Snow, Rain, Repeat...

 A couple of weeks back we got almost a foot of snow. That was ok, cause we hadn't had too much up til then and we needed it. I was able to break out the sled trail and got the dogs out after a short cold spell ended. But then we got another dump, close to a foot of snow followed by a couple inches of rain.

This is what you'd look like if you chose to plow snow for maybe four hours during a rainstorm. Next time I'll wait until it stops. Now they're forecasting another storm event starting today with rain and snow. followed by sub-zero cold. I can't wait! Read about it here...

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/weather/2021/12/27/interior-alaska-storm-wreaks-havoc-as-highways-temporarily-close-and-thousands-remain-without-power/

Cold!...

Been down below zero F since last weekend, the highs, when we get one, have been in the mid twenties below and the lows near forty below. But the end appears to be in sight as the weather bureau is predicting near zero tomorrow.

Here's a pretty sad looking fellow taking a selfie when the temps, according to the frog, are thirty something below. That's cold enough to mostly keep me inside, except for feeding dogs and getting firewood. It's a good thing there's a lot cut and split, cause we're going trough it real fast at these temps. Been rebuilding an old pair of snowshoes I picked up last summer, so will post some pics when they get further along.

So here's the snowshoes, the one on the left just about finished, the other in the original condition. When I went to look at them, the seller was very apologetic, said  he hadn't realized that the green plastic had some severe cracking, so gave them to me for free. I thought it'd be easy to replace the bad part with some UHMW sled plastic, but didn't realize how hard it'd be to grind off the rivet heads that held it on. But now one's almost  done,  they'll both get new bindings, then just have to do the other. Should have'em ready by spring time!

Little Earl ...

Well Little Earl has grown into the dog yard in more ways than one. He plays with all the dogs, tho most of them would rather not, and he gets picked on by Mac, which he seems to enjoy. So any anxiety over moving into a new place is likely gone. His feet have gotten a lot bigger, so hopefully the rest of his body will follow along. As far as running him, he's doing just great in the team.

Had to make Earl a new harness, since I'd given away all the smaller ones except for one too small puppy harness. Fortunately there was enough scrap webbing and polar fleece to cobble together a harness that'd fit him. Even used  pieces of his old orange collar, which we had to cut off him cause it was too small, for part of the x-back. Pretty snazzy!

And it warmed up to twenty above F today after a couple weeks below zero, so that was pretty good too.

Random Stuff...

The temps have been below zero F since last week, so not much to do outside; it's even been too cold to run the dogs. Trying to get stuff done on the cabin, just finished sanding and varnishing one the interior log walls. Before it was so rough you couldn't run your hand over it without getting a splinter, now it's just a little uneven. One more wall to do and the original cabin's pretty much finished. Not bad for forty years!

After getting  a new sander, brush and some vanish, then just like that, the wall's done.

Went outside the other day to watch the lunar eclipse. They'd been making a big deal of it on the news and it was pretty cool to look at it with binoculars. Unfortunately, the door didn't latch when I went out and the cat pushed it open, then headed up the trail to the wood piles. Tried to get him back in, since it was fifteen below zero, but he ignored my calls and kept on trotting, staying just ahead of me. Finally cornered him at the farthest wood pile where the trail ends, I guess he didn't want to head off into the fresh snow even tho it's less than half a foot deep. Not exactly an arctic explorer, but he still struggled to get away, and was a handful to carry inside. Somehow I managed to twist my knee bringing him back down the trail in the dark, so now I have to deal with that. Next time I'm leaving him outside.

But the sunsets are pretty decent this time of year and you don't have to head out in the dark at midnight to see one. (Both photos by Andy)

My Name Is Earl...

Back in the "oughts", there was this TV comedy about a loser petty crook named Earl who tried to turn his life around by doing good deeds. He thought it'd  change his karma. Kind of stupid, I know, but it was funny and we watched the first few seasons before it got too stupid even for us. Well I had an issue that arose after a recent physical. When the prognosis improved, figured it was time for a change in karma. That's when I saw an ad for rehoming some sled dog pups. What's better than giving a dog a new home? So I called and found out that the pups were from a Yukon River village and were brought to town for rehoming. So I went over to the address I was given, but apparently no one was home. After waiting a bit, wandered around looking at the pups. They were all staked out on chains with their own dog houses and seemed pretty friendly. When the woman finally showed up, the first thing she said  was "did you see Earl?" I figured she meant one of the pups, so I said "sure, I've been looking them over," or words to that effect. That's when she pointed and said "no, he's over there." Then I saw someone at the far end of the dog yard, standing behind a dog hauler truck. So we went over to talk to him and I found out his name was Earl. He was the brother of a musher I'd met years ago who used to race the Yukon Quest. As we talked, he pointed out one pup and said he was out of his leader and his nephews lead dog, both proven racers. So these pups were bred from locally world famous sled dogs.

And that's how we wound up with Little Earl. When I told her the story, Andy said we just had to call him that. Now he's adjusting to life in a new dog yard, a long ways from his Yukon River home, but hopefully it'll  improve both our karma.

Whether the Weather...

Haven't blogged too much about the weather lately, the last one was Spring Has Sprung 4-22-21, so here are the latest summaries from the NWS...

Month Ave. Temp. Dep. High Low Precip. Dep. Apr 26.6 -5.9 65 -29 1.35 1.04 May 51.9 1.6 73 30 0.36 -0.18 Jun 63.1 2.1 84 45 1.06 -0.42 Jul 64.8 1.9 88 45 2.19 -0.08 Aug 56.8 -0.2 89 36 3.67 1.57 Sep 44.1 -1.7 75 17 0.37 -0.98 Oct 30.8 4.6 48 15 1.31 0.55 Average 0.3 0.2

Interesting that the extreme range of temperatures, from near thirty below to almost ninety above, occur during what are the more temperate months of the year. 

There's not a lot of differences, if you're just looking at the departures from average for the last few months. Is global warming a hoax? I suspect not, but when you're looking at a short periods of time, well your guess is as good as mine. Here's a pic of the wood cutting yard on Halloween with just a few inches of snow. You'd expect to see more snow at the end of Oct, most years, so go figure!

All Pumped Up...

 One of the projects that's been hanging around here for a while has been problems with the water pump. About a year or two back, it started to leak. As luck would have it, it happened right after I had surgery (All Fools Day 4/1/19). So there I was, crawling under the stairs trying to stop the leak when I was supposed to be taking it easy. Anyway, got the parts I needed, had to replace the entire float assembly, not just the leaky fitting, and then the pump wouldn't start/stop properly. So after replacing the pressure switch and assorted fittings, it seemed to be working again, but after awhile, it wouldn't. It'd either stop too soon or not at all. So it became a constant battle, adjusting the pressure switch every few days. Andy had a simpler solution, she'd just give it kick. So this summer we called a plumber. He called back a few weeks after we left a message and said he was too busy to come out here, but after I described the problem, he suggested just replacing the pump. Unfortunately, the pump he recommended was out of stock, so had to wait a couple of months to get one. Then when I got it home, saw that it'd be a real chore to connect, as all the fittings were different, requiring major changes to the copper piping, and also needed to do rewiring. So asked around and found another plumber who said he'd be available "in a few weeks." 

So first off, I had to do the wiring to connect the new pump. These are the tools it took just to change a switch to an electric socket and hook up a new light under the stairs. And Andy wonders why I have so many tools.

With the wiring done, it was time for the plumber, and as luck would have it, he was ready a week earlier than he said.

So here's the high tech, new age pump, all set up and ready to go. My main contribution was to build the "step stool" that the pump is sitting on. Took a shower tonight and it was pretty sweet, not having to worry about the pump randomly turning on/off the whole time. 

More Snow...

Another big storm hit this past weekend and when it finally ended, we had over half a foot of heavy, wet snow.

We had ample warning it was coming, so got most of our projects finished and stuff put away, at least as far as it ever gets done now.

The old sauna has become a storage shed and was stuffed full of firewood before the snow hit

After getting things back to normal, it was time to run dogs again. They like snow, they can cool off by laying  down after getting back in the yard. Thirty degree weather may seem cool to us, but these fuzzy guys are hot dogs after a run.
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Firsts...

Couple of firsts, the first dog run of the season..

And then the next day, the first snowfall. Well we did get a dusting earlier in the week, but it all melted immediately, so this is the first one that "stuck."

Just like fall, winter comes early up here. According to the weather bureau, this snowfall is about right on time for the normal first snow.

The storm that brought us the snow. The jet stream pushing a "pineapple express" into Canada, then curving westward to dump on Alaska. Areas to the east of us got a lot more snow, so we were lucky to only get a few inches.

Fall...

Fall has fell, as they say, and we've had one of the nicer ones in recent memory, sunny and warm for the most part. Been a great time to finish the summer projects and get out for a few bikes rides. Here's a few pics...

The max colors were likely yesterday. but didn't get this shot until today. Mounted the stump grinder on the tractor and ground up a few stumps to celebrate.

One of the sunny days last week. Took advantage of the nice weather to paint the side doors on one side of the garage green, Andy's favorite color, and curry, a dark yellow, on the other to match the trim. Amazing how much you get done in the fall, knowing winter's coming soon!

Took a couple of bike rides out towards the "park." Stopped at a new cafe on the way for coffee and a chocolate muffin, pretty darn good!

GOT-cha

 Maybe 15-20 years ago, we started to hear some people say gotcha whenever we said something. It was pretty annoying, but then it kind of disappeared. Now just this past week, I had a physical and both the nurse and Dr. said gotcha whenever I answered one of their questions. Is this the best thing you learned after all your years in med school, I wanted to ask, but kept it to myself. That got to me to thinking of the other gotcha, Game of Thrones. Now we had never seen it when it was first shown, we don't have cable. satellite, or direct TV here, but it sure seemed to suck a lot of people into it.  Then one day while perusing the internet, saw a DVD of the first season of GOT as it's often called, was on sale cheap. so couldn't pass it up. After watching it, well it's not that great, but the scenes with the so-called dire wolves were pretty good. While they're actually extinct, the "dire wolves" in the movie are a domestic breeding from England that combines Malemute, Greenland husky, and Siberians that are trained to act as wolves.  

The "dire wolves" from Game of Thrones. They looked kind of familiar.

That's when I realized, we had a "dire wolf" right here in Mac the wonder pup, tho he acts more like a dour wolf when he's being obstinate. He's our very own GOT-cha dog!

Fall Already...

 While it always seems a surprise here in August, fall often comes early to interior Alaska.

One of the earliest signs of fall, when the high bush cranberry turns bright red. The leaves look similar to the red maple in the lower 48.

But the birch are soon to follow. After two weeks of rain and cool weather, it's finally cleared off and sunny. Amazing weather when the sun shines!

Switched Guzzi

Besides rebuilding the carbs this winter, decided to replace the v65 handlebars. They were so low and narrow that they put a lot of weight on the wrists and forearms. As I got older, this became increasingly uncomfortable, I'd put old Triumph western style (cowhorn) bars on the 850 for this reason,  so looked for  somewhat higher and wider bars for 650. Found a set on the MG website, but they turned out not that much different, so they sat for a while before I decided to try them out. Unfortunately, the handlebar controls aren't easy to remove, so it took a lot of grunting to get them off, and as luck would have it, broke the turn signal switch. I went ahead and put it all back together and rode the bike a few times, but then decided to replace the switch. Since the switches aren't repairable, had to find a complete used switch console and harness on ebay, not easy for a thirty year old bike, but did find one and ordered it. This is what I got...

While the switch he sent looked the same, the wiring harness (a dozen wires) is almost a foot shorter, so had to reroute the bike's main harness, attached to the frame,  and then it was still a stretch to hook the two together. I was able to get it to work like that, but am trying to get the seller send me a longer one. Will see how that goes.

Update:  I got the replacement switch but it had wiring problems. So I was going to send it back, but no, maybe not, just got this email: "we don't take returns....these things are all 4 decades old....so best thing is to take the two you have and make something work." So it's back to work on it, no matter where yah go, there yah are!

It's all back together now and after some carb and throttle adjustments, runs like a top...so far.

Eavestroughs...

We had talked about taking the bikes out for a trip to the park (A Ride in the Park 7/8/16). but then the rains hit. Last week we got over an inch and yesterday, almost another. This reminded me that the gutters, or eavestroughs, as I was once told: "gutters run next to the street, it's eavestroughs that are fixed to the roof," needed repairs. So on the next sunny day, we got out the extension ladders to fix the "eavestroughs."

While we originally had wooden gutters, they didn't like the winter's ice and snow load, so eventually replaced them with plastic. While the gutters hold up reasonably well. the support brackets are the weak spot and often fail when the snow and ice cascades off the roof in the spring. It's always a bit of a chore to replace them.

Andy volunteered to clean out the down spouts after all the repairs were finished. It takes a real knack to disassemble and clean the down spout while hanging off the top of the ladder.

Ninety Footers...

When the line crews came through last summer and dropped the trees, they commented on the bigger ones, the "ninety footers" as they called them. I didn't think too much about it at the time, but now I realize how much work it takes to buck up, haul in and split the wood from a tree that big.

The chain saw has just an 18" blade and the tree's over two feet thick, so it takes some manipulation with the saw to get it bucked up.

The bucket on the tractor is six feet wide, but only two feet high, so it's hard to get in a decent load of logs.

Finally it's almost all stacked up; another load or two and we'll get'er done!

One Trick Pony...

Tamarac was left at the local shelter (dog pound) with some of his litter mates. By the time I went to check them out, all the rest had been adopted. Since they had said he was shy, I stopped at the local Freddies (Kroger store) and picked up a box of dog biscuits, then put some in  my pocket before I went to see him. While he did seem shy, he readily took a biscuit from me, so I figured, well how shy could he be? So we adopted him. Then I found how shy he could be. After two years, he still won't come to me when I call him and he freaks out whenever I move too fast near him. But he did learn to give paw! We teach the dogs to sit and give paw so it's easy to put on their harness when getting ready to hook up for a sled run. Tambo, as he's called now, is a star with his paw.

Whenever he's feeling friendly, he'll come up to me, as long as I'm sitting down, sit next to me and give me a paw. Then the other one.

He'll just keep doing that until he get's a dog biscuit, then go off on his way. He won't come back to me when I call him, but when he wants another biscuit, well then he's a one trick pony.

Thermidor!

The French once had their own names for the months and July was Thermidor (The end of Thermidor 7/31/14). It means heat, I guess, and it sure has been hot. Not as warm as in Canada, the official temp at the airport here was 87° (that'd be 30° C to the French), but it was up over a hundred in the sun.

The garden's doing great in Andy's capable hands, tho it'd sure be nice to get some rain.

The birch that's being split now has a wicked twist to the grain, so not only does it hang up and not split cleanly, it'll sometimes twist sideways when splitting and one time even knocked over the wheel barrow. Too much fun!

Dog Daze 2...

 Went into town the other day to run some errands, then meet my friend Bill for coffee. We do this most every month and it gives us a chance to swap stories and catch up on news. As is usual, the conversation turned to dogs and I mentioned the sled dog pup we got last year had grown into a serious hulk. He wanted to see a picture, so when I got home, we let the dogs off for their free run and then Andy tried to take a photo with her i-phone. Well that didn't work so well, they all thought it was a new treat and tried to eat it. So I sat down on the grass and started playing with a few of them, then called Mac over for the photo. Here's the results...

I keep a bunch of biscuits in the jacket pouch to keep them motivated to stick around and come when called.  Mac was determined to get into it and have some.

When he finally gave up on the biscuits, he decided the next best thing was to lick my face, so then I had to deal with that.

So while Mac kept me occupied, Tamarac (aka Tambo Rambo) snuck around the other side and made his move on the biscuits. Pretty funny how a few dog biscuits can command so much attention.

Dog Daze...

It's been up in the 80's the last few days and it's way too hot for the dogs.

 Mostly been hauling the wood in from the trees cut along the power line and splitting them.

Been trying to split at least two wheel barrow loads a day but with the warm weather, it's hard to keep motivated. We're also getting some forest fires in the area, so cooler, wetter weather would be nice!

Clearing Things Up...

Last summer the power line crew came through and dropped a dozen or more trees along our property (All Spruced Up 5/22/20). While I got a few of the bigger trees cut up and split last summer, there's still a bunch left. But first we had to clear all the brush piles that the line crews left. 

Here's Andy clearing the brush from the downed tress. While the line crews cleaned off some of the branches, there's still a lot left to clip off with the lopers, then stack out of the way The logs in front are cleaned up and ready to cut to length and then be hauled up to the splitter.

While the logs will be split for firewood, the branches are ground up in the chipper and used for mulch. We got the chipper years ago and while it isn't used often, it sure comes in handy when you need it.

Bikin' Again...

The last few years were hard on the Guzzis, first the 650 swallowed all the gas, then the 850 had electrical issues. So after putting off any meaningful work, except for ordering parts, finally got'em back together.

After replacing the ignition switch last fall, the generator light stayed on, so figured it was the voltage regulator. By the time the order arrived, the weather had turned to crap, so it sat all winter. But a rare burst of energy last week had it installed and back on the road. Still runs like a top.

The 650 gas taps had leaked fuel down into the engine and filled the sump. Replaced the taps last year, but then decided to rebuild the carbs. Finished them this spring, then replaced the air cleaners, fuel lines, and filters. Should hav'er on the road soon. Will then have two running bikes again, hard to believe!

Shear Blading and Thermokarst...

Here's your science lesson for today... 

About fifteen years ago, in the early to mid-aughts, there were a lot of forest firses around here. The local government, in it's infinite wisdom, decided to clear large areas of black spruce for fire breaks. This was done by shear blading. Shear-blading involves the use of a track dozer with a blade that shears the trees off at ground level during the winter months when the ground is frozen. The blade is supposed to float along the ground surface leaving the vegetative mat largely undisturbed. 

When clearing a series of fire breaks in the Smallwood Creek valley behind our place, the dozer operator apparently got lost and followed our dog trail, widening and clearing the trail as he went.

The trail after shear blading. The large mounds on the left are the vegetative mat that was stripped off, rolled up, and pushed off to one side. The Ski Doo is parked on the other side on the original trail.

 The state's contractor attempting to remediate the damaged trail with a "mini-excavator." Had they paid more attention to what they were doing and done the shear blading properly, none of this would have been necessary.

One of the gullies that formed out in the valley after shear blading. It's maybe 20-30 feet wide, up to 10 feet deep,  and extends for the length of the cleared area. It can be a challenge to cross with a dog team or even a snow machine.

One of the usual results of surface disturbance to permafrost soils is thermokarst. Karst is a term that's usually applied to limestone sinkholes, but up here it's used to describe the consequences of permafrost degradation. This is evidenced by dips, hollows or gullies produced by the melting of ground ice and subsequent subsidence of the ground surface. A year or so after the clearing,  forgot when, a pond began to form next to the trail right where the Ski Doo was parked in the first photo. Since numerous ponds and gullies were forming out in the valley where the clearing was also done, we were concerned that the erosion would get worse, maybe even making the trail un-runnable. While the state's contractor had attempted to reclaim the damage, we've been keeping an eye on it, even covering the pond with moss and leaves in the spring to keep it frozen longer into the summer.

So we hiked out there yesterday to check it out, we hadn't seen the pond unfrozen or without snow cover in quite a while. Surprisingly, it's apparently revegetated and stabilized, now it's just a little "tundra pond."  Hopefully it'll stay that way!