25 February 2009 The Famous, the Hero's, the Reindeer

February 25, 2009I feel the earth move under my feet I feel the sky tumbling down I feel my heart start to trembling

Thanks Carole King. This is one has been in my life for a long time.

Wow, I don't know how much the earth was moving under my feet, but my feet were surely moving on it yesterday. Today was much more sedentary. I spent lots of time reviewing with other teachers and sorting through my photos. I also spent time sifting through **all of the research **papers my students have been sending to me via email.

Back to yesterday... an amazing day.

First thing in the morning we heard that the Yukon Quest Dog Sled racers were going to be coming in at 9:30 am only a short distance from where we were having our training. So we headed down to the Chena River, mind you the Chena River is frozen. This was where the race was ending, right smack dab on the river. Funny for us southerners to imagine!

Well over an hour later with frosty fingers and toes the winner came in hauled by frosty pups! It was very exciting. However, I can say after photographing the dogs and the dog master Sebastian Schnuelle, I would never choose this as a sport of choice. I love the cold weather, but wow!

I know that some of you will be doing the** extra credit** on the Yukon Quest, so I will not say much more about that race.

My fingers and toes - well my pointer finger on my right hand (my camera pushing button) and my big right toe...were so darned cold. They were so cold that I thought I was going to cry. But I **didn't cry **and as time passed and my limbs warmed up, it just became an intesnse memory!

From then we headed to the ARCUS office. ARCUS is the group that runs PolarTREC. The staff had a potluck lunch for us. It was amazing, moose, reindeer and salmon included. It was wonderful - right down to Kristin's blueberry pie!

Later in the day we went to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks large animal farm. We saw Muskox, Caribou and Reindeer.

We learned a lot about the Muskox, such as when the males are rutting they will come at each other at 35 miles per hour. 35 from one and 35 from another make a 70 miles per hour collision. They say it sounds like thunder when they collide!

One other interesting thing that they did with Muskox was test their bacterial digestive enzymes.

We finished the day at the UAF Museum of the North. It is a beautiful new building and loaded with Alaskan history and treasures.

All in all in was a great day in Alaska and makes up for being inside most of the day today.

By the way it snowed today and was very pretty!

Extra Credit

1. Who is Lance Mackey and why is it so cool that I have my photo taken with him?

2. And see the photo below.Besides what i describe in the photo below, what is a Sun Dog?

3. What is Qiviut (pronounced kiv-ee-ut) and how much is it for an ounce in raw form?

**Feature Teacher - Simone Welch **

Simone teaches in Washington DC, she will be on the Healy IcebreakerAn icebreaker is a special purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters. in the Bering Sea. Last year Simone hiked 80 miles in GlacierA mass of ice that persists for many years and notably deforms and flows under the influence of gravity. National Forest. She also rides and jumps horses. Simone and I have the love of photography in common. She also makes and sells photographed cards. One other cool link to Simone is her dad. He is a scientist named Dr. Wellington and was very, very involved with keeping the Galapagos Islands very safe and protected.