Snowshoes and Miscreant Moose at Twenty Below...

After all the big snows ended, we got about 4 1/2 ft for the month, it was mostly plowing and shoveling snow for a week or so. Then it was time to put the sled dog trail back in. I did get the dogs out for one run on the sled before the big rainstorm hit, but since then there was nowhere to run them with all the ice and snow covering the trails. Tried to get out on the Ski Doo the other day, but my neighbor came by, told me his truck was stuck in the road, so spent the rest of the afternoon helping him. Then the temps dropped to well below zero, the Ski Doo is hard to start when it's real cold, so figured it'd be easier to just snowshoe the trails in. Well that was a good idea maybe twenty or thirty years ago but not so much now. After three days on the snowshoes, I'd only gotten a half a mile of trail in. But the worst part was that every time I went back out, the moose had wandered down the trail, stomping tracks (post holing) the trail. When I went out today, not only did they stomp in what I did yesterday, they apparently followed behind me and stomped in some of the trail I'd fixed today. I think I'm done with this for awhile.

So this is what you look like after snowshoeing at twenty below. There's probably better ways to spend your time; I think I'll look into it.

Snow, Rain, Repeat...

 A couple of weeks back we got almost a foot of snow. That was ok, cause we hadn't had too much up til then and we needed it. I was able to break out the sled trail and got the dogs out after a short cold spell ended. But then we got another dump, close to a foot of snow followed by a couple inches of rain.

This is what you'd look like if you chose to plow snow for maybe four hours during a rainstorm. Next time I'll wait until it stops. Now they're forecasting another storm event starting today with rain and snow. followed by sub-zero cold. I can't wait! Read about it here...

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/weather/2021/12/27/interior-alaska-storm-wreaks-havoc-as-highways-temporarily-close-and-thousands-remain-without-power/

Cold!...

Been down below zero F since last weekend, the highs, when we get one, have been in the mid twenties below and the lows near forty below. But the end appears to be in sight as the weather bureau is predicting near zero tomorrow.

Here's a pretty sad looking fellow taking a selfie when the temps, according to the frog, are thirty something below. That's cold enough to mostly keep me inside, except for feeding dogs and getting firewood. It's a good thing there's a lot cut and split, cause we're going through it real fast at these temps. Been rebuilding an old pair of snowshoes I picked up last summer, so will post some pics when they get further along.

So here's the snowshoes, the one on the left just about finished, the other in the original condition. When I went to look at them, the seller was very apologetic, said  he hadn't realized that the green plastic had some severe cracking, so gave them to me for free. I thought it'd be easy to replace the bad part with some UHMW sled plastic, but didn't realize how hard it'd be to grind off the rivet heads that held it on. But now one's almost  done,  they'll both get new bindings, then just have to do the other. Should have'em ready by spring time!

Little Earl ...

Well Little Earl has grown into the dog yard in more ways than one. He plays with all the dogs, tho most of them would rather not, and he gets picked on by Mac, which he seems to enjoy. So any anxiety over moving into a new place is likely gone. His feet have gotten a lot bigger, so hopefully the rest of his body will follow along. As far as running him, he's doing just great in the team.

Had to make Earl a new harness, since I'd given away all the smaller ones except for one too small puppy harness. Fortunately there was enough scrap webbing and polar fleece to cobble together a harness that'd fit him. Even used  pieces of his old orange collar, which we had to cut off him cause it was too small, for part of the x-back. Pretty snazzy!

And it warmed up to twenty above F today after a couple weeks below zero, so that was pretty good too.

Random Stuff...

The temps have been below zero F since last week, so not much to do outside; it's even been too cold to run the dogs. Trying to get stuff done on the cabin, just finished sanding and varnishing one the interior log walls. Before it was so rough you couldn't run your hand over it without getting a splinter, now it's just a little uneven. One more wall to do and the original cabin's pretty much finished. Not bad for forty years!

After getting  a new sander, brush and some vanish, then just like that, the wall's done.

Went outside the other day to watch the lunar eclipse. They'd been making a big deal of it on the news and it was pretty cool to look at it with binoculars. Unfortunately, the door didn't latch when I went out and the cat pushed it open, then headed up the trail to the wood piles. Tried to get him back in, since it was fifteen below zero, but he ignored my calls and kept on trotting, staying just ahead of me. Finally cornered him at the farthest wood pile where the trail ends, I guess he didn't want to head off into the fresh snow even tho it's less than half a foot deep. Not exactly an arctic explorer, but he still struggled to get away, and was a handful to carry inside. Somehow I managed to twist my knee bringing him back down the trail in the dark, so now I have to deal with that. Next time I'm leaving him outside.

But the sunsets are pretty decent this time of year and you don't have to head out in the dark at midnight to see one. (Both photos by Andy)

My Name Is Earl...

Back in the "oughts", there was this TV comedy about a loser petty crook named Earl who tried to turn his life around by doing good deeds. He thought it'd  change his karma. Kind of stupid, I know, but it was funny and we watched the first few seasons before it got too stupid even for us. Well I had an issue that arose after a recent physical. When the prognosis improved, figured it was time for a change in karma. That's when I saw an ad for rehoming some sled dog pups. What's better than giving a dog a new home? So I called and found out that the pups were from a Yukon River village and were brought to town for rehoming. So I went over to the address I was given, but apparently no one was home. After waiting a bit, wandered around looking at the pups. They were all staked out on chains with their own dog houses and seemed pretty friendly. When the woman finally showed up, the first thing she said  was "did you see Earl?" I figured she meant one of the pups, so I said "sure, I've been looking them over," or words to that effect. That's when she pointed and said "no, he's over there." Then I saw someone at the far end of the dog yard, standing behind a dog hauler truck. So we went over to talk to him and I found out his name was Earl. He was the brother of a musher I'd met years ago who used to race the Yukon Quest. As we talked, he pointed out one pup and said he was out of his leader and his nephews lead dog, both proven racers. So these pups were bred from locally world famous sled dogs.

And that's how we wound up with Little Earl. When I told her the story, Andy said we just had to call him that. Now he's adjusting to life in a new dog yard, a long ways from his Yukon River home, but hopefully it'll  improve both our karma.

Whether the Weather...

Haven't blogged too much about the weather lately, the last one was Spring Has Sprung 4-22-21, so here are the latest summaries from the NWS...

Month Ave. Temp. Dep. High Low Precip. Dep. Apr 26.6 -5.9 65 -29 1.35 1.04 May 51.9 1.6 73 30 0.36 -0.18 Jun 63.1 2.1 84 45 1.06 -0.42 Jul 64.8 1.9 88 45 2.19 -0.08 Aug 56.8 -0.2 89 36 3.67 1.57 Sep 44.1 -1.7 75 17 0.37 -0.98 Oct 30.8 4.6 48 15 1.31 0.55 Average 0.3 0.2

Interesting that the extreme range of temperatures, from near thirty below to almost ninety above, occur during what are the more temperate months of the year. 

There's not a lot of differences, if you're just looking at the departures from average for the last few months. Is global warming a hoax? I suspect not, but when you're looking at a short periods of time, well your guess is as good as mine. Here's a pic of the wood cutting yard on Halloween with just a few inches of snow. You'd expect to see more snow at the end of Oct, most years, so go figure!

All Pumped Up...

 One of the projects that's been hanging around here for a while has been problems with the water pump. About a year or two back, it started to leak. As luck would have it, it happened right after I had surgery (All Fools Day 4/1/19). So there I was, crawling under the stairs trying to stop the leak when I was supposed to be taking it easy. Anyway, got the parts I needed, had to replace the entire float assembly, not just the leaky fitting, and then the pump wouldn't start/stop properly. So after replacing the pressure switch and assorted fittings, it seemed to be working again, but after awhile, it wouldn't. It'd either stop too soon or not at all. So it became a constant battle, adjusting the pressure switch every few days. Andy had a simpler solution, she'd just give it kick. So this summer we called a plumber. He called back a few weeks after we left a message and said he was too busy to come out here, but after I described the problem, he suggested just replacing the pump. Unfortunately, the pump he recommended was out of stock, so had to wait a couple of months to get one. Then when I got it home, saw that it'd be a real chore to connect, as all the fittings were different, requiring major changes to the copper piping, and also needed to do rewiring. So asked around and found another plumber who said he'd be available "in a few weeks." 

So first off, I had to do the wiring to connect the new pump. These are the tools it took just to change a switch to an electric socket and hook up a new light under the stairs. And Andy wonders why I have so many tools.

With the wiring done, it was time for the plumber, and as luck would have it, he was ready a week earlier than he said.

So here's the high tech, new age pump, all set up and ready to go. My main contribution was to build the "step stool" that the pump is sitting on. Took a shower tonight and it was pretty sweet, not having to worry about the pump randomly turning on/off the whole time. 

More Snow...

Another big storm hit this past weekend and when it finally ended, we had over half a foot of heavy, wet snow.

We had ample warning it was coming, so got most of our projects finished and stuff put away, at least as far as it ever gets done now.

The old sauna has become a storage shed and was stuffed full of firewood before the snow hit

After getting things back to normal, it was time to run dogs again. They like snow, they can cool off by laying  down after getting back in the yard. Thirty degree weather may seem cool to us, but these fuzzy guys are hot dogs after a run.
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Firsts...

Couple of firsts, the first dog run of the season..

And then the next day, the first snowfall. Well we did get a dusting earlier in the week, but it all melted immediately, so this is the first one that "stuck."

Just like fall, winter comes early up here. According to the weather bureau, this snowfall is about right on time for the normal first snow.

The storm that brought us the snow. The jet stream pushing a "pineapple express" into Canada, then curving westward to dump on Alaska. Areas to the east of us got a lot more snow, so we were lucky to only get a few inches.

Fall...

Fall has fell, as they say, and we've had one of the nicer ones in recent memory, sunny and warm for the most part. Been a great time to finish the summer projects and get out for a few bikes rides. Here's a few pics...

The max colors were likely yesterday. but didn't get this shot until today. Mounted the stump grinder on the tractor and ground up a few stumps to celebrate.

One of the sunny days last week. Took advantage of the nice weather to paint the side doors on one side of the garage green, Andy's favorite color, and curry, a dark yellow, on the other to match the trim. Amazing how much you get done in the fall, knowing winter's coming soon!

Took a couple of bike rides out towards the "park." Stopped at a new cafe on the way for coffee and a chocolate muffin, pretty darn good!

GOT-cha

 Maybe 15-20 years ago, we started to hear some people say gotcha whenever we said something. It was pretty annoying, but then it kind of disappeared. Now just this past week, I had a physical and both the nurse and Dr. said gotcha whenever I answered one of their questions. Is this the best thing you learned after all your years in med school, I wanted to ask, but kept it to myself. That got to me to thinking of the other gotcha, Game of Thrones. Now we had never seen it when it was first shown, we don't have cable. satellite, or direct TV here, but it sure seemed to suck a lot of people into it.  Then one day while perusing the internet, saw a DVD of the first season of GOT as it's often called, was on sale cheap. so couldn't pass it up. After watching it, well it's not that great, but the scenes with the so-called dire wolves were pretty good. While they're actually extinct, the "dire wolves" in the movie are a domestic breeding from England that combines Malemute, Greenland husky, and Siberians that are trained to act as wolves.  

The "dire wolves" from Game of Thrones. They looked kind of familiar.

That's when I realized, we had a "dire wolf" right here in Mac the wonder pup, tho he acts more like a dour wolf when he's being obstinate. He's our very own GOT-cha dog!