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.