Seasonally Affected Cats?

As I mentioned earlier (Winters a' comin' 10/1/14), the first snows of the year always seem to confuse and disappoint the cats. While they somewhat tolerate the colder weather, they don't like the snow and unhappily spend increasing amounts of time indoors. Now it would appear there's another reason for their misery: Seasonal Affective Disorder in Cats. "Cats, perhaps more so than people, are sensitive to changes in light. Less light in the winter may cause a decrease in natural brain chemicals, like serotonin, that increase mood. One of the most notable symptoms of seasonal affective disorder is wanting to sleep all the time. Cats may overeat during the winter months. This can lead to unhealthy weight gain, so may need encouragement to get off the couch and be active." (http://www.ehow.com/about_5369713_seasonal-affective-disorder-cats.html). While they certainly overeat in the winter, they do pretty good job of it year round. Ruty's idea of exercise is to go from the couch to his food bowl, then to the litter box, and finally back to the couch. Repeat as needed. But they have adapted to the cold quite well, sharing the old couch dowstairs next to the monitor heater.

Although Ruty often prefers lounging in front of the woodstove when there's a good hot fire going.

Climate change?

Shortly after the last post (Winter's a' comin'10/1/14), the climate summary for Alaska came out. Not surprisingly, the average temperatures for September, like August, were well above normal statewide (http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/node/710).
What was surprising was an article that came out a little later: September Was Warmest on Record, NASA Data Show. "Like August before it, September 2014 was the warmest September on record, according to newly updated NASA data. The warm month makes it even more likely that 2014 will become the warmest year on record. Ocean temperatures have played a large role in 2014’s warmth, including the warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean that have accompanied an emerging El Niño, Kevin Trenberth, a climatologist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told Climate Central in an email. The ocean is where some 90 percent of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases is stored." (http://www.climatecentral.org/news/september-2014-warmest-on-record-18172). Proof of global warming?
Hold on. Here's another view: Why is the Northwest U.S. warming? Natural variations or mankind's greenhouse gases? "Originally there was a lot of talk (last spring) of the potential for a Super El Nino, with some of the global warming "advocate" sites talking about its effects on the global temperature record. El Ninos (ENSO) are associated with warmer than normal water in the tropical Pacific and that such anomalies can influence Northwest weather (less storms, warmer, less snow). However, the sea surface temperatures in the critical central Pacific is only modestly warmer than normal and the atmospheric circulation has not reacted in a way to reinforce the warming and push us towards a moderate or stronger El Nino. So we should not expect much more than a marginal El Nino during the upcoming fall and early winter months. And amplitude matters. Weak El Ninos have lesser impacts. The correlation of our weather with El Nino is not perfect to start with. And for weak El Nino years the relationship weakens further. But for weak El Nino years, the precipitation patterns are all over the place. The latest NWS Climate Forecast System forecasts for December-January-February is for warmer than average over much of the U.S. But there is another type of natural variability that has a huge impact on the weather/climate of the Pacific basin. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) has a period of around 50 years, oscillating between warm and cold cycles. It was in a cool cycle between roughly 1950 and 1977, then a warm cycle until around 2005, and more recently looks to be in a cooler cycle. If you compare the variations of the PDO with the Northwest temperatures, it is very obvious that the variations of NW temps seems to closely follow the PDO changes, suggesting our temperatures are highly controlled by this mode of natural variability. Thus, when some local scientists say that the temperature changes experienced here in the Northwest are mainly due to greenhouse gas emissions they are certainly incorrect. We live in an area where the greenhouse gas signal is small and where natural variability (as forced by the PDO and ENSO) are quite large (and there are other modes of natural variability)." (http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/).
 So who's right? Perhaps a better indicator of climate change are systems that respond to longer term cycles, like ice caps and glaciers. Two articles that point towards longer climate change are: Strong Temperature Increase and Shrinking Sea Ice in Arctic Alaska, which discusses recent temperature rises and loss of sea ice cover in the Arctic ocean (http://climate.gi.alaska.edu). Are glaciers growing or retreating? "Globally, glaciers are losing ice at an extensive rate. There are still situations in which glaciers gain or lose ice more than typical for one region or another but the long term trends are all the same, and about 90% of glaciers are shrinking worldwide." (http://www.skepticalscience.com/himalayan-glaciers-growing.htm). So what's the answer? No matter how much data will point to a particular outcome, some skeptics will confound the issues by only picking individual anomalies or by ignoring long term trends. These diversions do not address the most important question: what is the real state of global climate change?  Politicians are the worst, often choosing a position solely to gain support from their base. And in election years, the climate change clown show will only escalate.

Winters a' comin'...

It never ceases to amaze me how fast it changes from summer to winter up here. Blink twice and you miss fall. After a pleasantly warm September, October starts with snow on the ground. Here's the weather services September summary (www.arh.noaa.gov): "September 2014 started off wet and cool for the first week and then transitioned to warm and dry conditions for the second and third weeks. The last week of the month turned cool with rain and snow showers. The average high temperature at the Fairbanks airport was 57.2 degrees which was 2.6 degrees above the normal high temperature of 54.4 degrees. The average low temperature was 35.5 degrees which was 0.4 degrees above the normal low temperature of 35.1 degrees. The average temperature for September 2014 was 46.4 degrees which was 1.5 degrees above the normal average temperature for September of 44.9 degrees. the average temperature for September 2014 ranked as the 35th warmest of 109 years of record. The warmest temperature recorded at the Fairbanks airport in September 2014 was 76 degrees on the 14th of September. not only was this a daily record high temperature but there has only been one other day in the climate record in Fairbanks that the temperature has been warmer than 76 degrees on a date later than the 14th of September. In 1995 the temperature reached 78 degrees on the 21st during a record breaking Chinook event. The coldest temperature recorded at the Fairbanks airport in September 2014 was 24 degrees which occurred on the 28th. The first snow of the season fell on the 23rd which is a couple days later than the average first snow fall in Fairbanks. 2.89 inches of precip fell during the month of September and was 1.79 inches above the normal precip of 1.10 inches. September was the 4th consecutive month with above normal precipitation and ranked as the 4th wettest September of 101 years of record. 1.43 inches of rain fell on the 1st which was a new daily rain fall record for that day. 0.3 inches of snow fell at the airport during the month of September which was 1.5 inches below the normal snowfall of 1.8 inches. This ranks as the 37th snowiest of 101 years of record." Probably more weather information than you need, so here's some pictures of the latest snowfall. While the dogs appear to love the snow, the cat's are kind of confused. Every morning they sit at the back door waiting to be let out, but when you open the door, they just stare at the snow and look at you like "where'd that come from?" Then go back inside. Pretty funny.

I got rhythm....

When I was getting discharged from the hospital in Seattle (Summer vacation? 6/30/14), they found an irregular pulse, so did some tests and figured out it was AFib (atrial fibrillation). They thought it was a temporary reaction to the anesthesia and would go away, but it didn't. After seeing a cardiologist in Fairbanks, he recommended ablation therapy, where they normalize (tune up) the heart to eliminate the irregular nerve impulses that cause AFib.  Since it wasn't available here, we had to go to Anchorage, where they did the procedure this past week. Apparently, it was successful. We won't know for a while yet, since it occasionally returns, but for now I got my rhythm back.

More on AFib at:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/atrial-fibrillation/multimedia/img-20096441

(You'll have to copy and paste into your browser.)

Fall rides...

The past two weeks have been near perfect weather. Sunny for the most part and 60-70° F; quite a contrast to the cool, rainy summer (The end of Thermidor 7/31/14). Between the hip problems (Summer vacation 6/30/14) and the rain, I'd hardly ridden the bikes since last year.  It didn't seem worth the trouble, given that it literally was a major pain in the butt when I tried to ride the bike in May. But with this recent warm spell. I figured I'd better get to it or miss a whole season of riding. Each time I went out, it felt better, until it seemed like there'd never been a problem. The rides were comparatively short, maybe twenty miles or so, but the colors were near perfect (Leaves a' turnin' 9/15/14). I finally remembered to take the camera when I went  down to the Chena River.

The colors were past their prime by then, but you get a great panorama of the valley and hills north of town as you ride across the flats. But now it's cooled off, the leaves are down, and the rains have returned. Looks like this could have been the last ride of the year.

Leaves a' turnin...

The fall colors were out this past weekend as the temperatures rose to record levels, thanks to a strong low in the gulf creating Chinook winds. The color change this year is a sharp contrast to last fall when the leaves didn't change until early Oct (Autumn leaves... 10/5/13). What was especially noticeable this year was the early arrival of brown to some of the hillsides. This was likely due to an infestation of moth larvae on the birch trees.

According to the local news-minus (newsminer.com): "There has been an outbreak in Fairbanks of the amber-marked birch leaf miner (Profenusa thomsoni), an insect that came to North America in the early 1900s and arrived in Fairbanks by about 2002. Leaf miners overwinter in the ground as pupae and emerge as adults in the spring. The adults lay eggs at the tips of young birch leaves. The eggs hatch into larvae (small caterpillars) that eat the insides of the leaves, leaving yellow areas scattered with worm nuggets. After a few weeks, the larvae fall to the ground and pupate. The leaves that were mined then turn brown."
Their source:  http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r10/forestgrasslandhealth/?cid=fsbdev2_038906

What's interesting is that in the past few years, the aspen trees had suffered from a similar infestation and turned a pale shade of yellow well before the birch. This year the aspen apparently were unaffected and exhibited the more vibrant colors.

Back on the dozer...

After several year's hiatus, went back out to Nome Creek to drive the dozer (Dozin' off again 8/9/10).  Rather than dealing with the existing tailing piles, this was an area where contractors had removed tailings for road reconstruction. In doing so, they had excavated below the water level of the creek, so that whenever it flooded, the creek would flow into the area and erode new channels. The problem was how to consolidate all the flow into a single channel without sufficient material to build up the new stream banks. As usual, you have to make a mess to fix a mess. Excavated a new channel and some ponds to create material for the stream banks and then spent a lot of time landscaping the area to make the new banks and floodplain. But in the end, the creek was back into a single channel, hopefully for a good while...or at least until the next big flood.
Looking downstream at the eroded channel:

A view from the cab after realignment:

Floored Again...

When I started the garage addition (In Addition, 9/18/13), I didn't really have any plans, just scribbled some numbers on the back of an envelope to estimate the lumber. As for the floor,  I figured on leaving it gravel. Well that left a lot to be desired, so decided to put in a real floor. My neighbor Butch  mentioned how he had laid all weather plywood on top of gravel in his rental garage, so that seemed like a way to go.
 First had to dig out some of the gravel to lay out the floor joists:

Then backfilled and compacted gravel to the top of the joists:

Finally laid out the plywood and screwed 'em down for life:

Suh-weet!

The End of Thermidor

I'd always thought that the names of the calendar months were kind of odd since they had so little to do with the seasons. So the other day I read that July was called Thermidor in the old French revolutionary calendar. I figured that unlike the metric system, the French actually had a good idea for once. While their calendar never caught on, the name, which means heat in Greek, is a great name for July, since on the average, it's the hottest month of the year in interior Alaska.
Except this year, not so much. Unlike last summer when we set the record for the most days above 80°F, this summer has been cool and rainy. We set a record for the most rain in June and July, so far, is second on on the list. So now it's the end of a very unThermidor-like July and we're hoping for a warm, dry August.

Vote No on 1?

The commercial airwaves, TV and radio, have been bombarded for the last year or so with ads paid for by the oil companies to vote no on ballot proposition 1. This is the citizen initiative to to repeal the latest revision of the oil tax law, known as SB 21. While I'm no expert on taxes, or anything else for that matter, my impression of how this law was passed was the all too usual legislative procedure. A bunch of lobbyist's, in this case for the oil companies, descend on Juneau and spend as much money as possible trying to influence the vote.

It's interesting to note that the bill only passed by a single vote in the state senate and that two senators who worked for the oil companies were allowed to vote for it. And our fine governor, a former lobbyist for the oil companies himself, was quick to sign it into law. It's kind of ironic that the tax law that SB 21 replaces, termed ACES, was championed by our former half term governor who hailed it as a major improvement in Alaska tax policy. Perhaps if she'd stayed governor for more than two years, this whole tax fiasco could've been avoided. Despite my inherent dislike for anything associated with Palin, it's unlikely I'll vote no on 1. More information from Alaska Dispatch at:

http://www.adn.com/article/20140714/oil-tax-debate-revolves-around-dueling-statistics-and-how-they-should-be

Another opinion:  http://www.adn.com/article/20140726/lack-information-reason-enough-repeal-so-called-oil-tax-reform

(You'll have to copy and paste into your browser.)

Summer vacation?

Took a trip  down to Seattle for the past couple of weeks. Stayed in fine hotel suite:

With a grand view of the waterfront and stadiums. In fact, one highlight of the trip was watching the fireworks at Safeco field.

Of course heading out for the day was sometimes a challenge:

Summer vacation? Not so much. Last fall I found out I had "moderate to severe arthritis" in both hips. The right one was quite bothersome by the end of the winter. Surprisingly so, since I'd thought running dogs, cutting firewood, and driving the old Ski Doo would improve things.
After some research, I decided on hip resurfacing rather than a complete replacement. It's slightly less invasive, so the recovery times expected to be a lot shorter. Since it's not done in Fairbanks, we had to got outside for the procedure. Andy filled in as the ever faithful nurse and now we're back in Fairbanks again, looking forward to a fine summer. More info on hip resurfacing at:  http://www.surfacehippy.info

Another spring...

Last year at this time, I was still hauling in wood (Haulin' in wood, 5/1/13). Now the snow is mostly gone and we're getting ready for summer:

A year ago, things were a little different:

While the depth of the snow pack and the temperatures were pretty much the same these last two winters, the warming that started in mid April this year was markedly different from last year's. Now the snow is almost gone and the forecast is looking like the warming trend from the last decade is back again.