September's gone...

It doesn't seem right but it's already October. Here's the NWS Summary for September:

September 2016 was warmer and wetter than normal.

The average high temperature was 55.7 degrees, this is 1.1
degrees warmer than the normal value of 54.6 degrees, and ranks as the 41st warmest of 111 years on record. The average low temperature was 36.7 degrees, this is 1.6 degrees warmer than the normal value of 35.1 degrees, and ranks as the 30th warmest of 111 years on record. The mean temperature for the month was 46.2 degrees, this 1.3 degrees warmer than the normal value of 44.9 degrees, and is the 37th warmest of of 111 years on record.

The warmest day of September was 70 degrees on the 3rd. The 30th was the coldest day of the month with a low of 26 degrees. The first below freezing temperature of the fall occurred on the 8th of the month ending a stretch of 125 days with temperatures above freezing (the 12th longest stretch on record).

2.08 inches of rain fell during the month making 2016 the 14th wettest September of 103 years on record. The average rainfall for the month of September is 1.10 inches. Over half of the rainfall during the month of September fell over a span of only two days (the 5th and 6th).

A trace of snow fell in the month of September. The first snowfall of the season at the airport occurred on the 27th of the month (6 days later than the normal for the first nowfall event). The normal snowfall for the month of September is 1.8 inches.

Looking forward to the month of October, the permanent snowpack is almost always established at some point during the month. The average daily temperature falls from 45 degrees on the 1st  to 19 degrees on the 31st. The normal low temperature falls from 28 on the 1st to 4 on the 31st. The highest temperature ever recorded in the month of October in Fairbanks was 72 degrees (10/1/2003). The coldest temperature ever recorded in Fairbanks in the month of October was 28 degrees below zero (10/26/1935). Normal precipitation is 0.83 inches, much of it typically falls as snow (significant rainfall is rare after mid month). Normal snowfall for the month of October is 10.8 inches.

Available daylight decreases by over 6 minutes per day, from 11 hours 14 minutes on the 1st to 7 hours 53 minutes on the 31st.

The forecast for October from the Climate Prediction Center calls for above normal temperatures, and near normal precipitation.

Another sign of impending winter is the appearance of grouse. At this time of year, they apparently collect gravel for their gizzard from the road or driveway before it's frozen solid.

Last ride?

After a week of cool, rainy days, we finally got some reasonably decent weather. While it still gets down to near freezing at night, it's been sunny and upper fifties in the afternoon. So of course we had to fire up the bikes and go for a ride in the park (A Ride in the Park 7/8/16).

We pulled off at one of the trail heads in the park. Wanted to see what improvements the state had made for trail access since the last time we ran dogs there. And it appeared to be...not much.

While it didn't quite get to sixty, the bright sunshine made it seem warmer. Definitely was a good day for a ride in the park

Left the bike parked parked by the garage when we got back. Later on when I went to push it inside, the low angle sun made for an interesting photo. It's hard to believe the bike's over forty years old, it's still pretty much fun to ride.

Splitting piss pine..

As mentioned earlier (Aspen Errors...7/8/15), we live in a mature stand of aspen, birch, and white spruce that (like me) are a little past their prime. This leads to an abundance of dead or dying trees that need to be bucked up and split. Haven't even dropped the dead ones from this past year, as there's still wood to be split from last year. The birch and spruce are no problem since they split, dry, and burn well. But the aspen's different. The bark holds moisture that keeps the split wood from drying and it's distinctive odor is often euphemistically referred to as piss pine. I've tried different ways over the years, but finally came up with a method to split and debark the aspen.

Start a split an inch or so from the edge.

Then rotate and continue to split an edge until you basically create a square log.

Then quarter the squared log.

Finally, split near the edge of the outer pieces to peel off the bark. Some have to to cleaned up with an axe, but in the end, all the bark's off. While it takes a little longer to split, you wind up with wood that dries faster, burns hotter, and best of all, doesn't smell like piss pine!

Fall colors...

Not much going on except trying to finish the summer projects before the snow flies. But we did have a decent sunset the other night...

And the backlighting from the sunset (alpine glow) turned the yellow aspen leaves orange...

Since his close call with the reaper, Ruty no longer chases squirrels and voles, but he still goes out to enjoy the fall sunshine. Instead of moving around to stalk critters, now he only moves to stay in the sun.

Fall's coming...

HERE'S THE NWS MONTHLY WEATHER SUMMARY FOR AUGUST 2016 FOR FAIRBANKS

August 2016 was warmer and drier than normal. The average high temperature was 70.2 degrees which was 4.3 degrees above the normal. The average low temperature was 52.1 degrees which was 5.7 degrees above the normal low temperature. This is the warmest average low temperature in 110 years of record. The average mean temperature was 62.1 degrees which was 5.0 degrees above the normal mean temperature of 56.1 degrees. The warmest temperature in August was 79 degrees, which occurred on 13th. The coldest temperature was 42 degrees, which occurred on the 31st.

After the very wet months of June and July...August was the only month this summer with below normal precipitation of 1.56 inches .For the summer season of June, July, and August, 9.82 inches of rain fell at the Fairbanks airport which ranks as the 6th wettest summer on record.

Looking to September, sunshine continues to decrease by 6 and a half minutes per day with the daylight decreasing from 14 hours and 33 minutes on the 1st to 11 hours and 20 minutes on the 30th. The average daily high temperature decreases from 60.5 degrees on the 1st to 46.2 degrees on the 30th. The average daily low temperature decreases from 41.3 degrees on the 1st to 30.1 degrees on the 30th. The average rainfall is 1.1 inches and the average snowfall in September is 1.8 inches.

And the leaves are a turin'.

Mo' Taters...

Of course when you think of bringing in Taters...

  You'd think of this little lady (Growin' Taters 6/28/15), but no...

It's the time of year to harvest the garden. And this year, there's a bumper crop of red, yukon gold, and cal white potatoes.

Fall kind of snuck up on us this year, cause we had a relatively warm and dry August. But a cold front came through yesterday and we're supposed to get a hard frost tonight. So it's time to pick, pull or cover what's left in the garden. 

A visit from Porky...

Yesterday the dogs were seriously barking, so went outside but didn't see anything. Later on, they started again, so Andy went out to check on it. She called to me and when I came out, she pointed up into a small spruce tree. When I walked over, I could see it was a porcupine, about ten feet up, looking for a place to hide. Now we've seen lots of porkys, they are everywhere in the interior, but this is the first time (that I can remember anyways) that one's made a visit to our backyard. So got the camera and took some pictures. He (she?) was pretty big, maybe twenty pounds or so, probably an old timer.

Figured we'd leave him alone and maybe he'd leave. After going inside for awhile, Andy looked out and saw him waddling up the path to the wood piles. So I grabbed the camera and headed out for a real wildlife photo. But the porky would have none of it. Shifting into his high speed waddle, he cut between some wood piles and headed off into the woods. All I could get was a shot of his butt as he waddled off to his next adventure. 

Ridin' into fall...

This is the time of year when it dawns on you that summer's about over, the leaves are starting to turn, and winter's just around the corner. So it's time to get serious and finish the summer projects. But more importantly, it's time to take advantage of the rare (for this summer anyway), sunny day. So we got the bikes out and went for a ride. No particular destination, just headed out on some of few twisty roads around here, (the DOT seems bent on straightening all the main roads), and enjoy the beautiful weather.

The Enfield ran great; the electrical problem's apparently solved.

A little while back, we went for a ride to George's memorial. He had been the long time BMW/Royal Enfield dealer for Fairbanks. He was somewhat retired, turning over the BMW business to the local Harley dealership (where they held the memorial), but still kept the Enfield side going. There were at least fifty or more bikes there, mostly BMW's, and Andy rode the only Enfield. George would have been proud.

 Photo from a nice article about George at:

http://www.adn.com/opinions/2016/08/09/one-man-fairbanks-motorcycle-shop-became-legendary-with-bmw-airheads/

Stooped again...

Had a bunch of water issues on the addition to the new garage. Finally decided to dig up a new drainage and get rid of the water problems. That led to deciding to pour slabs in front of the three doors on top of the drains. So after mixing 14 ninety pond bags of reinforced concrete, here's somewhat boring photos of what we've been doing the last few weeks...

After digging up the ground in front of the door, putting in a bunch of drain rock, compacting the surface, then framing a stoop*.

Here's the stoop after pouring in the concrete.

After removing the framing, re-grading the gravel, and digging a drainage ditch to divert runoff, here's the completed stoop. Now there's only two more to finish. Hopefully it'll take care of the water issues.
*Stoop: From the Dutch stoep ‎(“platform", "pavement”). 

Watchin' the garden grow...

Not much goin' on here after 7-8 days of rain (about 4" so far). I'd post some pictures of my breakfast or lunch like some bloggers do, but then you'd just have to shoot me for clogging up the interwebs with pointless trivia. Been doing odd jobs, carpentry projects on the house and garage, but that's hardly worth a photo. I guess the best part of this recent weather is that the garden is doing great. We're eating lots of fresh vegetables and the berry bushes are really loaded this year.

The garden's doing great with all the recent rain.

And the berry bushes are really producing too.

June weather summary...

National Weather Service's weather summary for June:
"June 2016 in Fairbanks was cooler and wetter than normal. This
follows 8 consecutive months where the mean temperature was above normal. The warmest day of the month occurred on 17th with a temperature of 85 degrees while the coldest was 40 degrees on the 3rd. The mean temperature was 60.0 degrees, which was 0.4 degrees below the normal mean temperature of 60.4 degrees.
3.29 inches of rain fell during the month of June. This was 1.92 inches more than the normal value of 1.37 inches. It was the third wettest June on record. The rainfall on the 5th totaled 0.45", breaking the daily record set in 1942 by 0.13". Then on the 11th, rainfall totaled 0.95", breaking the old 1940 record of 0.67". The highest wind speed was 37 mph on the 1st, while the average wind speed was 4.8 mph.
Looking forward to July, possible sunshine decreases from 21 hours 22 minutes on the 1st to 18 hours and 12 minutes on the 31st. Continuous civil twilight ends on the 27th of July. The average daily high temperature decreases from 74 degrees on the 1st to 70 degrees on the 31st. The daily low temperature decreases from 53 degrees on the 1st to 51 degrees on the 31st. The forecast for July from the climate prediction center calls for above normal temperatures and near normal precipitation."

NWS WEATHER OBSERVATIONS FOR JUNE 2016

AVG MAX TEMP (F) 69.8   40TH COLDEST OF 111 YEARS
AVG MIN TEMP (F) 50.1   33RD WARMEST OF 111 YEARS
AVG TEMP (F) 60.0   48TH WARMEST OF 111 YEARS
TOTAL PRECIP (IN) 3.29   4TH WETTEST OF 104 YEARS

Ruty, like his namesake the rutabaga, hanging out on the deck. We almost lost him to an unknown illness last month, but through wonders of modern cortico-steroids, he's back, keeping an eye on things again. No need to worry with the watch cat on duty!

A Ride in the Park...

When you'd say you took a ride in the park, most folks around here would think you either meant Denali National Park, Alaskaland, or Pioneer Park as it's now called. But to me, the park has always been the Chena Recreation Area. Just a few miles down the road from our place, it's always been the area of choice to recreate, since it's so close and don't have to drive through town to get there.
Today, took the 850 Moto Guzzi out for a ride there. Surprisingly, there wasn't much traffic on the way out, most of what was on the road was heading towards town. The only incident of note was coming around a turn in the park, there was a large van parked in the middle of the road. And by the middle, I mean his wheels were on the centerline. So I slowed down and passed. When I looked over, I could see it was a tourist company van with with a load of passengers, probably stopped to take pictures. Hard to believe they couldn't pull over to the side of the road and turn on some warning lights.
Anyway, the rest of the trip was fine. Stopped at the 38 mile bridge, where there was a major issue with the river a while back. As meandering rivers are prone to do, it changed channels. Unfortunately, the new channel began to erode the abutments of the bridge. So the state built a huge berm, technically termed a training structure. That forced the river back into it's former channel. While hardly a natural area, it created an option for those who want to pull off the road and spend some some time at the river without being in a developed campground.

Parked on the dike at the 38 mile bridge. The interesting thing about the photo was that there was a clear blue sky out, but the photo looks cloudy, almost like a smoke sky. Go figure.