Todays training was a bit strange. I started at about 10 o´clock with -22 degrees and nice weather. 64 km later I came home and it was -6 degrees and heavy snowstorm. So we had really all weatherconditions today. Training went well, the dogs are in good mood. And my new camera was also with me :)))

Susen was not impressed of the weather, sitting in the sled is not that worst ;)

Here it was already snowing and starts to get windy (you can hear it). Sorry for the partly poor quality of the film, I tried to put on my beaver-gloves.

I got a new camera for christmas :)))))))))) So now you all have to look at my first tries ;)

 

On a 86 km run today

We had it warmer today, -16 degrees

 On a short rast for rolling in the snow. Tchmil and Luis in lead

 

 And here a small video, it look faster then it was.

Christmas run

Today Jörg was out with all 16 dogs for a 86 km christmas run. It was very cold the last days, so all dogs got blankets and booties on. And Jörg got his warm clothings, too ;))

Otherwise training went fine, we stick to our trainingsplan and enjoy our free days from work.

Have all merry christmas and a happy new year!

 You can see at Jörgs hood and how he has covered his face how cold it was, -30 degrees.

Maybe even the dogs appreciated their blankets today?

We wish our family and supporters merry christmas and a happy new year

Here a few pics and a small film from todays 60 km training. It was snowing a lot the last few days, so the dogs had to break partly the trail. Luckily Reidar came over on thursday for training until sunday, so he broke parts of the trail and I the other parts.

Kauppinen wide open championchip

Last weekend Taisto Thorneus organized a trainingsrace in Kiruna. The first in the beginning, it was a very good organized trainingsrace with perfect trails who were even perfect marked. It was (nearly) impossible to drive wrong. We were 7 teams who were starting saturday at 11am in Kauppinen. Jörg started with 8 dogs and I with 7 dogs, Didi was limping a little bit and so we decided to let her at home. The trail was about 56 km on the first stage, then we had to stay for 30 minutes and drove further 35 km to Taistos camp. Our dogs ran like hell and we stood nearly all the time on the brake. We didn´t want them to go faster then 17-18 km/h. At the camp the dogs had 15 hours rest and we were pampered with good food and a very (really very) warm cabin were our beds were. After a nice evening we went to bed early and at 4.30am the night was over. Going out for feeding the dogs. It is very nice to drive a race together, so one could take care of the dogs and the other was preparing the dogfood. Bartali, Gira and Sivtsov were limping a little bit and I catched a cold (already on friday) :(( So we had only 12 dogs left and only one healthy musher. We asked Taisto if it would be ok if Jörg will drive an open team and I and the three dogs take the scooter home. It was ok for all others. So Jörg went out with 12 dogs and I with three dogs at the scooter. Jörg had a lot of fun with his team and he had to stay on the brake all the time. So all in all a perfect weekend and a perfect training for us and our dogs. Specially for the youngsters, it was there first time sleeping outside and beeing on a foreign trail. And btw, Taisto won his own championchip closed before Jan who drove Milos dogs ;)

 Jörg and his team on the river

 In the woods. He was that fast that the picture is blurred ;)))

 On the river again closed behind another team

 Mats Pettersson

 Hugo with Taistos second team

 Jörg with Jaja and Sean in lead

Jörg again, he has his big gloves on it was really cold

Today...

...I did it. I was really that crazy and put all 16 dogs in front of the sled. I can tell you, that was not the smartest idea in my life, but anyway the dogs and I (!!!!!) survived it without any damages. Ok, the camera didn´t survive it and because of that I have no picture :(
It was wild, but I loved it. We have really poor snow conditions, only about 10 cm. It was Rock´n Roll and very fast. In the swamps we have a lot of glare ice and I was happy for every snowbite I could get to slow the dogs down. The first 3 km it seems to train for the ONAC. But after surviving that the rest of the training was in that speed I want them to go. So all in all, scary but great :)))

On the sled!

Yesterday Michal and Jörg went out to open the trail for the sled and today we stood eventually on it  :))))) It was good timing for our guests Michelle and Michal, it was their last day. So they could have a ride on the sled before they left us.

 Michal the trailbreaker ;)

 On the sled :))))

 Jörg and Michal with their team

 Fränk and Tchmil in lead

A happy Michelle on the sled :)))

Today was a beautyful day. Very cold in the night and bright sunshine the whole day :))))) That invited us to a lot of activities.

 Michelle was trying the snowmashine, btw she is only 10 years old, and very light and small.

 Then Michelle and Jörg went out to make a few parts of the trail :))

 The dogs needed also some training!

 Michelle is alsways with us, here harnessing the dogs.

Dogtraining is done :))

The lake is safe!

And this time it´s no joke :)) So we went out to set the markers for the sledtrail over the lake. We had some good help from Michal and his doughter Michelle.

 Jörg was drilling a whole

 Then we set the markers

 Michelle thought that Jörg did it not good enough and took the drill;)

Susen and Michelle - best friends forever

The ice...

...gets better and better. This night we had about -9 degrees and so Tobi and I were further on the lake. It was a lot of fun ad tomorrow we try do go over the whole lake ;)))

 

The ice has some nice pattern these days

Ice on the lake!

Today Susan and I did our first steps on the frozen lake ;)))) It´s always exciting when it´s possible to do that first steps. The ice was holding even if the feeling was not that good to go there. Tomorrow it will be much better and then I will send Tobi, the son of my friend on the ice ;) Will see if he is that brave to do it ;))

 Susen was the first...

...and I was following

We got a new doghandler ;))



No, not really. I have a friend visiting me with her 13 year old son. We have a lot of fun and Tobi with the ATV, too. It was snowing yesterday so the training seems nearly like wintertraining. Hopefully we get some colder days now that the lake is save soon and we can take the sleds :))

And here is the Film Uschi took in the same time like me. Have a look at my nice hat, I´m sure I could make it in every James Bond film with that as the evil russian agent...



Fall Training

Didn´t wrote that much the last time, but it happens not that much either...We train the dogs, looking all day at the weather forecast and hoping that the cold and snow will come soon :) Training is going good, all 16 dogs are in good mood and we, too. With the weather forecast it´s like usual, one day they promise cold for next week, the other day they promise warm for next week. So normally it´s senseless to look there, but we never give up. But this morning we had the first little ice on our lake :))) So at least the water in the lake is cold enough that it could freeze if it would become colder...
The last days Uschi and Steffen were at our trainingsrounds with their dogs and that was a good training for both of us. We could train a bit head-on-passing and even the youngsters did it in a fine matter. Below you see a small video from different training runs. I lough in the end of the film because I was filming and Uschi was filming the same time, too ;)



Finnmarkslopet

The first drawing of the Finnmarkslopet startlist is done. I got the bibnumber 21. Not the worst and if you think that a few always withdraw, I advance maybe a few places ;)

Aktiv Hund

Today we got a big parcel from our sponsor Ägna AB. It was full with Aktiv Hund tablets to provide joint problems at our dogs.

Many thanks to Ägna AB for that, we are really thankful for that sponsoring!!!

Here a small film from our training today. Did something wrong while loading up the film, so you have to follow the link and can´t see it directly on our blogg...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKfjz3q1Avg&feature=plcp

I stand up at 4:45 this morning only to see that it´s too warm for training - 13,5 degrees :( So i went to bed again, that was not that bad ;) At 7:30 I decided to stand up and for my surpise it was only 10 degrees :))) So out to the dogs, harnesses on and off we went for training. And this time I took the camera with me, so here the pictures of the second training this season :)

 Guess who is the free running dog in front ;) My sunshine Susen of course. Even she is happy that the training has started.

The dogs get some water. Sean and Jaja in lead. Do you see the nice and fancy Polaris ATV in the background? Training with the prize for winning Finnmarkslopet makes even more fun ;)

This morning....

....even we started with our fall-training. I forgot the camera for sure and a few other things - like always on the first trainings run. But I´m excused, standing up at 4 o´clock in the morning is not really my time! There it can happen to miss something ;)
It was 9 degrees, so perfect condition for the dogs not to overhead. Now everybody is satisfied and from tomorrow the forecast promise colder temperatures in the morning. So maybe I can sleep until 5 o`clock tomorrow and try not to forget the camera :)

Symposium of Älvarnas sleddog club

I was invited from my sleddog club to speak about the journey with our dogs from puppy to Finnmarkslopet. It was the second time for me to do thid and I was quite nervous... But all went well and I even got some applause - I don´t now because they were happy it was over or because it was not that bad ;) 

These two days were very interesting and on the evening we had a lot of fun with old friends.

I explained with hands and feed...

Polaris - ATV

Today I got my premium from Finnmarkslopet, a Polaris ATV! I picked it up at Arvidsjaur`s Polaris experience center. Many thanks to Polaris Norway that they took care to manage everything that I could get it into Sweden without any problems!

Bella Italia :)))))))

It was really quite at our webside the last weeks, but this was because of our holidays. We were in Italy for a while and then in Spain. So nearly 6 weeks on the road :) It was great, especially we had such great help for the dogs at home from Ingrid and Fabian. So we could really relax at our holidas, many thanks for that!!!

What do you imagine when you hear holiday in Italy?

 Maybe a nice house...

 with an own pool...

 a nice place to sit at the pool...

 a beautyful view...

 taking a bath in the pool...

 lying lazy in the sun...

 more time in the pool...

having breakfast outside. In all things we agree, but for us is holiday in Italy even:

Being out with the bike and torture our selfs :)))))))))))))))

 For me this was the first trainingscamp for Finnmarkslopet 2013!!! Not only the dogs have to be prepared and in topform ;)

 Of course we were also out for looking Giro d`Italia. Here it´s Allessandro Ballan, unbelieveable how skinny this guys are!

 Fränk Schleck on his way to the daily sign in.

 The start of the race.

 And out on the own bike again. 

 Jörg found a lot of hills, but always with a beautyful view as reward ;)

 This legs are not only for riding a bike, they run even every uphill at the Finnmarkslopet - and I mean really EVERY ;)

 This was one of the hardest days....

...and here you can see me dying. I really knows what it means to have pain in the legs!

 But we did not only sport, we did also some sightseeing, guess where we were.

In Florenz of course :)