Iditarod

You just can not appreciate the Iditarod unless you have been up here and seen the landscape and felt the cold. It was -30 degrees last night when Lance Mackey left Unalakleet at 10:00pm. He, and all of the mushers, were running their dogs in the middle of the night following little trail markers in 30 below weather across the alaska wilderness. They are tougher then anything I can even imagine. I was just out watching the mushers at 10:00 and my eyelashes kept freezing together. My Alaska quality parka and mittens were not enough to keep me warm. I came home cold and tired after four hours watching the mushers take care of their dogs. I cuddled up in my warm bed and they continued on their eighth day on the tundra with out any sleep or warm bed. I admit it, I am not that tough. Anyone who has ran this race has my utmost respect.

The Iditarod makes it to Unalakleet

Here is Lance Mackey making it into Unalakleet at 3:00 on Sunday the 15th of March! We waited in the deep cold for three hours to see the leader of the pack. The dogs did not make a sound as the came into town. Lance took care of the dogs, got them all fed and bedded down in straw, then he took care of feeding and caring for himself, oh and picked up his $3,000 in gold he won for being first into Unalakleet. Not bad. More mushers expected tonight.



























The population of Unalakleet doubled as the media, mushers, and helpers descended into our little town. Here is Jeremy, Isa and friends in front of Lance's dogs. Isa was one of the first people down on the ice when they showed up and had a front row seat.


The Iditarod is quite the community event here in Unalakleet. I believe that the whole town was on the ice to greet the musher and his dogs. Here are two local ladies in their beautiful parkas.



























One more photo of the town out for the Iditarod. If you look close you can see Isa right up front next to the media and Lance.

The last two days we have been experiencing some great weather. Every kid in the village is outside climbing, sliding, and throwing snow. The sun is shinning and today everyone is walking around without coats. I even saw one guy with a short sleeve shirt. Ahhh spring I thought is here! It must be 35 degrees, 40 degrees, maybe 45 degrees! Then I saw this.....

Updated: 8 min 15 sec ago

27 °F Clear

Windchill:

18 °F

27 degrees???

Oh well it feels like 50 degrees to me! Now where are my shorts?

As a family we love to go out and explore the woods. In the winter we love to go out snowshoeing and find a nice place to have a fire and drink some hot coco. Isa usually loves to go out on an adventure but up here we have had some really cold adventures. The last few times we have gone out Isa has been very discouraged, cold, and misserable. We ended our last snowshoe trip with Isa saying that she never wanted to do that again.



Early this Sunday morning Isa and her friend Judy anounced that they wanted to go outside and play. It was a balmy 20 degrees so be bundled them up and sent them outside. After being outside for a short while Isa came in and asked us for some wood. Hmmmm the mother in me asked, "What do you plan on doing with the wood?"

"We need the wood to build a fire." Isa replied. So with a little adult assistance Judy and Isa went on their own winter adventure complete with a fire and hot coco. Sometimes you just have to have faith that the things you hold as important are being absorbed by your children and if your lucky they are willing to share them with others.

Well we made it through yet another winter storm here in Unalakleet. Here are some new photos for you to enjoy....
Yes this is the inside of our door. This storm lasted for three days. We were litterally stuck inside for three days. Just Isa, the wii, and I.
















This is what the outside of our door looked like. Jeremy spent much of his first night back digging us out.
















The minute there was a break in the storm Isa called her friend Judy to come over and play out. As you can see the storm was not quite over. They had played out for only a couple of minutes before they came in saying it was still to cold!



































Isa and Judy were not the only kids playing out the minute the storm let up. This picture is for Chloe and Tennyson who always ask if there is any place to snowboard up here. Well if there is a will there is a way......

















The weather is supposed to be nice for the next couple of days. Oh sweet March bring us some sun!

weekly wrapup

Well it is another snowy day.  Did I say snowy?  I mean blizzard/white out, no planes, no mail, no clinic, no stores, no schools.  I am not going to complain though because the last two days were beautiful if not warm.  Isa had a blast the last two days playing out.  The giant snow hills were perfect for carving tunnels, caves, making slides, King/queen of the hill.  One of the great things about homeschooling is that we get to take advantage of every sunny day.  We stop everything if it is nice and sunny.  We put on clothes and go play out!

Isa is now doing Karate here.  She is sooo cute.  As soon as I get Jeremy's computer back I will put up some pictures in her in her outfit.  She really likes it and will do almost anything her "master" asks her to do, even eat her vegetables!  This karate program was brought here through a grant from Nome.  The Nome Karate program hired 6 college level black belts from Korea to come here and teach.  Can you imagine????  Korea!!!  What they must be thinking!  IF this weather is sending me into fits of cabin fever what must they be experiencing?  Well we will find out because Master Park will be coming over for dinner next Friday.  This is our attempt to keep him here so that Isa can continue to practice Karate!  

Digging out

If you read yesterdays post you know that we had one hell of a winter storm here in Unalakleet. It was the first time in 17 years that the school closed due to weather! Well this morning when we woke up we could not get out our front door.
















Thank god we have a garage that was a little easier to get out. After getting out of the house this is what Isa and I found. (That is Isa up in the top left with her red sled. Yes she did slide down the back side of the hill and run into the other house.)























After an hour here is what our front door looked like. It was time to go in a warm up before going back out and digging some more. I just heard that another storm is on its way. Yikes!