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