For years I’ve been patching our deck by swapping out surface boards as they rotted. The original builders hadn’t used treated boards, and the previous owners hadn’t painted it, either. So it had slowly deteriorated. I put in treated 2x6s, so it was increasingly sturdy. But I stepped right through it on an old but sound-looking board in the fall, and then the lower structure started to give way as some of the joist ends rotted. All winter I kept thinking about what it would be like if a moose walked onto it and broke a leg. So we made plans to get it replaced in spring.
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Apocalyptic
Alaska is baking and burning. We’re also on the threshold of the most radical budget cuts that the state has ever seen—a self-inflicted fiscal catastrophe caused by our governor’s desire to give out the maximum amount of free money possible. That, and he lied his way into office by promising not to make all the cuts he’s now singlehandedly imposing.
Governor Dunleavy’s lies are detailed by Dermot Cole here.
Continue readingIdiot’s Catch
How many PhDs does it take to change a light bulb?
Two, at our house.
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A Very Unusual Dipnetting Season
Back in June the run of red salmon in the Copper River this year was predicted to be poor. And the Miles Lake sonar showed that this was indeed the case, so the Department of Fish and Game closed the season very soon after opening it. And then they kept it closed for most of June and July, with just five open periods of 24-96 hours. The king salmon run was reported to be good, and those who went in June generally caught more than they could keep (1 each). But red fishing was poor.
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Oh, What a Life We’ve LED
I hope everyone else is reveling in the cost savings that LED bulbs have meant. The light emitting diode (LED) is such a cool invention. Once the bulbs were being manufactured in huge numbers and their prices dropped, it made definite economic sense to replace our other bulbs with them. We swapped out our incandescents for compact fluorescents (CFLs) several years ago, but as those die we’re putting in LEDs. That time has also finally arrived with fluorescent tubes, too. The per-bulb cost for an LED retrofit lamp is now on par with a standard four-foot fluorescent tube, and the LEDs come with a five-year warranty. What’s not to love?
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