Rustic Fence

My last post, HERE, featured an old barn here in Fairbanks.  Near the old barn is a small log cabin and around the barnyard is a rustic fence.


An old tractor sits near the barn, adding to the feeling of days gone by.  


The pattern of the snow-covered fence is quite appealing.

Across the road there's another fence, although it is very utilitarian.  It hardly matters, though, as the day these photos were taken, January 3, 2011, around 1:00 in the afternoon, the sky stole the show.

We have a short window of daylight in January, but the scenery can be breathtakingly beautiful.

I am linking up with Good Fences at

the Run "A" Round Ranch Report.

Fast forward to another sky shot from last week as I was on my way home from the store.  I took this photo January 16, 2015, just before 3:00, with another half hour until sunset.  We've already gained two hours of daylight since our shortest day on December 21st.  At over six minutes a day now, we are gaining daylight rapidly.

  

I am linking this photo with Gaelyn's Foto Friday Fun 95

with my Index No. 13.

Back In Time

There aren't many old barns still standing in Fairbanks, but there is one that was built by Charles Desjardin on the homestead he filed for in 1914.  He grew potatoes, hay, produce, and livestock.  I did a little editing on a photo that I took in July of 2011 to take us back in time. 

The photo below is the same shot before editing.

I've posted photos of the barn before and linked them to Barn Charm, so some of you may remember the barn.  The photo below was taken on January 3rd of 2011.  And yes, that is an old cabin next to the barn.  Winter would have been very long in that small space!

I gave more of the history of the barn in the earlier post, and you can find it HERE.  Be sure and click on the photos to see them larger as I was posting them in a smaller format then.

I'm linking up with Amy's Barn Collective #14.

Farm Fencing

At the end of August we took in the tour at the Muskox Farm, more formally known as the Large Animal Research Station.  Like most farms it has lots of fences, although the animals are a bit different.  The Farm is maintained by the University of Alaska as a research and educational facility, and has Muskoxen, Reindeer, and Caribou.

A few Muskoxen are visible in the collage above in the lower left photo and as blurs in the background in the upper left photo, but the rest of the photos are of Caribou.

Willow branches are offered in order to get the animals to come up to the fence and show off for the tourists.

Their very favorite treat, though, is lichen.  

I'm linking up with Good Fences

at the Run "A" Round Ranch Report.

Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum

My son Brian and his wife Andi just went home to Mt. Vernon in Washington after a 10-day visit with us.  One of the places we visited was the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum here in Fairbanks.  The northernmost automobile museum in the world opened in 2009.  It contains pre-WWII autos, fashions from the era, and many early Alaska photos.  All of the vehicles run and are periodically taken for a drive around the Wedgewood complex where the museum in located.  There are many rare and one-of-a-kind vehicles in the collection, all lovingly restored.  It provides a delightful walk back in time.

The photo is of a 1912 Peerless, Model 36-K Seven-Passenger Touring car.  It was built by the Peerless Motor Car Company in Cleveland, Ohio.  There were 450 Model 36s built and only a handful are known to still exist.  It cost $5,000 new.  Each Peerless could be customized to suit an individual buyer's tastes.  The company's slogan was "Peerless--All That The Name Implies."  Peerless was included with Packard and Pierce-Arrow in the "Three P's" of early motoring royalty.

I'll be posting more photos from the museum, but you can also check out previous posts HERE and HERE.  I am linking with Geogypsy on her Foto Friday Fun 71.  Each week she posts photos using their index numbers, and is asking readers to post a photo using the week's index number, this week 7777.  Gaelyn is a park ranger at the Grand Canyon and also posts many photos from visits to South Africa.

Gold Mining Remnants

Just a few minutes from our house is the Pump House Restaurant.  Their walkway along the river is lined by an  unusual fence.  It is constructed from pipe that was used to carry water from the river across the nearby hills to use for gold mining operations.

In the early '30s the F.E. Company built a pump house housing 10 huge pumps and generators that piped water from the Chena River across the hills to a gold dredge at Cripple Creek.  Each pump could pump 6,000 gallons of water a minute.  The water was used for stripping and thawing the overburden at the mining sites, as well as for the dredge ponds.  It operated form 1933 until the early '60s.  

In 1978 the building was converted to the restaurant, and they have decorated it to recreate the gold rush atmosphere, including many antiques and relics from the past.

Once the water reached the mining site, hydraulic "giants" were used to aim the water at the overburden.  In the summer the giant below is hooked up to a hose and shoots water towards the river.

On a warm summer day the deck at the Pump House is a lovely place to enjoy a meal and perhaps let your mind drift back to the days when the search for gold consumed so many.  Fairbanks owes its existence to the gold rush and all those who endured tremendous hardships in the hopes of striking it rich.  Sadly very few did.  Although the hardships aren't as great, there is still a lot of gold mining going on in the area, from small family mining operations to  huge mining companies.  Sitting on the deck or inside in the saloon or dining room enjoying a good meal is as close as I want to come to mining for gold!

I am linking up with Good Fences

 at the Run "A" Round Ranch Report.

Ornamental Iron Fencing, Alaska Style

These fence sections are on a viewing platform at the Georgeson Botanical Garden at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.  They are made by a local company and variations can be seen around town.

I am linking up with Good Fences

at the Run "A" Round Ranch Report.

Alaskan Country Road

The Fifth Season

Before it's spring in Fairbanks, we have to go through our fifth season--breakup.  Take some bright sun and warm temperatures..... 

 .....and the snow starts melting on the roof.  Here the snow is considerably less on the north side of the house and completely gone on the south side.

Things that were buried in the snow start to reappear.  The tops of three whiskey barrel planters are emerging and will be ready to plant in about six more weeks.

Plowed areas will melt quicker, especially if there's a bit of gravel to soak up the heat of the sun.  Of course the bigger piles will be around for a while yet.

Puddles are inevitable, but hopefully the melt won't be so fast that huge puddles form.

Daytime temps are in the upper 40s and nighttime are in the 20s.  We've got over 15 hours of daylight now, and even after 10:00 p.m. it's not completely dark, so there's lots of warmth to get rid of all that snow.  Geese and swans have been reported at Creamer's Field, so looks like I will need to go see for myself tomorrow.

Bare Branches

A Touch of Spring

It's a long ways to June......

More Sunset Photos

These were taken Monday afternoon at 3:45 as I came out of the grocery store.  The official sunset time was 3:52, seven minutes later than Saturday.

After I got home, the sun was still reflecting off the clouds 20 minutes later.

It's very difficult to be driving down the road with glorious views of the sunset, but really no good place to pull over and take a photo.  Maybe the idea of those cars that will drive themselves have some merit after all......