What's brown, has sharp claws & a member of the mustelid family?

Come on, give it a guess.

What? You still don't know.

I'll give you a hint. It's the mascot of one of the Michigan Universities.

Still don't know? It's a wolverine! Yes, a wolverine. We didn't think Eric would be able to trap any around his trapping area because they usually don't come down this far. He got him in a 220 conibear bucket trap. Eric was just talking with one of his buddies on Saturday morning about how he wouldn't trap any wolverines this year because he needed to go further upriver and he didn't want to do that with our snowmachine. Guess he needs to just talk about it a little more. Look what happened.

In other Eric news, he is currently sitting in line waiting for the Musk Ox tags to go on sale tomorrow morning. They only give out 5 permits for cows in Bethel and with a town of 6000 people 5 permits don't go too far. No bull permits are given out in Bethel. To get one of those you have to go out usually to 1 of 2 villages and spend the night or 2 or 3.

I been working on scrapbooking photos of the afghans I've done. I'm having fun and didn't realize that I've made so many blankets. I'll try to get some pictures of the pages I've done so far and post a few of them. They aren't completely done yet. I need to do a little journaling about each of the blankets.

Well, I'll talk with you all later~

America's Hottest Governor

Yep. That's what is being said about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Governor Palin is on the cover of the Alaska magazine (picture courtesy of the Anchorage Daily News).

But, it's not just the Alaska Magazine. In this month's issue of Vogue Magazine, there is also an article featuring Governor Palin. Of course, we don't have the current issue of Vogue on stock right now in our stores, so I haven't even seen the article yet. Someone will have to let me know what it says. I tried finding it online on Vogues site, but these fashion magazines don't let you get too far into them.

Go Alaska! It's about time we are know for something other than oil.

It's official!

At 8:09 pm last night, Mitch Seavey crossed the finish line and became the 2008 Kuskokwim 300 Winner. If you been reading my posts, you'll know that Mitch is the musher that we helped out. We had those dogs in the back of our truck! Picture courtesy of the K300 website (www.k300.org).

I guess the last leg of the trip (15 miles) was horrendous. Mitch did a short interview after he came in and said that sometimes his dogs were in water deep enough for them to swim. The race officials had to go out and remark the trail. Apparently it didn't work. Mitch said he saw a marker or 2 floating by him.

Well, I need to get a few more things done yet tonight, so I will talk to you all later~

And the Winner Is:

Well, the winner hasn't crossed the finish line yet, but the last update showed Mitch Seavey (the guy we helped) in the lead by about an hour. He shoud be crossing the finish line anytime within the next 1/2-1 hour. I'll post again when the official word comes in!

If the House is Rockin'

You must live in Bethel. We get one good day of warm temperatures (39 was today's high) and the wind picks up like a son of a gun. Currently we have south winds 25 to 40 mph, closer to the 40 mph, with gusts to 60 mph. Since our house is up of the ground, we get rockin' when the wind blows. Earlier tonight, I was sitting in the bedroom folding laundry and I looked into the closet and saw the clothes swaying. Too bad we can't capture the wind/rockin/swaying with pictures. Although its dark and I probably wouldn't be able to get a good one anyways.

Well, Eric and I are going to watch Rush Hour 3, so I'll chat with you all later.

K300 update - Mitch Seavey (the musher we helped) is currently up to 5th place, while the 18/19 year old Rohn Buser is in first. Plus he still has all 14 of his dogs! Not too many mushers at this point in the race have all of their dogs still. Dogs are always left at checkpoints to fly back to Bethel.

The Race is On and here comes.....

pride in the backstretch

Okay - the K300 Dog Mushing race officially started last night at 6:30 pm. We had the opportunity (actually we were roped into) helping out with one of the mushers and his dogs. We had at least $60,000 of dogs in the back of the truck. Crazy isn't it? We were helping out Mitch Seavey who is a past Iditarod winner. One of Eric's coworkers wives volunteered them to "host" a musher. Basically what you do is put up the musher, their dog handler and dogs for a day or two before the race and then help them out getting all of their things to the river for the race. It was pretty cool helping out because we got to see the behind the scenes of the race. We have some big names here again this year. Jeff King - last years race winner and the winningest musher, Martin Buser (former K300 and Iditarod winner) and his son Rohn Buser. We have 2 - 17 year old year old girls running the race. One of them is from Bethel, the other is from Nome.

I wish I had some pictures to post, but alas since we helped out right after work, we didn't have an opportunity to get the camera. I'll have to get some pictures from Andrea (coworkers wife) and post some later. She got a few pictures of the $60,000 truck load!

Well, I'm off to try to do something productive today. I should be able to considering our cable is on the fritz and they haven't been able to come and fix it yet. It's been on the fritz since Tuesday evening when we got some pretty good winds.

On a side note before I sign off, we are officially up to 39 degrees outside. Nothing like going from -35 below a few days ago to 39 above. That's a 74 degree change!

Heat Wave

Whoa! We're having a heat wave. It's currently 31 above! We went from at least 15 below yesterday morning to 31 degrees today. That's a change of over 45 degrees in a 24-36 hour period. We actually had a blizzard warning until about noon today. The way the wind is blowing now I think they should have kept it.

It's a good thing we have the warm-up. The K300 starts Friday night and it probably would have been too cold for the dogs if it didn't. Hopefully it doesn't go above freezing though because that would make much for the dogs and sleds. Not fun!

We will get to see a nice fireworks display on the night of the race. We only get to see fireworks twice a year - during the K300 and New Years Eve. Otherwise it's too light during the summer.

Yes We Can!

At 11:21 am, we reached zero degrees. It's a heat wave I tell yah! Before you know it, we will be breaking out the shorts. Okay, maybe not quite yet, but you never know!

Can We Do It?

- Reach zero that is -

We are currently at -2 with blowing snow. We are actually suppose to be under a blizzard warning for tonight and tomorrow. I'm so excited at the possibility of getting out of the negatives.

Classes start today at the college, so we are "bustling" with student activity. I quoted bustling because bustling for us is about a half dozen students wondering the building for classes! It's definitely a change of pace from the Universities I'm used to working at, but I like it. I'm in the process of trying to figure out my summer camps. I don't want to be struggling like I did last year. That was not fun! Well, back to work~

Burrrrrrrrr!

Woke up this morning to temperatures reading -26, factor in the windchill and you are looking at -47. We are suppose to be warming up sometime, but it won't be soon enough.

Eric has been trying to fly to do moose counts, but this weather is hard on the planes. They flew yesterday and it was tough going. They are trying to get out today but it is too cold. They're hoping the weather will warm up alittle.

We've been invited over to one of Eric's bosses tonight to play pinochle. That should be interesting. Eric and I have seen many a game played, but have never played outselves. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Well, I am going to scrapbook or crochet, or something!~

Going, going, gone

The temperature that is. Can it possibly get any colder? We seem to have dug ourself in a hole and can't get out. We have not been above zero in I don't know how long. Todays high was -19, factor in the windchill and you are looking at -40!!!! And to make matters worse, our block heater isn't working in the truck. Since it's been so cold the cord/plug got pretty stiff and ended up breaking a wire in it. We think we may have shorted it out, but won't find out until Monday. Auto shops are ridiculuosly (sorry for the spelling error) hard to get in to in the winter. We have an appointment for Jan. 23! All of this means I am running outside to start the truck up every couple of hours to make sure it still starts since I have the truck during the day.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of my faithful readers. It has been an uneventful day. We have been spending time though on processing a couple of Caribou. Yes, Eric got 2 Caribou the other day. Here's a few pictures.

Well, I have to go back to work tomorrow. I have no idea where the time went. It doesn't seem like I have 2 weeks off. I don't know what I did. I have been working on a blanket and some scrapbooking. I'll probably do more of both this afternoon. I'll catch you all on the flip side~