Until yesterday we had nice, sunny autumn-weather andd could enjoy again sunny days and beautiful sunsets. Now arrived a rainy period here and drops are falling since this morning. Depending on which weather-forcast you follow, it will rain up to 5 days in a row. But... better now, than on/after September 26th, as this is our scheduled training start. Preparations are going on... teams are selected, booties and harnesses are prepared, lines and vehicles have to be checked, etc. In the new kennels Jack & Luna have already been running in harness in front of the kickbike, in the old kennels the malamute-team has now started as well. But so far only with short, pure fun-trips, just to get a bit of pre-training and for a slow warm-up.
The excursions with out guests in autumn look a bit different than in summer. As the temperatures drop significantly, long days out are not made for everybody anymore. So we combined a short hike on the Bears-Trail with a swiss cheese-fondue-evening in the Aittokoski cabin. And a mushroom-hike in the Mukavaara-area was followed by a big open campfire on the peninsula, where a 3-course-dinner was served. An excursion to the Pielinen museum in Lieksa is also a good program for half-rainy days, as it's always possible to go inside if the drops fall earlier than predicted.
Mushrooms are sadly a very rare sight this autumn. Summer was obviously too long hot and dry, and despite colder days and humidity now, they do not grow a lot anymore. But marmelade from self picked blueberries and cranberries is a nice alternative and also very typical for this time of the year.
Some quick news also from our puppies: after all groups have been now every other day in the kennels for playtime, now from today on the first of them get to know their future grown-up colleagues and kennels. The first 6 moved this morning to the old kennels, where they get to know their new groups and their future home. They move back then in the evening to their puppy-groups, where they for sure have to tell a lot of stories then!