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 :)

It´s unbelievable, we have the 30.04. and can still drive with the sled directly out from our kennel! That was good for Ingrid and Fabian, a couple who comes from Austria. They will take care of our dogs the next 4 weeks, because we are in Italy for holidays :)))))))))))))))))))) They are very nice, have two dogs on their own and a lot of experience with dogs. So it was a "foreward-reward" for them that we was able to be out with the sleds ;) With this two at home we can really relax and enjoy our holidays!

Snow-eating-break for the dogs

Jörg in front, then Fabian, Ingrid and me as last. Ingrid was falling directly after the start, but she was hanging on the sled for about 200 meters and didn´t let it out. I was very impressed!

Two happy "new-mushers"

These days are the best of the year :) Sunshine all the time and the snow has a hard surface so that it is possible to drive everywhere with the dogs :)))

Here I was out with Jaja and Sean for some extra leaddog-training.
After Finnmarkslopet we have now the time to take more care of our youngsters. They are now 11 month old and were driving the whole winter with tourists. So they have a lot of routine with beeing in the harness. Now we drive some longer rounds with them and test who will be a leaddog. Seems that all 4 girls at least will be a leaddog ;))) The 3 boys are not that sure if it´s better to be a team- or a leaddog...

Here Jörg with Tchmil and Luis in lead. Tchmil had some problems with his back during Finnmarkslopet, but we get it fixed and now he goes with another type of harness to avoid pressure on his back. Seems to work well :)

A few seconds form our ride yesterday. We trained even passing and the young girls in lead think that´s ok and pass without any problems.

For all of you who missed my arrival at Finnmarkslopet, here is laying a nice film :)))
http://www.finnmarkdagblad.no/finnmarkslopet/article5966934.ece