It's February!

January 31st

We had The Big Snow that wasn't.

However, Charlie had a very hard time getting through it. It was wet and very heavy. 

I ended up just breaking trail with my skis in the big field and carrying my poles and Charlie at the same time.

That was actually pretty hard but a great workout. I finally found a deer trail and let Charlie down into it. 
I must admit, he is a trooper. He did his 'snow swimming' thing and bounded ahead looking for deer pellets...er smart pellets.

I made it all the way across the ridge.

And then I headed back after watching some snowmobiles scream through the fields. I'm not sure why they need to be so loud. 

Myself? I'm happier doing the silent sports like snowshoeing and skiing. 

January 31st was a pretty good day. On the way back home I got to converse with my neighbor for a bit while her husband plowed the hill. Later on I called my friend in Alabama to see how things were in her part of the world. She is in her 80's and sharp and funny. 

My weekly call from my son was really nice too. His town got his with about 14" of snow. He had gone cross country skiing, or as he said, more like breaking trail...with a friend and had taken advantage of the snow day.

Rich even got out in his skid steer and cleared out the turn around and the lower driveway.

And The Big Little Dog said...

Nap Time!

327 days we have been practicing Social Distancing and masking.
Onward.

Snow Day, Snow Play

Justine came down with his tractor and cleared the driveway and the little turn around. He said his wife and kids were going skiing.
I thanked him and ran inside to change my clothes and grab my dad's old skies.

I did a very quick change and re-dressed from doing chores into a face hoody thingy, goggles, knit gloves, and snow pants!

I got up to the ridge and put on my father's old skies and took off across the crop field. I caught up to Lauren and the kids out in the wide open.
By the way, Dad's skies were awesome. I literally felt like I was flying. I guess I can't help but smile knowing that I am using his skies. Feels like he is with me in a way.

I suggested we go up towards the woods where we could get out of the wicked winds that had Sno-nadoes whipping up all around us.
Lauren agreed and then stopped for a moment.

"I have an Up-day Gift for you!" she said reaching down inside of her coat.
I smiled at that. Up-Day was giving someone a gift for reason other than making them feel 'Up'.
She handed me a package of extra long socks that had little wiener dogs on them! The package had three sets of socks. The socks will go up to my knees and are thin enough to wear under a pair of my wooly socks.

We played for a while and then headed back to our places.

I can say that my neighbor's kids are no strangers to outdoor activities. They take cross country ski lessons in the winter and do indoor soccer.

I did some indoor crafts yesterday. I experimented with polymer clay. I've never worked with the stuff before, but decided to have some fun. I watched some tutorials on making a fairy house and little mini mushrooms and thought I'd try it with the air dry stuff before actually making the home made material I'd seen being used in the videos.

These can be painted after they dry.
I tried making a fairy house which used things I had around the house.

Don't laugh:
Peanut butter jar
Foil
craft sticks

So. Overnight the tiny 'mushrooms' I made have dried out nicely. The lady in the video I watched had said that air dry clay would crack as it dried if used on the project she was doing.

Um. Yep, she was right. This morning I have a cracked up gnome looking house.

I don't see it as a failure as I can let it dry and then fill in the cracks....or I can leave the cracks and paint it so it looks cracked and gnarly!

The materials for making a air dry paper mache clay with household items is pretty neat. It involves toilet paper, oil, glue, and patching plaster. Who knew?
I can see making that and trying it on one of these wicked awful cold and blustery days.

Then again.  I would probably have to take a walk to the creek to see what has frozen over also.

Oh. One last thing. I was feeling so crafty the other day I bought some felt pieces. When we were kids we made clothes for our trolls out of felt.

I made LIL Bear a jacket, hat, and scarf. After all, LIL Bear needs to be protected in this cold weather too!

One must bundle up properly while walking your dog!

Snow Day!

Just last week I went and had new bindings put on the pair of non waxed cross country skis that Dad gifted to me years ago. I've hung on to them all this time because ... well, they were Dad's.
And today I had a chance to try them out thanks to Mother Nature dropping about 4 inches or so on the ground overnight.

It was like having Dad skiing with me in a way. I literally flew through the meadow with Charlie and Sven chasing me towards the woods. I'd purchased some 'back' country skis a couple of years ago for 'breaking' trials. They are wonderful, but lack the slide and glide speed of long skis.

It isn't exactly Goat Yoga, but Sven sure enjoyed the romp. Charlie chased along with his tiny legs. Sven got distracted a few times by some greenery, but always came along after I whistled for him.
Note the bright orange scarf. He is colored too much like a deer to go out during gun season of course. But I thought a sporty scarf on both Charlie and Sven would be fun.

I did a morning hike after chores and will look at some of those photos later. But this was the fun part. Walking the dog and the goat in the snow while on skis.

I walked with Sven and Charlie to check the mail and see if they had plowed the road on the ridge. They did. I checked the mail and didn't see anything. As I turned and started downhill I hear the mailperson come. They have a large Jeep Rubicon. I thought I'd stand and wait for the mail.

I have no idea what the issue was, but since there was unplowed snow by the boxes? The mailperson just made a turn around and left.

I was certainly perplexed.
The new hires for the rural mail carriers sure are picky.
I could have driven through the unplowed snow area easily with my Subaru, heck a regular car would not have had trouble.
Remember, this is the mail carrier that didn't think two fire numbers meant two houses.
These are the people that I had to draw a map for.
How odd.
Well, I've decided to put up a trail cam on that area for future reference.

I generally do anyway at different times of the year. I do have a good spot to put the camera that takes shots of the plates and vehicle as they come down the hill.

Sigh...
Anyway, the skiing even though it was not superb, was a lot of fun.

Magical....

 

This is what it looked like when I went to the ridge to get the mail. Inches of snow had fallen and more was coming down hard. I stuck my hand into the driveway to measure. The snow went from my fingertips to my palm.

In my best guess-ta-mate, that would have been about 4 inches. According to the NOAA, we should have been done. However. We weren't. It didn't really bother me that much. It was a welcome change to the constant rain/warm/ice/sleet weather we had been having.

At the mailbox I ran into my neighbors. Lauren and family had been out with their cross country skis, so had their dog Basil!

Basil was going back to the house but had enjoyed her first x-country ski adventure.

Lauren said the snow was a bit sticky but it wasn't too bad. I ran home and got my skis and was greeted by Allie and Lauren. The guys had enough and had gone into the house also.

And off the gals went on a snowy New Year's Eve ski adventure.

Allie decided that she would like to lead and take me to *The Tunnel* in the trees.
I was game and told her to go ahead.

She cautioned me that when we got into the trees I would have to crouch down and get low. It was like a secret cool place and she and her brothers had 'discovered' it.
I knew where she was going. I'd been through there before on my own but since it was her discovery, I was not going to ruin it by telling her I knew this trail already.

Besides, the snow had turned the box elders into fairy tale trees and the hush of the falling snow left only the swish swish of our skis to be heard.
And indeed....
It 
was
very
magical...

Hands down, this was one of my most enjoyable ski adventures yet.

Love it. X-Country Skiing.

Here I am trying to explain to Charlie that he isn't quite up to going on a cross country ski adventure.
He sat on the couch and gave me that look.
Sorry Charlie.

My neighbor had emailed me and we'd talked about going skiing together on a trail. Would a day that her youngest was at school work?
I checked my schedule when I got home from CrossFit and texted her that 'Today will work if you are able..."
I received a text back and it looked like it was going to work out as an unplanned quick get away.

I packed a few power bars and some water, an extra pair of gloves, a wind breaker, extra dry socks, and the emergency space blanket. I took the old handwarmer packet out of the plastic zip lock bag and stuck it in next to my pocket camera.
I was ready.

And then we were off! I'm on the right with sweat pants over my warm tights. I have a pair of soft tights on underneath.

And off we went...well. We first did the black trail as shown on the screenshot below. Since it was the first time in a long time since I'd skied, I wanted to get a feel for things.
And I went the wrong way...

So once we did the black loop we headed off on the red trail. I had no idea how long it would take us.
Lauren had to be back to pick up the kids for soccer practice.

The trail had been packed but not groomed yet. So we blazed our own tracks. This is my favorite picture from our adventure...

Yes I edited it to look like a painting. 

When we got to the midway point we stopped and had a discussion. Could we do the whole trail and still have time to get Lauren back on time?

Lauren gave me a thumbs up and off we went. This time I led and set a hard pace.

The scenery was gorgeous.

I wasn't sure we had time to stop at all the overlooks. But I did stop and pose for Lauren.
Always...always we must goof off, right?

This was my imitation of the little person on the X-Country Ski sign.

The temperature was about 19 degrees with a light breeze. I'd started out with a light jacket and gloves but soon warmed up enough to stuff them in my backpack.

We pushed hard and finished up the trails faster than we anticipated.

Lauren and I sat in the Subaru and ate snack bars and drank water before we headed back home.

Next time we'll know how long the trails will take us.
Both of us felt tired yet refreshed.

Cold air and adventure.
It felt so good.

I can't wait to do it again.

And Charlie was so relieved to see me....