I’ll be throwing out things about the mushers as the race goes on, because a list of names isn’t very exciting.

First out, some of these people should have familiar names if you followed the Yukon Quest.

1 Dallas Seavey (21)
2 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)
3 Ken Anderson (43)
5 Kelley Griffin (20)
6 Allen Moore (5)
7 Jodi Bailey (16)^R

These six people just finished the Quest and those are their finishing positions.

Three others started the Quest but had to scratch:

Hans Gatt (23)
Hugh Neff (35)
Michelle Phillips (39)

Another group of three finished the Yukon Quest 300:

1 Gerry Willomitzer (33)
4 Aliy Zirkle (18)
10 Jessie Royer (58)

Jody Bailey is attempting to do something for the first time, running rookie races in the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod in the same year. Given the conditions that had to be overcome in this year’s Quest, the smart money has to be on her achieving her goal.

While Hans Gatt has the worse case of frostbite, Sebastian Schnuelle and Hugh Neff didn’t get off much better. They will definitely feel it on the trail.

The newest addition to my Iditarod “widget” on the right sidebar is the Anchorage Daily News‘s Iditarod Blog, which, among other things, is running a series on mushers and their dogs.

The multiple freezes in Florida this year have created an additional fire hazard. People put in tropical varieties of plants which die when the frost hits, providing fuel for fires. Because of the sand, the ground doesn’t retain a lot of moisture, so a couple of days of low humidity can really dry the place out. We have been under fire warnings for much of the year on days without rain. The cold fronts, and North winds produce the conditions, and our local luck ran out yesterday.

From the Local Puppy Trainer: Wildfire rages through South Walton neighborhood

POINT WASHINGTON — Flames could be seen over the tops of trees Friday afternoon as a wildfire quickly spread over 10 acres in a neighborhood north of East Point Washington Road.

The fire blazed along the McQuage Bayou north to Choctawhatchee Bay, torching docks and piers and damaging at least two homes.

More than 50 people were evacuated from their homes, but no injuries were reported.

The fire went along the shore in the next county to my East. There has been a lot of development there in the years before the Meltdown, and the county hasn’t caught up with resources. Fire units from Panama City Beach, Eglin AFB, and my county had to respond because Walton county just doesn’t have the infrastructure to deal with wildfires. Most of the fire departments in the county are volunteer, and the people buying waterfront property aren’t the “volunteering” type, nor do they want to pay for a fire protection district.