Breakup...

After the last dog run, it's time to haul in firewood. While some years it's a fairly leisurely job. this year was a race to haul wood before the trails were too soft.

Cut down a bunch of standing dead spruce next to the dog trail. With the snow near 3 ft deep. had to snowshoe to chain saw the trees. Wanted to get them last year when there was less snow, but the trail melted out too soon.

Not a huge load of firewood but had to hurry to get it home before the trail got too soft in the near fifty degree weather.

Jack Black likes this weather just fine, now he can sit on the water tank, get an occasional drink, and keep an eye on everything.

Scraping off the upper dog yard before the mud arrives, then we'll move the dogs here when it starts to dry out. The Russians have a name for this time, Rasputitsa, the season of mud. Up here we just call it breakup, the shloppy time between winter and spring.

Last Dog Run?

The forecast for the coming week is temps in the forties and mixed rain and snow, so maybe yesterday's run will end the season. Here's a few pics, no real story, just another dog run.

Heading down the trail, it was a beautiful day to run dogs.

Taking a break after the turn for home.

Heading up to the ridge and the climb back to the dog yard. Here's where I get to work, kicking (pedaling) along side the sled, encouraging them with an occasional "let's go boys, almost there!" Sometimes I throw in "and girl" so Missy doesn't feel left out, but she never seems to notice. Not sure if it helps, but keeps me busy and warms me up on the cold days.

April's fool...

Well April's here and it finally quit snowing... it turned to rain today! But was able to get out yesterday with the dogs before the rain started, so that's something I guess. I'll just keep running them until the weather finally gets too warm, so maybe that makes me the fool?

The pond near the creek crossing has started to fill with overflow, a sure sign of spring.

Here's the weather summary for March. The average temperature for the month was 8.8° which was 2.6° below normal. The high was 38° on the 26th while the low was -41° on the 5th. Total precipitation was 1.6" which was 1.3" above normal. Snowfall totaled 27.5" and the end of the month depth was 32". Updated summary with the UAF GI climate chart.