As far as the smoke goes, keep up the good work folks. There is some wind that has been blowing the smoke back towards the fires, you could see blue sky out at my place yesterday afternoon. I’m hoping the weather patterns will push this stuff out of here by the end of the week, when I have friends coming to visit. Although forest fire smoke seems to have become an integral part of the Alaskan Summer Experience since over six million acres burned last year, it’s not a good experience.
I’d like relief from the smoke myself. I’m having to use my nebulizer machine on a daily basis now to keep the lungs from taking too much damage. The town of Fairbanks was pretty socked in yesterday, though you could still see the outline of Ester Dome.
Even so, Scott and I donned our P-100 masks and went birding anyway, dauntless Alaskans that we are. We headed out to a wetlands area that had been created by a company taking a good 15 feet of peat off about five acres. This peat is then sold to landscapers. That resulted in the water table creating a great wetlands area for wildfowl and wildlife. I’ve yet to identify the many ducks we saw, but just relaxing next to the water and cattails was a great change from the rush-around weekly life we both live. Ravens were calling and playing in the tall treetops far across the way, the ducks were telling jokes (you could hear them, they would gabble quietly and the all go “wyaaah wyaah hyah hyah HA!”), and a pair of merlins began hunting the area. The flew quite close to us several times. We also saw a muskrat, or at least, I did.
The smoke is making Sofia cough, too, and I don’t know what to do about that other than keep her inside as much as possible. Being inside is a damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don’t sort of thing because it’s so HOT. Sure, look at the forecast for the Tanana Valley and you’ll see temperatures of about 85°F listed. Don’t be fooled. It FEELS like at least 90°F. Want to see the weather forecast? Go here and scroll down to the Middle Tanana Valley section.
That was the extent of our outdoor activities this weekend. We never walked faster than a slow amble. The rest of the time we stayed in, went to the bookstore, had lunch, and browsed binoculars at the sporting goods store. We watched “Duck Soup” on DVD, laughed our asses off, and looked at all the pictures in my new Groucho book. Hmm, I guess I ought to review that book for Northern Book Review. I’m way behind on my reviews, I have a stack of books all read and ready to review but I’m running out of time to write them!
Next weekend my first visitors from Outside arrive! Keep your fingers crossed (and keep those fans pointed westward!) that the smoke will blow out of here by Friday!
