Today has been a lovely day. The sun has shone and the snow just glistens! Makes a lovely winter scene. Our daylight has increased to 11 hours 4 minutes, 43 seconds. That is an increase of 5 minutes 35 seconds over yesterday. Our high today was just below freezing. The state’s high temp yesterday was 42 at Metlakatla and the low was -27 at Point Lay.

Last night our motion detector lights at the front of our house kept coming on and going off. A look outside told us a cow moose was in the driveway. The light would startle her just a bit and she’d back off. Then, when she started walking the light would come on again. She didn’t stay very long, primarily because there wasn’t any food in the drive. Our yard has several trails made by many different moose.

The Arctic Winter Games are going well; at least that is what they are saying on the tv. Whenever I go out, I see a lot of kids wearing their team jackets. Each team consists of over 100 people, I believe. Almost everyone is a teenager and everyone I’ve met has been delightful. My eldest son was pleased to have an excuse to use the Russian language he learned while attending a local Christian school for several years. The Russian kids had a very limited English vocabulary so they were able to converse quite well. Another good thing is the coaches and families of all the teams know how to drive on the ice covered streets as everyone is from the 55th parallel (degrees latitude) or higher! Most winter visitors to our area don’t have a clue about driving on ice and it gets quite interesting and sometimes quite dangerous.

One of our local mushers was in first place in the 1049 mile Iditarod race until his sled hit a tree and the gang line broke. The team continued on without him. They had a race to win whether he was onboard or not. He trudged through the snow for two miles, hitched a ride with another musher and finally rode on a snowmobile belonging to a guy on a buffalo hunt. About 10 miles down the trail he caught up with his team as they were still running. Their speed was about 13-14 mph. He wound up losing about 3 hours time and may face a penalty for riding on a snowmachine to get to his dogs faster. The race still has another week or so to go before it is over.

These dogs LOVE to race and just keep right on running. Scientists are studying muscle fibers from some of these dogs because, unlike every other critter or man, not only do they get a second wind, something in their muscles just doesn’t get tired. It’s almost like their bodies go into overdrive.

Tonight’s dinner was chicken in burgundy sauce with a rice pilaf. Sautéed cherries were the dessert. I’m being very cautious about staying away from potatoes and wheat. For many months I did that fairly well, but lately had started sneaking some into my diet. Well, the pain in my trigger-finger got the best of me and I realized it was especially painful after eating potatoes. Ouch! I knew better but had to really hurt before I got that message. Wheat plays a part in that, too, especially with my sinuses. So, back to doing what is Right 4 My Type!

Till next time…. Take care.