess’ wonderful summercake! It tasted as good as it looked!
After some days at home we headed for the mountains. Jojo and Paikka were the lucky dogs to accompany us.
Paikka behaved exceptionally well! She is a very energetic girl in the dog yard, but seemed to enjoy getting more individual attention and loved the cough in the cabin.
Hein caught the most fish,- 21!
Jojo
Paikka and Hein
Patient girl while we were fishing
The cabin is situated in the middle of the trail of Rjukanløpet
New fourwheeler
Easter…a bit different this year!
I kicked off my vacation by going to the cinema to watch Snørokk’s Selja in the movie “Kalde hjerter”. Fun to see her as one of the murderer’s dogs, but the movie was otherwise a disappointment.
The day after, we went to visit Åsa and Rune at their cabin. More friends came along, so we had a sociable day. Jojo and Sid joined us.
Ulf helped Rune….
while the rest of us just enjoyed the day….
Vilde and Vera
Kari
Sid really liked running loose
And relaxing in the sunshine….
Last Sunday we went to our cabin together with Gro, Tarjei and Egil. Krom, Paikka and Jojo were the lucky ones that day.
Tuva, Hein and Tarjei on Kjerstein
Egil, Paikka and Ulf having a break
Jojo didn’t want to wade the river over to our cabin. Paikka did,- several times!
Egil was a gentleman and carried Gro over. Don’t know who liked it the most; Gro or us watching!
We had a short stop and then headed home again.
Krom, Jojo, Kari and Paikka
Gro, Egil and Tuva
Our valley; Gjerdalen
Krom
Then we spent a couple of days at home to finish some work. Ulf chopped some wood, while I finished an anorak and a sweater for myself.
Stein in his new anorak with a greywolf ruff.
Finally, I took time to knit a sweater to myself
We then decided it was safe to take an overnight trip up in the hills behind our house, even if Ermines belly started to look “ripe”…
The kids, Jojo and Paikka had fun on the icecovered lake:
While Ulf and me were preparing pancakes:
Yummy!!!
We turned in early, but late enough to see the moon
We had taken with us all the dogs, except Ermine:
Bosse in his usual position; crosslegged…
Pippin with his mother Rajah in the background
Krom, Sid and Sirius in the first rays of the morningsun
Preparing to go home
Sid ready to play, Pippin and Rajah ready to go. Notice Jojo in pair with Vytok!
Back home we have eaten good food together with friends and family, and last night took Ermine in as she seemed to get restless. She delivered 7 nice looking pups during the night and I’m looking forward to a springlitter as we usually have had our ltters during the summer.
I will try to put out pics and information about the litter weekly.
Tomorrow will be spent by the sewing machine!
6 of the 7 pups enjoying a good meal
What’s next??
A long and busy season is soon behind us. Many of you might wonder why I call it busy since we have not been racing more than once this year? Well, the problem, or should I rather call it the challenge this season has been to try to juggle too many balls at a time.
I have been very busy trying to get my one-woman-sewing-business going beside my work as a teacher and Ulf has started a two year long pedagocical study beside his job, so time and economy didn’t quite make us go the distance this year.
One of my products; Sigrid with a Snørorokk sweather at one of the checkpoints at this year’s Iditarod
I also made an anorak for Sigrid, beside several orders for anoraks which has kept me pretty occupied
We had hoped to be able to run the dogs 5 times a week this year, but we barely managed 4. The puppies also need some time out of the dog yard…This left us at a fewer milage than last year, and we didn’t see any point in spending money on races we knew we were not prepared for. After a 2. place in the Vikerfjell 70km 8 dog class, we called the rest of the season off.
Placing second at Vikerfjell in January
Lasse ran the 140km race
Well, not totally; Tuva entered the NSHK purebred race at Grimsbu in the 18km, 6dog class and came in 1 of 3 with a good margin! Well done,- since she hasn’t been on the runners more than 3 times this winter. We don’t press our interests on the kids. They have their daily lives full of activities, so they join us on training when they feel for it. BUT if they want to do more serious racing, they are expected to take part in the training as well.
Tuva with her team at the start of day 1
More pics from Grimsbu, can be found here.
Pierre Antoine Heritier contacted us earlier to hear if we had any yearlings for sale, and after some thinking we chose to let go of Karadock. We really hope he will be a good addition to his team, and also hope to be able to keep in touch as he has some really nice males we would like to use for breeding in the future.
Karadock
At the moment we are trying to keep the dogs going, but the snow in the mountains is quickly disappearing, so I might try to train them in front of the quad instead. Can be a nice way to let the youngsters have a go as well. Also Sirius, who came in too late to be part of our team for the winter.
Ermine is expecting puppies,- not planned as she had a litter in August, and the “proud father” is Sid, which was forgotten in the dogyard with Ermine in full heat…. Well, we decided to let the pregnancy runs its course, as we don’t like to give the “abortion-shots” to females we are planning to use in breeding. We feel pretty certain that Sid will become a good sled dog, and Ermine has convinced us that she was worth buying from what she has shown us during this winter. A tail-wagging girl and a hard worker!
Ermine during a break at autum training
Sid, the soon-to-be young dad!
We HAVE planned to breed Viti this spring, if she comes in heat at a reasonable time. Mithril is picked out as sire, but I have also another male I want to take a closer look at before we decide.
Kari Birgit and Viti
So, WHAT ABOUT NEXT SEASON??
That is what I started to plan for as soon as we saw where this season went. To plan ahead will be the most important from now on. To continue to enter races we need to look ahead, so we easier can plan the training among all the other things in our lives. I know we are not the only ones experiencing this, but hopefully this season has given us some important knowledge when it comes to planning…..both when it comes to racing and breeding.
Give me cold, crisp autumn days…and snow in November!
A long and hectic late summer behind us. To have two litters in one season, together with training, gives little time to other things than dogs. Even though I have taken one day off from my job as a teacher to sew and knit, I have enough orders for a loong time. I will cut back on the knitting now as it is too time consuming, and I need to focus on the anoraks.
Lisbet in her Snørokk anorakk, colour Stone, with lynx fur
Luckily, my co operation with Scarlett and Wayne on the ruffs, works well, so I will continue to offer first quality ruffs for anoraks and parkas.
Went to Hakadal’s seminar at Harestua in September and got nice feedback on my products. I have sweaters to knit and anoraks to sew. Nice that people see the quality of wool and cotton and not only the goretex products.
Ellen and my tent at the seminar. Torbjørn was helping us!
Tuva in Irene’s anorakk. The ribbons have Irene bought in Greenland,- beautiful!
Katja’s anorak, which I’m working on at the moment…
….and Sigrid’s sweater.
And of course dogs, dogs and more dogs. My turn to race this year, and we have 10 dogs in training. The two young ones; Pippin and Karadock are doing very well. Karadock was a bit more uneven at the start of the season, but has now become a steady puller.
Karadock in team with Bronco at a hot day
Pippin together with Mithril, a boy that is eager to please his mum (read: me)
Ermine is well in to training after having her litter in the beginning of August, and is a very sweet girl! She wags her tail all the time, just like Rajah and Luna,- and even though she can be bit hot at start, she really goes the distances we have done so far.
On some of my training runs I have Inger with me. Nice to be two for a change!!
Inger has become familiar with the quad…
..and it’s very nice to have company out in the woods!
The rest of the team are the dogs Ulf ran last year’s Femund with, except Yippi. We put him down this summer due to a growing tendency of showing some sort of prey drive on small children. We didn’t dare risk any accidents. Yippi was our storm leader, he hated groomed trails and sunny weather, but wind and snow,- yes!! Lets hope we have another one in our team, that will show the same ability in bad weather.
Rajah and Luna, nothing but sweet!
Aki and Bosse,- always pulling!
The two teenagers, Krom and Sid are running loose on trips several times a week. Sid will become big…and might not be the sharpest, but has shown great pulling abilities already. Krom is a quiet, nicely built boy, which we like very much.
Hein and Krom on the Siberian Husky meeting in Ål.
Hein went on his first reindeer hunt with his cousin, Bjørn, this year. Unfortunatly, no reindeer.
Beautiful day for his first hunt
And this viper tried to bite through Hein’s boot..at least some exitement!
And of course there is Paikka! Our little Ermine and Albin offspring, which seems to have endless of energy and grows into a true copy of her mother.
Paikka!!
And Jojo, who has been taken part in the autumn training, both in the team and running loose.
Jojo in better shape than now..
Jojo was showed this weekend, but was unfortunately a bit fat (due to stealing high calorie dogfood..). The judge put it a bit more nicely: A bit square at the moment, and could have wished for longer loins…
But she got great critic for her expression:
We went to the annual autumn meeting in Ål, and had a great time, even though the snow on Sunday made our trip home a bit longer than expected.
Our team at the 6dog class in the race, Mithril and Pippin in lead.
Tuva in the 2 dog kickbike class with Rajah and Bosse
Training with Stig and Elin in the afternoon after the race
The Carharrt boys!!
Ulf and team on Sunday, Aki and Mithril in lead
Yesterday, Tuva and me went up towards Kalhovde to train. All the hill training we do at home can become a bit boring in the end.
An icy dirt road made it neccessary to put on some booties, but lovely to get a change of scenery.
Towards Kalhovde
Tuva checking paws for soreness
Mithril and Rajah in lead
The dams in the mountains are filled up with water
But the lakes have nice rims of ice
And we even got a nice sunset on our way home
A looong roadtrip
A couple of days since I arrived home from my journey to Kolari, and it takes some time to recover after about 3800kilomtres in a car.
I left Atrå Saturday 9 July, and the first night I slept over in Åserna. The next day I made it to Fia and Johan close to Lit. It was good to see Saria again, and I think she remembered me a little too. She had developed very nicely, and has already showed her ability to lead. The same goes for Tirith, the female Fia kept after her Pya – Mithril breeding. She also runs in lead, and has the same soft and humble temperament as her father.
As many others, also Fia and Johan used some of their holiday to rebuild and increase the kennel.
After a nice cheesecake and two of Johan’s wonderful mini-pizzas, I went north to Arvidsjaur where I stayed the night.
Fia and Saria
Tirith in Johan’s lap
Saria shedding her puppycoat
Saria, a lively and funny girl
A neat and foxy expression!
Alert and on the move as her brothers
Tirith
Tirith has shown good leading abilities this winter
Tirith with one of the kennel’s pups
Unfortunately, I passed Jokkmokk when Anna Lena was still at work, so I didn’t make a stop there, but went on to Kolari. Jenni and Gustav were still at work, so I spent the time until they arrived in the puppypen. I met ten very sociable puppies, and was happy when I understood which puppy Jenni had picked out for me.
Krum, 75% Polar Speed, 25% Anadyr, just like Ermine
Krum and two of his littermates
Milk!
Crow with her ten puppies
and a slightly older male from Indian Tribe kennel, Eskimo
When Jenni and Gustav came back, we took a tour of the kennel, before Gustav served dinner, again splendid!
Taiga Quest Crow
Nice to get away from the puppies!
Nice kennel!
Jenni’s 9 year old leaddog Pricken
Mithril’s sister, Pinga
Feedingtime
After dinner, we went on to visit Johanna Kokkonen at Susitievan kennel, who lives only about 20km away from Jenni. She has at the moment 74 dogs, as she at the moment also has Tullatuulen’s race team in her dog yard. Johanna runs a tourist kennel, mainly on her own, but hires in handlers during the busiest months. She also has Krum’s father Kuurna, which met us together with on of his sons when we arrived at the kennel.
Johanna, Kuurna and son. Both the dogs loved to chase the tennisball!
Kuurna
Not a common sight in Norway, a kennel with 74 Siberians
Part of the kennel
Jack
Ermine’s sister
Another dog at Johanna’s kennel, unfortunately, I don’t remeber all the names and lines
Jenni feeding her dogs. A nicely behaved lot!
After a delightful sauna, it was time for bed.
The next morning, I headed down south again. I stopped close to Arvidsjaur for a visit at Birgitta and Mikael’s place, Nymånen kennel. After yet another nice meal, we took a short visit out to the kennel, about 50 dogs, but at the time it rained cats and dogs, so unfortunately, only one picture of their lovely kennel. It was a pity since they have such nice dogs. I also had the pleasure to see Birgitta’s gallery and some of the new things she was working on.
Mikael and Krum
Nymånen kennel – the rain was pouring down
My next stop and stay-over-night-place was at Katarina and Jachym, close to Strømsund. They welcomed me with rubarbpai and a glass of wine…nice. The next morning, Katarina and I took a tour of the kennel, about 50 dogs, and of course I had to meet Balto first. He has become a calm and mature male, but I think he maybe remembered me. At least he didn’t mind me petting him.
Balto
Balto still runs in lead, but mostly as a coach for the youngest ones
He has learned Gee and Haw, but needs to be talked to in Norwegian when he has a stubborn moment
Still loves human contact
The pen where the A-team is kept
and the place for the yearlings and retired dogs
I know there are a lot of other Siberian kennels in the area, and should have loved to visit them as well, but Hein was waiting for me in Grong, so I had to move on.
My cousin Elin with her beautiful children, Linde, Johannes and Anna.
The little cool skater at the right is Hein.
Hein and I stopped over at Fjellheimen, Røros on our way home, so he could see the place where mom and dad spend a week every winter.
Of course we also had to stop at Hundekjørerbutikken to do some shopping. I must admit that Tommy’s Yeti sled really makes me want a new sled….
Rikke was the last stop on the journey. I was in desperate need of a rest and a cup of coffee. As many others, she had also used some of her holiday making improvements to her kennel.
Back home, Krom settled well with the other puppies, and Meg even let him get a drop of milk. He lives inside with us and Jojo so far, but will be placed outside when some of our puppies have left. Sterk, or Basse, who is his name now, left this morning with Per Olav, Beate and Lina. They have really explored this part of Hardangervidda for the last couple of weeks and found the landscape very nice.
Tomorrow, Søta, or Sikari which will be her name, leaves with Mette and Trond, then Snute and Storm will leave in the middle of the week.
We have also decided to sell Sara. She is a very well built female, (much like Saria)but with another litter coming (oh yes, Ermine is definetly pregnant), we need to keep the numbers down.
