meanwhile, in Alaska

The following is a very graphic photo series of a polar bear attack. Not for the squeamish:

lol, that's about right.

I work with a girl who moved up here from Tucson. She told me the other day, "I wish somebody would have told me that moving to Alaska meant that I would more than likely be shitting in the woods and hauling my own water!" Poor kid. At least I knew what I was getting into.

omg, that poor musher!!

nochain wrote:

Oooooo!  Those amenities!!!!

Gated?

I can translate Alaskan "gated community" for you, E. That means the property has an 8-ft high fence, a cattle guard, and a padlocked gate at the entrance. :-o

The night I arrived here from California I made the critical error in judgment of listening to my phone GPS for directions how to get home instead of trying to read/translate the directions my cousin texted me (he is badly dyslexic & spelling is very difficult for him). I ended up at the foot of one of these compounds and had trouble getting out. It had the result of making me very "respectful" of my neighbors. I do not wander off the main roads after dark anymore.

Beisdes the 8 foot fence etc etc, let's not forget the shotgun.

No kidding... the arsenal of shotties, streetsweepers, full-auto rifles, handguns...

Ummm, am I perceiving correctly that that bear is ALIVE?? Brown bear, black bear, I don't care, that's just dumb.

WTF. In just 3 days, 30,000 people have "voted" for Alaska to secede (wait for it) and rejoin Russia (bam). ???

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/alaska-back-russia/SFG1ppfN

It is true that there are a lot of Russians here. But not THAT many.

That's pretty cool, nc. Sort of mesmerizing.

So, although it's been getting up to the low to mid 30s and sometimes high 30s / low 40s late in the day, it is taking longer than I would like to thaw, since it still hovers around zero much of the day. Patience is not -- and never has been -- one of my virtues. I'm still under at least two feet of snow, but on the upside, just this morning I found my ladder, which has been missing since November. The corner of it is starting to peak out from under a snow bank out by the wood pile. What a-hole left it out to get snowed-under?? That would be THIS a-hole. lol. I would chastize myself for having made a total rookie maneuver, but my cousin left his ice chipper out to get buried under a snowbank all winter, so I don't feel so bad.

In other (not so) exciting news, our days are already almost 14-hours long and we're gaining 6-minutes a day.

The price of fuel has gone up here... $3.70 or more for regular unleaded (down $0.10 from last week) and $4.19 or more for diesel #2. What are you all paying?

riceme wrote:

That's pretty cool, nc. Sort of mesmerizing.

So, although it's been getting up to the low to mid 30s and sometimes high 30s / low 40s late in the day, it is taking longer than I would like to thaw, since it still hovers around zero much of the day. Patience is not -- and never has been -- one of my virtues. I'm still under at least two feet of snow, but on the upside, just this morning I found my ladder, which has been missing since November. The corner of it is starting to peak out from under a snow bank out by the wood pile. What a-hole left it out to get snowed-under?? That would be THIS a-hole. lol. I would chastize myself for having made a total rookie maneuver, but my cousin left his ice chipper out to get buried under a snowbank all winter, so I don't feel so bad.

In other (not so) exciting news, our days are already almost 14-hours long and we're gaining 6-minutes a day.

The price of fuel has gone up here... $3.70 or more for regular unleaded (down $0.10 from last week) and $4.19 or more for diesel #2. What are you all paying?

I paid 3.41 last week and it's up to 3.57 (regular) this week. Quite a jump for no apparent reason......

At the Sam's in Hoover, it was 3.14 this week. Of course, that was for regular. (I use premium)

I have been trying to get my wife to use synthetic oil in her Honda CRV. With over 200,000 miles on the CRV, she now believes it would be advisable. It's not smoking or burning oil and it doesn't stink to ride behind her, so I guess it is better late than never. (I have 173,000 on my Civic and have used Mobil 1 since the first oil change.)

Wow. Fuel is so cheap down there. I am soooo jelly!! :-P

I used to run Schaeffer in my Tacoma but had to switch when I moved to Kansas because the corporate Siemens movers wouldn't haul a 55-gal drum. I did a bunch of research on what the best motor oil is that you can buy by the 1 - 5-qt container and the top three are Amsoil, (I'm blanking on the 2nd one), and Mobil 1 Extended Performance, which is truly, fully synthetic.

The problem with the first two is that you can't buy them in stores and I usually live in the boonies, so I chose Mobil 1 Extended Performance. I used to send oil samples at each oil change to Herguth Laboratories... the only times I got funky results was when I'd been out driving in the desert (dust & sand) a whole bunch without changing fluids afterward. Neither fluid ever showed any sign of breakdown or gumming-up at all... just plain ole dirty after too much 4WD without being changed.

Added bonus: recommended oil change is every 15k miles. I always change it sooner, but that's just how I roll. I highly recommend buying it by the 5-qt container for significant cost savings. If you buy it by the quart, you pay nearly $10/qt as opposed to $30/5-qt.

nochain wrote:

riceme wrote:

The price of fuel has gone up here... $3.70 or more for regular unleaded (down $0.10 from last week) and $4.19 or more for diesel #2. What are you all paying?

I paid 3.41 last week and it's up to 3.57 (regular) this week. Quite a jump for no apparent reason......

Interesting that the closer you get to the fuel source & production (Gulf Coast, Alaska), the more expensive it is. Eric is the farthest away by far, and he's paying rock-bottom prices compared to the rest of us.

Doesn't that just beat all.

riceme wrote:

nochain wrote:

riceme wrote:

The price of fuel has gone up here... $3.70 or more for regular unleaded (down $0.10 from last week) and $4.19 or more for diesel #2. What are you all paying?

I paid 3.41 last week and it's up to 3.57 (regular) this week. Quite a jump for no apparent reason......

Interesting that the closer you get to the fuel source & production (Gulf Coast, Alaska), the more expensive it is. Eric is the farthest away by far, and he's paying rock-bottom prices compared to the rest of us.

Doesn't that just beat all.

Taxes are part of it. Our illustrious county elected morons added a 4 cents per gallon tax to gas to subsidize the county bus system. Sure wouldn't want the people riding the things to have to pay a little more. I've never even ridden a bus but have to pay for ANOTHER entitlement!!!!!!

Probably not Alaska but I thought it was funny

Anybody say "thaw"?

Eric wrote:

Anybody say "thaw"?

How about "oops"? But there were probably a number of other 4 letter words being spoken.....

LOL. One of the best parts about the first one is that it was being filmed by the operator. Love it.

Wow... hard to believe anyone would be stupid enough to drive out onto a lake that late into break up season. Hey, at least they got pictures, right?? lol

We had a Superbowl party in the 1980's (P'cola) and it was so cold that it was colder than the fridge.  We put our beer on the truck tailgate and it froze. It was good 'n cold for a while, lol.

---

I was running my water-sourced heat pump AND my wood stove.  People said it was too hot inside and I turned off my heat pump.  (You just don't turn off a wood stove, y'know.)  The discharge line froze solid.  I didn't want to get up every few hours to stoke the stove, so I broke the discharge line PVC and let it pile up against my foundation so my heater could run.