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 😉

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. 

22.08.2021

Lapland’s Beautiful Nature

When we decided about the name of our company it was important not only to mention our dogs but also our close connection to the place we live and the beautiful nature around us. 

Some weeks ago you already got the first impression of the berry season, now everything is full of blueberries and also lingonberries are almost ready. 

Do you remember the young golden eagle 🦅 that lives in the area? Today after berry picking we saw him again. Not in the nest but flying through the forest. Very impressive how eagles manage to fly between narrow trees 🌲 unfortunately he was much too fast to make a picture 📷 

But another one was much more patient… a reindeer with great antlers stopped for us to be photographed 😉

And a few days ago “our” moose mum and one year old moose child came for an evening visit…

Last but not least some photos of our dogs, showing there emotions short before start of the training run: 8 year old Lumene is fully concentrated and waits for the starting command while puppies Rafiki, Zazu and Mufasa as well as two year old Mose are really excited and let you see and hear this 😂

27.07.2021

Holiday Part 2

You are probably already waiting for the report of our second week of vacation… so, here you are 😉

Of course, the water 💦 for the dog food kitchen was still a big part of the work. But finally all new pipes were in the ground and now our yard looks like a potato field 🥔 But who cares, soon it’s covered with snow ❄️ 😂

But there were also some easy tasks this week, berry picking for example 😋 the “Gold of Lapland” – the cloudberries are ready as well as my favorite beside strawberries – the blueberries.

Our new grill kota is obviously an interesting place, within 5 days it was two times visited by a moose even if it’s only a few meters from the dogs 🐕 what is he doing there? Barbecue? 🥓🍗🍔

On Friday I did a little journey to the Norwegian border to pick up our new family member “Mose” – that means moss. Before that I did several phone calls because it’s still not so easy to enter Norway when you live in Norrbotten. But if the former owner or any other person brings the dog over the border you have to follow a lot of new and quite complicated rules. After all these calls it was still not sure if it will work but we decided to just try it. And in fact, the border was the smallest problem 😉 Sometimes it seems to be better not to ask or think too much 🙈

On the next day it was cold enough to do a short training run, so Mose could stretch out her legs after the journey. Now, it’s unfortunately again very hot 🥵 but in two days it will be better. 

After all the work during the last two weeks we did a short hiking trip 🥾 on Sunday, exploring a potential husky trekking trail. While we were walking we heard an eagle crying… and shortly after we found the nest with a young golden eagle 🦅 almost ready to fly out. What a nice end of the week 😊

18.07.2021

Active Holiday

Since one week we have holiday now… and no, we are not laying on the beach 🏝 enjoying the sun ☀️ that’s anyway not our most favorite kind of vacation, we prefer active holiday 💪😉 but honestly this week was heavier than a whole month of “normal” work 😬

Last weekend the play toys for big boys were already parked…

On Monday Raffi and our neighbor company Nito Last AB started to dig for the water 💦 to our new dog food kitchen. They were digging and digging and digging… after a whole day they finally found the main water pipe with a T-cross, one to the main house, one to the yard – either to the old fountain ⛲️ or to the barn. Both options meant that the pipe must be close to the old “guest house” so we thought we could avoid digging the whole way but just find the old pipe and connect the new one. Great idea 💡👍 Two more days they were digging, first with logical thinking, later with a detector that clearly stated the way of the pipe but even in more than five meters depth there was nothing 😲 in the end we decided to go back to the old plan and put a new pipe over the yard… so, today they (almost) finished this part of the project. The dirt water pipe is still to do but that part is much easier and almost all way already prepared. And the inside work can wait until all outside tasks are done 😉

At least we don’t need to cut so much grass for the next weeks 😂🙈

Beside digging we also prepared the new dog cages. First we had to make the ground even, then put the dog houses in place. The dog houses we built already during the last months so they were just waiting to be used. And it’s much easier to put the dog houses in the cage before the cage is there because they are too big and much too heavy to get them through the doors. After this was done we put big logs around the cages and then the cage elements. Two of the cages will be “jumping cages”. They will have some additional planks on top to prevent dogs from jumping or climbing out of the cage like e.g. Stella already did when she couldn’t wait to be put on the line for training 😏 now, there are some smaller jobs left: finishing the jumping protection, make door locks/openers and fix the food bowl holders. 

Last but not least we built up our grill kota. Another challenging project: first of all the quality of the material was quite bad, so after a complaint to the seller he promised that the manufacturer will send somebody on Thursday to build up the kota – as compensation. On Thursday the manufacturer called me that they can’t come today but will come on Friday. Meanwhile we had already prepared the ground. Friday morning we put all parts on place waiting for the guys to come. At 5 p.m. I got a call that they unfortunately can’t manage and that they can check on Monday if they can come next week… are you kidding me? 😳 Ok, we didn’t want to put all parts back in the garage to protect them from rain, so we started to build it up ourselves. Generally not a big thing, but instead of a written instruction with the delivery the seller send a link to an online instruction with nice animation videos. Not really comfortable to check your phone while working on the one hand but more problematic that a lot of parts of the kota where not exactly like the description and animation. The bottom, the corner pieces, the door, the benches, the grill… almost all steps you had to make changes and could guess what is the correct way, some parts were even missing completely. So, we checked pictures from the manufacturer to see if we are correct. At the end we could finish the building process yesterday evening. Now, we only need to finish oiling it. Yesterday night and today it was too much rain 🌧 so, we will do that within the next days. Also the surrounding and decoration will be made in the near future. But after nine days of hard work we had to spend 2-3 hours relaxing with a barbecue in our kota tonight 😋🌭🥗

Let’s see what the next week will bring 😉

By the way: the dogs are doing fine. Joël wants to go for walks with them every day again and again… good for the puppies to learn to walk on the leash 🐕🐾 and Joël’s most favorite thing on the yard is the “brumm brumm” – the atv. He loves to join a ride and next week colder temperatures are promised, so maybe we can go out together for training with the adult dogs 🐶 

01.06.2021

Never Ending Story…

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 🙂

26.04.2021

Summer is Coming…

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…

Meet & Greet Dogs and Nature
Husky Trekking
Join a Training

08.03.2021

Instagram

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:

https://www.instagram.com/lappland_nature_dreams/?hl=de

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

26.02.2021

Cute, Cuter, Puppies 🥰

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. 

29.01.2021

Winterwonderland

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 🙂

25.01.2020

Snow, Snow, Snow

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.

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