Friends of Alaska,

Greetings.  We continue to be busy.  And some things we had planned to do we are skipping because there are just so many things one could do.  We also enjoy hobbies here at the apartment.  There are routine things we do that do not get into the blog: church and Sunday school on Sunday morning, Bible study on Sunday evenings (though this is about to end), Elva volunteers at an elementary school Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, life group (Bible study) on Thursday evenings, Larry meets with a young man from church on Monday mornings, Elva has choir practice on Wednesday evenings, for a couple weeks Larry has a Bible study at a long term care center while the man who  usually has it is on vacation in Hawaii, Elva has just started attending a Bible study on Monday evenings, and we try to walk all afternoons except Sunday.  We don't walk Sunday afternoons because we walk to church.  And then we do the special things that we include in the blogs.

The Iron Dog Snow Machine Race (snow mobile for those in the lower 48) ended here Saturday.  It is advertised as the longest toughest snow machine race in the world.  Pairs of contestants race from near Anchorage to Nome to Fairbanks, a course of over 2000 miles.  They go in pairs for safety in case there are problems of some kind.  The pictures below are of the end of the Iron Dog race, which was about 3 or 4 blocks from our apartment.  The first picture is the entrance to the finish line and the second is a team ending their race.  The timing of the teams was real close to our apartment.  There were some race officials with a sign that said "time ends here."  One could have a spiritual or philosophical discussion about the meaning of that sign if it did not apply to the end of a race.

This is the course in front of our apartment.  On the left is the sign about the end of time.  We often walk across the river here.

The Iron Dog race ends with a bit of celebration.  But, always looking for more ways to celebrate winter, there is also Tired Dog races.  These are snow machines over 35 years old.  The course above shows where the contestants in these races go on the right going away from the camera and on the left coming toward the camera.  In one of the Tired Dog races the time does not matter, the age of the contestant does.  The winner was 95 years old and ran a 1965 Polaris Mustang machine.  Second place was 93 and ran a 1969 Snow-Jet 150.  Third was 68 and running a 1966 Rupp Snow Sport.  The guy in third has a ways to go to match the other two.  Then again, he could be the winner in just two or three years.  The picture below is looking out our window at the course above as a snow machine goes by.

I should maybe explain about the names of these races including "dog" in them.  Originally there were sled dog races.  Some call snow machines "iron dogs."  So the long race is Iron Dog Race.  The old snow machines are then referred to as tired dogs.

As the races were going on people celebrated winter in various ways.  Individuals played in the snow making snow angels.

There was Human Moose Nugget Bowling, but it was only replica of "moose nuggets."  The goal is to hit these.

Children get into these tire-like sleds and are pulled back against a bungy cord.

And then are "shot" down the bowling alley.

Knocking over the "moose nuggets."  Actually it is a clean game and the kids had a lot of fun.

There were booths set up for people to do various activities while waiting between races.

Other things are starting.  Fairbanks has a much larger snow carving competition than the pictures a couple months ago from North Pole.  That just started the last couple days.  Arctic Winter Games will start March 15.  Someone said there will be about as many contestants for this as there were for the Winter Olympics.

Thanks for staying interested in our "Alaska Adventure."

God's blessing to all.

Larry and Elva

Late again   ----

Here are some tidbits from Alaska   ----
- Last Friday (2/14/14) new Alaska wind chill record of -97 degrees in Brooks Range (north toward Arctic Ocean.)
- The Iron Dog Snowmachine race is a  2031 mile race which will end in Fairbanks probably this weekend. The racers average nearly 100 mph on the smoother parts of the course.  One of the favorites to win was Todd Palin (husband of you know who) who was forced to withdraw from the race because of mechanical difficulties.  Just before withdrawing he was averaging about 21 mph.
- In the grocery store recently: ground buffalo for $9.48 per pound, buffalo rib steaks for $14.98 per pound, and boneless buffalo chuck roast $9.49 per pound.  At the same time fresh ground turkey was $3.99 per pound.
- 141 "Golden Heart Greeter Volunteers" helped bring over $9,000,000 into the Fairbanks economy during 2013.  Elva and I were among them.
- Length of possible sunshine today is 9 hours 0 min 46 sec.
- Length of possible sunshine December 21 is 3 hours 41 min 29 sec
- Length of possible sunshine June 21 is  21 hours 10 minutes.

While the Iron Dog snowmachine race is big time.  Fairbanks has found another way to celebrate winter - the Tired Dog Snowmachine race.  All entrants must use machines 35 years old or older.  Some have air cooled engines and some liquid cooled engines.  The race will be 24 miles long. Here is a picture of preparations for the race.  This is about 3/8 mile from our apartment and the course goes by our apartment.  Along with the race there will be activities for children and families.

We had our best northern lights viewing last evening at about 10:30.  Usually the lights are toward the northern horizon.  Last night they were not only there, but directly above and even to our south.  Here are some of the better pictures.  God has put beauty into all parts of the world.

The white dot in the last picture is someone's yard light.

God's blessing to each of you.  May you find ways to enjoy the beauty God has put into your world and into your life.

Larry and Elva

Half day late   ---   I usually do the blog in the evening and we went to a science lecture yesterday evening.  This is the second one we have attended.  The first was about northern lights.  It was okay but more geared for a college audience.  Last evening was about volcanoes and the sounds they make, especially infrasonic sound.  People can hear sounds from 20 to 20,000 Hz (cycles per second.)  Volcanoes make many sounds with lower frequency.  These low-frequency sounds travel farther so volcanoes and their sounds can be studied without having to be close to the eruption.

So this blog is a little late.

Last week the blog was mostly about the Yukon Quest dog sled race.  About half of the contestants have finished now.  Here is how some have done:
-- Brent Sass who was in the lead much of the race fell asleep, fell, his head, and had to be taken to the hospital.  He is okay now.
-- Dave Dalton dropped out after one of his dogs died on the trail.
-- Cody Strathe withdrew after his team stalled. It appears a couple of his dogs quit running, and after pushing his sled for a while Strathe became exhausted and called for help.
-- The first rookie to cross the finish line came in third.  He was pleased to be ahead of some long-time racers.  He said, "For 95% of the time I was perched on the sled runners smiling from ear to ear.  The other 5% of the time would be around 6 a.m. when I had only one hour of sleep in the past 24 hours.  Those were hard times, just trying to stay awake and keep going."
-- The winner, Allen Moore, finished in 8 days, 14 hours, and 21 minutes.  His efforts earned him $22,700 plus 4 ounces of gold for being the first one to reach the halfway point and finish the race.  The annual cost of maintaining a racing kennel is far more than his earnings.

We got a preview of some of the contests that will be a part of the Arctic Winter Games in about a month.  We have been volunteering for them since September.  This is the "stick pull."

This is the "knuckle walk."  The contestants must only touch the floor with knuckles and toes, keeping their body flat.  He hops on knuckles and toes propelling himself forward with each hop.

Here is the "head pull."  Winner pulls opponent across a line or loser has band slip off of head.  You can see in the second picture that the one on the left is about to loose because his head is lower and the band is about to slip off his head.

This is the ear pull.  They pull against opponent until the pain is too great and they turn head allowing band to slip  off of ear or the band slips off because of weak ear.  You might think an ear is just an ear and is neither weak nor strong.  Apparently that is not so.  The tribe of Athabascans have weaker cartilage in their ears and almost never win this event.  Ears often become bloody in this event and some people have had their ears torn off.

This is the one hand kick.  Contestant must keep one hand on floor and kick ball suspended above his head.  Here the ball is in the lower right corner of the Papa Johns sign.  In this first picture he is contemplating his kick.

He is actually landing here, but he must hold one foot off of the floor and push himself up with only the other foot and leg.

Starting his jump.

Half way up.

Sorry that this picture is sideways, this is the best one.  He maintains hand stand, continues to hold one foot, and tries to kick the ball.  If I remember correctly, on this attempt he kicked high enough but missed the ball.

A big part of the Arctic Winter Games is a display of cultures.  So the little introduction that we saw had these Inupiat dancers.  They performed about six dances.  Each dance told a story - like a caribou hunt or skinning a seal.  Generally the men drum and the women dance.  The second picture includes a man dancing.

Sun dogs here can be spectacular.  This is looking across the frozen and snow covered river toward the south southwest on Sunday afternoon.

There was a folk music program most of one day.  This was a group all taught by the same teacher.  They ranged in age from 5 years old to a grandma, whose age they did not tell.  The little guy second from the left in the front was quite the clown.  He entertained us best while he was not playing.  But the group did very well.

You may wonder about the cost of staying Alaska for a year.  It is not low cost.  But all the things in this blog that we attended were free.  However, have I mentioned that there is a $100 fee for receiving these blogs?  Only joking, of course.  We are enjoying our time here and merely want to share our good time with anyone who is interested.  Many things we attend are close enough to our apartment that we can walk.  There are many things we do not attend because of the cost.  We have plenty to do.  Some times we are too busy but do not want to miss some things.

Thank you for reading these blogs.  Elva usually proof reads the blog before I send it but she is not here now.  Please excuse any mistakes.

Larry and Elva

Friends of Alaska,

This past weekend was a big time for Fairbanks.  The Yukon Quest started here.  Dog sled teams headed out of town for Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.  This race is not as long as the Iditarod but is much harder.  We saw the first mile or so of the race.  The path out of town was not like usual because of some soft ice on the river near the usual start point.  It still came to withing about 300 feet of our apartment.

First we did some people watching, mostly head-gear.

 She wore a Broncos sweatshirt, but it did not help!

Most dog teams were brought in cages in the back of pickups.

There was a long line of trucks with teams, mushers, and handlers.  It is quite expensive to be a professional musher.  One musher had a total of 40 dogs they train, that would be a lot of dog food.  Of course, they could not run that many in the race, but they had the chance to pick the ones doing best.

No, there is not usually that much snow on Second Street in downtown Fairbanks.  But since the race could not start on the river the city trucked snow in and spread it along the beginning of the race route.

 The following picture shows the snow added to the street and people enjoying it before the race started.  The boy is skijoring, on skis and being pulled by a dog.

The mushers take great pride in their dogs and take excellent care of them.  Musher and dog team form a close bond.  Except that the dogs may fight over food if allowed to do so.  Some mushers have by now (Tuesday) dropped out of the race because some dogs were not well.  The dogs must be checked by veterinarians before and be certified in good health.  There is a mandatory 36-hour stop over in the race for the welfare of the dogs and musher.  The teams stop over night and take breaks of several hours at certain places along the route.

This sled is packed and ready to go.  The mushers do not take enough supplies for the entire trip.  Their teams have left supplies ahead of time at stopover spots along the course.  The food for the dogs along the race is usually chicken skins.

And then it is time to start.  The teams do not all start at one time.  That would end up being one mumble-jumble of dogs, sleds, and mushers.  So they start at three minute intervals.  So the last team started about 50 minutes behind the first team.  The difference is adjusted at the first stop over.  The first team to start the race has to wait longer before getting back on the trail and the last team does not need to wait as long.  All are adjusted so the standings after that are correct in the race.

Then it is time to start and the first team lines up under the banner.

The dogs are barking, jumping, yapping, and eager to get on the way.  They appear to really want to run.  At least they have been trained that way.  There must be "handlers" holding the dogs to keep them from starting before the official says, "Mush!"  In this next picture the handlers have just let loose of the dogs and they have not quite realized that they are free to go.

Then they are off!  The dogs are glad to be able to run.  The musher is all smiles and waves to the waving crowd.  In some pictures you can see the boots that the dogs are wearing.  Without boots the ice cuts their feet and snow builds up between their toes and hurts their feet.

(This picture is taken from above.)

New this year was the opportunity for people to bid on riding in an extra sled behind the musher's sled.  This was for the first two miles of the race.  This increased the purse by $5000.

 This required an expert musher to handle the sled in which the rider traveled the first two miles of the race.


There were a lot of people.  For a while we were watching from the second floor of a parking ramp.  A great time was had by all.

Many families were there with children.  When the children tired of watching dogs they found other things to do.

Kids are playing in the trees on the right.  This picture is where the course came back to the river.  We can easily see this spot from our apartment, but we were out taking pictures during the start of the race.

The 1000 mile race started at 11:00, a junior race of a couple miles started at 12:00, and a 300 mile race started at 3:00.  Here are some pictures of the start of the kids race.  It started on the river just a short way from our apartment

Some of the littler ones had a parent with them.

Going fast enough to kick up a cloud of snow!

The kids had to go up the bank where the regular race went down the bank!  Several had to have their dogs pulled. 

This skijorist was probably the youngest, maybe 5

This was perhaps the oldest - early teen?

We volunteered a couple times for the Yukon Quest.  On Thursday evening they had a banquet where the mushers drew their bib numbers.  We took tickets there.  The musher who drew #1 thought it was a good omen.  This is his third race.  One race his bib number was 10 and he finished tenth.  The other race his number was 7 and he finished seventh.  Drawing #1 looked good to him!

We also volunteered at a breakfast for mushers and crowd the morning of the race.  We were able to meet some of the mushers at both of these.  They just seemed to be normal people doing something not quite what the normal person has the chance to do.

The people here don't just endure winter, they find ways to celebrate it!  This winter so far has been easier to celebrate since it has been very mild.  I hear it is not that way where most of you live!  Are you celebrating winter or enduring it?

Have a good winter - March will be here in about 24 days!

Bye for now.

Larry and Elva