The temperatures here continue to be above normal, but not by very much. And they vary a lot. One evening we drove out to see the northern lights. It was 4 ̊ here at the apartment. Our apartment is more or less in the east central part of town. By the time we were in the northwest part of town it was -4 ̊. Going north into the hills it was 9 ̊. So it is a little hard to tell just what the temperature might be. Sometimes they give the temperature for Fairbanks on the radio and we think, "Oh really? It is not that here at the apartment!"
It seems to me that the Alaska mind set is, "If you want it done, do it yourself. Don't expect the government to do it for you." We had about 6 inches of snow Sunday. Our way of thinking said, "It snowed, the town needs to get out and clear the roads and sidewalks." They don't worry about snow on roads. They cleared some of the main streets, but not in a hurry. Our street has not been done by the city. But a couple businesses on our street had a private snow pusher come in and clear the snow from their business and up and down the street a ways from their business. No one has cleared the snow from in front of our apartment. It is now well packed down. They say that is what they want, to just have the snow packed down. Then in the spring when the snow should be done they come along with a front-end loader and take away the snow once. This makes less expenses for the city. It also makes more expenses for the businesses. One lady at church said her street usually gets plowed about twice each winter.
Another sign of the Alaska mind set is boroughs. A borough is somewhat like a county. The difference here is that not all land is in a borough. Much of Alaska is just under state government with nothing local. We actually live in Fairbanks North Star Borough. There is a city mayor and a borough mayor. Our apartment manager has a sister who owns a farm in a very small town about 50 miles from here. It is in no borough. So there is no property tax, no local tax of any kind. With no local government there is no local tax. She heard that there was going to be a meeting about forming a borough in and around that town. There was to be a meeting about organizing a borough there. So our manager planned to go to the meeting to voice her opposition to it. "Why would anyone want more taxes?" she told us. If there are roads there they are state highways or private roads. The private roads would be maintained by the owners. If you want it done, do it yourself. Don't expect the government to do it for you.
For entertainment last week we went to watch the roller derby. It was far less violent than what we used to see on TV occasionally. There was blocking and running into each other, but no fists or chairs flying. They could not extend their arms. Each team had five (if we remember correctly) skaters on the floor at a time. The rounds can be up to two minutes each and are called jams. Only one skater for each team can score points during a given jam and she has a star on her helmet. That person is called the "jammer." The jammer for each team starts at the back of the pack and her teammates are ahead of both jammers. These others try to block the opponents jammer from breaking out of the pack and also to help their own jammer break out ahead of the pack. Only the first jammer out of the pack can score points for their team. The longer they were ahead of the pack and the other jammer the more points they scored for their team. If the second jammer started catching the lead jammer the lead jammer could stop that jam. How the points were actually awarded the lead jammer I did not figure out. Each lead jammer usually scored from about 5 to 25 points. It was very interesting. But it is also one of those things that we are glad to do but most likely will not do again. (It was the same for the only major baseball game I have attended. It was interesting but I have no desire to do it again.)
Here the lead jammer has broken away from the pack and is scoring points for her team.
This shows the blue team jammer trying to go between the black and gold blockers. I don't know if these two pictures were from the same jam or not.
Sunday we had a very pretty snow. It was probably about 5 inches on top of a couple inches earlier in the week. I write often about how little wind is here. These pictures show the snow just piling on top of things. The pictures were taken Sunday right after the snow. There still has been no wind and the snow is still piled up on everything. I remember that would happen in Iowa sometimes, but in a day or two the wind would pick up and blow the snow off of things and make drifts. I have seen absolutely no drifts here.
This is the metal roof on the building next to ours just out our dining room window. The snow started to slide off.
Snow on our mail boxes. Notice the snow on the post.
Snow on play equipment across road. 
Snow did not blow off post.
Pretty black spruce a block from our apartment.
Snow on one end of teeter totter.
Bushes with snow.
The river is getting closer to freezing over.
Two kinds of birds are quite abundant during the winter here, ravens and pigeons. There are also chickadees during the winter but we only see them if we walk in the woods. Here are some pigeons. It has not yet been real cold. I don't know how the birds do when it is minus 50.
If you want to read more about Alaska here are a couple books we recommend. I have finished the first one and Elva is about 3/4 done with it. It is about a Mennonite doctor and family who among other places, moved to the bush of Alaska. We highly recommend it. The second I have just started, but so far I would recommend it. The main character of this book married into a family that the (now former) mayor (that Elva knows from choir) went to high school with. He says the book is embellished over fact. How much that happened I have no idea. In the little bit I have read it is easy to see places where it could have been embellished. But it is very interesting.
From Kansas Wheat Fields to Alaska Tundra, by Naomi Gaede-Penner
Tisha, as told to Robert Specht
God's blessings to all of you.
Larry and Elva
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