17 posts tagged “winter”

Am I finally allowed to believe summer is here?  I'm actually a little afraid to get my hopes up;  the last two times I bragged about summer 'arriving', we ended up getting hit with a 15 inch snowstorm, and a 22 inch snow storm.  At this rate I might wake up tomorrow and be buried to the rooftops.

The really disgusting and depressing thing though is the fact that next month Alaska officially starts losing daylight again.  How unfair is that?  We have no green grass, no flowers, and some people still have their snow tires on their cars... and yet next month summer is going to start its gradual decline.

Why Alaska, why?

I'm trying to decide if I want to even put much effort into gardening this year.  Who knows how long the growing season might be.  By the time things finally get producing summer might be well near over.  We'll see.

Well it's been snowing, and snowing... and snowing a little more.  It's still snowing as I write this, and by morning we are supposed to have maybe 6 more inches.  I think that adds up to about a ft and a half of snow in the past week.  All the snow in this photo is from this week, it was nice a clear out there before that.  Muddy of course, but just about no snow at all.

Anchorage is supposed to only get about 5 1/2 inches of snow, on average, during the entire month of April.  Barely over a week into the month and we'll have about 4 times that already.  Really Alaska, really?

Even my dog went and looked around, then came back and says to me, "Holy crap dude, there is snow everywhere!".  Well you know, that is what he would have said.  I can always tell what he is thinking.

Nature, or Alaska, or 'Mother Nature' -- whatever, seems to have decided that Winter wasn't quite over.  I was keyed on to this fact by the six or so inches of snow that is setting peacefully outside upon the ground.  Ground, that just yesterday, was dry.  Relatively dry.  Okay, okay, it was muddy and nasty looking--but at least the snow was gone!

Oh well, nothing I can do about it.  Not that I'll stop whining about it though.  I think by this point in the year I deserve to have a freak-out about the weather.  I think it's one of our states constitutional rights:

IV
The right of the Alaskan people, to be secure in their opinions, against unreasonable, cruel, or unusual weather related activity, shall reserve the right--upon probable cause--by oath or affirmation, to decry, condemn, denounce or otherwise speak out against such activity.

There, you see.  Proof.  I'm sure I saw that in there.

Sigh.  Alaska would be so perfect without all that pesky snow.  I tuned into one of our live cams to try and get evidence of the snow for you folks -- because taking two steps to my window to personally take a picture would be pratically impossible -- and what do I see, some random guy getting arrested by Alaska's finest:


I'm not sure what he did at 2 in the morning to be arrested for, but at least now I have the proof to tease him with if I ever find out who he is.  I feel a little better now.  Click here to see the live cam yourself, maybe you'll get lucky enough to see something interesting.  Don't hold your breath though.

Another sure sign of summer is when Alaska turns from beautiful to ugly.  We have months and months of absolutely beautiful, soft, pristine white snow.  Rolling hills and white expanses as far as the eye can see.  And it all looks perfect.  There is just something peaceful and inspiring about fresh, untouched snow.  When you wake up in the morning and see a new layer covering the ground and there isn't so much as a single footprint marring the view.  Yup, that is one of the few times I really appreciate snow.

As I said though, just before summer is when all that beauty vanishes.  The snow stops falling, and what remains is quickly covered in debris, dirt, road scum.  The ice turns brown, the ground softens and becomes muddy.  The mud splashes up and dirties the snow further.  What we are left with is jagged clumps of dirty, hardened ugliness that is more ice than snow.

Dirty ice.

We call this time of year "breakup".  It means exactly how it sounds;  the time of year when the evidence of winter is 'breaking up'.  It really is the filthiest time of the Alaskan year.  15 minutes of driving around and your car looks like a large brown rolling ball of filth.  Shoes have to be taken off outside the house.  Pants get stained up to the shin.  Forget about even taking your dog for a walk, unless you feel like giving him a bath each time.  We are at the very beginning stage of breakup, so this photo is actually pretty nice looking compared to what it will be a couple weeks from now.

You know what though, for all of that, this time of year still makes me happy.  Because as soon as I see the muck start to spread I know summer is well and truly on the way.  I can deal with the slop, knowing that I'll have a wonderful few months before I have to deal with winter again.  Bring on the summer baby, bring it on.

Here we are, before actually starting the cleanup process.  The paths are just from my jeeps tires as I plowed my way through in the morning heading to work.  And a small path I carved out for my brother to walk on.

Here we go.  Thank goodness for snow blowers, that is all I can say.  My first 5 years in Alaska all I used was a shovel, and my back could attest to that fact.  Now I can breeze though all the snow in a half hour, when it might of taken me 2 hours by hand.

Progress!  That's all there is to it basically.  Walking up and down and trying not to blast the snow into the neighbors yard.  They tend not to appreciate that sort of thing.

Speaking of them, here are all my neighbors out doing the same as me.  This is our ritual in Alaska.  Get home from work and head out to battle the snow.  Sometimes Mother Nature is nice and gives us a couple week break between the attacks, but usually this is what you can find us doing every few days.

If you are planning to move here, bring a shovel - and when your back starts to hurt, buy a snow-blower.