Tripping Out...

For the past twenty years or so, my friend Bill and I try to do a dog trip (White Mountains Trip 3/29/09). Some years we managed two and even made it to Tanana, a run of fifty miles by dog team, after doing a tour of the White Mtns. But lately we haven't been so ambitious, old age and bad luck have combined to limit what we can still do with our dogs. So this year we planned a simple overnight trip to a cabin in the "park" (A Ride in the Park 7/8/16).
Pretty fast run into the cabin, so had lot's of time to relax while still taking good care of the dogs. Spending time at these remote cabins, with no computer, cell phone, or T.V. reception really gives you time to just sit, talk and solve most of the worlds problems. It snowed a bit overnight, but not enough to slow things down. The ride back out went great until I missed a turn and crashed about a mile from the trailhead. The only thing damaged, besides my pride, was the brush bow on the sled and that's what it's there for, to protect the sled.

Bill took this photo as we arrived at the cabin. Dogs were still pretty perky and could have run a lot further.

Bill heading out the next day. He seemed pleased with his dog run.

The dogs were furiously barking when Bill was getting ready to leave, but they all stopped at once as soon as he was gone. Then Jabba began to howl and they serenaded me for a while. Pretty much fun!

Hail, All Hail to Spring...

We'd been getting light snow all last week, but not really enough to plow until a couple of days ago when figured there was enough to bother with. After plowing the drive way and trail to the dog yard (more on that later), moved the pickup and cleaned up around the workshop. After parking the tractor, was walking over to move the truck back when it stared hailing. At first I thought it was sleet, which is pretty common here in late March/early April. but as I sat in the truck watching it come down, it definitely sounded like hail on the roof. So after it quit, went into the house, got the camera, and took these photos:

Was really glad I wasn't still out on the tractor, cause it was coming down pretty hard for 15-20 min.

Now technically, it was the first day of spring, but up here we normally think of spring starting in late April/early May when the snow's finally gone. Hail's usually associated with thunder storms, which occur from late May to early September, so it was kind of weird.

The other weird thing happened when walking our new dog. We'd been bringing him into the house to socialize him, since he's kind of shy, with a couple of the other younger dogs. Andy took the two out after a bit and I followed, giving him a biscuit occasionally to keep is interest on me and not drag me down the trail. So as I reached into my pocket, to pull out another one, then started to break it in half, since he tends to swallow them whole, he takes off full speed for the dog yard. I tried to keep my balance by running with him, but managed only a couple of stumbling steps before slamming down on the newly plowed trail. Landed on my side, knocked the wind out of me, and dropped the leash. The dog took off, fortunately running around the dog yard where Andy caught him. I thought I'd just bruised some ribs, but apparently had also hit my head on the rock hard trail, as the next morning woke up with this beautiful shiner.

After our next dog run, Jabba admires the shiner. He's probably thinking "if you had that on both eyes, you'd be handsome like me."  Update: found out that we didn't get hail, it's actually "graupel" that's formed similar to hail, but starts with snowflakes instead of rain drops and the end result is the same. Weird!

Dogs And Relatives...

Besides trying to get out with the dogs as often as possible, since spring is coming fast, the big event so far this month was having some relatives here. Got a call from a cousin in California that I hadn't seen in maybe forty years, telling me that his wife and daughter, who I'd never met, were in town. So we called them and had lunch. Great people, wound up spending the afternoon with them, it's amazing how you just hit it off sometimes. They had come up to see the northern lights, I guess that's a thing now, but it was cloudy the whole time, so they missed out.

Here's the last five dog run, Jabba's really come into his own since running him in single lead.

So now running the new dog, "Big Boy", regularly. in a six dog team.  A good puller, he's a real animal.

Cuppa holder, a tale of two crimpers...

While I've owned many pickups over the years, none ever had a cup holder. Not a big deal, it's kind of an art to drive a standard shift in traffic while holding a full cup of steaming, hot coffee, Most of them were marked by occasional spills, so when we got the '96 Ford, I was disappointed it didn't have one. Figured it'd be easy to find one on line, but no, there didn't seem to be anything, so had to adapt a universal holder. The problem was that there's no flat spots on the dash to easily mount it. The holder came with sheet metal screws, but thought it'd be better to bolt it on. So finally decided to use the ash tray, since it has a reasonably flat front and could be pulled out to reach it. Thought it'd be easier to work on after removing the tray, but that proved difficult. When it finally came out, the wires to the lighter were apparently cracked and shorted out. No big deal, just splice 'em back together, I thought.
So after drilling and bolting on the holder, it was time to re-splice the wires. A while back I'd gotten an electrical kit that had lots of fittings and a crimping tool, so when it warmed up outside the other day, thought it'd be done in a flash. But after three failed tries at crimping the fittings to the wire, gave it up for the day. Then I remembered an old crimping tool that hadn't been used in years, I'd gotten it from the sale table at a parts store. So tried again today and it crimped everything first try. Almost inconceivable.

The high end crimping tool (top) failed miserably, while the bargain bin tool saved the day.

The cup holder deployed for use.

And folds up when not needed. Suh-weet!

February Weather Summary...

Here's the NWS summary for February for Fairbanks, AK...

Mean monthly  temperature for February was 2.6°F, which was 3.9°F above normal. The observed maximum temperature was 34°F on the 20th, while the minimum temperature was -33°F on the 1st. The total monthly precipitation was 1.5", which was 1.1" above normal.total  Snowfall totaled 23.4" for February. The greatest 24 hour total was 5.0" on the 26th. Snow depth was 32" on the 28th.

Chart from Alaska Climate Research Center