79 and counting

Speaking of every inclemency of the weather, it just keeps getting better and better. By the time I got home this morning the temperature had reached 42....that’s an increase of 79 degrees in a little more than two days. Everything is melting. And it is raining. On top of that, there is a howling windstorm ripping through the trees, enough of a wind that I left the car farther down the driveway away from the bigger trees in case the storm makes me more firewood. The wind is so wild between moving branches and blowing chunks of snow off them, it keeps both outside motion-detector lights on constantly. I have needed to get back to the East Pole to retrieve something I forgot the weekend after Christmas and haven’t been able to do it because it has been minus 30 and 40. Hoping to go this weekend but might not be able to because the temperature is plus 40 and the creeks might not be crossable.

Oh, and there has been a sighting. I am pretty sure I saw the Solitary Man last night. Driving to work, I spotted him across four lanes of traffic in the dark so I can’t be sure, but the silhouette was right, the wide brimmed hat, backpack, slightly hunched posture. He was heading down the hill away from the town toward where I think he lives. On the way home I looked at the area when I could. Freezing rain made that a little difficult since I was driving on what was essentially a skating rink-- 35 mph the whole way on a four lane 65 mph road. I couldn’t see anything that looked like a trail in the snow, but there were three sets of tracks up the hill. Could have been a moose, but it could have been him, too. Difficult to believe he lived out there through the cold time of the past couple of weeks, but you never know how tough a guy can be. Those buffalo hunters and mountain men did it. One reason I may not have seen him for a while is I finish my job earlier these days so go by his area much earlier than I used to and he isn’t moving yet that early. At any rate it was kind of reassuring to see him still among the quick instead of the dead.

Amazing

Just checked the temperature outside. It is 30 degrees above zero. That means in the space of a little more than two days, the temperature here has risen 67 degrees. 67 degrees Like flying from Alaska to San Diego.

Time to take the bull by the tail and face the situation

There is a lament every Alaskan has heard. You meet someone, a new acquaintance, a long-lost relative, a friend of a friend. That person looks at you with faraway eyes and upon learning you live in Alaska, says something like, “Oh, I have always wanted to go to Alaska.” or “I always wanted to take one of those cruises” or “I have a niece who lives there I always wanted to visit” or, my personal favorite: “If I were younger....” Another is the assumption because you live in Alaska you are by definition an outdoors person. I met a woman at a party in the Big Outside once who upon learning i was from Alaska offered "Oh, i love camping." I walked away. And get this, at minus 50 degrees F, no one is an outdoorsman unless he really has to be. The most you do outdoors is reach out and grab another stick of wood for the fire and slam the door quickly. It is not nearly that cold during the summer tourist season.

Sometimes the comments sound like all that insincere bulldust you hear among people at a cocktail party, “hello, dear, you look wonderful” or ‘how nice to see you” or “how are you doing.” The real meaning of those being “I have to say something civil.” In the case of Alaska, it more means “Gawd, how could you live in a place like that?” Or, “what kind of ruffian are you?” or “I can’t catch anything from you, can I?”

Well, this year we are calling your bluff. No more, “I always wanted to go there, but I could never afford it.” It is time to separate the filet mignon from the bull. As the old saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining and in this case the cloud is the recession.

So, get this, no more excuses. Either admit you have no intention of ever visiting Alaska or buy a ticket. Cruise lines and other tourism businesses are already feeling a decline in the early sales of tour packages and as a result are offering huge discounts, some as much as 40 percent. I saw one fare for an Alaska cruise that normally goes for around $800 offered for $425. Even local businesses that cater to tourists are feeling the pinch and offering deals.

So, assuming you are not also receding, now is the time. After this no more excuses, no more idle chat. Anything like that will be met with derision and disbelief or the simple bulldust cocktail chat line “You had your chance.”

(Oh, just one little aside: I already have a couple of family members threatening to visit and that is about all I can handle in one summer.)

Severe clear

The missing bark from that tree was dislodged by a three-toed woodpecker. I watched him work at it for a while one day. I had never seen anything like it before. Some of it shattered and fell off as he pecked, but he got his bill behind some to pry it off.

The cold probably helped, making the bark brittle for him. It has been THAT cold. According to the paper this morning we are in the longest sub zero cold spell since 1917. When i got home this morning it was 37 below zero. Apparently I live in a "cold hole."

 Leaving Anchorage last night the temperature was minus 12, but when i dropped off the low hills into the river bottom of the Knik and Matanuska Rivers, it dropped very quickly to minus 30. (It fell from minus 15 to minus 30 in three miles.) About 13 miles later at home it was 37 below. So far nothing in the house has frozen, but i have to keep water running all the time, and the car has held up but i leave it plugged in all day.

For those of you who don't now, most vehicles in Alaska have engine heaters. You plug them in to house current and they keep your car at about starting temperature so you aren't fighting cold lubricants and metal when you first start up. Tires get hard and flatten on the bottom so when you first start going, you bump down the road until they warm a little and go round again. Farther north it has gone to 50 below. On the Arctic Coast in the oil fields they sometimes leave vehicles running all winter. They do that with some road clearing equipment too. All part of living in the wonderful Northland. Of course, when it is this cold it is also beautiful if you can open your eyes wide enough to see it. Hoar frost adheres to tree branches.

 The sun, what little there is of daylight, is bright,though you feel no warmth from it. Sunlight in this kind of weather creates a phenomenon called sundogs. The light reflecting off frozen crystals in the air creates what look like little balls of rainbow on either side of the sun and at the same height. i looks almost like one sun with a smaller one on each side of it. We are pushing toward a full moon and reflected off the snow, the light makes the night very bright, so bright, in fact, it is difficult to see stars. There is a bright star in the southern sky in the evenings, which i am guessing is a planet, but I need to look that one up.

 Along the way on that two-lane road I photographed last summer, two moose have been hanging out in about a three-mile stretch. Twice they have been in the road and I had to stop and i see them almost every night. Makes the driving just a little more exciting. I have seen tracks, too, where moose have wandered through the yard. Two years ago i chased one up the driveway when I came home and he stood there just inside the tree line (about 30 feet from the door) and watched me just as warily as I did him as i went into the house.

The birds really go through seed at these temperatures. i just emptied my second 25-pound bag of black sunflower seeds this winter today, and the fifth 3-5 pound bag of sunflower chips. Those little bags cost almost as much as the big ones. I am feeding a bunch of chickadees and nuthatches, plus juncoes and now some redpolls are showing up. They may be just the vanguard; last year it seemed like hundreds in the yard. There have also been a few pine grosbeaks around and, that darned woodpecker.

Well, this is the first post of the new year and already we have quite an auspicious beginning. Lots of questioning about global warming considering how cold it is and how long it has lasted. Cycles within cycles is probably all it is. Watching weather today and guess what. All this cold is heading south by the weekend, at least according to the forecasters. Should put at least the northern states into a deep freeze. Good riddance, and you all have fun with it.