Greetings from Fort Yukon! It's Tuesday, August 28th, 2003.

Winter is coming. The leaves are turning. I just noticed this in the past two or three days. There is a cluster of trees just outside our kitchen window. In the past few days I have looked out that window to see the green leaves on the trees appear to be illuminated by the morning sun. It was a little puzzling, though, because I know that the sun cannot reach those leaves through the surrounding trees. This morning it dawned on me what I was looking at. The leaves weren’t illuminated by the sun, their summer green was becoming tinted a gentle orange by the steady drain of chlorophyll. This morning they were yellow. As Stephanie and I walked to work this morning, I looked around and noticed many trees beginning to turn. The suddenness with which this has happened is alarming. It reminds us that winter is coming fast.

Last night at about 10:45, Stephanie looked out the window and pointed out that it was dark outside. We looked at each other in shock, because just a few weeks ago it was staying light well past midnight. Right now we’re losing nearly 9 minutes of daylight every day. The season is changing, and it is changing dramatically. It’s almost scary how abruptly the change takes place. We are anxiously looking toward winter. We’re excited and we’re scared. But that’s a part of why we’re here… to be excited and scared.