Monday 26th January. A day off today, and the temperature is a very mild -3 degrees with some snow and a little wind. We wake late, a luxury and decide what to do with our off day… But first there is no food! The larder is empty so Daz has to go cap in hand to Ola at the Villa Lanca to see what he can scrounge. Fortunately, Ola has the petty cash and gives him some cash so he…
January 25, 2015 Fire, Fire, Fire Thursday 22nd January Today our farm cabin burnt down. Everything in that block of buildings razed to the ground: our cabin, the equipment room, the wood shed and the tool cupboard gone! It’s our day off today and we’ve decided to walk to the Sami Wilderness Church – it’s the destination of one of our horse sled tours. When we leave we’ve heard from Erkki that he can’t pick up Maria for day farming…
Tuesday 12th January Today it’s pretty much all painting for me. More coats of paint on the shutters and then primer on the shutters Daz and Martin have prepared over the last couple of days. Meanwhile Daz continues work bringing down the level where the swimming pool used to stand. Poor sod – he’s definitely got the harder job; 5 hours of digging! Wednesday 13th January A fabulous day off today, we all go to Ax les Thermes skiing…
Tuesday 12th January Today it’s pretty much all painting for me. More coats of paint on the shutters and then primer on the shutters Daz and Martin have prepared over the last couple of days. Meanwhile Daz continues work bringing down the level where the swimming pool used to stand. Poor sod – he’s definitely got the harder job; 5 hours of digging! Wednesday 13th January A fabulous day off today, we all go to Ax les Thermes skiing…
January 22, 2015 Sat 17 to Wed 21 Jan. Saturday 17th January. The last couple of days have been really warm. Yesterday was only -3 and today is -5. Apparently it’s a big day today, we’re sled training and for this Daz has to sacrifice his day off. Erkki is supposed to pick us up at 0950hrs but he’s late. This is unusual, it turns out a lorry driver took out a power cable at the hotel Inari and he…
January 17, 2015 Sunday 11th January After our day off the temperature remains extremely low. -35. It’s too cold for clients and too cold for the dogs to run the sleds. The dogs shouldn’t run if it’s colder than -30, it’s bad for their lungs and for the pads of their feet. So after the usual chores Lukas suggests we put the 7 older puppies into the kindergarten, a seperate cage that isn’t being used at present. These pups…
January 11, 2015 Friday 10th – Temp minus 8. We are expecting after our day off to spend 2 nights at the farm, so we pack our overnight kit (toothbrushes, kindles and pack of cards!) and get a lift with “horse” Satu. We arrive about 930am to a busy scene in the pre dawn gloom as the others are already setting up the dogs for 8 clients who have booked a long run, this lasts 1 and 1/2 hours…
10 January 2015 The start of my adventures, way back in 2015 Arrival in Lapland After touching down on the snowy runway at Ivalo with only a bit of turbulence to grab the sphincter we soon had our baggage and onto the prebooked taxi bus to Inari. The bus took an hour to get to Inari with the bus driver averaging 70km\hr. Bit scary on these icy roads. After being dropped off at hotel Inari we walk over to…