Dog Hauler (part 2)...

The first two boxes are mounted on the truck. The slide rail system seems to work, but may have to use bigger channel next year to strengthen the mounts. There's another box that could be installed to haul ten dogs, but since we only have five running, with two dogs retired, probably just go with the shorter setup and have the rear of the bed available to haul other stuff.

In other events, been out on the Ski Doo putting in the dog trail. There were a few trees down but all are cleared now and will run dogs tomorrow. Should be a good test for the new knee.
We're down to about four hours of sunshine now, so it doesn't give a lot daylight to get things done. With the low angle of the sun, it only gets about two degrees above the horizon, you do get periods of what's called civil twilight. According to Wikipedia, morning civil twilight begins when the sun is 6° below the horizon and ends at sunrise. Evening civil twilight begins at sunset and ends when the sun is 6° below the horizon. So altogether we get over six hours when it's light enough to see outside reasonably well.

Here's the sun starting to set around 2pm. It won't be dark for about another two hours with the extended civil twilight.

Dog Hauler (part 1)...

So like I was saying last post, been putting dog boxes (or dog haulers as they're called up here) on the more or less new pickup. Well the first problem was I'd figured it all out using 2 1/2 in aluminum channel. Well they don't have that up here, so did I get 3 in, no of course not, I got 2 in. Which of course was too narrow, so when I drilled the first hole, it went between the bed and the fender. Uh oh, so had to move the holes further toward the bed, which made it too narrow to fit the boxes. So to make a short story long, had to finagle it to get it wide enough to fit the the boxes on the bed. So now the channels are fitted to the sides of the bed and just need to to get the rest of boxes fitted. Too much fun. But it's been in the 30's above all week so at least it's warm enough to work without gloves. That's something for this time of year.

November Weather Summary...

Here's the ever popular monthly weather summary, this time courtesy of the Alaska Climate Research Center (http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/node/1377):
Fairbanks Weather Summary for November 2017
Mean monthly temperature was 4.8°F, which was 2.2°F above normal. The observed maximum temperature was 33.0°F on the 3rd of the month, the minimum temperature was -27.0°F on the 26th of the month. The total monthly precipitation was 1.3", which was 0.7" above normal.

(Normal values refer to the period 1981 to 2010)

The big project for the month (so far) is putting the dog boxes on the new pickup using an external mounting system (angle aluminum) so Andy doesn't have to crawl underneath and wrench while I install the bolts. We'll add photos if and when it's done.

Still snowing...

The snow just keeps on a' coming; we've gotten about two feet so far this month and expecting more.  Still rehabbing the knee, so other than plowing the road and driveway, haven't been outside too much. So here's some stuff from back in the day.

When I was working for one of the "alphabet agencies", I would sometimes use our dog team to do resource surveys out in the White Mtns. On one trip, one of the guys with me shot this brief video of the dogs (thanks Craig) as we left the cabin one morning.  (Click on lower right corner for full screen image)

Winter's here...

After several weeks of mixed rain and snow, it finally cooled off enough to get a decent dump of snow over the weekend.

Compared to the photo on 10/15/17, it definitely looks like winter's here.

But instead of running dogs, we've been bringing a few inside every day while I rehab from the knee surgery. With plenty of snow, it'll be great to get back out on the trail again.

Still Shloppy...

After the rain and snow ended last week, it cooled off and looked like winter was here. But then it warmed up again and alternated rain and snow all week.

So instead of an early winter, it now looks more like spring breakup. But that got me to working inside, spending more time finishing the summer projects.

After talking about it for years, finally redid the loft stairs. They were originally pretty steep, almost like a ladder, but was able to fit the old stringers from the remodeled basement stairs. This increased the run by over a foot, so the slope is less and also allowed fitting bigger treads. The dark line on the wall that looks like a shadow is from the alignment of the old stairs.

The other project was wiring up three-way switches and installing a light fixture in the loft. So now you can turn on the upstairs light from the kitchen and turn it off up in the loft. Amazing, it's like the future's finally here. Now there's only half a bazillion other projects left to finish!

Ready for winter?...

Had near record precip, both rain and snow this past week. So figured it was time to be serious about getting ready for winter. Put the back hoe on the tractor and dug out some stumps, cleaned up the ditches along the road, and filled the dogs holes after moving them down to the winter dog yard. Meant to get a picture or two, since the back hoe doesn't get used much, but forgot. In fact didn't even think of it until I was finished removing the hoe from the tractor.

Well now with the rear blade and chains on, I guess we're ready for winter. Most of the snow has melted, but the rain that fell earlier in the week has soaked everything, it's shloppy out there!

Aspen Errors, Part Duce...

As noted earlier (Aspen Errors, 7/6/15), there's a lot of dying aspen trees on the property. The latest was next to the old sauna. It'd been dead for a few years, but after the problems last time, well I wasn't exactly ecstatic about dropping a tall tree so close in. But figured it was time, it'll be no problem with a rope and come along I thought, just pull'er towards the garden and it'll drop just fine. So after hooking up the ropes, Andy cranked everything tight. Then started the chainsaw and began the undercut. Almost immediately the bar got pinched and the saw was  stuck. So Andy released the tension and was able to pop the bar free.  But the bad thing was that I could feel the center of the tree was hollow, there was only a little ring of hardwood left holding up a 60-70 ft tree. So after she tightened'er up again, I started to finish the undercut. Without warning, the tree started to fall, it pulled the chain right off the bar and fell, not towards the garden clearing, but right at the greenhouse. Fortunately it hit a double birch tree, got deflected a little, and missed the greenhouse by a few feet. Like I always says, it's way better to be lucky than smart.

The aspen would have taken out the greenhouse if it hadn't been hung up by the birch.

The back of the stump just broke off when the undercut took out enough good wood. That one log is still stuck between the trees, probably have to cut it out.

National Weather Service summary for September...

September 2017 was warmer and wetter than normal in Fairbanks. The average high temperature was 57.2 degrees which was 2.6 degrees above the normal and ranked as the 31st warmest of 112 years of record. The average low temperature was 38.7 degrees which was 3.6 degrees above the average and ranked as the 14th warmest of 112 years of record. The mean temperature was 48.0 degrees which was 3.1 degrees above the normal mean and ranked as the 17th warmest of 112 years of record.

The warmest day of September 2017 was 70 degrees which occurred on the 4th. The coldest day of September 2017 was 32 degrees which occurred on the 30th.

September was wetter than normal with 1.42 inches of rain, 0.32 inches above the normal  and ranked as the 30th wettest of 104 years of record. A trace of snow fell on the 29th of September which is around 8 days later than the normal, the normal snowfall for the month of September is 1.8 inches.

Looking forward to October, the permanent snowpack is almost always established at some point during the month. The average daily high temperature falls from 45 degrees on the 1st to 19 degrees on the 31st. The average daily low temperature falls from 28 on the 1st to 4 above on the 31st. The highest temperature ever recorded in the month of October was 72 degrees on the 1st of October in 2003. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Fairbanks in the month of October was
28 below on the 26th of October in 1935.

Normal precipitation for the month is 0.83 inches, with much of this falling as snow. Significant rainfall events are rare after the middle of the month. Normal snowfall for the month of October is 10.8 inches.

Available daylight continues to decrease by over 6 minutes per day, falling from 11 hours and 15 minutes on the 1st to 7 hours and 54 minutes on the 31st.

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

Back to the Black...

The semi-annual trek to Black Rapids was this past week (Back to the Black...6/2/17). The weather wasn't terrible, but we certainly didn't need sunscreen. At least it didn't rain or snow while we were out there, that's something.

The clouds were so low,  you could hardly make out the Black Rapids Glacier in the distance.

Rigging the boat to tow the doppler meter; the flows this fall were higher than in previous years. While the meter readings varied more than usual, Mike seemed satisfied we'd gotten a reasonable measurement.

The skies cleared a bit at the upper Delta survey site, but then the wind picked up. Fortunately the ridge blocked most of it where we did the work. A cow and calf moose followed by a bull crossed the river just downstream from where we were getting set up. Mike didn't have his camera out, it would have been a great shot. (Photos by Mike S.)

Chippin' away...

Back when I was working full time, we decided to get more attachments for the tractor so I'd have the equipment to run a small landscaping outfit. So every few years until I retired, we bought something new. So much so that several don't get used much. One is the chipper-shredder. Can't remember the last time it was on the tractor, but since there were more that a few piles of brush to chip, figured it'd be good to hook it up and use it. Since it needed to be greased, went ahead and also greased the tractor and pickup. That way I won't have to crawl around on the gravel driveway at near freezing temp's in Oct like I usually do when I've put off the fall maintenance.

The fall colors are still decent, though the leaves are dropping fast.

Andy got involved, speeding up the process. Now there's enough chips to cover the worst spots on the trail down to the garden.

Another fine day...

Been trying to finish up some carpentry projects around the house. But when the sun comes out and the leaves are close to their maximum fall color, it's just gotta be time for a bike ride.

The pull off at the Little Chena bridge has gotten so over-grown, you can hardly see the river.

The sun filtering through the trees brightens the colors so much it almost hurt the eyes

The fall colors usually max out in mid-September, so it's right on schedule this year.