Fairbanks snowmageddon

[Richard Flanders]

This is what we've had since just before Christmas. We got 12" in one day. In the first pic you can just see the tip of a 12" ruler sticking out of the snow. For a while all I did was plow snow off my pad, once in the middle of the night between 1 and 3am, then again in the afternoon. Once it quit falling it was shoveling/scooping/plowing snow all day just to get the pad clear. The roads didn't get plowed out for a long time. Oh, and on the 26th it poured rain all day at 23-25deg and iced EVERYTHING over; all the roads are still based with 2" of glare ice. And we've not had any mail delivery in 12days now. I am keeping one adult male ruffie regularly and well fed in my lower yard. Pics were taken on the 29th. The fourth pic was taken yesterday. The last pic is just now and of keeping the "family" fed. All they want this time of year is Pnut butter. They haven't touched a sunflower seed in over a month.

[Dean Romig]

I guess you have to be totally self-reliant if you want to live in the outback.





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[Mike Koneski]

But, but, but isn't it a light, fluffy, dry snow??? :shock:

[Richard Flanders]

The last 12" was; under that is a 2" thk solid ice layer over wet hvy snow. You can only plow that bottom stuff once then it sets up like concrete.

[Stan Hillis]

Keep feedin', and eatin', that peanut butter, Richard. I grow the peanuts, you feed 'em. I think that's a good system.

Any particular brand your birds prefer .......... Jim, Peter Pan ???

[Richard Flanders]

I give them JIF creamy style. It comes in 2 jar packs of 3# per jar at Costco. They go through 6-9 lbs/year.

[charlie cleveland]

they know what good peanut butter is....charlie

[Gary Carmichael Sr]

Richard how many cords of wood do you burn in the winter, or do you heat with some other source? Gary

[Mills Morrison]

We are having a cold storm front here this weekend. Hopefully it will bring some woodcock this way.

There is something about the humidity in this place that makes any kind of weather uncomfortable

[Richard Flanders]

Gary, I have a Monitor diesel fired heater in the basement and a woodstove on the middle floor. I only go through maybe 3 cords/yr at most.

[John Dallas]

What sort of wood do you burn? Good BTU content?

[Dean Romig]

Richard, Will that Monitor burn wood when it runs out of oil?





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[Richard Flanders]

I burn mostly white spruce and birch, with some alder tossed in if I cut a bunch up for some reason. and no, the Monitor is purely #1 diesel or kerosene and requires electricity to run.

[Dean Romig]

Richard, a friend in Maine has a Monitor that burns oil, gas or wood. Pretty versatile.





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[John Dallas]

Looked up the BTU content of your woods and was surprised to see that birch has equivalent BTU's to Oak. The spruce appears to be "Gopher wood" (Put it on the fire and go for more) Not much BTU content

[Dean Romig]

I’m sure Richard knows that but in most of Alaska that’s the only hardwood available. It’s still better than most softwood.





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[Richard Flanders]

Yep, that's really all we have besides poplar/aspen, which is like burning balsa wood. The lesser BTU woods are ok in spring and fall though when you only need a smallish fire in the morning, but the aspen generates 2x the ash that birch or spruce makes, which is a royal PITA. There's some tamarack around here but very little. Spruce is not to be discounted if you can find trees that are a bit stunted and have zillions of branches and lots of sap, especially near the butt area. Put a 10"dia round into the stove on a bed of split spruce or birch and they will burn like coal and last 30hrs and sometimes more in the stove. I can actually make my old Riteway stove burn 4 days unattended if I load it properly, using a bed of coals then split birch topped with a 10" birch round with small split pcs packed in around it. I've been burning this model of Riteway stove for 40yrs now(I'm on my second one and have a spare on my front deck that just needs door seals)so have it pretty well figured out. It's an incredible stove for something that was built in the 60's and 70's. My firebox runs at 3x the temperature of the chimney which means I'm only losing 25% of my heat up the chimney, and without a catalytic converter. You have to pay at least $4K - $5K for a modern stove to get performance anywhere near that, and especially for one that will burn more than 6-8hrs on a load. This old Riteway will take 24" wood(26" at door level) and will take up to 10-1/2" rounds through the door. The bigger mod 37, which is what I have on the deck, is about 6" taller than mine and has a fire bricked lining and rotating grates and is made to burn coal or wood and, if you can find one, they made a plenum with a fan that will drop over the whole stove and allow you to install standard house heating ducting, turning it into a forced air furnace. They even made two styles of stainless steel "cans" that could be installed inside the firebox after drilling two 1/1/4" holes for the feed pipes so you could generate self-circulating hot water in a tank beside the stove. I'll spare you the stories on the two systems I've set up like that over the past 45 years. Both involved gold rush-era cast iron wood cook stoves and worked incredibly well. Both systems produced more hot water than we could use.

[Gary Laudermilch]

I burned a Riteway 37 for 20 years. Wonderful stove. It went with the house when I sold it and last I knew it was still there cranking out heat,

[Richard Flanders]

The mod 37 was/is their best and will last a very long time if not abused. They're just too big for many smallish houses. You have to run Riteways pretty hot to prevent creosote buildup and with many houses that means the stove will keep the house way too hot for comfort. If I make my 37 my next stove I'll have to be very cautious on that front. Regular and intentional chimney fires to clean the chimney out and making sure your firewood is as dry as possible are a necessity to keep the creosote production down. I burn mine out pretty regularly.... like I am doing right now actually. If you wait too long it's easy to get the firebox up to 700+deg F. If you really screw up, it can get up to 900deg..... been there... but only once, fortunately. Had to reseal the entire stove after that one as all the Hi-temp silicone seal I had in it turned to white ash and fell out all over the stove board. That was wayyyyy too close for comfort.

[Dean Romig]

Yeah, I tried that high temp red silicone once with the same result… white ash where the silicone sealant had been.






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[Dean Romig]

Words to live by in the winter.


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[henderson Marriott]

Richard:
You probably know the folks at Wright's Air Service. They fly me into my homestead area SW of Nenana just below Wien Lake. Miss taking my 450 AK or other Model 71s into the
bush after moose every year. Glen Gregory is no longer with us. The Toklat grizzlies don't miss me...

[Richard Flanders]

Oh yeah, I know the kids who now own Wrights very well. When they were starting to build their business and before they bought Wrights, I used them for my taxi service at the research station I ran on the North Slope. I gave them all the business I could and would even house overnight and feed their drivers on their way south when I had passengers for them, which worked out very well for both of us. Incredible bunch. Their Helio Couriers really get a lot of work during the hunting season around this part of the state. I'm sure I've seen your homestead near Wein Lk. I've flown through there many many times and always take note of cabins and such. Are you on the NW or NE corner of the unnamed lake 982, or maybe lk 665?

[henderson Marriott]

We are due S of Wien lake about 10 miles-about 10.5 from the cabins at Wien Lake. Near Ose Mtn named for Duane Ose who trapped along toward Minchumina until his wife from Canada-Rena-died about 5 years ago She did the skinning and hide prep work.

Gas prices now are out of the roof. I flew a Maule and Super Cub up there W/O a ticket.
Prefer a lever action like a Wincheter 1886 or Model 71 because of fast handling in the cold interior and bears. Last moose taken with a 348 Ackley Improved which is like a 35 Whelen as to ballistics.

Now have a 3rd gen AAHE and a XE, BE and Super Fox-along with a Smith Long Range. All backed up with two Win M-12 heavy Duck guns. Can't have too many guns when in the frozen North. Friend of Phil Shoemaker-guide out of Wasila.

Ridge Marriott
LTCol-USA-Ret.

[Richard Flanders]

Could be Square Lake, but that's pretty small and I don't remember any cabins on it, but I could well be wrong. On Google Earth Ose Mtn Lodge is shown to be, I think on Ose Mtn, which may not be a recognized name by the USGS mapping folks. Ose Mtn is shown 6mi west of Square Lake, which is 10mi south of the southern end of Wein Lk. I knew of a couple that lived permanently out there on one of those lakes for years. They had a couple of kids that she brought to the July 4 party at Minchumina one year when I attended. I was told that her husband worked shifts on the slope in the oilfields. Is that the folks you're speaking of? I know their place when I fly over it. Richard Wien is a friend also.

[henderson Marriott]

You are right, that was Dennis and Jill with their kids on the small lakes near Bear Paw-about 6 miles SW of Ose -close to my place. They split up a few years back.
There was an old sourdough named Oliver Cameron who wintered up there in his 70s and they helped cut his firewood. Shoemaker kept hunting sheds and plywood hunting
hutches out toward Minchumina until the fires got to them 10 years ago. Cameron was the real deal-like Ben Lilly in N. Mexico.

[Richard Flanders]

None of this is making any sense to me. Take a look at this and tell me where these places are if you can.

[henderson Marriott]

Map is correct-I used Bear Paw as only a reference. If you look at the 4 lakes a couple
of miles almost due S of Ose Mtn-that's where Cameron and Jill/Dennis had their
homesteads-Lake No 3 counting from the N to S. My Place is bear damaged just N
of the bigger N lake of those 4 lakes. Swans mate on the North Lake. As I remember, there is a homestead couple on or near Square lake that Duane Ose could reach from his place to them by radio/phone. Ose's place was a two-story house with basement that he completed in about early 2005. He asked me about a roof earlier and I said metal because of snow load and the distance to the nearest fire dept-if he used wood/birch/cedar shakes-with yukon stove cinders. The 2007 moose I shot became his
winter meat supply-and was covered on part of his roof-to keep the ravens out.

Now he had a raffle and his home went to a British couple-who were figuring how to handle US Immigration issues. I need to get back up on the trail that goes from Oses to Wien Lake. Ose had a strip there just N of his place about 200 yds-for Helio Couriers.
One of his friends had a white Taylor Craft that would drop in. "Keep your nose to the wind and eyes along the skyline."

[Richard Flanders]

So, Ose's place is up on Ose Mtn and not on a lake? That's where it comes up on the Google Earth search. I was thinking that had to be a mistake, which is not at all rare on GE. That's pretty unusual out there. If no one has been on his strip lately it may be too overgrown to use by now, unless it's on a sand dune.

We do our pike fishing through the ice on East Twin Lake 18mi NE of Wien Lk. It's a very popular spot to fish. Lots of big pike in there. The big females like this one go back down the hole - this one just barely fit down my 10" hole. There's a 37# pike from here mounted and hanging in the Fairbanks airport. An additional pic of a fishing party. This spot gets fished way too hard and is fished out way too early. There were 9 planes there eventually. I fish on the other side of the lake.

[henderson Marriott]

First rate. Ose used to use the closest S small lake for float plane re-supply. Then he cleared a strip which we all used.Yes, its probably overgrown and again home to wolves, bear and moose.
Just like it used to be. The black bears are back, and if they take off in a hurry-
you know what kind of bear is chasing them off............