This morning I checked the forecast, which calls for temperatures above freezing for the first time in months. Even better, it calls for temperatures above zero at night. It looks like we are heading into Break Up at last.
This morning the dogs sat and watched through the trees as my neighbor used his front-end loader to rip up the hard pack in his lumber yard. Yes, I have dogs who like to watch heavy equipment. They've learned to associate Big Yellow Iron with Scott, my former Boyfiend who is still a good friend. They seem to think that Scott is driving every dump truck, is riding every grader, and expect him to come ruffle their ears every time they hear the diesel engines.
My whole yard is still white. But there's only about 6 inches of snow left on my roof. I don't have to plug my car in anymore. It's supposed to hit around 50 today. It's still around 20 when I get up in the morning. Which is better than last month, when it was -20 every morning. It's still light at 10 at night now, WHEEE! Midnight sun, here we come!
So before it's all melted, here are some pictures of the last couple months of winter. Click on the pictures to see larger versions of them!
Ole says, "This is MY hole to roll in!"
The fascination of a moose antler. This was before it was totally buried in the snow. Right now there is little of it showing above the two feet of hard pack in the back yard.
All that's left of the monkey. Creepy, hunh?
Alaska trash cans wear hats.
Fresh moose tracks. Sofie likes.
My yard is a moose highway. See previous posts to see the moose.
Not only did we have lots of really cold (-50) weather this winter, but we got dumped on pretty good, much to the joy of the dogs. This is Norwegian Elkhound heaven.
Trying to catch some sun!
As the winter progressed, the snow started crawling down off the trees.
Except when it waterfalled off trees. That was a day I kept my hood up.
The Toyota. Believe it or not, I'd been keeping it scraped off. But winter buried it anyway.
More Moose highway. Yes, those "trails" are moose tracks.
About midwinter this stump had a good hat of snow.
As the sun started coming back, its hat got a little twisted.
A couple weeks ago I took this picture, where my stump's toque looked pretty darned precarious. It was gone when I got home from work.
As it warms up, heavy duty flannel-lined Carhartts give way to.....goth pajamas. It was 20 above that day.
Now that the snow was off the trees I could take my hood down.
Ole does this no matter what the temperature is. He leaves generous fur donations to the local birds.
Spring is truly here when you get the hard pack removed from your driveway!
Sofia enjoying the sun, which has come back and is helping melt things!
