We generally see snow from late October through early April, but with an average annual precipitation of just 11 inches of water, we usually don’t see really deep snow. This year, however, we’ve been getting a lot of snow. It’s the third-highest snowfall ever recorded this far into the winter, and this past week it really piled up. With the long weekend, we’ve been getting out and enjoying it. Blowing it, shoveling it, walking in it, snowshoeing in it.
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Monthly Archives: November 2015
A Brief History of Fire in Our Forest
The true-to-title version: I found a fire-scarred birch on the hill above our house and cored it to see how long it’s been since the last forest fire here. It was surprisingly long ago.
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Lots
Heavy forest fires in Interior Alaska some years back burned down a lot of trees. But these fires also changed human behavior, and not necessarily for the better. Who would want a home in the woods if your house might burn down? The woods still saw new homes going up, but in many cases trees were being removed with excessive exuberance. Instead of the standard 30-foot clearing around a home to serve as a fire buffer, 60-foot buffers were often created, or whole lots were being cleared. Forest one day, stumps the next. It was ugly.
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A Gentleman’s Dessert
Figs and cheese make a simple and pleasant dessert, but recently I accidentally stumbled on another ingredient that elevates things to a whole new level.
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Fairy Wonderpants
We’ve had some good snow lately, and it’s welcome. As it gets colder and darker, a good blanket of snow lightens things up considerably. But over the past couple of days we’ve had that magical combination of light snow and no air movement that causes snow to pile up on everything and look fantastic.
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