More Dog Drivin'...

 February weather has continued to be excellent and the dog runs likewise. Here's another road crossing video, taken from another view point.

Some photos on the way home from the last few runs.

February's the Best for Dog Drivin'...

 After the weird up and down temperatures in January, February has finally turned in some decent weather. Cold enough for drivin' dogs, not too bad for the driver. The new pair of winter boots I just got also help keep the feet warm when it's down near zero.

Headin' up the trail, the dogs moving right along on the fresh snow from last Friday that covered the icy spots. Goin' a little slower's a lot better than slidin' sideways!

Nearing the top of the ridge on the way home. The sun's getting higher in the sky and clears the ridge top  now.

Crossing the road and we're almost home; Andy's the videographer. Just have to get out more and enjoy this great weather while it lasts.

Breakup in January...

 We've had two warm spells in January, one would be unusual, where it got well above freezing, tied or broke high temperature records, and rained. Now it's gotten back down to well below zero, near normal for this time of year, and snowed. The problem is ice. Everywhere the rainwater collected or snow melted, water pooled up and froze. Now it's like a skating rink around here.

The gray patches are ice from the refrozen snow and rainfall. Even the white areas of hard pack snow are slippery to walk on.

Andy examining the icy patches. Walking around now requires ice creepers or studded boots.

January temps ranging from forty below to almost fifty above; it's good that climate change is a hoax, or we'd all be in for some real trouble

More Ado about Nothing...

Not doing much except running dogs and chores around the house. But I did remember to bring the camera on the last two dog runs, so that's something, I guess.

Earlier in the week it snowed a bit, so kind of gloomy overcast when I ran dogs on Tuesday. It had been real warm the day before, in fact it broke a record in town at 47°F, but cooled enough to start refreezing the trails.

On todays run, the snow had quit but it was still overcast. The trails were now real icy after it got down to -20° yesterday, but warmed up enough to get out today. Good times on the dog trail!

Much Ado About Nothing...

Just like Shakespeare wrote, it's what I sometimes feel about posting here cause there's not much going on. Have been out running dogs, but except for the time I got dumped and had to walk home from across the valley, nothing terribly exciting. Since I've forgotten to take the camera with me on these last few trips, here's some more sunset photos.

As noted earlier (Snow and Cold 2/12/24), the low angle of the sun this time of year makes for excellent  sunsets.

Alpenglow in the trees is common on clear days at sunrise and sunset. According to Wikipedia: Alpenglow (from German: Alpenglühen, lit. 'Alps glow') is an optical phenomenon that appears as a horizontal reddish glow near the horizon opposite to the Sun when the solar disk is just below the horizon. Strictly speaking, alpenglow refers to indirect sunlight reflected or diffracted by the atmosphere after sunset or before sunrise. This diffuse illumination creates soft shadows in addition to the reddish color. The term is also used informally to include direct illumination by the reddish light of the rising or setting sun, with sharply defined shadows.

Winter Solstice..

 Been wanting to post for a while but not much to report between the cold and snow. Finally did get out on the sled with the dogs after several weeks of trying. It seemed as soon as I broke out the trail, it snowed a foot and then dropped to thirty below. But perseverance and my neighbor Butch's snowmachine finally had the trail runnable just in time for the solstice.

Gus is doing great up front and the rest of the team know their job. If I could just get them to listen up and calm down when we need to stop and take a break, then they'd be great. As it is now, if I have to stop for any reason, they just keep banging to go, pulling so hard I have no time to fix anything or rearrange dogs in the team. Probably just need to run'em further, so they don't have so much energy. A good husky is a tired husky!

Snow and Cold...

 Since the last post, we've had about a foot of snow, then a couple of cold spells where it got down to -25° F here at the house and -35° in town. So it's a good time to do indoor stuff and watch the sunsets.

The low angle of the sun in Dec. makes for long, slow sunrises and sunsets. With less than five hours of daylight now, you don't have to get up early or wait too long in the afternoon to see'em.

It's always a good idea to check the dog harnesses for any needed repairs. I'm trying to figure out how to make a larger size harness for mega-Mac, now the largest dog in the yard. Years ago I gave away the only XL harness I had, so now it's time to upscale a size large to fit him. The white webbing is left over from a project many years ago. Since it's all that's here, it'll have to do for the harness. I'm trying to combine two styles into one, a new improved model, that will let Mackey run like the wind!

Rave On...

Back in the day, Buddy Holly was a huge rock star, almost as big as Elvis, and his group, the Crickets were pretty good too. He died in a plane crash and was immortalized in the song: The Day the Music Died. My favorite tune of his, Rave On, was a big hit back then.  It comes to mind now that we have the ravens hanging around again. This happens almost every time we pass out bones to the dogs. No matter that they never seem to be here otherwise, they somehow figure out there's free lunch for the taking. So one raven will get the dogs attention while another tries to sneak into the yard. Here's a short video...

Andy shot this on her iPhone through the window, so not the best video, but the interesting thing is how the ravens work together. One, on the lower left, gets the dogs attention, while the other, on the right, sneaks into the yard to steal a bone. Apparently they eat the marrow out of the center of the bone that the dogs can't get out. One year we found a pile of bones under a power pole where the ravens had apparently dropped them after stealing them from the dogs. Pretty clever, it makes you wonder how smart the dinosaurs were, since the birds are their descendants. Rave on little dinos!

Running Dogs Again...

A little later than usual, normally start mid-October, but finally got the dogs out for a couple of 4-wheeler runs. The trail around the subdivision and along the Hot Springs road was pretty rough thanks to the snowpocalypse last month. It was icy on the roads and soft in places next to the highway and power line, even after running over it with the SkiDoo, but the dogs still ran well.

Back in the yard after the first dog run this winter. Gus in lead did his usual good job. Hope to have many more, especially when there's enough snow to switch to the sled!

Visiting All Hollows Eve...

Not sure if I ever blogged about this before, but here's what Wikipedia has to say:  "Halloween, Hallowe'en, less commonly as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve, is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It is at the beginning of the observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed. In popular culture, the day has become a celebration of horror, being associated with the macabre and supernatural. One theory holds that many Halloween traditions were influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which are believed to have pagan roots. Some go further and suggest that Samhain may have been Christianized as All Hallow's Day, along with its eve, by the early Church. Other academics believe Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, being the vigil of All Hallow's Day. Celebrated in Scotland and Ireland for centuries, Scottish and Irish immigrants took many Halloween customs to North America in the 19th century, and then through American influence various Halloween customs spread to other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century."

So all the former reverence for saints and martyrs is now an opportunity to sell cheap plastic decorations, bizarre costumes, and scam your neighbors for free candy. That likely fits in with most American holidays. Saw on a cycle blog that they even sell plastic ghouls riding fake motorcycles. 

Now that's not a very scary image, but this might be:

Could be me heading home on the Hot Springs Road after a late night ride.

Then there's the politicians costumes; tRump dressing up as a McDonalds worker, dispensing fries to fake customers or a garbage man, riding in a way too clean truck.

Apparently he was barely able to climb up into the cab. Of course the garbage wasn't in the back of the truck, it's what he says in his rally speeches. As for Kamala, she seems to be wearing a lot of pants suits lately, but that outfit didn't work out so well for Hillary, did it? Maybe she needs to adopt a more low-key, Tim Walz farmer-style garb?

Anyway, the real trick or treat will come on election day when all this political hype finally ends and we can either celebrate or drown our sorrows in a few too many vodkas.

Storm of the Century, Part ?

 In the last ten years or so, we've had at least three storms that seemed to qualify as a "storm of the century." Wind, lot's of snow and rain alternating with near freezing temps; so now it looks like we've got another one.

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Fairbanks AK   140 PM AKDT Mon Oct 21 2024.  

Fairbanks Metro Area-Nenana-Including Eielson AFB, Salcha, Moose Creek, Harding Lake, Two Rivers, Chena Hot Springs Road from MP 12 to MP 34, Fairbanks, Fort Wainwright, Ester, North Pole, Fox, Nenana, and The Parks Highway from MP 290 to 325.            

WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 PM TUESDAY...

* WHAT...Heavy snowfall is expected. Additional snow accumulations of 5 to 10 inches possible. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph.

* WHERE...Fairbanks Metro Area and Middle Tanana Valley.

* WHEN...Until 4 PM AKDT Tuesday.

* IMPACTS...Travel could be very difficult to impossible.

Here's the culprit...

Here's what it looked like this afternoon...

Half a foot of snow fell overnight followed by rain all afternoon.

Looks like lot's of shoveling and plowing tomorrow.

Last Bike Ride...

 With the past week of fifty degree weather in the afternoons, this week was decent bike riding weather, at least for fall, so was able to get out on the Guzzi twice..

Autumn is pretty much over now, the leaves have lost their color and are mostly gone. But the low angle sun still gives a little bit of warmth to the day and provides some interesting shadows.

With the forecast for the coming week of mixed rain and snow and temps in the mid to upper thirties, I suspect these may have been the last rides of the season.