Friends   ===

Well, here we are getting close to the middle of October.  If this turns out to be a normal winter the snow will start to stick around the 15th of this month and stay until April sometime.  Of course, no matter where one lives few years have "normal" weather.  This  year has not been normal here in Fairbanks.  This was one of the shortest summers.  Here they measure summer from the last snowfall in the spring to the first snowfall in the fall.  That was May 17 and September 18.  I don't know how they figure spring and fall in that scenario.  We have had some nice fall days since the first snow.  But the days are getting shorter.  Elva goes to volunteer at 8:30 and that is about when the sun comes up.  Soon it will be dark when she leaves.  There is daylight savings time here too so the evenings are not dark so soon.

Last Saturday we went to the "Farthest North Forest Sports Festival."  As far as they know it is the one that is farthest north.  It is just a fun thing the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources sponsors each year.  They organize and set it up but anyone can participate.  I could have but I knew better.  It was just a fun wholesome thing, far better than Iowa State's Veishea.  Of course the purpose of those two things are quite different.  Here are pictures  of most of the events with a short comment.

This is the ax toss

One of the better throws.

Ladies participated in most events too.

Ax still in flight.

Log rolling - the log was tapered but it had to be rolled straight.  Most teams did not go straight enough and then had to move the log sideways.  That used a lot of extra time.  It had to be rolled about 30 feet and then back again.

You can see a stake.  There were actually two stakes about closer together than the log was long.  It was not so easy to arrive at the correct place at the other end.  (No, I did not do this, that is just how it looked.)

Two person cross-cut saw.  This wood was about 15 in by 15 in.  Some teams could do this in about 20 seconds, others in a couple minutes.

Single person saw.  This wood was 6 x 6 inches.  This man was by far the best.  His time was 11 seconds if I remember correctly.

This is the log toss.

Each team member tried to get the logs to land between two posts like these at the other end.  The team kept tossing until they had ten that stayed between the posts.  The object was to have the shortest time getting your 10 logs between the posts.

The above events were all at one site in the morning.  There were two events in the afternoon at a nearby lake.

Campfire starting, which team could get the water in the can to boil first.  They added a squirt of dish washing soap so that it was easy to see when the water boiled.  They started with the can of water, five matches, an ax, a one-foot hunk of wood, a flat 15 x 15 hunk of wood.  This team was by far the best by far.  The man with his back to the camera was 56 (he said that) and the other man perhaps 40.

There were six teams at a time.

Nearing success.

That is mostly steam because it is boiling.

Burling or birling we could not find the word in the computer dictionary.

Carrying to log to the water.

Women too.

On the left was a boy of about 11 years.  He tried most events.

People dressed many different ways.

We did not stay to the very end.  The boy won the first round and lost in the second round.  We want him to win.

We have started attending "life group" through the Presbyterian Church.  The associate pastor hosts the group we meet with.  He gave us a red salmon.  It was about 20 inches long.  It was caught and frozen, still had head, tail, fins, and guts.  Elva had the pleasure of preparing it.

We think these were eggs.

Around town are some of these trees.  They are tamaracks, conifers that loose their needles each fall.

These are across the river from our apartment.  The closer shorter building beyond the tamaracks is the Adult Learning Center where I help with GED math.

As at most places there are better kept yards and less well kept yards.  These two pictures show part of the yard of one house just north of Fairbanks.  Some people here say they need to keep things because one never knows when they might need it.  This place must think they will need a lot of things sometime.

Thanks for keeping track of us.  We welcome questions and comments.

Larry and Elva

Amen, come Lord Jesus