Hot Enough for You?...

While the lower forty eight has had some hot weather, it's also been remarkably hot in Alaska. Not just the interior, where warm spells are common, but even the north slope has had temps in the 80's. In Fairbanks, after a mild winter, spring was cool, but lately it's just been hot. June had a week of 80's and now another week in July.

Over a hundred in the sun and 80's in the shade, it's just too hot!

The hot weather also brings forrest fires. While none are real close, we still get the smoke.

The dreaded orange sun when smoke obscures the sky.

The dogs don't much like this weather and spend most of the day sleeping in the shade of their houses. But during their free run, Earl likes to roll in the shady grass.

A dogs life ain't all bad!

Dire Dogos...

Not much going on besides splitting wood, so hope to have a winters worth done by the end of the month, then can move on to something more interesting. One of the things I've been reading about is the re-creation of the dire wolf, an extinct  Pleistocene predator made famous in the series Game of Thrones. Apparently the species was re-created through genetic engineering of the current grey wolf. Read about it here...

https://www.livescience.com/animals/extinct-species/dire-wolves-are-back-from-extinction-thanks-to-genetically-engineered-pups

But of course there were many biologists who quickly criticized it as hyperbole...

https://www.livescience.com/animals/extinct-species/colossals-de-extincted-dire-wolf-isnt-a-dire-wolf-and-it-has-not-been-de-extincted-experts-say

Regardless, it's kind of cool that, even if just to some limited degree, they have brought back an extinct species. So here's some photos...

The genetically engineered pups. You can call them dires or modified grey wolves, but they're still pretty darn cute.

Here's our version, the dire dogo at 6 weeks, held by the original owner before we brought him home.

The dire wolves have grown. Apparently there were 2 litters and the older ones are almost full size now. While these modern dire wolves have white coats, there's no evidence that all (or any) dire wolves were white. The pale coloration seen in them is due to genetic editing, not natural coloration.

https://www.iflscience.com/colossals-dire-wolves-are-now-6-months-old-and-theyve-doubled-in-size-79776

Mac, our dour wolf also likes to play with sticks, though it's not from genetic engineering, just being a goofy sled dog  (GOT-cha 9/10/21).

Bespoke Bannister...

In line with our ongoing attempts to finally finish the cabin that we started over forty years ago, we installed the last of the stair railings last fall to improve access and safety (Third Rail 8/18/24). Then it seemed advisable to put a bannister along the open edge of the loft. Not knowing much about building one other than the exterior deck railing that was taken out by the snowpocalypse a few years ago (Ice Fall 4/30/22), I googled it up and found out that a bannister is a free standing railing that consists of a horizontal handrail supported by vertical posts (balusters). So after buying some lumber (2X4s and 4X4s) I stacked them in the garage and forgot about it until this month. The 2X4s had warped beyond use but the 4X4s were still good, so cut them up into 3 ft posts. Ran them through the molding cutter on the table saw to smooth off any rough edges. then cut bevels on the top with a circular saw. Put double ended screws into the bottom of each and then screwed them into holes I'd drilled on the edge of the loft. For the top handrail, decided to use a pre-made one they sold at Home Depot. Made out of hemlock and sold by the foot, figured it'd be easy to work with, take up stain, and not warp like the 2X4s. After getting a ten foot piece home, laid it on top of the posts and marked them, then took it all down and out to the workshop and cut notches into the top of the posts, just wide enough to fit the handrail. Then it was just a matter of sanding and staining everything to get it ready to install in the loft.

Bannister man screwing in the last of the brackets stabilizing the posts. Note celebratory drink.

The finished project. Will be running some cables through the posts to fill in the open area below the handrail. It turned out pretty much like the departed deck railing, but that's likely cause I seldom do anything new or different nowadays. The only problem so far is Andy has hit her head on the railing when putting on her shoes and socks in the morning. Might have to install padding on the underside of the rail!

Logging Out...

Since all the birch collected last fall is spilt and stacked, needed to get out and cut some more. Suitable trees are hard to find, they need to be dead and down, but not so old the wood is rotted or "punky." There's a bunch of trees that were pushed over when one of the neighbors did some road widening a few years ago. He told some of his friends to take the wood, but it was hit and miss what was removed. So last fall I started cleaning up the remaining trees and just finished cutting up and hauling out the logs.

The last load of logs hauled back from along the road. They're cut into six foot lengths to fit in the bucket and just filled it up.

Then they get cut to length (<20 in) to fit the splitter and wood stove. 

After splitting, they're stacked up to dry for burning in the winter (thanks Andy). There's about two cords split so far; we're about half way there for the winter supply. Like money in the bank, there's never too much firewood!

Deja Vu All Over Again...

 Like last spring and many before that, now's the time to start splitting wood. Last fall there was a decent supply of wood bucked up and stacked, so this spring, at first,  all there was to do was split and restack it.

Now that all the birch is split, it's time to go find some more. Of course there's still plenty of aspen left over from Cy's last clearing ( Firsts...10/22/22 ), but that can wait until there's more birch done, since it takes longer to dry.

It's also been time to prep the Guzzi and get it out again for a spring ride.

Probably will be mostly riding the 650 until the chrome bores are replaced with the new cylinders on the 850. The chrome begins to flake off after they age, it's fifty years old, and will destroy the engine if it does since there's no oil filter. It seems there's an outfit in Italy that started making a replacement cylinder kit, so I bought a pair last fall before they all disappeared again. Now all I have to do is install them; that'll be fun.

Breakup...

 Not much going on lately, just watching the snow melt and turn apparently solid ground into slimy mud. That's breakup for you. Now, with almost no snow left on the trail, it's time to haul the sleds up to the shed and put'em away for the summer.

It seemed like just yesterday there was slush on the road and I was scraping/plowing snow every day. Now the roads almost dry and the water's flowing in the ditches again. So apparently all the time spent pushing the berms back and scraping the slush off was worth it.

The upper dog yard's (to the right) been scraped off and is rapidly drying; pretty soon we'll be moving the dogs up there. Kind of marginal photo quality, the sun just wasn't cooperating.

But the dogs don't seem to mind breakup. They run around, race through the mud, and play in the remaining snow patches; it's all good times when they're off on a free run.

More Out and About...

The weather has been crazy the last few weeks, a few days of fifty degrees that starts melting all the snow and ice, then it drops down to the teens and everything freezes up again for a while. This has been happening since late March. Been alternating between scraping the slush off of the road with the tractor on the warmer days, then going out on the snow machine to haul in firewood when it's colder and the trails refreeze. So here's some pics...

My neighbor Butch, who lent me his wide-track Polaris to use for trail work, wanted to get out and see the trails, so we did a sno-go tour of the valley.

Butch used to run dogs here, but hadn't been out in the valley since he quit mushing.

Heading out to cut some firewood. There's lot of standing dead spruce in the valley.

After cutting down half a dozen dead trees, they're drug out to the trail and bucked up to about 6 feet long to fit on the sled.

Ready to haul the load back home. Since the trees are dead and the bark is peeling off, they don't need to be split and are great for starting fires in the wood stove.

Out and About..

 Went out this morning on the Ski Doo to check out the gully and this is what it looked like...

The bridge that someone put in last year is down on one side as the gully widened and filled with overflow ice.

Downstream, the gully continues to erode as the thermo-karst worsens (Shear Blading and Thermokarst 5/11/21). It's hard to believe that this was a flat field of stunted black spruce (tundra/taiga) before DNR cleared it. The creek used to flow in a small natural channel just to the east of here. It's on its way to be a mini grand canyon in a few more years!

But the dog driving continues, even as we avoid the gully crossing.

Climbing the ridge as we head home, Earl gets his time in lead...

Where were you five years ago...

Just read in the news that it was five years ago today when our president, the great denier, declared a covid emergency.  So I looked back at the blog on that date and it's talking about the weather during the month. We had a lot of snow, almost a foot, and some cold, it hit -42 earlier. But nothing about covid. So maybe it wasn't such a big deal back then. I remember we went into town and got the vaccine shots at the community center. It was big production, where you had to sign up in advance and then show up early, check in and wait in the parking lot before you were admitted at your time slot. Then lots of tables set up for medical stations, everyone got checked over before getting a shot. Quite professional. Now we get our covid and flu shots together at the local Freddys. No big deal, almost inconceivable now.

The weather's been great lately, almost perfect for dog drivin' and just bein' outdoors.

Headin' out into the valley, clear and cold, just like March should be.

Up the hill onto the ridge on the other side of the valley.

Headin' back up our ridge and then over the top for home. This is the weather we wait for all winter, to run dogs and enjoy the times that only spring can bring.

Some Random Photos...

It's not all dog drivin' around here, we get to watch the cat and dogs do stupid pet tricks...

Mac has taught himself this jumping trick to get a dog biscuit. I hold it higher each time to get him to jump more. It's amazing how high a dog that big, he was over 80 lbs last summer when the vet weighed him, can jump when he really wants a biscuit.

Jack Black likes to lay on the Toyo stove, not sure why, maybe he can see what's going on better from that vantage point.

Here he is sleeping in the sink after apparently exhausting himself unrolling the toilet paper. Just wish he'd roll it back up when he's done.

Wouldn't be complete without a dog sled photo. Finally getting Earl up front again to run with Gus. He's such a wild dog in the yard; he jumps all over Gus when we're hooking up the team, so have to wait until five miles or so down the trail to stop and put him in lead. Then he does fine. In fact today, I forgot to bring the neckline and he ran next to Gus like he's been doing it all winter. Dogs, go figure!

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.