We love mushrooms, raw and cooked, but we’re usually restricted to what we can get at the store. This summer has been unusually wet, though, and there are a lot more mushrooms in the woods than usual.
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Category Archives: Alaska
We Set a World Record!
For pollen. From the article:
“Allergy doctor Jeff Demain said Monday’s count shattered the old world record that was set in Sweden several years ago.
“A level of 175 is considered high,” Demain said. “Fairbanks had a birch pollen level of over 4000.””
It’s not just birch, either. Over the course of two days I saw clouds of pollen coming off the white spruce with every puff of a breeze. The deck was yellow with it. We finally got some rain overnight, so things are looking more normal today.
Record levels of tree pollen dust the truck.
Kicking the Boombah’s Tires: The Borough Sets Land Values
The Fairbanks North Star Borough runs on property tax. It’s the only regular tax that we pay in-state (though we expect that will change soon given the huge state deficit). Every year the borough sends out a notice telling you what they think your property is worth. We’ve never had a problem with them before, but this year when the notices came with a 20% rise in land values, we were surprised.
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It’s Spring!
We’re two weeks early here. The first leaves popped out today and the raised beds are forked. Hammond’s Flycatchers showed up yesterday and Mew Gulls today.
The first leaves of the year are popping out. These are birch.
The raised beds are forked. They will heat up fast now.
Grouse v. Squirrel
We’ve had more Ruffed Grouse activity in the yard this winter than usual. It’s been fun to watch them, and to keep them returning Rose put some sunflower seeds out on the floor of the deck. They appreciate it. Yesterday I watched one slowly amble across the snow in the back yard, gingerly stepping and often breaking through. It did not look fun—basically postholing, which when I have to do it is exhausting. Oddly, when it came across a fallen aspen leaf, brown and ugly at this time of year, it picked it up and swallowed it down. That was a surprise; we see them eat tree buds a lot, but this looked like almost the lowest quality food one could find (one step above spruce needles).
As the grouse slowly approached the edge of the woods, the red squirrel who lives over there went batshit crazy.
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