Anyway, so we're all in shorts and T-shirts and guzzling water, and the girls look like this:
They'd already lost most of their Winter coat, thank goodness!
The warmth and sunshine have also brought forth lots more wildflowers, including wild iris:
And lady's slippers:
We haven't seen the stars since early April. We don't have the heavy curtains that a lot of people do, since no one in our household minds sleeping with the sunlight.
5 comments:
Wow, that temperature range is crazy - who would've thunk it? The poor dogs must be miserable. Does anyone ever take the clippers and shave their dog? My cousin's husky used to get a hair cut every summer down in LA - he seemed to like it.
I've been catching bits and snatches of "Tougher in Alaska", a History channel special. They talk a lot about Fairbanks, and did a segment on the train car of coal that arrives at the university (I think) once a day. It contains a couple tons of coal which feeds the university boilers. The coal comes from a mine not too far away from Fairbanks. Apparently you can watch full episodes here:
http://www.history.com/video.do?name=tougher_in_alaska
The host also followed a troop of boy scouts that showed him how to camp in -40 weather. Later that winter they earned their camping in 40below and camping in 100below badges. **gulp**!
100 below? Are you sure? I don't even think Antarctica gets that cold, and it certainly doesn't here... The record for coldest recorded temperature in Alaska was just broken this February, at -67F.
As for the dogs, they do okay. They still are willing to wander for miles. I just have to restrain them and give them lots of water. Their entire undercoat has fallen out, so there's no need to shave them, although I think some breeds with denser coats do get clipped really short. We saw one like that over the weekend, but I couldn't tell what he was. :)
Advice from the Musueum's documentary film (AK's Winter):
It is important to keep the same schedule regardless during the months with 24 hours daylight or months with 24 hours darkness.
Ahh - google cleared it up for me:
http://www.newsminer.com/news/2008/may/02/fairbanksans-among-those-who-are-tougher-alaska/
“I went out with Boy Scouts who were getting their 100-below badge,” he said. “They were really happy because it was more than 40 below. They have to aggregate 100 degrees below zero in five nights or less.”
Ohhh... Haha that's still bonkers. They'd have to average -20 a day, but I guess they are probably hoping it'll be colder than that so they can go home sooner with their 100 degrees under their belts.
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