I’ve been meaning to write a blog post on being buttoned up for the winter, but we’re well past that happy phase and deep into the reason we were buttoning in the first place. Now we’re topping off the buttons with scarves, sweaters, and extra blankets and burning the densest firewood for maximum heat.
Another crisp day in Fairbanks
Normally, the cold doesn’t bother me much. It’s a good reminder of where we live and the importance of being aware of your surroundings. Here at home we have plenty of firewood, and all is generally well with the world—as long as I remember to plug in my truck.
But we’ve been getting used to global warming making our winters less cold. One account I saw recently indicated that we haven’t seen weather like this since 2012. So, like many here, I am ready for a break from -40s and -30s and even -20s. Collectively, given my current state of mind (having looked at the weather forecast), I’m now calling this weather the “Minus Shitties.”
Oh, the weather’s in the minus shitties…
There are good sides. Here on a Science Saturday as I go over page proofs for a forthcoming paper, I see chickadees and redpolls coming in to the feeder; a Christmas-like ambience to the quiet woods; and I’m enjoying the good, crackling blaze of birch logs in the woodstove. And who doesn’t like this time of year? The fridge is stocked with rare treats just begging to be sampled. For lunch I had an exquisite Stilton and smoked-salmon omelet that would have had the gods themselves agog with delight.
Today we’re experiencing the earliest sunset of the year (2:39 PM), and I look out the window at some of next winter’s wood, diced and stacked in the woods waiting for the seasonal re-opening of the Boombah Haulage Company. Oddly enough, the company’s sole employee was able to get all of the wood that was on the ground and diced up stacked during our protracted freeze-up earlier in the year. The slacker doesn’t know how lucky he is. (Or does he?) When it warms up a bit, we’ll send him out on a stack inspection.
Wood for next winter, diced, stacked, and waiting for haulage.
Dear Kevin and Rose,
Thanks for your delightful comments on life where it really is cold. We have had an abnormally cold winter so far here in western New York as well. In fact I do not remember a December with this much cold and snow. This kind of weather is what January and February were like here 30 years ago around here – but not December. The birds have taken notice as well. My brother, Robert, and his wife, Barb, daughter, Whitney, and her husband, Cody, did the Christmas bird count last Sunday and found no geese, pigeons, or starlings – species normally present in hundreds.
Warmest regards,
John
Dear John and Bonnie,
Great to hear from you — although we’re sorry you’re having an old-time cold snap, too. Yes, it does make us wonder what it’s going to be like in January and February.
Best, K.
good morning Fairbanks,
I always enjoy your posts.
A pedantic aside, from a fellow lover of weather details and follower of things like sunrise and sunset:
The earliest sunset of the year comes a few days before solstice, at northern latitudes, and many days before solstice at places farther south. Likewise the latest sunrise will come some days after Winter Solstice. We are at 63 degrees north and our earliest sunset is Dec ember 17, the latest sunrise December 25.
An interesting conversation starter for those long relaxed holiday gatherings.
Merry Christmas!
Thanks, Dave. Glad to meet a fellow aficionado of the seasonality of the season!