Greening and New Boots

On Thursday, not a trace of green. On Friday, all of the Birch trees are starting to bud. Whole hillsides went from grey to a hint of green overnight. I guess one 73°F day is enough to get the sap flowing again. It was definitely enough to significantly increase the number of bikes on the road. At least until the wind picked up this afternoon. I needed to pick up a router at the university and didn't see a single bike on the road. The router (and me) are headed to Utqiaġvik next week.

The wind on Friday afternoon did a great job of keeping the mosquitoes at bay. On Thursday evening, I tried to move the summer wheels and tires for the Prius from the shed to the garage and practically got eaten alive. These are the large, slow ones that wintered over in the mud so they were easily swatted. By the time I moved one wheel, a couple dozen mosquitoes. This afternoon, I didn't see a single one.

After seeing a comment from DavidR a couple of posts back about Sidi motorcycle boots, I went online to Revilla.com just to look at their selection again. It turns out that the Adventure Rain boots were on sale. I had looked at these while at the motorcycle show in Long Beach but didn't want to pay as much as they were asking. It looks like the Adventure Rain boots are being discontinued and Revzilla had only one size left. My size. And the 30% off made the price seem much more reasonable. I had already tried them on at the show so I knew what size to order. They showed up today. Pretty sturdy and lots of protection and they are supposed to be pretty waterproof right out of the box. After wearing them around the house for a bit, it's obvious that they are not designed for walking.

Sure Sign of Spring

We just had the hardpack removed from our driveway. Kind of a "thing" you need to do when Spring is lurking around the corner is removing the thick layer of snow and ice from the driveway usually by someone who has the appropriate equipment. Many areas of the country don't really need this done as the snow doesn't just accumulate all winter like it does around here. Even though I was scraping the snow off of the driveway all winter with the plow, there was probably a 6" layer of ice built up. This usually takes a long time to melt. I am planning on bringing the trailer from the storage lot to our house sometime next month after the ice is gone from the road and driveway.

The subdivision road was also cleared down to pavement earlier this week with a grader making multiple passes up and down the road pushing the snow berm well off the road. On the main roads, the snow has been pushed back into the drainage ditches along the sides of the road. 

Definitive Proof of Spring

In Fairbanks, the one sure sign that spring has arrived is the arrival of birds at Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge. It's kind of hard to see them in these iPhone pictures but there are quite a few swans out there in addition to the ducks and geese. These pictures were taken around 7:45 on Friday evening. It's now after 9 pm and it still not quite sunset. Quite the change over the last month or so and we are picking up daylight at around 6 minutes per day.

There are quite a few geese out towards the barn. We did move closer but a regular camera would've been a better option than the iPhone so I didn't try to take any more bird pictures.

First Day of Spring

Or at least thats the rumor. It's been snowing here at our hotel in Hershey, PA, since early this morning. Not enough to make a mess of the roads as it's still above freezing. The roads are only wet and not very slippery. Oviously, not the place to come for Spring break. I think it's supposed to be warmer in Fairbanks. Isn't climate change wonderful?!

Tomorrow afternoon, we head back to Philadelphia then back home with a layover in Seattle.

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