The sun has been down for almost five hours, it's hard to keep my eyes open. Big diffarance from Florida. We are only getting three hours of sun light a day now. It was overcast today so we never got to see the sun, it was just light enough to see without your head lights on. Tomorrow is the shortest day, then the days start getting longer. In a few weeks we will be gaining over seven minutes a day. It will be the end of February before we notice a real change in the days. These dark days with no sunshine are really depressing.
We got another 1 1/2" of snow today, that makes about 7" on the ground. Enough to run the snow machine. Next week I'll set traps in the back yard, got a Coyote coming through most nights. Then I'll start going out during the day looking for predators. Got the 25-06 ready to go. It's been so warm, won't be able to cross the Tanana River for another month. Temp was 30 degrees yesterday, today it got up to 19 degrees. It was above freezing over the weekend.
Skip Olsen has been running his air boat up and down the river in Fairbanks to pack the snow down, in an effort to get the ice on the river to freeze deeper. They start having events on the river ice next month in town. The Tired Iron snow machine races, the Yukon Quest sled dog race, the Iron Dog snow machine race, and other events, are all held out on the river ice. Last year they had trouble with people and machines falling through.
The Yukon Quest is an International Sled Dog Race. Even numbered years they start in Fairbanks, Alaska, and finish in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory Canada. Odd years it's reversed. The Iron Dog Snow Machine Race, starts in Wasillia, near Anchorage. Runs the Idatarod Trail to Nome. Then returns back to the Yukon river. Once on the Yukon, they run up to the Tanana, then up the Tanana to the Chena, then up the Chena to Fairbanks for the finish. Todd Palin is one of the top driver in the Iron Dog. Starting now there will be lots of thing to do here in the Fairbanks area. I'll try and get some pictures of Christmas in Ice, thats going on here in North Pole tomorrow. Lots of Ice Carvings over at Santa Land.
