Unusual Aurora Perspective

The Aurora.

I've seen pictures and heard about it. Know where to go to watch it for a weekend trip, but I haven't seen it yet.

In case you missed it in the news, the astronauts got a pretty cool picture of it earlier this week.

http://www.adn.com:80/life/alaskana/story/354408.html

I am sure the mushers in the All Alaska Sweepstakes are getting a great look if the skies are clear. The old record is 72 hours and 14 minutes from 1910. If things continue as they have over the first 1/2 of the race, that record will be almost cut in half.

Amazing...

The bears are waking up!

Last week, I saw an article in the paper about the bears waking up. Sure enough - we went to the Wildlife Conservation Center this weekend and watched them play in the snow. Now is the perfect time as the Center makes sure they are fed and it is cool enough for them to actually play instead of sleep all day... Look - I found my toes...
See - here they are!
Time for some wrestling
And then there's the goofy ravens. These birds were hanging out at the caribou feeding trough about 3 feet away from the animals. They are so big - however they appear to be on the eagle food chain. We just haven't had enough eagles come back to town yet to get rid of the ravens for summer!

Happy Easter!

Spring is coming.

The Nenana Ice Classic is in full swing (can't forget to turn in the winning ticket sitting here on my desk).

The ravens are moving to the country or wherever ravens go in the summer (hooray!)....

The bears are waking up ...

And Whittier, Alaska (just south of here) received 3 feet of snow Wednesday and expects another 4 feet if they don't have it already.

OK...maybe Spring is still a few weeks away!

It's 29 and sunny - what should we do???

Open the house up of course! Get some fresh air in here!

It has been an absolutely beautiful weekend. Two sunny days creating a lot of melt. Today we went skiing at Alyeska - WOW - it doesn't get any better!

(OK, OK..it was a little icy and I fell...no I crashed mid green slope...I am going to have a very colorful bruise just to the side of my kneecap tomorrow. It is already forming. I think I will have a ski shaped (long/thin) one on the opposite shin to match it.)

Back to the sun! Either today or tomorrow, we will hit 12 hours of sunlight. In 3 short months we will have 20 hours of sunlight and the rest dusk. We are gaining light at the rate of 5 minutes
and 45 seconds a day.

Glad we got our fishing licenses Friday!

The race will finish soon!

Once again - the Iditarod will soon be over. Mackey and King are nose to nose so to speak. It looks to be a closer finish this year than last.

Downtown at the start (notice the buildings)...

At the Official re-start in Willow (the open field on the far side is the lake planes land on...)
Dogs ready to run!
As far as I know, the only matched sled dog team this year - what a beautiful team..
Lance Mackey - Last year's winner
Jeff King - 4 time champ and trying for a 5th.

They are estimating the race will finish about 3:30am tomorrow morning. I probably won't stay up for it.

Of course Squirt has been absolutely enthralled by this over the last 10 days (OK maybe not that enthralled...) but - what dog doesn't want to be a sled dog champ???

Fur Rondy Highlights

Once again, we went to the dog sled sprint races, hide and horn auction and the dog weight pull. Of course the difference this year was the First Annual Running of the Reindeer (which made several national news clips). At the hide and horn auction, I had to hold both of Robert's hands because he kept pointing at the hides and I didn't want to come home with a $700 wolf pelt. Regardless...a few highlights...

Out of the gate - this is a 25 mile run the teams complete in about 90 minutes.

Meet Dozer the Giant Alaskan Malamute. He weighed 180lbs.

At the Hide and Horn auction - a clear, beautiful day to have a carnival. (It is about 28 degrees...OK the Ferris wheel might have been a chilly ride!)

Ah...the reindeer have arrived!

Here they are picking out targets...

Reindeer training. (This had to be a wild ride for the skiers as the reindeer went fast.) They did three runs with the skiers to train the reindeer where their pen was located at the other end.

The crowd is primed...literally.

Here's a feisty little one...notice the fur flying AND no more harnesses from the training session.

And they're off! The roars of laughter are Robert and myself.

Luckily, no one was hurt and I can't wait for next year. We will be at the finish line then!

So how close do the moose get to the house?

These pictures were taken from our front porch....he was having a buffet of our bushes and trees getting ready to make the return trip on the back side....

Then of course he had to stop off for some birch twigs....

Note - he is on the steps to our deck. Thank goodness we put the them there or he would really have trouble reaching! (I am sure "he" is right because if you look at his forehead, I think antlers are ready to come out soon!)

We did see something unusual this morning when gong to work...our neighbor's truck was sideways in the street. No driver - passenger - wreck - nothing wrong. Just sitting there blocking the road. We finally decided it must have slid down the driveway during the night due to the warm temps, melting ice and windy conditions!