Adventures of science boy

Interior Alaska field work

2011-12-24T22:35:00.002-09:00

We started a project in March where we have this large, great team of people investigating the relatioship between permafrost and regional hydrology in Interior Alaska. We have field sites from the Jarvis Glacier in the Alaska Range to the Tanana Flats across from Fairbanks and the Caribou-Poker Creek Research Watershed north of town.

In April we went to the Jarvis Glacier watershed to do some snow surveys and investigate the watershed.

In May we hitched a ride on an Air National Guard Pavehawk helicopter to some field sites in Tanana Flats.

Unloading equipment from a hot helicopter of that size is somewhat exciting. They were putting us down on some floating and mushy material so they did not want to shut down. The rotor wash is enough to knock you over.

An aerial view of an area that burned in 2010.

Close up of the same terrain.

Using a tall guy like Eric to install a pressure transducer to monitor water levels.

Miriam checking out the cores we got.

I like the motto of these combat rescue guys: "We fly where others have failed."

Here I am installing another pressure transducer.

The Tanana River in Fall foliage.

A forest fire near Fairbanks.

Fall moose hunt 2011

2011-09-29T21:49:00.000-08:00

I went on a moose hunting trip to the East Forkof the Little Delta with my buddy TomT. We flew into a beautiful spot right below Mount Hayes and set up camp nearby. Unfortunately, my camera (and the photos from the flight in and the first few days of the trip) werelost somewhere between when I shot a moose and went running over to check on the downed critter.

It was a classic experience. I was hanging out glassing the area and heard a wild bugling sound above me. Over the course of a few hours I heard him call and returned with my own cow calls. He came working down my way and I had a good sight line and brought him down. A nice 45 inch bull.

Me in the classic "with rifle" redneck pose.

TomT for scale.

It took us until late that night and into the next day to ferry the moose to camp. The moose was about a mile and a half, slightly up hill, from camp. But most of that was deep tussocks and not the easiest packing for 100 pound loads.

We got the moose and our camp packed up and started down the river. It was about 40 river miles total. About half of it was beautiful interior Alaska river floating. The other half was spent with us lining the boat through rocky rapids, around sweepers, and across braided channels. We had to empty the boat at a few locations where logjams were too big to cut through. It was a pretty epic float out and took us four days.

We had a SOAR (thanks Ken!) and a small packraft (thanks Brent!).

Me flexing for some reason. This SOAR Pro Pioneer is a pretty amazing boat. It navigated the rapids and channels with a large load quite well.

Nice spot to stop and line around the large spruce tree sweeper ahead.

We floated right by some tall gravel cliffs.

TomT in the midst of a large lining event. Not fun.

We dumped into the Tanana and had a few hours of great floating to the take out.

Random Quartz Lake photos

2011-09-24T21:19:00.000-08:00

An assortment of summer time Quartz Lake photos.

Sarah had a cool idea to make a bunch of drawings wishing Emmy (my Mom) a happy birthday. Then she posted them around and took photos of them and sent it as one giant photo mobile.

Czecking out the Czech Republic (and Germany) August 2011

2011-09-02T22:53:00.000-08:00

I had a geochemistry meeting in Prague in August and took a few days off after the meting to explore the Czech Republic and Munich, Germany.

The buildings, architecture, and culture of Prague are so old, refined, and spectacular that it is a great place to visit. People have lived there since 200 B.C.

One of the entrance towers to Old Town.

The Old Town Square at night. This area has buildings that are over 400 years old. The Nazis firebombed the Square and it was eventually the main location where the Velvet Revolution started.

The Astronomical Clock on the left (built in 1410 and the oldest astronomical clock that still works) and Church of Our Lady Before Tyn (said to be th inspiration for the Disney Castle).

The cinnamon rolls are quite tasty.

There is music everywhere you go.

Prague Castle and Charles Bridge (fourteenth century) in the distance over the Vltava River.

I almost got my head cut off by this armor-clad dude.

Sculptures along the Charles Bridge.

Prague from the Castle.

Saint Vitus Cathedral.

This hot dog/sausage was absurd.

I walked around the city quite a bit. By the third or fourth day I realized that there is no pavement or concrete anywhere- it is all stones, stonework, inlays, and amazing cobblestones throughout.

The Jewish Cemetery has people buried 12 deep and the first inhabitants were placed there in the mid-1400s.

I took a day trip to Kutna Hora where the Sedlec Ossuary contains the bones from 40,000 black death victims. A one-armed monk was charged with stacking the bones when they ran out of space. In the late 1800s a woodcarver was put in charge of "ordering" the bones. He decided to make a bunch of creepy sculptures that are hard to acurately depict on film.

As you enter the walls have decorations (art?) made from bones.

The creepy chandelier is impressive.

This is a coat of arms.

A closeup shows the raven poking the eyes out of a skull.

These are skulls of people killed by blunt force trauma.

Saint Barbara's Church.

A bar/pub/lunch stop.

Typical pub fare in many languages.

Milunić and Gehry's "Dancing House" supposedly inspired by Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Really cool.

A serious Prague dinner.

I took a day trip to Karlstejn Castle which is quite impressive.

Should have bought this shirt for a large number of friends that appreciate gag gifts and ridiculous shirts.

Jubilee Synagogue in Prague.

The countryside from he train to Munich.

Within minutes of arriving in Munich I am accosted by these sassy lederhosed lasses.

New Town Hall (late 1800s) in Marienplatz. The Rathaus-Glockenspeil is comprised of the green framed people on the upper part of the tower. It comes to life three times a day.

Rathaus-Glockenspeil closeup.

A closeup of the Mariensaule, built in 1638 to celebrate the Swedish army and the plague sparing the city.

German togs for sale.

The most famous bar in the world (according to them).

Drunk locals partying and dancing. The place goes through some hungreds of gallons of beer a day.

Some sort of anti-meat "art" on display in the Marienplatz. These women showed up, stripped down, got ketchup dumped on themw and junped into these meat package looking things.

A view of Munich from the top of St. Peter's Church.

The insanely baroque/rococo interior of Asamkirche.

The gold work is amazingly ornate.

There is a small river/creek flowing through town and an armyof people line up to surf the waves formed when the creek pinches below this bridge. A giant crowd gathers to watch.

Mostly inebriated people floating in th current downstream.

The source of the inebriation- beer hall.

Back to Old Town Square ion Prague. A nice local meal and fine local brew.

Marionettes are on display at quite a few shops.

Not sure why anyone would commemorate this terrible late 70s TV show but here you go.

Denali Highway family road trip

2011-07-14T20:57:00.000-08:00

We did a family road trip along the Denali Highway in early July. The snow was still in the hills and we had some mixed weather but it was a blast getting out there, tent camping, and cruising the roads.

Christmas card type photo.

Teching Siri the subtle art of roasting hot dogs.

Fairies!

2011-07-06T21:27:00.000-08:00

Siri loves fairies. So she and Sarah drew a bunch on her chalk board and then they made "fairyland" in the yard.

Cabin construction in May and June 2011

2011-06-30T20:46:00.000-08:00

We had a few truckloads of 8 inch three sided logs delivered in April and started the long process of building a cabin. Our friends Brent and Greg are experienced cabin builders so we hired them to oversee the project and make sure the walls, windows, and roof were on right, tight, and square.

I had the fun job of peeling most of the logs and it took about two weeks. Here a calf moose is inspecting the peelings. The local moose came by repeatedly to steal scraps from the wood.

Pete Holmgren did a pile foundation and welded these two rails to the tops of the pilings. The pilings go to bedrock and the rails are straight and flat. This makes the floor and log work a lot faster than messing with pads and getting gravel and constantly re-squaring the foundation.

Brent and Greg got the foundation in over the course of a few long days.

Once the base was on, the ilnsulation inserted and the floor down we started the log laying. This was hard work but the three or four of us that worked on it got most of the walls done in three days. The logs were quite heavy and the higher rounds took some brute strength.

We took turns selecting the music choices......

Greg is one buffed dude.....

Patrick, our neighbor down the hill, came to help at the end when we needed a tall dude like himself.

Logs done, gable ends done and the roof is started.

Roof trusses in.

Roof insulation.

Roof on.

Siri thought we were building a special bike house for her.

The front door Sarah picked makes the cabin.

Walls sanded (go Sarah!), and coated with polyurethane. Then I put the floor in and started the electrical.

Sarah and I put in the screen porch in a team effort!

The inside has one wall to seperate the living/kitchen area from the sleeping/storage area.

It was fun hang digging a 2 foot deep 100 foot long trench for the electric. Almost as fun as performing "Darwin award" rope and knot work to get the power pole upright and then into the little hole I dug. I am glad there is no photo documentation of that process.

Wall in on the left side.

More photos to come.......

Hawaii for some MAHALO in April

2011-04-30T18:49:00.000-08:00

Mom and Doug hooked us up with a free place to stay in Maui, Hawaii in April (as a 40th birthday present)and we jumped at the chance to go. We had always wanted to visit Hawaii. We came away amazed and look forward to visiting again. The people, culture, landscapes, and weather were amazing.

We set a goal of going to 10 different beaches in 10 days and pulled it off. This is the view of Molokini crater from the beach.

A sand alligator.

Along to Road to Hana. Absurdly long and winding road but the little town at the end if quite unique.

We played soccer in the park at Hana.

And had shave ice!

We got "upgraded" to a bright red Ford Mustang. It was cringworthily red but drove like an animal.

The Shrine/Temple in Paia where all the groovy people live.

A benefit for the Japan tsunami. They lit a bunch of candles and put them on outriggers for a sunset paddle trip around the bay.

Alyeska ski trip!

2011-03-31T17:35:00.000-08:00

We took a family trip to Anchorage and Alyeaks Ski Area in March. They had some great snow conditions and we skiied a lot and soaked in the hotel pool almost as much.

Spunky and Srah tearing down the slopes........

Siri had some issues taking "advice and suggestions" from her parents so we tried a lesson. She listened to her teacher quite well and perhaps had a bit of a crush on him.......

There is a tree on the way up one of the lifts that women toss bras on. Not sure the significance of it but it is a funny sight.

World Ice Carving Championships in Fairbanks

2011-03-25T13:58:00.000-08:00

Each spring, in March, the World Ice Carving Championships are held in Fairbanks. Throughout the winter the various businesses in town have commissioned carvings. And there are a lot of great carvers here in town. But in March the town goes crazy with the carving championships. People come from allover the world and the work they do is incredible.

They usually have a kids park area with interactive carvings.

The competition is broken into single block and various numbers of blocks. The ice is from a pond nearby and the blocks are refrigerator sized and are almost completely devoid of bubbles or particles or anything.

"Florides" in January

2011-01-28T14:06:00.000-09:00

We went to Florida in January for a visit with Dad and Debra and Charlie's clan. We had great weather and spent all day outside swimming, riding golf carts, and tossing balls, frisbees, footballs, etc.

Debra and Sarah probably yelling obscenities at the photographer.

Sarah is saying "see, you can do it."

Sarah and Kathleen in deep conversation.

Cousins.

A fewbikers we met at a bar.

Not sure what this is.....

Lots of drinking related signage, stickers, and t-shirts.

We should not have let Siri play with that gator.

We set off some Chinese lanterns. They were beautiful to watch and we enjoyed the "moment" until a neighbor came overand said one crash landed on his minivan.

Dad and Debra with the cousins.

Uncle Nini.

Aunt C.

Quartz Lake cabin addition

2010-11-18T19:00:00.008-09:00

We have spent the last year putting an addition on our cabin at Quartz Lake. The project requires a lot of planning because there is no power on the property (we do have a small generator) and to get there is a 2 hour drive and then a mile over ice or on water or on land to get in there. In addition, the cabin sits above the lake so it is about four flights of stairs to carry everything up.

A photo of our propoerty from the lake.
We excavated the addition site and built the decking/floor last summer/fall. It was covered by tarps and plastic all winter. When I got the plastic up and was ready to start this past spring....

A series of giant thunderstorms kept coming by.

So the brown tarp and some plywood went down every few hours. This was a bit frustrating.

Starting to frame the walls. We used 2 by 6s.

Sarah and Siri for scale.

More framing and the horizontal ceiling beam installation has begun.

The lake view from our soon to be bedroom window.

More framing and starting to get the ceiling beams on.

Roof framing commenced.

Roof and wall framing moving along. Skin going up on walls for stability.

Starting the ceiling beams and trying to take apart the old cabin roof for the link up. Lots of strange geometrical challenges. Especially because the new cabin floor is over a foot above the old cabin floor. This was because of the serious hill we were excavated (by hand) into.

The wall between the two cabins before any cutting occurred. It was scary to take that sawzall and start blasting away.

The tongue and groove cut is made in the walls of the old cabin.

Looking at the "door" between the cabins, And the ceiling beams are being installed.

Beams up. Those were fun to carry up the stairs from the lake. We brought them in last winter and they sat under a tarp for 6 months. They are mostly for affect/effect: they do not support much but will provide a support for the partial loft, are nice for the eyes and add a break of sorts since the ceilings are so high. A sunset view in late summer. Beer bottle for scale.

Adding the plywood skin to the roof and walls.

Roof metal on and starting the tarpaper.

Vapor barrier on the lower walls. Note the gable end is not done- sunlight shining through up above.

Vapor barrier around windows and windows installed.

Gable end framed and many loads of tongue and groove brought up. The T and G will sit for a moneht or so to dry before being put up on the walls.

More insulating and vapor barriering.

Starting the tongue and groove. And the oil drip stove is installed.

Tarpaper on the outside walls and starting the board and battens. This project went LATE into the night and I got it all on in one long day. Headlamps and cold hands.

Metal on the back (uphill) wall. This is because of the steep hilland deep snow we get. We wanted any drifted or blowing snow to end upagainst the metal so no wood rotting would be going on. Also a view of the oil tank (blue barrel).

A late fall view of the lake at sunset.

Putting on the board and batten.

The door connecting the two cabins as it stands now.

Tongue and groove finished on the walls. This is where we are at this point (late November, 2010). There is a lot of small projects to do: ceiling, flooring, door to link the cabins, trim everywhere, loft, bunk beds, shelves, "planet couch" to hang out on in the "old" cabin. But these are all small, fun finish type projects that will keep us busy next summer.

A recent winter photo. I also want to expand the roof edge outward on the old cabin for some weather protection. Would also add some roof to the connecting area between the cabins.

ULLR FEST

2010-11-17T22:08:00.006-09:00

We had our annual "snow God" pagan party in mid November. Lots of burning stuff and cold weather drinks. Throw in some sledding and a bunch of chili and a hang out scene at the shop.

It all adds up to Ullr Fest.

Siri was ready to do some drinking.
Ullr and a bunch of fires were greeting partiers.

A few pairs of old skis were sacrificed to appease Ullr and hopefully bring some snow.

Lots of kiddos and lots of sleds.

Rich came with a serious Ullr helmet.

The shot ski is the best way to move Jagermeister.

Tim brought some classy drinks.

The late night scene went until 230am. That is when I put on some country and people fled like rats off a sinking ship.....

Toolik sampling in October

2010-11-17T21:41:00.005-09:00

As part of a three year project investigating the link between permafrost degradation and river biogeochemistry I went north to the Brooks Range in mid October. This was the end of the field part of the project and we were getting the last flows of the rivers up there before they are frozen for the winter.

The Brooks Range is spectacular any time of the year.
Amanda and Greg rocking a sample site.

Caribou

Some frost flower photos......

This raven came and hung out on the car while we were taking a break during the 8 hour drive home.

Shooting stuff in Delta

2010-11-17T21:17:00.005-09:00

I am part of a new project on Fort Greely where we constructed some small arms target berms and fired into them with 2000 rounds of 5.56 mm bullets. The goal is to track the oxidation and fate of lead and antimony in the berms. We constructed them of four different types of material so we can see how soil geochemistry and metals chemistry are related. We wanted to construct the berms to ensure we could regulate how many rounds went into each one and when.

Here is Tom Trainor during the summer construction phase.
The 5.56 mm bullets we used.

Loading clips. We partnered with the Fort Greely Military Police to get the firing done well and safely.

Yours truly taking some shots.

Ladies and gentlemen- Dr. Tom Trainor

Amanda, one of the students on the project, sending some lead down range.

A typical bullet fragment.

Professor Tom Trainor look all sorts of "American mercenary contractor in a foreign land" instead of typical liberal greeny Professor......

A berm with 2000 rounds in it.

After 16,000 rounds people were actually sick of shooting. I have never experienced that before.

Tim's 40th (50th?)

2010-11-17T21:12:00.003-09:00

Uncle Tim turned the bog 4-oh this past September. Here are a few photos of him looking really good for that age.

With creepy doll......

Without Creepy Doll......

Mom's surprise 65th

2010-11-17T21:09:00.002-09:00

Charlie, Doug and I went in cahoots to completely surprise Mom for her 65th birthday. I was in DC so it was easy to head north to be part of the fun. Charlie came up for the night. Doug had dinner reservations and we planned to bring them their drinks when they ordered. The look on Mom's face was hard to describe. It started with "wow- those guys look a lot like my sons" and then morphed into "holy cow- it is my sons!"

Here the birthday girl blows out the candle in her dessert.

Back to DC in September

2010-11-17T20:57:00.004-09:00

I had another meeting in DC in mid September. Here are a few photos of some monuments I saw on a loop run from Arlington Cemetery to the Mall and back.

Honest Abe was quite the man. I wish some of the self serving types we have in office these days would spend a little time at the Lincoln Memorial.

Maybe they could read the walls a bit. When people say "we are at a major turning point in America's history" they need to keep a frame of reference.

Fostah Bruthazs

2010-11-17T20:52:00.003-09:00

Dan (left) and Dave Foster at the Hopkinton High School 20th reunion.

Nantucket for some beach time

2010-11-17T19:35:00.007-09:00

We headed from Betsy's 90th to Nantucket for some beach time with Mom and Doug. First a trip to visit Mom and Doug's house where we took a ton of photos. I remember when Charlie and I purposefullytried to ruin photos by making strang looks and acting like it was painful to have one's photo taken. Well it is good to see that Charlie and my kids have the same issues with photo ops.

Kissing cousins..... I love Siri's look.

Mom loves to fly in the little plane (or any plane).

Lydia and Zozo Ziobro.

Creepy baby loves the beach.

A cool cobblestone path.

The cobblestone streets are impressive.

This is where preppy was invented and still lives.

Grandmother Betsy turns 90!

2010-11-17T19:05:00.005-09:00

We three headed back East, family style, to atend my amazing Grandmother Betsy's 90th birthday and to visit family back east.

Cousin Teddy rocking the water gun.

Dad reading the Governor's proclamation that the day was "Betsy Douglas Day" in New Hampshire.

The birthday gal.

Siri and Rory rolling cars.

Amurca- blowing stuff up in the name of the flag.

The birthday gal partied late into the night.

Rick Turner- one cool dude.

Jackman, Maine Man!

2010-11-14T22:48:00.007-09:00

I (finally) made the journey to Jackman, Maine to visit Porter Fox's family camp on Little Bigwood pond/lake. My college buddy Ziobro is a childhood friend of the Fox's and has has always talked about the trips to Jackman. I have always wanted to go but never had the schedule work right. The drive to the town takes a while from anywhere. Then is is a way out a dirt road and then a mile by boat to the camp. There are no other places on the lake and it is clear, lush and amazing. The camp is maybe 100 years old but well maintained and a perfect place to hang out and get a little wild. We ate like kings, golfed one day at the 9 hole course in town and had a little debauchery in the evenings.

They harvest ice in late winter, put it in an insulated shed and have lake ice for drinks all winter long.

The kitchen/dining cabin.

A blurred photo of the inside of the meeting cabin.

Every group etches their week's events in a fungus and there are probaly 100 of them in the meeting cabin. Lots of hilarious stories in that there fungus.

The bunk house Ziobro and I stayed in.

DC in July and again in September

2010-11-14T22:37:00.005-09:00

It is generally a bad idea to go to DC in the summer. But I had a meeting there at the end of July so had no choice. I lucked out on some 80s and breezy weather. I hung out with my cousin Sam and his girlfriend Lara a bit and we caught a Nationals game. The shiny park is a bit fancier than Fenway for sure.

This is a life sized "Lady Liberty" who sits on top of the Capitol building.

A few random summer shots of Siri

2010-11-14T22:29:00.006-09:00

A rare photo of the ballerina class. Hard to get photos as if the kids see you they lose concentration rapidly.
And we went on the carousel at Pioneer Park/Alaskaland a bunch of times in a row.

She loved playing on the dredge buckets outside Ivory Jacks one summer afternoon........

Big Brother!

2010-11-14T22:26:00.002-09:00

A photo of Charlie and me at the Concord bus station.

Box seats for Sox-Phillies

2010-11-14T22:07:00.004-09:00

Big brother Charlie got some box seat tickets for a Red Sox-Phillies game in June. I was on my way back from Norway to Alaska so the stopover to check out the game was great. The Sox won which was great. And Daniel Nava, in his first game in the Bigs, hit the first pitch he saw for a grand slam. That was quite the highlight.

The food spread in the box seats is simply amazing. They bring random items in throughout the game and it is full on good stuff. Pizza, hot dogs, fried chicken, vegetables. All the Sam Adams you want. Pretty good way to see a game.

Mom, Charlie and me in the box. Not sure why Charlie looks so gripped..... Maybe because I kept saying "I want a hamburger, no a cheeseburger, and I'll have......."

Some random Fenway photos.

Quick trip to Oslo

2010-11-14T21:30:00.005-09:00

I went form myHigh School 20th to a Polar Sciences meeting in Oslo, Norway. Norway is one of those clean, cheery, well run places where tings are on time and people seem quite happy. Almost to the point of "pleased with themselves."

Oslo is a great city for walking. Though most of my time was spent in a dark room where people spoke "science" all day I had an afternoon and one day to explore a bit.

This is King Johans Gate, the main street that runs from the train station to the King's Castle.

Train Station

Castle. The blue signs are ads for the Polar meeting.

Changing of the guard at the Castle.

They have these cool bike rental pick up/drop off locations all over the city.

This jilarious Larry Hagman art piece was in a cafe.

Scandinavian design... very cool to have the curved chairs perfectly fit the table.

A side trip to an old fort near the Swedish border was interesting. Apparently the Swedes would come mess with Norway from time to time and this fort was in a strategic locaiton.

With towns with nameslike "Ski" it is no onder that Norway crushes at the winter olympics.

High School 20th

2010-07-29T11:46:00.003-08:00

Went back to NH for my Saint Paul's School High School 20th Reunion. It was a complete blast. About 60 of our 150 in the class came back and people were all in a great spirit.

We hung out at Mom and Doug's until 5am on the Friday evening and then were in Concord up to about 4am the Saturday night. Lots of revelry.

I missed a bunch of the happenings at the School due to attempts to sneak sleep on Saturday. It was one of those times when you really didn't want to sleep because the scene and vibe were so great.

Here are a few completely random photos of the school grounds and some folks.

I am pretty sure no one else dresses with the level of flair that Gray Harley does........

The Chapel where we spent many a bleary eyed morning. All that late night studying.

The School has a bunch of ponds and creeks for swimming.

There are funky sculptures all over the grounds.

Dad and Debra visit us in Alaska

2010-07-29T11:33:00.005-08:00

Dad and Debra came up to see us in mid May. I think it was 90% to see Siri and 10% to see us but you take what you can...... Mid May can have dodgy weather in Fairbanks but this year we had a low snow fall and an early melt so the mud was gone. We did not do too much wild and crazy touristy stuff- hung around the house a lot and relaxed. It was a pleasant visit and we appreciate the effort!

We did go on the Riverboat Discovery to see Sarah at work from the boat and because, though touristy, it is a great way to experience the Alaskan Interior.

I seem to not have a photo of Trailbreaker Kennel but the river itself was quite low and the giant sternwheeler boat drafts only a few feet but was filling up a lot of the channel.

They have a float plane take off and land right in front of the boat.
We had lunch at the world famous Chatanika Lodge and Debra got to ride in a vintage car the owner broughRonnie (the Lodge owner) brought out.

A nice photo in which Siri is smiling AND looking at the camera.

Two trips to Toolik

2010-05-31T20:23:00.006-08:00

I went to Toolik Lake in late April for a week and returned again in late May. Toolik is located in the northern foothills of the Brooks Range. It takes about 8 hours of driving north from Fairbanks on mostly dirt roads to get there. In April the work focused on collecting permafrost cores and installing thermistors into the holes. In May the trip was timed to coincide with peak spring melt runoff anf to cheak on the thermistors.

I am working with some other researchers and our students on a project trying to link permafrost degradation with river biogeochemistry.

Here "Powder Blue" Drew Slater wrestles the SIPRE augur into the ground to get a core.

Drew standing next to a fully operational thermistor. This is the Kuparuk one that I revisited in May.

A core with the top (grassy tussock) to the left.

The white mottled area contains ice that was once the water frozen at the bottom of the active layer. The active layer is the vertical extent of permafrost that thaws each summer due to downward melting. It refreezes each winter. We are trying to determine if the active layer depths are increasing over time with climate warming. Warmer winter, lower freezing temperatures. Warmer summer, deeper thaw. If this is true than the deeper active layer might be exposing soil material to weathering that we might see in the rivers.

It might not be that simple but we are trying to figure that out.

Near the Kuparuk site we saw sow and cub bear tracks........

Mama was a big girl...... my bunny boot for scale.

I might have woken the bear(s) up. The day before this I rode my snowmachine through the area and saw no tracks. This day they were all over the place.

Headwaters of the Kuparuk River.

OK..... back north in late May. Here is the Yukon River.

Sunset/moonrise from Toolik. This was at about 2am one night.

Matt and Claire, Ph.D. students extraordinaire, at one of the intact thermistor sites.

The hike into the Kuparuk watershed.

Unfortunately, we got to the Kuparuk thermistor and found it torn into little splintery and wiry shreds. I wondered who or what could have done this.Maybe it was mama bear. Note the bear fur in the right center of the photo. And there were claw and chew marks all over the wood. The logger was intact and had data from April 27 at 4pm (when we turned it on) until April 28 at 2am. So the bear came and took this out about 10 hours after we installed it. Oh well, hazards of working in the wild.

Anaktuvuk to Barrow to Prudhoe

2010-05-01T20:30:00.019-08:00

I just returned from a 750 mile snowmachine journey across the Alaskan Arctic. I started in Anaktuvuk Pass, a small (250 people) village in the Brooks Range about 200 miles northwest of Fairbanks. I met up with three other "travelers" and we headed north to the north slopes of the Brooks Range and then west to Ivotuk and north to Barrow. After that we turned east and went 200 miles to Prudhoe Bay and the road south toward Fairbanks.

The goals of the trip were to visit schools in villages along the way to talk to students about snow and science and to make snow measurements along the route.

We camped out for half the nights and stayed at schools or loaner houses in the villages for the other half.

The flight into Anaktuvuk Pass was clear and majestic.

At times we were flying lower than the hills to the sides of our route.

Anaktuvuk Pass from above. The village was incorporated in the 1930s by a few bands of Nunamiut Inupiat who decided to pick a stable place to live. The name means "place of caribou droppings." Which would be a good sign for a potential village because the Inupiat would have had caribou for most of their diet.

Students looking at snow crystals through a microscope.

Unfortunately, there are Yankees fans even out here.....

Matthew Sturm leading the students through an avalanche demonstration.

We ate a lot of easy, junkie foods. Need lots of calories to stay warm in the cold.

The Cold Climate Housing Research Center in Fairbanks built this experimental home in Anaktuvuk in an attempt to save on rural energy and construction costs with an efficient home that uses local materials and mimics the sod/rammed earth home styles people had lived in before.

We met a group of women and children on their way to ice fishing in Chandler Lake. Ptarmigan tracks in the snow.

About 15 miles out of Anaktuvuk a spring on Matthew's machine broke. Numerous calls to the various snowmachine dealers in Fairbanks and Anchorage yielded answers of "we do not have any of them on hand and it would take 10 days to order one. Not helpful.

Hard to se but the black rod in the back is still connected to a spring while the one in front (dropping down behind the wheel) is broken.

Luckily, despite almost total inept answers from the snowmachine shops in Alaska, we learned that the springs on these machines are similar sizes so we scavenged one off a Park Service machine in Anaktuvuk. Once again we ran into some trail travelers on the way to Chandler Lake.

But by the time we got to Chandler it was in a full blown windstorm. Enough gusting to blow over one of our sleds numerous times.

So we settled into a dug in camp for the night.

A dark view of the interior of the Arctic oven tent. We had a small woodstove that kept it plenty warm.

The next day was mostly clear with now wind.

The "Notch" can be seen from a distance.

A raptor nest inside the Notch.

Some wolf tracks preserved in the snow.

Heading onto the flatter ground of the North Slope. Yours truly got mired in some deep powder and had to have some towing help.

We had a fuel plane meet us in Ivotuk, a remote runway and camp used for oil exploration.

Back onto the snow measurement train....... at about 30 locations we made detailed measurements of the snow depth, layering and snow water equivalence.

All along the route we ran into "tank traps," gullies along river banks where we had to pick our way through.

Yours truly "magnaprobing" the snow depth. A shot of the various snow leyers.

Jon and Matthew standing next to a survey marker they had visited in 2002 and 2004.

Wolf or wolverine tracks in the snow. Atqasuk, Alaska.

The Atqasuk cemetary.

Caribou outside of Atqasuk.

On arrival to the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium in Barrow. A sobering sign at our hut in Barrow.From Barrow we headed east to Prudhoe Bay.

Along the way we ran into one of the oldest homes on the North Slope (and perhaps even in Alaska). It is the former reindeer station, from the late 1800s/early 1900s of the Brower family of Barrow. The Station is about 30 miles east of Barrow and was the long time center of their vast herding operation that spread from the Brooks Range to the Coast.

The building is well constructed and had beautiful beadboard covering the walls. It looks like a small cape you would see in New England and that is probably not a coincidence as many whalers from the East Coast made their way up to the Arctic in the late 1800s.Unfortunately, a broken window and blown open door allowed snow to drift in.

Back on the trail to Prudhoe. Here is a camp we had one night with Frank and Eric, two folks working on meteorological stations in the remote region between Barrow and Prudhoe Bay. The oil companies need water and snow to build snow roads, travel on the tundra and support exploration projects so knowing how much precipitation falls each year is quite important to them.

An oil exploration well from (I think) the 1950s). A more modern version from the 90s that looks like some sort of creepy hell creature.

Nuiqsut, located on the ice roads from Prudhoe Bay to the Alpine oil field. This is a clean, orderly town with mucho oil money.

A student looking at snow.

The kids trying out the magnaprobe. Some Inupiat writing. It was good to see that Inupiat language and traditions are taught in the schools.

The kids gave us quite a sendoff. Signs in english and Inupiat along the oil fields route.

A red fox.

An Arctic fox.

The creepy brown haze from Prudhoe stretched for about 30 miles. This is about mile 2 of the 800 mile Alaska pipeline. Which means we made it to Prudhoe. From there we headed south to the Toolik Lake Field Station for some detailed snow surveys there.

FINALLY a water tight hot tub.......

2010-05-01T15:22:00.006-08:00

After about four months of tinkering, replacing slats, tightening and scheming the Snorkel wood fired hot tub was ready for installation and use at Quartz Lake.

We filled it with water and watched as the numerous small leaks faded away. This is supposed to happen as the tub is made of western red cedar that swells when wet.

Anyway, it took about 10 minutes to fill and then a few hours to get the wood stove hot enough to heat the lake water from freezing to 105F. And then.... ahhhhh..... soaking.

We soaked deep into the night with the aurora and stars out. Then the following morning, Easter, Tim brought us some donuts.

And I repaid him that night by spilling a large glass of wine all over his table, chairs and floor...

Wolf Run Cabin II

2010-05-01T15:08:00.003-08:00

Magan, Tim, Sarah and I went to Wolf Run cabin for a weekend in late March. Our wonderful friend/sitter Ashley came to stay at our house and watch Siri for the weekend. Ashley has a son, Kasin, who is a little older than Siri but is quite patient and enjoys her company.

We planned to have two snowmachines and two skiers/towees but for some random reason(s) our snowmachine would not start the morning we were packing up to go.

So we decided to have two on the machine, two towing and the occasional skiing on the way in and out. The cabin is 20 or so miles inside the White Mountains Recreation Area and we are not wild and crazy speedy skiers. Many people ski that far in a day but we wanted to integrate a lot of "relaxing" time into the visit.

The cabin burned a few years ago during wildfire season and the Bureau of Land Management built a beautiful replacement on the same spot.

For some reason I forgot to take any photos of the inside of the cabin but it is a quaint three sided log with some bunks, a wood stove, a cooking area and a table.

Tim brought ice trays and we made some mean mixed drinks and a seriously good dinner.

The ski/tow/ride in from a towee perspective.

Sarah in classic heaven.

Sarah crossing the blue ice of Beaver Creek.

A late afternoon view of the White Mountains on the way in.

The cabin and wood shed from above.

Quick Lake Run for some March sun

2010-05-01T15:00:00.004-08:00

March is always great with tons of sun and a nice snow pack. Even this year with the lowest snow fall in over a hundred years......... just enough to rally around on skis and sleds.

March also kicks off the end of the cold, dark, long winter. There are a few between mid-November and mid-February when this can almost seem like an oppressive place to live. Minus 40, ice fog, dark for a week or so at a time can beat you up a bit. But the other 9 months are simply so amazing that you forget it all and come back for more.

March starts that "amazing" 9 months.

We installed a swing in the cabin to keep Siri somewhat occupied.

The brown tarp covers the floor of our someday cabin addition. Hoping to get moving on that this summer.

Quick run to San Diego in March

2010-05-01T14:53:00.003-08:00

Tom Trainor (a Chemistry Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks) and I have a new project where we are investigating how lead and antimony "weather" out of bullets in target berms. For this we will build a series of berms and then fire into them and quantify water and soil chemistry over time. We had to go to San Diego to "defend" the project goals, plans, hypotheses.

Tom and I had an extra day off and went for a nice hike and to a Zac Brown Band concert.

Downtown San Diego. What a great place to visit!

The view from our little afternoon hike.

A photo of the Zac Brown Band in full "rock out" mode. They are great entertainers and we had some good seats in the middle of the floor.

Barrow in late February

2010-05-01T14:42:00.003-08:00

A few photos from a quick two day visit to Barrow in late February. I went up there to do some maintenance on a Tekran 2537a that measures gaseous elemental mercury in air. The Arctic receives pulses of mercury from Eastern Europe and Asia coal fired power plants and we have been tracking the deposition to northern Alaska.

A nice sun dog view from our snow research site.

Sastrugi- indurated drifts of snow into really wild patterns.

A traditional skin boat used for spring time whaling. Pretty amazing that people go out into open water at below freezing temperatures in shifting sea ice to hunt 50 foot whales from these boats.

A Barrow city view. Population 4500 on the Arctic Coast. The northermost part of the U.S.

Siri learns to nordic ski

2010-02-14T15:27:00.008-09:00

We went out to Birch Hill Ski Area today so Siri could try her hand (feet) at nordic skiing. Our wonderful spring weather is here- sunny, teens, clear blue skies. Temperatures in the teens are considered cold in most places but up here it feels nice. I went for a ski later and had no hat on and thin gloves and was fine.

For her first true time on skis Siri did well. She fell a few times but Sarah gave her a good lesson and says "Siri has natural balance." Of course we are totally biased but whatever. Sarah was a kids ski instructor for years so she knows all sorts of tricks, words of advice, etc.

Here are some photos and a video at the end.

We all took turns leading our group of three on the flats and on a small hill.

I'm (we're) On A Boat!

2010-02-13T15:52:00.019-09:00

We had this seemingly crazy idea to take a cruise (gasp!) this winter for a vacation. We try to go to a warm locale every winter and a trip to a backpacker place with a two year old just didn't seem too appealing. We opted for a cruise from New Orleans to the "western Caribbean" and back would be cool. No car seat, babysitting on the boat, your hotel and all the crap travels with you as you cruise from place to place. So we pulled the trigger.

And in a likely drunken wild idea during a visit with us this winter our friends Dan and Melissa from Anchorage figured the cruise would be great for them and their 1.4 year old as well.

So we headed to New Orleans where on a routine trip to any quickie mart you can get beads and "TGIF drinks to go."I suspect every day in New Orleans is TGIF.

The French Quarter and other preserved parts of NO are great.

Bourbon Street....

Siri accompanied me on a trip to get a Bloody Mary on Sunday morning...

A routine scene of passersby in New Orleans.

Our cabin aboard the Norwegian Spirit. The boat is 1000 feet long and handles 3000 passengers and 900 crew. Luckily for our week there were only 2000 fellow travelers.

You know you are on a cruise ship when the pool has safety regulations that include number 3..... adult diapers!

We cruised down the Mississippi River for hours and then spent a day crossing the Gulf of Mexico only to arrive at a made for trapped ship passengers tourist trap on the east coast of Mexico.The diva relaxing on the boat's 12 floor deck by the pool.

The Norwegian Spirit from the back.

We returned to our room each night o be greeted by a different towel animal.

The next stop was at Santo de Tomas, Guatemala, a shipping port in the rugged jungle. The "life raft" on this cargo ship looks downright scary.

Dan, Nora and Mel on the launch boat on our way to a beach.

Some local housing.

The pirate ship themed pools at the beach break.

Requisite swim up bar.

Sarah and Siri rocking the water slide.

Siri rocking the three story slide with me.

Some swim up bar photos.

Family unit enjoying refreshments at the swim up bar.

Siri went nuts for the pineapple juice.

Some Guatemalan crafts and salesmen.

We came home to a swan playmate for Puppy.

The next stop was in Belize City. Sarah and Siri stayed on the boat for a relaxing day and I went ashore for a trip to a Mayan ruin, Altun Ha. Along the way our van broke down and this afforded some time to sample Belikin beer from a local vendor.

They sell some sort of home made booze along the road but given that it was 80 degrees out and the driver said it was awful stuff I decided not to sample.

We had to make up time for the burned out van by driving about 70 on this bumpy, curvy, one lane road. With random trucks and buses coming the other way. A bit white knuckle at times.

The "tree of snakes" is some sort of host to a bunch of wild vegetation.

The reggae themed bar outside the ruins.

Some "yet to be excavated" mounds at Altun Ha. The name means "Rrock pond."

Another weed using a tree as host.

The refinished main temple. A 10 inch carved jade head was pulled out of the top of this temple.

A cool carved head on the outside of the temple.

Stairway to Heaven.Belize City. Dan and I went sportfishing while we were in Cozumel (the final stop). The seas were rough but we (Dan) caught a wahoo. Here he is reeling in the giant.

Money shot. A few fellow cruisers.

This couple wore IDENTICAL outfits every day. Wow.

A shrine in Cozumel.

Cozumel from the boat.Puppy had an elephant friend that night.

And then a pig friend! Sarah and I got to go out for a dressy dinner (for us) one night while Dan and Melissa watched Siri.

Hanging out at SHOGUN! Asian cuisine.

Puppy hanging out with a monkey friend.

We returned to New Orleans as a city on a giant bender. It was the day of the Super Bowl. This person was visibly drunk and then passed out on the street in front of our hotel room. I suspect she did not make it to any Super Bowl parties. Although it was about 10 am so maybe she had time to rally.

The town of Douglass marching band. I do not think I have any relatives there.

A Saints themed float. Pre Super Bowl partying.

It was pretty crazy. I collected a bunch of beads and tried to look like a local so I would not end up in some gutter.

This guy is classy. The pre Super Bowl street scene went on for miles and was pretty crazy.

A giant crazy street party after the Super Bowl. I have never seen anything like this and I feel like that says a lot.

This sums up Bourbon Street well.

They do the crowd control with these amazingly well trained giant horses. About ten seconds before this the street was a free for all and then out of nowhere the dudes on horses arrive, corner a reveler, jump off and arrest them.

Another guy that obviously made some bad life choices who needs a "time out." I did not see what he did.

A few of America's finest.

A few videos of the Bourbon Street scene prior to the Super Bowl.

And one of the scene after the Saints won.

Yellowknife, NWT in January 2010

2010-02-13T15:05:00.010-09:00

I went to Yellowknife in early January for a new project on ice roads. We are working with the people that build ice roads to three diamond mines to estimate how a warming climate may affect the economics of them building the roads. They spend almost 20 million dollars a year to build the roads for a few months of truck supply. The trucks predominantly move fuel, concrete and explosives material to the mines. The roads and the city of Yellowknife were featured in one season (maybe more?) of the TV show ice road truckers. The people in Yellowknife think the Ice Road Truckers deal was great. The people that make the roads, generally focused on safety and reliability, though the TV show's focus on the "death and destruction" of the roads was absurd. There really is no death and destruction- the trucks travel about 20 kilometers per hour and have little to no problems year after year.

A polar bear about to have a seal snack greets visitors in the Yellowknife airport bagage claim. Welcome to the North.

Some green buildings that are part of the Government of the Northwest Territories. Not sure why the US can't integrate solar panels into most of our building designs.

A map of some of the ice roads. They generally link the giant lakes to one another. They clear the snow from the lakes as soon as possible as that removes nature's insulator and allows thick ice to grow. Then they pump water and snow onto the various portages to make the surface ready for driving.

We started calling ourselves "The Goldstein Group" as our resident economist (Michael Goldstein, far left) is quite the dude. And those of us outside of the world of economics figure that unless you are a "group" or a "consortium" you are not worth much.

You have to wear these "Mustang suits" that are insulated and thus give a little more time for you to be rescued if you end up in the water. Or take longer to freeze to death depending on your view. I tend to think positively on this one.

The ice roads are long, flat and white. One of the lakes, 40 kilometers long and with a speed limit of 10 km per hour, is called "Two movie lake."

We stopped to do some geophysics work.

The results of our geophysical efforts. Ice about 0.6 meters thick at this spot.

Calibrating the thickness the old fashioned way.

These ominous cracks formed right under our truck tire. With 30 inches of ice we are fine....

Michael running the augur.

The road to the diamond mines.

They drill holes in the ice where they need to grown more ice and pump up water to thicken the ice. The thinnest ice along the 300 km road dictates the heaviest load that can travel the road. And these mines need some giant loads taken up so they are constantly trying to raise the haulage maximums.

Some caribou.

And a fox.

There are a lot of "aboriginals" (as they call the Native Canadians) in the Northwest Territories and their languages are displayed on this sign.

Some Cape Dorset prints.

Here is the stone etching used to make one of the prints.

I bought this print.

Some moccasins for sale as well.

Christmas 2009

2010-02-13T14:48:00.004-09:00

Christmas is always pretty quiet up here. People flock south and that leaves the frozen few up here to enjoy the quiet. Sarah and Siri reading some cards.
Our tree.

Siri was a bit of a whirling dervish when it came to opening the goods.Siri trying on her new nordic skis.

CL got me a sweet "pimp daddy" cruising/man/leusire suit. Here I am rocking it.

We went down to Quartz Lake for Christmas evening and the next few days. Here we are having Christmas dinner.

And some skijoring the next day.

And angels......

Cali in December

2010-02-13T14:16:00.006-09:00

I made my yearly pilgrimage to the San Francisco Bay area in December. This year it was for two meetings: the Ocean-Atmospheres-Sea Ice-Snow (OASIS) synthesis meeting in Davis and the Fall American Geophysical Union Meeting. Sandwiched in between was a day of wine touring and a fun day on a boat cruise around the Bay in Spencer Brown's boat. He is a photographer that worked in Barrow last spring and he lives in San Francisco. Spencer is a great photographer (http://www.spencerbrownphoto.com/) and a great guy as well. Some of his photos from the Barrow field campaign for OASIS are here: http://www.spencerbrownphoto.com/galleries/arctic-science

Some of science is glamorous (cruising around in the middle of nowhere for field work). And some is the more mundane computer and speech activities....

Here is the war room in Davis.

Unfortunately it was drizzly for our wine tour day but we made the best of it. I can tell it is gorgeous in this part of Cali when it is a nice day...

The wine crew.

We stopped at "Taylor's Refresher" for probably the best burger I have ever had.

Jan and Shep trying to bubbly at Mumm. Sandy was really into going to Mumm.

Getting the boat ready. Captain Brown sets up the rigging.

Spencer and me rolling on the high seas.

This red bridge seems to be famous or something.

We were fortunate enough to be boarded by the Coast Guard. I tihnk they were practicing or something as they kept whispering to each other things like "did you ask to see the registration" etc.

A cool bar in San Fran.

My poster presentation on the chemistry of frost flowers.......

ULLR FEST II

2009-12-06T21:20:00.006-09:00

We had the Ullr Fest party last night. Sarah and I are still recovering in a long, slow, dazed way. The goal of Ullr Fest is to party like Vikings and hopefully convince the Snow Gods that we need some snow. It worked really well last year- we had many dumps all winter long after we appeased Ullr. This year we got some now early and since then it has been warm and, unfortunately, dry. So hopefully we made Ullr happy again.

Unfortunately, I did not capture much of the happenings well on film. Our friends Melissa and Dan Graham came up from Anchorage for the night. This was a huge effort on their part and now I see we have not one photo of them or their 1 year old Nora.

There was some late night debauchery but for the most part people were quite tame.

Sarah made her famous Glogg wine a few days before the party.

We set up some signs and a bunch of luminarias and Norwegian hand warmers around the driveway. Here are Ullr and his lady friend greeting everyone.

Lots of Jagermeister was brought in and lots of it was drunk. And we got a pair of "pewter shooters" from Andrew.

Eric and Cindy brought the stuff on the right. It was another licorice tasting drink.

Sarah and Siri rocling the snowscape. Siri stayed WAY up past her bedtime in an attempt to allow us to sleep in. For once it worked- she slept until 9am. I do remember a time when sleeping until 9am was not a big deal but now it is rare.

Siri and Mason on the sled hill.

Bonfire revelers.

A few obligatory "shot ski" photos.

Quartz for Turkey Time

2009-12-02T22:22:00.006-09:00

A big group of us went to Quartz Lake for Thanksgiving. We had about 15 folks there from Wednesday to Sunday and the weather was amazing- warm and twenties for most of the time. We did have a giant wind storm one night which lead to some wild hockey by car light.

First things first- a crew tackled the lake ice with shovels to make the hockey stadium.

Then the games began. We played guys versus girls for things like "who does the dishes" and the girls kicked our asses every time.......

Sharon, Heike and Adrienne getting ready to eat some serious food.

Helena, from Scotland, thinks Glenlivet is actually better than Wild Turkey. Wow.

Lars was the bird cooker and Sharon and others got the rest of the food together.

The meal of champions. No electricity of running water and a mile across lake ice to the cabin and we still had a great spread.

We brought down a Snorkel hot tub and Lars, Sharon and I put it together. Alas, the small leaks were too large for our wimpy pump and I brought it home to work on it.

The crazy nighttime hockey game in the blowing snow and car lights.

Sarah and Siri came from Tucson on Saturday AM. Here Sarah is showing off her "skillz" to Siri.

Siri on skis.........

Siri sporting her balaclava on the potty.

Belfair ROCK STAR party

2009-12-02T20:58:00.008-09:00

Lars, Sharon et al had their yearly festive event at Belfair. This year's theme was "Rock Star" and you could be a rocker, a groupie or a papparazzi. There were some great costumes and some random debauchery.

Michael Jackson was one of the first folks I saw.

Hendrix.

Sonny and Cher were hot

Mariah Carey and a dude from Megadeth

A dude from Devo, Mariah Carey and Axl Rose. There were two Axls there but we each complemented each other and there were no Axl hassles.

Micheal leading the Thriller dance with Cyndi Lauper

Mariah was hard to get off the karaoke setup

There were lots of hot ladies there......

Karaoke people late night

Dia de Los Muertos

2009-11-09T21:49:00.003-09:00

Monday, November 2 was Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead for the non-Spanish speakers....). The day is to celebrate the spirits and lifves of faily and friends that have moved on. We think the idea is a great one- sort of like a birthday party for loved ones on the other side.

Sarah and a few friends got a nice variety of Mexican dishes together. Magan helped me make flan. We set up candles and made margaritas and had a good time.

Some of the skulls and lights.

The pumpkin Sarah carved.

The happy host couple.

Skull cookies!

Magan making an offering in el Tiradito del Norte. Lars tastes the margarita.

Yes that is Tim.

The hansens!

Halloween at the Nanooks Game

2009-11-09T21:35:00.003-09:00

Siri loves to do "dressups" and we love to watch live hockey.
So we compromised on Halloween night and went to a University of Alaska Fairbanks versus Ferris State hockey game. UAF won 4-3 in overtime so it was quite exciting.

Before we got going Siri put on a few random items from her "dressups" box.

She went to the hockey game as a pumpkin. A "spunkpin" I guess.....

Brooks Range in October

2009-11-08T22:38:00.004-09:00

Tom Trainor, Tim Tannenbaum and I went caribou hunting for a few days in early October. We went to the Brooks Range about an 8 hour drive north of Fairbanks. You have to be 5 miles off the road to use a rifle and we opted for snowshoes and sleds to get us and our gear overland.

We saw these muskoxen hanging out by the road.

And a wolf and a raven haggling over a caribou carcass. This wolf was a big boy.

Hiking in to camp.

Some wild hoar frost crystals on lake ice.

We hiked in about 3.5 miles and set up a camp. The full moon was great and there was just enough snow to snowshoe around easily. It was a bit cold the first night (maybe slightly below zero) but it slowly warmed up over the next few days.

Tom Trainor rocking the "winter whites" camo. Nice.

Slope Mountain from the north. This was our view for the three days we hunted. Despite a few small herds visible fromthe road we hiked in, set up camp and stalked around for a few days and never saw another caribou. Still had a blast hanging out together.

Some sheep by the road.

Cloud capped limestone peaks on the way home.

Moose hunting with Eran and Ed

2009-11-08T22:31:00.003-09:00

Two stellar folks came up from Juneau to go moose hunting this fall. Ed and Eran took the ferry, droveabout 12 hours and then hiked up the East Fork of the Chena with me. It is a beautiful clear river about 50 miles from here. We took turns lining a canoe with our gear in it up the river and then floated it back down and out to the road at the end of the trip.

We saw a few cows and calves but no bulls. I left after a few days (to head back to reality). Eran got a nice moose a few days later. Not sure if that had anything to do with my leaving but he did well.

Eran ready to rock and roll.

Back to the Lake in mid September

2009-11-08T22:24:00.002-09:00

We went down to Quartz Lake with Freddy, Nina and Skye for a few nights of fun family time. We ate a ton, had a couple adult beverages, kayaked and cruised the lake in Freddy's boat.

Some late summer/fall construction projects

2009-11-08T21:54:00.005-09:00

The shack with some nice fall sun.

We have about 12 cords split and stacked between the shed and the giant piles in the yard. That should get us through the next two winters.

Sarah working the log splitter.

I had a wonderful French student visit for the summer. His name is Simon Filhol and he was finishing a Master's degree at an Institute in Grenoble. He was quite handy and at the end of the summer he went down to Quartz Lake with me to help put in a cabin foundation. Some day we hope to add on to our tiny cabin there and getting the foundation in was a great start. There was a lot of digging to be done because the addition was going into a hillside. We used hand tools to get roots out, move dirt and level everything. Simon is a hard worker and has a lot of carpentry and landscaping skills. Here Simon is starting the big dig.

We were treated to some great sunsets. We went out moose hunting a few nights but had no luck.

Here we the decking on and we are done for the time being. It took three long days to get the ground excavated and leveled, the posts in the ground, the horizontal beams on and the 2 by 6 decking on that.

East Coast Trip August, 2009

2009-11-08T21:00:00.008-09:00

We three went back East to New Hampshire and Massachusetts on a whirlwind visit of family members. The first stop was Dad and Debra's where we got to hang out with "Nana Bets" (or Grandmother/Greatgrandmother Betsy). She is quite the lady and it is always great to see her.

Dad always has some fireworks ready to go.

Rory and siri watching from a safe distance.

We went to the Christa McAuliffe museum/planetarium and they have a video setup where you can be a weather "person."

Siri by the pool.

Poppy and Siri Lego-ing.

Yaya and Siri singing karaoke.

We next went to Nantucket Island for some beach time.

Hanging on "Uppie Dubbies" boat.

We went to a small sand spit by boat for a sweet picnic.

The Polpis Yacht Club is one of the most private ones on the Island.

Joe Wright took Charlie, Doug and me fishing one day and on the south side of the island is some serious erosion.

We had a blast catching blue fish. This one became part of dinner.

Doug rockin' the cigar and fish.

Joe with the bent rod special.

Charlie with a monster.

The happy family.

Celebrating the Fourth of July in Fairbanks

2009-11-08T20:41:00.005-09:00

I am four months late with this post............

Mom and Doug came up for Fourth of July week and we did a slew of home improvement projects, and went to Quartz Lake for a few nights.

That same weekend was a major push by Doug and me to build a wood shed and some storage.

We all went to Ester for the Fourth of July festivities there. The Ester parade is always a bit "out there" and with the Sarah Palin resignation around the dame time there were a few swipes at her. People throw candy and vegetables to the crowd.

The "why Palin left" top 6.

The pig and random "recent amazing events in political history" float was impressive.

Siri and Skye playing in the flowers.

A Runaway Bride at Trail Breaker Kennel

2009-07-26T18:15:00.006-08:00

The TBK crew outdid themselves in the practical joke department today. Every summer they come up with a few tricks to play on the RIverboat but this one is the best yet.

TBK's "Runaway Bride" featured Molly Yaz as the runaway bride and Fast Freddy Harbo as the bike racing groom and Alyssa and Ava as lovely hardworking bridesmaids... David was ... well he was David the MC and man born for the stage...

And the dogs- the all girl team ran today of course- they did all they could to outrun that fassst Freddy.

Don't they make a lovely family?!

To watch a video of our mushing bride trying to make a getaway click here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z4E10BAQSw

Confedereo Helvetica (Switzerland) in late June!

2009-06-30T20:12:00.018-08:00

Sarah and I went to Switzerland because I was attending a geochemistry conference in Davos. We flew to Zurich and then took the efficient and on time train system to Davos. Sarah's mom Liz came to Fairbanks for the month of June and she was amazing enough to watch Siri for the ten days while we were gone. Siri was a little upset for the first few days but the combination of Liz, some great firends of ours and a lot of activities kept Siri happy and sleeping through the night.

The happy couple on the train from Zurich to Davos.

I love the random graffiti anywhere. But this one is priceless. I think he needed some balance(provided in red) for the major leg kick he is doing.

And lots of strange guidelines for the skiers.

The view of Davos from the bottom of the little funicular (tram of sorts) that took us up to our hotel (the Schatzalp). The hotel was a cool old spot perched high on a hill overlooking the city.

Pre-eminent geochemists Alexis Templeton and Tom Trainor (with Sarah and me) at the top og a long hike we did.

Tom Trainor hiking with his man purse........ actually, it was Alexis' but we got Tom to carry it for effect.

The cool red bar at the Schatzalp.

The view from our room.

Back on the train. After the conference, Sarah and I took a few days to go to Murren. On the way to Murren we stopped in Bern for an afternoon walking the Medieval city.

Downtown Bern.

There is a cool statue in Bern with an ogre eating little kids. A giant crowd hovers around taking photos and saying "Oh my.........." It is pretty striking.

The ogre has a bunch of kids strapped to his belt. I think so he can eat more of them on the go.

Some goth stuff. Modern day ogres?

This is the front of the giant Cathedral in town. The people and golden colors on the bottom left are the signs of the mayor of Bern dying and going to Heaven. The red stuff on the right is the mayor of Zurich going to Hell. I guess the two cities did not get along when the Munster was built in the 12oos or 1300s.

In this second floor apartment Albert Einstine, while working as a patent clerk, developed the theory of relativity. Wow.

A lake on the train route from Bern to Murren.

Downtown Murren. We arrived in drizzly rain and had a few days of rain that finally cleared when we were planning to go. The town can only be reached by train or cable car and the mountians are right across from it.

The eiger from Murren.

More of Murren. These photos represent the beauty at about 10 percent of reality. You walk around going "wow, look at that" the entire time. Or singing tunes from the Sound of Music like Sarah is doing here.

Sarah was equally jazzed up about the crazily anal wood stacking prowess of the Swiss.

We did two long day hikes from Murren. It was a little drizzly but the chocolate, cheese, salami and bread fueled hikes were plenty fun. There are cows roaming around everywhere and they have the clanging bells going on all around.

On a drizzly hike above Murren.

Potential Christmas card.

Wildflowers everywhere.

There are small dairy farms everywhere that serve beer, wine, cheese and bread. You can hang out with the pigs, chickens, sheep and cows while enjoying a frosty beverage. In the winter these same stops entertain skiers.

The giant bells are from prized cows that won contests or something like that.

It finally cleared on our last day in Murren and we got a nice side view of the north face of the Eiger.

Chalet Fontana, our bed and breakfast in Murren.

A sun clouded view of Murren heading to the top of the Schiltorn on our last day.

The views from the top of the Shiltorn.

They filmed the mid 1960s James Bond movie "In Her Majesty's Secret Service" here and Telly Savalas was a villain that lived at the top of the Schiltorn. So there is some cheesy Bond stuff there and well.......

James Bond always had a hottie with him so I found this one at the top for a photo or two.

The Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau from Murren.

There are giant waterfalls coming down the cliffs to Lauterbrunnen. Murren is about 100 feet up to the right.

The Swiss National Museum in Zurich.

Downtown Zurich.

A Lamobrghini. And where there is a Lamborghini there is a hottie in a tight skirt/dress.

This guy was making giant balanced sculptures from rocks and sticks along the Lake front. We are not sure if he used glue or what but they were amazing.

China for the mercury conference June 2009 Part 1

2009-06-20T15:38:00.003-08:00

I am at the Ninth International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant in Guiyang, China right now. Guiyang has the highest level of mercury contamination of any region in the world- there are many presentations here about the mercury levels in rice, people, air, etc. We get a lot of the our trace metals in Alaska directly from Asia because they move northeastward on regional airmasses so this is a way to get to "the source" of the metals we see in snow and on the tundra in Barrow.

Guiyang is also a sort of out of the way place (southcentral China) where apparently few tourists go. Almost no one speaks english and people really stare at you on the streets.

Am going to try to dump some photos here but the internet is a bit funky to say the least........

Ate some crickets last night. And ox tongue. The crickets tasted like Cool Ranch Doritos (same texture, too- nice and crunchy). If you didn't look at them you would eat handfuls. They come on a nice little skewer.

Some fried chicken.

A street market. The noise of haggling, advertising and chickens, etc. is almost deafening.They are building this giant highway through town and I have only noticed a few trucks. All the rocks and concrete are hand carried. This woman was moving rocks around.

The Chairman.

If you look at the lower left corner the sign is for a WalMart........ you can buy cheap plastic stuff made in China right here in China.

Downtown Guiyang.

Yours truly at a temple in downtown. The templs is 5oo years old.

The traffic situations are absurd. Streetlights are out on this side of town but things still seem to move along. Crossing streets is crazy- lots of running and honking. The drivers do not stop for little kids, old ladies or scientists......

The conference opening ceremony.

This lovely chicken lag was in my soup.

There is a park with a temple right above my hotel.

Lost in translation........

Pig foot and snout are local favorites.

On the bus from the airport.