-41 C / -44 F --- Hitting a "new low!" :-)

The ice fog floats thick through the streets of Whitehorse, with visability of less than a city block. In the two plus years that I have been in Whitehorse, this is the coldest temperature that I have experienced... and It's been like this for three days now.

In this cold, funny things happen to different materials. Car seat cushions become as hard as blocks of styrofoam... the tires flatten out where they touch the ground, so if you park overnight, there is a flat part that goes "whump, whump, whump," as you drive down the highway, until they warm up.

Frost creeps up the inside of the windows in my cabin, and smoke from the chimney rises straight up. Firewood splits almost at the touch of the axe. Any remaining birds, rabbits, squirrels, and all the other animals seem to dissappear.

I have a "Canada Goose" parka... the kind scientists use down in Antarctica, and once we go below -30, the puffy down parka goes away, and the "Canada Goose" comes out. Coyote fur around the hood, the down of 21 geese as insulation, shoulder grab straps in case you go through the ice, or down a crevice.

It's truely a unique experience... and part of the adventure of living up here.