I haven’t posted since Christmas since I was waiting for some significant winter weather but so far it hasn’t happened. Iron Dog came and went and although most years the weather has been close to -40F during the race I don’t think it got below 20F during the whole thing. We also haven’t had much snow and doesn’t look like we are due for any next week or so. The Iditarod started today and they had to haul snow from Fairbanks to Anchorage for the ceremonial start. There should be enough snow on the ground for the race but unless we get some significant snowfall they will mostly be running on packed ice. The temperature keeps running between -10F or so and into the mid 30’s. Mostly this makes the ice on the streets pretty hard to drive and walk on. I have to use the ice cleats on my boots when I go walking with the dog at night and she slips a lot when we are on the main road. Spring carnival is coming up this month so if I get the chance I’ll get some pictures of that to post.
Contractors have been hauling rock on the ice road between here and Meuller Mountain to reinforce the dike next to the airfield. This was identified as a weak point during the last flood and it should prevent a failure if we get another bad breakup. While they have been hauling rock we can’t use the new road between the town and the dump so Snowball and I have to use the old abandoned dump road for our nightly walk.
Not much else to report, mainly we are going to work and then doing schoolwork in the evening. Just wanted to let everyone know we are still here.