We are training again... since 23rd September our 4-legged athletes run again and get ready for the winter-season 17/18. Because of the still very high humidity (mostly over 90%) we keep the distances short at the moment, 4 - 8 km. And therefor we do still train per kennel, not in different power-classes. Old dogs run with young ones, all the same. But as soon as the weather is a bit training-friendlier we will start the different classes as usual. Leader in training after 1 week is Lex; followed by Jack, Misu and Inua, but impossible to be catched up in the current conditions. But this is anyhow only an internal team-competition, and the placings now will definitely not be the same at the end of winter 17/18.
When it comes to mushrooms.... well, it's simply disappointing. Only very small amounts of mushrooms we could dry for winter-use. They are simply not growing here this autumn, whatever might be the reason. So coming winter we sadly will have to buy mushrooms in the shops. But the berries, they are still here, still very tasty and appreciated by us - and some dogs as well - as quick snack in the forests. Also the bears eat a lot of them at the moment, to get ready for winter, an dreminings of the berries can be seen in their feces on every hiking.
Together with our musher-workshop-guests we are now also checking our winter trails, put new markers where necessary and make some small optimising if needed. And on those excursions we sadly discovered two days ago, that our bridge on the mountain-trail is completely gone, taken away by the heavy logging machines, which were definitely not supposed to use our trail-bridge! Well, we will have to build a new one, as we want to use our mountain-trail also during next winter.
Our 3 new volunteers are fully integrated in the training already and get better every day. Lisa and Daniela (with Toivo) are here since 2 weeks and take care of the old kennels and help with training in the new kennels. And Annabel, here now since 1 month, is perfectly familiar with the new kennels and starts to work now also in the old kennels. More about our 3 "V's" on the team-pages!