The temperature took a huge nosedive after Saturday's Junior Yukon Quest. By the way, Yuta Takagi - the only musher who hadn't crossed the finish line when I last posted - finally arrived back in Fairbanks at 9:14pm with only 5 of his original 10 dogs. I don't know what problems he ran into, but I was glad to read that he made it home OK. It was a great race, and I only wish that the temperature would have stayed in the -10F range.

Monday morning, a glance at the outdoor thermometer made me do a double take. The needle was at -45F, and it pretty much stayed near there all day long. When it's that cold, I don't leave the house unless I absolutely have to. It was easy to slip into hibernation mode. I pulled on fleece lounging pants and warm socks, and grabbed Steve's "woobie" (an army poncho liner) from the closet. I wrapped myself in it and spent the day watching TV, surfing the internet and copying videos from our video camera to my laptop.

The video footage was from the 2005 trip Steve and I took to Katmai with Emerald Air Service, to spend time with the Alaskan Coastal Brown Bears - also known as the Grizzly or Kodiak Bear. Spending time with the bears was such an amazing experience, we plan to do it every summer. We went for the first time in 2004 (See June 2004), and then again in 2005 (See July 2005). In 2006, Steve was deployed to Iraq. And last year, we were scheduled to go on June 6th, but we were weathered out. We were so disappointed. This year, we're booked to go in July. We're keeping our fingers crossed that all goes well.

After downloading the video footage, I put together shorter videos of the highlights of the trip. Keep in mind that Steve is not a professional videographer - although he is getting better with time. If the footage is shaky, it's because he's watching the bears from over the camera, rather than through the viewfinder. View the clips on this page, by clicking the smaller PLAY button beneath the video.

Yesterday, it was -47F. The ice fog was thick were it lay in the valley. When the sun came over the horizon, the rays of light filtered through the trees and were 'caught' in the misty fog. It was a pretty sight, and I snapped a few photos through the window. Later that morning, I went out with Sedona for a mere five minutes, and took a photograph of our street - showing the mist hanging low to the ground. Five minutes is about all that either of us can tolerate, without full winter gear for me, and booties for her.

Today was the dreaded day we had to order heating oil for the house. We are not on an auto fill program, so we keep track of the levels in our underground tank and have it filled when we get down to the 100-125 gallon level. Today's delivery set us back nearly $1200. What a crime! How do the elderly, and those on a fixed income, manage to stay warm in the winter with fuel costs so astronomical? Hopefully, this delivery will carry us through to the end of the summer. I'm keeping my fingers crossed about that.

I'm really looking forward to the Yukon Quest on Saturday, but I am not looking forward to the ridiculously low temperatures that are predicted (Highs: 15 below to 30 below zero). Check out the Yukon Quest website for musher profiles, race updates, photos and more. It's the 25th Anniversary of the Yukon Quest, and there will be additional festivities going on downtown.

I was going through my internet bookmarks and deleting links I don't visit any longer, as well as revisiting sites I haven't been to in some time. I came across one of my favorite Alaska sites: the Alaska Science Forum. I spent a good hour reading some of the interesting and informational articles there. Check it out!