Another winter event in Alaska. Connor and I went to watch the start of the Tesoro Iron Dog Snowmachine race. This is considered to be the longest, toughest snowmachine race in the world. The racers cover 2,000 miles in 6 days covering all types of terrain while riding both day and night. Anyway, Connor seems to have the bug and wants to run the novice division when he turns 16.

As the racers would leave the starting line, they had a 2 mile run across the lake before they hit the trail. Connor would wait at the end of the starting slot and race them to the trail-head. His machine indicated a maximum speed of 78 miles per hour. That's pretty fast on a snow machine.

The track on the right is standard equipment for the Iron Dog Snow Machines, Connor will be asking for one next Christmas. Notice the metal spikes?

With the recent warm spell melting the snow, Connor has been chomping at the bit to get out and run his snowmachine. We took the sleds to the Kenai Peninsula today and let Connor try his stuff. A friend of ours, Jim Psiones, went to show us the new spot and he and Connor had a blast marking some hills and practing some jumping. Hope you enjoy the photos. As Jim said, "Just another boring day in Alaska".

Look real close and you can see Spencer's little helmut over my handle bars. Yes he is setting up straight.

Sorry for the lack of posting but there hasn't been a whole lot to report. We had a uncommon run of warm weather (40 - 50 degrees) and it has all but melted the snow. The boys are going nuts and want some snow so they can get back on their skis and snowboards. Today, there prayers were answered as you can see from the photos. What a difference a few days make.

January 29th (50 degrees)

January 30th (18 degrees)

Yes, I have been somewhat lazy about posting the last couple of weeks. We have been busy getting the boys back in school and wrapping up things from the end of the year.

Connor and I did make a visit to Nana's house this past weekend. The boys actually had 3 snow days and didn't have to go to school last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. This was the first snow days for Anchorage in about 5 years. It wasn't the snow (we didn't have any) it was actually ice that made it to dangerous to drive.

Anyway, Connor and I ran to Oklahoma to help Nana do a couple of things on the farm. We "fixed fence". I had to mention this as it drives Connor nuts that southerners as he calls them tend to leave out unnecessary words.

Connor took his new Compound Bow and practiced each of the 3 days. He is doing really good with his target practice. Nana found plenty for us to do and the days went by too fast.

64 Degrees Below Freezing!

We finally got a chance to try out the new snow machines. New Years Eve arrived with a morning temperature of -32 degrees. On the drive to "Big Lake", Connor looked at the auto temperature gauge and declared: "Holy Cow, that is 64 degrees below freezing". As you can see from the photos, even the warm smoke doesn't rise in that temperature.

Enough said!!!!!!

Archery Shoot

Connor has taken up archery since our move to Alaska. He started with the Parks & Rec Saturday intro class and has shown a knack for hitting the target. One of the local instructors (Cesar) has helped Connor with his form and should have him ready for his first tournament in about 3 weeks. Cesar is the gentlemen on the left in the above photo.

Connor's friend, Evyn, has been visiting us from Louisville and he came along to give archery a try. As you can see, he was successful in disabling the fierce beast (ground squirrel).