Adding to the team...

We have for a couple of days now had the pleaseure to welcome "little Joey" into our expanding dog-family! "Little" Joey is almost 9 weeks young....but has already weighed in at 7.5kg!!! Judging by the size of his paws, he is set to become a BIG Siberian Husky when he grows up! :-)
His parents are both lead dogs from a Norwegian racing kennel, so we have hope for his future as a sled dog.... He has already had a chance to run around with the other three adult dogs in the big kennel space, as well as try to play chase our cat Nexus... Of course, being a baby he still sprinkles our wood floors with an ample dose of "angle water" pee..... Love him to bits! :-)

Extending the living space....!

In the heat of summer, the dogs generally enjoy a bit of shade and tend to relax...

However, despite the heat and to the detriment of my lower back, but to the gainment of the dogs....the new run-around kennel space is hereby declared as OPEN! :-)  Yes, yes - I have slaved away for a while this summer, making holes, driving poles...

So - now the kids can run around a bit, sniff, pee, dig....dig, dig, dig....! They really seem to enjoy the added space and look forward to the opportunity to stretch their legs! Phoebe in particular is full of energy, running back and forth, around and around.... Burka is content to sniff around and run just a little, dig just a little....then sit in the shade... :-)  Luke, however...is the DIGGER! He has found some exciting smells it seems, that he really, really, REALLY needs to dig for....hehehe! Enjoy the rest of summer!

Summertime swimming...

Polar dogs are often shy of water.... I guess naturally so, since getting wet in the freezing arctic cold is the most effective way to end your life....!  However, Siberian Huskies are almost "waterproof", and if they have a chance to roll in dry powder snow, they can quickly dry themselves off.... In summer, "water sports" is a great way to exercise despite the hot weather.. Phoebe enjoys swimming around when we go on a quick canoe trip on our local lake. Ahhhh - summer....

Oh....hard summer life...

The past week has been HOT! Everyone - four-legged and two-legged  seem to seek the shade or other ways of cooling down....like spending time in and on the lake!!  Next door we have a beautiful lake and since Phoebe has always enjoyed swimming, we decided to buy her a swim-vest so that she can be more comfortable in the water...

She also enjoys sitting in the canoe and watching life float by...literally :-)

On the home front, our chubby boy Nexus has decided he needs to sweat off some of the kitten-fat.... ;-)
He has simply found a perfect spot to rest his chin.... In the safety of daylight and before he has his dinner, we let him out a couple of times per week so that he can run around on the lawn and explore the neighborhood.... It doesn't seem he goes very far, but he clearly enjoys his wider horizons :-)

On the mushing front, we are in R&R mode.  The dogs spending lazy days on the top of dog houses, and us humans enjoying the hot summer weather with a barbeque amongst friends!

Winter seems faaaaar away.....

Puppies....

As you may have noticed, there have been no further news about Phoebe and her planned mating to Vargteam's Zordo.... This is simply because nothing happened!  When she arrived at Ole Dag's kennel, she was probably not fully into her cycle yet, and arriving amongst a bunch of hormone-pumped rather domninant bitches probably made her shut down the cycle....!  Phoebe is a happy-go-lucky girl, but she is not very dominant (whatever we mean by that....another dicussion altogether).  After scouting around we cane across a couple of alternative litters, both of which seem to be excellent!  Ulf and Kari Hope at Snørokk Kennel have a beautiful bunch of puppies after two of their main dogs: http://snorokk.wordpress.com/.  On the other hand, Trond and Siv have a litter of puppies (http://www.sh-hundespann.com/tuvas_valper_2010.htm), from which Johanne will pick a male... She gave us a tip, that ONE male was left - we talked to them and went down in the car yesterday (they live 1 hour away).... Forgot the camera at home, but I have stolen Johanne Sundby's photo and show it here below..  After seeing the mother and father as well as the puppies crawling all over, we have decided to get a puppy from the litter....!  It will be fun to have a small one running around at home... It will be up to Uncle Nexus to teach him how to hunt birds.....or not!?  Nexus has made the progression into a (partly) outdoors cat - on Saturday he spent the entire day running around chasing birds without success... It is fun to watch him stalking, and it seems his instincts are strong.... :-)

A Midsummer Night's Dream....

Phoebe letting everyone know she is excited to run!

Wooooo wooooo wooooo!

We have just passed Midsummer.... Here in the Oslo-area the days are remarkably long... Even if we are not above the Arctic Circle it is *almost* Midnight Sun here:  Sunrise around 04:00 - sunset around 23:00..!Since Pagan prehistoric times, the longest (and shortest) day has always been associated with a ritual - in our times that equates to a party!  Last weekend we went to the cabin of a friend - 4 humans and 20 dogs in total! We all had a real blast - dogs running short and fast in front of bicycles and ATVs - stopping to wade in streams, drink and cool down... The two-legged group all went to a big local party on the Saturday - real hillbilly style in the forest - rock band, barbeque, wine and beer, laughter, friendship....fun!

The dogs are enoying the summer - loosing their wool, digging cooling earth pits - sleeping on the doghouse roof... We are very happy with our three Siberian Huskies - Phoebe is now a little more than two years young(!), Burka will be two in July, and Luke is heading towards 10 in November....Burka showing her mangy coat :-)

Luke enjoying his cooling earth pit...

Burka has shown herself to be a very eager, well-built girl.  She is rather careful and timid with strangers, but is very sweet and loving to her family.  Of course, when Phoebe shows too much enthusiasm (read: barks and makes a spectacle of herself), Burka needs to tell her to calm down....! Burka's half-brother and two half-sisters were also at the cabin this weekend.  Here is a photo of Juluss - named after the valley where the cabin is situated (Julussdalen).  He is extremly eager to run and rather noisy... His sister Nenana is proving to be a possible new leader for Johanne.... :-)

Dogs, and more dogs....

(Photo from Ole Dag Løvold)

Long time since the last update! We have been busy finishing an excellent winter season - more than 1 meter of sno on our doorstep!  Since we have a 3-dog team the pulling power is enough to enjoy sledding, which we can do just next door.  We took a long deserved holiday in Brazil at Easter time (see my wife's blog at http://naterradobacaiau.blogspot.com/) This long absence was followed by a business trip or two, ending with the total flight paralysis due to the Islandic volcano exploding.... I was of course stuck a few extra days in London...  You bet the dogs (and our cat) were sorely missed!!! Thanks to some of our very good friends, they had a pampered holiday!  With spring comes many natural changes - the birds return and start to sing, the leaves start to come out....and the doggy hormones start to flow! Phoebe has finally entered into her overdue period of "heat"...! And this means she will be bred to Vargteam't Zordo - we plan to keep at least two puppies so we can start to build up our small team :-) Phoebe is an intense, slightly overheated dog in the harness, prefering to gallop along like her Swedish-bred sprint parents.... Her dad ran on last year's winning dryland Siberian 4-dog team, and her mother comes from a long-established sprint line, Team Amarox. Zordo on the other hand is a well-shaped, cool and collected long distance lead-dog with all the genes and experience from Ole Dag Løvold's Vargteam kennel.  We are both looking forward to seeing the results of this cross....if it "takes"!