Uncategorized – Page 4 – Lappland Nature Dreams

28.10.2020

Our new roof

This time nothing new about our dogs but the most important project beside them: our roof.

After four and a half long days of work, yesterday the crew finished everything on the roof. They did a great work and if you ever need to build or renovate your roof, especially in the area around Rostock or in the south of Sweden, you have to contact Daniel Saß https://www.sass-dachdeckermeister.de. And as you see they even take a journey far up north if you ask them 😉

We are really happy about their fantastic work. Now the rain can come… oh no, wait, time for snow now, rain can wait until spring 😉

Thanks so much Daniel and the whole team!

24.10.2020

Season has started

Yeah, winter is here and the season has started in a double sense… Aurora and sled season! What could be better?

A lot is happening now. Yesterday the work on the roof started. And they are so quick, almost all old material was taken away and one half was already protected against new rain or snow. We will add pictures of the results later on. But we promised our guests that they will see Northern Lights and indeed we got a really nice show in the evening. The pictures are still on the camera and will be added as soon as we have them on the computer.

Meanwhile we want to show you some pictures and videos from the very first sled ride of the season, including meeting eleven moose. If you zoom in one of the photos you may see one of them 😉

18.10.2020

Winter is here

Always a bit sceptical about the weather forecast we were really happy to see this… today in the morning when we woke up… and it’s still snowing (and stormy as well) 🙂

15.10.2020

Too much energy

The colder the temperatures get the more energy the dogs have. And if running is not enough anymore they find new ways to spend it… make order in the free run for example 😂🐕🐾

But actually it’s a quite good idea because there we will start with the sleds and some of the branches and roots of the bushes needs to be taken out because otherwise they will kill your brake pad right at the start. For those of you who have never been on a dog sled: the sled has two brakes, one metal brake and one hard plastic/gummi brake pad. The first you use when you are standing or when you need to break really hard (e.g. reindeers in front of you), the latter is to brake softly to avoid that dogs feel every bump in their back, you use it almost all the time. That is why the brake pad usually is down on the snow all the time while the metal brake only touches the snow if you step on it. The disadvantage with the brake pad now is if there is something in the way like a root that is standing out of the snow the pad can hit this and rip off or you can be stopped really hard and crash into the handle bar (the part you are holding the sled usually at the height of your ribs). Both not so funny. So, good to have strong helpers in the yard 😉

And even if there was no time to prepare the camera and it’s just a photo from the mobile phone we don’t want to hide the beautiful morning colours from today 😊

12.10.2020

What happens?

Oh, oh, time flies, like always. Almost two weeks without news for you. Sorry, for letting you wait so long. But it seems a bit like there is nothing really interesting to talk about.

Since our last post we had autumn weather every day, a lot of rain or really wet, foggy days and nights. Of course, weather can’t harm you as long as you wear the right clothes, but it led to the fact that we haven’t done so much outside and even when we were outside with the dogs we protected the phones and camera and didn’t take pictures.

Additionally we were occupied a lot with „normal“ work, earning some money, so that we couldn’t spend so much time for our own projects. But some little things anyway happened. We now have two nice self made benches in the free run to sit down and relax with the dogs – of course not in use yet in the rainy weather but hopefully when it gets dry again. Raffi also made some nice wooden food bowl holders that I painted afterwards. We are still discussing if we should screw it on the dog houses or on the cage elements. The latter has the advantage that the dog houses stay clean but I fear a bit that Stella could use it as stairs to climb out of the cage. She is already climbing half way when she is really excited. We will let you know 😉

Next week we will get guests from Germany who will help us to put a new roof on the main house. So happy when it finally doesn’t rain inside the house any longer 😉 but to prepare this we had to paint the wooden planks that will be on the edge of the roof, more than 100m length at all. Good that we have a big storage where we could do at least half at one time. Because especially when it’s relatively cold and wet outside it takes time until the painting is dry and you have to do both sides and two times to have it sufficiently covered. But now all this is prepared and end of next week the real work can start.

Maybe we will get some nice days in between to provide you with pictures and updates on the dog yard. At least it is promised to get colder and stop raining, so cross your fingers 🙂

30.09.2020

Misty mornings

Today not much text, just some pictures of how our days look like at the moment. We would call it “November days” even if it is September. Enjoy the beauty and silence of nature.

29.09.2020

Ready

It felt like centuries but yesterday we could finally finish the dog cages and today our very happy dogs moved in 😃🐕🐾

But from the start: the weekend we used to put the bottom logs on their places and correct last parts were the ground was not really even. That takes more time than you think, especially when you also want to spend time with your dogs beside working. Then we started with the kennel elements in the back before we had to move the dog houses into the cages. They are way too big and with about 200kg each much too heavy to maneuver through the doors. So, better to put them on place before you close the kennel. But how do you move them over the yard? Ask Raffi, he always finds a creative solution 😉

When the dog houses were inside we could go on to put the elements around, screw them in the bottom logs and build some door locks/openers (they are delivered without). Now we need to think about a stabilization for the long side of the cage in the corner as well as cross our fingers that the dogs are not digging too much 😉✊🐾 but so far the dogs are enjoying there new homes, especially Ranger likes the view from the roof of the dog house.

So, we can focus on the smaller things in the kennel and the bigger tasks in the house.

25.09.2020

What a day

Today was a good day, no question…

Getting up early to prepare the ground for the dog cages we received a sms that we will get a delivery at 7:30. While having breakfast we were guessing what that could be… last part of Byggmax delivery for our roof? The main part had already arrived on Wednesday after order late on Friday, so that was really fast. Dog kennel elements? Something else?

Some minutes after the suggested time a big truck arrived – and unloaded our sofa that we were waiting for quite long (and expected delivery in the afternoon). Yeah, now it gets comfortable in our living room 😊

At the same time the guys from Nito Last AB came with the digger to help preparing the kennel area. With a lot of big stones in the ground it was not possible to do it just by hand. So, it’s perfect to have the big machines right in our little village. Thanks so much 🙏

And short after lunch when Joël was trying out the new sofa for a nap another big truck came. I could see the truck but not what he was unloading so had to wait for Raffi’s info… and what we were not anymore expecting for today, it was the kennel elements 😃👏🐕

Now we can finally finish the cages at the weekend. We are really happy about that, hopefully the dogs too 😉

19.09.2020

Feeling free

Yeah, yesterday the free run for the dogs was finished 😃 not really finished if you think that we want to build a shelter with a fireplace and a tower for relaxing hours with our dogs and guests. But fence and doors are done, so the dogs could enjoy a long free run with a lot of cuddles or just chewing on some wood sticks 🐕🐾😋

And hopefully next week the kennel elements will be delivered so that we can finish that part of the project too.

Today we used the nice weather to get some wood in the shelter and cut the bushes on the yard – winter isn’t far anymore 😉❄️☃️

11.09.2020

No. 1 skill in Lapland

What do you think is the number one of personal skills in Lapland?

Being creative in solving problems? Staying calm if things don’t go like planned? Good ideas so far… but it’s much easier: patience is the right answer. And who knows me knows that this is not my personal strength 😉

But at the moment we need a lot of it. For several days we were waiting for the delivery of our new bed mattresses to exchange with our camping mattresses that we were using since we have arrived. Also waiting for dog food that was send already last week and arrived in Skellefteå on Sunday but since yesterday hasn’t made the last 100km to our place. And last but not least waiting for the dog kennel elements so that all dogs have enough space. At least mattresses and dog food were delivered yesterday 🙂

But of course, we are not just sitting and waiting. All boxes from Germany are unpacked now and it looks almost tidy in the house again. We are continuing the building of dog houses and start to prepare the area where the kennels will get their place.

And we are also working on set up the company, already getting nice feedback and support from Glommersträsk and Arvidsjaur municipalities and people around.

04.09.2020

Work in progress

You are probably already waiting for an update… so, here we are.

The last few days were a lot of work but we enjoy being at our new place. On Wednesday we picked up the poles for the free run and the bottom logs for the kennels from Ute Trä AB in Arvidsjaur. For this we had to rent a really big trailer – this time it was privately rent so without any problems 😉 but Raffi had to drive two times because otherwise the load would have been too heavy. The really nice people from Ute Trä gave us the advice to ask somebody with a tractor to help unloading, but look how easy it goes…

In the afternoon our stuff from Germany arrived. About 50 boxes, a lot of working tools, my bike – yeah we can train 😉 and also the kennel elements from the one cage that we had there. So, yesterday we quickly build up the kennel and now always some of the dogs can be in the kennel. Luna and Stella seemed to be very excited about it 🙂 sorry for the bad quality of the picture but they were moving much too fast and today it’s raining, so no good opportunity to make a new one.

After that was done we drove to Piteå to pick up a nice old cabinet and the first part of the material needed for building the dog houses.

Later and also today we continued to unpack the boxes, sort everything to the correct place and try to get some order… and again driving to the DIY store to buy the rest for the dog houses.

By the way, on Monday the moose hunting season starts. But we already had visitors in our backyard today. A little bit into the forest on the picture above there were really fresh moose and reindeer tracks. So, maybe better to wait with the training for some days. Not so funny to meet a moose with the bike and some dogs while hunters are around 😉

01.09.2020

The adventure begins

Today is the day! The first day of our new life 😃

The trailer was packed already yesterday so that we just had to put our last bags with cameras, computer and food as well as the dogs into the car and could start the journey in the morning. Originally it was planned to stop in Arvidsjaur for the paperwork and then go on to Moräng but since there were quite a lot incidents of theft and burglary in the area the last days we decided to go to the house first, park the trailer there and then go back for the paperwork. Some useless driving but better than to risk all our stuff 😉

And by the way, I almost forgot to tell you another typical Lapland story: knowing that we will need a trailer for moving we booked a one-way-rental from Kiruna to Arvidsjaur already in July. But don’t believe that safes your plans! Five days ago we got a message that there are unfortunately no trailers available in Kiruna but they changed the booking to pickup in Malmberget – you don’t know where this is? Ah, just 1,5h one way from Kiruna, so not far from what we booked 😒 and not to forget that we pass by the rental station in Kiruna quite often and there are always at least five trailers standing there. But asking at the station didn’t help because they couldn’t do anything, everything works via internet booking 😬 really customer-friendly 🙈

So, in the end we cancelled the (changed) booking and thankfully borrowed a trailer from Mats.

In the afternoon we finally arrived, happy to have our own home now.
The dogs already enjoyed running on the yard, not all free and at the same time until we have a fence around but good to stretch out their legs after a long car ride 🐕🐾🐕

Ah, and we had a very special welcome short before Moräng. A white reindeer with its white calf – that’s a sign for luck 🙂

26.08.2020

Counting the days

Time flies… it’s not even one week until we start our new adventure 🙂

We are so much looking forward to this that we sometimes mix up all our ideas and plans what to organise and do first. But since the renovation of the roof of the main house will take some more time we will start – no question – with building up some nice cages and a big free run for our dogs and not to forget the dog houses… So, first thing after arrival will be to measure everything in detail, pick up our order of wooden poles and bottom logs in Arvidsjaur and go to Skellefteå to buy the material for the dog houses. And hope that the delivery of cage elements and fence comes in time. That means the first three days are full of driving around and get all the stuff before we can start to work efficiently.

At the same time it is planned that our stuff from Germany will arrive. A lot of boxes that want to get unpacked. Let’s see what surprises are hidden in there 😉

Even if there is so much to do we will try to give you a first impression with some pictures already from day one… stay tuned and visit our page again on 1st of September.

13.08.2020

Our new web page starts to take shape

Yeah, it’s so simple and fast to build a new web page with WordPress, just a few clicks and you have a stunning new page.

Ha ha, don’t know if I am too stupid or just too exact in everything 😉 but it took me quite a while to design everything like I want to have it. But finally our new web page starts to take shape. The main layout is done – some minor adjustments may follow – and just our logo and some photos have to be added the next days and weeks. Not so easy to create a page with lots of photos when most of your photos are stored on hard drives that are still in Germany… but moving gets closer and so also our stuff from Germany will make the way up to Lappland. If everything arrives safely we can work a lot on more photos in September.

Some sub pages will get their content later when it’s the right time to give you more details.

And not to forget: also a German version of our web page shall go online soon. But we strongly believe that also most of our German speaking followers understand English – or use google translate 😉 so, we preferred to start with the English page that also our Swedish neighbours, friends and guests and, of course, all other nationalities can follow us.