Out to the Whites...

Finally got out for a quick trip to the White Mtns. Is spite of the shortened training season (New dog...2/11/15), the dogs ran great and Bill and I both had a good time. Barney and Spuds, my main leaders, are both eleven now, so this likely is their last trip. While I've had a few dogs still run in the team at twelve, they tend to age quickly and lose their desire to run when they get that old. They've been a great pair up front and I'll miss their leadership. Here's a few photos of the dogs:

Takin' a break on the way in. Bill's in the background checking on his dogs. Barney and Jabba, gettin' some leader training,  up front.

Headin' out from the cabin towards the ridge top trail. Spuds and Barney in lead.

Rest stop on the way home. Easter, in swing, ran great and was a real asset in the team.

More crazy weather...

Just like February, the weather in March has been crazy. It started off almost normal, then warmed up and snowed almost a foot, then turned cold and we had a week of -20 to -40 F. Now it's warmed up again and we've had near +40 for the past few days.

Here's a few photos of yesterdays dog run:

Crossing the pond on the way home.

Going over the bridge on Smallwood Creek.

Takin' a break on the way home.

Another warm spell...

After an up and down February, March is starting off warm, as it was near 40° F today. Here's the weather bureau's summary for February:

NWS MONTHLY WEATHER SUMMARY FOR FEBRUARY 2015

"Much like January, February  was a month of contrasts with periods of much below normal temperatures and periods of much above normal temperatures. The average temperature for the month was 1.0 degree which was 2.3 degrees above the normal mean temperature of -1.3 degrees.

February 2015 started off with a cold snap that continued through the 10th. The coldest temperature was 43 below which occurred on the 7th. The temperature warmed dramatically after the 10th of the month, with the warmest temperature of 37 on the 16th.

A significant ice storm, one tenth of an inch of ice or more, began on the 21st and continued on the 22nd, when  0.23 inches of rain fell at the airport. This is the 4th out of the last 5 winters with a significant ice storm.

Looking forward to March, temperatures climb sharply as the sun angle and length of day light increases; the average daily high temperature increases from 18 degrees on the 1st to 34 degrees on the 31st, the average daily low temperature increase from 9 below on the 1st to 8 above on the 31st. Temperatures have ranged from 56 above in 1994 to 56 below in 1911. March is on average the driest month in Fairbanks, precipitation iaverages 0.25 inches while normal snow fall is 4.9 inches. Possible sunshine increases by nearly 7 minutes per day during March and increases from 10 hours and 7 minutes on the 1st to 13 hours and 29 minutes on the 31st."(http://www.arh.noaa.gov/wmofcst.php?wmo=NOAK49PAFG&type=public)

Finally remembered the camera so took a few photos of the dogs:

Heading for home after crossing the bridge.

Skirting the new gully that formed this past summer.

Another new dog and a blizzard on the way...

Waiting for the wind to arrive after it's snowed for the last few hours. According to the weather bureau:

The National Weather Service in Fairbanks, has issued a blizzard warning. which is in effect until 3 am Alaska Standard Time Sunday: blowing snow....reducing visibility to one quarter mile or less at times., winds northwest 25 to 35 mph gusting to 50 mph. (http://pafg.arh.noaa.gov/wmofcst.php?wmo=WWAK41PAFG&type=public)

Yesterday we picked up another dog. This one's named Bella and she's supposed to be the mother of Easter (Ester or Estella?). Should be interesting, working with some new dogs in the team while breaking trail after the big blizzard. Here's her picture (taken from Facebook).

New dog and a dog run...

Well it took a while, but finally got out on the trail with the dogs this year. Probably the latest ever, but the health issues rule, I guess. Got a new dog too. Unfortunately, a local musher  died and left a bunch of dogs that needed a place to go, so we brought one home. She's a young female, the first  we've had in quite a while, so it'll be interesting to see how the team dynamics change with a new dog. Other than that, it was a routine dog run and we made it around the new gully with no problems. Here's a photo of Easter, the new girl.  Though I've already started to call her Ester, who knows what her name will be, we almost always change the dogs name to fit their personality.

Here's another shot, find the hidden dog:

Warmest ever?...

As noted earlier (Climate change? 10/18/14), not only was it very warm in Alaska, the entire year of 2014 was the warmest on record:
"Last year was the hottest on Earth since record-keeping began in 1880, scientists reported Friday, underscoring warnings about the risks of runaway greenhouse-gas emissions and undermining claims by climate-change contrarians that global warming had somehow stopped. Extreme heat blanketed Alaska and much of the western U.S. last year. Records were set across large areas of every inhabited continent. And the ocean surface was unusually warm virtually everywhere except near Antarctica, the scientists said, providing the energy that fueled damaging Pacific storms. In the annals of climatology, 2014 surpassed 2010 as the warmest year. The 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1997, a reflection of the relentless planetary warming that scientists say is a consequence of human activity and poses profound long-term risks to civilization and nature." (http://www.adn.com/article/20150105/2014-was-warmest-year-record-much- alaska)
And now, with the exception of a couple of days of minus 30F at the beginning,  Jan. is shaping up to be another warm month. That's OK by me, since I finally started getting out on the old Ski Doo to put in the dog trail. It's a lot easier to start the beast when it's above zero. One thing that's certainly noticeable  this winter, is that with all the rain last summer (The End of Thermidor 7/31/14) as well as the warmer weather, there are a lot more gullies forming in the trail. One new one is already 5 to 6 feet deep where it crosses the trail. I was able to reroute the trail over the shallower end, but it'll still make for an interesting ride with the dog team.

Taken last year, this is the area where the gullies formed this summer. Will try to get a current photo, if I can remember the camera next time out. (Did that!)

Here's a photo of the gully this year. Hard to see with the lack of contrast and low angle sun. The trail now skirts the gully on the right of the photo. Will get a better shot when the sun gets up a little higher later in the month.

Sun time...

The sun is noticeably higher now, even though it's been less than 3 weeks since the solstice.  One odd thing is that when the sun reaches it's apex , 3° now,  it's around 1 pm, not noon. That's because back in the 80's the politicians in Juneau decided we needed to be closer to Seattle time, so Alaska's four time zones became two. The Alaska Time Zone (UTC−9) was switched to Yukon Time Zone (UTC-8), which is one hour earlier than Pacific Time (instead of two). The Yukon Territory switched to the Pacific Time Zone in 1975 and the Yukon Time Zone was not used except for a small area around Yakutat. Then, just to confuse things a little more, they changed the name back to the Alaska Time Zone.
The state of Alaska spans almost as much longitude as the contiguous United States (57.5° vs. 57.6°) so the use of two time zones will inevitably lead to some distortions. A clock set to Alaska time in Fairbanks reads 12:57 at solar noon. When daylight savings time is applied in the spring, this effect becomes even more apparent as solar noon is about 2 hours off. That's why in Alaska it's often referred to as "double daylight time" during the summer.  Largely taken from:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Time_Zone.
Here's a couple of photos of the January sun.

Heat wave for the new year...

Had another chinook blow through town and pushed the temperature up to the mid-thirties F the last few days. It even rained a bit yesterday. Supposed to cool down below zero by tomorrow night, so that's good. Can't abide by this warmth for too long.
Still not running the dogs. The Doc told me to wait a couple of more weeks to let the hip fully heal. So that's not so good, but as always, the time will pass and we'll soon have the boys out on the trail again. Until then, they get to run around the yard and play dog down.

Video by Andy (no dogs were harmed in making this).

Winter Solstice...

As I noted at this time last winter (Sunshine...1/1/14), the winter solstice in Alaska is not just a time of short days and cold weather. The low angle of sun (it rises just over 2° above the horizon) makes for fantastic sun rises and sunsets. Since the day length changes only a few seconds per day during mid December, these short day sunsets occur for several weeks. As noted here: "December may be marked by Christmas, but for pagans it’s the time to celebrate Yule holiday. This ancient event marks the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere (Sunday, Dec. 21, this year) and celebrates the rebirth of the sun and beginning of winter. It is one of the oldest winter celebrations known. The winter solstice is the longest night and shortest day of the year. The Earth’s axis tilts the furthest away from the sun at 23-and-a-half degrees, giving all locations north of the equator less than 12 hours of daylight. This moment has been marked by mankind for centuries. Celebrating the rebirth of the sun can be seen in other cultures throughout history. While these typically took place during the coldest, darkest days of the year, winter solstice traditions were celebrations that gave people hope sunny days lay ahead. In ancient Rome, the weeklong feast of Saturnalia honored the sun god Saturn. Celts believed the sun stood still for 12 days, making it necessary to light a log fire to conquer the darkness. During the Iron Age, the Celts and other ancient Europeans welcomed the winter solstice by feasting, merrymaking and sacrificing animals." (http://www.ibtimes.com/winter-solstice-2014-3-things-know-about-pagan-yule-celebrations-1763756). Now a days, people still celebrate the Christmas holiday by decorating trees, hanging wreaths, and burning yule logs, not realizing they're carry-overs from these ancient pagan rites. Here's some photos taken during solstice week:

Another snowstorm...

Like October, December started with a snowstorm. This time we got almost 8 inches of snow over two days. It was a good excuse to finally get outside and push some snow around with the tractor. And now we can quit worrying about the septic freezing up like it did 2 years ago when we didn't get much snow until new years. As for November, here's the NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE's monthly summary: "November 2014 was warm and dry overall with no significant cold snaps or large storms for the Fairbanks area. The average high temperature was 19.0 degrees which was 8.1 degrees above the normal high and ranked as the 20th warmest of 110 years of record. The average low temperature was 2.5 degrees above the average low temperature and ranked as the 20th warmest. The average temperature for the month was 10.8 degrees which was 8.2 degrees above average and ranked as the 19th warmest on record . November was very dry with the first measurable snow not occurring until the 25th when 2.6 inches of snow fell at the airport. For the month, only 3.8 inches of snow fell which was 9.4 inches below the normal snow fall of 13.2 inches. This ranks as the 85th snowiest November of 99 years of record. Only 0.18 inches of water equivalent fell which was 0.49 inches below the normal of 0.67 inches. This ranks as the 15th driest of 100 years of record. Looking forward to December, the average high temperature drops from 7 above on the 1st to 2 above on the 31st. the average low drops from 11 below on the 1st to 16 below on the 31st. In the last 109 years temperatures have varied by 120 degrees, from a high of 58 above in 1934 to a low of 62 below in 1961. Average snowfall is 12 inches but has been as much as 50.7 inches in 1984 to as little as a trace in 1969. The long term outlook for Fairbanks for December calls for increased chances for above normal temperatures and equal chances for above or below normal precipitation. December is the darkest month of the year with possible sunshine decreasing from 4 hours and 41 minutes on the 1st to the annual minimum of 3 hours and 42 minutes on the winter solstice. By the 31st possible sunshine increases to 3 hours and 58 minutes gaining 16 minutes along the long climb back to the summer solstice in June."

Finally some more snow...

After an early October snowstorm dumped nearly half a foot of heavy wet snow (Winter's a comin'...10/1/14), we went over a month with virtually none. And then after the local news-minus (newsminer.com) predicted a snowless Nov, it looked pretty bleak for outdoor activities. But then the light snow forecast for Mon turned into a dump of 3-4 inches and winter's looking pretty good again. Won't be running dogs anytime soon though, since we just got back from Seattle where I had the other hip redone (Summer vacation? 6/30/14). Still gimping around on crutches, but hopefully will be back to it in a month or so. Some photos after the latest snow:

Wood enough for ya' ?

My neighbor stopped by the other day while I was splitting wood. As he walked over he looked at all the wood piles and asked why I was still splitting wood when I had so much stacked already. Well I just rambled on for a bit about how it's good exercise and besides, you never know how much you'll need. So we went inside and the conversation moved on. But later on I got to thinking, when is it wood enough? When Andy and I both were working, we burned a lot less wood cause we were both gone all day. Now that I'm home a lot more, I keep the fire going most of the day, especially during the cold part of winter (Nov. to Mar.). So we probably burn half again more wood than we used to. Since it's not exactly stacked into cord wood units, it's hard to say how much we burn, but I used to figure we used around 3-4 cords and now it's probably closer to 6. Also, I like to let the wood dry for 2 summers after it's stacked, so you need more wood when you're splitting for winter after next. So I guess the answer is, it's like money in the bank, you never really have wood enough.