Farm Layout
A virtual tour of the Hetta Huskies farm, divided into the farmhouse, dog kitchen and sick-dog areas, with its cages, chains, kota client area and 20-hectare training network.
The farm divides into three areas, the farmhouse, the dog kitchen and the sick-dog area. On arrival you will see two main buildings, the farmhouse and a separate outhouse, plus parking, and almost certainly a kennel repair or building project under way. This is an active, working farm.
- Three areas: farmhouse, dog kitchen and sick-dog area
- 200m lit path links the farmhouse to the farm
- 2m-high perimeter fencing protects dogs from reindeer and wild animals
- Cage area, chain area and kota / client area within
- Insulated wooden kota sleeps multiday clients on their first night
- About 20 hectares with a hand-cut GEE/HAW maze and 2km safari tracks
The Farmhouse and Yard
The farmhouse is our home and the guides' daytime base, and behind it clients add layers and change footwear before and after safaris. Since the souvenir shop moved up to the farmhouse area in the summer of 2016, most short-safari clients no longer need to come inside. The shop, marked by a large pyrographied bear, sells arctic clothing, toiletries, hand-carved work by our guides, and Hetta Huskies mugs and buffs.
The second building is a garage workshop holding a heated kit store, winter kayak storage, a drive-through shelter for snowmobiles and sleighs, and a warm room serving as dog kitchen and indoor sick-dog cages.
From the House to the Farm
Behind the farmhouse, a fenced recuperation area (the main road is close) houses sick dogs and those moving between house and farm. A 200m lit path leads to the farm, past a materials store and a storage barn, over a small bridge to the gates. Watch for dogs just after the junction, teams often fly past here, and glance left before the gates for a summer view of the 'GEE HAW' training area.
The Enclosed Farm
The whole perimeter is fenced 2m high, keeping escaped dogs in and reindeer and wild animals out. In 2010 two marauding wolves killed dogs at the Santa Safaris / Transun UK farm just 40km away, and though we saw their tracks around our own farm, the fences held.
Inside are three zones, the cage area, the chain area and the kota / client area. You pass the puppy kindergarten and puppy Hilton first. Our dogs live in a mix of shared cages and individual running-circle chains on a sandy, well-drained slope.
The Client / Kota Area
The client waiting area has a traditional fabric kota (the local word for teepee) and a well-insulated wooden kota, a multi-year build where multiday clients sleep on their first safari night. There is a mini teepee for the pups, a lit outdoor dry toilet, a woodshed and an open fire area, plus an agility trail, peekaboo photo spots, an annual igloo and a sledging piste for all the young at heart.
In winter, fires burn in each kota and the central fireplace, hot drinks in the smaller, food in the larger. Stay active and warm, and keep children accompanied at all times, particularly when walking pups.
Training Network
About 20 hectares surround the farm, with 2km safari tracks around the perimeter and an inner network, mostly hand-cut, used for GEE and HAW training in summer and quad training in autumn and spring. Some tracks work year-round, others in one season only, so winter and summer guides each know a different farm. The start line most clients leave from sits in the middle of these trails.
Ready when you are
Real wilderness, 200+ huskies, eighteen winters in.