Join us and our Siberian huskies in Lapland, Finland

Details

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  Description

  We are a family with a kennel that has 80 Siberian huskies of all different ages. We live on a homestead in the arctic wilderness, 50km north of the Arctic Circle in the heart of Lapland, and our family's forefathers were among the first pioneers who settled here back in 1733. Our priority is giving our dogs a high standard of care first and foremost, as well as giving our guests an amazing experience and top quality service.
  
  We're primarily looking for people who can help us look after our dogs at all times of the year, but we're also looking for somebody who can help us with housekeeping during the winter season.
  
  Before applying, please check our calendar for availability.
  We have been hosting workawayers since 2011.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Language practice

  Light gardening

  Creative DIY projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  Light maintenance
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  Interests

  

  Politics / Social justice

  

  Sustainability

  

  Culture

  

  Farming

  

  Music

  

  DIY & crafts

  

  Art & design

  

  Plant care

  

  History

  

  Books

  

  Cooking & food

  

  Animals

  

  Yoga / Wellness

  

  Fitness

  

  Dancing

  

  Sailing / Boating

  

  Nature

  

  Camping

  

  Winter sports

  

  Mountain

  

  Water sports

  

  Outdoor activities

  

  Hiking

  

  Adventure sports
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We are a bi-lingual family, with both English and Finnish spoken at home, although English is our working language. So you can certainly practice your English, but if you want a challenge, you can try learning some Finnish - it's one of the most difficult languages in the world!
  
  What you learn here will depend on how proactive, motivated and receptive you are, and of course, what time of year you travel. In addition to learning how to care for our huskies, you can also learn about the way we all live up here and about our wilderness, if you are keen to explore places nearby. You can join us when we go fishing in nearby lakes, hiking with the huskies, and picking wild berries and mushrooms. Hopefully, you will learn how to dress properly for the unpredictable arctic weather, and how to be sensible in our challenging conditions. Also, you will be living with people from different cultures and with different personalities, so we hope this will give you a chance to refine your social skills and develop your teamwork abilities.
  
  We believe that one of the great benefits of any cultural exchange is gaining an understanding of other people's customs and lifestyles. Ours is at times hectic and at others quiet, adjusting to the rhythm of the seasons.This famous quote by naturalist Alexander von Humboldt sums up the way we feel about travel: “The most dangerous worldview is the worldview of those who have not viewed the world.” So hopefully staying here helps to broaden your own worldview.

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  Host offers payment in line with the minimum wage

  This host offers accommodation and payment.

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  Help

  We pay all of our workawayers and you'll be provided with more information about this during the application process. We're looking for kennel hands/handlers who can help to provide routine care for our dogs throughout the year, as well as a cook/chef during the winter and an extra person who can sometimes help in the restaurant but would mostly help to clean our log cabins to a high standard.
  
  In spring and summer (from April onwards) we have places for a minimum of one month up to a maximum of three months. During the autumn and winter, we have places for a minimum of three months and a maximum of six months, starting in either October or January.
  
  We start training the dogs in preparation for the winter season in September, once the weather has cooled enough. This means helping to set up teams of excited, energetic dogs and exercising them with our quad bikes. Then from mid-November to mid-April we do sledding tours, in addition to the normal kennel routine. In May the snow starts to melt but we still need help to keep the dogs exercised and the kennel cleaned throughout the spring and summer. We sometimes need help in the garden and the forest as well because we cut and chop our own firewood and clear/maintain our forest trails in preparation for winter.
  
  The extra team members joining us for the winter season (cook/chef & housekeeper) would be able to help out with the dogs in their spare time if they are interested. We always give our cabins a thorough clean during October to get them ready for the up-coming season and the restaurant opens in November.
  
  Looking after our huskies means showing up on a daily basis, and includes training them as well as maintaining the kennel area. The kennel work includes cleaning, feeding, exercising and monitoring health. It also involves taking dogs for walks, brushing them when they blow their coats, looking after sick, injured or recovering dogs, handling raw meat and bones while preparing their food, as well as clearing up the dogs' poop. Sometimes we have puppies that require extra feeding and attention and occasionally we go to dog shows. We usually fix sledding equipment and dog boxes ourselves, so help is needed here as well.
  
  We are looking for people who are confident, proactive, highly motivated, positive, easy-going and energetic. You should also be genuinely interested in dogs and the northern lifestyle. We expect you to be helpful and flexible in our sometimes difficult Arctic conditions, and eager to participate wholeheartedly in all of our activities. We'd like to teach you about Siberian huskies, as well as the culture and traditions of Lapland and the wonders of the Arctic wilderness. We aim for a workaway experience that will be mutually rewarding :)

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Finnish: Fluent
  German: Intermediate
  Spanish: Intermediate
  French: Intermediate
  Swedish: Intermediate

  This host offers a language exchange
  This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
  You can contact them directly for more information.
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  Accommodation

  Accommodation is provided on site and in summer it's in our cosy, one hundred-year-old lumberjack's cabin (picture below), which has been equipped with normal modern conveniences and is located next door to our own house. In winter, the accommodation is in a modern house over the road. We expect you to keep the cabin and house clean and tidy at all times.
  
  In the cabin there are two pairs of bunk beds; one in a separate bedroom and another in an alcove off the living room. The house has four bedrooms with either two single beds or a double bed. Both places have a kitchen-dining area, tables, sofa, fireplace, TV, WiFi, and a washroom with shower. They have electric heating and running hot and cold water. We also have a separate sauna by the lake that you can use during the summer and the house has an indoor sauna for use during the winter.
  
  All of our accommodation is non-smoking. Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate your own pets because recuperating or injured huskies sometimes have to live with you in the cabin. Also, our huskies sometimes have "stay overs" in the summer, whenever it suits everyone.
  
  You'll be cooking your own food so bring a few of your own recipes to share. We also have afternoon tea together now and then, or a bbq evening in the grill hut, and we'll have some traditional celebration meals together. We can accommodate vegetarians but we don't cook food for special dietary requirements such as halal or kosher.

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  What else ...

  What else... Hours will vary and during quieter times we usually keep to an average of four-five hours per day. In your free time you can explore the area and get to know our lakes and forests. It's also possible to use our equipment to go fishing, rowing, canoeing and windsurfing in your free time. You can also go hiking with our dogs. In addition to what is available here, there are many other summer and winter sports available in nearby resorts, and travelling around the region by bus is quite easy, e.g. the nearest resort and national park is about an hour away. And although we live in a very sparsely populated area, there is a good range of shops and other services, as well as concerts, galleries, museums and tourist attractions in our nearest towns, also an hour away by bus.
  
  The compensation for our remoteness, however, is that we live by a beautiful little lake surrounded by the largest wilderness forest in the world - the taiga. If you like walking, hiking, reading, writing, painting, photography, etc. or just need to study, there is usually time for all that too. And if you're lucky, when the sky is clear in the autumn and throughout winter, you can go out into the garden and watch the northern lights dance through the night. If you are travelling here in winter and keen to drive sleds, you must be very fit but also heavy enough to be able to stop a moving sled pulled by strong dogs. Our winters usually last for around seven-eight months and usually everybody has time to learn how to drive dog-teams during that time, as well as how to cross-country ski, ice-skate, snowshoe, etc.
  
  Life is very different up here in the far north - we live in the land of contrasts, with the midnight sun shining non-stop during our long polar day, (which means 24hrs of daylight for three months in summer), and then 24hrs with no sunlight around mid-winter during our month-long polar night! We can also have some extreme temperatures: in 1999 there was a difference of 85 degrees celcius in just a few months, from -53C in February to +32C in June! So even our weather can be quite a new experience, although the more normal range of winter temperature is between 0C to -40C. In contrast, our summer temperatures are usually quite pleasant, varying between +5C and +30C.
  
  Our dogs are lively, happy and strong individuals that require confident handling but lots of personal attention and TLC! It's a physically demanding job and can be in unpleasant or extreme weather conditions, so you mustn't mind getting cold, wet or dirty and having dog fur everywhere. You should be healthy, have a strong body and a good level of fitness (eg. you should be able to do chin-ups and run a couple of kms). However, we are not looking for wannabe survival experts!
  
  We have many applicants for a very limited number of places. If our calendar is full and you are flexible with travel dates, please consider being on our waiting list for places which become available at short notice. And please be patient when waiting for a reply - we go through and finalise the majority of applications during spring and summer only. The exception to this is if/when there is a last minute place that appears unexpectedly, in which case you'll find us on the last-minute list!

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  We have a 4G-5G wifi connection

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  Space for parking camper vans

  We have space for a small campervan

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  My animals / pets

  Too many names to list here!

  80 Siberian Huskies of all ages, three Lapponian dogs and one Elkhound

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