It's Official! Aaaaand... More Signs of Spring

Look! We officially got the Coldest Winter on Record!

Having lived through Fairbanks' Coldest Winter in Recorded History (records starting in 1904) has gotta be some real bragging rights! OK enough of that. Now we are transitioning to spring. This upcoming weekend may be our last weekend skiing until the creek opens up and we lose trail access. The snow has gotten hard packed into ice and I am walking the girls in Icebugs. Snow is dripping off rooftops and making icicles. For us it's our drainspouts!

DL has to cut a channel to drain this one, otherwise it makes a patch of ice behind the house.

It was "only" this amount of total snow accumulation though. It would have made for nicer skiing, had it not been so cold.

Last weekend I felt confident enough in the spring that I put away my heavy coats and boots and got out some lighter clothes and unlined Bean boots. I'm ready for mud season!

Last weekend, DL and I joined the 1200 in Fairbanks and 8.1 million nationwide to stand for democracy.

I like the UU church. :)

The girls' winter coats will start dumping soon. I thought I'd photograph peak fuzzy paws. Here is Cricket's peak fuzz:

And here is Raven's:

Here they are snuggling with Daaaaaaaaddy:

And here is my midterm exam prep!

When I was in my 20s, the "common wisdom" for women in male-dominated fields was to dress like a man and act like a man and for Heaven's sake quit bringing cookies to events. It undermines you and makes you look like you are a server not an engineer in your own right. Well screw that! I want to bring cookies because I'm nice, and my students deserve cookies!! And I have tenure now so!

A few weeks ago I attended the thesis defense of a very bright young lady I had known since she was a freshman. She wore a flowy, floral dress and I was sort of fascinated and delighted at how much times had changed. I'd *never* have worn a floral print dress when I was her age. It would have been considered unprofessional. But now it's 30 years later, and women can look feminine if they damn well want to! I took photos of her standing in front of per presentation and sent them to her and told her I was so proud.😍

Spring Greetings

Yesterday was the Equinox, so Happy Equinox! Let us welcome the light! I apologize for being remiss in posting, again. Like almost everyone, I have been quite distressed about happenings around the country since January. Also, the very day after I posted my prior post, the UAF Board of Regents voted to cave to Trump's Executive Order to scrub all language referring to Diversity, Equity, or Inclusion from the website or print materials.

I have been calling, writing emails, and attending in-person events, but I'm not sure what else I can do. In the meantime, I have determined that in order not to spend my entire days as a ball of seething rage, I've got to carry on doing the business of living my life, and that includes teaching, research, and hanging out with my Fuzzy Family.

I've recently come to admit that I have not been running strong the past few years, and now I realize that that is to be expected as I've been hit by repeated traumatic events nearly annually since 2021, and 2020 if you count the Pandemic, which was pretty much an international traumatic event. I gauge my running fitness by how long it takes to do our morning 3-miler. At my fastest, it was 30 mins (I'm slow!). At my slowest, it was 1:15 (walking slowly). Now I am at about 50 mins. My Challenges started in 2021 when I broke my left fibula. I started running awkwardly again in about 6 months, but then in 2022 I got my leg punctured very deeply by a mean dog, so another 6 months of walking instead of running. In 2023 another calamity: I fell in love with Raven! 🤣🤣 I had never had a yearling dog and was back to walking instead of running until she learned some Manners. Then Queen Thistle's health started to fail, and we all quit running and switched to walking (and skijoring) exclusively until she left us. Then my heart was broken and I couldn't run for another six months. Now finally I'm trying to recover running-strength again. I'm a bit out of shape, still walking half the time, and huffing and puffing a lot. Also, Middle Age! At 47, I do not expect to build up fitness as quickly as I did 10 or 20 years ago. On the other hand, I'm not exactly in bad shape. I mean I still cover 40 miles a week, even if slowly!

I appreciate the patience of my two Goodest Best Friends, Princess Cricket and Ravey Gravy, being willing to do snail-pace walking with me for so long. I hope to be running again this summer.

And we've still been enjoying CARTZZZ!

YESH CARTZZZ!

And KALESTEMZZZ!

YESH KALESTEMZZZ!

And we clean our fangs!

And we are still snugglin'

Even young'un Ravey Gravy is so snuggly.

The ski season seems to be ending early this year, alas. There has not been fresh snow in weeks, and the old snow is hard and slick. The overflow on Rosie Creek is also creeping ever higher:

I'm lucky the girls are pretty chill.

They comfy.

We don't have enough happy stories, so let us talk about some rescue success stories. It seems that the problems of the world are so big, and the good things are so small. But to these people, this small good thing is a piece of their hearts, and to these dogs, this small good thing is their whole world.

Here is Timber, the big sweet galoot! He was on death row at the shelter when he got sprung into the rescue system. Turned into a foster fail. Back for a visit while his parents are travelling. He remembers me and gave me some alarmingly violent hugs. So I squoze him back. :D

And here is Miss Ivalu, formerly known as Jill. Severely abused and dumped in a gravel pit with half a dozen or so others. Then rescued and became a foster fail. 🥰 She's back for temporary boarding while her family is travelling, and she is full of life and joy and silliness!

And finally here is my own Raven. A foster fail before her foster even started. 🥰

I hope all 14 of my loyal readers are having a lovely spring. Apologies for the poor photo resolution today. Uploading photos has become a bit of a process, and I took the easy way today.

I'm quite proud of little old UAF

While I wish the UAF administration would make some sort of formal statement against the attacks on science, women's rights, and racial justice in this country, at least they are allowing the normal events to proceed, including celebrating Black History Month and Martin Luther King Day. We faculty have also been instructed to change nothing on our websites or syllabi. All of the nondiscrimination statements remain, including EEO and references to our Equity and Compliance office, which still states that "Our overall goal is to provide a respectful, diverse and inclusive university environment." Take that, Trump!

Yesterday was Elizabeth Peratrovich Day, and we received an email.

Elizabeth Peratrovich dedicated her life to fighting for the rights of Indigenous peoples, leading to the passage of The Alaska Equal Rights Act of 1945. It was the first anti-discrimination law passed in the United States, passed before Alaska even gained statehood.

I am grateful that UAF Chancellor Dan White still sent out an honorary email yesterday.

Even more impressive, the Alaska State Department of Transportation also sent out a very long and detailed email on Elizabeth Peratrovich Day, which is also called Alaska Civil Rights Day.

My very own College of Engineering and Mines featured in its monthly newsletter the contributions of three African-American engineer regiments—the 93rd, 95th, and 97th, along with the 388th battalion—to building the AlCan! "Despite operating under military segregation and facing discrimination, these Black engineers defied prejudices, proving their expertise and determination in some of the harshest conditions imaginable. Their contributions, nearly erased from history, were later uncovered through the research of historians like Lael Morgan, Christine McClure, and Dennis McClure." I thought it was wonderful of them to find a locally relevant connection.

I am grateful to the State of Alaska for refusing to go along with Trump's attempted erasure of the contributions of non-white people to this country. We, too, have contributed to Making America Great. And if you are rolling your eyes right now, I welcome you to quit reading my blog. (And I challenge anyone who believes I am or was ever a "diversity hire" to assemble a resumé that is more strongly qualified for any of my jobs, including placement into Lowell High or UC Berkeley. I'll wait patiently.)

Oooh a brush with fame!

The Head Cheese Human at Sirius has been gone on a road trip this week. She had sent out one of her resident dogs* to British Columbia to be a stud, and now the puppies were all born and weaned and she went down to reclaim him, as well as some of the puppies. The homestead was left in the care of us volunteers. In her absence, she mentioned that some researcher in canine genetics had asked to visit and examine some of the resident Sirius dogs, because they are from heritage lines of working dogs. Unlike my girls, who were bred for racing, the Sirius dogs are all freight dogs from ancient lines. In fact, the Alaskans are related to the Denali sled dogs. I agreed to meet this person, who showed up with grad students and totes of kits. Turns out... we were in the presence of fame! This was Heather Huson of Cornell, who had led the study on the genetics of the Serum Run Dogs.

I was very honored to introduce the Sirius Dogs to her. She took DNA samples of almost all of the heritage dogs (both Siberians and Alaskans). Most were via blood, but for the twitchier ones she did mouth swabs. She also wanted to take physical measurements from several dogs, who could be considered exemplars of their breed. She also took a portrait of each one, with their name on a white board. I thought that was adorable. Here is Burl getting his portrait:

And here is Oban getting his. Even the sweetest, most well-trained dogs are not super cooperative with this. They want to sniff the white board, then they want to kiss the researchers. It's very distracting!

I have a nicer photo of Oban, but of course I have no sign! I took it to go with the one I took of his sister Igraine. Very pretty dogs and very pretty fireweed!

Since Burl is so sweet, I also offered him to be measured. He was cooperative, but not pleased! After they left, I went back to him and told him I appreciated his sweetness. He gave me kisses, so I think he forgave me. Anyway, they measured his chin.

And the spacing between his EYEBOLLS.

And the length of his EARS!

And his clavicle!

And his neck!

And his shoulders!

And his paw!

Another sweet one I thought would tolerate this is Avett. Avett will do aaaaaaanything for attention, and sure enough, he ate it up. Avett is daddy to Levon, the Sweetest Boy in the World. Clearly sweetness is inheritable! Lookie as she ponders Avett's ear!

And then they measured his ear!

And his clavicle!

And the height of his shoulder!

And the length of his back!

And his wrist circumference!

Dear Avett, sweet Avett! Such a sweet, tolerant boy!

Here is a video clip of them taking Boo-Boo's blood sample. Boo-Boo is my personal favorite, although that's a tough thing to choose in this yard of giant Schweeties.

And here is one of them just trying to take Izzy's portrait! Izzy sweet? Yes, he iz! But izzy cooperative for a photo? No, he iz not! Izzy is Boo-Boo's son. And brother to Oban and Igraine, although from a different litter.

And here is a matriarch, long-retired Spook. Spook is Boo-Boo's mama (and thus grandma to Izzy, Oban, and Igraine). The researchers, of course, were super interested in samples from Spook, so they took blood, but I didn't let them measure her. We must Respect our Elders! (Well, Avett is also an elder, but he loves being manhandled, so it was fine for him!)

*Her resident dogs are distinct from the rescues. The residents are all purposefully bred and do tours to support the rescue. It's really a very lovely situation, the like of which I've never seen anywhere else. The residents are so sweet and well-behaved and contented that they provide comfort, ease, and good examples of behavior to the rescues, who are often from severe abuse cases. There are many rescues that are still so scared of people that we can't touch them for weeks, but they get playtime with the residents, which helps them relax and come out of their shells. And yet another benefit of this situation is that when rescues come in that are sled dogs, they can run with the touring team, which helps their confidence and sense of purpose.