Town trip!! Today the humans took us (QT) to town. We were placed outside the cafe and kept close watch on the town square! Oh yeah: we sniffed a tree, strange creations they are, they did not however seem edible so why they would place one in the middle of town we don't know. Today however the tree was emitting light. Quite practical here in the dark season. There were some human pups around who seemed to worship the tree, they were singing and dancing around it. Very peculiar indeed. We have been pulling the sledge for the last 3 days now so today when we came back to the dog yard we had a cuddle session with Rico. Tomorrow the humans go on vacation until January (they say they want to go to a warm place. We consider that utter madness as it ha just gotten down to some reasonable temperatures here). While they are gone Jonas` human Yvonne will take care of us! Well humans have a nice trip and bring back some goodies for us!!

NSQT

The last boat. Today Nord Syssel, the patrol ship of Sysselmanden left Svalbard for the season. Since it was also the first Sunday of Advent the Christmas tree was going to be lighted (Nuna claims that she has seen not just a tree before but "trees" and that they are tall plants that live in great numbers on the mainland and often stand around in packs of 1000s. QT remains sceptical. Uncle Silver was deep in a daydream about the unlimited peeing opportunities a so calleged forest would present and not available for comments). Well the humans took us on a long sledge trip in the morning to the sausage hut (Where legend has it that a kind stranger gave Nuna a sausage in 2004 and we still live in the hope of a meeting that wonderfull man again and thus return to the hut on any opportunity). After lunch the humans and aunt Lisa came back and took the puppies to town. First we went to the old quay to wave goodbye to the ship and see the fireworks. Talik though it was not that interesting and wanted to go for a walk, especially since Qimmiq kept putting her front legs up on his back to get a better view. (Fire and bangs are FUN! It kind of reminded me of the time I went ptarmigan hunting with my mom and the humans It works like this: the humans make a loud bang with some kind of stick and we get the head of a ptarmigan-yummy! Q) After the fireworks the torches were lit we and the humans followed the rest of the town to the town center. It was really interesting to walk among all the humans with their pups (think they called them children) we also met Odin and Savi from the dog yard and their humans and a lot of other dogs. At the town square we shared a cup of gløg with the humans (they got the nasty stuff inside and we got the delicious paper cup TQ). They were about to light the Christmas tree (we still have not seen it, there were so many humans so we cannot say for certain that such a thing as a tree does exist). When they said : "and now we light the tree" it went wooosh! and the town was completely dark. Impressive yes, but is that really what they mean by lighting a tree? It must be very dark at the mainland if they have a lot of trees..... After an exciting day we were driven home to the dog yard and had a big piece of frozen meet. The humans finally listened and from last week on we now get frozen beef and chicken meet every second day! Sweet

Northern light over our cages.

Map of the area around Longyearbyen with key dog localities.

Overnight trip! Our first tent trip of the season. On Saturday afternoon our, Jonas' and Mings humans came to the dog yard together with Harvey and Marzena (two of our 2-legged fans who some times takes us on trips and bring us food) and started packing the sledges, JUHU it was trip time! The boys and Jonas were in front of one sledge, the girls on another. Since Qimmiq is in heat we are not allowed to all run together. We were followed by Team Sava Vit but we out ran them! We had send Rico ahead on a snow scooter with our food, lines and the humans stuff (they do need a LOT). We arrived at the tent site, behind the Pingo on the other side of the valley after a short trip and the humans set up the Lavo and put us on lines ( we would rather have been out chasing reindeers) but we got seal for dinner so it was OK. The humans stayed all night in the tent with the oven on, eating what smelled like thai food and chocolate cake, while we were perfectly comfortable in the soft snow. We did get them out of the tent, and fast, when a unknown dog team raced by in the night and when Nuna managed to get loose by unscrewing and opening a safety carabiner! (nice work Mom! TQ). This afternoon we headed home (with a few stops on the way to discuss whether we should go reindeer hunting or not, the boring humans voted no every time). Bach home we had food and the humans went home to dry their tent and wash their gloves, they said they smelled like seal, like it was a bad thing......

NSQT

Back sledge with 2,3 dogs (from left, Oki, Silver and Jonas) In front Karoline with 3 dog powers. (picture: Yvonne)

The camp and the full moon over Operafjellet

Bababababababa like a moonlight shadow.......... It is full moon, time for howling and sledge driving. Karoline and Jonas´ human Yvonne took us on a scenic tour of the valley. Nuna, Silver and Qimmiq were pulling the big sledge with Karoline while the super energetic team Jonas-Talik were in front of the "huskey-buggey" WOW it was fast, the humans wanted us to stop to have some breaks but we were having non of that, there was miles and miles of untouched snow, glittering in the moonlight, just waiting for our paw prints! We were initially followed by Lupi and Odin, the bonsai team and their human Lene on skies, but we quickly outran them. Crossing the valley, turning north by the pingo towards Mälerdalen and finally heading home over the frozen delta, casting our own moonlight shadows on the fresh powder snow, what a trip!

NSQT

OK OK OK not my brithtest moment. Again today I managed to get on top of our house on the highest platform but again it was a bit too scarry to jump down so again my female human had to rescue me, again.......

DOH!!!

Qimmiq

Cultural education! The sun has now been down for 2 weeks and this weekend it was "kunstpause" (art pause) in Longyearbyen and after taking us for a nice trip in the morning the humans decided to further our cultural education and took the puppies for an art exhibition in town. We were a BIT disappointed that we were left outside (!!) the building while the humans went in but after we heard the first tone of the 12 man mandolin orchestra the humans unwittingly had been lured into enduring we were quite happy to be left outside to supervise the door! After 45 minutes the humans came back out and we send one of the humans home with the car while we took the other human and Aunt Lisa for a stroll through town. Back at the humans apartment we went in to say hello and were then driven back to the dog yard. Qimmiq has now moved in with uncle Silver for a few days while Talik is living with his mom again!

NSQT

Quad bike training in Adventdalen.