Railroad Neighbors?

Different snowmachine trails we've ridden from the property

Over the years, we've been following the potential development of a railroad that would begin at the new borough deepwater port in Point MacKenzie and hook up to the current railroad somewhere near Big Lake, which runs north to Fairbanks, and south to Anchorage and then onward to Seward.  Of course there isn't yet a plan to transport any goods on this railroad spur, but it is slowly being fed money to study, choose a route, and build if funds become available, thorough some magic manipulation of public money. When we bought our land 7 years ago, a route near our land wasn't even included in the choice list, but someone must have done a little more research and it was soon added. I've attended public meetings, wrote letters to be considered in an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) and griped plenty about this situation, and while we haven't officially heard which route was chosen, we suspected before and suspect even more now that we may someday have a railroad as our property neighbors. 

We went out to the property to work on trim and while we were out on an evening walk, we discovered more surveying of our property line to the west, an eight foot wide clearing just beyond our line, and elevation markers.  It looked like a big tracked vehicle, a bunch of snowmachines, and a chainsaw were awfully busy this past week.  Other than remarking our property lines, they didn't creep on our land or yet take advantage of the easement that runs on the west boundary, but it still leaves a feeling of dread because who really wants to have a railroad in their backyard?

Practicing for the "Tour of Anchorage"

My New Year's resolution was to make this the year of endurance activities, I decided to start by signing up for Anchorage's "Tour of Anchorage" 40K ski race.  Bryant bought some skating skis this year and I dusted off my twenty year old skis. Although the colors are a bit retro, its amazing how little the technology has changed on skate skis.  This winter we've been attempting to give them a good workout.  We've been pretty good about hitting the trails each weekend for an hour or two. 

Skate skiing at Independence Mine - Hatcher's Pass

Yesterday, we decided to "scout the course".  One of his co-workers, who has done the race, was available to go with us and help with the shuttle, so it was the perfect opportunity. Bryant never skied that far and the furthest I skied was a 25K race once in college and although we both have a solid fitness base, I wasn't sure what to expect. 

We lucked out with sunny skies and temperatures in the upper teens.  The unfortunate timing for us was that Anchorage received 6 inches of snow Thursday night through Friday afternoon, so the grooming wasn't at its finest.  The first third of the trail was nicely groomed, the second third was tolerably smashed down and skiable and the last third was survival skiing and then turned to mostly poling in a skier made classical track. My many mornings of soaking myself in the chlorine at Palmer Pool had finally paid off as I actually had some stomach muscles and arm strength to persevere.  Near the very end, we were able to cut in from the Coastal Trail to the groomed Kincaid Park trails and finish in the last minutes of twilight near exhaustion, but completing the course nonetheless, and a certain level of confidence that race day conditions shouldn't be quite so miserable. 

I want to be optimistic, but this is Alaska and who really knows what nature will throw our way come March 6th. 

Honored

Wyatt playing bassoon

On Wednesday, I was honored with the opportunity to watch Wyatt and Gus perform in the Mat-Su District Honor Festival.  The 5 big Middle Schools and High Schools in the Mat-Su Borough pick their top musicians to participate.  There ends up being about 12 kids from each of their schools.  The boys were able to take 2 school days to practice the pieces with the students from the other schools and then there was an evening concert.  The vocal and instrumental talent of these kids is absolutely amazing.  

Gus on Tenor Sax



Christmas, New Years, and January

. . . . all vanished without any documentation.  Oh, I did get a few pictures of the kids at Christmas, New Years, cabin building, but the blog has been severely neglected.  All the kids (Bryant's and mine) were here at the house for a couple of days around Christmas.  Our neighbors and Bryant each had a skate ski track groomed in our backyard that I was able to take advantage of over break.  New Year's Weekend, our warmest ever at 30 degrees, was spent at the cabin near Big Lake.  January . . well I'm still not sure where January disappeared.  I'm not feeling really too bad that it is over, because it has been one of those winters.

The boys and their computers

Southcentral Alaska winters are pattern of cold, snowy, windy, rainy, cold, snowy, etc.  Each year it is a little different as to how much you get of each.  Within a couple of miles, the weather patterns change.  Palmer and Wasilla usually get the worst of the wind and where we live it tends to be a few degrees colder.  Unless we get a Chinook (warm wind from Prince William Sound i.e. Pacific Ocean) blowing over the mountains and then we have it warmer; into the middle 40's isn't unheard in the winter time.  Seeing as I'm still running the kids to Jazz Band in Palmer in the morning and running my legs off on the streets of Palmer, I have a much clearer picture of the weather patterns this year. 

The cabin temperatures are always colder than the house.

There hasn't been much snow, and the little snow we get is followed by the Chinooks.  We've had more grass in our back yard than snow this winter or so it seems.  The coldest temperatures were at our property 10 miles west of Big Lake a few weekends back and the cabin thermometer read -38.  We did manage to trim the windows and around the baseboard.  We also managed to kill a battery in the truck, warm a battery, restart a vehicle, and blow a power steering hose.  Thankfully, one of our friends rescued us and Bryant has some mechanic skills.   Our parts supply place was open on Martin Luther King Day, so other than being inconvenienced we survived that outing.  Although we do have a new rule, when its forecasting 20 below we need to stay home. 

Sledding hill to the trails in our backyard

Warm winds = ICY driveway

So in a nutshell, the darkest parts of winter are put to rest.  In February we gain over 5 minutes of daylight, and all the days until June 21 will be brighter.