Another current thread got me remembering. This was January 1989. McGrath, Alaska. Actual temperature -75F. With wind chill at 50 mph on a snowmachine? Who knows...

Following the extended stay of the Siberian high-pressure system, which chased the mercury ball almost into oblivion in the lower recesses of the thermometer, I remember a quite jovial discussion in which everyone attempted to outdo one another in a “how cold was it?” contest.

A friend from Fairbanks said he knew it was cold when his horse farted and the warm, moist gasses formed a dense fog, completely enveloping the horse for two hours.

Another friend from up on the Yukon attempted his best one-upmanship by reporting that he knew it was really cold when he watched a chickadee that was perched on a branch drop a turd. A vapor trail, akin to that of a high-flying jet, followed the micro-turd all the way to the ground, and said contrail hung there in the still air for several minutes.

Not to be outdone, I added my own “how-cold-was-it” story.

My dog was admittedly a house pet. She was secondarily a tremendous hunter, but for most of the year, she was simply my companion and friend. Thus, as any other close friend, she was afforded the luxury of staying in the house during cold periods. However, despite (maybe because of) her extremely high intelligence level, she’d do her business outside rather than in a household toilet. Even at sixty or seventy below, the urge to excrete by-products of digestion continues.

As with any other dog of similar breed, she was the proud owner of long tendrils of hair growing from the region of her private parts. On one particularly cold morning, she asked to go outside. When that blast of Arctic air met her at the door, she decided it was probably prudent to make a quick job of it and barely got off the porch before she squatted and began her business. The warm urine hitting the negative-seventy-degree ice flash-froze almost as it hit, encasing several strands of delicately positioned hair. When finished, she tried to come out of her squat and attain normal dog stature, but was unable to do so. Seems she was caught in her own puddle-trap. If a dog is capable of looking forlorn, she, then and there, epitomized the definition of the word.


Jack

Now that is cold, My parents and brother lived in Alaska for about 6 years they said sometimes your spit would freeze before it hit the ground. My mother was a nurse in Nome she said a few of the nurses would walk to work, a couple blocks away and would get mild frostbite where their faces were exposed.

LOL ! Was Cocina the same dog that would bring you a beer from the refer ? Or was that Doug's dog ?

You might also tell us about TONY KNOWLES !!



My coldest story from that time was stoking the wood stove until the top became incandescent. Just for fun I spit on the red spot. I was amazed to see it freeze rather than sizzle !

I believe that was the winter we had the wildest northern light's anyone ever saw here. The sky turned a deep crimson blood red all night. It was freaky.

That sounds like time for a trim of fur to make things easier

-60 in areas here today. Only -24 here, trying to warm up a wee bit, but not doing very well.

I see you have weather moving in again along that niche corridor on the divide next to you, Jack. I bet that range helps to guide weather over the ridge and down into your side. It does that here too.

Dang!!!

I'm not gonna complain about teens here.

Yeah Ken, Kosina was the dog. She was also the one trained to open the fridge, grab a can out of the bottom shelf, don't shake it up, and deliver it to hand. Problem was, she never got the idea to close the fridge. I always had to get up and close the door.

It was a different dog, Piper (black Labrador), that responded immediately to the command "Tony Knowles!" You see, that dog spent pretty much every day with me in the airplane. Going places and working in the wintertime in a SuperCub, the pit stops were necessarily short, lest the engine would cool too much and be impossible to start. Thus, my dogs had a command (to which they responded immediately), to do their business and hop back into the airplane. The command to wink a steamer (NOW!) was the name "Tony Knowles!" At the time, he was our esteemed governor, and I thought an appropriate "command" for my dogs.Only problem was, back in those days, I had a television, and the dog would sometimes hear the command from the TV news.

white17, you made me laugh out loud. .... Spitting on a red-hot stove, only to watch the spittle freeze rather than sizzle. That's like walking backwards when peeing, cause the urine was freezing back up towards you, and you really didn't want it backing up all the way home!

Jack

I walk like that all the time


"Tony Knowles " was certainly an appropriate command !

I had a dog that liked opera but I never realized Piper watched TV. I can see where that could be problematic !

Imagine the commands one could have for various necessary smelly jobs , out of the White House today ?

I recall that cold January when we were living in North Pole. It was so cold that there was frost on the nail heads in the sheet rock inside the house. My furnace just about put me in the poor house - lol.

Reminds me of a photo I stole somewhere (prolly from you).

I think that was taken outside the Fairbanks penal colony

LOL! LOL! X386!

Don't forget, also, that lagomorphs are known coprophagists.

Chewy at these temperatures

UGH

-50 this morning, I always have a good pile of books put up for these days. Reading " Undaunted courage " by Stephen Ambrose right now, read his WW2 series last winter.........looking forward to reading his series on the Revolutionary war eventually.

My dad had a tall tale. His grandfather was polar bear hunting with a muzzleloader and had torn the possible bag on ice and only had the one round ball in his rifle. He surprised a bear and shot and wounded it. When he went to reload he found he didn't have any more bullets,the bear charged, and he started to cry in fear. The tear drops froze before they hit the ground and he grabbed a handful and dropped them down the barrel. When the powder ignited it melted the tears as they traveled down the barrel and when they hit the cold air they froze into a ice ball and he hit the bear in the eye. It died from water on the brain!

I don't know what to do first.....laugh, or smack ya...

UGH ! That is so bad I actually laughed !