Chaos Leaves Town

Although it’s now June 1st, I thought I’d put up a few more pictures of the Ice Carving event from March. Then follow that with a few pics from downtown Fairbanks during the sled dog races in mid-April.

Happy B'day Alaska

One of the kid slides...

The log cabin slide. Very popular with the kids.

Entrance to The Maze...

Snow covered sculpture. We had a lot of snow last winter so this kept happening. We have the equipment to blow them off, just have to find the volunteer that wants to stick with it for the whole season...

Another Maze sculpture.

Waiting...

Wow!

Mirror image.

Musk Oxen.

Huh?

Dinosaur Attack!

I still have lots more and I’ll put them up later. These are just teasers.

After the ice carving show, I wandered downtown in early April and hung around while a dog sled race got started. The route began and ended in downtown Fairbanks and was a 20 mile long loop around the city. I didn’t see many of the teams as I got there late and left early. But I did notice one thing that was really strange…a fur auction. Here they had all these dead animal furs hanging on racks or stacked in piles. They’d hold one up and people would bid on them. In some cases, hundreds of dollars.

On the way to downtown, I stopped and took a picture of the Chena river looking West.

The main street all set up for the dog sled race.

More of main street, showing the 'start - finish' line.

This is how they haul the dog teams around up here.

Soapy Smith was a famous trouble maker. Place is just named after him. Yawn.

Fans wandering up and down the street.

Can you believe it? A fur auction in 2009.

Here's a guy with a full wolf head hat. Whew, really? Yes, really. That's his forehead peeking out from under the wolf's fangs. Strange when you first see him face on.

This skin went for a couple hundred but I've forgotten what animal it's off of. Red fox?

That’s the last of the pics for today. I have more of the ice carvings to put up. I’ll try to get them up soon.

Meanwhile, I was able to move back to the campground in my RV the first weekend of May. Since then I’ve been volunteering as a camp host here. We had a nice warm week in mid-April so I was able to shovel off the top of my RV. Then it got warm, up into the high 40’s F and that melted much snow. But I was stuck at the cabin with a 3 foot deep pile of snow all around the RV. Took many days of warm weather to even be able to think about driving it out.

The last few days of April and first few days of May it got really warm and the melt sped up. I did dig a little of the snow from around the RV but mostly just let it melt. Then on the 2nd of May, with the snow from in front of the RV mostly gone, I turned the start key, with my fingers crossed, and she roared to life. Very little white smoke, purred like a kitten and not sounding at all like a rig that had spend seven months in a deep, deep freeze. I had to drive over a little snow berm of 8-9″ but it wasn’t a problem. Then I parked in my front yard where I could load the rig easier and spent the next 3 days getting all my stuff out of the cabin and back into the RV. On the forth day, I drove it over to the tire center and had them put the tire I took off last spring back on. What had happened was it was soooo cold the winter of ’07-08 the bead on the tire broke and it lost air. I had a friend help me put the spare on and I was now removing that spare and putting the tire that belonged there back on.  Now with all the tires the same size, topped off with air, and plenty of fuel, I called Stacy and invited her to join me for a shake down trip. I hadn’t been more then 22 miles since July of ’07. She was all for it and suggested we head down to Delta Junction where she had worked the summer before. Then we invited Dorthy so soon the three of us were heading south on the Alcan highway. Past North Pole (a small town south of here) and into the wilderness. It was about Eielson AFB where we all realized we’d forgotten our cameras! An hour and a half later we stopped for ice cream at Delta Junction and some shopping at a thrift store. Stacy showed us where she use to hang out and drive her Jeep in the river bed for fun. The trip was nice and it firmed up my feeling that I really wanted to get back on the road. So I decided that, yes, I’d be leaving Fairbanks for points south in August. The rig ran fine, brakes felt good, made a couple funny noises at times but nothing that seemed too bad.

We’ve had some pretty nice weather for many days since then (it’s now June 1st) and some light rain and cloudy, cool days. Spotty weather I’d say. Very light RV traffic into the park and we’re seeing the 30-40% drop in RV traffic that was predicted. Since we expected it, and now we’re seeing it, we’re going to open more rentable rooms in the building. Just to see if that works. Need to make money somehow.

Well, that’s all for today, I’m going to ride the bike down to Pioneer Park and hang out for a while. Maybe take some pictures. Talk to you later.

Haf Canadian took me to task today with a comment about how I haven’t posted in a month. It’s worse then that, I haven’t posted since Apr. 24th, so a full 5 weeks. Sorry everyone. I’m very pleased that you all follow my adventures. I noticed that yesterday, after 5 weeks of no new postings, ten of you still stopped by to see if there was anything new. Well, I have no excuse. I do have more pictures of the ice carving competition, lots more, that I want to put up, it just seems difficult to bring myself to sit here in front of the computer and just do it. Then this summer I plan on doing some exploring around Fairbanks to places I haven’t been yet so stay tuned for that.

I promise I’ll get something up this evening. I’m not planning on going anywhere, there is nothing but reruns on TV, so later today I’ll get some more stuff up.

In the news, I’ve firmed up my travel plans. I’ll be leaving Fairbanks and heading to the lower 48 on or around Aug. 30th. My brother Dan is flying in, we’ll head on down to Haines, stay a couple days exploring, then take the ferry over to Skagway. Dan will then climb the Chilkoot trail, maybe I’ll join him, that takes 5 days. He’ll have his camera so I’ll post the good ones. Then we’ll head up into the mountains and into Canada. We will enjoy an extended trip so all together we’ll be on the road for two weeks. Ending the trip in Walla Walla, Washington where my kids are now living.

After a few days or weeks with the kids and my sister (she lives in Walla Walla too), I’m heading east into Idaho and North Dakota to have a look around. I’m thinking that I should also make a trip over to the east coast. It’s crowded, I know, but there is a lot of history over there I’d like to see and visit.

So, keep checking back, there will be many more exciting adventures to come.

It’s a couple days later, not in real time mind you but in picture taking time, and I’ve gotten more pictures of the event so I thought I’d put them up for you today.

The weather sometimes changes in minutes and my work varies so I get out to see the art and take pictures when I can. There are nearly 20 acres with artwork on them so it’s a hike too. Good for me I know but when it’s -20F sometimes it doesn’t feel that way.

Artist impressing the cartoon into the ice...

An abstract family.

It’s a couple days later and the carvings have been viewed by thousands, a winner has been picked and awards passed out. A good time had by all. So, here’s some more pictures…

You can see even better photos at www.icealaska.com.

The show has begun…and when I got a few minutes, I wandered out and got a few shots of the ice carvings. The competition started on Feb. 24th so we had to have the cameras up and running by then. With 30 cameras, that means a lot of computer work for me getting the system running because we end up with 4 networks in the building. DSL is linked to all the office and email (the machines used by the carvers and staff) computers, then there is a T-1 network for uploading pictures, then there is a WebCam network that’s internal only so we can access and adjust the cameras and radio equipment locally, and finally, there is an internal working network for the two cameras that act as web servers. These separations of the various networks protect the system from external attack by hackers or bad guys.

Then we have to physically move the cameras around the park on big stands that support the cameras 12 feet off the ground. Reason for that is we have to shot toward the south, were the sun is most of the day, so the downward angle of the camera housing prevents the sun from blotching the pictures…most of the time. We dragged the camera stands out into the park the night before the opening and got them all running by morning when the carvers went to work. The ice is already there ready for them.

In other areas of the park, the Chinese carvers that come each year have made lots of slides for kids, and a few other large incidental sculptures. Like the main stage that BP is paying for this year. Word is that they ponied up $75,000 for the rights to have their name plastered all over the event. If you go look at the web site… www.icealaska.com you’ll find their logo.

Here are some pictures:

The BP stage...

A front view of the stage.

Some of the volunteers who have passed away but left their mark on the event.

New meaning to the term 'Cold call'.

Down the road a way to the first competition piece. Several days later the keys the birds are fighting over fell to the ground and broke.

Here's another shot of them.

Kind of a double helix sort of design.

Something...

I really like this one.

Here's a side angle shot.

Here's a shot of one of the camera stands we have to lug around.

Didn't know what to make of this one.

Very cool.

OK, that’s enough for today, I’ve got to get up to the Ice Park and work the cameras. Talk at you later.

I’ve been working hard at the Ice Park getting the web cameras all ready for the ice carving competiton at the park. One of the things I did last year was to design and build a circuit that would control an antenna rotation device so I could have ‘panning’ of a camera. This year I designed and built another control circuit that would give me a ’tilt’ function. So now I can pan and tilt the camera that is centered on the ‘BP World Ice Art Championships of 2009’ stage. You can visit that camera and control the zoom feature (that was already there when I designed the tilt and pan feature) at: http://12.12.107.3:8000 , this addy only works while the show is open from the end of Feb. until the end of March, but if it’s running, hope you enjoy watching us zip around the area. The show starts on Feb. 24th so this camera will have lots to watch from then until the end of the show on March 22nd. Up until then, you’ll see the volunteers running around getting the place ready. Go here: http://www.icealaska.com to see all sorts of stuff about the ice carving competition and soon all the other 30 webcams will be up an running and pointed towards the many ice sculptures the artists will be feverishly creating within their time limits.

A week ago and then a couple days ago I wandered around the park and got some shots of the preparations we’re making getting ready for the show. Down on the pond they were harvesting some ice…

Must have ice for an ice carving competition.

The heavy equipment is put into action, it's lifting a 2 ton block of ice...

It was as cold and darkish as these pictures suggest...A week later the weather has improved...

Work being done on one of the incidental pieces...

A kid's slide.

Kids love these things.

Off in the distance, beautiful ice ready for carving, soon there will be hundreds of carvers chiseling away at it...

Huge blocks of 'Diamond of the Arctic' ice...

Another kids slide...

Here a team of Chinese carvers work on the large kiddy slides...

I went down to help harvest ice (for once)...

We try to not fall in the pond.

A close up of the chain saw assembly designed just for this task.

Once the blocks are cut, the loader has to pull them out of the pond without falling in!

Stirring those ice cubes around so they don't refreeze in place.

bp's cathedral like center stage.

Here's a big toy, huh?

That's my baby up there on the pole. Then that white box below the camera houses the circuitry for both the pan and tilt functions.

One of the loaders & I get into a staring contest.

One of the extending boom forked loaders. I use to work for Hyster so I love this big stuff. Although it's a Cat.

That’s all for today. As the show progresses I’ll have lots more pictures to put up of the carvings…and that’s the reason I stayed here another year.

After two weeks of -40°F weather here in Fairbanks, and several weeks of below zero temps, the news reports talked about a Chinook coming in that would raise the local temp up to as high as 45°F.  So day before yesterday (Jan. 14th) I got out the ladder and climbed up on top of my RV to try to shovel the snow off. Snow weighs 3-20 lbs per per cubic foot depending on moisture content and I estimated my relatively dry snow at 6 lbs/cu ft. That can change rapidly if it starts raining. And I didn’t want it to melt on top of the roof either. Melting could cause several leaks and staining inside the RV. Rain could raise the weight to 20lbs per cubic foot! Wet show on the roof would be around 13,500 extra pounds up there. Not really what it’s designed for. Just the dry snow was adding approximately 4000 pounds.

I started by clearing a space off near my bathrooms skylight to get a feel for the amount of work that might be involved. Then, when I determined the snow would be easily shoveled I moved to the rear of the RV and set the ladder up next to the RV’s access ladder for support. Climbing up in the middle of the RV helped me keep my balance as the snow was very slippery. Falling twelve feet to the ground, even snow covered, wasn’t something I wanted to do while I was working alone. I did have sense enough to carry my cell phone with me.

Here’s what it looked like after an hour of clearing:

Two feet of snow and several feet left to clean off...

Looking back at what's already been done. Twelve feet more behind me to go.

Looking back toward the front of the RV.

A shot of the cabin roof. The snow is about two feet deep.

The next day, I woke up to 20°F and all during the day it kept climbing until it did reach that promised 45°F. The trees around the area have completely shed their loads of snow off the branches. Looks like spring around here. The reports have informed us that the few days of Chinook we’re getting now will be replaced by more ‘normal’ temps here in town of -20°F.  I’d be happy if it didn’t snow.

As the year came to a close, the weather here in Fairbanks was hovering around -25°F every day, often dipping lower. So, in order to be safe, I tend to stay home or just take short trips. But one night a week or two ago I wandered into the Big I and everyone was in a good mood, so I took some pictures.

Andi working hard...

Striking a pose...Andi has worked as a model. She's both winking and flipping the bird. This gurl is multi-talented. She is also well traveled and has been to many places in Europe I'd like to visit. All in all, she's very interesting, personable, and fun to talk with.

Sisters Taffy (Catherine) & Jen hanging out in Big I on their day off...they're fun to hang with too.

Got to meet and visit with Jen's boyfriend Hunter. Good guy.

Back in Nov. I took a nice gal to see a live presentation of ‘The Most happy Fella’ by the local Light Opera theater. She is picture shy so would not let me take any pictures of her. The play was well performed with many professional performances by locals. We enjoyed the play allot and had a really good time.

Around this time the luck with my car ran out and I broke off the start key in the ignition. Cost me $90 for a locksmith to remove the broken part and make a couple new keys. Of course it happened Friday night around 6pm so I wasn’t able to go shopping or anything until I could call the locksmith on Monday. Over the weekend had two mechanic friends over to try to get it out without success.

On Dec. 28th, I started to head off downtown and discovered that one of my tires was nearly flat. So I pulled out my handy tire pump and pumped it up to 35lbs. That quickly leaked out so I blocked the car up with a handy log and started to remove the tire so I could put on the donut. But when I tried to pull the wheel off the car, it wouldn’t budge. Figuring it was frozen on the car, I set up an electric heater and tried again a couple hours later. Still wouldn’t budge. Gave up for the night and tried again the next day. Nothing. So I called a tire shop and they told me to just wack on the back side of the tire with a 2-4 pound hammer. That worked and I installed the donut tire. Anyway, while I was out there working, I took some pictures of the job and of the snow. Oh, and a picture of the frost that accumulates on the cabin when the heater is operating.

It is -40°F out!

The heater trying to warm the wheel...

My front yard.

The ice fog from my furnace.

My RV all snowed in for the winter.

Two nights ago, Jan. 3rd, I went down to the Big I to watch a football game. Around 3 hours later, when I went to leave, the car would crank, but wouldn’t start. I’ve had a friend look at it and he thinks that the timing belt froze and broke. So now, I’m home trying to arrange for a repair. This won’t be cheap. We’re in a cold snap that is suppose to hang on for days and it’s not easy to keep your car running. I know 4 people that have had to have their car worked on in the last week or two.

We’ve had lots of snow and cold temps but now it’s settled down to a routine so I don’t notice the cold much. I keep the cabin at 64°F while I’m here and set it at 54°F at night while I sleep under an electric blanket. But if I have to get up, I’m use to the cold so it hardly fazes me.

Saturday evening, I went out to start the car and got…nothing. The dash lights came on but the engine wouldn’t turn over. So I grabbed my meter and started testing and found that the battery was dead, even though it had spent the night plugged into a float battery charger. Most people either use a float charger, or a battery heater and keep it plugged in throughout the winter when it dips below around -10°F. When I bought the car it came with a oil pan heater, and a radiator heater. I added the battery float charger.

The next day I got prepared with my charger/starter but tried starting it before I hooked anything up and it turned right over and started. Still, I thought that the symptoms mean that the battery had gone bad, especially since it’s a Die Hard and they often have intermittent problems like this (from my experience), so off I went to the store for a new battery. Up here they kind of have you over a barrel with batteries so I paid the $60 asked for what would be a $34 battery down in Oregon. Anyway, that little problem is taken care of so I shouldn’t have any more starting problems for a while.

Back in early October, I went to an art show that was billed as an invitational of sorts. Only 64 artists were invited to come up with pieces for the show as it’s billed as the 64th Parallel Contemporary Juried Fine Art Exhibit. I had not taken my camera but took pictures of some of the works with my phone camera. Enjoy!

My favorite piece...

Something about the '30's I believe...

The meaning of this piece below was a little obscure to me, but it did have a $4800 price tag so it must be art, right?

Not sure what this was about...

Another mountain in Alaska...

A nice water color, but boring...

Landscape...

I see it but don't believe it...

Brooding...

Blood sport...

On a swing...