Amazing Alaska - Feb 2010

Happy February to you! Don't you just love the gorgeous colors of Alaska. The pink/blue sunset was about a week ago. I took it through my kitchen window so it is a bit blurry. The next two pictures are from the Chugiach Snow Trails. My friends, Beth #1, Beth #2, Stacy #1, Stacey #2 and myself have been skiing about 3 - 4 times per week. Some of the trails are lighted and some are not. We usually start skiing when it is still light (5 pm) and end about 6:15 pm when it is dark. We have been challenging ourselves each week to another trail. I think there are 15 trails there from easy to difficult. We like the easy trails and have ventured to the medium to medium difficult trails. We will definitely have perkier breasts by spring since we have discovered "cleavage" hill. It is a lot of work. We only take that trail once a week. It is a lot of arm strength. Our big race is tomorrow, Feb 6. It is a huge Ladies Only "ski for Women" to raise funds for the domestic violence shelter. There will be over 2,500 ladies skiing. Many of them will be in the super competitive heat, many will be in the sprint heat and our group will be in the "party" heat. We are the last to take off. The costume parade begins at 11:30 am and we are suppose to be completed and home in time to watch the Super Bowl game. I hope we can complete the 5K Ski in a decent time. Pictures will be on my next blog.

I have to include my "favorite little peeps". They are a hoot. They forget my name on the two weeks I am away at my other school, so when I return to APH school the kids say, "Hello Ms Health". They can't remember Warmbold but they remember I teach health. I think it is so cute. The older kids call me Ms. Sheryl or Ms W but my toothless first graders call me, Miff, therryl. No teeth - no "s" and no "f" sounds. We crack up a lot in our first grade classes singing healthy songs with no front teeth. I have the best job ever!!! The picture with all the cuties is taken during recess. I love to join them after lunch for recess. If you look CLOSELY, in the center background is Sai, a Samoan, who is playing football in a blue shirt. Today was a bit cool - 12 degrees but sunny and a gorgeous turquoise sky. Do you see Sai? Notice he is wearing a short sleeve shirt!!! Yikes. He doesn't own a coat. Neither does his father so I have learned to accept this craziness. He is wearing tennis shoes vs flip flops. There is a big change!! The three little ones just finished playing hop scotch. They are extremely creative when snow is a fact of life. They carve the hop scotch form in the snow and roll a big snowball into the squares. The last two boys, Denebvic and Lor Lor, are in 6th grade. Don't you love that sky?? I know you have heard me say that the lower 48 has been receiving more snow than Alaska. Well, I must have complained enough because Friday we received 6 inches, 12 inches over night and then another 10 inches today, Saturday. It hasn't stopped snowing since Friday morning and it is 9:15 pm Saturday. I am thrilled. It is beautiful when snow falls. The Natives tell me they can tell I am from the lower 48 because when it snows I break out singing Christmas songs. Rannie said, "You equate snow with Christmas, up here we think of snow as another day." Interesting. See what I am learning. I am trying not to sing Christmas songs or any song for that matter. As most of you all know I can't carry a tune or melody so it doesn't sound good when I sing.

Amazing Alaska facts. Well, I am sure you all have read it in the headlines. The 2010 US Census has begun. Were you aware of that? The census started in Noorvik, Alaska on Feb 1! Why Noorvik? Well, we are the farthest west and most eastern state in the USA. Since we are definitely in winter mode, the float planes, snow machines, and dog sleds are busy every day. And to be able to reach the bush villagers they decided they have to take the census in the winter. In the spring the families head to fish camp and can't be found as easily. Now, in case you are not aware of the transient lifestyles of the bush/village people, they are on the move all the time so there were many census teams out there to poll as many people as possible. They interviewed the first person taken for the 2010 Census - an 84 year old Elder in Noorvik. The TV also interviewed the poll takers and they were dressed for subzero temps. Barrow this week was minus 65 and then windchill. Fairbanks was minus 34 and then windchill. I don't think I want to take the census.

Another amazing Alaska fact: The Gold for the Vancouver medals for the Olympics came from Alaska's Pogo Mine. Pogo Mine is located about an hour southeast of Fairbanks towards Canada border. A little bit of Alaska will go home to many countries.

And, if you remember, I have been extremely lucky winning contests since I have been in Alaska. I won the Lion King tickets, dinner tickets for four different restaurants, and many more things. So I have entered another betting pool. The winner receives $300,000. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I have purchased many tickets ($2.25 each guess) for the Nenana Ice Melt. This is a tradition for the last 94 years. The little city of Nenana, located an hour southwest of Fairbanks, has placed a tripod flagpole on the frozen Tenana River. The tripod is attached to a clock mechanism on shore. When the ice breaks in late April or early May, the tripod gives away and trips the clock and the time is recorded. The winner closest to the seconds wins the $300,000. How much fun is this? Does this sound much more like a community fund raiser rather than a lottery? I am falling in love with the Alaska way.

When I was taking my Project Ki'l class and several of the Native villagers came and talked to our class. The Native ladies explained that it is their responsibilities to teach the younger girls how to sew mukluks, outerwear and skin otters. They are extremely patient. There is no time table to villagers. It may take a young girl 10 attempts to get the first sewing steps correct. This Native lady said they have a phrase they use often. "Don't worry Sheryl, you will learn to sew before you are married!!" or Don't worry you will be healed (from an injury) before you are married!". I loved this philosophy. Why do we all have to be on such a rush - rush schedule. So therefore, you can often hear someone who is tardy or late to a meeting come in and say, "I am on Village time." I am sure I will use that phrase eventually during school.

I hope you have enjoyed learning a bit more about how wonderful the great state of Alaska has to offer. I hope you survived your weather this past month. I know some of you are under another snow attack but just keep telling yourself, this will melt and be gone soon. Alaska has snow from November through April/May. If you want to give my your guess for the Ice Melt, send it to me and I will buy you a ticket. Remember it has to be down to the second.

Have a wonderful month. Enjoy Valentines Day. Hugs to you all

Sheryl the Nanuqk

Project Ki'l: Passages

Hello everyone! I have been busy skiing and going to Project Ki'l classes in addition to teaching. The ski pictures are from Hatcher Pass in Palmer. I talked about it last blog but I didn't get the pictures until this week. I know you will find this hard to believe but I FORGOT to take my camera with me skiing. I take my camera everywhere. Anyway, Beth took these pictures. Some of them are black and white and some are in color. Can you believe that gorgeous blue sky? It is so blue. I know other places get blue skies but not this crisp and clear. That is one of the things I like most about Alaska. Come on up and enjoy these beautiful skies in person!!! I have a second bedroom ready for your visit. The buildings are from the Independence Gold Mine we skied around in the Talkeetna Mountains (about 3500 feet) and about a 761 acre park and is under original ownership since Federal Patent Application in 1963. The lodge makes the best homemade soup and halibut fish bagels!

I have been attending Project Ki'l: Passages classes. It is 30 hours of class for graduate credit completed in 5 classes. Four hours three days after school and all day on two Saturdays. Today we went to the Native Heritage Center, The Anchorage Alaska Museum and then a guest speaker at the educational center. Great information but very long days. Project Ki'l builds a path of success for Alaska Native boys. The focus on boys is due to the disparity that exists between Native boys and other groups. As educators we are learning the history of the Native boys, strategies and activities to build strong academic, social and cultural foundations for Native boys and their families. I learned so much about the different cultures and the male role from the different sections of Alaska. Paul Ongtooguk, our instructor, is the gray haired gentleman in the first picture. He grew up in Kotzebue, Northwest Alaska above the Artic Circle. He shares a lot of personal experiences and how Anchorage has grown. He said that Alaska use to be thought of as a northern West Virginia only with mountains. Poor, no tourist, and subsistence living. Then the biggest oil field was discovered in Prudhoe Bay since the oil fields in Texas. Life changed for many of the Native Alaskans. Mr. William Hensley, Iggiagruk is his native Inupiaq name, came to talk to our class about the battle for Statehood. William went to boarding school in Tennessee, which is what we are talking about in the above photo, and then to George Washington Univ and then became a legislator for Alaska at age 25. He is helped fight for the Alaskan Land Claim that caused the US Government to pay the Alaska Natives for their land they needed to build the 800 mile Alaska Pipeline through many of the Native villages. Very controversial and very informative. William Hensley wrote a book, "50 Miles form Tomorrow" because Kotzbue is 50 miles from the International Dateline. Here are some words we learned tonight. Inupiaq word for person is Inuk pronounced like in-yuke, anun is man pronounced ang-oon, and Inupiaq for knife is savik prounced sah-vik. Nigi is "to eat" pronouced nee-ree. It was very interesting.

Speaking of Prudhoe Bay, today was their first sunrise since early November. They have been in 24 hours of complete darkness since before Thanksgiving. The temperature at Prudhoe Bay was minus 50 degrees and then they added the wind chill and it was 70 degrees below zero. They are expecting a high tomorrow of minus 40 degrees. They are really far North. I hope to visit Prudhoe Bay or the North Slope in the summer, definately not during the winter months.

That is about it. I have been busy and staying out of trouble. Teach and attend class or teach and ski then sleep. I have found the secret to a great night's sleep. Xcountry ski for about 1 hour after a day of teaching. Sound sleep!!!

Enjoy your day! Sheryl the Nanuq

Snowmobile Fun!

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

I have to admit this day means a bit more to me since I have had the opportunity to visit the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. If you haven't been to the Civil Rights Museum, please go. It is terrific and very educational.

These are pictures from our families snow machine trip at Thanksgiving. Isn't our guide cute? Those white marks are the big, Super BIG snow flakes. It snowed so hard and fast we were in fresh snow all day and eventually the snow ended up to our mid thighs. I feel in the snow drift and couldn't get out. Every place I put my arm to get out I only sunk deeper into the snow. The kids had to finally help me out. Our family has had plenty of experience snowmobiling but never in snow this fluffy and deep. As you can see from the next picture we got stuck in this deep stuff. This one particular spot took the boys 10 mins to dig the machine out so we could continue with our ride. You can see how high the snow is by Tyler's thigh is almost completely covered. He wore the snow machiners camo "black and white". The white so you can't see his legs from the snow and black on top to find him in the snow. The last picture is another beautiful sunset. Jenna took this from the car window on our trip home. Not bad from a car window.

This blog will be about my life in Anchorage. I love it up here. There were two weeks when the lower 48 states had colder and snowier weather than we had up here in Anchorage. We finally got snow last week. I am amazed at our nightly news. The weather person gets about 15 minutes to do the weather because Alaska is so big. There are about 6 sections of Alaska so by the time the weatherperson talks about the panhandle (Ketchikan) the Aleutian Islands, Kenai Peninsula, Barrow (the farthest North point), The interior sections (Fairbanks) and then Anchorage area. The inland areas are about 25 - 45 degrees colder than Anchorage. Last week, Barrow was minus 40 temp and minus 65 with windchill. Brrrr that is cold. Anyway, you would think we should expect snow. But the weather person makes it sound like it amazing that we would be getting snow. We LIVE IN ALASKA for goodness sake. Along with the snow comes the ditch divers. I counted 9 cars stuck in the ditches on my way home from school last week. I travel on a 6 lane highway for 6 miles and there were so many accidents. The policeman who lives below me said it is because most of them are military and are not use to driving on these conditions. I think the Military should give them driving lessons before they can drive here. So if your car is in the ditch you can only get your car out at certain times a day. You must contact the local highway police to get permission to remove your car. I think the time is from 11 - 2 Tues - Thurs only. So the other day a tow truck was trying to remove a stuck car but he ran overtime and was getting a ticket from the police because it was almost 2:30. Crazy!!!

I just finished my two week rotation at the "more native" school of my two schools. I LOVE teaching there. Here are some interesting things I have discovered. These kids just want to be recognized, loved, and taught. If you walk through the halls and smile and say good morning and their name they smile so big and give you a hug. Most of them can't remember Warmbold so they call me "Ms Health". Isn't that sweet?!!! Each teacher at this school, including me, greet each child at the door and shake their hands and welcome them into to class. They are so cute. Here is another thing that is interesting. The Natives use the English language as it is phonetically pronounced. This is what took me so long to discover. Silly isn't it but so simple. So here is what I mean. I have three little girls called Alecia, Alicia, Aleseea. They all pronounce their names the same. A (soft a) Le (leeee) C (see or sea) A (soft a). In my lower 48 classes a girl with this name, Alecia, would pronounce it A (soft a) Le (leee) C (she) A (soft a). Up here there is no CH or SH. I am trying to think of other names but if I just pronounce each name as it would be phonetically pronounced I have it correct. Fifooa (Fi) Foo A. or Nikaoy (Nick) A (soft a) Oy - like Chips a Hoy brand. or Nilaniamoopooua (we call her Nilani) for short.

We received a new student this week. His name is Devine Sampson Austin. A little Native. Devine is a dwarf, shorter than 22 inches tall. His legs are about 8 inches and he has a difficult time going up stairs. He has never been to school so he has no academic skills, no social skills, and is 8 years old. He has been put in 1st grade because of no skills and the other children accept him nicely. One little girl, Shayntayia said, "I thought I was small but you are really small!" Kids say what they feel. Again, another first for me.

I got to watch, briefly, our PE class participating another great activity. Snowshoe softball. The kids all wear snowshoes and play regular softball. They run the bases on snowshoes. I didn't take my camera when I went to watch them. I hope to get a photo at my next school. I am sure I will have to try snowshoeing since I haven't done it before.

My friends and I have been xcountry skiing all weekend. Saturday we skied in Anchorage, Sunday we went to Palmer at Hatcher Pass and Monday night we skied Chugiak (close by). I have found an exercise I really enjoy. It is free, fun, beautiful views and a great dose of outdoors. My son, Tyler, would never participate because it is a lot of work!!!! I am confident I will have firm breasts after this ski season. It is hiking only on snow with long skinny skis. The glide is so much fun. When we went to Hatcher Pass to ski (about an hour up the Alaskan mountain range) the sky was turquoise blue and the freshly fallen snow, groomed paths, and delicious food at the lodge. We had to ski uphill (about 1 mile) and the work was worth it when we got to the top. We skied around the Gold Mine (still works) and then continued around the trails all surrounded by a beautiful mountain range and glistening snow. We were about 3500' feet above sea level. Amazing. At one end of the Mountains, there were people taking helicopters up to the top of the mountain range and skiing down (Extreme skiing). Others hiked up (with skis in backpack) and then skied down. This one guy had his dog hike up with him and then his dog ran after in his tracks as he skied down. It took him almost 20 mins to get down. We watched from inside the lodge eating homemade soup!! The sledding is awesome too. The kids and parents would be dropped off at the top of the first mountain and then sled down. It takes about 10 mins to get down and a truck waited below to bring you back up the mountain. This all costs $2 per person all day long. What a deal!!!! Our local high school (Chugiak) has about 25 miles of groomed and lit trails behind the school. The Chalet is open until 11 pm. It is so close and a great workout. I have been sleeping so well with the outdoor playground. For those of you who can't sleep, come on up and night ski with me and you will learn how to fall asleep soundly!!!!

Our sunrise is about 9:30 am now (vs 10 am) and the sunset has gone from 4:15 to about 5:30 pm. The white snow also makes it seem brighter all the time. Everyone is looking forward to the spring solstice (end of March) until the solstice where we get closer to having equal day and night times. The summer solstice is in June but the Natives tell me by the end of March we will see a lot more sunshine and later sunsets. Yipee!!!

I hope my blog finds all of you in good health and having fun times. David has been "golfing great" and so he is very happy. Jenna is now working 3 days from home and seems to enjoy that. Tyler is looking forward to his spring and summer activities. So all is well with the Warmbold family. Enjoy. I will see you next week.

Sheryl the Nanuq

Happy New Year 2010!

Happy New Year to all of you! Another fresh new year is here, another year to live! To banish worry, doubt, and fear, to love and laugh and give! This bright new year is given me to live each day with zest, to daily grow and be, my highest and my best!!!

I hope you had a wonderful holidays with your family and friends. It is now time for 2010 to get back into routine. I had a wonderful time in Memphis. I was so blessed to get together with all of my friends, eat some delicious meals, and spend quality time with my family. It was delightful to have my nephew, Logan (5) with us during the holidays. It was refreshing having a child's enthusiasm and energy to keep the adults moving and laughing. I am back to school and the kids were terrific this week. I hope it continues. I am busy taking two more classes. One on technology because I can't figure out Macs. I am not computer savvy anyway so this will help me a lot - I hope. I am taking another graduate class - Project Ki'l. I will be learning about the background and strategies to use for Native boys to encourage higher literacy and math skills. This class will have several field trips and I like those kind of classes. Get this, Anchorage School district will pay for me to take this 3 credit course and give me a stipend. I have never worked in a district where they pay for graduate school and give stipends. This is good. I have decided to start saving all my stipends for my great adventure next year. More about that later. I have become very involved in the Delta Gamma Kappa sorority. This is the international society for women educators to promote excellence in education. Our Eagle River chapter, NU, focuses on early childhood literacy. We have a monthly fund raiser called "feet and fannies" where we collect socks and underwear for children of all ages. Many of ASD children live in shelters or the families can't afford the simple necessities. ASD also has an entire department of teachers (45) that go to shelters and Head Start programs and local Native programs and centers to teacher the parents how to help their children become familiar with books, games and coloring. They have to teach parents how to hold their child and how to read a book to their child. They just don't know who. Doesn't this amaze you? I never thought about this - I just assumed all parents sit and read to their children, look at a picture and ask the child to make up a story, color pictures for each season. After my fund raising efforts I headed over to Wasilla to make Iditarod dog foot ointment. That is a statue of Joe Reddington who founded the Iditarod. My job was to the the official "stir person". I guess my experience laying tile in our bathroom gave the necessary job requirement to use the electric stir. I had a blast. The handsome gentleman in the green is Dr. Stewart. He is the Official Iditarod Veterinarian. Ladies, he is single. He said he hasn't found the women who is willing to live on the move with him. He splits his time between Montana, Idaho, Canada and Alaska with rescue animals and serve as Iditarod Vet. The ointment is pink like pepto bizmo. It is a combination of Thuja-Zinc Oxide, mineral oil, antibiotic, lanolin and one other ingredient (I forgot). Talk about soothing for your hands. Each musher will get 20 tubes of this stuff for the dogs. The dogs get about 2 TBS placed on their feet before they put on their feet booties at each check point. The Iditarod goes through about 2000 booties for 100 sleds. Each bootie cost about $2 a piece. That is a lot of bootie!!!! You can see how pretty pink it is (which is also stained on my sweatshirt as a memento)and the next group of people filled the tubes. Filling was easy but putting the clamp on the end was extremely tricky. Remember I said the stuff is very soothing aka slippery. Many of the workers had whole tubes of pink on their bodies. I got off easy being the stirrer. Another group filled packages of dog worm pills. Each musher will receive these pills 10 days before the race for each dog. My reward for today's work was an official Iditarod Volunteer hat. I have signed up to help on two other committees before race day. I am just a busy bee!!! By the way, my great adventure I will start saving for is to bid to ride with one of the Iditarod mushers next year. People bid to ride from Anchorage to Wasilla on day one. The most anyone can bid is $7500. I better sign up for a lot of courses that pay stipends to get my bid money before Feb 2011!!!! One of the ladies today is bidding for her favorite musher. She was one of his dog-handlers last year and hopes to get to ride with him. She and her husband are moving back to Alabama next summer. Isn't this a small world? Alabama. By the way, she didn't gloat about the BCS bowl game. I thanked her for that.

The next group of pictures are from our Thanksgiving family flight around Mt McKinley. Mt McKinley is 20,230 feet. The day we flew our flight it was sunny but a cloud hung over the last 2000 feet of Mt McKinley. The flat area in the front right-hand corner is base camp during the summer. I think that Mount McKinley looks like a bear in the picture. Just below the cloud is two brown eyes and a nose. We flew over the Kahiltna Glacier on our tour. This glacier is 45 miles long and 3 miles wide. Our guide told us the national geologist measured the glacier at the end of the summer and they measured the depth of this glacier around 4500 feet deep. That is very deep! The four brown mounts are called the Moose Tooth. They look just like a moose tooth. The last picture is the beautiful sunset (from the airplane window) over the Alaskan mountain range. I love the all the beautiful colors that shine in the skies up here.

The last three pictures are of my little kids. They are so cute. During our recess periods the kids get to go ice skating. Isn't that great. Ice skating and sledding for recess. I love this. If you look closely you will see several of our Native boys dressed in their regular winter clothes. Short sleeve shirt! They have switched to long pants since winter break. Up until then they still wore shorts to school. These boys and girls walk to school. If they live within one mile they walk. I have tried to get them to wear coats but they don't think it is cold. The counselor said some Natives just wear shorts and short sleeve shirts all year round. Brrrr. The three on the play gym are just sweeties. Don't you love their smiles. I must admit I am jealous that the lower 48 is getting cold weather and snow and we are not. We have sun and temps in the mid 30's but no snow. We need some more snow for the Iditarod. There is however, enough snow in the interior of Alaska. Fairbanks was minus 45 air temp during the holidays. I can't believe how much colder Fairbanks is than Anchorage. Fairbanks is about a 4 - 5 hour drive or 12 hour train ride. Prudhoe Bay is consistently below zero since Thanksgiving.

Well, that is all for this week. I hope to have some more great pictures and learning experiences for my next blog. Have a wonderful week. Aspeekahah. Sheryl the Nanuq

Ice Fishing

A quick update before I leave for warm, sunny Tennessee. I had my first attempt at ice fishing this past weekend. It was a attended by lots of young children. When I pulled up to Jewel Lake I happen to park next to one of my students. I mentioned it was my first experience and they invited me to join them. Fun!!! You will notice that our Alaskan Ice Fishing doesn't look anything like the ice fishing seen on Dirty Old Men. No huts, no big fish and no sexy ladies. Everyone here was bundled up. It was cold on the ice. You will see one family the children and Dad are sitting on the ice. They were sitting there at least 30 mins. I would have been frozen to the ice by then. My student's father baited my hook. He used fish eggs. I just can't touch bait yet. I thought touching dead fish (to feed to the sea lion) was pretty bold. You can see I am wearing my down snow skirt and jacket and very warm boots and base layer. After a couple of hours I was ready to go - it got cold just standing there. Look closely behind me and what do you see? A Moose. They love me, everywhere I go I find a moose!! She (cow) meandered on the ice but it was slippery and she quickly headed back to the bank covered in snow. She ate the shrubs and tree branches all the way around the lake. The little girl, four ice holes to my left, caught all sorts of fish. She is holding her pink. They stocked Jewel Lake in August with 5000 fish and what some were catching were about 6 - 9 inches big. Some pinks, some trout, and some other kind. I would love to tell you what that kind it was but I had the gentleman repeat it twice and I still couldn't understand so I nodded my head. Perhaps my ears were a tad bit cold and couldn't hear well. Our ice fishing poles are about 6 - 9 inches long. What I learned is that every so often you have to "strip" the line. The fishing line get ice coated and you have to wear gloves and pull the ice off it so you can reel the line back in. The hole was about 3 - 10 feet deep. One group of fisherman knelt down on the ice and kept looking in the hole for the fish schools. It was cold putting your face near that hole and it was dark. One person also had an underwater light to see better. Gosh, how real is that fishing? Then everyone, but me, had these really neat long handled scoops with holes in them. You have to "clean" the ice off the top of the ice hole every few minutes do to ice covering. There are several routines a true ice fisherman performs to be successful.

The red picture is not a fire. It is the sunset from my porch last week. I know it is blurry because I don't have a tripod up here, so I had to hold as still as possible. I just loved the red and thought I would share it with you. I can't wait for the Northern Lights to begin. I hope to bring a tripod back so you can see some great colors in the sky.

Now for your short Alaskan science lesson - hoar frost. I'm sure some of you have heard of this word before. David said it is used in crossword puzzles. Hoar frost is formed when solid surfaces are cooled below dew point of the air. Frost crystals sizes differ depending on the time and the amount of vapor in the air. In other words, frost forms on cold clear nights when heat loss causes object (plants, trees, etc.) to become colder than the surrounding. It is absolutely gorgeous. It looks like every plant, or tree has a white fluffy covering. The hoar frost covers all sides of the branch so think of a fluffy white pussy willow. I have been told if you disturb the hoar frost (I love saying it since I am a Lady of the Evening) you can kill the plant and it won't bloom in the spring. I am sure the moose don't care about the hoar frost - all they want is food. At school ,the kids have been instructed not to disturb the hoar frost and believe it or not these 450 students don't touch any shrubs around the school.
I will post our Mt. McKinley flight and snow maching event soon. Enjoy your time with your families. Happy Holidays!!! Sheryl the Nanuq

Dog Sledding

Happy Holidays to all. Here are some adventures from our Thanksgiving Fantasy Funcation. Our first excursion was going to Soldotna (on the Kenai Peninsula) to dog sled with the Seavey Iditarod kennel and sledding. The Seavey family along with Joe Redington were the founders of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race in 1973. The Iditarod initially took at least 3 weeks to complete the 1050 miles of treacherous terrain and weather conditions. Now the mushers complete the Iditarod in about 9 days. The Iditarod is the most famous dog sled known to the rest of the world, but to the Alaskans and dog mushers there is another race called the Yukon Quest. We learned from our tour of the Seavey's Kennel that a lot of mushers have 3 - 4 teams of dogs (16 is considered the typical number for a team). Some dogs are trained for just the Yukon Quest while other dogs can train for either race. So here is your short lesson on The Yukon Quest. The Yukon Quest is a 1000 mile dog sled race that goes from Fairbanks, Alaska to Whitehorse, Canada. I have been to Whitehorse and I can't figure out why anyone would want to go there. There are two hotels and a few cafes or diners. Go figure. The Yukon Quest rotates the beginning and ending sites every other year. I think they said this year The Yukon Quest will run from Fairbanks to Whitehorse where next year it will be Whitehorse to Fairbanks. You know, so no one will have an advantage. The road between these two towns is terrible, bumpy and desolate. I just can't image. The winner of this Quest wins $35,000. Not enough for me to stay out in those conditions. The mushers can not change sleds (without penalty) and they can not accept any help, they must carry all their supplies (for the musher and 16 dogs), and sleep in tents! The sled also has to carry bales of hay because that is what the dogs sleep on at night. The Quest crosses frozen rivers, climbs 4 mountain ranges, passes through desolate villages with temperatures averaging about 40 below zero with Arctic winds whirling about 100 m.p.h. Again, I have to say the Alaskan take a dare way too far!! Did I forget to say this Yukon Quest started because of two males full of too much booze and testosterone! The sleds have GPS tracking but the mushers have no information from these GPS systems to help guide their way. There are veterinarians at check points to ensure the dogs are fit to continue. These dogs are very well trained and cared for throughout the year.

Back to our tour, Sam was our tour guide along with Conway Seavey and we learned a lot. At one point one of my children asked me, "Mom, do you ever just take it in without asking a million questions?" I guess all my questions go on their nerves. Get with the learning program! I am in Alaska to learn everything I possibly can and share it with all my lower 48 family and friends. Sam is from Belgium and trains his team with the Seavey's. He has raced the Yukon Quest and last year he raced in the Iditarod. He said he finished near the back because he was with the group that was doing it to have a "good time". His words! So I asked what does that mean, he said he raises enough money for the expenses (to fly back from Nome, fly his dogs back, food for him and the team, gear for him, and gear for the dogs) and the "good time" had at the check points. He was looking forward to the 2010 Iditarod and I told him we will be at the starting line and will be watching for him! The Seavey Kennel has about 150 dogs (ranging in purchase prices from $500 - $2000 each). The "A" Iditarod team are the more mature (2 year - 5 year old) and they get the luxury of a wooden dog house. (see above). The new training dogs (a bit feistier) get a 55 gallon plastic drum as a house. (see above). Why? Well, let me tell you. It is because they are still young and frisky and they like to chew. It is so much cheaper to replace a plastic 55 gallon drum than a wooden dog house in the cold! The think of everything up here in Alaska. You will notice how subsistence these dog houses are. They get a few inches of hay and a chain that is about 7 feet from the front of the dog house. They like having their "own" space says Sam. Jenna and I are posing with Buddy. He is an Alaskan Malamute and he is the "greeter" to the Kennel. He does not race. As Sam and Conway stated, "Buddy is too fat and not willing to train so he is the greeter". Buddy is no dummy. He gets three meals a day like the other dogs, he get to run around, petted and well cared for and he doesn't have to spend 10 days in the freezing cold running to Nome! Tyler, Jenna and I are holding 5 day old Pups!!Their eyes were not even open yet. These are the future stars of the Iditarod. Sam and Conway said they would check our pockets before we left!! Remember how expensive these dogs are. I was most surprised to see how slender and almost skinny the "A" dogs are in build. I think I remember the dogs in the next picture as Sitka and Payton. You can see their "travel" truck these dogs travel in. It isn't like a professional tour bus for our singing stars or athletes. It is a pick up with 8 small kennels on each side. When the truck pulled up to the kennel area the barking and jumping from the 150 dogs was incredible. Each one was yelling, "Take me, take me". Once the selected 16 were loaded and the truck engine started you could have heard a pin drop. The dogs that were not selected went silent at the sound of the truck and just sat on top of their house or next to it. That was amazing how well they are trained to know who gets to go and who has to stay behind. According to Sam and Conway, all the dogs want to do is go and race. They don't get off any leash because they would take off. As Sam loaded the dogs he pulled them by the collar and I asked why by the collar because it looks so painful. He laughed and said, "they want to go so they stop resisting and happily get in their cubby." You can see from the picture how basic their travel needs are for these prize winners. Then we got a chance to dog sled for a while. As we were finishing our rides, it started to snow. It was like a Christmas postcard. A few flakes and as we drove back to Anchorage (3 1/2 hours) the flakes got bigger and more frequent. The trip to Seward or Homer on the Kenai Peninsula is known for it wildlife. We did not see a moose or fox but we saw plenty of American Eagles. I made David stop on the side of the road so we could get the "Kodak" moment of this beautiful eagle.
The last photo is of Mount Redoubt Volcano. It erupted last June and the soot from the plume coated my porch with about 3 inches of ash. Mt. Redoubt is a 10,200 foot glacier covered volcano. At the summit, the large glacier has a 10,000 vertical skiable are and is quite the favorite for many extreme skiers. They are dropped off by helicopter and picked up at the bottom of the volcano. Whatever floats your boat or skis?

So this was Day 1 of our Family Fantasy Funcation. We told Tyler and Jenna they are probably among a small percentage of people who can say they went dog sledding. By the way, the difference between skijoring and sled dogging is the sled. Sled dogging is the when the dogs pull a sled with a musher. Skijoring (Norwegian) is ski driving. The dogs pull a driver wearing skis. I think skijoring has a lot more risk - what if the dogs go downhill and decide to go and chase a possible meal and you are stuck heading into the next big tree. At least with a sled you have some protection.

I will probably get a few more posts (Mt McKinley and snow machining) on the blog over the holidays. I hope to get some good photos tomorrow when I try my first attempt at ICE FISHING!!! Brrrrr - it sounds cold. I will let you know.

Have a wonderful holidays! Remember, the importance of family and friends at this time of year.

Ayumiqulleq Quyangalleq Nutaghamun

(Happy Holidays in Yupik)

Sheryl the Nanuq of the North

Eagle River Christmas

Happy Holidays to everyone. It is definitely going to be a white Christmas in Eagle River. I had the most wonderful Family Fantasy Funcation with my family for a week. By the way, Funcation is a new word in the Oxford Dictionary. It means the time a person is laid off of work and before they find another job. I guess Bernie Madoff is on his Funcation. Any way, we covered a lot of Alaska and had a blast I think it was 2500 miles on my car in 6 days. I will talk about some of our great adventures in the weeks to come. It was such a great ploy to have my family come to Alaska for the week. They didn't know anyone, so consequently, they had no one to visit so I got them 24/7 for a week. I was in heaven. Tyler and Jenna said they had a wonderful time. Tyler called and asked if he needed his passport to come to Alaska. I giggled and told him Alaska is part of the United States. He said, but I travel over Canada was I sure he wouldn't need a passport. I told him I was sure. He responded, "Well, I will be traveling from Eastern Time zone to Alaska Time zone (about 10 hours) he should need a passport being on a plan that long!!.

I hear Alaska's North Pole controversy made Memphis news. We are proud to say that you can still mail your Holiday cards from the North Pole - at least for one more year. They may not be answering every Santa letter due to personnel shortage but the mail depot will continue for one more year. Get all your cards in one envelope, send it to the Postmaster at North Pole, AK and they will have your cards stamped from North pole, AK.

An exciting event in Eagle River is the "Great Eagle River Food Fight". I thought this was very interested and had to inquire about this event. Another photo opp is what I really thought. Our two grocery stores, Fred Myers and Carrs (aka Safeway) are raising food for our local food bank. What a catchy title! Every time you shop at one of these stores they have extra carts full of food at the check out lines so you can purchase an item for the food fight Food Bank contribution. This Food Fight will continue until Dec 23.

I have witnessed the "real" Santa arriving in his sleigh with all eight reindeer. It was so much fun and the highlight was watching the little children. The Eagle River mayor said the Air Force Base has given Santa clearance for landing and lo' and behold the eight reindeer and Santa's sleigh came riding over the snow hill to our town square where Santa plugged in the tree lights. What a sight to see. The photo of the reindeer above is Rudolph. I went for the big name Reindeer!

A short lesson on Reindeer. Reindeer and Caribou are the same. Caribou are wild whereas Reindeer are tamed. Female Caribou and Reindeer have antlers just like the males. Reindeer are about 4 - 5 feet high and weight up to 500 pounds. They need to be strong to pull the Santa's sleigh with all those toys. Artic people hunt caribou for different reasons based on the age and gender so the Artic people give caribou three names: pagnnig (adult bull), junalak (adult female), and narraq (calf). Caribou eat moss so they use their nose to shovel snow so they can reach the frozen tundra moss. Yummy! They are not shy, they can sleep in the water and they are constantly on the move (to find more moss I am sure). So I asked the Reindeer handler how come they don't freeze in the sub zero temperatures up north on the tundra. He was proud to tell me it is because Caribou have hollow hair roots that provide warmth but most importantly they have two circulatory systems. The circulatory system for their long thin legs is up to 50 degrees colder than the circulation system for their upper body. Now that is interesting! I think all Artic people need a second circulatory system to stay warm.
The Eagle River Tree Lighting festival was full of fun. The fire dancers were interesting. Then we had the Native children doing the blanket toss. The blanket toss is an event in the Native Olympics. I can't wait to witness the Native Olympics in the spring. Of course all the local school choirs sang holiday songs, free hot cocoa and cookies, and Reindeer munch. Just behind the stage was our local sledding hill. I mean a BIG sledding hill. So if you forgot to bring your sled, the local dry cleaners and recycle company provided large plastic bags that the kids used on the sledding hill. I wasn't quite grasping the concept so I walked over to the sledding hill and I learned a lot. The children get into the bag and slide down the hill. Just like a potato sack but it is a plastic sled sack. Alaska is the "King of the Hill" sleds. They have two and three person sleds. One sled had dad in front, then mom and the back had a baby carrier connected to the sled. Wow! Then there was a leopard spotted sled, some sleek aerodynamic styles and all very fast. I loved the Burberry sled. I told you we were the designer sled capital.
The next pictures are from Thanksgiving week when David and I hiked to the Thunderbird Falls. It was snowing such big snow flakes I had David take a picture of these big flakes. How about that danger sign David is standing next to. I bet you haven't seen a beware of falling off the cliff that that! We took a pretty winter wonderland picture of the Thunderbird Fall bridge we thought belongs on some Christmas card. As we hiked down the trail, we came across a Russian family heading up the trail to sled down. Are those not the cutest kids ready to sled?

I am looking forward to arriving home in Memphis in 13 days. Every time David puts the phone to Captain Jack's ear he perks up and looks around for me. I am curious to see if he remembers me. My parents, Jenna and my siblings and family will be in Memphis for our family Christmas. I hope to visit with all my friends while I am in town. Then I return to Alaska with anticipation of David, Poli and Bruce arriving for the Iditarod the first weekend in March.

I wish you and your family a happy holidays. I can't wait to share our dog sledding, snowmobiling and Mt McKinley flight in my next post. Until then.

Sheryl the Nanuq (Alaskan spelling) of the North.

PS. I was suppose to sign off about 20 minutes ago but I got stuck on my computer. I mean literally. I had to call my neighbor, Missy, to come over and help me get out of my computer. Another Warmboldian moment! One of my wrist bracelets went down the opening (which keeps the computer top closed) and got twisted. So I couldn't get my hand off the keyboard. I couldn't get a look to undo it myself because my wrist was only about 1/2 off the computer key board. Gosh what things I won't do to 'chat' with my neighbor. Unfortunately, we couldn't save the bracelet but we did save Sheryl's wrist. I will take the bracelet to the jewelry store tomorrow to get fixed. What should you learn from this "Warmboldian" moment? Don't wear your good bracelet when you type on the computer!!! Until next time.