2/12/04

We’re just about mid-winter now, and the weather up here remains screwy. Below zero one day, then in the 40’s the next. Point Barrow, way up north of us, had a high of –28 the other day, while a town about half an hour south of us had wind gusts to 130 mph. Kinda like Maine…if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.

The big news is that we have over 8 hours a day of sunlight now. Sunrise is around 8:50 and sunset is 5:35 and we’re gaining 5 ½ minutes a day.

We’ve been trying to get out on weekends to skate and x-c ski and manage to keep busy. On March 6^th, we’ll both be volunteering at the start of the Iditarod Dog Sled Race as dog handlers, helping the mushers get their teams of 16 dogs up to the starting line and ready to go the 1049 miles to Nome. We’re really excited to be part of this Alaskan tradition! Next weekend we’ll be attending a class to become ITC (Iditarod Trail Committee) certified as dog handlers.

The first photo is of a pair of moose I took through the telescope as they browsed on the mountain across from our house, about ½ mile away. The second is a sunset over the same mountain. The third is of our house, taken from the road coming up the mountain. The fourth is of my truck after it had been thoroughly checked out by a moose that visited last night.

The dog woke us up around midnight, and we got up to discover a moose walking down the driveway. We watched him go, then watched the aurora for a few minutes before going back to bed. This morning, I found that my truck had moose snot all over it! The upper prints are nose prints, the lower ones are where his bell brushed against the truck. I guess I’m lucky he decided it wasn’t a threat…there were no dents in it!