Summer's here...

The heat wave that started in April has continued into May. While the normal high temperatures for mid-May are barely sixty, it hit a record high of 86°F today and has been near 80 for the past week or so. Here's some photos taken in the last few days:

It's been over 100 in the sun most afternoons.

Andy's got the garden in already, while the choke cherry's a'bloomin'.

And it's just too hot for the cats.

Angst and the art of motorcycle maintenance...

With several old motorcycles in the garage awaiting various forms of repairs/rebuilds, my main feeling lately has been one of angst. According to the urban dictionary, angst is a transcendent emotion that is often confused with anxiety, but combines the anguish of life with the hopes of overcoming the seemingly impossible. Angst denotes the constant struggle that weighs the emotions of worry against hope. So now I'm starting to work on the old Moto Guzzi, worrying I won't get it done right, while still hoping for the best. To fix a leaking rear seal, you have to remove the complete engine/transmission unit by disconnecting and lifting the frame off of the engine, then separating the transmission from the engine to access the seals. So now the components are on the work bench while I try to carefully remove the main seals without damaging anything else. Then put it all back together again. Angst rules!

Here's the frame after lifting it off the engine/transmission unit:

As far as I know, Moto Guzzi is the only manufacturer that accesses the engine by removing the frame. Much easier than trying to lift the engine out of the frame.

Another dog run...

We've gotten another new dog. Bella didn't work out. She was severely shy when she arrived at our place, showed no improvement after several months, and in the end, wanted nothing to do with me. So we took her back to Tracyann and wound up taking a younger female, Tatalina, or Taters as I call her. I'd hoped to run her at least once this spring, but with the snow almost gone from the trails, it didn't look promising. But then we heard from our neighbors that it'd snowed several inches out near the Hot Springs, so figured we could get one more run in. Loaded up the truck with the dogs and sled, then headed up the road to the Chena Recreation Area. The trails there were still in good shape with the fresh snow and wound up having a decent dog run.

Headin' out on the winter trail.

Takin' a break on the way back.

Spuds coolin' off.

Taters, the new girl on the left, next to Easter, or little Missy as Andy calls her.

End of winter?

The warm spell that began in March is hanging on into April. The snow is melting fast and the dog trail's so bad I put the sleds away already. Just finished hauling in the last load of wood.

Might try to haul the dogs out to the White Mtns. if it cools off a bit, but the forecast is not promising. Here's the weather bureau's March summary and April forecast (slightly edited for brevity):

Monthly weather summary for March from the National Weather Service Fairbanks, Alaska:

March was a month of contrasts with both temperature and snowfall above seasonal averages. The month started off warm with the first week averaging well above normal; however a strong cold pushed through the interior on the 8th causing temperatures to plummet. Low temperatures dropped to 30 below and colder from the 10th to the 15th with the daily average nearly 25 degrees below normal. Then came a rapid warming, with temperatures rising above normal from the 17th to the end of the month.

The warmest temperature, which was a record high, was 52 degrees on the 26th and the coldest temperature was 37 below which occurred on the 15th. The average temperature was 15.5 degrees which was 4.1 degrees above the monthly normal. This ranked as the 23rd warmest March in 110 years of record.

March was a snowy month with 8.1 inches of snow falling at the Fairbanks airport. This was 3.2 inches above the average snowfall. This March ranked as the 28th snowiest of 102 years. Seasonal snowfall remains well below normal with only 41.7 inches, which is 19.5 inches below normal.
.
Looking forward to April the average daily high temperature
increases from 35 degrees on the 1st to 54 degrees on the
30th. The average daily low temperature increases from 8 degrees
on the 1st to 31 degrees on the 30th.

During April, possible sunshine increases by nearly 7 minutes per
day,  from 13 hours and 36 minuteson the 1st to 16 hours and 55 minutes on the 30th.

The forecast for the month of April from the climate prediction
center calls for near normal temperatures and precipitation.

http://pafg.arh.noaa.gov/wmofcst.php?wmo=NOAK49PAFG&type=public

Out to the Whites...

Finally got out for a quick trip to the White Mtns. Is spite of the shortened training season (New dog...2/11/15), the dogs ran great and Bill and I both had a good time. Barney and Spuds, my main leaders, are both eleven now, so this likely is their last trip. While I've had a few dogs still run in the team at twelve, they tend to age quickly and lose their desire to run when they get that old. They've been a great pair up front and I'll miss their leadership. Here's a few photos of the dogs:

Takin' a break on the way in. Bill's in the background checking on his dogs. Barney and Jabba, gettin' some leader training,  up front.

Headin' out from the cabin towards the ridge top trail. Spuds and Barney in lead.

Rest stop on the way home. Easter, in swing, ran great and was a real asset in the team.

More crazy weather...

Just like February, the weather in March has been crazy. It started off almost normal, then warmed up and snowed almost a foot, then turned cold and we had a week of -20 to -40 F. Now it's warmed up again and we've had near +40 for the past few days.

Here's a few photos of yesterdays dog run:

Crossing the pond on the way home.

Going over the bridge on Smallwood Creek.

Takin' a break on the way home.

Another warm spell...

After an up and down February, March is starting off warm, as it was near 40° F today. Here's the weather bureau's summary for February:

NWS MONTHLY WEATHER SUMMARY FOR FEBRUARY 2015

"Much like January, February  was a month of contrasts with periods of much below normal temperatures and periods of much above normal temperatures. The average temperature for the month was 1.0 degree which was 2.3 degrees above the normal mean temperature of -1.3 degrees.

February 2015 started off with a cold snap that continued through the 10th. The coldest temperature was 43 below which occurred on the 7th. The temperature warmed dramatically after the 10th of the month, with the warmest temperature of 37 on the 16th.

A significant ice storm, one tenth of an inch of ice or more, began on the 21st and continued on the 22nd, when  0.23 inches of rain fell at the airport. This is the 4th out of the last 5 winters with a significant ice storm.

Looking forward to March, temperatures climb sharply as the sun angle and length of day light increases; the average daily high temperature increases from 18 degrees on the 1st to 34 degrees on the 31st, the average daily low temperature increase from 9 below on the 1st to 8 above on the 31st. Temperatures have ranged from 56 above in 1994 to 56 below in 1911. March is on average the driest month in Fairbanks, precipitation iaverages 0.25 inches while normal snow fall is 4.9 inches. Possible sunshine increases by nearly 7 minutes per day during March and increases from 10 hours and 7 minutes on the 1st to 13 hours and 29 minutes on the 31st."(http://www.arh.noaa.gov/wmofcst.php?wmo=NOAK49PAFG&type=public)

Finally remembered the camera so took a few photos of the dogs:

Heading for home after crossing the bridge.

Skirting the new gully that formed this past summer.

Another new dog and a blizzard on the way...

Waiting for the wind to arrive after it's snowed for the last few hours. According to the weather bureau:

The National Weather Service in Fairbanks, has issued a blizzard warning. which is in effect until 3 am Alaska Standard Time Sunday: blowing snow....reducing visibility to one quarter mile or less at times., winds northwest 25 to 35 mph gusting to 50 mph. (http://pafg.arh.noaa.gov/wmofcst.php?wmo=WWAK41PAFG&type=public)

Yesterday we picked up another dog. This one's named Bella and she's supposed to be the mother of Easter (Ester or Estella?). Should be interesting, working with some new dogs in the team while breaking trail after the big blizzard. Here's her picture (taken from Facebook).

New dog and a dog run...

Well it took a while, but finally got out on the trail with the dogs this year. Probably the latest ever, but the health issues rule, I guess. Got a new dog too. Unfortunately, a local musher  died and left a bunch of dogs that needed a place to go, so we brought one home. She's a young female, the first  we've had in quite a while, so it'll be interesting to see how the team dynamics change with a new dog. Other than that, it was a routine dog run and we made it around the new gully with no problems. Here's a photo of Easter, the new girl.  Though I've already started to call her Ester, who knows what her name will be, we almost always change the dogs name to fit their personality.

Here's another shot, find the hidden dog:

Warmest ever?...

As noted earlier (Climate change? 10/18/14), not only was it very warm in Alaska, the entire year of 2014 was the warmest on record:
"Last year was the hottest on Earth since record-keeping began in 1880, scientists reported Friday, underscoring warnings about the risks of runaway greenhouse-gas emissions and undermining claims by climate-change contrarians that global warming had somehow stopped. Extreme heat blanketed Alaska and much of the western U.S. last year. Records were set across large areas of every inhabited continent. And the ocean surface was unusually warm virtually everywhere except near Antarctica, the scientists said, providing the energy that fueled damaging Pacific storms. In the annals of climatology, 2014 surpassed 2010 as the warmest year. The 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1997, a reflection of the relentless planetary warming that scientists say is a consequence of human activity and poses profound long-term risks to civilization and nature." (http://www.adn.com/article/20150105/2014-was-warmest-year-record-much- alaska)
And now, with the exception of a couple of days of minus 30F at the beginning,  Jan. is shaping up to be another warm month. That's OK by me, since I finally started getting out on the old Ski Doo to put in the dog trail. It's a lot easier to start the beast when it's above zero. One thing that's certainly noticeable  this winter, is that with all the rain last summer (The End of Thermidor 7/31/14) as well as the warmer weather, there are a lot more gullies forming in the trail. One new one is already 5 to 6 feet deep where it crosses the trail. I was able to reroute the trail over the shallower end, but it'll still make for an interesting ride with the dog team.

Taken last year, this is the area where the gullies formed this summer. Will try to get a current photo, if I can remember the camera next time out. (Did that!)

Here's a photo of the gully this year. Hard to see with the lack of contrast and low angle sun. The trail now skirts the gully on the right of the photo. Will get a better shot when the sun gets up a little higher later in the month.

Sun time...

The sun is noticeably higher now, even though it's been less than 3 weeks since the solstice.  One odd thing is that when the sun reaches it's apex , 3° now,  it's around 1 pm, not noon. That's because back in the 80's the politicians in Juneau decided we needed to be closer to Seattle time, so Alaska's four time zones became two. The Alaska Time Zone (UTC−9) was switched to Yukon Time Zone (UTC-8), which is one hour earlier than Pacific Time (instead of two). The Yukon Territory switched to the Pacific Time Zone in 1975 and the Yukon Time Zone was not used except for a small area around Yakutat. Then, just to confuse things a little more, they changed the name back to the Alaska Time Zone.
The state of Alaska spans almost as much longitude as the contiguous United States (57.5° vs. 57.6°) so the use of two time zones will inevitably lead to some distortions. A clock set to Alaska time in Fairbanks reads 12:57 at solar noon. When daylight savings time is applied in the spring, this effect becomes even more apparent as solar noon is about 2 hours off. That's why in Alaska it's often referred to as "double daylight time" during the summer.  Largely taken from:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Time_Zone.
Here's a couple of photos of the January sun.

Heat wave for the new year...

Had another chinook blow through town and pushed the temperature up to the mid-thirties F the last few days. It even rained a bit yesterday. Supposed to cool down below zero by tomorrow night, so that's good. Can't abide by this warmth for too long.
Still not running the dogs. The Doc told me to wait a couple of more weeks to let the hip fully heal. So that's not so good, but as always, the time will pass and we'll soon have the boys out on the trail again. Until then, they get to run around the yard and play dog down.

Video by Andy (no dogs were harmed in making this).