The Melt Begins, Even As A Spring Storm Arrives

31 March 2012
7:47 AM

Sunrise at	7:09 AM	in direction	78°	East-northeast
Sunset at	8:43 PM	in direction	283°	West-northwest

Duration of day: 13 hours, 34 minutes (6 minutes, 45 seconds longer than yesterday)

A view from our deck this morning

Winter weather has returned and is expected for the next several days, even while the spring melt has begun in earnest.  These few days of snow and below freezing temperatures won't alter much of what has already melted.  Once the temperature rises again, the ground will look much like it does in these photos .. well actually when the dusting of snow melts, there will be more exposed ground.  Spring in the subarctic is an exercise in faith and patience.

I thought to take a photo from our deck yesterday and that photo would have shown clear sky through the trees, bare spots under the spruce nearby, and a dry deck except for where the snow melt dripped over the gutters from the roof.  I didn't, because I had taken photos on campus earlier to show how break up is on the way.  Ground is exposed along the sidewalks where it had previously been shoveled, but is still abundantly evident in areas not bordering walkways or roads.  Unless there is a freak warming trend, ground is not exposed in the depths of winter in subarctic Interior Alaska.  Walkways are snow packed or covered with a fine film of ice and snow.  Neighborhood roads are never dry unless they have been bladed recently.  Even after snow plowing along our road, we do not usually see the ground.  Major thoroughfares will have a lot of snow build up at times before road crews remove the trampled and compacted layers of snow and ice.

When we lived in Colorado seeing large patches of melted ground after a snow storm was not unusual.  There the snow would fall, and then melt entirely before the next storm.  Well, there were a few years when it didn't fully melt, like the year I was pregnant with my son and shoveled the walks every few days or so.  But generally, those who live inland at mid-latitude are accustomed to snow, but then can fully expect the snow to melt revealing dry, bare ground.  I never really liked the dry parched look of winter in Colorado.  I knew that much of the moisture was frozen under the surface, not like deep permafrost frozen, but still not soaking fully to the roots and once it truly warmed and we had spring rains, all would be green.  But, winter for me became an experience of never ending brown.  I will be honest.  If I am not going to be surrounded by the green of my native California in winter, then I greatly prefer the pure white of snow.

Clear spring melt on south facing slope

A little greening along the sidewalk

Predictions are for highs of 35 to 37 today with highs remaining below freezing for several days thereafter.  I am hoping the high temperatures are not reached as all of the recent snow will melt and continued precipitation will be rain causing roads to freeze over night.  So far, the spring melt has been civilized, exposing dry, safe roads.  This type of spring sputter can put a kink in the works for a few days.

The house has remained warm, but we are still firing up the wood stove two or three times a day.  It hasn't been cold enough to require a constant fire, so we often start the fires now in a cold fire box.  We need more kindling and paper than we did in deep winter when we loaded it up enough to get through several hours and would have warm embers to fan into flames around additional fuel.

Gary has gone to get a load of wood from Northland Wood.  Our wood stove is so inefficient we have burned more wood than my daughter and son-in-law who have a much bigger house.  The borough does have that program whereby they will pay for replacing an inefficient wood stove.  They take the one we have away for scrap (so it won't be used elsewhere) and we agree to not remove the new heating appliance from the house, opening the door to a different, but equally inefficient stove being installed.

Despite exposed ground along the sidewalks, there still is plenty of snow 

Susitna Dam & Pebble Mine & Why They Are Linked in My Head

29 March 2012
6:17 PM

Sunrise at	7:16 AM	in direction	79°	East
Sunset at	8:37 PM	in direction	281°	West

Duration of day: 13 hours, 20 minutes (6 minutes, 45 seconds longer than yesterday)

"All I know is what I read in the papers," said Will Rogers in 1930.  All I know about Susitna Dam is what I read online and listen to on KTNA.  The discussion about the potential power gained from the dam is heated, as you'd expect when considering altering an unusual ecosystem.  My son, Lorien, has presented many discussions and audio feeds of interviews on the topic since all those living down river from the Susitna Dam will be impacted in dramatic ways if the dam is approved and construction proceeds.

Alternatives are being suggested, for example, natural gas and those suggested by the Coalition for Susitna Dam Alternatives. Others are not making suggestions but providing commentary on the effects of dams on other US rivers, such as Steven Hawley.  Proponents are not interested in the impacts to ecosystems to the region so much as the benefit of Hydro-Electirc energy.

Pebble Mine, another project impacting environments has many of the same proponents and opponents lined up opposite one another.  NRDC - Stop Pebble MIne among opponents is supporting a grass roots effort in the area to stop the mine.  Proponents, among them the State of Alaska, say the region needs jobs and the mine will ultimately benefit the people of the region.  I had a difficult time finding proponents of the mine on line, but Metal Mining Issues attempts to present both sides of the issue.

The question is why do I see these as the same type of event?  First, can I say these things without laying blame on anyone?  Can I state my opinion without labeling anyone as evil?  Because good and evil are not what is on my mind when I think of these two proposed changes to the Alaskan landscape.  My mind drifts instead to dominance of the planet by human beings.

It seems to me, from what I have seen over my years on the planet, humans are extremely effective in extending control over what is deemed necessary for human comfort and wealth.  Absolutely nothing on the planet stands a chance against the ever present and continuing needs associated with human existence.  Even if you regard the arguments regarding Pebble Mine, opponents note the loss of fishing and tourism in the area.  The fact that generations of salmon will lose a place to reproduce, that the lives of thousands and thousands of fish are sacrificed for a comparative paltry number of humans and a few very wealthy investors doesn't enter the discussion.  All around consider human life of more value than that of fish.

When speaking of Susitna Dam, the discussion is how dams affect life down stream, dry up certain hunting area and fishing area, but not of the plant life and animal life drowned behind the dam.  Nothing much is of value if it is not for the benefit of humans.  And in particular, it seems the benefit is largely to very few humans when compared to the many life forms adversely affected by those changes.  Some see humans as part of a larger picture, as a part in the balance of a healthy planet and would ask for human restraint because in the long run we harm ourselves as well as those we subjugate to our needs; we are really no more than what the ecosystem can support.  But those people are few and far between.

I find that hard to digest and accept for some reason.  Don't I kill the mosquito when it comes to suck my blood?  Don't I eradicate aphids from my flowering plants and vegetables?  Why am I appalled, then, that so many lives can be lost to benefit so few in these other arena .. because my life is not directly benefited, most likely.  If I were on the receiving end, if I were in a position of wealth and could increase that wealth by digging a pit mine in Bristol Bay, well then the loss of life would look a lot more like removing aphids from a tomato plant, wouldn't it?

Sunny, Sunny Days

28 March 2012

8:33 PM

Sunrise at	7:20 AM	in direction	80°	East
Sunset at	8:34 PM	in direction	280°	West

Duration of day: 13 hours, 14 minutes (6 minutes, 44 seconds longer than yesterday)

Sunlight streaming into the Common Room

Beautiful sunny days continue here in the Interior.  The current temperature on our deck is 40F, but the dogs think it is more like 80F.  They have been racing back and forth across the deck and out into the yard.  They got very excited chasing a moose along the fence, leaping into deep snow they have avoided for several months now, then leaping back - ears cocked, eyes focused, and a hint of a grin.

They were extraordinarily pleased with themselves to have defended the perimeter so well.  I was extremely pleased to have a 6 foot high fenced region for them to race around in without actually invading the moose's territory.  When I saw the moose move, it looked like a she .. full, rounded belly.  But whatever it was, it moved quickly away from the dogs, leaving them at the fence edge, peering after.

The roof snow accumulation melts quickly in spots, by-passing the still frozen drains and cutters to drip onto the deck.  Wet now, after sun down, it will ice up, making for tricky footing for the dogs.  The snow is rotting everywhere I look.  The space in front of the garage man door, where Gary shoveled a pathway after the last deep snow storm so we could use that entrance, has melted nearly to bare ground.  Mounds of snow that had made it nearly impossible to shovel snow off the deck when the snow was deep are now well below the deck surface.  No snow clings to the branches of the birch and spruce and the image of hoarfrost clinging to all plant life is long gone.

After the cold of January, the lingering cold of February, and continued cold and a major snow storm in early March, it is a delight and relief to see that the seasons will actually change.  Spring is coming to the Interior.  The trees and willows are not wrong; the snow is melting and will continue to melt.

Life is good.

An Odd Reaction to More Frequent Trips to Anchorage

27 March 2012
Time

Sunrise at	7:23 AM	in direction	81°	East
Sunset at	8:31 PM	in direction	279°	West

Duration of day: 13 hours, 7 minutes (6 minutes, 44 seconds longer than yesterday)

Talkeetna Mountains on the approach to Broad Pass

Fairbanks and Anchorage are vastly different as cities go.  I think in the Lower 48, Fairbanks would be considered more of a town than a city, while Anchorage is a true city.  And although relatively small when compared to cities in the contiguous states, still very, very, VERY large for Alaska.  In my mind, Alaska and city are not integrated easily.  It is a vast region with minimal population and tiny villages interspersed among acres of wilderness.  If you have read followed the Yukon Quest or Iditarod, you know that the races are going through extremely small, isolated population centers.

Broad Pass looking toward the Talkeetna Mountains

But if all a visitor did was land in Anchorage and then travel as far as Talkeetna Junction, they wouldn't know that.  Wasilla, Palmer, Houston, and Willow are not large, but the population is dispersed along Alaska State Highway 3 in such a way that there are no longer significant open stretches between them, not the kind of openness we live with up here in Fairbanks.  To the west of Willow are large tracts of land used for farming or sled dog kennels and then unsettled areas with a few homesteads, but it is not visible from the highway, by any means.  A driver doesn't really get out of it until past Talkeetna and then, thanks to Denali National Park, you are blessedly out of the bustle of human "busyness". 

I have visited since 2000 and lived here since 2006, yet very little of that time has been spent in Anchorage.  And when I did visit, I was usually in the downtown area where I could walk to restaurants and along the coast.  I did not explore much of the regions east of the Seward Highway.  Even with visits to Providence Hospital and Alaska Urological Associates, we managed to limit ventures into regions south of 15th Avenue and east of Seward.  But, the hubbub of the city was becoming more fixed in my mind.

Broad Pass and Talkeetna Mounains

On our last trip, we stayed south and east in a newer subdivision.  To get there, our hosts advised us to get off of AK State Hwy 1 before reaching the Seward Highway.  We exited at Muldoon Road going south.  It became Tudor Road near the point where I took the photos of the Chugach I published yesterday (one of the few small sections of the city road where the Chugach are relatively unobstructed).  We followed Tudor Road to Lake Otis Parkway and then drove south past Huffman a few blocks, made a left up the hill and another left onto the cul-de-sac of nice homes where Terry and Bev live.  It was probably no more than 15 miles distance, but felt like much more with the many stop lights, businesses, and neighborhoods.  Their home and lot are lovely, yet my overall impression of Anchorage became solidified as a big, sprawling city.

And, one of the reasons this is such an interesting reaction is where I was raised and have lived.  I was raised in California and grew up during the rapid expansion of its population.  San Diego, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area are not exactly known as low population centers.  Then I lived in Colorado through its mega population growth spurt.  It's not like I have lived in villages and towns all my life.  I have found little pockets of small city life, from La Jolla, California to Boulder, Colorado, but all within a short drive of a major, major city.  As I've said, compared to other cities in the U.S., Anchorage is compact and contained, but compared to my life now and the life of the rest of Alaskans who live outside of this metropolis, it feels huge, congested, has grimy and unkept roads, is fast-paced, in spots is very dangerous, and day to day life is much like that of the residents in any big city.

 Broad Pass and Talkeetna Mountains

Bev said something that strengthened that impression for me.  She and Terry are considering moving out of the region after 40 years living here.  She says the winters are longer than those in Fairbanks even though the temperature is milder; they no longer ski and they spend a lot of months in the cold with intense winds, over cast skies, and snow packed streets.  My feeling is that there are a lot of people in the suburban regions of Anchorage that do not venture far from home.  What, then, is the advantage of living here?  By comparison, folks in Fairbanks spend a lot of months living in the cold, yet doing things outdoors all times of the year.  I walk despite the cold, for example. I think I now understand more clearly why many who live elsewhere don't consider Anchorage part of Alaska - it is so very urban and suburban in comparison and lacks many of the aspects of life here I value .. quiet, calm drivers, easy commutes to work, less pollution, fewer people, and wilderness just around the corner.

Broad Pass and Talkeetna Mountains

I breathed a sigh of relief when we reached Talkeetna Junction.  Later Sunday night as I was falling asleep, I had the overwhelming feeling that I lived too close to Anchorage - 356 miles was not enough distance between me and a major city!  Another week or two of isolation and I am sure that feeling will diminish .. because if I travel 20 miles to the north along the Elliot Highway, I am looking out across vistas where no one lives.  Yeah, I will get over this madness and settle back into the comfort of living in our small town.

Anchorage - Again

26 March 2012
9:13 PM

Sunrise at	7:27 AM	in direction	82°	East
Sunset at	8:27 PM	in direction	278°	West

Duration of day: 13 hours (6 minutes, 44 seconds longer than yesterday)

The Chugach - the way we would like to see them

 We drove into Anchorage through gray and snow, but on Saturday the sky cleared.  By early afternoon, we were looking at wonderful blue sky throughout the region, something residents of Anchorage were abundantly grateful for as it is rare compared to Fairbanks.  Sunday dawned as beautiful as Saturday and Denali was clearly visible as were the volcanos to the southwest.

I did not get good photos of Denali.  Although the view of the mountain was unobstructed, there was mist and haze in the air so it was not sharp against the sky, but rather blended into a milky whiteness.  It remained free of clouds much of the way from Willow to Talkeetna Junction, but by the time we caught views of the mountain around Trapper Creek where it was becoming more sharply defined, clouds had started to form right at the peak.  I decided to not take a photo this trip and by the time we were in Broad Pass, the clouds formed a halo around the top of the mountain.  I never get tired of seeing the mountain, no matter what the weather, although certain conditions make it harder to photograph.  Views from Willow are dramatic - you can really see how tall the mountain is.  When closer, our man's eye view of the world doesn't capture its height appropriately.  I thought several times of the lesser peaks around it, between 10,000 and 17,000 feet in elevation, yet they are dwarfed completely by the giant near them.

The Chugach - the way we usually see them, as a backdrop to our ways

We packed our things (although I got a call from Bev today since I forgot my vest and scarf), loaded up the car and drove down to Egan Convention Center for the second day of the dog show.  JayJay did spectacularly well, although I did not photograph her during the competition - go figure.  She won Winners Bitch, for 2 points, and then took Best of Winners and Best of Breed, beating a champion male - giving her 3 points total and a major because she'd bested 5 other dobermans.  I admit, although not at the same level of excitement as tracking my favorite mushers' progress on the race trail, it did give me a thrill to see her do so well.

Tokens of Queen JayJay's greatness (as Terry called her)

She needs more exercise, which is tricky in winter.  We have a large space for our dogs to run in, even when we are not deliberately exercising them, but the Doberman's are not greatly excited by cold and dark and don't take advantage of it.  We are buying a treadmill, for us and her.  She is a wonderful bitch, but her back has softened over the winter and ... how do you get a dog to run a treadmill I wonder?

We drove home through wonderful sunlight and even with a few stops, made the drive in 6 hours.  DOT is gradually decreasing the winding nature of Highway 3 in places that count most and that makes the drive easier than 2000 when I first started coming to Alaska.  Each year, they whittle away at some section of it, improving banking, width and decreasing twists and turns.

I experimented with the zoom capability of our camera and wished I'd used it more often before.  I have  a series of photos of Broad Pass that I will share over the week.  Here is the first:

Talkeetna Mountains to the east, without zoom

Nearly Internet Free Weekend ... Hence No Blog

25 March 2012
11:08 PM

Sunrise at	7:31 AM	in direction	83°	East
Sunset at	8:24 PM	in direction	277°	West

Duration of day: 12 hours, 53 minutes (6 minutes, 44 seconds longer than yesterday)

Readers, let me obsess about the amount of daylight we have.  Today sunrise and sunset were at the times listed above.   We have gained nearly an hour since equinox which was the 19th or 20th.  More importantly, civil twilight began at 6:41 AM and ended at 9:14 PM.  We already are well into the season of light and my whole perspective of life here is once again shifting to a sense of appreciation rather than the caution and watchfulness I often feel during winter.

We drove to Anchorage this weekend because our youngest bitch was entered in the AKC dog show.  We left from work, and by the time we got to Anchorage, found the house where we stayed for the weekend, and got settled, there was no time for blogging .. not to mention that I wasn't sure they had wireless.

Soft gray and white between Denali and Cantwell

Nenana River between Denali and Cantwell

The next morning, we found our hosts, Bev and Terry, did have wireless but she couldn't remember the password.  Instead, I used her laptop to briefly check email (I wanted to see if my son still planned on coming to Anchorage) and then we were out to the dog show.  First day JayJay placed the worst she ever has since she was a small puppy, but that left us free to do other things.  

I went over to see my Mom while Gary walked JayJay and then he napped in the car.  He came down with a virus last week and didn't want to expose it to the elderly residents.  My mother is doing well, but I really wish I could see her more often.  I took her up on the 5th floor where I got her some coffee and then we sat in the atrium.  The couches we sat in last time had been moved out to make room for the plant starts they were sprouting for the summer gardens.  We sat on two conference room chairs and absorbed the sunlight and warmth.  She always loved her garden and this little atrium seems to be one of the most relaxing places for her.

When Gary and I reconnected after my visit with her, we drove around so I could try to find some good perspectives of the Chugach to photograph.  I can tell you, it didn't work .. everywhere we went were road signs, billboards, tall buildings, or utility poles and wires.  It reminded me how my eyes always seem to screen out the artifacts of civilization and instead concentrate on the aspects of nature interwoven into the fabric of every day life.  The truth is, that once you hit that mountain range, civilization stops and it is a vast, open wilderness.  But from Cook Inlet to the the last street and last house abutting the mountain range, the Chugach were literally the backdrop for the lives of the people in Anchorage.  

We drove back down by the Inlet and watched the tide come in.  It comes in scary, fast - so fast it looks like a river flowing in, but instead of flowing out to sea, the flow is up toward the arm ending at the mouth of the Knik River.  Seeing the tide is especially easy this time of year because the ice floes bob above the current and can be traced as they move along the water way. 

Finally, giving up on Lorien contacting us, we went to dinner at the Spenard Roadhouse around 7 PM.  It was packed, as usual, but the wait wasn't overly long.  We were seated within 15 minutes and ordered.  Then we noticed several people taking empty tables without actually ordering, and perhaps not even being assigned seating.  It was weird and I concluded they'd been too impatient to wait their turn, and weren't in the system so they were not served.  Then at a pre-arranged time, they all gathered in a section of the restaurant and began to sing from the stage musical Rent!

The sound was fantastic and they handled it really, really well.  I loved it .. got a bit emotional at how good some of them sounded as they sang.  Unfortunately, we won't be in Anchorage for the performances .. We would have been if Gary's healing schedule didn't keep changing.

I did a lot of experimentation with photos, which I will post on this site tomorrow.  I'll also add details from Sunday's time in Anchorage.

Post Iditarod Withdrawal - White Mountain 100

22 March 2012
5:32 PM

Sunrise at	7:42 AM	in direction	86°	East
Sunset at	8:15 PM	in direction	275°	West

Duration of day: 12 hours, 33 minutes (6 minutes, 44 seconds longer than yesterday)

If you have been following this blog since January, you know that January, February, and March are pretty well consumed with racing season.  The Iditarod marks the end of that season and race addicts must direct their attention elsewhere.  Oh drat!  The beauty of the racing season's timing is that it spans the months of deep winter.  Even if a person enjoys living in Fairbanks for the most part, enduring the 4th coldest January since temperatures have been recorded takes some doing.  Following the races provides interest at a time when it would be all too easy to dwell upon the negative aspects of life here in the Interior.

But, now it's done.  No more races.  Sigh.  But spring is not fully arrived, so what next?  This coming weekend is the White Mountain 100.  Racers bike, ski, and run (yes run) 100 miles and the link I just posted includes several photos taken from previous years.  There are cabins all through the White Mountains spaced apart at about 10 mile intervals.  Each racer can be assured of a rest station up ahead.

The bikers win.  In Alaska, bikes have very specialized tires to traverse snow trails.  Some are studded for hard snow and icy conditions.  Others are designed for soft snow and almost balloon like.  I snatched the photo below from a site discussing conditions for the Winter Cycling.

A biker obviously enjoying his winter sport

Having said that and acknowledged that biking is the fastest way to traverse the terrain, that does not discourage a strong contingency of skiers, most of whom use the Skating technique over the slower Classic (or Nordic) method.  And there are those hardy individuals that trust their own feet more than either bikes or skis and they run.

Of course, there are no GPS trackers and the updates may not be as timely, but I do know people in the race, just as I do for the sled dog races and that keeps it personal.  And, no matter what, it's another way in which Alaskans and a few hardy Outsiders show their grit.


Another aspect of life after the Iditarod is the amazing increase of light in March.  For grins, below are a few photos of March light upon the snow and at sunrise.

A previous photo from this same spot was taken 5 days earlier and a few minutes later.  It was posted 3/14 if you want to compare how rapidly the light changes.

Birch shadows on the snow

 I couldn't resist taking yet another comparison of light filtering through the trees as it hits the snow.  I love the contrast and in this one, the many lines of the trees as the sun moves to the south west in intriguing.   I set the image to its original size in order to remove rippling effects visible in the image otherwise.  The angularity and contrast of the photo was an apparent challenge for the computer pix-elation.

Looking toward the western glen of fireweed

Dog Shows in Alaska

21 March 2012
7:43 PM

Sunrise at	7:45 AM	in direction	87°	East
Sunset at	8:12 PM	in direction	274°	West

Duration of day: 12 hours, 26 minutes (6 minutes, 43 seconds longer than yesterday)

You know, there are not many of us - in a state of not many of us - that participate in the AKC Dog Show world.  I am not sure why I got sucked into this, but I was and am still sucked up into it.  At first, you think it's just a beauty show - nothing to do with a dog's worth.  Well, that is true in a sense, but you can't imagine how hard it is to get a dog to "look pretty".  They must be trained to show their best features and some dogs carry that off more easily than others.  Some flat out refuse to do it.  They have no interest in strutting their stuff and let you know in all sorts of ways.

We have Doberman Pinschers.  They are wonderful animals with or without conformation to the Doberman breed standard, but it so happens that the Doberman breed standard is one that has changed very little since it's first definition - something of which Doberman owners are very proud.  So, a "judge" evaluates the dog on its bearing and how closely it follows the standard. 

Right now we have a very nice bitch whose grand sire was rated as top doberman and whose sire has produced innumerable champions.  She is solid, well-poised, graceful and strong, but she tends to relax her back.  Not because she has a deformity but because she simply likes relaxing that way.  It takes a very careful and clever handler to be sure she doesn't choose to relax while in the show ring.

Alas, I am not that clever person in any way.  We do not have many dog shows in Alaska and so we don't have many opportunities to gain championship points, especially when 5 bitches are needed to make a major and there are only 4 showing in the state.  Points are awarded based on population for region and each animals must have taken two "major" events and a total of 15 points. 

We are driving our bitch to Anchorage this weekend to show in one of our local events.  If she takes winners bitch, she will earn at most two points, not a major because only those bitches who are local are attending.  We will possibly have majors in the spring, but that is usually because those from Outside bring their dogs in for finishing.  If they have a hot shot handler and wonderful animals, they take the major points instead of our dogs.  It's a conundrum, but it is the way it is and there is nothing to be done about it .. unless you want to find a handler Outside and let the dog live away from you.

We have not opted for that choice.  She is our sweetheart and baby.  That choice is low, low, low on the priority list.  But I would like her to finish.  Why?  I have no idea why .. other than that breeding usually occurs between champions.  We would like to breed our girl - not because we want to raise dobermans.  I want to have puppies.  I want babies in our house.  I want new life and the joy of watching new life grow.

Why Dobermans?  I like them.  Having lived with them since 1997, I can't imagine being without one. 

The Valdez and Prince William Sound Twenty-three Years Later

20 March 2012
7:04 PM

Sunrise at	7:49 AM	in direction	88°	East
Sunset at	8:09 PM	in direction	273°	West

Duration of day: 12 hours, 20 minutes (6 minutes, 43 seconds longer than yesterday)

I found this excerpt in the online version of the Anchorage Daily News:

Cargo ship formerly known as Exxon Valdez sold for scrap

The former oil tanker made infamous in the 1989 Prince William Sound oil spill has been sold to a scrap dealer for $16 million and is headed to India for dismantling. 12:39 PM

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/#storylink=cpy

In 1989, the Valdez hit the Bligh Reef in the Prince William Sound spilling between 260,000 and 750,000 barrels of crude oil.  It's fascinating that the exact amount is not known.  You'd think it would be calculable based on what was in the hold at the time of departure.  The Valdez Oil Spill is still considered one of the most devastating disasters due to acts of man.

On the map below, Prince William Sound is the body of water that is protected from the Gulf Alaska by two large islands at its southern entrance.  The words Chugach National Forest overlap some of the Sound's waters.  Only two ports serve the Sound that are reachable by car, Whittier and Valdez.  Every other shore shown in the intricate landscape below can only be reached by boat, helicopter or plane.

Looking closely at the map above, follow the road from Anchorage down toward the Kenai Peninsula (Highway 1).  Below the words, "Chugach State Park" is the long finger of Turnagain Arm.  Where it ends a portage connects it to the closest finger of water across the land.  Whittier port is in that arm.  It's main function is to provide access to the ports of the Sound from Anchorage or Kenai.  Toward the upper right hand corner is Valdez.  This map does not show that a road connects Valdez to the rest of the state's road system.  This in fact was the first road north to Fairbanks and follows the Pipeline.  Cordova in the right mid-section of the map has no road from outside the city.  Even with roads connected to Whittier and Valdez, the only routes in from the Outside are across Canada.

Now look at the intricacies of the fjords, islands and inlets.  If you were to expand this map, you would see a myriad of tiny islets dotted through out the north reach of the Sound.  One year after the spill, 1990, the census reported a population of 550, 043 dispersed throughout the state.  Getting anyone to these remote and complex waterways was a logistical challenge in itself.  The difficulties in attempting to clean the spill are described briefly in this Wikipedia article, "Exxon Valdez Oil Spill".  It also cites statistics for the loss of animal life due the event and the impact on the economy of local fishermen who claim to this day that Exxon did not fairly compensate for the loss of income due to their negligence.

Several changes came from the spill.  On a personal level, a friend of ours, Dale Gardner, came up to work temporarily on the spill, was put into a position of leaderships and remained.  He is an Environmental Specialist with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

On a national level, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 was enacted by Congress the following year.  It led to the shift from single hulled transports to the double hull design now in use by the majority of oil tankers.  Double hulls are to be used exclusively by oil tankers in U.S. waters by 2015.  The U.S. Coast Guard estimates that spillage could have been reduced by 60% had hulls like this been in use at that time.

Within Alaska, legislation requires that every tanker be escorted from Valdez to the Hinchinbrook entrance of Prince William Sound.  The personal impact on the lives of those who depended on the rich harvest from the Sound is still felt among certain families.  In a State governed almost entirely by the exploitation of its natural resources, there is a surprisingly strong anti-oil sentiment.

A simple Google search could easily show many horrific images from the spill and its clean up.  Those of us alive at that time have them emblazoned in our memory.  I would rather show photos of the Sound as I saw it on our Ferry trip from Whittier on the Kenai Peninsula to Valdez.  The clouds were low hanging and the overriding impression was of subdued greens, blues, and browns under a grey sky reflected in grey water, grey islands looming on either side of the ferry's path.  I loved it, but it is not the typical photograph of the Sound.  Prince William Sound Photos taken by Janine Niebrugge has wonderful sunlit images, and several of Columbia Bay which hint at the hues we experienced that day.  Patrick J. Endres put together a vibrant collection that can be viewed as a slide show.  Both sets of photos reveal the placid nature of the Sound, a dramatic contrast to the rough and dangerous waters of the Gulf of Alaska.

As an aside, the 2010 census shows that Alaska's population is now 722,718, increasing by less than 200,000 in two decades.

The Cost of Living

19 March 2012
9:03 PM

Sunrise at	7:53 AM	in direction	89°	East
Sunset at	8:06 PM	in direction	272°	West

Duration of day: 12 hours, 13 minutes (6 minutes, 44 seconds longer than yesterday)


Living in Alaska is noticeably more expensive when purchasing material goods and transported food than other places in the U.S.  I remember a sense of shock the last time I was Outside, last July.  I was shopping for a few things at Fred Meyer's and wondered how I could be charged so little for what I was purchasing.  I went back and looked at the prices to be sure there wasn't some mistake.  Any time you buy a car, an appliance, i.e., something heavy, you know you are paying for a hefty shipping fee in the sticker price.

Recently, I have mulled over that phrase .. the cost of living.  How expensive is the cost of staying alive?  I have found myself shopping for healing in the same way I might shop for a piece of furniture or a new car.  Do the amenities of the Acura MDX justify the cost of purchase and maintenance?  Take that example one step further and ask yourself if the well-designed and comfortable Acura MDX justifies the cost of purchasing it and then driving to Anchorage every time it needs maintenance - when you live in Fairbanks.

My husband suffers from bladder cancer.  This cancer is not usually treated with chemotherapy, although it can be.  His has not been treated in this way and now his options are narrowing to the point where the ultimate choice for healing is surgical rather than oncological.  Until 2000, there was no place to receive comprehensive cancer care in Fairbanks.  Prior to that time, one cost of living anywhere outside of Anchorage, would have been finding a way to travel to or live in Anchorage for the duration of treatment.

What if a treatment could not be performed in Alaska at all?  Serious trauma resulting from accidents (plane crashes, avalanches, etc) at times are considered too acute to be handled here and patients are flown to Seattle for care.  I don't know if all forms of cancer can or should be treated in Alaska's surgical and oncological centers, but as with anywhere, if a patient wants treatment at one of the hubs for research and healing that have been recognized as superior for cancer care, it requires travel for most residents of the U.S. (such as this US News ranking for best cancer hospitals).  The distribution of those centers is interesting - 3 on the eastern seaboard, 3 on the western seaboard and two mid-continent.  For rural residents of Kansas, by the time they traveled to a major airport and flew to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota or MD Anderson in Texas, it could be about the same amount of time and cost.

Life threatening diseases level the playing field considerably, don't they?

So, for us, since our choices are being limited to surgery, does it matter if we go to the one of the top ten cancer centers in the US or can we get the same care at home, in Anchorage?  Is this the same type of question as that of deciding whether to buy an Acura MDX over a Honda Pilot? No, because my husband's life is involved, but I wish it were that easy - to make a decision purely on the basis of its practicality.

Heating with Wood

18 March 2012
8:08 PM

Sunrise at	7:56 AM	in direction	90°	East
Sunset at	8:03 PM	in direction	271°	West

Duration of day: 12 hours, 6 minutes (6 minutes, 43 seconds longer than yesterday)

As an aside to today's rant, notice that we now have just over 12 hours of sunlight.  Denver, Colorado has 12 hours and 4 minutes of daylight.  We have more daylight than most anyone who would read the blog that does not live in Fairbanks.  Just three months ago, I was recording daylight hours so low that I had to extol the virtues of twilight (which I am happy to continue to extol, actually), in order to tolerate the hours of dark.  But there it is, for the next six months, we will have a surfeit of sun above the horizon.

Wood is a messy fuel.  It's messy for the environment.  It's messy for the inside of the house and it's messy inside the stove itself.  Our borough tried to get ordinances past that required those using aging and polluting wood heating devices to face fines or replace them.  The borough instituted a program whereby a home owner could replace an inappropriate heating device with one more environmentally friendly - at the borough's expense - in order to stimulate acceptance of the bills and ordinances.

The bill went down in a flash of hot flames and smoke filled skies.  The residents of North Star Borough, as a whole, far prefer particulate-filled air over the possibility of having their choices for heating regulated.  I am not a part of that majority because I would love to replace our inefficient, smoking, uneven heat-producing and polluting wood stove with one that more comfortably heats the house while using less wood.

This year has been particularly bad and I am not sure why.  Several times, we have had a not-so-fine layer of smoke residue across our living area.  We have repeatedly cleaned bark debris from around the stove area.  We have had to clean the chimney more often than any of our family and friends.  We have used 5 full cords in addition to diesel fuel.  We have been too hot in the upstairs loft while radiant heat from the diesel fueled boiler still is required to heat our bedroom toward the back of the house.   We have scarred several planks of our timbered wall unloading wood into the wood rack and the wood framing the stone pedestal upon which the stove sits is thoroughly ruined.

We also have air leaks around the stove pipe exit that are detectable due to the encroaching spider webs developing around the area.  And speaking of air flow, the previous owners and builders of the house took air from the garage to add fresh air to the stove itself.  So, not only are we drawing from an area that if heated, needs to be heated by oil, it pulls from around doors and windows to draw air to burn. 

An unexpected consequence of the uneven heat combined with draw from the doorways was the radiator pipes freezing under those same locations.  During the day, while we are away, the house will not maintain heat with the stove we have.  So the hot-water heat takes over.  But during the 4th coldest January (since they began recording temperatures for the Interior), our pipes froze just at the location of the doors and we came home to a house not heated by our inefficient fuel guzzling stove, nor our radiators.  The demand for fuel was there, so the furnace went on repeatedly, but did not heat the house itself.

We have had to purchase our wood and the least expensive way to do that has been to purchase logs which we cut, split and stack ourselves.  That means several weekends over the summer and fall are devoted to the preparation of wood stores for winter.   Honestly, using less wood would be perfectly fine with me.

I am not sure why other residents of the borough don't agree.

Life Goes On As Spring Approaches

17 March 2012
8:45 AM

Sunrise at	8:00 AM	in direction	91°	East
Sunset at	8:00 PM	in direction	270°	West

Duration of day: 11 hours, 59 minutes (6 minutes, 43 seconds longer than yesterday)

Interior spring sky through the tree tops

I did not post yesterday and I am not going to attempt to recover that day - these things happen.  At our core, being human means our lives are much the same even if we live in different circumstances.  Our culture can differ, our locale can differ, our accepted rites and rituals can differ.  But humans seek companions, food, warmth, safety and love in much the same way throughout the planet.

Yesterday was a day focused on the simple details of being human more than the details of being human in Interior Alaska.  I took soup over to my daughter who has been down with a virus for several days.  I joined Gary on two conference calls regarding plans for his health.  I had dinner with my dear friend at Gambardella's Pasta Bella.  I tended our animal companions, did laundry, swept floors, cleaned sinks, and continued to sort through mail.

Ruby colored tree tops across the hills above Farmer's Loop

In short, it was a day much like any other day for humans on planet earth.  There were a few things that would distinguish my day from that of a resident of Tucson, of course.  As Vera and I left for dinner from her house and for whatever reason, we both stopped to contemplate the snow still piled high everywhere.   Our thoughts followed the same track; we are very ready for spring and yet love the whiteness and texture of the snow .. paradoxes continues to underlay our lives.  And then coming home, an arch of aurora filled the sky, shaped like a rainbow from horizon to horizon.  It was the front line of intense aurora activity about to assault earthly skies.

Suggestion of red buds at tree tops

And, I took these pictures which may, or may not, show the differences in tree limb and bud color across the hillsides as they prepare to follow break up with rapid leaf out.  I did see willow buds in a couple of places, but not enough to photograph yet.  Birch have leaf branches all along the length of the tree whereas aspen tend to cluster leafs at the top.  As I thought, capturing the intensity of the color without a telephoto lens was not entirely successful, but the photos do reveal differences in branch and bud color across the landscape.

The chief difficulty in taking these photos was getting decent framing around telephone poles, which are absolutely everywhere in the hills near the city.  I would do better to drive out farther and I will most definitely later this spring as I continue to mark the changes in the season.

Aspen clusters, birch interlopers, and sky, sky, sky

I normally would not include as much sky as I did in the photo above, but isn't the color amazing?  The photo shows a healthy aspen family in the center.  Looking closely, the tendency of aspen to cluster leaves near the top of the tree is apparent.  At the very top of hill is a section that is lower than the other tree line.  These are birch that apparently filled in after a former swathe of clear cut was left to reseed.

Birch at the curve in the road, aspen in the distance

I wanted to remove the road out of this photo and in fact did an extract of the small portion of the view without any road or telephone lines.  But the conversion from JPEG to TIFF and back to JPEG for loading into the blogger degraded the image to the point where the change in color was vsible, but the overall image was fuzzy.  However, there is value is showing a typical neighborhood road in the hills near the University of Fairbanks on the west side of town.