day no. 23/24 - how a sledging puppy becomes a sledging dog: first riding lesson for the little ones

Erä-susi Huskyfarm, 0°C misty, foggy

When the puppies are about one year old it's time to let them run! I recently described the preparation of the youngsters for the work with the sledge. First of all we train to put the collar on and bring them to the trail to give them the time to check everything out and get used to smells and surroundings. There was nothing difficult or surprising about it, but I was wondering how the real training with the sledge is done. How do they learn to pull a sledge?

Yesterday I had the change to find it out: we got one step further and put them for the first time in front of a sledge, but that isn't as easy as it might sound! You can't just put them randomly in a team. First of all you need a good team to pull the sledge. It is important to choose the most calm leaders in front who won't do unexpected  movements and won't even bark or jump as soon as the sledge stands still for a moment. Furthermore, you put just a team of 3 dogs and not as usual 5 dogs where to integrate the puppy in, because less dogs means less power and it is just more secure and easier to control, since one can hardly predict the youngster's reaction- if it doesn't start to run with the others you could have easily driven it over. So every avoidable source of  disturbance or danger has to be eluded to create a less scaring atmosphere for the puppy as possible. We had to avoid to scare the puppy of us and the sledging activities, because it would have taken ages to make the puppy overcome a negative experience. The first challenge is to separate the puppy from its fence mates and put the harness on. The other dogs have already checked that some of them was going to run and jumped excited, barked as crazy and made a lot of noise, which is actually not helpful for the training, because the puppy gets nervous, too. So we took it out of the fence and brought it to the now quite and empty trail, where the sledge with just one 3-dogs-team was already waiting, in order to put on the harness only there. The puppy was put in a middle position next to a seasoned and calm dog after they got the chance to say hello. Then you try to entice the puppy and encourage it move towards you. You have to stand not directly in front of it, but it needs to see you and the dogs in front. It is quite evident why: the youngster has to learn to run without having the beloved human in front of it (even thought in the very beginning it is necessary to have a supporting person by its side it likes and trusts) getting used to the view of the running dogs in front of it it is suppose to follow.

Robin

We moved half a meter forward inspiring the puppy moving towards the front man while one companion is driving the sledge stopping it immediately if necessary and the other colleague runs in front of the leaders  in order to hold them on the trail, since the speed is so low that they get bored soon. You can't do that alone! And you need a lot of patience...

So we moved meter per meter taking 30 minutes for about 50 meters trying to convince the puppy move in the right direction by itself. We trained 4 puppies that day, one after another. The first one was terribly scared of everything. He panicked right away and if young dogs are really, really scared their muscles get stiff. They can't move anymore. They are in shock. So the training was over before it could really start. The second puppy started well running a little bit, but was confused, too, and seemingly overstrained because of all that new impressions. He will need one or two other tries to start running properly. The last two puppies instead were unstoppable! The first 10 meters they marched to a different drummer, but then they fit perfectly in the team and just followed the other dogs. We went with them about 2 km before they were send back home. I was told that normally the team takes them out to run in the same constellation the 5 km trail after the first successful run. If it works without any problems they can be integrated in a complete team and start running short distances leaded by our guests. They learn fast, but it always depends a lot on the young dog's nature. Our first 2 puppies were a little bit spooky, whereas the last two ones weren't scared about anything and very very curious. The gender of the puppy is not telling anything about its attitude or braveness. It can happen that they start running directly the first time, but sometimes it takes much more tries. So far every new dog started running sooner or later more or less as wished. 

Actually this experience was a good proof of the fact that this dogs are born to run- they really want it! Even the so far untrained youngsters start running with the other dogs after short time not being threatened, but shown patiently HOW and not that we want them to run. They run in any case...:)  If you get them to run with the team most of your work is done. Most of the things the puppy has to learn concerning the sledging it learns by doing it from and with proper sledging dogs. They learn fast and you can imagine soon which of them shows the character a good leader is made of. One of the youngest dogs running on a front position as a promising leader is not even 2 years old (by the way, she is my absolute favourite..).

The only thing which could be problematic is the collar. They really don't like to be pulled at their collars. All of them started to fight against it before some of them got the point and understood that as far as they keep moving everything is fine and nothing is pulling them back anymore. I don't know how one could explain it to the youngsters making this experience easier for them. I guess they just have to get it themselves, but my heart was bleeding for compassion seeing them fighting against the initially unloved collar.

Huskies are amazing dogs. Perfectly adapted to their living conditions they can brave a real winter feeling best when it is about - 20/-25 °C cold. The most funny attribute of their adaption are in my opinion their feet! Why? Even the sole of their foot is covered by long fur growing out of the space between the typical balls of paw protecting them. Some of them have such a thick fur under their paws that they don't even leave the recognizably typical dogs' footprints.

Miia's paw

Something else happened: super famous, internationally known VIP's visited our farm and did a, especially for them arranged night Safari on Sunday evening (normally we don't have customers on Sunday at all...).

It was funny to observe the change in the team. We got to know who was about to drive with us only 2 hours before their arriving. Suddenly the relaxed happy hour atmosphere changed into wide awake excitement, tired faces started to glow and the most absurd stories and possible upshots of this trip were invented. We laughed a lot that evening imagining most embarrassing fauxpas to step in handling our famous guests. We had to prepare just one team, a work one or two persons could do easily, but in the end we were 6 peeople waiting for our VIP who have been late. In the end two small, suntanned, young and pleasurable guests in ridiculously warm jackets found their way to the farm, entered the sledge and vanished in the night. They have been really friendly and shy, but really interested. And that was it!

the guest book

I guess North-Finland is one of the best places to go on holidays if your face/voice and your story is well-known all over the world and you want to spend some undisturbed days. Since nobody lives here, nobody will disturb you. Based on my limited experience I can say that Finns are really calm people, who don't really seem to care about other people's private life and respect one's privacy. I was rarely asked about my family or background and it passed more than 2 weeks before people started to tell me more about themselves than their names. I tested carefully the reaction to questions about more intimate issues and noticed that you'd better don't ask. If people respect you and appreciate your presence they start to tell about themselves once they got to know you better. It takes time to warm up with the Finns, even though I've been always treated more then friendly and obliging since my very first days here. But one has to proof that one can be trusted.

In Italian surroundings I would know already a lot about my Italian team members life and family including most probably really intimate details by now.

The days are running and still every day offers new challenges and chances. My last week in nowadays melting icy wonderland has already started and will pass much to fast! 

But before I leave I will have the possibility to show what I have learned on a two days Safari with 5 Italian drivers and 30 dogs. I'm really looking forward to that nice trip and I'm glad and grateful that I've been chosen to assist the guide (my language skills might have  been once again a convincing argument to offer me that great possibility, too-my hint to everyone out there: learning languages is never a waste of time!)

relaaaax

Knowledge of the day: Shit happens! And still every day some has to clean it up, even though the warm weather make it become a disgusting concern. I really don't want to imagine how that must be in summer...

day no. 22- blind-date with Hugo

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, - 3°C

I was invited once again to join a 30 km trip with a group of 4 sledges. Doesn't sound so many, but there are the nice, attentive type of tourists and then the ones a guide fortunately meets just once or twice a year. The second kind does not listen at all and does not care, too. They drive over you and the dogs, loose continuously their teams taking pictures leaving the brake. A forenoon full of anger and unnecessary, avoidable contretemps. Not easy at all to keep calm and try to be diplomatic. It was chaotic, at least on the way to the shelter. But they learned and it got a bit  better after 10 km... But despite of this, that trip offered a new challenge for me. This time I had not just to sit on the snowmobile enjoying the trip, but we carried with us a big sledge full of food, wood and extras, because the group has booked a meal, which had to be prepared by someone. In the middle of nowhere you can hardly find a restaurant, so that we planned to lit a fire and cook the reindeer soup directly in the tent. I have made fire before, but I was still a little nervous, since I really wanted to make it work! One who wants to live in in the middle of nowhere should at least know how to make a good fire! That's such an essential skill and should actually be easy to do, even in the snow!

But you never know, that's why I ask google for help. They are hundreds of ways how to make fire, even if you don't have matches. I found a website on which a video is posted how to make fire by help of a lens formed of clear ice. The only tricky point is, that one need sunlight to make it work. (The same with the help of an condom filled with water, even though condoms are quite hard find out here as well...) The last days it has been always grey and kind of dark. Then there are with the commonly known friction-based methods drilling fastly a wooden stick between your hands and similar techniques. (For my German readers: I found an interesting website about what kind of fires exists and tips and tricks about which one is suited best for different undertakings. click here!)

remants of my cooking fire

Lucky me I had matches and about 20 minutes to light a fire and warm the soup while the tourist group was driving some more kms. My professional companion told me, leaving me and the sledge at the shelter, that I should just try and do what I'm able to do. He would help me as soon as they were back. But I wanted to proof that I can figure it out by myself! There was no limit to my ambition. I really had to be successful; otherwise that would have been a damaging blow to my pride-how complicated can it possibly be to lit a fire in a tent without suffocate in dense smoke or burning down the tent. One woman, one package matches, one mission- there we go! The first attempt didn't work and first flames extinguished quickly. The trick is to make sure it gets enough oxigene and to make it burn really well and hot, if you don't want to have the tent full of smoke. It worked perfectly and the soup was already warm when my group arrived. 

Warming soup for 10 people on the fire is an annoying activity. Set directly over the fire you have to stir up the soup continuously to not burn it and it is so boring sitting in a tent respiring the smoke of your fire for seemingly hours.

nap-time

On the way back one of the dogs didn't go any further and decided to just sit on the trail holding up the whole group. We had to take Hugo of and rearrange the teams. Hugo was tired, so that we decided that I should sit in the sledge keeping him in there as well balancing unsecured somehow on the thermal boxes this massive, moving dog in my arms with. With one hand I tried to hold down strong Hugo and with the other I kept us both in/on the sledges which was jumping continuously over the hills and hollows of the uneven trail. Once he stated to recover, he tried to jump out of the sledge. I hold him tight, so that once we fall both off the sledge in a snowbank, because he simply dragged me with him. I had fun, Hugo not so much. We tried to reintegrate him in his team, after he has had some km to recover, but it didn't work. So I stayed with him in the sledge the whole way back. He got noticeably nervous getting closer home. And then he decided to walk the rest of the way home and with the attempt to jump over me he crashed into my face and damaged my glasses. I was 'blind'. Not cool! But it took me time to realize how practical glasses are. While I was sitting in the sledge I didn't care that much. Now, back on the farm, I feel captured in a milky fog. Everything is white, as before, but my clear sight finnish after about 3 meters. GREAT!  ... time for a change

Hugo and I ( last stop with my glasses)

We arrived so late, that I was already too late to participate in the Safari in the darkness. A pity! 

Knowledge of the day:  I wish I would not have to leave so soon. Tape can't fix everything.

Onnittelen sinua syntymäpäivän johdosta, Erä-Susi Huskies!

day no. 20 /21- reflection

Erä-susi Huskyfarm, -8°C 

Integration... 

Communication. Variety. Growing together. Values. Commonality. Interpretation. Coexistence. Tolerance. Compromise. Learning Process. Mutuality. Listening. Feeling. Observation. Differences. Interchange.

Integration is a tricky thing. Becoming part of a group is nothing one could compel, but anyways efforts and compromises have to be made on all sides. 

Initially I though that my lack of  language skills is just a disadvantage that leads to isolation, a burden that makes it nearly impossible to become part of the Erä-susi community. I have to admit that I had hard days feeling sad about not being able to get the full content of their conversations, jokes and anecdotes. But I got something else instead - I learned to observe and to identifies peoples' nuances. My picture about my surroundings and my team is grown by experiencing them differently then I used to do ever before. My impressions are grown absolutely apart from what some would have told me, if I could understand, impressions gained very apart from stories or comments told about certain team members. I got to know them most of all visually and listening to them. Listening not to words but to nuances. I see and hear respect, friendship, provocation, trust, goodwill and fun. I see wonderful personalities: their is 'Miss sunshine' with the rare talent to enlighten the mood of everybody even when the sun doesn't shine; the storyteller fascinating people with a sharp sense of really dry humor; 'Mr. Dynamic' and the 'all-knowing memory', who does more or less its own business undisturb and very much respected by the others... Since I didn't get what people are talking about, I learned to be aware of changes in speech melody, mimic and gesticulation, appearance, attitude and habit of everyone and in interaction among each other. I'm already able to recognize their destination noticing the way they prepare for reaching their destination. It is incredible what the lack of milk for the morning coffee can tell about the daily dynamic of the team. I feel the group more than I really know them, but I guess in that way I got to know them already better than it would have been possible ignoring most of my perceptions and focussing almost just on words and stories. Nevertheless nothing can replace the spoken word and directly connected to that the ability to perceive and interpret its meaning. 

People like to tell stories, they like to laugh and to listen. I would love to not just enjoy the great atmosphere, but be surprised, amused, astonished, satisfied, sometimes embarrassed or confused together with them.

Since I don't understand work instructions in Finnish, I have to learn differently than the Finnish trainees. They learn by listening what is told among team members about the difficulties and joy of their activities. I always have to ask somebody to repeat and beg for more information. I rarely go my own way, but I'm told to follow. This is a good lecture for me, but I guess for the team, too.

I will keep this experience in mind thinking of integration and teaching myself.

I felt a stranger among friends, initially shifting between being a tourist, a passing through worker, a curious German girl and an Anthropologist, but I actually have already found my place without knowing it- I'm the 'silent observer'. 

Tulva has the overview.

But to come back to the Huskies...I was wondering what those mysterious, circular hollows one can find in the fences are good for. The surface of the interior walls is much to smooth and even to be caved by the paws of a dog our a spade. They are inside covered with a thin ice layer and about 5 up to 30 cm deep. I observed the appearance of this holes for a couple of days-they became more and more during warm nights, none of them vanished, but after really cold nights rarely some new ones appeared.

the mysterious holes

One of my team mate disclosed the secret and destroyed my not all too serious far-fetched conspiracy theories I could come up with ( mentioning inter alia extra-terrestrial flying objects and laser eyes). His explanation was not as cool as my abstruse ideas, but still remarkable:

The huskies like to sleep in the snow when it's warm enough. They lay totally rolled up in the soft snow melting the subsurface with the warmth of their bodies and sinking deeper and deeper into the snowbank. This is actually very clever! These suitable hollows fit perfectly the shape of the dog's body and keeps the icy wind out. When it snows the dog gets covered totally from all sides with snow which keeps it warm like a blanket would do. That's how they survive even snowstorm on long trips when there are no doghouses available.

Tomorrow I'm going to have my first overnight- Safari! Start at 17:15, when the sunlight will have already changed to complete darkness. :)

Knowledge of the day: A blueberry-muffins a day, keeps fretfulness away...

*in memory of the sun enlightened, beautiful frosty days*

day no. 19 - a reindeer story

Ruka/Erä-susi Huskyfarm -3°C gloomy and grey.

The story of a youth who went forth to 'hunt' a reindeer -a Lapponian culinary delight!

Obviously I did not shot the reindeer myself, but I was always curious how reindeer meat tastes! Since I had a day off I got my warm clothes on and walked to the 8 km far Ruka, a little village that consists actually of 2 souvenirshops, a supermarket, ski renting companies, loads of ski slopes, 3 big hotels and some restaurants and bars. It takes you 10 minutes to see everything which Ruka village has to offer, but still it was a nice change. Actually I felt quite strange- the village is enlightened with loads of fairy lights and blinking decorations, but the village seemed to me quite abandoned. I saw just a few people in the streets and the ski slopes, but the restaurants, bars and shops were devoid of people. Sitting alone on a little red bench waiting for the bus home I heard unsettling alpine folk music. The voice of an old gentlemen singing  in German about his love to the beautiful, green mountain world accompanied by brass band and accordion resounded in the empty square from the loudspeakers somewhere behind me. I was sitting in front of a place called 'Alphut' (German 'alp cap')... That was so weird! 

But to come back to the reindeer-story...In Finnish Lapland live around 200.000 reindeers (more than humans) which are running free almost all over the year. In spring the reindeer fawns are born in freedom in the forests and during the summer month the breeders round them up in order to count, cure and mark their own animals. Every breeder cuts his personal cutting pattern in the reindeers' ears, some of them use ear tags, too. Then they are released again until wintertime. Because winter is really rough out here they get encaptured again and are fed with some extra fodder. Obviously you can train them to pull a sledge, too. I was told, that normally for pulling a sledge are used just males, because they are stronger, look nice with their big horns and the females are pregnant yet. Sooo...the males have to work to the delight of the tourists who are the main asset of the region. 

Reindeers are quite shy and unlike cows or horses not fully domesticated. At this point it is remarkable that the reindeer is the only cervid specie that was tameable at all. The reindeers are semi-wild living in close contact with their few human neighbors. During my first trip to Lapland in November 2013 it often happened that reindeers crossed the streets and highways. Back at the day my guide told me that reindeers tend to lick the gritting salt from the asphalt to provide themselves with minerals.

Even if they are no dangerous, aggressive specie one should watch out of the reindeer horns. When a reindeer feels threatened or get spooked it might throw its head suddenly around and catch accidentally what is in range of their sharp pointed horns. The fur is really thick and isolates really well. A reindeer has 2700 up to 3500 single hairs per cm^2.  I guess the reindeer is even more connected to Lapland than the dogs; the reindeer is Lapland's true mascot!

Reindeer meat is quite expensive, even in Finland the price for reindeer meat tops already the costs of beef. Since the demand, especially during Christmas and New Years festivities, is huge due to the many tourits who want to try the traditional Sami dish. You can buy it in every supermarket and it is exported all over the world. I recently read an article (click to read the German version!) about a trading agreement concerning Islam-compatibly slaughtered ('halal') reindeer meat between Finland and Katar-the market for halal-reindeer meat is expanding.

The reindeer meat is rich of protein, vitamin A.B.C and PP having at the same time a really low fat content. Which makes it unique! Since the animals spent nearly their whole life wandering, always moving and eating what they can find in the relatively untouched nordic nature, their meat is a high-quality, biological, really healthy source of nourishment. And as such the reindeers are admired and protected by the Sami, who followed their herds for centuries through their animals' peripatetic routes and the reindeer became an essential element in Sami folkloritic and culture. Today just 5-8% per cent of the Sami still subsist on the breeding and raising reindeers, but they don't adhere to a nomadic lifestyle anymore.

Today I wanted to taste this 'wonder-meat' myself, but since I don't even know how to prepare and cook it, I decided to order myself a nice reindeer fillet in a restaurant I've been before. (Last time I was invited for dinner there I had an grilled salmon which was simply fantastic! -Ruka-Colorado)
I got 160 g grilled reindeer fillet on red wine-cranberry sauce and red currant jelly with roasted vegetables and oven-baked potatoes with house made garlic-herbs butter decorated with fresh thyme. Sounds great and tasted even better! 
The meat was medium cooked and very delicate, not rubbery at all. It's very characteristic in taste, almost like rich flavoured game meat uses to have. The particular taste is quite strong and might not be everybody's taste, but I really recommend to test it at least. It is worth it, even though I could have easily survived two weeks in Germany with the money spent for that single
dish. It was really tasty and the service was really friendly and attentive, too! I would order it again, if I could affort that!

Knowledge of the day: Tipping is not compulsory in Finnish restaurants.

day no. 17/18 - in the woods...my first 30km Safari!

Erä-susi Huskyfarm -2 °C some like it hot...the dogs not that much!

Today was one of the 'big' days, one of those which are rare, but full of good experiences that will last as good memories for longer... 

I taught my first driving lesson on my own!
Every tourist group is introduced to sledge, equipment, dogs and shown how it actually works to go sledging with the huskies before they even meet their team. It is not really difficult, but still there are a few things one has to remember in order to fully enjoy this experience not risking one's health or the welfare of the dogs. They put up a little stage in front of the Safari house on which a sledge, equal to the ones that are used, is placed. The guide climbs up on the stage and shows how it works in a little driving lesson, answering questions and taking away fears and misgivings. I've joined a couple of times the riding lessons of the professional guides who have been doing thoset already for years- they are really good entertainers! People laugh a lot and arrive in a cheerful mood at the starting point, maybe still a little nervous, but not afraid anymore. After the trip the guide accompanies our guests to the cozy guest lounge where hot coffee, tea, juice and some snacks are already waiting heated up over the ingel. Then the guests have the possibility to have a tour at the farm, cuddling a lot of adult dogs and puppies and of courses they will sooner or later find their way also to the souvenir shop...
I learned that the puppies see about 7000 people before they, at the age of about 1 year when their almost grown up bodies can handle it, start running themselves. That's why they are so handsome with every kind of human no matter where they come from or how they look and smell like. Actually this is really remarkable! Among each other the dogs can act very rough and I can fully understand that people might feel afraid of them seeing how they treat each other. But they would never ever do something else to people then showing trust and affection without any exception. They love people and are quite jealous, when the neighbor gets more attention then one itself. From the beginning until the end the guide is always around ready to answer questions, tell stories, make the guests stay as comfortable as possible and most of all being proud. :) The people who work here seem to really love what they do and one can easily notice that just listening to their experiences and their anecdotes.  

Today I was invited to try the guiding myself and  taught a small German group the most important things to know. Afterwards I could accompany the group, too- this was a real surprise! So far I've been always working on the farm never leaving the closer surroundings. My maximum distance I did so far driving myself was a trip about 5 km and today I was shown the 30 km trail, since I'm not ready yet to accompany groups with the safety snowmobile unassisted. Everyone of the guides loves the 30 km tour, because it is actually like having a day off. Since the group is for at least 4 hours on the trails, the guide misses all the hard work that has to be done back on the farm and can ride through ice and snow, sitting at the camp fire eating sausages and having a chat with the customers. Obviously it is still an tiring trip, especially if something happens to the dogs or a tourit might fall from the sledge. (Fortunately everything went perfectly!) But in any case it was quite a cool experience! 
The weather was unfortunately not perfect. Covered with grey clouds the sky and underground looked quite the same, so that it was hard to identify the following sledges at the horizon. The warmth in these days bothers the dogs. They need about -20 degrees to feel really good. Working hard in these days they feel really warm and try to cool down whenever possible rolling around and burying their heads in the cold, refreshing snow until they are fully covered. Dogs are unable to sweat so they have to find other possibilities to cool down. 

snow white 

I was placed on the snowmobile sitting back watching all the time what was happening behind us while a seasoned guide was driving the snowmobile. We always drove much faster than the dogs could ever run leaving the tourists alone with the beautiful white and silent landscape only heightened by the sound of the dogs' paws hitting the icy surface and creaking of the wooden sledges. It's a wonderful experience! 

touris on tour

We stopped after a several hundred meters waiting for them in order to make sure that everybody is still ok and following the track. We were the first ones using this trail this morning and in front of us lay the untouched forests and fields. One might think that it could be boring to see all the time for hours just white and trees, but it is not! To start with it is not just white, the landscape is coloured in hundreds of different shades of grey, blue, white, green and deep purple, although the sun was not shining. Every tree looks different and after every curve another great view is offered to your eyes. The air is frosty clear out here. (Obviously not that much sitting back on the snowmobile. My mentor, a Finnish giant in his best years, sitting back to back in front to me protected me form the icy wind). I liked riding the snowmobile looking in the 'wrong' direction. I had the perfect view on our running dogs and actually it was quite a challenge: Not seeing where we were going, every turn and every hill came as a surprise. It reminds me a little bit of riding young horses- up and down, jumping suddenly in an unexpected direction...


After 18 km we had a break in a warm, traditional shelter. My professional companion lit a campfire in the tent and we grilled sausages and had some hot beverage. Inside it was really cozy and soon it got nicely heated up in there.
Even though is was a warm day, sitting for so long time one gets cold easily, since the cold airstream is continuously cooling you. On the farm I'm really ok with my pullover and a thin cap, but for that trip I put over my pullover, my thin Erä-susi sweater and the heavy Erä-susi outdoor jacket, covering my head with a fleece beanie cap and a heavy helmet. My hands were protected with leather mittens keeping really warm because of the wooly lining. It was really necessary. 

The trip ended far too soon for my taste, but I can hardly recommend to everybody to make this experience! Driving through this spectacle landscape with a dog sledge is even more amazing than with a snowmobile! For those who don' t like dogs: I found out today that all over North-Finland there are hundreds of kilometers long snowmobile trail marked with a blue cross which usage is free of charge. We tried to avoid those tracks because unfortunately the snowmobile driver don't drive really carefully and often much to fast. Some time ago one snowmobile has seen the sledge to late and crashing in the team it injured one of the dogs seriously. It can end really badly and that's why the Erä-Susi team prefers to use private trails, but sometimes it is inevitable to drive through those public ones for a while. Around Kuusamo and Ruka seems to be much traffic on that kind of trails, that's why the longer trips about up to 5 days Safaris are not started from here but from Rokua which seems to offer more quiet surroundings. 



I had a really remarkable day, admittedly among a lot of remarkable days..But still this one was very special. Thank you all for that really nice day ! :) 

Knowledge of the day: 

If your blade is too small to brave effectively the winter...

...get yourself a bigger one!

day no. 16 - bathing fun

Erä-susi Huskyfarm, -8° C tinkling of the snowflackes

Unfortunately it was too dark for taking a better pic

If fun or not, it was sooo cute! The youngest puppies used the new snow to run riot and get really dirty! Snow and dirt stick in their fluffy fur and sleeping cuddled closely together they spread the dirt everywhere melting the snow with the warmth of their bodies. We brought them in the stable in order to wash them with warm water and leave them over night in an heated shelter to let their fur dry. Nobody wants to see this little sweethearts ill. The lively puppies swarmed around in the stable stealing spoons and plastic sacks in which we keep the reindeer fodder. One of them expressed his exaltation for a blue scrubber disassembling it into thousands parts. They are so curious and unstoppable. 4 whelps on discovery trip! :) 

Once again some teams left today unfortunately. Now there are just about 20 teams left, which means from over 200 dogs are remaining about 140. It's getting empty here...slowly! But the dogs like the car- I guess it smells like an adventure. They are leaving for the other farm which is the starting point for 5-days Safaris, which means 5 days in a row doing what they love: running! I would be excited, too, in their stead!

How does reindeer meat tastes? Since I'm already here, I can't go home without having it tasted. So on my next free day I will get myself somehow a piece to try it. You can buy it here in the supermarket and not just the raw meat, but I have seen also reindeer salami, reindeer sausages, reindeer pies, pastries with reindeer meat filling.... I thought about trying it at a restaurant, since I have actually no idea how to prepare it. 

Knowledge of the day: It's time for a snowball battle and building a lumiukko (snowman)! 

Best way to finish a working day: oven-fresh, self-made cinnamon buns and a nice hot pot of tea.

day no. 15 - Mayday,a grey day!

Erä-susi Huskyfarm, - 16°C 

Halftime. And yet I know that I will be back one day. :) Coming here was one of my best decisions so far, even though not every day is full of amazing moments and great challenges to master:

My mood oscillates between elation and frustration, ups and downs (but until now far more ups than downs). Something in the middle doesn't seem to be possible. In one moment I'm allowed to guide a sledge, I could enjoy a really amazing experience/ natural spectacle or I just had the feeling to finally be somehow useful, trusted and proud that I mastered something on my own. In the next (rare) moment I just feel somehow not really 'arrived' yet. But in general I feel really well-balanced for the first time in a long while, I am at the peak of my emotional and physical well-being...Does that sounds paradoxical?

The root of all evil are, if you ask me,  two difficulties:
1)TIME: Most of the times everyone keeps telling what I'm not able to do yet, instead of using the time in an effective way (anyways talking to me) and explaining me how it's done helping me to affront it one day unassisted. The daily schedule is really well organized, but still it happens that in stressful moments everything has to be prepared perfectly and most of all ridiculously fast. That's where it starts to be difficult for me! I don't have the routine yet and I need time to observe the others and come to conclusions. But still...I want to learn how to make it better and faster!

2)LANGUAGE: I try to integrate, but the language barrier, unlike my expectations and experiences from the past when it comes to overcome such a barrier, turns out to be a problem. Sometimes I do not really feel part of the group although we had really cool and funny moments together and everybody tries very hard to express themselves best. I think the situation wouldn' t even change, if somebody always translated, since just the fact that a translation is needed makes me different. It's not the same laughing together with the others than alone afterwards, once I heard the translation. I don't know yet how to overcome this problem yet, but I will figure out a way...Excluding for my part some people have really limited language skills concerning English, which doesn' t make this little unpleasantness easier to solve. It's a pity! I need to improve my not really existent Finnish faster! I wish I would have studied the language before...

icy beauty

I think I don't have to mention that my mood tonight fits perfectly the todays weather: it didn't really became light. It was really gloomy, cloudy, grey and it kept snowing the whole day ... But the good point is: I have already a solution for getting rid of it : SAUNA-better than chocolate ice cream could ever be! Do you feel tired, annoyed, frustrated? Sweat it out and life will looks suddenly so much brighter and hotter! :)

Nevertheless I had a funny mo(ve)ment today, too. After a 20km trip the dogs crept the last meters home rather than they ran. They seemed really tired. I freed one of the leading dogs from his harness in order to bring him back home to his doghouse. Normally they jump and wrench once they are finally taken away from the main wire they are clamped on during the ride. He sat still, not moving at all while I was holding him at his collar. But then suddenly he changed his mind and jump over the main wire. His unexpected, powerful movement made me fall face down in the snow entangling one foot in his harness and the other in the main wire. He pulled me over the slippery with fresh snow covered icy surface until a sledge blocked his path. Certainly he wasn't as tired as I imagined. It was soooo funny and obviously I had a broader audience, since the tourists hadn't left yet. (Don't worry! No harm done to anyone) :)

Knowledge of the day: No one is born a master! I guess not even 'our masters'...

Yes, I am definitely going to miss her! Thank you, Caroola! :)