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 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. I'm trying to combine two styles into one, a new improved model, that will let Mackey run like the wind!

Rave On...

Back in the day, Buddy Holly was a huge rock star, almost as big as Elvis, and his group, the Crickets were pretty good too. He died in a plane crash and was immortalized in the song: The Day the Music Died. My favorite tune of his, Rave On, was a big hit back then.  It comes to mind now that we have the ravens hanging around again. This happens almost every time we pass out bones to the dogs. No matter that they never seem to be here otherwise, they somehow figure out there's free lunch for the taking. So one raven will get the dogs attention while another tries to sneak into the yard. Here's a short video...

Andy shot this on her iPhone through the window, so not the best video, but the interesting thing is how the ravens work together. One, on the lower left, gets the dogs attention, while the other, on the right, sneaks into the yard to steal a bone. Apparently they eat the marrow out of the center of the bone that the dogs can't get out. One year we found a pile of bones under a power pole where the ravens had apparently dropped them after stealing them from the dogs. Pretty clever, it makes you wonder how smart the dinosaurs were, since the birds are their descendants. Rave on little dinos!

Running Dogs Again...

A little later than usual, normally start mid-October, but finally got the dogs out for a couple of 4-wheeler runs. The trail around the subdivision and along the Hot Springs road was pretty rough thanks to the snowpocalypse last month. It was icy on the roads and soft in places next to the highway and power line, even after running over it with the SkiDoo, but the dogs still ran well.

Back in the yard after the first dog run this winter. Gus in lead did his usual good job. Hope to have many more, especially when there's enough snow to switch to the sled!

Visiting All Hollows Eve...

Not sure if I ever blogged about this before, but here's what Wikipedia has to say:  "Halloween, Hallowe'en, less commonly as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve, is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It is at the beginning of the observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed. In popular culture, the day has become a celebration of horror, being associated with the macabre and supernatural. One theory holds that many Halloween traditions were influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which are believed to have pagan roots. Some go further and suggest that Samhain may have been Christianized as All Hallow's Day, along with its eve, by the early Church. Other academics believe Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, being the vigil of All Hallow's Day. Celebrated in Scotland and Ireland for centuries, Scottish and Irish immigrants took many Halloween customs to North America in the 19th century, and then through American influence various Halloween customs spread to other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century."

So all the former reverence for saints and martyrs is now an opportunity to sell cheap plastic decorations, bizarre costumes, and scam your neighbors for free candy. That likely fits in with most American holidays. Saw on a cycle blog that they even sell plastic ghouls riding fake motorcycles. 

Now that's not a very scary image, but this might be:

Could be me heading home on the Hot Springs Road after a late night ride.

Then there's the politicians costumes; tRump dressing up as a McDonalds worker, dispensing fries to fake customers or a garbage man, riding in a way too clean truck.

Apparently he was barely able to climb up into the cab. Of course the garbage wasn't in the back of the truck, it's what he says in his rally speeches. As for Kamala, she seems to be wearing a lot of pants suits lately, but that outfit didn't work out so well for Hillary, did it? Maybe she needs to adopt a more low-key, Tim Walz farmer-style garb?

Anyway, the real trick or treat will come on election day when all this political hype finally ends and we can either celebrate or drown our sorrows in a few too many vodkas.

Storm of the Century, Part ?

 In the last ten years or so, we've had at least three storms that seemed to qualify as a "storm of the century." Wind, lot's of snow and rain alternating with near freezing temps; so now it looks like we've got another one.

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Fairbanks AK   140 PM AKDT Mon Oct 21 2024.  

Fairbanks Metro Area-Nenana-Including Eielson AFB, Salcha, Moose Creek, Harding Lake, Two Rivers, Chena Hot Springs Road from MP 12 to MP 34, Fairbanks, Fort Wainwright, Ester, North Pole, Fox, Nenana, and The Parks Highway from MP 290 to 325.            

WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 PM TUESDAY...

* WHAT...Heavy snowfall is expected. Additional snow accumulations of 5 to 10 inches possible. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph.

* WHERE...Fairbanks Metro Area and Middle Tanana Valley.

* WHEN...Until 4 PM AKDT Tuesday.

* IMPACTS...Travel could be very difficult to impossible.

Here's the culprit...

Here's what it looked like this afternoon...

Half a foot of snow fell overnight followed by rain all afternoon.

Looks like lot's of shoveling and plowing tomorrow.

Last Bike Ride...

 With the past week of fifty degree weather, at least in the afternoons, this week was decent bike riding weather, so was able to get out twice..

Autumn is pretty much over, the leaves have lost their color and are mostly gone. But at least the low angle sun provides a little warmth and some interesting shadows.

With the forecast for mixed rain and snow with temps in the mid to upper thirties, I suspect this past week may have been the last rides of the season.

Dog Runs on the First Frost

Had our first frost this morning, about two weeks later that average. Not sure it means anything about climate change, since we've had late frosts before, but we kept a few plants growing under visqueen a bit longer than usual. Now it's all that's left of another great garden. 

This is perfect weather to let the dogs run around. They've been getting over heated or soaking wet most of the summer, since it was either too hot or raining. Now they get to run to their hearts content.

Or just get a few pets.

But playing dog down is their favorite pastime.

Fall Colors...

Trying to get out and enjoy the fall colors on the rare days it's not raining. Here's a few pics...

The drive way is shrouded in gold on one of  the few sunny days we've had lately.

Meanwhile Andy's been working to harvest the garden.

Lot's o' potatoes...

Autumn always is a bittersweet time to enjoy the fall colors and cooler temps, while knowing that sooner or later, the snow and freezing weather of winter will be here.

Roofers!...

 No, not the knockout drug dispensers, these guys are here to get a roof on. The old roof dates back to the late 70s when we built the cabin. We did all the work ourselves on the original cabin, but time and weather had taken its toll, on all. We tried to get something done last summer, but couldn't connect with any roofing contractors. This time a friend suggested I talk to one of the roofing suppliers in town and they gave me a list of three names. The third one on the list had the lowest bid and turned out to be a great guy to work with. We also decided to replace the fiberglass insulation with insulfoam to increase the insulation and make it easier to heat the house. He knew a contractor that did spray foaming and would coordinate the work with him. So after several rain delays, they got to work on it.

First they had to remove the old roofing and insulation, then spray the insulfoam. I bagged up as much of the old insulation as would fit in the garage loft and will use it to insulate the loft.

Then the roofers laid down the new steel panels. Pretty amazing to watch these thirty something guys scurry around on the roof. Brings back memories of when we installed the original roof back in the day.

Now they're installing snow guards, to keep the snow avalanching off in the spring, and a roof ladder for cleaning the stove pipe. Pretty neat stuff.

Third Rail...

Back when I was a kid, my mom would take me downtown on the "El" train. I still remember standing on the station waiting for the train while she'd lecture me about the dangers involved: don't run for the train until it's stopped, stay in your seat, and don't ever touch the third rail. Now I hadn't ridden the El in years until the last time we flew into Chicago. Now they have an El train that takes you to the various parking areas scattered around O'Hare airport. Amazing!

 Anyway, while I've been recuperating from the shoulder surgery, been trying to find low impact things to work on. One thing I noticed is that when we first put in both stairs, then rebuilt them a few years ago, there was only one railing installed, on the side away from the wall. That's no problem when you've got two good arms, but now with just one, figured it'd be a good time to add that third railing. So after a lot of measuring and searching for suitable lumber in the garage loft, got started on the new railings.

Having the loft log in the way made it interesting trying to line up the two parts of the railing, but it's likely no one's gonna notice it except me. The angle of the railings doesn't quite match the stairs, since we replaced the runners a while back to make the stairs less steep. The old railing was built into the wall, so couldn't easily change it to match the new stairs.

Dog Days of July...

After a warm June with maybe a dozen days around 80° F, July started off cool and rainy, but the last five days have been over 80°. While it's uncomfortable for us, the dogs are ones who suffer the most.

The dog yard looks dead during the afternoon on these hot days. At least they've figured how to stay in the shade, moving around with the shifting shadows.  They still enjoy their time off for their free run in the yard. We bring out a couple of buckets of water, so they have plenty to drink. Rudy aka the meathead has figured out a better way to cool off.

While the others drink, he dunks his whole head in the bucket, cooling off while looking like a moose diving for a snack.

R & R...

 Since getting the shoulder surgery, I haven't done much except hang around the house, rest and recuperation, as they say, just taking it easy. The pain is mostly gone, just some soreness when I move it too far. So when I went to physical therapy this week, of course Jeff, the therapist, has me moving the arm in all ways it hurts. I think PT really stands for Physical Torture. When we went to the Dr, the nurse checked me over, then pulled up the x-ray and went out to get him. So Andy took a photo of it with her iphone while we were waiting.

Pretty weird to think all that hardware's inside my shoulder now. The doc said it's healing fine and I should be good to go in 4 to 6 weeks.

Anyway, with little to do for the next few weeks, I can just hang out and watch the corn grow in the garden. It's doing great after all the hard work Andy's done with it.

Probably can do some "low impact activity" that won't affect the healing shoulder; maybe even weeding the garden, left handed of course!

Gettin' the Cold Shoulder...

 Mentioned before about how my right shoulder's got the dreaded bone-on-bone arthritis and the failed attempts to get it fixed (April No Fool 4/2/24). So now I finally got'er done. It's been three days and the pain's let up considerably, can even type with the right hand, tho the left takes care of most of the rest of the chores. Been icing it down several times a day; puts new meaning on gettin' the cold shoulder. So now I'm hoping it heals fast enough to get back to doing summer stuff, like riding the Guzzi, before the snow flies. Read about it here...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_shoulder_replacement

Gettin' a Grip...

 After finishing welding up the snow blade, I realized there were a lot of vise grips pliers. So I dug around in the garage, the basement, and upstairs and this is what was there...

Apparently they're all Vise-Grip brand, except the second from the top and bottom, which are Craftsman. Since I always bought the original vise grips, not sure where the one near the bottom came from, maybe out of my dad's toolbox after he died. The smaller one near the top was found on the side of the highway when I was driving the tractor over to a neighbors. Then I remembered there were a couple more...

The top one's for bending sheet metal while is bottom's mainly for welding. It didn't get used this time cause it wouldn't work setting the wings at an odd angle to the snow blade. 

According to Wikipedia, "The first locking pliers, with the trade name Vise-Grip, were invented by William S. Petersen in De Witt, Nebraska, United States in 1924; the brand name Vise-Grips is close to a generic name for this type of pliers. Locking pliers are available with many different jaw styles, such as needle-nose pliers, wrenches, clamps and various shapes to fix metal parts for welding."

So there you go, you can't have too many vise grips when it's time to weld!

Gettin' the Angles...

After mounting the old plow on my new, for me anyway, 4-wheeler, the resulting plow job was less than spectacular (Solstice Stuff 12/23/20). Most of the snow falls off the sides of the blade, so figured it needed some side boards to keep the load intact. A while later, maybe a couple of years ago, made some angle wings out of a piece of steel that had been cut from an old barrel we had used for making a stove.

Finally got around to welding them onto the blade. Since we couldn't find the magnetic welding forms that Andy bought me years ago, had to finagle some way to hold the metal wings on an angle to spot weld them to the blade. Who says you can't have too many vise grips?

Jack Black...

Not much new to report, mostly been splitting and stacking wood for next winter. The wall o' wood slowly disappears as well as a few spruce and birch logs got bucked up and split, adding to the stacks of firewood. But Andy's been getting some random shots of Jack Black, so thought I'd add them to the post. 

Here he is sleeping in the loader bucket. He never had much to do with the tractor before, but now he seems right at home.

Here he is inverted on the floor. Like Ruty before him, upside down is the way to go.

And finally on the bench by the back door. Not sure if he hangs out here to keep an eye on things or it's just another place to sleep. I suspect it's the latter.

Whippet 2...

Well I figured the whippet comparison for Earl was just a joke, cause what's the chance he'd be part whippet. But then I got to reading more about mixed breed huskies and saw there's the eurohound.

Bred from a cross of German short hair pointer, greyhound, and husky, they've come to dominate sprint dog racing. so maybe that's Earl's breed. Here's a few pic's from today's run.

Here's Earl running with Gus. The difference in their gait is pretty amazing.

Whatever his breed, Earl's a pretty good dog. So no matter what, he's our o' hound.

.

If You Can't Beat It, Whippet...

 When we first got Earl as a pup (My Name Is Earl...11/17/21), we didn't know much about him except he was bred out of some racing sled dogs from one of the upper Yukon River villages. As he grew older, he got a lot longer and leggy, but his head stayed kind of small  We joked about how he looked like a whippet. So I finally got around to seeing what exactly was the Whippet breed. Here's what google had to say...

The whippet is a hound breed developed in mid-19th-century England to chase rabbits for sport in an arena. The breed was developed from terriers and small English greyhounds; Italian greyhounds were later bred in to give the whippet a sleek appearance.

They are the fastest dog of their weight, capable of achieving speeds of up to 35 mph, due to their ability to run in a double suspension gallop. This gait results in four of the dog's legs being off the ground twice in each stride, once when the legs are completely extended and again when they are tucked under the body.

The whippet at full gallop, they sure can move!

So today when we let the dogs off for their free run, Andy took some pictures of Earl running. 

We knew Earl likely was the fastest dog in our team, but it looks like he runs just like a whippet; never knew we had such an exotic animal. Makes me wish I'd taken one more out of his litter, but then I'd have to move into the dog yard too!

This is spring?

 Last week I finished splitting the wood I'd hauled down from the ridge top in April and was ready to move on to the logs that were stacked up last fall.

Andy had taken this photo a few days ago and labeled it "wall o' logs." But before I could get to it, nature intervened...

Woke up in the morning to this, a spring snow storm. It snowed until mid-afternoon and we got an inch or more of wet, sloppy snow. So spent most of the day doing odd jobs inside the house. Kind of ironic cause the weather bureau proclaimed Saturday as "green-up day" so maybe today was "whitewash day."

Signs of Spring...

 With the warm weather starting in March this year, it shouldn't be surprising that the snow has disappeared so fast. Just last week I started to clear the snow cover from the upper dog yard.

Now the dogs are all moved out of the sloppy snow and mud of the winter sled yard into a much drier spot for the summer.

Last week we were still hauling birch logs from the ridge top with the Skidoo.

Now we're starting to split and stack the split firewood to get it drying out.

And the mosquitoes are already out in force; not all the signs of spring are welcome!

End of the Trail...

For this year anyway, the dog runs are over. Hard to believe that last year we ran until late April (Last Dog Run?  4/19/23). This year we had our last outing on March 20, just after the vernal equinox. I took the Ski Doo out last week to check the trails. The warm spell in late March, 40-50° F,  had taken its toll. Besides the icy trail, bare spots, exposed roots and alder stubs. there was extensive overflow (aufeis) at the creek crossing.

The pond at the creek crossing is filling with overflow, flooding the trail.

All that's left to do is put away the sledding gear.

The sleds are hauled up to the shed and hung, upside down, under the overhang in back. Then we'll be hauling in a few loads of logs to buck up and split for firewood.

There's plenty of trees down along the trail, the problem is finding ones that are still good for firewood and not buried in snow or frozen to the ground. Once you find a few good down trees, it's just a bunch of grunt work to buck'em up, load the sled, haul'em back, and stack the logs. Once there's a decent pile of to logs to split, it'll be time to hook up the splitter to the tractor. Too much fun!

April No Fool...

 There should be a day after April 1, all fools day, when there's no fools; maybe it should be today. I went to to the Dr. for my bum shoulder, the fifth different one. Even tho I said what I thought I needed when I made the appointment, the Dr said he couldn't do the procedure. Then he referred me to another Dr. So who's the fool? 

Here's a pic of the instrument of destruction that took off the tip of my thumb the other day.

Given the amount of safety warnings they put on tools today, you'd think they'd put a warning on these things. BTW, my thumb's healed up fine, so maybe it's better to be lucky than smart!