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 out 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.

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!