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.

Dog Runs on the First Frost

Had our first frost this morning, about two weeks later that average. Not sure it means anything about climate change, since we've had late frosts before, but we kept a few plants growing under visqueen a bit longer than usual. Now it's all that's left of another great garden. 

This is perfect weather to let the dogs run around. They've been getting over heated or soaking wet most of the summer, since it was either too hot or raining. Now they get to run to their hearts content.

Or just get a few pets.

But playing dog down is their favorite pastime.

Fall Colors...

Trying to get out and enjoy the fall colors on the rare days it's not raining. Here's a few pics...

The drive way is shrouded in gold on one of  the few sunny days we've had lately.

Meanwhile Andy's been working to harvest the garden.

Lot's o' potatoes...

Autumn always is a bittersweet time to enjoy the fall colors and cooler temps, while knowing that sooner or later, the snow and freezing weather of winter will be here.

Roofers!...

 No, not the knockout drug dispensers, these guys are here to get a roof on. The old roof dates back to the late 70s when we built the cabin. We did all the work ourselves on the original cabin, but time and weather had taken its toll, on all. We tried to get something done last summer, but couldn't connect with any roofing contractors. This time a friend suggested I talk to one of the roofing suppliers in town and they gave me a list of three names. The third one on the list had the lowest bid and turned out to be a great guy to work with. We also decided to replace the fiberglass insulation with insulfoam to increase the insulation and make it easier to heat the house. He knew a contractor that did spray foaming and would coordinate the work with him. So after several rain delays, they got to work on it.

First they had to remove the old roofing and insulation, then spray the insulfoam. I bagged up as much of the old insulation as would fit in the garage loft and will use it to insulate the loft.

Then the roofers laid down the new steel panels. Pretty amazing to watch these thirty something guys scurry around on the roof. Brings back memories of when we installed the original roof back in the day.

Now they're installing snow guards, to keep the snow avalanching off in the spring, and a roof ladder for cleaning the stove pipe. Pretty neat stuff.

Third Rail...

Back when I was a kid, my mom would take me downtown on the "El" train. I still remember standing on the station waiting for the train while she'd lecture me about the dangers involved: don't run for the train until it's stopped, stay in your seat, and don't ever touch the third rail. Now I hadn't ridden the El in years until the last time we flew into Chicago. Now they have an El train that takes you to the various parking areas scattered around O'Hare airport. Amazing!

 Anyway, while I've been recuperating from the shoulder surgery, been trying to find low impact things to work on. One thing I noticed is that when we first put in both stairs, then rebuilt them a few years ago, there was only one railing installed, on the side away from the wall. That's no problem when you've got two good arms, but now with just one, figured it'd be a good time to add that third railing. So after a lot of measuring and searching for suitable lumber in the garage loft, got started on the new railings.

Having the loft log in the way made it interesting trying to line up the two parts of the railing, but it's likely no one's gonna notice it except me. The angle of the railings doesn't quite match the stairs, since we replaced the runners a while back to make the stairs less steep. The old railing was built into the wall, so couldn't easily change it to match the new stairs.

Dog Days of July...

After a warm June with maybe a dozen days around 80° F, July started off cool and rainy, but the last five days have been over 80°. While it's uncomfortable for us, the dogs are ones who suffer the most.

The dog yard looks dead during the afternoon on these hot days. At least they've figured how to stay in the shade, moving around with the shifting shadows.  They still enjoy their time off for their free run in the yard. We bring out a couple of buckets of water, so they have plenty to drink. Rudy aka the meathead has figured out a better way to cool off.

While the others drink, he dunks his whole head in the bucket, cooling off while looking like a moose diving for a snack.