"Away in a meadow all covered with snow
The little old groundhog looks for his shadow
The clouds in the sky determine our fate
If winter will leave us all early or late."
- Don Halley

Most of us don't celebrate Groundhog Day here in Alaska. Our marmots are fast asleep in underground dens and they won't come out until April or May. An early spring for us would be having above freezing temps in March. We did have that a couple of years ago. It warmed up to nearly 40 and stayed warm for more than a week. The ice sculptures began melting, and the festival ended earlier than planned. But generally, spring won't arrive until sometime in April or May. We've got a ways to go, whether or not Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow in Pennsylvania.

Since I last updated, we dipped to -40F once again, and stayed there for a few days. Today we're hovering at about -10F. I see blue skies trying to break through the clouds, which is always a mood lifter. Cold and dreary are depressing. Cold and sunny, or cold and blue skies, is much more palatable.

Last Saturday night, we met our friends Lisa and Charlie at the Blue Loon for the Fairbanks Funny Fest. The Funny Fest is the final public performance for local wannabe comedians who take a workshop to learn how to do stand-up. Although there were several 'cricket chirping' moments, during the performance, I give all the participants credit for getting up and trying to be funny in front of such a large group of people. The headliner act was comedian John Bizarre - a comedian we've seen at least once before, if not twice. He made us laugh so hard, we wiped tears from our eyes. (Here's the link to his website. Warning: there is some adult content and profanity)

I did read this on his website - a journal entry from January 28th about his visit to Fairbanks:

I don't fit the description of the Alaskans John writes of, but I know plenty of folks who do. And my life is greatly enriched in knowing these folks. I am proud to be a resident of this great state!

I now have redpolls visiting my back deck and the sunflower seeds. In the photo at left, you can clearly see the pinkish red breast feathers, indicating that these redpolls are males. It's good to see another species of bird. I didn't know how they stayed warm in this weather. I did a little research and this is some of the information I found online:

The Hoary Redpoll has very fluffy body feathers that help it stay warm in extremely cold temperatures. In addition, it has feathers on areas of its body that are bare in most other birds. If temperatures get too high, a redpoll may pluck out some of its body feathers and get rid of some of its insulation. These feathers will grow back in a few days, but by then in the high arctic environment, temperatures probably will have dropped back to normal.

• Habitat: Redpolls breed in open subarctic coniferous forest and scrub, and sheltered riparian areas on tundra. They winter in open woodland and scrub, weedy fields, and suburban and urban areas.
• Food: Redpolls eat very small seeds, such as birch, willow, alder, grasses, and weeds. Also arthropods in summer.

Here are some photos I've taken of the redpolls over the past few days:

Redpolls (male has blush breast)

Since Mr/Ms Squirrel has also been visiting the back deck, I just had to take a few more photos of him/her. I also captured a pretty clear shot of a boreal chickadee. The boreal chickadees look much different than the black-capped chickadees that usually visit.

Red Squirrel

Boreal Chickadee

We were having issues with our satellite dish. Everytime it snowed, the dish would get covered, and we'd lose all but our local channels. A week or so ago, we had someone from DISH Network come out and clear our dish for us. Finally, we made the decision to go out and buy a 28' ladder. We were going to have to buy one before spring anyway - as Steve couldn't reach the upper gutters on the house.

I did some online research for some of the chain stores (Home Depot and Lowes). According to the online store, Home Depot had a 28' ladder for about $260. However, when I plugged in our zipcode to see if there was one in stock at our local Home Depot store, I saw that the ladder had been up-priced approximately $100 for the Alaska market. Now I understand that there is increased shipping to get items to AK - especially heavy items - but charging an extra $100 per ladder is just ridiculous in my opinion. It's not like Home Depot only orders one ladder at a time. Since we were now looking at a cost of approximately $350 for a ladder, Steve and I made the decision to give our business to a local vendor, rather than the huge box stores, since the price would be about the same anyway.

We went to AIH (Alaska Industrial Hardware) and found a large supply of ladders of all sizes and weight bearing limits. The one that suited our needs was $317. We didn't have to wait 20 minutes for a sales associate to be paged (as always seems to happen at Home Depot). At AIH, a gal came over to help us immediately. We were prepared to load the ladder onto the top of Steve's truck and had tie-downs and a blanket to protect the truck. On a whim, we asked the sales lady how much it would cost to have the ladder delivered to our house. She told us that it would be NO CHARGE! We made arrangements to have the ladder delivered the next day.

We both learned a good lesson in this experience. You can bet that our hard-earned money will be spent at AIH for our major hardware needs. Even if something is a few dollars more there, it is worth it to us to spend the extra money and get superior customer service. I'm tired of wandering aimlessly in Home Depot (or Home Despot, as my friend Celeste calls it), searching for something I need, and not being able to find a sales associate when I need one.

A few days ago, Sedona was laying at the sliding glass doors, watching the activity on the back deck, when she suddenly jumped up and began barking wildly. I thought that perhaps she was barking at the pair of dogs we've had running through our yard lately (they are escape artists who belong to our neighbor), but she wasn't excited about dogs at all! Instead, a cow moose and calf were trotting through the rear of our property. By the time I grabbed my camera, they were in the woods.

The next day, I happened to catch a glimpse of a cow moose and yearling calf running through my side yard - heading to the back of our property. This time I was ready with my camera, but they stayed hidden in the trees, and it was difficult to get photographs. I managed to capture these two photos of the yearling by herself, and then mama moose following her calf into the woods. Exciting!

But even more exciting was the following day, when I happened to glance into my backyard and discovered a lone cow moose napping in the snow about 15 yards from my back deck. I took a few photos of her as she napped, and then went out the side door to my garage with my camera to see if I could get some photos of her face. I made sure to keep my getaway route clear and within reach - just in case she became annoyed and charged me. She didn't seem to mind me at all.

She stayed for about three hours, before getting to her feet and walking slowly off to the woods beyond my yard. I hope she comes back.

Relaxing in my yard	I was talking softly to her	"Show me your face"	Frosty Face
"I think it's time to get up"	"I'll be going now"		One final look back

The Junior Yukon Quest is scheduled for tomorrow, but I haven't seen any updated information about the race. I'm looking forward to attending and getting photos of the young mushers (ages 14-17). Next weekend is the Yukon Quest, and you can bet I'll be there too.