Solo's retired...

Solo's one of the arboreal dogs. About eight years ago, we got three dogs from a woman musher who needed to cut down on dogs. She had so many that most of them were tied to trees. She talked about raising them to run the Iditarod, or maybe the Quest, I forget, but never had the time to actually train any of them. So Solo, who was about three, had never been in harness. That first winter was a struggle, teaching older dogs to run in the team, since we normally start training pups at 4-5 months. But by the time spring came around, Solo was becoming a decent sled dog. He eventually became a regular member of the team, but it wasn't until we got Polar that he found his real calling. Polar was a pound dog who was vetted by a local dog musher's rescue group. They posted on their web site that there was this great dog at the pound, a real hard worker who was just a little slow. So I took a chance and brought him home. He was a little shy, but I figured he'd come around and besides, he's a real hard worker. Well it turned out they were half right; he sure is slow. But he soon bonded with Solo, who had been aggressive towards all the other males, and they began to play together. Their play evolved into the extended skirmishes that we documented in the video (Dec 5, 2012). But as always happens, Solo got older and not too long after we made the video, he struggled to keep up with the team. Surprisingly, he also quit playing with Polar. We're not quite sure what the problem is, but other than no longer acting like a wild dog, he seems to be doing fine as a retired sled dog.

Global Warming on Ground Hog Day?

Well ground hog day’s come and gone and, at least for the lower 48 states, the prognosticating rodent predicted a mild winter. But for Alaska, where there are no ground hogs, we’d probably need to consult the hoary marmot. According to Wikipedia, the hoary marmot (Marmota caligata) is the largest North American ground squirrel. They live near tree line throughout much of Alaska and inhabit burrows where grasses, sedges, and Krummholz forest dominate. That’s about right then, since we’re surrounded by Krumhardt forest around here.

As far as six more weeks of winter, well the squirrel savants not saying much, but we’d likely have at least another two months of cold weather regardless. This winter has been on the average, cooler than normal, but has been dominated by large temperature swings. While we’ve had half a dozen cold snaps where it got down to minus thirty or colder, we’ve had almost as many warm spells where it got to twenty above or warmer. It even rained in January, the first time that’s happened in over fifty years.  For some perspective on the recent climate trends in Alaska, see: “The First Decade of the New Century: A Cooling Trend for Most of Alaska”, Alaska Climate Research Center of the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks. (http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/)

Hydro rear...

Several years ago I bought some of the components to convert the tractor's rear blade to  hydraulic operation. But I never seemed to get around to installing them until I mentioned it to our new neighbor Bert. He works as a mechanic and welder and told me to "just bring it over some time and we'll get'er done." A few weeks later I drove the tractor down to his garage with everything in the loader bucket. In a few hours, he had brackets welded to the rear blade and installed the hydraulic cylinder and controls, so all we needed were the hoses. The next day we went to town and ordered the hoses and fittings, installing them and adding hydraulic fluid as soon as we got back. Well as luck would have it, it didn't work. I had bought the wrong type of hydraulic control. Since I'd gotten it used on ebay, it couldn't be returned, so I had to order a new one. A week or so later, the new one arrived and we installed it on the tractor. Now I have this great hydraulic rear blade and a new driveway to plow. Thanks Bert!

Happy New Year?...

It's always great to start the new year with a new year's eve party and this year was no exception. We had some friends over last night and except for a few who had trouble staying awake until midnight, a good time was had by all. But this morning, it was the usual sobering news of the so-called "fiscal cliff". In an attempt to reduce the deficit, congress had created a deadline for  automatic spending cuts and tax increases if a new budget wasn't passed by Jan 1. This evening they finally passed a compromise budget, but it's only in effect for two months and actually raises the deficit. What a clown show.

Puppies playin'

On the days we don't train dogs, we let a few off at a time to run around while we're cleaning up the dog yard. Besides tearing around the yard and pissing on all the trees, there's a couple of dogs who wrestle and chew on each other as if they were fighting. But it's all in good doggy fun, since it's gone on for many years and there's never been any serious fights during these skirmishes. No dogs were harmed making this video.

Makin' the grade...

After finishing the dozer work for this year's Nome Creek reclamation project (Dozin' off... 8/9/10), I was asked to help out on the road grader. No problem I said, how does it work? After about ten minutes training, Eric turned me loose on the old tailings road, which I preceded to tear up and then fix until I felt comfortable on the machine. Then I started on the roads that really needed to be graded. It was interesting work and it's always enjoyable to learn to run a new piece of heavy metal.
While I was staying out at the field station, I noticed my right hand was getting numb and looked a little odd. After getting back to town, I was examined by several doctors and found out I have cubital tunnel syndrome, an affliction of the nerves in my elbow that caused muscle atrophy in my hand. So they did surgery on the elbow to release the effected nerve and hopefully next summer I'll be out there driving the grader again.

Last dog run...

A little late in posting, like always, but wanted to put up a few photos from our last dog trip out to the White Mtns. Andy hadn't gone out on a dog trip for a few years, so it took some convincing, but once she got interested, she got into it and had a great time. It was a bit of a slog with only eight dogs for two teams, but the dogs ran great and Andy and I got a lot of exercise running up the hills. We had near perfect weather there, 10-20 above, and it was almost 50 when we got back to town. It was a fine way to end the mushing season.

Back to the Black...

Went back to survey the Delta River at Black Rapids with my friend Mike from Glenallen. Hadn't been there for a winter visit in awhile (Flight Time 4/03/09). Unlike the last time, we had great weather and no equipment problems. The only odd thing we found was that the river was almost frozen to the bottom in the middle, while the two sides of the channel had most of the flow. This created high water pressure that forced water up and out of the center holes, forming a pool of water-covered ice in the middle of the channel. It added new meaning to the phrase slipping up on the job.

Happy Trails...

March has been great for running dogs: plenty of snow, cool, but not cold weather, and lots of blue sky. Can't have it any better to finish the winter.

An extra day to post...

Haven't posted for awhile, so thought that February 29th might be good day to always post. That way at least every four years I'd get something out. It's been a cold winter so far, January was the coldest in the last 40 years. I think there were only 3 days when the temperature got above zero. It's hard to get decent dog training when it's that cold. February's been a little better so at least I'm getting out on the trails again. Ruty the Maine coon cat solved the cold problem by sleeping in front of the monitor heater. You'd think a big fuzzy guy like him would get hot; maybe he's a southern coon cat.

Newbies...

While we‘ve tried to limit the number of the dogs in the yard these past few years, you eventually have to bring in some younger ones if you want to keep a working team. My friend Lynn took in a couple of unwanted litters of sled dogs this past winter and we wound up taking a couple of the older pups this summer. They’re around 8-10 months old and pretty obnoxious. It’s going to take a fair bit of work to get them trained right, but that’s the main focus in running dogs.

Grrrate...

The tractor originally came from Soldotna. It had been a rental unit there and had real low hours. It only needed a loader attachment. The local John Deere dealers found a loader for a 970 tractor in Anchorage and installed it before shipping it up to Fairbanks. That loader is a little bigger than the one for an 870 tractor and gave it a larger bucket. The loader only lacked a grill guard for it to be complete. No problem, I said, we’ll put one on ourselves.
Over the years, an occasional log has come over the top of the bucket, just missing the grill or headlights, but no harm was done. One time I picked up a heavy piece of equipment with a chain attached to the loader. Once lifted, it swung right into the front of the tractor. Amazingly, nothing happened. But I knew it was just a matter of time until something broke. Last summer when I was getting some parts at the dealer, I checked out a new tractor they had for sale. Not only did it have a grill guard, it was made of expanded metal, welded to the front of the loader frame. Incredible, I thought, the perfect grill guard. So the next time I was near one of the local steel yards, I wandered through their scrap pile and found a decent piece of expanded metal. They cut it to the approximate size and I had my grill guard. Well it only took another year or so to finally attach it to the tractor, trim it to fit, weld, sandblast, and then finally paint it John Deere green. Now it looks just like a factory job and it only took about twenty years.