Bogieblog

Meltage!

We had a couple of fairly warm days and meltage has been pretty good. Picture taken afternoon of 3/15.

Of course with that meltage, and frozen ground (or totally saturated ground where the sun hits areas that are kept clear of snow), that means the water has a hard time finding someplace to go.

Since Friday the temps have gotten cooler and melting has slowed. Next week the lows will be back in the teens so it will still be a while before it actually looks like spring around here. However, I did see some green from creeping phlox (evergreen plants) along the retaining wasll next to the driveway.

Oh yeah, a flock of redwinged blackbirds has made its spring pilgrimage and are camped out in trees 1-2 blocks behind my backyard. I've heard them since Thursday evening.

Spring officially starts in a couple of days, can't wait for consistently warmer days.

Iditarod 2019 Top 10 Finishers

Apparently there wass an exciting finish for this year's Iditirod as the top two finishers were just seconds apart.

3 women were in the top 10; Jessie Royer, Aliy Zirkle, and Paige Drobny.

Congratulations to everyone who entered the race, whether they finished or not. These are the toughest of the toughest athletes (people and dogs) and I can't imagine the physical and mental fortitude that they have to have to participate.

And of course kudos go to all the volunteer race officials, veterinarians, pilots, trail breakers and dog handlers who make sure race participants are taken care of, and watched out for as much as possible.

March 10th and Not Loving the Groundhog that Lied

Another 7" of snow. At least it happened this morning so I could get it taken care of before the temps went up and meltage started!

Aliy Zirkle First Musher to Halfway Point

Aliy and her dog team won the GCI Dorothy Page Halfway Award in the Checkpoint of Iditarod. She is a particular favorite since she is a NH native.

 

She has since dropped in the standings as she is taking one of her mandatory breaks at the Iditarod checkpoint. Only time will tell how her strategy works out.

First March Snow 2019

I haven't posted pics of this winter's snows because most of them have been overnight and ended in ice/sleet. Even when I know that we have gotten 8" of snow, by the time it is light enough to take pictures, it has all been packed down into a condensed icy mass. Makes for hard snow blowing and shoveling and I've spent plenty of time during warm spells beating the ice of the asphalt driveway  and ramp to the back door. The drive to the tent garage and all the paths have just built up to several inches of ice which I've sanded (or used ash from the pellet stoves) on a regular basis.

Sunday night into Monday morning we had another storm dumping 7.5" of snow. I worked from home that day specifically so I would have the chance to get it all snow blown before the temps raced up to near 40 that afternoon. That is the last day that we have been over the freezing point this week as March has decided to be more like early February with negative numbers for lows, and teens as highs.

This winter hasn't been particularly snowy, and we had a lot of days in January and February where we got some good meltage, but even so, some of those piles of snow still have remnants from snow we got in October.

Bookends

Got up to refresh my coffee this morning, and this is what I saw - perfect bookends

Then their attention shifted, what could they be seeing?

Oh look, it's Spot, who had been winding herself around my feet while I was on my cooffee run. Had to take several pictures before I got one that wasn't all blurry from her moving around.

Still Here

Still alive and well. Just nothing going on to write about.

Try Ripley's Journey with the latest SpaceX launch from Space.com or from Space Flight Now 

Or the Iditarod is starting and here is an article about one of the dogs from 7 different teams.

Nap Disturber

Disturbed the kitties taking a nap on the bed when I put the laundry basket up there. Their look is of the "How dare you interupt?" variety

 

Car Miles 1100+ and Milage is Up

On January 12, 2019, I wrote that the care may make it to the 1,000 mile mark in 2 weeks. Well, due to plenty of early morning snows and icy roads, it took until this past week to make that mark. I was able to drive the car to work the first 3 days of the week and apparently hit 1k on Tuesday, but didn't notice until Wednesday.

I also wrote that I was averaging about 30 mph but expected it to go up, which it did. for a couple of days after the last post, it started getting 32-33. Then, at about 900 miles it shot up dramatically. Driving the same routes, in the same conditions and at the same speeds, I am getting 37 mpg. Picture taken on my way home on 2/6/19.

Top left is miles that have been driven since last gas stop (at around 900 miles +/-)

Top right is average mileage (it is close to what I calculate off the miles and gallons to fill)

Bottom left is real-time mpg (obviously I was stopped at the time I took the picture)

Bottom right is expected miles to go until empty (so with the miles driven and mile to go, get about 440 miles per 12-13 gallon tank)

The thing that absolutely fascinates me, and I was warned about during the test drive so I wouldn't freak out, is that the engine will shut itself down at a stop. Now, the battery has to be fully charged - it won't shut down at the stop sign at the end of my road if I have just started it for the day. It also doesn't shut down if I have been driving a while, then stop (such as the 13 miles from my road to my first stop sign in Weare). But if it senses I am in city driving, at a stoplight, it will shut down. The second I take my foot off the brake, it starts back up and is ready to go. It will also do this if I am in slow traffic on the highway and then come to a stop. Whomever wrote the algorithm that tells the car how to tell traffic conditions really put some thought into it.

Today I was driving in very windy conditions and the mileage dropped to the high 35's - but that is still better than the old Focus did and I was more interested in seeing how much the conditions would affect the car than worried about the actual mileage.

Yeah, I'm kind of geeked out :)

Cats Hate Boxes :)

Well, we all know about cats and boxes. I hardly got turned around from breaking down some boxes Friday night before Spot proved she could still get into one of them - thus the meme expression "if it fits, I sits"

Then this morning, I broke down an even smaller box and Spot was once again in that one. This time Rainey seems to be jealous.