Coming of spring....?

After a (near) record amount of snow this winter, the last few weeks have brought balmy temperatures and the beginnings of snowmelt.... There is still more than enough snow in the forest and mountains, but close to town we feel the sap rising...birds singing, sunlight...

Last weekend we had beautiful Sunday weather, and we took Phoebe to the local kindergarden where she could freely around and practice her newfound passion for.....digging! Check out the videos here: http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/80/Phoebe_running_off_leash
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/81/Phoebe_digging_in_the_snow

Happy trails! :-)

Phoebe's debut as race leader...

Last weekend, Priscila and I loaded up the car with the sled, Phoebe and 3 excellent sled dogs from Hans Christian Ørjestad (aka. "The King"). We are eternally grateful that he would lend us Kaisa, Foxy and Krølløre - three of his top-class and experienced Siberians. THANK YOU! After a looooong drive through minor blizzard conditions and slippery roads, we arrived at Grimsbu Camping in Folldalen, an eldorado for dog sledding where the Norwegian Siberian Husky Cllub had their annual winter meeting.... Setting out our stake-out chain (made that same day), the dogs were given a well-deserved meal :-) Typical of a lone house dog, Phoebe is a relatively picky eater at home - on the stake-out however, she eats...well, like a dog?! No problem with her appetite, an essential trait in a working dog. See a video of the dogs here: http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/79/Siberian_huskies_eating_at_stake-out

On Friday, after the end of the official races, Priscila and I teamed up our 4 dogs, running Phoebe with Krølløre as wheel dogs, and Kaisa+Foxy up front. We did a practice run of the 10 km sprint circuit that I would race the next day - halfway through we switched places - Priscila and I - and Krølløre and Phoebe - so....for the last couple of kilometers Phoebe ran in lead for the first time in her life...! No problem :-) Seeing that Kaisa is a grand old lady of 11 yrs, I borrowed another dog (Hera) from fellow Siberian musher Lars - teaming up Hera and Phoebe in front with Krølløre and Foxy as wheel dogs, we set out on Saturday to compete in the informal recruitment race - 10kms sprint with up to 6 dogs. Apart from losing 1 min or so to Phoebe's desire to play with Hera, she performed really, really well for being in lead! 10 kms went by in a respectable time (37 mins or so) and we arrived in goal without any mishaps - gooooooood dogs... A really good learning experience for all of us! :-)

Training at Johanne's cabin...

This week Johanne was away working in Africa and I went to her cabin with Kjetil whom helps train her dogs. With Phoebe we had 10 dogs... I drove us there with 4 dogs in cages in the car and the remaining 6 in the dog-trailer. On the way we picked up her car from the repair-shop and one of her sleds from the "Dog musher shop" in Elverum. We had true "arctic winter" conditions with nighttime temperatures down to -25 degrees C.... Quite some debut for Phoebe's first nights to sleep outside in a dog house!!! She didn't seem worse for wear - bright and active at the morning feeding / watering time. We gave all the dogs extra food over the weekend for them to generate enough heat - "fuelling the oven" so to speak, something we had to do for us too.... When arriving at the cabin, all the plastic water storage bottles were frozen solid!!! We lit a fire in the fireplace and started melting snow on the electric stove.... Falling asleep in my sleeping bag on the sofa I was in the end warm and cozy.... :-)
At 5 in the morning, I had the pleasure (truly!) of being woken by the dog pack howling! I believe I heard an "out-of-tune" voice that perhaps was Phoebe - anyway, it is a wonderful thing to hear - I just love the dog concerts :-)

On Saturday we went out for a looooooong run - Phoebe teaming up with 4 of Johanne's experienced dogs on a run that was 34.2kms according to the GPS!! No wonder she had a great appetite when we came home, and that she went to sleep like an angel in her house....! Sunday was a shorter run of 19kms before we packed up and drove home to Oslo in the queue of cars to deliver them all back at Johanne's kennel.... It was nice to sleep in our own beds for a change - Phoebe outside our bedroom door and myself next to Priscila in our comfy bed :-)

See a video of the Saturday run here: http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/78/Phoebe_running_long_distance

Distance sled training and cross country skiing!

Photo of Denvildra Teqno - Phoebe's father (photo by Sandra Olofsson - Huskylyan kennel).

On Friday, Phoebe and I went out with Johanne and her dogs - I ran Phoebe alone in the middle of a 5-dog team - a total of 20 kms. Really nice run in the quiet evening - we didn't get back until 23:45 (quarter to midnight).... We tried to visit a friend of Johanne, breaking trail in deep snow to reach his cabin, but we missed it by a couple of 100 meters - anyway, we don't think he was there... Phoebe is running very smoothly in the team, and seems very happy to be doing her "real job" - pulling a sled! One day soon I shall have to try her up front with an experienced leader alongside......

In the last days we have received 30-40 cms of snow here in the Oslo area - really nice!! Today Priscila and I introduced our friend Rodrigo to the pleaseure of Cross Country skiing - he is very fit (marathon runner) and has a natural talent for sports.... We did a smooth 7.5 kms on his FIRST ever outing! Of course, I had Phoebe in front pulling :-)
See a couple of videos here:
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/74/Priscila_and_our_friend_Rodrigo_skiing
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/75/Fiskebein_Fishbone_uphill_cross_country
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/76/Downhill_on_cross_country_skis
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/77/Rodrigo_going_down_the_hill...

Phoebe's debut as a long-distance dog...!

Voff!? This weekend we went to Johanne's cabin to run our new sled..... Johanne was very kind in giving us a "helping hand", lending us dogs to match Phoebe with and give her a real initiation into the art of running....! We did a quick run on Friday when we arrived, giving Phoebe and some of Johanne's dogs a short stretch of the legs... On Saturday, I ran a string of 4 dogs, Racer (from Hans Christian) and Kobuq (Johanne's) up front, with Phoebe and Spock forming the wheel-dig pair. It was a great feeling running the new sled, and observing how Phoebe ran. She was mostly very concentrated and seemed to be enjoying herself very much! Priscila is perhaps the up-and-coming (only one?!) Brasilian dog musher!? She ran another set of 4 dogs with Johanne's sprint sled - expertly controlling the situation even when the sled tipped over!!! Johanne had another 4 dogs and her friend Egil had a string of 7 Alaska huskies.... Boy were we glad he took the job of leading all the teams in the beginning...! There was a LOT of snow, so his team broke trail for all of us :-) Thanks Egil! The total distance run was around 27 kms with a break midway - pretty good going for Phoebe the novice long-distance dog!!! On Staturday evening we joined the local dog musher neighours for a dinner party - what a party! Good food, good drink and good fun for all :-)

Phoebe really enjoyed her initiation to distance running - her tug-line was mostly tight and despite being tired at the end, she kept running...and pulling - gooooood girl!
She also seemed to fit in very well with Johanne's dogs, all of which behaved themselved very well around her! Perhaps she is eyeing them up as potential mates for the future?! Needless to say, her "boyfriend" Bardus was happy to see her :-) Woof, woof!

See a couple of videos from the weekend here:
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/71/Siberian_husky_dogsledding
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/72/Dogs_talking...
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/73/8-dog_Siberian_husky_team_setting_off...

Not to forget "chubby boy" Nexus! He had the treatment befitting a King during the weekend, when my mother looked after him! I believe he has charmed his way into her heart......miiiiiiijau!?

Snow, snow, snow!

Last weekend we went to Trysil to do some alpine skiing for the first time this winter - Priscila, Paula, Rodrigo and Patricia - we all enjoyed playing in the white stuff!
We bought a cheap "akrebrett" (toboggan?) that the kids use to slide down the hills... Phoebe was hooked up in front and.....she pulled!! See the video from this week that I took at home - by the shaking of the camera, you should realise that I was running to keep up!
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/69

Priscila really enjoyed it - it has given us a preview taste the dogsledding.... We are going to Johanne's cabin this weekend, bringing the new sled and borrowing a set of dogs :-)

Holiday, party and growing up!

Priscila and I went to Brasil over the Xmas and New Year holidays - the first time since she moved 1.5 yrs ago! It was very good to see family again, but since most people were travelling, we didn't see as many friends as we wanted.... My parents came over, and we - Priscila, her mum Zo, my mum and dad and me, all went to a beautiful island "Ilha Grande"...

The word on the beach is that a new World Champion surfer was born......NOT! Great fun at least!

The main event of our trip was the delayed celebration of our wedding - a great party was had by all - a modest (by Brazilian standards) 150 guests! See the pictures on Priscila's website here: http://prikoh.multiply.com/photos/album/95
http://prikoh.multiply.com/photos/album/96

As for the animals.... They had a nice stay in a "dog and cat hotel" - Nexus emerging as a larger cat after 3 weeks of what must have been a food orgy! :-) And little Phoebe......is not so "little" anymore! She had her first menstrual cycle - as I write this, she is in the last week of the cycle... At least it seems most of her "PMS" attidue has relaxed a bit....nothing destroyed here in the apartment of note the last few days....heheh! She is now 8 months old - weighs 16 kg.

We are looking forward to the return of winter, and will hopefully have a debut with the new sled in the weekend in little more than one week..... We shall see......!

MjauVoff!