During an interview with an Iditarod winner the other day, the subject of another musher came up, someone who had not trained his dogs very well. Apparently the dogs were difficult to control sometimes and occasionally would chase after a raven, taking the driver on a wild ride.
It all reminded me of an experience some time ago, when a friend of mine scratched from the Iditarod fairly early in the race which left him not too far from the road system. He left the team and flew out, if I remember properly, for some medical attention.
A week or so later he asked me to go with him to bring the team out. The idea was we would drive as close as we could and then take a small team down a frozen river to the settlement where he'd left his outfit. Then he would drive his team back to the road and I would take the small team we came in with.
The trip as I recall was only about 10 miles or so by dog team and on a beautiful, bright day we made it to the settlement with no problem. My friend said he had some organizing to do and it would take some time to harness all the dogs and suggested I take the five-dog team and start back and he would catch me pretty quickly since he was driving 16 and I had only the five.
That sounded fine with me and I headed the dogs back onto the trail we had arrived by. As we moved along, the dogs were lollygagging and I let them, just moseying along figuring my friend would catch up any time and once he passed us the dogs world perk up and follow him.
The trial was pounded down from the surrounding snow which left a berm two or three feet high on each side. We were kind of traveling in a groove. Ahead I noticed a dark spot on one of the berms. The dogs saw it too. Turned out it was a little bird of some sort and on the approach of what to it probably looked like a pack of wolves it took off and flew straight down the trail, low, between the berms.
The dogs lurched into a run so fast they almost threw me off the sled. For whatever reason the bird didn't leave the trail for what I would guess was about three miles with the dogs in hot pursuit. It could have been it was flying so low between the berms it couldn't see anywhere to divert off the trail. The bird finally gained enough altitude to fly off the side of the trail and the dogs slowed down, but the run had taken some of the soup out of them and they settled into a nice easy trot the rest of the way.
We reached the parking area and I turned the sled over and tied it to the truck while they rolled in the snow and settled down. I found them some snacks and let them chew on those for a while. I was sitting on the turned-over sled sipping a Pepsi when my friend drove up with his full Iditarod team. At first he said he was glad to see me. He'd thought I had lost the trail somehow. Then he began to realize I and the five dogs had beaten his fancy 16-dog team. How did you do that, he demanded.
I never said a word about the bird. Now, this fellow was known to be very excitable so I smiled at him and very calmly told him, maybe the dogs respond to me better. He mumbled and grumbled the whole way home in the truck while I just whistled a bird song as I watched out the window.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
One amazing moon
Driving the old road home tonight, almost totally focused on the sides watching for moose, but with one eye on the little digital thermometer in the car, not particularly happy with it dropping about a degree per mile. The little photo shows the final talley, 29 below in the driveway. But before that.
Crossing the river, off to the south an unusual color. Not quite the last sliver of the moon just above the southwest horizon and bright flaming orange. Not the light orange of a cantaloupe moon, this was the orange that would do a Syracuse cheerleader proud. And, around the edges bright, fire engine red. Just amazing colors. Something you stare at until you are sure you are driving off the road. But I didn't The little camera in the phone wouldn't get it, but it was good enough so show one degree short of 30 below which it probably is by the time I am writing this.
We are well into the third full week of temperatures below zero and this is the coldest yet. Don't you just love global warming? Hey, I am convinced by the science that says it is happening but there are days that defy that belief. But then try to tell that to folks in Fairbanks where it is 50 below zero tonight.
This was sent to me last night by a friend. It is by that world famous poet Anonymous.
WINTER POEM
It's winter time in Alaska and the gentle breezes blow
Seventy miles an hour at thirty-five below.
Oh, how I love Alaska when the snow's up to your butt --
You take a breath of winter and your nose gets frozen shut.
Yes, the weather here is wonderful so I guess I'll hang around.
I could never leave Alaska. I'm frozen to the ground !
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Second anniversary
On the second anniversary of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that ruled corporations are people and therefore can contribute as much as they want to political candidates, The Other 98% lit up the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. with dollar signs.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Sweet sadness
Laura Dekker, the Dutch girl who at the age of 14 set out to be the youngest person to sail solo around the world, is expected to complete her voyage tomorrow, just about a year after she started.
She is 16 now and headed for landfall on St. Maarten island in the Caribbean (Jan. 21, 2012). Why the Caribbean instead of the Netherlands? That is the not-so-sweet part of the sadness.
My own experience with longer voyages has always involved that. On the last day or so of many I have gone through a period of depression. I finally figured out that my unconscious was telling me the voyage was over and that led to the sadness. I have always liked the going more than the arriving. As Gordon Bach sings, "Half the fun of getting there is going." I make it 90 percent.
Anyway I expect some of this is going through Laura's head today as she guides her Guppy and that island comes up over the horizon. (I know it is she who is coming up over the horizon, but that is not how it looks from the deck.) For her the journey she has lived for a year is coming to an end. And the joy is not in the arrival, but in the going. More power to her.
Sadly she is not making her landfall nearer to home. That is because before she left, the authorities in the Netherlands apparently put her through an awful experience, almost sending her into child protective care and taking her away from her father. This was all because the government didn't think a girl her age should be allowed to make the attempt and her parent allowing her to amounted to something akin to child abuse.
As a result she eventually departed from St. Maarten and that is where she will complete her voyage. On her blog she imagined the party she and her friends and family would have had in their home country, but that the experiences Dutch officials put her through made her not want to return home. So Laura gets a double dose of the Sweet Sadness. One can only hope the jubilation of being the youngest person ever to sail alone around the world will make the sadness sweeter for this remarkable young woman.
Laura Dekker's blog in English
I wanted to steal a picture of her with her boat from somewhere, but instead of that here is her gallery of photos from the trip.
UPDATE: Landfall!
She is 16 now and headed for landfall on St. Maarten island in the Caribbean (Jan. 21, 2012). Why the Caribbean instead of the Netherlands? That is the not-so-sweet part of the sadness.
My own experience with longer voyages has always involved that. On the last day or so of many I have gone through a period of depression. I finally figured out that my unconscious was telling me the voyage was over and that led to the sadness. I have always liked the going more than the arriving. As Gordon Bach sings, "Half the fun of getting there is going." I make it 90 percent.
Anyway I expect some of this is going through Laura's head today as she guides her Guppy and that island comes up over the horizon. (I know it is she who is coming up over the horizon, but that is not how it looks from the deck.) For her the journey she has lived for a year is coming to an end. And the joy is not in the arrival, but in the going. More power to her.
Sadly she is not making her landfall nearer to home. That is because before she left, the authorities in the Netherlands apparently put her through an awful experience, almost sending her into child protective care and taking her away from her father. This was all because the government didn't think a girl her age should be allowed to make the attempt and her parent allowing her to amounted to something akin to child abuse.
As a result she eventually departed from St. Maarten and that is where she will complete her voyage. On her blog she imagined the party she and her friends and family would have had in their home country, but that the experiences Dutch officials put her through made her not want to return home. So Laura gets a double dose of the Sweet Sadness. One can only hope the jubilation of being the youngest person ever to sail alone around the world will make the sadness sweeter for this remarkable young woman.
Laura Dekker's blog in English
I wanted to steal a picture of her with her boat from somewhere, but instead of that here is her gallery of photos from the trip.
UPDATE: Landfall!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
What does it mean to squirrel something away
Partial answer. Anyone who has bird feeders knows the constant battle with squirrels, keeping them from stealing what you put out for birds. For the past year or so, there haven't been many around and the theory was feral cats in the neighborhood or owls or eagles got them. This winter at least one has showed up and I have caught him on a couple of the feeders and often poking around on the ground for what the birds spill. A couple of times I ran at him shouting and that seemed to keep him from trying that feeder again. But squirrels are nothing if not persistent.
Today watching out the window for a while I saw one run across the driveway until he reached the side where the snowblower had left about a foot high cut vertical wall. He disappeared into that wall and then as I kept watching he emerged from the snow 20 feet away at the base of one of the feeders. I would not have suspected squirrels tunnel into snow, but it sure looks like he did. With the snow surface as hard as it is, you have to wonder why make that tunnel when he could just as easily run across the surface. But, by the tracks it looks like he uses it quite often.
Now at times those squirrels have reached the limits of tolerance and to protect the garden one year I bought a live trap that I have never used. I haven't used it around the feeders for fear it might catch a bird, but if the squirrels bother me this year I am thinking that tunnel would be a perfect place to set it. About in the middle, dig down to the tunnel, place the trap and then put everything back the way it was. Have to put some kind of marker in the snow so I can find it again. It would be nice if I could figure some way I could see a signal if the squirrel or something else goes into it. Or, maybe just wait until an ermine catches him in that tunnel. That would take care of it.
Why all this concern over one little squirrel? When I came in from filling the feeders today, I had to write on the shopping list that I need my third 40-pound bag of sunflower seeds this winter.
FOR ALL THE PEOPLE HITTING THIS POST WANTING TO KNOW WHAT 'SQUIRREL SOMETHING AWAY" MEANS: It means to hide something away for use later, as in squirrels hiding nuts in trees to eat later in the winter.
Jerrianne wins! Actually there are four, but one of them went behind the bushes as I shot the picture so I guess he doesn't count.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Epic snowfall
OK, short post. The town where we used to live is experiencing a massive winter. This link is to a package of story, photographs, reader photographs and video of what it is like.
The photo isn't from this year. It is of our house in that town during a similar snow. When it started there was less than a foot of snow on the ground. When it stopped 36 hours later we had received 51 inches. For perspective my son was about 5 feet tall when this was taken.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Saturday morning, January 2012
1 a.m. Thursday: 40 degrees, everything melting, possible rain in the forecast
9 a.m. Saturday: minus 20, severe clear, nothing but that in the forecast.
Sixty degree drop in a little more than 48 hours, yet another Alaska adventure. But, the driveway is finally cleared, birds all over the feeders, woodpecker at one, cloud of redpolls, scattered pine grosbeaks, a chickadee now and then making its wavy approach, a nuthatch waiting in the tree and one fat grouse picking the leavings off the snow on the ground.
Oh, and make it four days out of five with a moose in the road and that doesn't count the three on the way into town yesterday. Man, I wish I had knocked on wood.
It's the time now for the annual January deep cold. Leaving a trickle of water running so it activates the well pump and prevents the line from freezing. Early morning trek into the cold to plug in the car so it won't have to strain too hard to start. Early morning dish washing to trick the water heater into raising the temperature for a good shower later, and even a spare electric heater on in the bedroom. Oh global where is thy warming.
The good news is that a Russian tanker carrying fuel oil and gasoline to Nome, escorted by a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker made landfall overnight saving the city from having to fly in fuel at outrageous prices for the winter. They pushed through 300 miles of pack ice, one night making only about five miles. Add it to Alaska lore. Farther north there are other villages running out of fuel, though, and they won't be able to be reached from the sea. It really makes me wonder if a Shell oil platform farther north has some trouble at this time of year, how any equipment gets there. Oh they have assured us nothing can go wrong.... go wrong ... go wrong.
At least a week of the cold, but you never trust a forecast that far out into the future, go with it, roll with it, ride the rock.
9 a.m. Saturday: minus 20, severe clear, nothing but that in the forecast.
Sixty degree drop in a little more than 48 hours, yet another Alaska adventure. But, the driveway is finally cleared, birds all over the feeders, woodpecker at one, cloud of redpolls, scattered pine grosbeaks, a chickadee now and then making its wavy approach, a nuthatch waiting in the tree and one fat grouse picking the leavings off the snow on the ground.
Oh, and make it four days out of five with a moose in the road and that doesn't count the three on the way into town yesterday. Man, I wish I had knocked on wood.
It's the time now for the annual January deep cold. Leaving a trickle of water running so it activates the well pump and prevents the line from freezing. Early morning trek into the cold to plug in the car so it won't have to strain too hard to start. Early morning dish washing to trick the water heater into raising the temperature for a good shower later, and even a spare electric heater on in the bedroom. Oh global where is thy warming.
The good news is that a Russian tanker carrying fuel oil and gasoline to Nome, escorted by a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker made landfall overnight saving the city from having to fly in fuel at outrageous prices for the winter. They pushed through 300 miles of pack ice, one night making only about five miles. Add it to Alaska lore. Farther north there are other villages running out of fuel, though, and they won't be able to be reached from the sea. It really makes me wonder if a Shell oil platform farther north has some trouble at this time of year, how any equipment gets there. Oh they have assured us nothing can go wrong.... go wrong ... go wrong.
At least a week of the cold, but you never trust a forecast that far out into the future, go with it, roll with it, ride the rock.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Why people knock on wood
Over the New Year's weekend I mentioned to a friend who knows this area that I hadn't seen many moose in the past couple of years. That was when someone should have said, "Knock on wood." Three days in a row, now, I have had to chase moose off the road, two in darkness and one of those a little close for comfort. We had a bit of a confrontation until my car horn got too irritating for him. So it goes.
And if more moose weren't enough, we are now getting pounded by a wind storm. When I came around the curve before the bridge over the river last night, bammo a whiteout of snow blowing up from below and before I could even hit the brakes I slammed into a snowdrift big enough to almost stop the Jeep. Then I had to stop anyway because for a moment I couldn't even see the guard rail next to me.
Intermittent power outages since early this morning, to add to the fun. Already have more snow than I have seen in a whole winter since I moved to this area with more forecast over the week. And, of course, the snowblower is back at the shop while we all try to figure out why it is throwing the transmission drive belt. Temperature rose from a couple of degrees below zero when i left for work yesterday to 34 today. That means all the hard packed snow in the driveway softened up and trying to get out today I almost got stuck with the Jeep in four wheel drive with the trailer toting the snowblower attached. That is not an inviting prospect. When you get a four-wheel drive vehicle stuck it is stuck, there is no easy way out. AAA might get a call before this is done.
Soooo, been up since 7 struggling with this including having to go out in the wind to split some kindling for a fire just in case. Could I get away with telling you the wind blew some of the smaller sticks away? I didn't think so. Would have been fun to report, but it didn't happen. One of those days when it's too windy to haul rock. Still, through all of this, the birds are crowding the feeders. Along the drive this morning there was an eagle trying to buck the wind and he was pretty much standing still in the air, barely holding his own. And the drive to work, beginning with another precarious trip down the driveway still in front of me while I try to catch a quick nap.
The road into town is supposed to be clear and very driveable. Knock on wood.
A BIT OF AN UPDATE: So I wrote "knock on wood" but I didn't knock. As a result, I was able to blast out of the driveway and make it to the corner, but about 200 yards down the road I got the Jeep stuck, in four-wheel drive, in a snowdrift in the middle of the road. There's a broad flat expanse of a gravel yard that the wind was howling across only to build the drift up in the roadway. One car was already stuck and I tried to go around it, unfortunately into a deeper part of the drift. Still, I was about to make it when I saw another truck, a white one with no lights on (so easy to spot in blinding blowing snow) and I stopped, that was it, all four wheels spinning. There were a couple of people around to help the first car so I joined in, then we got mine out and off I went again heading for work.
On the way I learned later a gust of 104 mph hit across the mountains above where I was driving at the time. Again blowing drifting snow brought traffic to a complete halt in a whiteout, only this time on a six-lane 65 mph highway. Scary what was coming up behind me. But, we all got through it. Gusts so hard they moved the Jeep sideways, with that big sail area. So now, all I have to do is get home tonight. Winds are supposed to die down a couple of hours before I leave so I should be all right. Knock on wood. Now if I could just find some wood in this sanitary bland office.
And if more moose weren't enough, we are now getting pounded by a wind storm. When I came around the curve before the bridge over the river last night, bammo a whiteout of snow blowing up from below and before I could even hit the brakes I slammed into a snowdrift big enough to almost stop the Jeep. Then I had to stop anyway because for a moment I couldn't even see the guard rail next to me.
Intermittent power outages since early this morning, to add to the fun. Already have more snow than I have seen in a whole winter since I moved to this area with more forecast over the week. And, of course, the snowblower is back at the shop while we all try to figure out why it is throwing the transmission drive belt. Temperature rose from a couple of degrees below zero when i left for work yesterday to 34 today. That means all the hard packed snow in the driveway softened up and trying to get out today I almost got stuck with the Jeep in four wheel drive with the trailer toting the snowblower attached. That is not an inviting prospect. When you get a four-wheel drive vehicle stuck it is stuck, there is no easy way out. AAA might get a call before this is done.
Soooo, been up since 7 struggling with this including having to go out in the wind to split some kindling for a fire just in case. Could I get away with telling you the wind blew some of the smaller sticks away? I didn't think so. Would have been fun to report, but it didn't happen. One of those days when it's too windy to haul rock. Still, through all of this, the birds are crowding the feeders. Along the drive this morning there was an eagle trying to buck the wind and he was pretty much standing still in the air, barely holding his own. And the drive to work, beginning with another precarious trip down the driveway still in front of me while I try to catch a quick nap.
The road into town is supposed to be clear and very driveable. Knock on wood.
A BIT OF AN UPDATE: So I wrote "knock on wood" but I didn't knock. As a result, I was able to blast out of the driveway and make it to the corner, but about 200 yards down the road I got the Jeep stuck, in four-wheel drive, in a snowdrift in the middle of the road. There's a broad flat expanse of a gravel yard that the wind was howling across only to build the drift up in the roadway. One car was already stuck and I tried to go around it, unfortunately into a deeper part of the drift. Still, I was about to make it when I saw another truck, a white one with no lights on (so easy to spot in blinding blowing snow) and I stopped, that was it, all four wheels spinning. There were a couple of people around to help the first car so I joined in, then we got mine out and off I went again heading for work.
On the way I learned later a gust of 104 mph hit across the mountains above where I was driving at the time. Again blowing drifting snow brought traffic to a complete halt in a whiteout, only this time on a six-lane 65 mph highway. Scary what was coming up behind me. But, we all got through it. Gusts so hard they moved the Jeep sideways, with that big sail area. So now, all I have to do is get home tonight. Winds are supposed to die down a couple of hours before I leave so I should be all right. Knock on wood. Now if I could just find some wood in this sanitary bland office.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
You'd think they'd learn to spell
Most of us since the dawn of the Internet age have received an email promising riches for some reason or other if only we would provide the sender with all our personal information. First of all, the best measure is if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't. But another dead giveaway is the tortured spelling, grammar or syntax. Today an email with this classic arrived:
"I have been diagonalized with Breast and Blood disease which has defiled all forms of medical treatment ..."
DIAGONALIZED ????? DEFILED ?????? Really?
I immediately resplended so I could constructionate to help with this misfortunate's plyght.
"I have been diagonalized with Breast and Blood disease which has defiled all forms of medical treatment ..."
DIAGONALIZED ????? DEFILED ?????? Really?
I immediately resplended so I could constructionate to help with this misfortunate's plyght.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
There IS a place I can be, since I found Serenity
First of all, welcome to the new year. Time to take another ride around the sun. This is a big one that includes a birthday with a zero in it, one I never expected to reach. But not only am I not a decrepit old man, I am ready to give this rock a good ride, ready to embrace that zero rather than fear it. And just 73 days until we reach the Equinox. Only one thing to clear up from the old year and it involves Christmas.
We have all passed those Salvation Army bell ringers, and even when you have just donated in one kettle, the next one encountered produces a bit of guilt and you walk by trying not to make eye contact. You really shouldn't have to, nor should you have to explain, "hey, I gave at the last one." But at one store I entered, the Army cheated. I noticed as walked in there were two gorgeous 20-somethings, smiling, laughing, ringing their bells and collecting money. I managed to get past them when a family stepped between us and I ducked into the store. But, the impression had already been made. Later as I was checking out, I asked for some extra cash back, in change. Then when I passed those women, I happily about filled their little kettle, not sure whether to feel good about making a sizeable donation, or embarrassed for the reason I did it. I just hope that doesn't catch on or next Christmas might break me. And the stores would have to prepare to give change all in one-dollar bills.
That said, yesterday marked the official entry into true January weather around here -- cold and clear. I noticed along the old highway in one section there were several moose tracks, but even more exciting was this was the first time in 2012 I had to wear shades driving into a blazing orange and red sunset. First time that happened since maybe September. You just have to smile recognizing the sun coming back already. And given that sunset, the mountains behind me lighted up with pink and purple alpenglow, all told a beautiful afternoon.
On the way home on a dark. clear moonlit night, I noticed what seemed to be more moose tracks in the same area where I saw them earlier. One grouping seemed to indicate a place where a moose had stepped on and off the road several times within a very short distance. Those are the things that make you look up and sure enough just down the road about to disappear around the next curve, there was a big old moose butt bouncing down the shoulder. I slowed down until I had almost caught up with it. Having learned the hard way not to try passing it on the roadway, when I approached it, I hit the horn instead and that worked as usual. The moose hopped off the road and trotted up into the pucker brush assuring one more safe passing.
So heading on through space for another orbit and this time decorated with shiny new signage that assures the viewer my Honda rocket was "Engineered by Firefly Coach Works." It seems to fit.
Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me
--Firefly theme song by Joss Whedon
We have all passed those Salvation Army bell ringers, and even when you have just donated in one kettle, the next one encountered produces a bit of guilt and you walk by trying not to make eye contact. You really shouldn't have to, nor should you have to explain, "hey, I gave at the last one." But at one store I entered, the Army cheated. I noticed as walked in there were two gorgeous 20-somethings, smiling, laughing, ringing their bells and collecting money. I managed to get past them when a family stepped between us and I ducked into the store. But, the impression had already been made. Later as I was checking out, I asked for some extra cash back, in change. Then when I passed those women, I happily about filled their little kettle, not sure whether to feel good about making a sizeable donation, or embarrassed for the reason I did it. I just hope that doesn't catch on or next Christmas might break me. And the stores would have to prepare to give change all in one-dollar bills.
That said, yesterday marked the official entry into true January weather around here -- cold and clear. I noticed along the old highway in one section there were several moose tracks, but even more exciting was this was the first time in 2012 I had to wear shades driving into a blazing orange and red sunset. First time that happened since maybe September. You just have to smile recognizing the sun coming back already. And given that sunset, the mountains behind me lighted up with pink and purple alpenglow, all told a beautiful afternoon.
On the way home on a dark. clear moonlit night, I noticed what seemed to be more moose tracks in the same area where I saw them earlier. One grouping seemed to indicate a place where a moose had stepped on and off the road several times within a very short distance. Those are the things that make you look up and sure enough just down the road about to disappear around the next curve, there was a big old moose butt bouncing down the shoulder. I slowed down until I had almost caught up with it. Having learned the hard way not to try passing it on the roadway, when I approached it, I hit the horn instead and that worked as usual. The moose hopped off the road and trotted up into the pucker brush assuring one more safe passing.
So heading on through space for another orbit and this time decorated with shiny new signage that assures the viewer my Honda rocket was "Engineered by Firefly Coach Works." It seems to fit.
Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me
--Firefly theme song by Joss Whedon