The Huskyfarm Innset
The Huskyfarm Innset is located at the end of a 35-kilometer-long dead-end road at the lake Veslevatn, in the middle of the border mountains between Norway and Sweden. In the past the huskyfarm was a small mountain farm.
In the last 30 years we have built and/or totally restored six buildings.
Where once used to be an old sheepfold, we have built a guesthouse. Then there are two cabins or vacation homes.
On the eastern border of the property is the bakery, built in 2008, with a large stone oven fired by wood.
Next to it we have built a peat hut, or gamme. This is the traditional building of the indigenous people, the Sámi. It consists only of birch logs, birch bark as roofing felt, and sods of grass placed around the hut.
The gamme acts as a barbecue hut if the weather is less good.
The sixth building is our residential house.
In the center of the farm is the large kennel complex with a total of nine kennels. Mainly the puppies and young dogs stay here together with older dogs. This kennel keeping is very important for the social behavior of the huskies. Since our dogs have a distinct relationship to the pack, a well-structured hierarchy should develop in the kennels in the individual packs/teams.
However, for some – especially older dogs – the hierarchy can mean a lot of stress. As with humans, there are instances of bullying or other antisocial behavior in the pack. That is why some dogs feel more comfortable outside the kennel. Behind the kennels they are tied up alone and can spend the days on the Huskyfarm undisturbed. There is also room for former alpha dogs who cannot subordinate themselves to the new boss in the pack.
We were lucky
When we took over the mountain farm in Innset in 1988, it was quite run down. It had been standing abandoned in the valley for many years, and the previous owners had certainly not invested anything in the buildings for many years before that.
But we liked the location in the open valley by the lake Veslevatn. The horseshoe-shaped arrangement of the buildings with the opening to the lake and the many excursion possibilities in the mountains made the choice easy.
Also the few neighbors were obviously happy that the small village was growing.
It was only later that we realized how good our choice really was: the airport is just an hour away, and the community center with its various shopping facilities, schools and medical care is half an hour away.
These are short distances by northern standards.
But what’s even better is that to the east, south and north, there is almost endless terrain on our doorstep for long and challenging husky tours. With two national parks as neighbors, we are more than well served with nature.