Definition of irony

[starmac]

I was on the phone with the logger I haul for this evening, and he mentioned it was going to probably be too cold to work monday. I told him they had changed the forecast and are now saying it isn't going to get cold. They were calling for 40 below and our cutoff is around 30 below.

He checked the forcast and called back saying I was right, 26 below is now the low in the forecast for monday, so we would plan on working.

When I hung up, my wife is I saw the irony in what I had told him, I ask what she was talking about and she mentioned that 10 years ago, I would not be telling anybody that it wasn't going to get cold when it was only going to be 26 below. lol

We had a good laugh out of it.

[rl69]

I don't know about irony but it's a great lesson in perspective

[Blackwater]

Amen to all! What we face is never quite as dire as we imagine it. We always measure everything, it seems, by the most desirable yardstick of all - something like life on a tropical isle during the spring time - balmy, just enough breeze to keep us from sweating, and all the warmth and joy of a seaside cottage. But life's never been like that. God gives us seasons for a reason. Without them, life on earth couldn't exist. So we take the heat of summer and cold of the winter WITH all the other, milder times. As a kid, I used to go out in the freezing wet with leaky leather boots and a couple of pairs of cotton socks. Not a highly recommended thing to do, but I was young and dumb and full of enthusiasm. Could track quail and rabbits and whatever else was around by the tracks in the rare snows we got. My feet would freeze, and be so numb I couldn't feel them when I'd get in, but boy! Did I ever have a wonderful time out there in it all!

So RL's right. It's all about attitude, and I know good and well Starmac has that down pat, or he would have left AK a LONG time ago! Good, tough minded men are getting harder and harder to find these days. Most wilt like flowers when they don't get their "ideal" situations. Not much like our ancestors who built it all FOR us! We've become so very willful, and inurred by all that surrounds us, we often don't see the ironies that surround us daily. They're hidden by our own perspectives, that's largely been shaped by our increasingly high expectations. It's good to be hot and cold sometimes. Reminds us of who we really are, and what we really face in this world, even today, with all our "wonders" that so consistently protect us ..... so far.

You folks up in AK have a tremendous respect from me, just for being the type of folks who CAN and WILL weather the weather up there. I've only been through Anchorage, and the smell of the air there is something I'll NEVER forget! If I were younger and tougher, I'd love to live up thee, but I have too many ties locking me down here. Y'all carry on. It matters.

[starmac]

Most people does not realise how cold it isn't up here, it is different and we have clothes and ways to work with it not readily available to most in the lower 48.

In the log woods most (not all) do not work colder than 30 below, not because it is hard on us, but hard on the equipment.

When my son was still in high school and before my family moved up here, I flew back to New Mexico in january to watch my sons basketball tournement, 10 or 12 of us were standing outside shivering haveing a smoke break. An old rancher friend mentioned he didn't know how we could stand it in Alaska. I told him that I could swear to him that we never got that cold up there. Just the right gear and changeing how some things are done, all pretty simple.

[Blackwater]

"Adapt and overcome." Sounds like you'd all be really good Marines!

[castalott]

When you work on an oilfield 'spudder' , you get the fluid out of the well on you. The fluid feels cool in the hot summer and warm in the cold winter.... The very definition of irony.

You are still oily in any season....

Dale

[starmac]

BW, in this day in time, I don't consider a guy haveing to be really tough to live and work in Alaska in most jobs.

I do think they had to be when this country was young and being settled, even years after.
The book Alaska Wolfman is about a guy that got off a boat in 1920 iirc, and walked 375 miles to Fairbanks, then halfway back to where he thought he liked the country better in the dead of winter.
To my way of thinking, with the clothes, boots and gear available back then, you had to be one tough cookie to just survive period. later own the govt, contracted this guy to follow and document the caribou migration for a full year, the man traveled light, not even carrying a bedroll.

It is a good read and sure gives one a perspective of just how hardy men used to be.

[bearcove]

When it was 70 in the summer I was burning up. Once it froze up it was jacket weather. Winter we went to missouri it was 40's snowing wet slushy mess. Real cold! Hardly wait to get back to a dry 20.

[MaryB]

You learn to dress for the conditions. I have pheasant hunted at -20 in IA in late Dec. and we were fine. When I was younger we used to walk up to the bar during snowstorms and have a snow party, half the town would walk up there because you weren't going anywhere else. As I get older(and seem to be gathering a lot of titanium in my body) cold is no longer as much fun!

[samari46]

Our company didn't have a cold weather policy and as such at 5 below standing on the deck of a fuel oil tanker or barge your feet were great standing on the hot deck. The rest of you not so much. Last few years couldn't wear steel toed boots. So dug out an old and well broken pair of Herman's survivors and although got taken to task for wearing them a few times continued to wear them till I retired. Every start of the winter season since I was the guy in charge of uniforms every one got a good well insulated coat. I had a few pairs of heavy insulated coveralls but while they did the trick were a pain to work in. Frank

[snowwolfe]

Most people does not realise how cold it isn't up here, it is different and we have clothes and ways to work with it not readily available to most in the lower 48.

Just keep on telling yourself that I lived in Fairbanks from 77-81 and once seen -61 in North Pole. Interior Alaska is fricking cold in the winter, period. It was 68 here in Tennessee today and I enjoyed my daily walk in shorts and a tee shirt.

I do agree you can dress for it. Sure isnt much fun going to the range when its below zero and you cant take off your gloves for more than 30 seconds. But then when you are wearing all 8 layers of clothes people look like the Pillsbury dough boy. Oh heck, plenty of people look like that in the summer to!

[starmac]

Yea, The coldest I have seen it here in fairbanks is 65 below, a little colder over at Tok and up north too.

A man is a fool to get cold in that kind of weather though, and fools don't last too long in it. lol
The coldest I have worked outside is 40 below, and just artic carharts will keep you cozy enough, so only 2 layers. the head and face gear is somewhat a pain though, especially if it is blowing and you have to wear goggles.

[wlc]

The first year after we moved up here from GA I told my folks that I would rather have it zero or below here vs teens or low 20's there. Different kind of cold here. And yes, dressing for it makes all the difference. I can always put on enough to stay warm, but down south I couldn't take off enough to get cool during the summer. Nobody would've wanted me to anyway.

[Blackwater]

I've only flown through Anchorage once, on my way overseas, and it was a short stayover. I'll NEVER forget the smell of the air up there, though! Most don't like the smell of a swamp, with all the rotting stuff in them. But the fragrance in Alaska was .... "wonderous" is the only adjective I can think of to describe it. And we have a lot of pulpwooders here, and most consider them "rednecks" and think they're of lower intelligence and knowledge. How FAR from the truth THAT is! Those guys can ususally fix just about anything with nearly nothing to do it with, if necessary! They use dangerous machines under sometimes dangerous circumstances, and LOVE IT! I have some pulpwooder friends, and they're uniformly fine people, unless you cross them or insult them beyond what their patience level is for that day ... and moment. Cross them seriously enough, and you'll have an entanglement to deal with that might take a while to get UN-tangled! They're good men, the kind that have always made this country run, even in spite of its idjit ways sometimes. You guys really have my respect. It's a great, interesting (never boring!) life you live. I always had something in me that would never allow me to do what you guys do, but I'm not dumb enough to not appreciate it, and be in some real awe of it. Keep doin' it. So many, many depend on guys like you! And most wouldn't have a clue about how much they owe you guys. But you don't do it for the recognition or appreciation, you do it for what it means to YOU! Happier and more satisfied men would be hard to find in this world. Or finer ones, IME.

[Doc Highwall]

Years ago I went back to the hunting camp for lunch, and I was talking to one of the owners asking him why he had been out hunting yet, and he said that it was too cold and that was a temperature hunter. I asked him what that meant and he said "when the temperature outside matches your age you go out, and each year it will be one degree warmer" so I guess I will have to wait till it warms up to 65 degrees this year.

[tygar]

I sure miss Wasilla. It wasn't bad most of the time. I don't remember getting below -40 (if that), usually -20 or so was about it.

Depending on the year, it could get up to around 40 sometimes.

I wouldn't go out hunting, snogoing, etc if it was going to get below "0", but preferred 10+, especially if I was going by myself. It can kill you quick. but then I'm a woosie.

You guys that are remote, get hit hard. I used to have to go in the bush during the school year to make "school" visits & it sucked!

Ft Yukon, Nome, Bethel, Kotzebue, Fairbanks, etc. were not my idea of a good time in winter. Not that great when it was "decent" weather either. But the hunting & fishing were great.

My buddy in Eagle River, does well work & he's working no matter what the temp. He makes money but I think he's nuts.

I agree about it feeling different in AK. I was stationed in DC in the 80s & when it got into the 20s you froze your asz off. In AK when it was in the 20s, we were in windbreakers & tennies, out on the field doing protection training (that field behind me), unless it was windy, then it could be uncomfortable. We used to shoot at the Birchwood range all the time when it was in the teens & never gave it a thought, plus had trap & skeet winter leagues.

Yep, it was great, but then again, the other day it was 70+ here & I dropped the top on my Vette.

The flip side is, today it was in the low 40s & I was getting a couple rifles on the paper & cut it short when a little wind came up & I got a little cold - like I said, woosie.

The guys that live in the bush year around are really something.

[MaryB]

People don't realize that Northern MN and AK have very similar temps. -40 is common up north, down where I am we have hit -30 this winter. Life goes on! Record low in Northern MN is -62... once it drops below -20 it doesn't seem to matter, it is just COLD!

I had to repair my corn vacuum system(pulls corn from the outside bin into my inside tank for the corn/pellet stove) the other day when it was zero degrees. The pipe coming in is PVC with taped joints because it WILL jam sooner or later. Of course it would be the very last joint I took apart that had the problem. Retape everything bare handed because you can't handle the self fusing tape with gloves on... came in and 2 fingertips were going white with frostbite. Think the windchill that day was pushing minus 20 too.

[Blackwater]

One of the things I most admire about folks who have to fight those weather conditions, is how they plan ahead for possible eventualities. Folks in milder climes are virtually totally dependent on our supply chains, and if hard times hit, they don't have anything to sustain them through it, and generally, haven't learned to cope. These are the people that die when a blizzard hits, or hurricane, etc. And much of it is unnecessary, and avoidable. When you know ahead of time that you will surely be facing harsh weather, like Starmac says, you learn to get the right clothing and what all it takes (often a particular body of knowledge) to survive and even prosper in it all.

THAT is the kind of ethic that built this nation into the greatest and most (once) powerful nation ever to grace the face of the earth. What you folks do matters, and it matters more than you realize. It keeps the traditional American ethic alive and well, even when it's so rare elsewhere. And getting rarer. Kudos to all of you, wherever you are.

[starmac]

LOL The grocery stores here are just like the rest of the country and run on a three day shelf life.
A few years ago a bridge on the Alcan washed out, remember only one road comes to Alaska, sooo no grocery trucks could get here, three days and the stores were barren. lol

[w5pv]

One thing I never got use to was the hair in my beak freezing,I kept it raw by rubbing it when the hair froze.lol,no more days like that.I don't think it will get that cold here even though the record was 0 degrees around the turn of the century(1900).The coldest I have seen it here in my life was 7 to 9 degrees.