Friends,

Last Wednesday and Thursday were our coldest days so far.  Officially it was more than 30 below.  Here at the apartment it was 24 below.  We still went for our daily walk

Since the wind storm a couple weeks ago we have been back to calm.  The snow lands on the trees and frost builds on the snow on the branches, so the trees are VERY PRETTY!

Notice how thick the frost and snow is.

Tall or short, they are all covered with snow and frost.

This is in the dark, lit with street light.

I think this is the prettiest one.  Sorry it is sideways.  I have it various other places, and here is the only place it refuses to stand up.  Look at it when you are lying down for a nap.

The days are getting shorter - sunrise today was officially 10:04 and sunset was 3:11 giving us 5 hours 7 minutes of sun time.  I knew before coming to Fairbanks that the days would be short, but I hadn't though how low the sun would be.  The highest the sun gets above the horizon is about 4 degrees.  For comparison, now in Des Moines it is 27 degrees.  These can be seen on this protractor.  Bet you thought you were all done using protractors, didn't you!  If you would stand with your arm pointing straight south and level, then raise your arm to match 4 degrees, that is how high the sun is here at noon, or 27 degrees for Des Moines.

Here are some pictures of the river a few days ago.  Then it was nearly frozen over.  Now it is completely frozen except at a few places near bridges, etc.

The unfrozen strip is about a yard wide.  There are now snow machine (snow mobiles) tracks on the ice and at least a couple people have walked across on the ice.  We will wait a while before we try that.

We had wondered about the pigeons.  With everything covered with snow we didn't see how they could survive.  We found out.  They eat choke cherries.  Choke cherries are an invasive species and some people think they should not be here.  I suppose the pigeons disagree.  A couple days ago I put out some grain for the pigeons to eat but they have not found it yet.

If you ever have questions please ask.  If you would rather that not everyone who sees the blog would see your questions you can just send an e-mail with your question instead of responding to the blog.  Our e-mail address is elvalarryevers@gmail.com

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Larry & Elva