Never a dull moment in springtime Alaska

Photo credit:  Pioneer Peak Hotshot Crew

A  member of  the Pioneer Peak Hot Shot Crew 

communicates with an aircraft on the Eagle  fire.

So, Thursday night 5/28, a 6.8 earthquake in the Aleutians rattled the south coast of Alaska over a span of almost 500 miles. Very little damage reported but so far that's the biggest earthquake we had this year. It was just one of several natural phenomena in the state recently.

To begin with while everyone was watching those floods in Texas and the hypocrisy involved with Texas congressmen who voted no on aid for Hurricane Sandy a couple of years ago demanded emergency aid for their own state, there are also floods in Arctic Alaska. So in the face of that and the claims President Obama is invading the state under the guise of a military training exercise, the U.S. did invade only they did it with FEMA trailers and trucks and an army of emergency responders. Maybe that fence all those yahoos want to exclude people crossing from the south ought to include Texas as well. Starting a new movement here: "LET TEXAS SECEDE."

But this is about nature in Alaska. Flooding on the Arctic Plain has damaged and closed the Dalton Highway between the Brooks Range and the coast. That's the only supply road to the vast oil fields along that coast.  Floods almost closed the main airport at Deadhorse, the closest one to Prudhoe Bay. June 5 is the earliest the state says it can have the road cleared and repaired. Right now I'd like to take that Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the one who threw the snowball in the Senate last winter and say there's your gorum global warming MF.

May 23 saw a new state record, the earliest date ever when a temperature in Alaska was reported at 90 degrees or higher.  The temperature was observed and recorded in Eagle in the eastern central part of the state where it reached 91^o F. Continuing on, temperatures are expected in the 80s through the following weekend along the south coast as well. More records are expected this weekend including in the town closest to the East Pole.

Meanwhile despite all the heat, it snowed at a field station in the Brooks Range. Temperature last Sunday at Toolik, 71; Friday, snow.

As one could imagine fire danger is high across the state. Fortunately so far there have only been a few small fires, though one near Eagle where the temperature reached 91 the other day, by Friday had grown to 1,800 acres. The Pioneer Peak Hot Shot crew that trains right down the road from here is hard at work on that one. Heavy duty resources like water scooping airplanes and retardant-carrying tankers have been stationed around the state in anticipation of more fires.

Coal seam fires.

As if wildfire danger isn't enough, the Alaska Division of Forestry reported discovering nine coal seam fires burning near Healy close to Denali National Park. These fires burn underground along coal seams sometimes for as long as a hundred years. Every once in a while one breaks through to the surface. They are very difficult to extinguish.By Friday they had burned over more than 700 acres.

Meanwhile it came to light this week that Kodiak Island has reached nearly 100 percent powered by renewable resources, wind and hydro.

Ever notice that every once in a while when you think you have it all figured out, nature rears up and lets you know who's in charge here?

Record date for 90 degrees 

Wildland fire roundup for Friday May 29 

Alaska DNR- Division of Forestry facebookpage

Kodiak Island renewable energy

Modern oil spill cleanup technology applied to California spill

The industry term for it is "best available technology."

You have to wonder if this is Shell's plan for a spill in the Arctic.

It is such a damn shame that every time there's a spill, for all their promises and contingency plans, oil companies are chronically slow to respond, with inadequate equipment and try to spin  the best possible scenario for what they've done.

One thing I learned in 12 years of working in the world of oil spill response is that oil spills do not get smaller. Industry consistently gives a low estimate of the original spill and then has to adjust upward as the travesty unfolds.

The original estimate for this spill along the coast of California was about 20,000 gallons. Tuesday the company said it was more like 105,000 gallons. Smart money is that the spill will eventually be larger even than that.

And, what is the most effective way to clean it up?  Forget all those high tech skimmers and booms, this oil is being collected in five-gallon buckets. And it took several days for that to start because initially volunteers were prevented from going to work on the oil. There are reasons for that; spilled oil is considered a hazardous material and OSHA and EPA demand that workers have specific training. Those agencies also demand that workers wear adequate protective gear. Volunteers were just allowed to work on the oil over this past weekend.

Look at the guy in the picture.  He is wearing leather or fabric shoes, when oil resistant boots are required. Shorts? The guy has oil on his leg up to his shorts. Gloves? Those look like cotton and would be very absorbent helping to confine the oil against the skin on his hands.  Oil can cause severe problems for people who get it on their skin. This guy is just a time bomb waiting for the effects of the oil on his body. Who knows what he is inhaling from that oil as fresh as it is. And, you have to believe everybody else who is working on the spill is pretty much dressed the same way.

Given the warm temperatures normal along the California coast, it can be expected the lighter ends evaporate fairly quickly. But as those vapors rise they contain carcinogens that people there are breathing and most often the damage doesn't show up for years.

This is all indicative of one company and an industry that is in no way ready to handle an oil spill. According to MSNBC this company has been fined for oil spill violations at least 10 times in the last decade in four other states. The company, Plains All American, based in Houston, has been called one of the the "worst violators" by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration.

Every spill exposes the inadequacy of the industry to perform any sort of cleanup.  The company has claimed it has collected 20 percent of the spilled oil. That is an outrageous claim. Best recovery rates with good equipment usually come in a little more than 10 percent and looking at what's going on there, it's doubtful this operation is doing any better than that.

It is really an outrage that in 2015 after lessons learned from massive spills like Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon and thousands of smaller ones that people still have to pick up oil in five-gallon buckets. A friend of mine did that from his fishing boat during Exxon Valdez and it looks like the technology hasn't improved much. Better technology exists, better collection methods exist though none get more than the 10 or 11 percent normal recovery despite the claims of industry contingency plans. There are also some effective techniques and equipment for protecting shore from oil.  None of that is evident in any of the photographs of this spill so far.

We are facing a huge challenge with Shell preparing to drill in the Arctic and the proposed Keystone pipeline, not to mention aging, deteriorating pipelines all over the place, just like the one that ruptured off California. I guess we just save our five-gallon buckets against the day it happens close to home.

And just an aside, juduging by the color of those buckets it looks like the only one making a profit here is Home Depot, but unfortunately there isn't a Home Depot within 500 miles of where Shell plans to drill in the Arctic.

Oil spills and deja vu

Grass banks, wetlands and the Delta Blues

One more reason to stay off the internet

Mulched!

Surfing during my morning routine today and I came across a post on Facebook about recycling gardeners can do. I am not fanatic about recycling, but if I can do it without too much trouble I will. There was the usual information about composting and about using containers we usually throw away for growing-pots and I kind of skipped over those, most of which I had seen before.

Then something in the mulching section jumped off the page. The writer suggested pine cones would make good mulch. Whoa, I have a whole yard full of spruce cones to rake up and dump somewhere. What if?

I have been putting most of the plants outside during the day for the past week to harden them for full time life in the big dirt. When I walked out today with the first pot, I glanced around the yard and for the first time, all those dingy brown cones stood out from the background as if they were shiny gold.

A peck basket as I remember them.

I spent the next two hours on my hands and knees moving through the yard harvesting these little mulch nuggets. I collected about two pecks. When was the last time you heard that measure of volume? A peck is a unit of dry measure holding two gallons or eight quarts. It takes four pecks to make a bushel. My handy Apple conversion app doesn't even list pecks and bushels. But I remember those baskets well because that was the standard for our pay the summer I worked harvesting produce on a farm. If memory serves, and it often doesn't any more, we were paid something like 45 cents per peck picked. Peas, squash, potatoes, sometimes corn and sometimes apples.

Back to the present, those tiny spruce cones might as well have been gold nuggets the way they drew me to them. Finally with knees and back aching, I stood up and took my buckets of cones, only then realizing nothing was planted permanently yet so it was hardly worth spreading mulch.

Then I spotted the lonely little lilac where just the day before I had cleared all the weeds out around it, built up a little rock barrier and then spread some of that brand new topsoil – a good victim for experimentation. Mulching accomplished and I am looking forward to seeing that bush thrive. And, in this process I recalled a song from early in my youth. There are worse ways to start a day even if it is already two hours behind schedule. I am retired. What schedule?



If you're feeling nostalgic the way I did when I got carried away writing about bushels and pecks, here's the Doris Day song "A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck."

I ran this post past my therapist which I do sometimes just to upset her day. Her response was, "You have a serious case of attention deficit disorder." I told her I know that already and asked her to tell me something I didn't know.

"You are a very strange man," she wrote.

Scarecrows dressed in the latest style

You don't bother me at all.

Stylish or not, I don't think this fake owl is nearly as frightening as it is supposed to be. It certainly didn't deter that female Pine grosbeak when she paused for a breather.

Actually she and her mate who have been hanging around all summer seem pretty fearless, owl or not. I think they are nesting in the big spruce at the back of the house. One or both stop by just about every day and poke about in the yard, still finding spilled sunflower seeds left over from winter.

They are pretty cavalier even about me. I have walked to within a couple of feet of them and sometimes they will just stay put or at the most flutter off a few feet and go back about their business. I kind of like them hanging around giving me company while I work in the garden, my two friends. They don't demand much.

I do worry a little about the neighbor's cat that wanders into the yard fairly regularly though. I have seen the remains of a few birds over the years that I am pretty sure that cat killed. I chase him when I see him and following a suggestion from a woman gardener, after dark I play wolf and mark my territory around the garden which seems to keep him away. Maybe it will help protect the birds as well.

I'm expecting to see young ones any day now and if they get to the ground before they can fly well and before they gain some protective fear, they would make easy pickings for the cat. I look at the BB gun in the closet and wonder, but I am pretty sure if I shot it, there would be a row in the neighborhood.

Maybe I need to dress a scare-cat in the latest style.

Shoveling dirt in the hot sun, I fought …

After the big party, the raised boxes are filled  and ready for planting. Waiting for the band and the pizza.

My daughter even brought my grandson by to help but I
think he ate more dirt than he shoveled.

Well the party went off without a hitch. All the raised garden boxes filled without a hitch in a little more than two hours. I really am feeling better with all this exercise. There's something about rocking out with Lady Gaga while doing hard physical labor. "We could write a bad romance …" Finished just in time for beer, pizza and the basketball playoff game.

And as expected, I got to do most of the shoveling by myself. Except for a little help from my grandson, although I think he ate more dirt that he shoveled. Still was a treat to see him and the big smile he had for me.

Took a break fro a ride, his first on a
four-wheeler. He liked it.

Going to check the overnight ground temperature out there and if it's more than 55 degrees and the air temp doesn't drop below 40 it might be time to plant a few of the ones I've been hardening the past couple of days. So far one night in  a row where the low was higher than 40.

I have potatoes that could go and maybe some onions and beans. Tomato plants are big enough now that I can put one in the upside down planter and hang it too, but indoors.

All told a satisfying day. And I do have to hold back a little and not get all excited about taking plants outside quite yet. We could still have a snow. So it goes.

How an introvert throws a party

Introverts un-unite: suppose you gave a party and nobody came

All we have to do is move five yards of soil from over here to over there. Let's get down and par--taaay.

So, today I went on Facebook and Twitter with a party invitation. "Party tomorrow, pizza and beer, bring your own shovel," knowing full well no one is going to show up. At least the two other times I made an invitation to a party here (one was when I had two cords of wood to split) no one came.

It was after I had posted it and it had been up a while, I realized what I had done. I have invented the perfect introvert's party, offer a huge amount of work for no more than pizza and beer. I bet even a live band wouldn't attract anybody. I mean all we have to do is move five yards of that rich Matanuska Valley topsoil from over here to over there. What could be more fun? Ha. I got lots of "likes" and a couple of comments but no interest whatsoever in coming by and helping out. Of course, it's planned for a weekday as well, which does nothing to add to the attraction. And no one will have to hear the introvert's lament: "I'm here, I'm uncomfortable, I want to go home." Problem with being the host is you are stuck.

It's all right. I wasn't looking forward to company anyway. I will fire up the boom box, put on my Lady Gaga T-shirt, pick up my shovel and go to town on it. Chain gang songs work well. "I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine, loaded 16 tons of number nine coal and the straw boss said 'well bless my soul'…" Belafonte had some good ones too.

I will have a good long job to do with the mental freedom to plan my next party. Should be around August when the guy brings firewood. Y'all invited to that one too.

It's all right to be an introvert as long as you keep it to yourself

Springtime visitors

Garden puttering the other day, the pair of Pine grosbeaks that's been hanging around came by to kibitz. I've seen them splash in melt water even in winter so I put out the bird bath for them. Then, the next day look who showed up. The female grosbeak watched from her tree perch for several minutes.

Although it was suggested, I don't think the chickadee is landing on the rim of the bird bath. Her wings would be spread. Just before I hit the shutter she was perched on the rim. For some reason I think she hopped. She is looking at her reflection and maybe that spooked her, also another chickadee had just taken off. Totally surprised me when I saw her feet in the air in the photo. I have other (fuzzy) pictures of her taken both before and after this one and she is perched on the rim in both.

Meanwhile the female grosbeak sat in a tree branch watching for several minutes. Later in the evening she came down to the garden. The robin showed up the next day.

I've been trying to follow the grosbeaks to see where they might have  a nest. I think it's high up in one of the two huge spruce trees in the side yard but can't be sure.

It's getting very green in the house with most of the plantings from last week pushing shoots up through the soil now. I may have to start transplanting into larger vessels soon.

Hey teach, remember me?

There are a couple of posts on this blog about the effects we can have on people and not even know it, how an action creates an effect, maybe even years downstream.

A kind word, an interest in something that another picks up on, a random act of kindness, or a career of helping youngsters develop as a teacher might do. Only once in a while do those who create those situations ever see the results and when they do, it is immensely gratifying and a source of pride, a source for a smile, maybe even a tear or two.

My friend Gail Somerville taught in the Watts area of Los Angeles for 11 years in the late 60s and early 70s. Then she moved to Anchorage and taught there for another 35 years.

Just recently totally out of the blue she received an email from a former student, someone who is now around 50 years old and had been in her third-grade class in Watts in 1972.

Let that email speak for itself:

"Hiiiiiiiiiii Ms. Somervillle.... I'm crying. I'm sooo happy to see you. This is Terri …. You were my 3rd grade teacher at 95th street school. Ummmm 1972 I think. You were my absolutely favvvvvvorite teacher throughout school. Me and another classmate always speak about 95th and the good old days. Those were fond memories. You had all the animals in your class. Especially the baby chicks. And the snakes. I would win the spelling bee contest you had. I remember I spelled " received RECIEVED. And you knew I got that one wrong on my paper, but you asked me to spell it out loud and I spelled it correctly. You still gave me an "A"... And you let me win the spelling Bee contest.... I loved you in my heart ALLLLLLLL these years. . You took us to the malls and Lion Country Safari. We went so many places I can't remember. But I know you were the first to expose me to a lot of things, People, places outside our neighborhood that my parents back then couldn't expose us to. Thank you for being the loving kind person you were to me and all of your students...I will try to find a picture of me in grade school....

Much luv Terri [smile emoticon]"

Now think of this, think of all the youngsters who have passed through Gail's classes in more than 40 years of teaching and all the kids who have passed through all the classes. Could anyone possibly remember each student she ever taught? Gail has no recollection of this particular student. No recollection of her in class and yet she had such a profound effect on a third grader's life. If she had this powerful influence on one such student just imagine how many others have the exact same feelings to some degree or another.

Ponder too, the neighborhood where that child lived and went to school and where Gail was teaching and the general impression of what the Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles is to most of us even today. It was a tough place to teach and a tough place to be a child growing up.  It was also a place where a teacher could have a positive influence on a great number of children and an email out of the past from a former student confirms it. Consider that, too, against the background of what has been going on in several American cities over the past week or so.

And, too, imagine how that makes the teacher feel. No need to imagine, here is what Gail had to say about it:

"Getting a letter like this serves, again, as a special reminder that we usually never know who our actions and words will have an impact on, so it is important, especially as teachers, to be careful in how we treat other people.  She said she was crying.  Now I am crying while grinning from ear to ear.  I am so touched.   :)"

Pay it forward

Birds and boys