I Choose Clubenheizens.

As I blog tonight the sun is streaming in my window. It is past 11 right now. Joel claims that he saw the sun actually go beneath the horizon last night, but the sky was still very lit up. I think the light it making it difficult for me to get up in the morning. Going to bed has been fine, but actually getting out of bed is increasingly difficult. Or, it could be the chilly air, the rain, the working all the time…

I think the blog posts may dwindle to every other day. I just don’t want things to be too repetitive for you readers. I feel like it’s been a lot of: I get up. Drive forever to get to the site. Get stuck in the mud. Find bones. See wildlife. Come home. Do something fun, eat dinner, catalog bones, or blog. Don’t get me wrong, I am still having a GREAT time, even though it is repetitive. Give me some mud and bones and I am totally good. Maybe spice up breakfast or dinner out on the town, but I am good. For you all, however, I could see how it would be a little old after a while. You are welcome for me deciding this a week and a half in and not three weeks later.

Another reason for blogging less frequently is that the internet is sporadic. I could use the Ethernet, and sometimes if I am frustrated with the wireless I will, but usually I just use it to upload pictures for you guys because there are many of us who are using it. It isn’t really a big problem, it just comes and goes as it pleases, which leaves me to pressing refresh/connect many, many times during use.

Joel and I rode the ferry across the (Yukon) river yesterday. It is free, and is the only way to get out of Dawson other than the road we came in on. It is also quite tiny, but fun. The workers were really nice and cracking jokes with us. I think we will ride again. It goes all the time, 24 hours a day. There was also a huge canoe race here where the teams came up the river (with the current) about 750 km from Whitehorse. I saw on a newspaper that a Texas team was tied for first (there was a picture of the team in their canoe, I think there were six of them), but not sure what the final outcome was. They literally paddle non-stop for days for this competition. I think it officially ended yesterday, but that gave people five days to make it here.

A mammoth tusk update: We became very popular with some of the locals and other people staying at our cabins (there are eight cabins around here, and they are all usually filled). There was a group of nuclear engineers from Tennessee who had driven their motorcycles from Denver who were very, very impressed. We first met them on their first stop here, and Beth had a discussion about the validity of global warming with them. They drove up North for a few days and returned, and took many pictures of us with the tusk. They even said we were some of the most interesting people they have ever met on any motorcycle trip. The owner of the land where the tusk came from lives across the road and came to talk with Tyler about it the night we brought it home. Luckily for us, Stewart and his wife are huge supporters of the Yukon paleontology projects, and especially the paleontology/mining museum in the works for Dawson, so he left it in our care until further notice.

Another big “find” also occurred today. Mathias and I were cataloging, which entails whiteout, sharpies, clear nail polish, a field book, and a bone identification book. Neither of us has had a real paleontology course and are definitely becoming skilled (ie, faster) at identification. Mathias was having a hard time with a bone because it was different, and it turns out, we think it is actually from an extinct large cat! We’ve contacted an expert on the subject and hope to hear back from him. We took some hilarious photos with Mathias and the bone and me pretending to be a saber-tooth cat (we think it is actually a leg bone from one of those guys!), and I’ll let you know if it ends up on Nat Geo again. Even better, I will try to get a copy and post it on here for you all.

We stopped by a few new sites today. One was actually closed so we could realllllly stop, but another seems like it will be good. They have found ancient camels there in the past. I definitely want to be in on that. The miner also has invited us over for a night of fun, so that will be something to look forward too.

It has rained and rained here. Svetlana spends a lot of time searching for mushrooms in the surrounding areas. Even though she’s been here previously, she said she’s never found mushrooms before, and we’ve had them almost every night. A restaurant is buying/serving local morel mushrooms, which brings back memories of my old house in Washington, Missouri, where I was too chicken to try the wrinkly mushrooms found in vast quantities. I probably won’t eat them now either, I’d sell them to the restaurant.

We have decided that we need at least a little time off and are trying to plan accordingly around the next few days. I believe we’ve gone with Wednesday, because Germany is playing Spain and we can’t miss that game. We’ve also been invited to see the slucing process from Stewart’s mines, which is the place where they bring all of the paydirt, put it through a sive with lots and lots of water, and eventually separate the gold from the crap. Tyler estimated that Stewart needs to get about $20,000 in gold everyday to make a profit (because of everything else he’s paying for, expenses, workers, ect), so it will be awesome to see that much gold (which really isn’t that much!).

In terms of the contest, I’ve only had three guesses, from Mom, Dad, and Christina. I will bring you all something for at least ATTEMPTING the challenge, but will tell you all the answer to this one. Remember the animals we usually (99% of the time) find are mammoth, bison, horse, and caribou. The bone above it the phalange (toe) bone of a bison. Not too shabby, eh? I will have another “Name that Bone” contest later, even with the low participation rate, just because I think it is fun but super nerdy.

Hope you all had a wonderful, safe, Independence Day! I was the only American here, so I worked! Yay!

Cheers!