Only in Alaska... again

Seen today:  A full stretch limousine towing a trailer loaded with four-wheelers.  Does it get any better than that?  Maybe. How about a stretch limo jacked up over huge mud-bogger tires.

Showdown at High Latitude

Blue areas are off limits, yellow will be open to leasing. Apparently
because just a few Eskimos, walrus and seals live there, the Arctic
Ocean is fine for drilling.  That was the same kind of thinking that
led to the name "Seward's Icebox" when Alaska was first purchased.
(Map from gCaptain website)

Forces are gathering for what could be an epic collision in the Arctic.  So many forces are moving at once it can only be a matter of time before an explosion.

It began earlier this spring when NOAA reported ice in the Bering Sea was thicker and farther south than average.  As a result of this ice, Shell Oil Co., delayed its assault on the Chukchi Sea for a few weeks.  Then a week or so ago NOAA reported Arctic sea ice had shrunk to the lowest June extent ever.  This is huge for the polar bear population because it means they have to swim farther and farther between ice floes in order to hunt.

On top of the ice news,  Shell's two drill rigs that had been outfitted in Seattle left there early this week, heading north to begin exploratory drilling off the coast of Arctic Alaska.

While they were under way, the U.S. Secretary of  the Interior announced the government was going to open "targeted oil leasing" offshore in the Arctic Ocean across the entire north coast of Alaska.  In the process the secretary said he saw no indication there could be an oil spill in that area.

Today Alaska media reported the Greenpeace ship Esperanza had docked in Kodiak on its own way north to watch Shell operations and to do some baseline study of  the Arctic environment.  The crew was checking in with the Coast Guard at Kodiak apparently discussing their plans for their Arctic voyage.

Baseline studies are important.  In another place where an oil spill could never happen, Alaska's Prince William Sound, when a spill did happen, there was very little in the way of baseline data available to document what had been there before the oil covered everything.  If you can't prove what was there, you can't prove what was lost.

There was no Arctic pack ice to deal with in Prince William Sound, a condition that is probably the most dangerous contingency in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.  As far as I know, no oil rig has ever had to withstand the forces of millions of tons of pack ice moving and pressing against it. What could possibly go wrong in that scenario?

The Secretary of the Interior's affirmations are in no way reassuring and oil industry assurances are laughable. After all, even after the lessons of Exxon Valdez,  when another spill that could never happen occurred from a well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, the contingency plan approved by the secretary's department for the area and the response showed nothing had been applied from lessons learned in the Alaska spill.  In fact the Gulf of Mexico contingency plan would work better in the Arctic with its guidance on how to deal with walruses and seals.  What is in Shell's contingency plan for the Arctic, one has to wonder -- how to deal with Niger River crocodiles? What is known is that both the earlier spills took huge amounts of equipment shipped in over long distances from far-away sources.  Just reaching a spill in the Arctic in winter should be a cause for concern, let alone what effect a cleanup effort could possibly have in pack ice.

I have more than 15 years of experience in oil spill response including some training in the Arctic environment at Prudhoe Bay and given that, judging by the equipment observed in the Gulf spill, not much has been improved in the way of equipment or technique since before Exxon Valdez, it seems implausible that anyone can mount an effective response to a spill in the Arctic, particularly in winter. Recalling the thousands of boats that worked on the Exxon spill, it is difficult to imagine Shell's small fleet of supposed response vessels can have any effect at all.

With ice pushing from one direction,  Shell and the rest of the oil industry pushing from another with government help, climate change altering expectations, Greenpeace sniping from the sidelines, Alaska Eskimos concerned about subsistence wildlife and facing an oil company well- known for overrunning native population concerns in Africa, even the most massive blowout protector ever conceived is not going to contain all these pressures.

Snakes are "Born This Way"

A couple of years ago a cobra escaped from its enclosure at the Bronx Zoo in New York City.  While it was on the loose, a very clever person began tweeting the snake's adventures as it imaginatively toured the city, stopping for a bagel here, hoped to catch a Yankees game and several other wonderfully imagined adventures.  Eventually zookeepers found the snake in the snake house and returned it to its habitat.  Since then when the mood strikes, the Bronx Zoo Cobra tweets an update.  Today was the best so far.  A group of second graders were studying snakes and to make it interesting, the teacher helped them rewrite the lyrics to Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" to highlight the equality and acceptance of snakes.  Just sit back and enjoy it.

Catch up and keep up with the Bronx Zoo Cobra here.

Not just another Iditarod book

A year's worth of work for the next Iditarod book:  The First 10 Years.

I get to say that because I wrote the first one.
      In 2011 I was approached to join a group of people who wanted to put together a book celebrating the first 10 years of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Those were the days when the goal was as much to get to Nome as it was to win.

When I received that photo today, it made me wonder, how many of us when we pick up a book even think about what went into it from conception to those pages we are reading.  That photo shows where it is today, less than two weeks before it has to go to the publisher. Of course most of it is in the computer, the way publishers want to receive it these days.  Even that has changed in the last 40 years.

Those piles on the table include stories written by mushers themselves, family members, volunteers, villagers along the way and a few by writers who have covered and written about the race over the years.  My small part of it was to write profiles of three of the winners of the first 10 races.  There were only seven of them because one fellow won it three times in those 10 years.

In addition to the mushers, there are profiles of some of the famous lead dogs, profiles of some favorites who did not win the race (see the blog post here about 200,000 miles by dog sled), a history of the trail and of the race, a scholarly account tracing the lineage of the Alaska husky all the way back into the ancestral roots in Siberia, original art work along with period photographs, and probably many other subjects I don't know about.

Through it all a woman named Raine Hall had to beg, cajole, pressure, massage egos, suffer disappointments and persevere in her chore making sure everything was written and organized for the production  Those piles of paper on that dining room table are hers, the result of more than  a year's work with the disparate souls who are writing this book, some of them even now pushing the deadline.  July 1 it is supposed to go to the University of Alaska Press. How long after that it will appear it is anyone's guess; I have not even heard a title yet, but that's all right.  The book will for sure get its fair share of publicity on this blog, so, as they say, watch this space closely.

I just thought considering if you come to this blog you probably read, it would be interesting to open an insight into what goes into that tome you read before it gets to the store or Amazon or wherever you find your reading material these days.

Wild roses attempt to take over neighborhood

This field is about 30 feet wide and goes 100 feet back into the forest.

This one must be 8 feet tall.

They are amazing this year.  Turning the whole forest a bright pink.  Not much else to say, the pictures tell the story.  I meant to call them Prim, from those games books, you know.

Sunshine came softly through my window today

Oriental lilly grown from a bulb.

Well actually, it didn't, but it did the three days before that.  And look what popped out.  That's an oriental lilly I actually grew myself from a bulb.  Awesome.  The other picture is the lilac in bloom,  fun days with this.

And even those weren't all that popped up.  I saw the Solitary Man today.  That was the first time in a long time.  Mostly I just don't travel in that area at the times I usually saw him, so it's me, not him.  So good to know he is still alive and kicking. He was walking down the hill from town toward the island between the highway lanes where I think he lives.  Nice to know there is some kind of constant in this world.  All health to him.

Lilac, first ever bloom here.

He wasn't the only critter missing from life these days who popped up today either.  I saw the first Steller's jay I have seen since moving to this neighborhood almost eight years ago.  Just caught a glimpse of him in the woods as I passed.  Maybe some peanuts will lure some closer to the house.  The jays were our favorite visitors on the deck at our house in the last town.  Here's an older post about them.

All in all a good day for popping up all around.

All right, who pissed off Mother Nature?

Flood waters from the Matanuska River approach the Old Glenn Highway at
about Mile 15, June 23, 2012.

UPDATE:  As if all that below wasn't enough, now we have flooding from both the rivers I live between.  No danger here, but just the same.  Is this the beginning of the down slope from solstice to solstice that's  supposed to end Dec. 12?

A group of climbers moves up to
left of the avalanche chute. Where
Japanese climbers died.
(National Park Service photo)

EARLIER POST:

Holy mackerel!  So the farmers and I were lamenting the cold May and early June.  Then the sun came out and all hell broke loose.

First, Thursday an avalanche on Mount McKinley killed four Japanese climbers. 

Then the night before last we had thunder and lightening in the area, a rare occurrence in Southcentral Alaska. I may have witnessed maybe half a dozen such storms in the last 40 years here.

Right after that the forest fires started up.  One 30 miles south of Fairbanks may force the state to close the main highway between Anchorage and Fairbanks.  All told there are 221 wildfires burning across the state right now.  Here is an interactive map that shows them.  You can click on the 32 fires located on the map to obtain more details.  

Cleveland ash cloud visible
in the distance. (Alaska Volcano
Observatory / U.S. Geological Survey webcam)

I am a little worried for a friend of mine who will travel between Denali Park and Fairbanks tomorrow.  She is on one of those tours where everything is scheduled to the minute and has to get to Fairbanks to ride the riverboat and then fly home.  If the highway remains closed it could alter those plans some. Welcome to Alaska.

But, back to nature. After all that, today a volcano erupted. It was Cleveland Volcano pretty far out of the way in the Aleutian Islands, but enough of an ash cloud can disrupt air travel.  Go here for more details.

Late in the evening the Alaska Volcano Observatory reported the ash cloud had reached an altitude of  35,000 feet.

Was it something we said?

Almost-summer doldrums

A single rose grows in the brush pile.

Lilac just about ready to pop.

Watching the garden this year, something didn't seem right.  Since I planted everything outside it seemed like very little changed.  It was like all growth stopped. There of course is the perspective comparison effect, but nothing seemed any bigger than it was when they went out in the first place.

A sigh of relief yesterday.  I am not the only one.  This valley where I live is famous for its farming, and the newspaper yesterday had an article saying all the farmers are seeing the same thing, no growth.  Much more serious for them, as that's their income.  Mine are just a few ornamental flowers.

Oriental lilly about to bloom.

The article put the blame on weather.  After an unusually warm April, May was cooler than normal and it slowed most of the plant growth on the farms and in the garden.  Green Day was just about average but for most of the month temperatures were more in the 40s and 50s, rather than in the 50s and 60s.  As a result not much grew.  So far in June it has been overcast, rainy and cool as well.  Until today.  In defiance of the forecast, the sun came out today. Here's hoping it sticks around for a while and things warm up to good growing temperatures.

In the meantime the wild roses have bloomed all over the property and a few plants in the garden are showing signs of life.  Some of the pea plants are 18 inches tall now.

Can you see it?

Plus, a sunny day allowed the application of paint to the brush-hauling trailer.  The bare wood needed some protection and I was feeling a little creative so it now has a nice coat of camo to hide from what, I have no idea.

Random notes on rainy days, along with some sprots nooz

I watch at most three horse races a year.  It's not too difficult to guess which three.  Saturday was the Belmont Stakes and as the announcers stretched their imaginations to fill the seemingly infinite time they were on the air before the race, I had to wonder why for every one word they said about the 12 horses set to run the race, they said 10 about the horse that wasn't there.  We get it. No triple crown this year. Incidentally I saw Secretariat run once at Arlington near Chicago. Who would have thought a horse could be charismatic?

Among other features they tried, one included the announcement that Ryan Seacrest will help with NBC's Olympic coverage.  Ryan Seacrest?  Now there's someone credible in the athletics world.  What's he going to do, announce the judging in the hair styles competition?

Observed a teen couple walking down the street today.  Both had a lock or two of their dark hair colored either red or blue and both dressed all in black.  On the back of the boy's shirt in white on black was a traditional skull and crossbones.  The girl wore on her back a cuddly looking panda bear backpack.  I predict a short relationship.

It rains just enough to prevent painting but not so much that I don't have to water the garden.

New politically correct language is out today.  Can't say water level rising any more when referring to the warming and rise of oceans. Supposed to say recurrent flooding.  That may take an adjustment when parts of both coasts go under water permanently.  Also not supposed  to say "fat cats" when referring to Wall Street.  It hurts their feelings.  The same folks who brought us that rule also don't allow the adjective "wealthy" anymore.  "Job creators" is what Republicans will use to describe the rich from now on. 

Rummy now wants to get rid of more teachers, police and firefighters.  That will fix the economy for sure.  He asks didn't we learn anything from the Wisconsin recall election?  Yeah, we learned you can buy an election. And someone pointed out that right now the government can somehow borrow money at a profit because interest rates on bonds have dropped into negative territory.  I should have paid more attention in math class. And still all the jobs bills and infrastructure repairs are stalled in Congress, which then puts the blame on the president.

Over in New Zealand Lady Gaga suffered a concussion when a dancer accidentally hit her in the head with some kind of pole he was swinging.  She went on and finished the show.

And on television four more sitcoms have been premiered, all dealing with that exciting theme of 20-somethings and their sexual adventures.  NOW I know why there is an off button on the TV.  My DVR which often is in the neighborhood of 80 percent full has suddenly dropped to less than 40 percent.

And if we lose police what will we do about the gang problem?

In Alaska, the state just allowed some kind of corporation to contribute as much money as it wants to a political campaign and some of our legislators are hinting at the idea we also have too many teachers, firefighters and police officers. Guess which party will benefit from that. Meanwhile three bears have had to be killed in Anchorage because of threatening behavior, one of them a grizzly not too far from my daughter's house. Wonder what will happen when there aren't enough cops around to shoot all the dangerous bears. And we aren't even at the solstice.

And about that Japanese Tsunami litter bearing down on Alaska coasts: Someone and then a headline writer expressed extreme surprise that it was happening.  Um, we have been picking up Japanese and other flotsam off the beaches from California to Alaska at least since the 1950s.  I even have some of it hanging as art at the East Pole.  And some more worked by an artist friend into Christmas tree decorations. Hello.

Because of the dangerous distraction caused by texting with smartphones, state after state has outlawed it.  Tonight there was a commercial for some kind of car that among other features has a dashboard screen on which you can do web searches with Bing.  Just sayin'.

Oh, and on a final note get this:  Remember the Seinfeld episode where Elaine  told a tiresome mother, "maybe the dingo ate your baby"?   Well a coroner has finally ruled the dingo really did eat the baby.

Seems like you can't win with this gardening stuff

Buds on the newer lilac

Last night a friend from my days at sea told another friend it just isn't right for a captain to be gardening.  I can see that point, but the heck with it.   Don't really have a choice right now.  Last year one friend said, enough already, with the garden photos and posts, especially the ones about peas.  Then last night another friend asked why there aren't any up to date pictures of the garden.  Gees.  So today I went out with the camera and posted nine new photos to the Garden 2012 gallery.  If you don't want to see them, don't look. It's as simple as that.

What else did I do today?  Check this out.   Look at the post that starts out "there ain't no hammer..."

Culture clash in bear country

This is probably the best book about living alone in the woods.

Watching "Alone in the Wilderness" on public TV tonight there was film of Dick Proenneke crawling into an empty bear den in the spring.  It reminded me of another time when a fellow named Jimmy Huntington described in his book "On the Edge of Nowhere" how he did that once and three bears came out of it. He dispatched them all.

And that reminded me of a day during the Exxon Valdez oil spill when I was required to take an eight-hour training course, mostly on health and safety before we could go to work.  In the course of the day a cute little industrial hygienist from California gave a talk on bear safety.  Now what this little sweetie from warm country knew about bear safety we had to question, but she soldiered on.  At one point she held up a can of bear spray and that brought a few snickers in the audience.  She stopped and said, "no, really, it works."  That brought more snickers of disagreement.

"OK," she challenged, "has anybody here ever encountered a bear?"

A few of us raised our hands tentatively, not really wanting to join the argument.

But a young fellow from a Yukon River village took up the challenge and answered her question.

"I was going through some thick brush," he said, "and came to this little clearing. Just as I did, a bear came out of the brush on the other side of the clearing."

"What did it do?" she asked.

"It charged me," he said.

Now she was showing some realistic amazement.  "What did you do?"

After all, the fact that he was in the class was irrefutable proof he had survived the encounter.

He paused for just a moment,  looked around at his buddies, all of whom had probably had a similar experience, and said very calmly, "I shot the son of a bitch."

She looked dumbfounded, had no response,  put her can of bear mace away and went on to another subject without mentioning bears again.

There is one other sort of corollary to the story.  Later in the oil spill when most work was being done on beaches, the industry hired bear guards.  Many of them were not Alaskans or outdoors people in general and inexperienced around bears except what training they received before they were posted. One problem was they were not allowed to carry guns.  One day one of the guards with his can of bear repellant saw a bear about a quarter of a mile off. Apparently thinking bear repellant worked the same way insect repellant worked, he sprayed himself thoroughly with the stuff.  This immediately incapacitated him and he had to be medevaced to a hospital.  This sounds like one of those wilderness style urban legends, but almost a year later I was able to confirm the story with a nurse at the hospital where he was treated.  People who have heard the story mostly allow as how it was probably fortunate this guy was not given a gun to deal with bears.  Who knows what he would have shot?