Adding Daylight

Most of January wasn't all that exciting. I got sick one week. I guess cold and dark would the best way to describe it, but we were gaining daylight every day. I woke up one morning to -17F temperatures outside and a broken heater inside. That was one of the coldest days we had had all winter at my house, where it is warmer than it is in town, so it figured that the heater would have picked that day to go kaput. Luckily it was a Sunday morning, and my landlord wasn't busy, so he came right over to fix it. It never got colder than 45F in the house, so I was grateful. It could have been far worse.


Speaking of heat, I got the fuel tank filled in January. $1,317.71 later I shouldn't have to worry about fuel again for quite a while.


February became more active with increasing temperatures and even more daylight hours. I rented the Chena River Cabin the weekend of the Yukon Quest.





The Yukon Quest is similar to the Iditarod (~1000 miles), but it is less commercial and is billed as the toughest sled dog race in the world. The race alternates start/finish lines every year between Fairbanks, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Yukon. This year the start was in Fairbanks, and my friend Paige was mushing in a shorter version of the race that covered the first 300 miles of the trail. What better reason did we need to stand out in the middle of the woods next to the trail cheering on the mushers? In years past, we had already seen the start of the race on the river downtown, so we were looking for a new angle on things (so to speak).

I found out where the trail went, rented the cabin, and invited people to come on out and cheer on the dog teams. The trail was about a mile or two from the cabin, so it wasn't that big of a deal to travel back and forth. We started at the cabins with two snowmachines hauling sleds full of firewood, lawn chairs, beer, water, snacks, and a few passengers and headed out to our viewing point.


Melissa was appropriately dressed for the cold in fur(ish?) hat and gloves along with rainbow scarf.


We arrived at the trail without a clue if any mushers had gone by yet or not, nor whether they would be showing up soon or not. Good thing the weather was nice outside for the wait.


I think it took about forty minutes for the first musher to come by, Brent Sass, and we later found out that he was indeed the first musher past our location that day, so I'm glad we didn't go out there any earlier.

It was socializing time between dog teams, catching up with people we hadn't seen in a while and trying to guess how many dog teams had already gone by and which ones they were and who would be the next musher to pass through.


I'm sure we were quite a surprise when a musher did go by. So much for running dogs in the peaceful wilderness without any one around but the trees. It quickly became too dark to take pictures. I didn't want to use the flash for fear of scaring some dogs off the trail. I did manage to get a couple of low light pictures of a few teams coming by. I think this is Gerry Willomitzer...


...and I know this next one is Sonny Lindner.


After it got dark, we went back to the cabin for dinner and to continue the party.



Turns out Thea likes Mint Milanos...


...and Ellie was able to make it up from Delta!


We headed back out to the trail around 10:00pm to see our friend Paige and whoever else was on the trail. It didn't take long after we were out there for her to come by and stop for a brief cheer and words of encouragement before heading on down the trail. After cheering on a few more mushers, it was time to head back to the cabin and go to sleep. Here are Natalie, me, and Kate piled into one of the snow machine sleds for the ride back (Thanks for the picture, Ellie.).


I'm not sure how we'll top that one in 2012!

Little K's Birthday

New Year's found me being crafty. Crafts are not my strong suit. I'm about as good at crafts as I am about updating this blog, so you know it must have been a special occasion if I was diving into the craft world. Indeed it was a special occasion...my little buddy Kieran's second birthday! Knowing that he will fully remember the entire event for the rest of his life, I decided to make an Elmo pinata. Someone should have told me before hand how long it would take. After Googling how to make an Elmo pinata, my first attempt ended with a half flour and water pasted, newspaper covered balloon popping in my downstairs living area. Wow does that paste fly! There were little white drops all over the place.


My second attempt was much more successful, and I was a little slower and gentler on the balloon. Once the balloon was covered and dried a few times...


...I made the accessories, which included the eyes and nose.


Luckily everything went together pretty quickly and easily, and I think it turned out well considering my lack of crafty talent.


The birthday party was lot of fun. There were plenty of kids running around and tons of balloons for them to run and jump with. They were all pretty excited about cake time. (Actually, now that I think about it, it wasn't only the kids excited about that part.) Kieran did a great job blowing out his candles.


Soon after getting hyped up on sugar, it was pinata time! Woo hoo!!


Everyone got a turn at swinging the bat before the pinata busted open with toys and fruit snacks littering the floor. At this point, the kids didn't know what to do. They were a little worried about Elmo who now had a gaping hole in head, but they soon noticed the booty on the floor and began scrambling for goodies

Someone should have told Lola's dad that the pinata was not for wearing. There's always one embarssing dad at every party, right?


It was my first New Year's Eve ushered in with a two year old's birthday party, but I have to say that it was just as fun as all those without kids and cake. Hmmm, sounds like I'm getting old.

Finally...A New Blog Entry

OK, so I'm WAY behind on updating ye ol' blog, but think of it this way...instead of getting many little updates, you get a big juicy entry full of tremendous wit and fabulous pictures. Surely that's worth the wait.

Let's go back in time to early December. Remember the field sites with the antennas we set up in Barrow and Wainwright, Alaska? Well, the ocean had frozen over by early December, so there wasn't any more information to collect on ocean currents with our instruments. Our permits require us to remove our field sites until the ice breaks up again, so we headed north to do just that...take everything down. Did you catch that we headed north from our already northern locale in December? Do you know what happens to the sun as you travel north? Sun? What sun? Sometimes you just do what you have to do, so we suited up and hit the 'beach' in Barrow. Yes, it was dark, but the temperatures and wind really weren't that bad. It helps to be wearing several layers and head lamps, which we were. Here are a few scenes from the trip to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

The dark, snowy beach in Barrow before we took down the antenna


Ice buildup on one of the antennas we took down


There was some digging in the snow to try and find everything we needed access to


and some laying in the snow to get access to things we needed to get to. Hank definitely doesn't look like he minds or is being tortured in any way.


By the time we got to Wainwright, the skies cleared up a bit and we were able to catch some of the mid-day light. The frozen Arctic Ocean is in the background of the next few pictures. It's interesting how it can look as if the boundary between land and water doesn't even exist.


There was a lot less snow to clear because the wind blows most of it away from the bluff where we put our field site.


Well, it didn't blow all of the snow away. There was still plenty of digging to find our anchor points.


Here is the only picture of myself that isn't tremendously blurry; however it is rather flashy.


It wasn't all sunshine in Wainwright, it didn't take long before everything went dark.


Moving on to Christmastime, I had a fabulous time with family. Somehow the days just seems to fly by faster and faster during my visits, which is a shame because I already have an extra person to visit in my little super-cute, super-sweet nephew Parker.


I normally attend three large family gatherings when I go home for the holidays, and although it seems like a lot to do when it's all packed into two days, it's always a lot of fun. I've started to notice a lot of similarities between the three family gatherings. No matter where you are, Christmas is a time when every surface starts to look like a good seat and you think twice about getting up if you want your seat back when you return.


Christmas is a time when people don't mind crowding around a table even though it means that everyone's drink is on the same table and that you're looking everywhere later for the cup that is yours.


It seems there is always someone the kids like to hang on (and someone who gets a little tired if you noticed Nettie on the right hand side of the picture below)


and as soon as someone young picks up a new musical instrument, we all sing along to a Christmas concert. (Good job, Sarah!)


Another thing that is always the same from year to year is that everyone tries to take group photos. You need a picture of all of the great-grandchildren, one of all the grandchildren, one of the aunts and uncles, one of the in-laws, one of the great-grandchildren with grandma, one of all the grandchildren with grandma, one with all of the aunts and uncles with grandma, one of everyone with grandma (aside from that one cousin's boyfriend who is stuck taking every single picture of everyone with each person's camera). You know the drill. Most of the time, everyone gets set, but there are at least five people taking the same picture at the same time, and the seven or more people in the picture are all looking at a different camera, so you get back to Alaska, and you have 39 different attempts at group pictures and in not one of them is everyone looking at your camera and smiling at the same time. Next year...repeat. Is this a Midwestern thing or does it happen everywhere? Aggravating isn't it, but every year you still have the hope that you will get that one picture where everyone is smiling and looking. Funny thing is, I love it. Every bit of it. It wouldn't be the holidays without it.

Not to be overshadowed by Christmas, I have a grandmother that turned 90 on New Year's Day. Unfortunately I had to fly back to Alaska before New Year's, but that didn't mean we couldn't celebrate. Mom and I had her over for dinner, cake and just a general good time while the snow fell outside. Happy 90th Birthday, Grandma!! I'll definitely be there for 100.


This begs the question...Since I wasn't able to attend Grandma's birthday, what DID I do for New Years? I'm kidding of course with that last sentence, but if you want to know, you'll have to wait until the next entry because I'm tired of typing.

To be continued...

The Rest of October

The latter half of October brought the snow that will stick around for the rest of the winter. It was in the newspaper not too long ago that Fairbanks is one of the few places that is always 100% guaranteed to have a white Christmas. Somehow when the snow starts falling and the skies get darker and darker, life becomes more social because everyone isn't running in quite as many directions as we do in the summer.

This winter season brought the first ever Sauerkraut Throwdown!! This is a little friendly competition in which one must have grown their own cabbage and then make their own kraut...not so complicated, right? I was honored to be an official judge for the competition.


It was hard to pick a clear winner as we judged each of the krauts on appearance, aroma, taste, and texture. In the end, I would say that all of the competitors were winners although we did have to pick first, second, and third. Congratulations!!


October also brings the start of the hockey season. What would winter be without going to one of the UAF Nanook hockey games?


Between the second and third periods, there is a competition where people throw these tiny frisbee-like things and try to get them into a bin at center ice.


I can't remember what you win if you get one in, but I assume it's a good prize. Speaking of winning, the Nanooks did manage to win that night, putting everyone in a good mood for the ride home.

The end of October is pretty obvious when you look around and see plenty of people in costumes roaming the streets. This year was no exception. My friend Steve had his annual Halloween party, and yet again the costumes did not disappoint. I went as a Death Panel. Get it? It's a play on words!


Even our snacks were festive! Check out the ham skull.


Not everything was gross or scary, there were bee keepers


Sesame Street characters


Linda Richmond from SNL


Yukon Cornelius


A Banana


Injured Hockey Player with Monty Python knight


Me and Pie


and a Mombie and gypsy made the drive from Delta Junction!


This is always a great time of year filled fun activites and lots of laughter!!