2017/05/08

Firsts for May 1st

I’ve been meaning to get this brief piece finished and posted since the first couple of days in May but ‘Mr. Murphy’ and outside commitments conspired to make that a pipe dream. Given I now have a bit of free time after completing my last 1,355 steps – I try to put down at least 1,150 steps at the top of each hour from 05:00 to 11:00 with a current target of 10,000 plus daily steps – I decided to get this piece done and posted. My blogging has kinda fallen off across the past four to six months; not sure why other than to observe my creativity just hasn’t been flowing. Of course, dedicating almost a quarter of each hour during the mornings to stepping does eat into my available time and the fact that I am a morning person and hence do my best work before noon only exacerbates this situation.

Anyway, as we rolled into May I was struck by some ‘firsts’ which I’d observed during this time. Some are reoccurring while some are just new activities/observations. One of the former variety involved observing my first American Robin of 2017 on April 24^th in the early morning while walking with my Alaskan malamute (Anana) and my German Shepherd Dog (Qanuk). Actually I heard him – I’m pretty sure it was a male as it was well up in a birch and singing loudly so probably marking territory – first and then was able to visually locate him. There may well have been other robins around earlier but this was the first I’d heard and then seen in 2017. For those of us who observe birds in this area the arrival of robins from the lower 48 signals spring is definitely here.

Another reoccurring observation was awakening in the wee hours of the morning of April 27^th to the ‘tap-tapping’ sound of rain on my metal roof. I love that sound but in a normal year one doesn’t hear it from mid-October to mid-November until April because most precipitation that falls during that time period is snow and the roof has a coating of ice and snow. I look forward to many more upcoming rainy nights as I love to lie in bed and listen to that sound. It also fascinates me to listen to the ebb and flow of the rain rate; in this area we don’t usually get a steady rain but rather experience rain bands of varying density. This can produce what is almost a melody if the bands are spaced in a continual pattern which is repetitive.

As to some firsts that are truly ‘firsts’ on April 30^th I completed 35 consecutive days of 5,000+ steps per day. More than half of said 35 days involved putting down more than 8,000 steps and have helped me push my daily steps to their current 10,612 steps/day average. I’m fighting hypertension and obesity so I had to find some form of exercise which I could, and most importantly ‘would’, do at least six days a week. As of this writing I’m working on 44 consecutive days of at least 5,000 steps a day. Much of the daily morning muscle/joint pain and stiffness is now just a distant memory and I just realized I haven’t had a bout of depression since I began this regime. I saw no weight loss until I reached 9,500 steps per day; now the weight is very slowly beginning to disappear. My goal is to push myself to 12,500 steps per day; given 10,000 steps is the equivalent of around 4.9 miles for me such a goal would see me putting down at least six miles a day. I intend to continue walking at least 1,150 steps at the top of each hour between 05:00 and 11:00 in an effort to keep my system ‘energized’. I’m aware stepping as I do it is not a true aerobic activity but it does ramp up my system and it forces me away from the monitor and into motion once an hour. With luck as I drop more weight I’ll be able to start bicycling which will help my overall condition. Of course, my canine companions love my lifestyle change and are now completely expectant of at least one long walk every day. For anyone interested I use a Garmin Vivofit 2 wrist fitness monitor; the ‘Garmin Connect’ web-page is wonderful for tracking steps, calories burned, hours sleeping and similar!

A final ‘one time first’ for me occurred on April 14^th when I sat in with my good friend Randy during his Friday evening classic rock music show at KTNA. Anyone following this blog knows I spent almost three years doing both newscasts and music shows at KTNA but I decided I’d come to philosophically based parting of the ways with the station at the end of December, 2016. While I’d done shows with other folks sitting in this was the first time the roles were reversed. It felt great to be back behind a mic and during Randy’s two hour show we received three calls complimenting us and our performance. All told it was a lot of fun although given it was a two hour show running until 23:00 it was a bit past my bedtime!

I put together this blog as a kind of celebration of life; not just my own but that of Nature and other folks as well. I’ve been so blessed to experience a two decade dream of living in semi-rural Alaska but coming up on my fourth full year of such an existence I’ve noticed I’m becoming a bit blasé regarding this situation and that both angers and saddens me. I know it is human nature to become ‘used’ to situations but I do not ever want to become ‘used’ to the majesty and splendor of my Alaskan home. If writing this helps me re-energize the awe and wonder I feel almost daily when I walk outside and immerse myself in Alaska’s magic then it has served its purpose. If it does so for others, regardless of where/how they live, then so much the better!

An American Robin atop a black pine at Teklanika campground in Denali NP&P

2017/02/14

Finally…A ‘Real’ Alaskan Winter!

I suppose I’m creating this piece as much to remind me of the winter to this point – one which I’ve thoroughly embraced as my first ‘real’ Alaskan winter – as to share with you some thoughts and images. Without question this winter has been extreme and, no surprise, I’ve learned quite a bit more about typical Alaskan weather conditions in the winter months (November through mid-March). As I write this piece I’m seeing overcast skies with an air temp of 34.7° F (1.5° C) after never dropping below 32.8° F (0.4° C) overnight. Yesterday saw light morning snow become briefly heavy in the early afternoon before mixing with and finally changing over to freezing rain and then just rain. For a while conditions were very severe in terms of visibility and traction on the Spur.

I’ve talked with long time locals who claim freezing rain used to be very uncommon and when it did occur it happened as fall slipped into winter and again when winter finally released its grip and acceded to spring. Yet during my four winters up here I’ve seen the dreaded stuff every winter. But I’m really not complaining as this has been a much more typical south central Alaska winter and in being so we’ve seen extremes. Just three days back I saw -14° F (-25.6° C) in ‘downtown’ Talkeetna and the next morning my large circular bimetallic outdoor thermometer showed -19.5° F (-28.6° C) which was verified by my Davis Vantage Pro 2 wireless weather station. But these temps pale next to the string of four days from January 17th through January 20th when we saw lows on January 18th of -32.1° F (-35.6° C) and on January 19th of -41.3° F (-40.7° C); the high on the 18th was -20.1° F (-28.9° C) and on the 19th we saw just -15.5° F (-26.4° C). Our snow pack was a healthy 32.5″ (82.6 cm) before yesterday’s mess; even though we received 1.5″ (3.8 cm) of heavy, wet snow the warm temps and rain really did a number of the snow depth compressing it to 26.5″ (67.3 cm) which I reported to CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow network) this morning. Looking out my office window I can see water dripping from the snow and ice atop the roof; given there’s no direct sunlight this is due only to the warm temps.

Here, then, is a collage of recent images reflecting my first ‘real’ Alaskan winter; hope you enjoy:

A view of my Escape’s dash showing a fairly cool Saturday morning in ‘downtown’ Talkeetna

The Spur heading out of Talkeetna cloaked in heavy snow

Cool sunrise at my place on Sunday, February 12th

Anana and Qanuk enjoying a brief burst of heavy snow outside our place

A very snowy afternoon on East Barge Drive with Anana (center of image) just disappearing into the snow

Anana by the thermometer which is reading much milder temps!

2016/09/22

Autumnal Anticipations

It’s a cool, damp and dark day yet again in south central Alaska along with being the Autumnal Equinox; I’m taking a break from working a plethora of spreadsheets to look out the window. Uncharacteristically, there’s a fair amount of wind even down close to the ground and combined with the cool drizzle – it is 43.8° F/6.6° C – the yellow and gold birch leaves are rapidly falling to the ground denuding their homes of the last four plus months. Said leaves are forming a yellow carpet which while pretty can be rather slippery when coated with rain. The second floor view from my office window looks south into a portion of the boreal forest which makes up part of my yard and is often home to moose as there are a number of dwarf willows intermingled with the other ground based fauna. Sadly, most of the color change is now just a memory as the weather is feeling more and more like fall. We have seen a morning temperature below freezing just once to this point which probably explains why these conditions seem to be about a week to a week and a half later than I remember.

The view from my office window on the Autumnal Equinox, 2016

Even with the windows closed I can hear the dulcet tones of my wind chimes; it occurs to me I haven’t heard much from them this year but then the thick boreal forest which I live within and stretches for tens of miles in every direction does an excellent job of stopping the wind. It is not uncommon for me to see the tops of birches and spruce – around 35 to 40 feet (10.7 to 12.2 meters) – swaying many feet off center while there is almost no air moving at ground level and even smoke from the burn barrel rises only slightly off vertical. The sky continues its multiple day run of ragged overcast birthing drizzle along with the occasional rain shower. Indeed, we’ve seen 0.96” (2.44 cm) of rain across the last 48 hours. September is this area’s second wettest month of the year averaging 4.2” (10.67 cm) but this September we’ve already seen 4.78” (12.14 cm) of rain which is 113.8% of normal. We still have eight days left in September and we’re forecast to see rain across most of them so it is very likely we could well see 150% of ‘typical’ monthly rainfall.

I, along with most of the locals, am wishing for a ‘real’ Alaskan winter across 2016 – 2017. The previous three winters have set records for the warmest and driest on record. I long to see 5 feet (1.52 meters) of snow pack and taste the raw cold of a -35° F (-37.2° C) morning; while these might seem extreme in a ‘typical’ winter in south central Alaska they are almost ‘normal’. Heck, I’d even deal with a daylong electrical outage if it were caused by a snowstorm dropping 20” (50.8 cm) of fluffy Talkeetna snow. But, as we all know, Mother Nature will do as she will and we’re just along for the ride.

With the advent of autumn I’ve begun my ‘winterization’ routines; this being the fourth such repetition I’m beginning to get the routine down. If the snow holds off for another seven to eight weeks I hope to get a number of blown down trees cut up, sized and stacked for seasoning. My buddy, Sarge, will be visiting for a couple of weeks in mid-October and we have a number of large projects scheduled like building a wood shed and creating my long time longed for ‘aurorium’ from which I can view the aurora borealis in comfort. There a myriad of other smaller projects as well but by the time we’re done I hope to be at a point whereby I’m done with ‘home improvement’ efforts for a while and can instead concentrate on ‘home maintenance’ work.

There’s a comfortable rhythm in this lifestyle; one tied so closely to Nature. My Chickadees, Red-Breasted Nuthatches and similar are now at the feeders continually and I’d guess 85% of the black oilers they select are going into cracks in tree bark and similar as stored food for the upcoming winter. They are also much more vocal when the feeders are empty; while the Nuthatches will dive bomb me chattering away I swear if I held out my hand a few of the Chickadees would alight and scold me vociferously. I was seeing lots of moose a few weeks back but now that hunting season is open they are nowhere to be found. I suspect the bears will soon begin to head up to higher elevations seeking dens in which to sleep away yet another winter. And the days are really becoming shorter now; within a week or so I will remove the last of my light barriers in the master bedroom in anticipation of clear evenings enhanced by the aurora. This flow just seems so natural and peaceful.

Alaska is an amazing place and one which is so closely tied to Nature; I love living up here as do my canine companions Anana and Qanuk. I so enjoy watching Anana come back into the house after her morning ‘constitutional’ to take care of business when the temp first drops below freezing; she has a spring in her step and a glint in her eyes. Qanuk just goes with the flow; as long as he gets outside to run once a day he’s happy. I am blessed to have both of them with me up here and they are a huge part of my life in semi-rural Alaska. And they continually remind me of the importance of living in the ‘now’; no need to worry about the past or the future – just enjoy ‘now’.

Sadly, I have to get back to my spreadsheeting but I also have a warm and peaceful feeling as I hear my Toyo Monitor furnace grumbling as it comes to life. It has run just twice last week; prior to that it was late April when it last fired up. I know I’ll be hearing a lot more of it in the coming weeks and I’ll be supplementing it with some now seasoned firewood in the wood burning stove Sarge and I installed last October. The wind continues to blow the yellow and gold birch leaves around under a dark, ragged cloud cover. Mmmm, this I just another wonderful Alaskan day..!

A view of the unmaintained portion of East Barge Drive perhaps 0.6 miles east of my place; I took this image a couple days back when walking ‘the kidz’

2016/08/15

What’s That Up In The Sky..?!?

Just an hour back I noticed something strange; the windows were actually appearing ‘bright’ and when I peeked outside I could see shadows! A look upward gave me the reason; the sun was actually visible!! I was quite pleased to see it once again and for me that’s unusual as I favor cloudy, cool weather. But this has been a very wet August to this point in semi-rural south central Alaska. This is Monday, August 15^th and it has rained every day this month accumulating 4.18” as of 07:00 this morning. While August is our wettest month the average monthly rainfall is 4.5” which means we’re already at 92.9% of said monthly average yet we are just 48.4% of the way into the month.

Here are some signs of a wet August and the coming fall:

Some already yellow birch leaves floating atop a couple of dying mushrooms

Typical ‘shroom for this area with a non-typical shadow!

Female Spruce Grouse on EBD

Female Spruce Grouse on Easy Barge Drive; when they begin to appear you know summer is winding down

Not sure what the plants are but when the leaves begin to turn brilliant red fall is not too far distant

Very wet boreal forest; the shimmering effect on the plants is due to being coated with rain drops

2016/06/18

Nature’s Dance of Light & Sound

Boiling Clouds Before Storm2 - Fix

Boiling cloud line before a thunderstorm in West Chester, Ohio

As those of you who follow this blog are well aware I am fascinated with weather and gravitate towards the extremes in particular. Growing up in the Midwest I saw all kinds of extreme meteorological conditions from ice storms to heat waves, blizzards to cold snaps and tornadoes to severe thunderstorms. Without question one of my favorite kinds of intense weather involves the aforementioned severe thunderstorms. There is something just so energizing and exciting about powerful storms capable of dropping hail and heavy rain as well as lighting the sky with intense lightning followed by explosive thunder! While living in SE Michigan I became a trained weather spotter for the NWS (National Weather Service) and functioned in that capacity while living in the Cincinnati area as well. I knew when I relocated to south central Alaska I was would see far fewer thunderstorms and those I did experience would be much less intense. We just do not have the necessary long term heating along with sharply defined cold fronts or ‘dry lines’ traveling at high speeds and able to crash into hot, humid air masses. We do get some uplift based on the geography – mainly the many mountain ranges – but these storms rarely reach moderate levels let alone severe. In general our thunderstorms are mainly what some call ‘air mass’ storms which are of mild to moderate intensity, generally form against mountain ranges in the afternoons and quickly fall apart once they push off the front ranges.

I never expected I would so miss strong to severe thunderstorms nor did I realize just how much a part of my daily spring to summer existence was defined by the flash of lightning and consequent rumble of thunder. But as I reflect upon the lack of thunderstorms in south-central Alaska I also remember I was not always so fond of these events. In fact, when quite a bit younger, I was actually terrified of that ‘flash-crash’ sequence so much I couldn’t sleep when thunderstorms were active. To this day I do not why I was so terrified; I’d never had a bad experience with said storms nor did I know anyone who had endured anything negative from such storms with the possible exception of a flooded basement. But there was no denying my fear. It became so bad my father finally decided to intervene; he began to take me out on our back porch when thunderstorms were rolling in and explain to me what they were, how they worked and how to count the seconds from a lightning flash to the resultant thunder as a means of determining a rough range to the lightning (by counting the number of seconds from the flash to the thunder and then dividing by ‘five’ to get the miles away). Thanks to his patience my ungrounded fear slowly bled away and I came to truly love strong thunderstorms.

In fact, my love of strong thunderstorms grew to the point I often would wander outside during such storms just to experience their power and awe ‘up close and personal’. In general this wasn’t really dangerous, although by today’s wimpy standards such behavior would be defined as ‘extremely dangerous’, but a few times I was most definitely ‘in harm’s way’. More than once I’ve smelled ozone after a very close lightning strike; one must be almost ‘danger close’ to be able to perceive this odor. And one time I actually ‘felt’ the remnants of a very strong, close by strike. Given the rain such storms generate I was almost always walking bare foot and this time was no different. I remember the ‘flash-boom’ sequence being almost instantaneous meaning a very close lightning stroke; it was followed by a mild electric shock at my feet. In hindsight I was far too close to said strike but luckily for me all I received was a warning shock..! None of these experiences dampened my enthusiasm for powerful thunderstorms and I still possess said enthusiasm.

Back in May I was awakened around 04:00 by a loud blast; in a nod towards both how few thunderstorms I’ve seen since moving up here and how much I’m becoming an Alaskan upon being awakened I first thought it was an earthquake. But then I heard more thunder off to the WSW and I knew it had been a healthy stroke of lightning from a thunderstorm. Both my canine companions, Anana and Qanuk, appeared at the edge of my bed obviously concerned regarding the sudden, loud noise so early in the morning. I sat up and took a few minutes to assure them everything was fine and it had just been thunder. Then I saw another flash and immediately arose, put on some clothing, went downstairs and out onto the back porch to watch the show. I was only outside for maybe a minute before I came back indoors and liberally applied a coating of ‘Deep Woods Off’ before returning to the back porch with my canine companions. Although both remained a bit skittish regarding the thunder we had a great time. During this it occurred to me I was passing on my father’s wisdom in soothing the dogs and assuring them there was nothing to fear.

Funny how someone could be so terrified of a natural phenomenon, learn to understand and then appreciate it, come to truly revel in its existence and then end up moving away from it and sorely miss its presence. Life is all about choices and their consequences; I knew when I decided to relocate to Alaska I was basically giving up the opportunity to experience severe thunderstorms. I had hoped maybe extreme winter weather might make up for the absence of said storms. While I truly miss strong to severe thunderstorms I also truly love my ‘new’ home so this is one time I’m still ‘okay’ with the consequences of my decision. But I’d be lying if I do not admit to eagerly watching as clouds darken the sky, hoping maybe I’ll once again see that flash and hear the resultant thunder…

Severe thunderstorm over Cincinnati as viewed from a northern suburb (West Chester, OH)

2015/10/20

Wood Stove Installation Adventures…

What has become a regular occurrence – if two years can produce a ‘regular’ anything – my college friend Sarge flew into Anchorage the last day of September to spend 17 days. He was a regular partner on my many trips to ‘The Great Land’ from 1996 through 2005 and drove the 26’ U-Haul van from SE Michigan to Talkeetna when I relocated in August of 2013. As such he has seen most of what I’ve seen in this majestic state so his visits since I moved up here have centered upon project work. Each year I assemble a list of projects which either require another’s assistance or are beyond my skill set; as Sarge is extremely handy when it comes to so many things he can usually handle my requests. Being a self-employed design engineer he is well suited to taking my requests and developing a ‘fix’ as well as implementing said ‘fix’. Thus when I began making noise about wanting a wood stove in my humble abode he figured it wouldn’t be too major an undertaking.

In a perfect world such a project would most likely be a fairly straightforward proposal but as we all know this is anything but a perfect world and many aspects of this plan were under-rated simply out of ‘regional ignorance’. I had already picked out a compact wood burning stove at Moores’; the unit was ready such that the day after his arrival we drove to the store and picked up the stove. Initially things went well as we utilized the invaluable assistance of Shane at Moores’ along with Sarge’s skills to get the stove positioned and to get the hearth pieces cut and placed after which we did a more precise positioning of the stove. Then we went after the ancillary parts to pipe the exhaust from the stove through the exterior wall to the outside and run the piping to the second story roof. It was at this point things began to get ‘tense’.

Interior Stove Install Almost Complete!

I budgeted this effort at around $1400. Hah; I quickly learned I was virtually clueless regarding the requirements of installing a wood stove in Alaska. Because of the potential for cold temps the piping not just inside but all the way to the cap just above the second story roof line needed to be insulated double walled piping. Ouch, the price differential between just single wall piping and double wall insulated is huge! This blew my pricing guess-timates right out of the water as while six inch diameter single wall piping is maybe $30/3 feet the double wall insulated variety runs around $90/3 foot section. Then I discovered the costs of all the additional pieces like the thimble, exterior support and the ‘T’ were far more than I had anticipated. Within a matter of days I saw this project pushing $2,000 and then Murphy decided to lend his five cents.

We had hoped to buy a kit for all this ancillary stuff at Moores’; sadly they were out of stock and didn’t even have all the parts required in stock. We went on-line and found cheaper alternatives at Lowe’s but when we checked they showed out of stock at the Wasilla location and both Anchorage stores. We finally found a good deal through Amazon.com and placed the order on Sunday, October 4th. All week I monitored the order but there were no updates. In addition I sent two emails to the third party vendor inquiring as to shipping methods. As of Monday, October 12th Amazon.com sent me an email informing me they couldn’t verify anything about the order. I uttered a few choice words, emailed Amazon.com, canceled the order and sent in a blistering review regarding the customer service of the third party vendor.

Sarge and I then visited Moores’ and picked up most of the parts in the kit; the operand word here is ‘most’. They were short two critical pieces and wouldn’t have them until Friday at the earliest. This was far too late so we purchased the items they had, beat feet home and went on-line. Mr. Murphy must have been chortling because only the Lowe’s on the south side of Anchorage had what we needed! We loaded up and left around 11:30 in thick freezing fog which thankfully dispersed just north of Willow as the air temp climbed to 40°F. The long trip was uneventful and we found the Lowe’s and then discovered they had the complete kit at a substantial savings over purchasing the separate parts. We purchased the kit and the other part we needed, jumped in the Escape, stopped at Fred Meyer and Costco and eventually pulled into the driveway at 17:55. A long day but we were feeling good given we had all the parts.

Tuesday rolled around and so did the rain; initially just drizzle but strengthening to showers by daylight. Given most of the remaining work involved putting up the exhaust pipe from maybe five feet above the first floor all the way to just above the second story roof and a cut into said metal roof was required to allow the exhaust ‘stack’ to remain close to the exterior wall and thus supported we spent most of Tuesday awaiting a decrease in the rain. I took time off to fill in at KTNA for the noon newscast; when I returned Sarge had installed the exterior ‘T’, the stack support and one length of double wall insulated pipe as well. Only the increasing rain had stopped him from continuing on the exterior work. But the weather refused to cooperate and we had to be content working other projects indoors for the remainder of the day.

Exterior Assembly Underway!

Wednesday dawned mostly clear but some definite rain had occurred around 05:30 and everything was wet. As we awaited daylight the skies began to cloud up and weather radar showed showers moving in. I checked the NWS forecast and determined we’d be seeing rain by 11:00 which would probably last into the mid-afternoon. But the same forecast called for clearing overnight with continued clearing into Thursday morning yielding mostly sunny conditions with a high around 50°F. Given this we agreed to continue the outdoor work while it remained dry and managed to get three 36” lengths of the exhaust pipe mated, stabilized and sealed. This left us just two more pieces along with the cap but also still needing to cut the hole in the roof. We decided to switch off and finish some remaining projects while we awaited the forecast better conditions on Thursday. I was more than a bit concerned about doing so as I know how wrong weather forecasts can be up here but I also felt the safety factor was paramount and no one wants to work at the end of a 20’ ladder in rain while sporting an electrically driven ‘Saws-All’.

Thursday dawned partly cloudy and continued to improve with the sunshine slowly warming the air but also encouraging a light breeze. Not to be put off we visited Moores’ around noon and rented a 24’ fiberglass ladder which we hauled back to my place and set up. It took Sarge two and a half hours to extend the exhaust pipe, cut a clean hole through the wood and metal roof, add the final piece of exhaust pipe, place the stabilizing ‘apron’ over the pipe and add the cap. Then it was time to return the ladder and finish up some final sealing and cosmetic work in the house. By this point we were tired and agreed to wait until Friday morning to install the fire bricks inside the stove and test the whole thing.

Sarge working on slightly enlarging the hole through the roof

Friday was damp and drizzling so we definitely guessed right regarding the day to do the exterior work! The jigsaw puzzle that was installing the fire brick required a bit of thought but we soon had it ready to go. I assembled a small fire and attempted to draft the unit. Because it has ‘heat-a-lator’ piping in place there is no single large opening to the exhaust piping; this made trying to draft the set up difficult. I thought I had it and lit the fire; within a minute the main floor was awash in smoke! Thankfully I found my heat gun, cranked it up to ‘high’ and started heating the top interior of the stove. Within four or five minutes I had an upward flowing draft and could re-light the fire which this time drafted properly. It was a fitting end to see smoke slowly curling out of the chimney above the second floor roof line!

The finished product ready for use!

So now I have something I’ve wanted since I first moved in; a full functional wood stove! This will cut down on fuel oil costs and also draw out the place in winter; in addition I will have reliable back up heating system should the power fail and the generator run out of gas. My next chore is to locate a local source of seasoned firewood and get it delivered…

2015/09/28

The Rains of September

Most folks following this blog know of my fascination with meteorology and my expression of said interest by participating in volunteer functions like ‘Skywarn spotting’ and ‘CoCoRaHS’ (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network) as well as reporting on the marvelous extremes of weather in The Last Frontier. I’ve always been a sky watcher and had learned to predict short term weather in the lower 48 just by observing the clouds and winds along with the barometric pressure. Since relocating to Alaska I’ve had to re-learn this knowledge as it is quite different this far north but I’m having great fun undertaking this re-education.

August is historically Talkeetna’s rainiest month averaging 4.5″ (11.43 cm) of rain but September is a close second at 4.2″ (10.67 cm) of rain. As you may know from June and July’s wildfires in The Great Land 2015 has been very dry, at least up until this month. During 2015 only July hit its historical rainfall amount although obviously September is going to grossly exceed its ‘typical’ rainfall! As I watch the ongoing moderate rains out my office window I am again reminded that in Alaska the weather rules and we humans are just along for the ride and must learn to be both flexible and patient. Since this latest rain event started last Saturday evening I’ve recorded 2.14″ (5.44 cm) of rain with 1.44″ (3.66 cm) of that amount occurring between 07:00 Sunday morning and 07:00 this (Monday, 09/28) morning. Since sending in that report to CoCoRaHS this morning I’ve accumulated another 0.33″ (0.84 cm) or so as of 10:40 AKDST and the rain continues:

CoCoRaHS Rain Gauge showing 0.33″ accumulated rainfall in previous 3.6 hours!

I believe the aforementioned 1.44″ (3.66 cm) of rain across a 24 hour period is the largest amount I’ve recorded during such a time period since relocating to Alaska in September of 2013.

Yet this rain is just the precursor to what could well be significant accumulating snowfall which NWS is currently projecting to begin in roughly 24 hours for this area. Everything depends upon the speed at which the very cold mass of Siberian air moves into the Mat-Su Valley; the faster this happens the more snow we will receive. If it happens sooner than forecast we could see over 6″ (15.24 cm) of snow especially at elevations above 1,000 feet (304.8 m) in the Susitna Valley with larger accumulations further north. If it arrives later then we’ll see more rain and less snow. I sympathize with the forecasting folks at NWS because so much affects the movement of such an air mass like pressure, upper level winds, lower level winds in the mountains and temperature.

I am very concerned about the rain; given we’ve already seen 2.14″ (5.44 cm) since the event began Saturday evening and the rain is forecast to continue as moderate to heavy rain into Tuesday we could see amounts above 3.5″ (8.89 cm) across the period. Because the ground is already beginning to freeze the water cannot soak in as well and hence tends to pool and form torrents which can and do wash out the local road system. I am expecting to pick up a buddy flying from SW Michigan to Anchorage this Wednesday (09/30) evening and the only driving route to Anchorage is the Parks Highway (AK 3) to the Glenn Highway (AK 1). There are numerous areas along the Parks between Talkeetna and the intersection with the Glenn which have washed out in the past and these conditions are as extreme in terms of rain as any I’ve experienced in my 24 months living up here. I have driven the Parks in snow and ice but I’ve never had to negotiate washed out areas; at least that hadn’t been repaired before my arrival.

While I love snow and cold I must admit to hoping that the rains do not continue as they sure appear they will do; I’d rather negotiate a foot (30.48 cm) of snow than try to navigate washed out portions of the Parks! Ironically my buddy is visiting in part to assist me with mounting an electric winch on my Escape; at least I do have a hand powered ‘come along’ capable of moving 4,000 pounds (1,841.4 kg) in the back cargo area along with my standard winter survival kit. I never thought I’d be hoping for little snow and no more rain but this is the case! I will remain glued to the NWS and ADOT websites especially tomorrow morning moving into Wednesday. It appears Alaska is looking to test me once again and I can only rely on my experience and the reports from the aforementioned services to determine if I should attempt the drive Wednesday evening. At least my buddy has the option of getting a rental car and motel room should the worst come to fruition…

I’ve never seen so much ponding water on my driveway! In fact I can never remember seeing any pools of water on the portion in this image!!

2015/07/18

Rain and Responsibility

The past couple of evenings I’ve been able to lie awake in my bed and listen to the sound of rain tapping on the metal roof. I’ve always loved this sound but I really enjoy it now because of the metal roof; it truly brings out the sometimes steady and other times not so steady drum of the rain drops. Given the dearth of precipitation this past year the soothing sound of rain drops striking the roof are truly appreciated. But there is even more to love about this sound as it signals an easing of the drought conditions in this area and is assisting the firefighters in their heroic efforts to control the wildfires of Alaska. Although it truly took a while Mother Nature has finally seen fit to bathe this area in some much needed moisture!

Across the past two days I’ve reported 0.94” of rain to CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network) and while July is the third wettest month of the year in Talkeetna we now have 2.41” of precipitation. Given we’re just 18 days into the month and showing 2.41” we’re 67% of the way to the normal rainfall total with 13 days remaining so with a bit of luck we might make the average rainfall total for July. If this happens it will be the first month in 2015 that we’ve reached or exceeded the monthly rainfall amount.

Sadly this is a bit late for the victims of the fires in June and early July and comes on the heels of more information released about the inexcusable stupidity and utter disregard for safety displayed by the perpetrator of the Sockeye Fire, one Greg Imig, along with Amy Dewitt whom both live in Anchorage. No, they have yet to be arraigned but Imig reportedly confessed to burning trash on that fateful Sunday morning which quickly escaped his control and began what would become the Sockeye Fire. The couple claimed they called 911 when the fire was already out of containment but they gave no location or their names. In addition, they apparently left in huge hurry leaving a chainsaw, gas cans and jack pads for a motorhome behind. Spent fireworks were found at the scene but they are not believed to be the primary source of the fire.

But there is more to this story that provides damning evidence regarding the utter negligence of this duo. Imig was apparently an on-air meteorologist at one time; given the conditions that Sunday morning any rational person would have recognized the utter stupidity of having open fires but a meteorologist should most definitely have known better. There were Red Flag warnings all over the state and any sensible person would have realized the immediate danger of any open flames. Yet this individual decided to ignore common sense and all the warning and burn open brush piles..?!?! Because of this pair’s rank idiocy 55 dwellings were destroyed, many more damaged, an uncounted number of animals threatened and some apparently killed, hundreds of acres of boreal forest incinerated, multiple forced evacuations were implemented and hundreds of firefighters risked their lives spending days fighting a completely unnecessary fire.

Because we are a country of laws, or were before the recent administrations decided they know better than our founders, this must be allowed to play out in our court system. Somehow I have a feeling the real pain for these incomprehensibly stupid people will come in the form of the soon to be filed civil actions. This is how our system works and we need to allow it to take over and proceed. Assuming this pair is to blame, and with Imig’s confession of guilt it seems a given, they should feel the full weight of the legal judgments against them.

All of us wonder why someone would undertake such dangerous actions in the wake of so many warnings; it just seems incomprehensible. Sadly, I fear this is yet another example of the PC driven solipsism that seems to be sweeping the world. So many people are so powerfully inculcated to just live within their own heads and serve only their own interests and needs; we’re becoming a culture that almost refuses to look outside ourselves. In such a scenario if one wanted to ‘enjoy’ burning trash and debris then just do it; such individuals never even consider the potential consequences of their actions except as it might affect themselves. Perhaps if our numbers were just tiny fractions of what they are currently we could get by with such a mindset but this is not the case. Human beings tend to live in groups and as such it becomes necessary to not just think about one’s own needs but to think also about the good of the group. Yes, this does require more effort, at least until one trains one’s self to automatically figure the group’s needs and safety into one’s mental calculus, but it is necessary for people to exist in close proximity and especially in large numbers. Yet paradoxically, as we continue to increase our numbers, a large portion of us put ourselves ahead of all others and continue to be focused upon just our own wants and desires. This trend is not something that is wise yet somehow we have generations of folks who follow its path; often to the detriment of their fellow human beings.

Perhaps we are reaching a tipping point of sorts when we must all sit back, take a deep breath and look into ourselves with as much objectivity as possible and ask; “Am I really concerned about the needs and safety of my fellow human beings?” After all, in the end we are all the same and in this together. Personally I’ve found I have no choice but to accept assistance from others and this only increases as we age. Maybe it is time to really evaluate just how much empathy we have for our fellow human beings? Living in Alaska one of the things I truly admire is what I call ‘the fierce sense of freedom and independence’ so pre-eminent in so many of the people. But along with this comes the undeniable acceptance that at times we all need a hand. Alaskans in general manage to balance this so very well; we cherish our independence and freedoms but we are also among the first to offer assistance to those truly in need. In this sense the lower48 and, indeed, the rest of the world could learn a bit from those of us who call ‘The Great Land’ our home.

Close up of burned Boreal Forest

2015/01/01

Waiting For the Fall…

Although it is New Year’s Day, at least in most of the world, this will not be a ‘typical’ offering looking back across 2014 or creating lists based on last year or even a bucket list of things to do across the upcoming year. No, this is once again based upon the weather and some surprising results of the continued warmth. Nothing has changed since my last piece decrying the lack of normal temps and especially the extremely dry conditions; well…except for yesterday’s run of above freezing temps – 22 hours in all – and 24 hours of very light drizzle randomly mixing with sleet. This shrunk our already pitifully small 14” snow pack to just 9.5” as of 07:00 AKST this morning. In addition I recorded 0.24” of water virtually all of which came from the aforementioned drizzle and sleet.

But here is the gist of this posting:

January 1, 2015 snow overhang as seen from second floor window

This image was taken out a second story window just an hour ago and shows a large section of saturated snow getting ready to fall from the roof. This process has been ongoing starting yesterday afternoon and continuing overnight much to the chagrin of Qanuk, my ever-alert GSD (his partner Anana, my Alaskan Malamute, sleeps right through such events or if one is big enough she may open an eye briefly). This is a typical Alaskan situation although what makes it so unusual is it usually happens in April, not January which is one of the two coldest months in Alaska. Normally in January it is far too cold to see rain and the daylight is far too short for any sunlight to even think about starting to melt the former 14” of snow on the roof.

Last year I saw this happen in late February and into March which was early but nowhere near as early as what’s been happening. Just another sad reminder of the almost total dearth of winter weather for the second consecutive winter season. These pieces which fall from the roof are of varying sizes but most have been fairly large across the past couple of days. I know this because when they have cut loose and embraced gravity they create a loud ‘BOOM!’ upon striking the ground; often the house will shake as a result. The first couple of such impacts yesterday afternoon had me believing an earthquake was underway but there was no follow through from that initial vibration so I knew this wasn’t the case. A quick trip out to the front porch and a careful look around the corner and along the south side of the house showed a couple of recent impact piles.

Such events are part of living in Alaska and have forced these homes to be built with steeply angled roofs and overhangs of at least a foot and a half to insure when this does happen the detritus is distributed away from the side of the building. What is not at all typical is to be wary of and ready to dodge such events in early January…

2014/09/10

Fall Sure Comes On Fast Up Here..!!

Even though this is my second fall – and, yes, I know fall technically starts on the Autumnal Equinox which is still eleven days out but it sure feels like it’s fall – I’m still amazed by just how rapidly the season arrives in this area. Just two weeks ago everything was varying shades of green; now when I look out my office window I see this gorgeous display:

Gorgeous patchwork of fall color created by ‘ground level’ plants common to the boreal forest

As bright as the image appears it was actually raining lightly from overcast skies when I took this picture earlier this morning. In addition the birch trees are rapidly changing over to yellows and golds; the dwarf dogwood are already showing their bright red berries which contrast so starkly against their still dark green leaves although soon said leaves will shift to a bright red color as well.

With August and September normally being the two wettest months the mushrooms are abundant; I wish I knew much more about the various types as I suspect some are edible and I do love my ‘fungus’ but I also know enough to steer clear of them as without the required knowledge and experience one could well end up dead from sampling them. Here’s a few of the myriad of types I see around my place:

I often see ‘shrooms growing in bunches no doubt due to earlier growths dropping lots of spores

There's definitely a lot of 'fungus amongst us'..!

There’s definitely a lot of ‘fungus among us’..!

Many are just plain pretty in terms of coloration!

No surprise the ‘shrooms would like growing new the moose scat!

It is kinda sad that within another couple of weeks the deciduous trees will be largely bare and the ground colors faded away to dull browns and greens in preparation for another winter. But given my love of the winter season up here I just view their passing as Mother Nature offering up one last blast of color before the blues, greens and whites that dominate the winter season. We are about two weeks ahead of where things were in terms of the color change last year; this season is much closer to ‘typical’ and has truly served to highlight just how aberrant were last fall’s warm and wet conditions. While I do miss the vibrant reds, oranges and purples of the hardwood trees in the lower 48 the low growth on the taiga and tundra do produce a beautiful carpet in the fall. Here’s an image from the Savage River basin within Denali NP&P that exemplifies this coloration:

The valley area around Savage River Station in Denali NP&P seen in early September color

	Forever Alaskan on Foster or ‘Foster Fail’..…
	Dan on Foster or ‘Foster Fail’..…
	tumbleweedstumbling on The Value of CERT
	Forever Alaskan on The Value of CERT
	Forever Alaskan on The Value of CERT

Alaskan at Last!

A former lower 48'er loving semi-rural life at 62 degrees north latitude…

rain