Breakup

Breakup. Endless interpretations.
1) water projects in the driveway.




2) cars stuck in the driveway.

(Last Friday: Looking up towards the house)

(Looking down to where the car spent the night)

The truck, today, stuck at the very top of the driveway. To the right of the truck is the igloo we made this winter - only the opening is really visible.

(Mom, it's ok - don't worry - during the night, the slush freezes again, and we can drive the cars out without problem the next morning. So no worries.)

3) Breakup also means the bugs are back. The first sat on Emilie's head. It was quickly destroyed. The second was killed, then photographed.


4) Breakup means plenty of puddles to stomp through and on occasion, fall into. (Emilie, today, near Sonja's daycare - wet leaves were plastered on her face. Poor girl.)


And, unrelated, some other pictures.

Swans (aka Creamer's Field again)

Breakup time... the extratuffs and rubber boots came out in full force.

With Sonja, we visited Creamer's field again today. A couple swans flew over us. Joined another two swans on the ground.


Our bird count:

countless Canada Geese, Greater white-fronted geese, swans, two american kestrels hovering at times over the poor birds below them, mallards (the normal ducks with the green head), pintails (the ducks with the long tail), and some gulls.

One person told me she saw one sandhill crane in the tall grass earlier, we did not see that one.

But it is cool to see the birds arrive. It doesn't look that much as a migration, but each minute, another group of geese arrives - sometimes two, sometimes ten, never that many together, but it all adds up. It would be really cool to see the cranes come together - a bunch of years ago I saw that by Delta Junction, must have been a thousand birds together...

Around where Martin is

Kangerlussuaq, Greenland.




I say, it's not that different from here - around our house here there is only one patch of dirt that is showing through, otherwise it's all white also; we have dogs; we have airplanes - heck, it's not that different! :)

(Thanks, Martin, for the pictures!)

Around town today

Beautiful crystals grew overnight in the garbage can that catches the snowmelt off our roof.


Sam's Sourdough, gutted last month by fire.


"Stubborn German Ct" is right across from Emilie's daycare.


"My Lead Dog is smarter than your honor student" bumper sticker

Scenery from the dogmusher's trail

Martin will laugh about this one when he sees all the pictures on our computer of two dogs on a trail, but today I thought I will try to capture some of the scenery on the ADMA trails (Alaska Dog Musher's Association) that are within the area in between College Road and Farmer's Loop. As a result, there are some 60 pictures on our computer now that have two dogs on a trail on them :). My pictures, Martin, don't touch! :)

I really love the variety of habitat along that trail. (It is the turquoise, green and yellow trail on the west end of the trail system). Considering that it is mainly spruce trees and birch trees (and shrubs), some of the trail leads under big trees (ok, only a very small part), some goes through birch forest, and a lot goes through the drunken forest of scrawny trees on permafrost. Still, there is something cool about that scenery.

Moose poop! We didn't see the moose that left those nuggets on the trail, but we did see one earlier - luckily just the hind end of it as it was disappearing into the bushes.

Birch Hill in the background. North edge of the trail that gets the most sun is snow-free.

Not that scrawny... but not normal size either.

Drunken forest...

More scrawny trees.

Some big(ger) trees, some small trees.

In the background is the ridge above Farmer's Loop.

Big trees!

Skiing was marginal today. We went from 4 to 5pm, during the warmest temperatures of the day (but when the kids were still in daycare, which was the reason we could go out at all) and some places the snow was very very slow. Still, I might try to take the dogs Friday once again. Can't complain about skiing mid-April!

The geese really are at Creamer's Field

Today I had to pick up some dogfood at Alaska Feed, so I stopped next door at Creamer's field too. In the past week since the geese have arrived, I skijored just in the trees on the outskirt of the field, but never stopped by to check out the birds. It is really incredible - if they hadn't plowed the field and spread some grain on it, the birds would be sitting on snow... I heard they had snow buntings too. Might have to go check things out with binoculars, to see which migrating birds besides the geese made it. We did see two ducks flying this morning, but that was very likely a pair from the resident duck population that stays here the entire winter (thanks to the power plant which dumps hot water into the Chena River and keeps it from freezing for a couple miles).

Meltwise, things are definitely melting, but the snow remains. A lot of it. Except under some trees. Where there might be a big puddle instead. A great puddle to play in. There were more kids playing around that puddle than anywhere else in the playground. The teachers at daycare said this is nothing, that I will see in a week or two what "muddy" means...

Easter and (more) dogsledding

We did color eggs for easter, but the thing the kids liked the most was finding the nests and looking for eggs during the easter egg hunt.

We colored eggs using both store-bought colors, and the onion-skin brew like last year using a leaf of cilantro or italian parsley from the fridge for the shape. All of that was the previous weekend...


As for this weekend, we had a wonderful easter. The "easter bunny" hid during the night the nests that the girls made for him the evening before, first filling them with easter eggs and goodies. The girls then looked for the nests when we got up. Sonja found both hers and Emilie's. The strawberries in the nests were a big hit. The chocolate bunny was a hit with Emilie, who attacked it immediately.


After a breakfast at LuLu's we went to look for the eggs that the bunny hid along the trails that we had stomped into the snow over the past several weeks. That was a huge success also with both kids. The plastic eggs were filled with grapes, or yogurt-covered-raisins, or candy, or m-n-ms. (Sonja still doesn't like chocolate, so the easter bunny tried to find some things that she might like.)




May be in a few years I might find something that will work instead of the willow branches used in the czech republic to create pomlazka (or easter whips). Sounds rough, but is not meant to be (much) - in fact it is supposed to transfer youth to the person receiving the symbolic whipping. The branches are braided together, then decorated with ribbons. Here is a description in english. As another aside, the czech name for easter is Velikonoce, which sounds a bit like "Velike Noce" = "big nights" in direct translation. I was wondering why the name, since the nights are getting shorter in spring - why would people call some holiday "big night". But based on this, it might have been a "big" holiday that got the suffix from christmas (=Vanoce), which itself comes from the german word for Christmas. So may be it is not a "big night", just a "big"+suffix holiday.

The rest of the day was wonderful too. After nap, we went to the Tanana (River) again to go ski/sled. As before, Cooper pulled Sonja, Martin had Saphira (not that she pulled much - she was way too hot), and I pulled Emilie. We went may be a mile downriver, then I let Emilie run around. She thought may be she will cross to the other shore of the river:


When Sonja and Martin came back half hour later, Emilie jumped (ok, crawled) onto Sonja's sled, and Cooper pulled them both back to the 'campground' where the car was parked. First, a family portrait - Emilie on the sled, Sonja behind the handlebar, and the parents next to the kids.




Another portrait:


Then it was time to go home. Here is a special picture for my mom: transporting the sled and Emilie:


Martin was sooooo proud of himself and his kids during bath time, when he asked them to show big 'putti' (sp?):


And, lastly, at night, we actually saw an aurora briefly - it has been a quiet winter aurora wise, both because I go to bed earlier than before, because we don't have an outhouse (so I am not likely to be outside late at night), and because there just has not been much aurora out there.

OK, one long writeup, but I thought it was just such a wonderful day! Hope everyone (that's you, Matt, and you, Cecile - my only readers :) had a nice easter!

Roof avalanche. And the first geese???

It has been a cool spring, which means that skijoring is still wonderful - the river is gerat (went there on Monday, finishing around 10pm), the Rosie Creek trails were great a week ago when I did an evening skijor there for the first time this season.

The sun is unstoppable though, so things in the sun have been melting, and in the last two days even air temperatures have come up above melting. Roads are dry except where some snowmelt flows onto the pavement (and freezes at night).

The snow on the steep part of our roof finally got enough lubrication and slid off today. Have to stomp a nice path through that to get to the cars. There is a thin line of water coming off the other parts of the roof too, in the afternoons. Definitely spring in the air, even if these things normally happen in March, not April.

Today I skijored with the dogs at Creamer's field and the dog musher's trails. Great conditions. Hardly icy and also not slushy (I went from 8:30pm to 9:30pm), wide trails... A fox here (of interest to Cooper), a hare there (of interest to Saphira)... The geese I did not see. I didn't even know any were going to be there since it has been so cool, and thought Martin was joking when he asked me if I saw them. Might have to go back tomorrow and check them out... to make sure that spring is indeed on the way.

Black Rapids Glacier

Today the weather was great down in the mountains, and so Martin and others went to survey Black Rapids Glacier (they originally planned to do it yesterday but weather forecast was not very good).

Except for the last several years, there is continuous data for the glacier since 1973. Unfortunately there is no funding to continue the measurements. Another Martin volunteered to fly Martin up, and others joined in for a few minutes or the whole day - Keith flew in with Flanders, the Nolans (one? more? I forgot to ask) were also present, and Chris brought Sam up (Jess was down in Anchorage area since Redoubt is still erupting priodically...like yesterday and today)... and so they completed most though not quite all of what they set out to do.

Some pictures:

The youngest glaciologist of the group, Sam, 5 (meaning neither Sonja nor Emilie nor I made it :):


The four planes (L to R Kristin's, Chris's behind, Flanders', and Martin's) parked up on the glacier:


There is a plane to the left of the peak, and White Princess (a mountain on the other side of the big valley) is peaking up above the plane as a small white triangle:


Some scenery:




Flanders' plane:

Mushing

Today was a beautiful sunny day here in Fairbanks. Luckily not in the mountains. That meant that Martin and Martin did not go down to Black Rapids, and will try to go tomorrow if the weather's good instead. And we could go skiing on the river, all of us together - dogs, kids, adults. Sonja was going to be on her new dogsled, pulled by Cooper. Martin was going to skate ski. I was going to have Emilie in the chariot, and skijor with Saphira. We met Will and Anne at the river. (The river being the Tanana river.)

It took me a bit to get ready, and I did not even realize that Martin and Sonja had already gone. And they went! Fast! Here is a zoom picture of Martin (the tall blobl) and Sonja (the short blob to his right) by the bluff.

Saphira really wanted to catch up. Considering that she pulled not only me but also Emilie, she got a good workout.

A bit further down the river, looking back: Will and Anne getting pulled on occasion by Sam. The river is nearly 1km wide at this point. That same bluff can be seen in the background, this time from the south side, instead of north. The handle of Emilie's Chariot, in which she was riding, is just on the bottom of the picture.

Sam at one point poked his nose into the chariot. Before I knew it, he grabbed the cold waffle that Emilie had been eating, and gulped it down. I think he liked it :). (Anne, you do feed him, don't you?) After that, when I gave Emilie a new waffle, I kept our distance form Anne and Sam :). By this point, I had given Saphira to Martin because he was not as fast as Sonja with Cooper, and I was worried. Martin said "oh, Cooper will stop at some point". (Will was joking that we might have to go to Nenana to find them...) Probably typical mom vs dad mentality on these things. Anyways, Martin took Saphira, and caught up to Sonja, and some half hour later they came back up... So here is the group once we got them back:

And then Martin let Sonja go once again... so that I could take some pictures of Sonja mushing. They went at a good speed.









(We'll see whether getting the dogsled was a good idea or a bad idea a few years down the road... some people warned us that's how it starts... and before you know it, you have a dog team on your hands...)

Ice polar bear (or polar ice bear?)

Amazingly, one of the tulip bulbs that I planted a few weeks ago is flowering (may be just for you, big T - happy 5th birthday today!) now to see whether those planted outside survived the looooong winter.


Now for some sad news. What used to look like this for the last 1/4 year:

turned into this today as I was driving by:

Early in its life, the ice polar bear's head fell off. Luckily, they repaired it within a few days. From then on, whenever Martin and Sonja drove by (which means every weekday), Sonja would shout "it still has its head, papa". Well, no more ice polar bear, so may be spring is really on its way.

A bit up the hill, the bohemian waxwings were having a feast:

From a bit away, they look all grey. Then as one gets closer, the wonderful yellow on the tail and red on the underside become more visible... beautiful birds in beautiful trees. We might have to plant some chokecherries around our house, too :)

Occassional quills

A week after his last encounter with a porcupine (and an encounter with the vet to be sedated so the quills can be taken out), and a-week-and-a-half after his first encounter, Cooper now had two (broke off) quills coming out the top of his mouth, the sharp part making its way out. Here is a closeup of the first one, the black thing is the quill on its way out:

Martin managed to get a hold of it and jerk it out the following day, when it was out a bit more. Another quill was on the bottom of his mouth yesterday. Martin tried to do the same, but Cooper left, and then it was no longer there - may be it fell off?

I just hope that Cooper learned that porcupines should be left alone...only time will tell.