North to Alaska: February 2008

Been just a little while since I have posted anything on here, there has been alot going on.
Dad came up to visit for two weeks and caught the end of the Junior Yukon Quest and the beginning of the 1000 mile Yukon Quest. We had a really good time and he got to see some real cold Fairbanks weather. The lowest I saw a thermometer in town was down by the river and it read -56 F.
We all stayed here at the cabin, a luxurious 16" x 20" 1 and 1/2 floor beauty. We found a cot a few months ago at the transfer site which really came in handy for the occasion.
The cold spell lasted about a week and I learned a few new things about really really cold weather that I never knew. 1. When its -30 all day long, don't just rely on plugging your car in, you will need to occasionally start the thing. Otherwise you will hit your fancy autostart and realize a minute later that you never heard anything start up, just cranking.
You come out to find a nearly dead battery and a car that just wont start. 2 cans of Heet fuel cleaner and some serious throttling later, its running again. Apparently the small amount of water that condenses in the fuel tank all headed up into the fuel lines and froze when it got that cold. The Heet bonds with it and allows it to pass through the engine as though it were burning is how it was told to me. Either way, after lots of trying and frustration, I had a running car and a puddle of black goop at the tailpipe.
2. When its really really really cold, you start to recognize the value of indoor plumbing and start using restrooms wherever they may be found. At work, at restaurants, at the grocery. The ideas of "I'll just hold it till I get home" go out the window.
3. Automobiles hate running when it gets really really really cold. Maybe its just our truck, but I think that its a general distaste across the boards for the extreme cold. Fan belts scream, bearings whine, transmission fluid becomes a solid mass that is just waiting to explode out of the seals and seemingly dares you to give the car gas before its warmed up for 20 minutes.

The weather seems really warm now, we've had a veritable heat wave. Records were set for all time highs when the mercury hit 44 yesterday. Today was colder, staying down in the teens and 20's.

...for something completely different,
my uncle Ron has been getting really into the idea of building a dome house for himself out of a material called Grancrete. At first I was intrigued by the idea, but as its come farther and farther I have been considering how cheaply we could build such a structure here in Fairbanks.
Hes in Kentucky, where the ground is workable 365 days a year, but up here with the permafrost things may be a little bit more interesting. He is posting photos of his progress at http://www.grancretedomes.com it seems like a very affordable way to build a nice structure that wouldn't require much maintenance at all.

Enough for tonight, just finished downloading the new episode of Lost and its calling.
-Justin