Tangling dogs

Last Thursday Hakan went to Nederhögen to qualify dogs at 2 x 30km. The first part took place on Friday, the tracks were excellent and they finished 30 km in 2 h 5 min with sledge and eight dogs, which boded well for Saturday's stage. During the night of Friday, it fell some snow so the track was slightly heavier but also on this day the dogs were working well and the team made the 30-km at 2 h 15 min. This meant that team, with a good margin, passed the lowest speed of 7 km / h required for passing the test.

Sunrise 23/1-11

 

Saturday morning's sunrise filed hopes for good weather and I decided that I would go sledging in the afternoon.

Hakan brought the best lead dogs and those who work the best, but I reckoned that Singi and Sälka, who has previously gone as lead dogs, would work well. I put up the team on the field near our house, just beside the road. When I was just ready to go and had loosened the lead dogs, one of the neighbors came walking with his dog. Sälka and Singi thought it was very exciting and turned the whole team in the wrong direction. However after some trouble we got started. 

The dogs were hot and went galloping for about 3 km. I went on to the lake at a good speed, but as we turned home, the two males in the team suddenly realized that Delta smelt very good. Appa, who joined in pairs with Delta, tried repeatedly to get on her and didn't realize, despite Delta's very angry reception, that he was not welcome. Pepper, who joined as wheeldog with Corall, struggled and pulled to get close to Delta and refused to stand still as I stopped the team to switch places for Sälka and Appa. It all ended with the entire team beeing one big knot and I was glad I had no aggressive dogs in the team. 

After a while of tangling I had sorted out all the ropes and could provide the command-Forward! then there were only five dogs who were listening. Appa went backwards and Pepper pulled like a horse, soon I had a knot again: (((My patience was running out and I had to strain to not let my irritation out on the dogs. Slowly we moved forward on the lake, the dogs constantly tangling while Singi did her best to tighten up the tangling team. As we finally got home, I was all sweaty.

In the afternoon, I read in the newly purchased book "Friluftsmat" by Anita Forsell and made my first attempt to dry anything other than mushroom. The result seemed good and today I'll test it with carrot and turnip.

Dried onion

 In the evening I started sewing a harness and Sälka, half asleep, supervised my work.

Sälka half asleep

The first part of a harness