Sunday, August 29, 2010

Preparing for the Winter

It has been raining for the last 100 years here. I am not exaggerating, literally 100 years.

Yesterday we built a new floor for the puppy kennel. This got the youngsters up out of the mud and made keeping them clean much easier now that Norway aparently has a monsoon season.
We got some help with the floor from Per Vinding, who abandoned a big platter of chocolate cookies to come and help us build in the mud and rain. Good guy.

Blåmann was moved closer to the house. The rain depresses him a lot, so we thought being within pancake throwing distance from the porch would help cheer him up.

The puppies are all looking great. We had them out running around yesterday for an hour or so and despite the terrible weather they all had a wonderful time playing happily in the mud and wet like little swamp-piglets.

Today we built a new dog house and gave the puppies two new houses. The house we built is a new type of house we are trying. It is a double house that we are hoping will let the dogs share some warm during the winter months. We made them so that they are easy to insulate during the winter and easy to keep cool in the summer. They worked perfectly this summer and have been nice and snug during the last 100 years of rain, so the wintertime is their last big test.

Tomorrow we are getting all of the chain and other materials for the renovation of the kennel. We are planning on having it done and all the bugs worked out before we leave for the USA.

Our second training frun of the season with the dogs went very well. We had to wait until 22:30 for the temperature to drop enough to run. Because it was dark when we ran, the team passed the turn around so we went a little farther than originally intended. The dogs took it all in stride and slowed the pace down when i asked them to, so that we could deal with the extra miles without getting to worn out. It has to be fun.

Updates as events warrant.

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