The solstice has come and gone AND NOW, ACCORDING TO THE NEWSPAPER, WE ARE LOSING 3 MINUTES OF SUNLIGHT DAILY!!!!  But, at least, it happens between 3 and 4 in the morning, so we’re not affected.

We went to Seward for David’s company trip which, this year, was a halibut fishing trip.  What a wonderful time.  We arrive on Thursday and camped in Talketna and then were lucky enough to meet up with Tom Moreau and his family at Exit Glacier on Friday morning.    They are Dylan’s friends who have a cabin near where he used to live in Homer and now live in Moab.  We saw a lot of them whenwe were in Moab and like them quite a lot.

Then we all went to Seward where we met up with Dylan and Angela.  Everyone but Dylan, Angela and me went to the Sea Life Center….I got a cut and color in D and A’s hotel.  Angela is so generous with her talent!  Then out to dinner, then David and I got to sleep on our fishing boat.  Of course, I thought we were going to get a state room, not a bunch of little coffins and bunched up in one room.  Be that as it may….

Fishing was great!  freezing cold and wet, but very successful.       All Three boats caught a total of 3100 pounds of halibut which we split.  Now our freezer has no room because it is all filled with halibut.  Poor us!  David is holdinga ling cod which, although suppsoedly very tastey, had to be thrown back because the season wasn’t open yet.  Fishing is very tiring

The weather has been cold and rainy for about a week, but today, July 2 the sun is shining and it is in the high 70’s.  How wonderful and beautful.

For the long 3 day Independence Day weekend we are going ona guided float trip on the Delta River and MORE FISHING!

I was lucky enough to be able to go to a conference in Washington D.C., so, of course, I took a side trip to Philly where I stayed with Layla and her busy family, , got to see Meadow at an ice skating performance, saw great friends, picked up  a spinning wheel, got bumped from my seat going out and got a compensation of $300.00 and an upgrade part way to first class, but had a 9 hour delay coming home.  I cannot believe that we have been gone for over 1 year!!!

9 hours after I got home, David and I got into the car, loaded Fred, tent, etc. and drove 5 hours to the little gold mining town of Chicken (pop. 25)  for Chicken Stock, a tiny bluegrass festival run by a lovely woman who I know from the Yukon Quest.  Check out the stage.  of course, in Chicken Stock, you must have chickens… My favorite time was when I was talking to the mandolin player from one of the bands,comparing people we knew and bands we liked, when a voice piped up from behind me, “Do you know Dylan from Homer?”  Well, it turns out the voice belonged to a woman bass player whom Dylan had promised to meet in Cantwell the next weekend…and he had said he would meet us in Seward at the same time.  The boy was busted, and when I called and asked hima bout it his comment was, “I knew this state wasn’t big enough for both of us!”

Although Fred sleeps in the car at night, he did join me in David’s sleeping bag in the morning!  David volunteered to cook and I worked selling merchandise which was great fun.

There is never a lack of something to do here!

We went on a long Memorial weekend trip up the haul road, originally ending in Wiseman, but then deciding to push on to Galbreath Lake.  What a great idea!

We left Fairbanks about 5:30 Friday eveing, which, of ocurse, is no hardship, since it NEVER GETS DARK anymore. We camped about 3 hours up the haul road at a pull-off by a little pond.          The only problem was that it was FREEZING,  WINDY AND RAINING.  Yuck!  it was really cold, but we were smart this time, our second camping trip with Fred, and we put him in the car for his camping sleep.  It was so rainy and windy in the morning that we did not even stay for breakfast.  I wanted to pack up and go home, but luckily David said we should continue and we did, on to Wiseman. 

We had a wonderful afternoon and evening on the Yukon in Wiseman after a stop for breakfast at one of the two places on the whole of the haul road and the obligatory stop at the Arctic Circle.  

  Please note that this is May 23!

Along the way we saw this moose.  Notice the antler nubbins.  probably the closest we wille ver get to a male moose!

Here we are in Wiseman.  As you can see, they do have a sense of humor.  

We decided not to stay overnight a second night in Wiseman, but to press on up the haul road and into the Brooks Range, the farthest north mountain range in the world.  What a good idea!  this was probably the most beautiful trip we have taken since coming to AK!

We had to go past the shadalar Shelf, which is a flat plain ringed by mountains and then past the last spruce tree in the Brooks..  And then over Adigan Pass into the Arctic tundra. Then we started seeing the wildlife!  Ground squirres, caribou, a grizzly bear in the road, Dahl sheep  and moose.   Unbelievably, there is a fairly unmarked BLM rustic campground right by Galbreith Lake, that lots of “in-the-know” folks seem to know about.  Luckily, a Wiseman resident told us about it and we found it, unmarked though it was, and had the place to ourselves until about 10:30 pm which made it quite lovely.  Rushing water, bright sun, blue skies, lots of snow and enough ground squirrels to keep poor Fred from sleeping! 

We cannot wait to go back!

Well, it is May 20 and we have officially been away from Schwenksville for 1 year. Wow! A blink of an eye. Every time I think of the fact that a whole year has gone by my stomach gives a lurch. What a speck of time and how much has happened!

May and snow! It is truly hard to get used to that at the end of April we were still snow covered. We madde the mistake of going for a walk near the Chena River the last week of April during “mud season”  First of all, most of the path was totally covered with snow, and the bridge that we had to cross over the river was covered in rushing water.  Well, Fred hates water, and i knew that he would probably get swept away, so I went over the bridge first to check out the depth (over the top of my boots) and then David scooped old Fred into his arms and started across the bridge.  He stumbled and went down…but ture to form, hung onto Fred and they both made it safely across.  Now we were all wet and had about a 30 minute walk backt o the car in snow with soaking wet boots.  What an April outing.

As soon as the temperature gets a little warm in the afternoons..anything above 60, shorts, sleeveless tops, flip flops pop out.  Not on us, but on everyone else. 

We still had patches of snow on Mother’s Day and as we go to work every day there is still a section of the woods that has deep snow.  Go figure.

The sun now comes up at 4 am and goes down at 11;30 and in between there is no dark because dawn and dusk are so long.  Fred and i went out last night and got back about 11:15 pm Here he is in an unadultered photo at 11:15 pm.  Last night we finally put towels on one of the bedroom windows because we are having trouble sleeping.  And with the warmth and light come the mosquitoes…first the big dopey ones, and then the small buzyy ones.  Those are the ones I dread.

We are anxiously awaiting the results of the Nenana Ice Classic when the tripod driven into the Tanana River at Nenena shfits with the breaking ice, thus pulling a string which stops the clock which records the official day, hour and minute of break-up. Everyone in AK bets on the date, at $2.50 a pop and the winner, who guesses the exact day, hour and minute can win up to $30,000.00. David and I each bought 2 tickets. Think we can win?

We went to Nenana two weeks ago to check out the tripod, driven 2 feet into the ice, which at this date is still 46 inches thick. David and I both bet on dates late in April and early in May Stay tuned for results.

We have been to Nenana twice and each time we pass this guy coming and going.  What’s up?      

This past weekend, April 18-19 we went on our first camping trip…sort of.  We rented a BLM cabin in the White Mountains.  It is the only one of the cabins that is accessible from the road.  All the others are accessible by skis or snow machines.  We knew we would be hiking in crusted snow so we borrowed snow shoes from David’s work and took off straigh up a hillside.  Until I fell down!  I fell in about 4 feet of snow, so that when I went to boost myself up, my arms plunged into the snow up to my shoulders and I had no leverage.  Of course, i was positioned like a “V”, so perhaps deep snow was no excuse.  When David slowly manuevered behind me to shove me upright, he fell down and pulled off a snowshoe.  Well, we eventually got up and headed up the slope, until David fell, and rolled a bunch of feet down the hill.  Up, down, eventually we got up to the top, with Fred, waiting patiently at every stop.  The view on top was wonderful.  I still cannot get over the blue, blue sky!!

We left Sunday afternoon after a great weekend

Here is a photo of our road, taken April 19.  Notice all the snow. However, the snow is melting fast!

Notice the red hairWe were in Homer for a great Passover and Dylan’s ladyfriend gave me a while new look.  We also played poker, me for the first itme, and I won the $50.00 I put in and $10.00 on top of that.  Maybe I’ll start a new side career!

Well we wanted to try all Alaska has to offer, so, of course, when David received an email at work asking for folks to come out to the curling club on a Saturday morning for a lesson, he signed us up. You know curling…the little stones with handles that are floated down the ice while two grown people sweep like crazy in front of it .

Well, let me tell you, ice is slippery and COLD! And curling is harder than it looks. First of all, as we watched someone with experience slide the “rock” David said, “Wow! Look how straight it is going down the center line. Will we ever be able to do that?” And our teacher said, “I hope not. Its not called ’straighting…its called curling and the rock is supposed to spin, albeit, very slowly.”

This sport is hard…and dangerous. Of course, as I was running (with my feet scooting side by side) while sweeping, I fell, not once, not twice, but three times. That was two weeks ago and I still cannot go upstairs with twinges. It is very hard to keep your body bent onto the ice, launch yourself from a block and slide on one knee with the other leg extended to the back and your arm extended forward with the rock just on your fingertips and then simply let it go as your body propels it down the ice while your sweepers make it go faster or to the right or left.   

Well, we had such a good time at our “coaching sessions” that we signed up for the ultra-novice class of the following week’s International Bonnspeil (tournament).  We figured we would play one round, get knocked out and that would be that.  But no!  The ultra-novice class was a round-robin, so we got to play three different times (6 innings, or “ends” each time) one at 6 pm Friday evening; the second at 2 am Saturday morning and the third at 12:30 am Sunday morning.  (Obviously they did not want the big boys bothered by us ultra-novices). 

Our team stunk and the best time and the most wins we had were against a team made up of middle school kids.  What a hoot.  The winner cleans the ice between games.

The event is a big deal here with front page sports coverage for two of the 4 days it was on.  BUT…it is a 24 hour a day event, round the clock, starting on Thursday with the opening ceremonies with bagpipers and ending Sunday evening with a banquet.  And in-between curling on the ice and major partying in the observation gallery on the second floor….all night!

We can’t wait until October when the leagues start again.  I’m sure we’ll join.  Bowling in the lower 48 and curling up here.

FIRST DAY OF SPRING ON BUFFALO LANE

Now it is April 6 and the snow is finally beginning to melt.  It gets into the high 30’s during the day, but about 12 in the morning.  People have gone nuts..cut-offs, flip flops, short sleeves..no coats.  Yikes.  I finally went out today without my long underwear bottoms on, and, because I like living on the edge, I wore a short sleeved long underwear top under my sweater and winter coat. 

But the sun is still quite out there at 9 pm.

Well, the sunlight has come pouring back and daylight savings time has certainly helped. We are gaining about 6 minutes a day and now it gets light-ish at about 7 am (I don’t have to wear a headlight whent aking Fred out for his morning walk) and dark-ish around 8:30 pm. And it was getting warmer. We were waking up int he teens and then hitting mid-twenties during the day. Until this weekend when it went back to the mid minus twenties.

During the “warming spell” folks actually broke out their sleeveless tops to wear indoors under sweatshirts outdoors. Saw many kids in cut-offs and even a man in sandals and socks. But now it is cold again.

The Yukon Quest, the Best long distance race, started on February 14 in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada and ended in Fairbanks around the 27th. Since this is the organization I work for, I had a ring side and back stage seat for all the activities. What an amazing adventure. 1000 miles of back-country sledding day and night averaging about 3 hours sleep every couple of days…and the first and second place finishers came in within 2 minutes of each other. It was quite an exciting race and all about the dogs. Each time a team came in and stopped at the finish line, and teams of “petters” were assigned to each pair of dogs. Then after a few minutes, the dogs would settle down and curl up for a rest.

After all the musher have come in, including the Red Lantern (or last place finisher) who came in about 5 minutes after the next-to-last place finisher, the only thing left was the finish banquet which I was responsible for.   400 guest, losts of awards, great stories, and even two rare steaks for the winner’s lead dogs. The Quest office used this as a fund-raiser and one of the things we tried to sell was this fur coat.

Now that the Quest is over, things have quite calmed down since I am now working only one job full time at the University. That is quite wonderful since I no longer have to run from one place to the next every day.

David had the chance to go on a survying trip to Tok for a few days, but ended up getting a “stomach thing” which took all the fun out of the chance to be away.

The Iditarod started out of Anchorage on March 7 and David and I were there. We left Fred home and stayed in Anchorage both for the ceremonial start on the main streets in Anchorage on Sat. and then the real start on Willow Lake in Willow on Sunday. The ceremonial start is like a big party where each musher loads a paying customer (the Idiar-rider) into his basket and drives them a few miles out of town. They bring snow in to make a trail down the main street of Anchorage and there is a lot of festivity. / The dogs are all transported in “dog trucks” which are pick-up trucks with boxes on the back with compartments for each dog. Dogs are hauled out or shoved in depending on their needs, then curl up and wait for the next activity.

The favorite musher of the Yukon Quest was Newtown Marshall, from Jamaica, of all places. Here we are at the ceremonial start of the Iditarod.

Then on Sunday morning everyone packs up and goes about 2 hours down the road to Willow Lake where there is a whole different ball game. Now there is no party, just serious mushers, many, many barking, jumping dogs and a real race. Every two minutes one of 67 mushers is sent off for his 9-12 day journey. Wow! Here is a shot of the staging area where all the dogs will get attached to their proper lines.

And they’re off! The weird thing is that this is taking place on a lake!!

Back home we now have the Winter Carnival with the highlights of the Ice Carving Contest and the sprint dog races.  We have a world class ice carving competition here with single block and multi block competitions.  The carvings are all displayed in an RV park and lit up at night.  A large part of the park is devoted to ice slides, and climbing things for kids.  Lots of fun and quite beautiful.  This attracts carvers from all over the world.                

Now it has gotten cold again…a bit windy and in the -20’s once again.  And its the middle of March!  Brr!

Well, from New Year’s Day until about January 13 we have been at -45 and lower every day. Of course, from Christmas Day we have been at -30 and lower. Friday, January 16 we hit +51. By my count that’s a 96 degree difference. 

Check out David out surveying on one of the colder days.  Notice he looks a bit hazy.  Here in Fairbanks, which is in a bowl, we have the wonderful ice fog whcih develops because the air does not absorb moisture in such cold temperatures, there is no wind to dissipate it and the cold weather creates temperture inversion.  Science aside, it is mind boggling.  We live in the hills and do not have ice fog.  We come down into Fairbanks on a long, hill and the town virtually disappears.  I mean, you cannot see your hand in front of your face.  Our house..blue sky, bright sun.  Fairbanks.. nothing!

Taking my glvoes off to pick something up outside results in red, red hands.  HOWEVER…everyone goes on quite normally.

Now…at 35, 40.50 ab0ve zero.  Everyone is grumbling.  The snow has melted and the trees have lost their magic.  We spent two nights lying away as the snow avalanched off our roof making the hosue shake.  Now there is no snow and the skiers and mushers are getting quite cranky.  Since the ground is still cold everything is slippery and now we have many accidents.  Fred and I are outside in light clothing.

Several funky things about cold, cold weather.  When I threw hot water into that cold air, it vaporized. And, a banana set outside until frozen can be used to drive a nail into a tree.

David and I went to Chena Hot Springs in the cold, cold.  What a hoot. 104 in the water and -45 on the outside.  Look at the new do’s for us both.

On a lovely ride last week in our continuing exploration of the area we came across a mama moose and her youngster.  Fred was extremely well behaved and did not make a sound!

We have one car which means that David and I go to work together each and every day.  To his credit, David does all he can to expidite a speedy exit for me..he makes my coffee, breakfast and lunch.  But, in my defense I have to get dressed. make-up, jewelry and take Fred for his morning walk.  So, I am not always ready when David hopes.  How do I know?  As I am running around gathering up this and that to take with me, all I have to do is look to the bench by the door.And there he sits, silent as a tomb, waiting, waiting and waiting.  I keep telling him not to get dressed so early, but I guess hope springs eternal.

On we go!

And on we go.

Well, it is December 30 and it is truly cold…and has been for the past 3 days. It has gone down to -40 and seems to be staying there.This is how I look now when I go outside.  Its no easy task between getting me loaded up with clothes and then Fred outfitted as well.  We had two neighborhood families for dinner the other night, and between taking clothes off and putting them back on, many minutes went by.

We actually did go outside and throw boiling water up into the air and watched it evaporate.  Wow!  Quite funky.  Of course, nothing changes.  Life does seem to go on.  However, if it does not “warm” up to -20 by next Saturday, we cann ot go ice fishing.  We have reserved an ice house on Chena Lake, with 4 holes, two seats and a wood stove.  However, the borough won’t auger out the holes if it goes below -20, and since we do not have an ice auger, we might be out of  luck.  Oh well.  Only time will tell.

On Christmas day we went to North Pole to see their ice park sculptures as a pre-curser to the big show downtown in Fairbanks in February.       the highlight, for me, was the ice slide, which, of course, I just had to try.The big baby strikes again!

We have been to several great holiday parties, the latest at our neighbors.  All are potlucks with great, great food.  Not only wase verything homemade, but the turkey we ate was home grown and the berries on the pies were picked this su

mmer!  Great fun at gift exchanges which are always chinese auctions where you can “steal” a gift if you don’t like what you have chosesn.David made quite a hit in his Vietnamese holiday vest.

In the category of “Only in Fairbanks”. this was posted in freecycle the other day:  A woman was giving away a dead goat to be used for dog food.  Quite a popular item around here since there are so many dogs.  Usually we see offers for freezer burned meat to be given away.  This was the first time I saw a newly dead goat offered up.  YUP!

Well, it is now December, the solstice has come and gone and we are now gaining seconds of sunlight rather than losing minutes of daylight.  we now have about 3 hours and 45 minutes of sunlight which means that the sun rises around 11 am and goes down about 2:45.  however, the dawn is quite long as is the dusk and the dark is wonderful.  Bright starry nights with the moon twinkling on the snow and auroras lightly skimming the sky. 

David has a job with Design Alaska which is a general engineering firm right in Fairbanks which is quite community minded and is a prominent sponsor of the symphony and public radio.  The folks that he works with are all very interesting, as are all of the people in Fairbanks.

I am still working two jobs, one a the Yukon Quest and one at the University while hoping that the University job finally comes through as a staff position rather than a contract one.  I finally had an interview, and now am waiting to take a computer literacy test, of all things.  The wheels of acadmia grind very slowly.

The job at the Yukon Quest has offered some amusing moments.  I am now in charge of events and put on a Hawaiian Lua fundraiser in December full of sand, leis and, as you will see, coconuts.  We had to come in costume and David, we did not have his photo taken was in shorts and long underwear bottoms and a Hawaiian shirt which he insists on wearing to work.

The Yukon Quest 1000 mile race is coming up on February 14, so to get prepared David and Iwent to a 100 mile race that started about 10 miles up the road from us.  Silly us.  We thought that sled dog racers were spectator sports, but about 10 minute after we got there, after asking what we could do to help, we found ourselves holding lines while dogs were snapped on, holding dogs, and then running like crazy while haning on to lines and dogs while the sled drove to the start line.  That was quite scary because 12 dogs on a line are so, so powerful; there were too many lines and too much bumpy snow and too much speed to cross a tiny, short space.  I was scared I would fall and get my leg snapped off. 

The dogs were incredible.  Silent as could be when they were in the dog boxes atop the trucks and howling, jumping and screaming when they were on the line waiting to go.  But all good natured and friendly, allowing one and all to haul them around. this is a shot inside a dog box and the next shot shows the dogs outside the box. Once they were at the start line, off they went! Here are David and I as we watch the race. Notice, you can see our eyes, nose and mouth.  This contrasts nicely to the next outfit we were wearing.  I, ignorantly asked what next we could do and was told that we should man the nighttime road crossing.  Well, this involved waiting for a phone call which told us to be a the point where the trail crossed the main road at a certain time and then making sure that we stopped the cars and tracked the teams as they crossed to road for their two hour home stretch.  This was after their 5 hour first leg, 4 hour layover and then about 3 hour trip back to the road crossing where they would thent ravel about another 2 hours to the finish line.  Didn’t seem too bad. 

The call came to be at the crossing at 10 pm for the first team that was scheduled to cross at about 10:30.  2 pairs of long underwear, lined pants, 2 long underwear tops, sweater, snowsuit, 3 pairs of socks, jacket, neck gator, scarf, hat, hand warmers and mittens for each of us.  We were unrecognizable…but it was -8.  What we did not know was that, although the first team would, indeed cross at 10:30 (Lance Mackey..the reigning champ), Lucy, the last musher would cross 5 hours later!!!  BRR!!!

Would we do it again.  You bet.

A few weeks earlier, we had decided that we too could be mushers and borrowed a harness for Fred and bought a child’s plastic sled from WalMart,and went to Dog Musher’s Hall where the real mushers go.  First we let Fred run with the harness and just the sled.  Then I sat on it…and he sat down, turned around and seemed to say, “What the hell?”as you can see, Fred and I make quite a team!!!

There seems to be a common expression here which goes…”only in Fairbanks” and the other day that seemed to be true.  I was downstairs in the Yukon Quest building, which is a lovely log cabin on the banks of the Chena River when one of my co-workers called down the steps…”There’s a lady coming through the doors with a reindeer.  Of ocurse, the rest of us came crashing upstairs, and sure enough, for no apprent reason, a woman had walked in leading her pet reindeer by a red lead.  Coca was quite friendly and cow-like and very tiny with giant, thin antlers.  We took a photo and then she strolled on out and we all went back to work.  Yup!

We are quite enchanted with the scenery since the angle of the sun on the winter trees is magnificent.

This is also the beginning of ice sculpture season, with many businesses having them sprout in front of their entrances.  This was taken outside of David’s office and on Christmas Day we are going to North Pole to see their ice park.  The big festival is in Fairbanks in february and we can’t wait.