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Mountain golf

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Cooper pre golf

The temperature reached the 70’s, most of the snow is melted and a few of the local golf courses have opened. Cooper came to visit and we went golfing. It was terrifying and loads of fun.   The course was so hilly, I thought I was going to die in a golf cart disaster. There were steep hills, banked curves and lots of slurry. We were fishtailing, spinning wheels and careening.  Golf balls got sucked into the wet turf, fairway shots resulted in mud slinging and we got a tan.

What fun.  This picture doesn’t come close to showing the steepness of the downhill.

While our ground thumpers are keeping the moles away, we spotted a gopher yesterday. Shirley and Cooper both investigated but quickly lost interest.
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We toured the Magic Hat brewery, sampled the wares and brought some beer home.

Magic hat tower

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Cooper squared

Reading between the lines

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We can only get one local paper delivered daily. It contains mostly reprints of AP articles with a few good local columnists, a terrible anonymous speakout section, where people rant, and of course obituaries.

Perhaps it’s a function of my age, but I am becoming my mother.  I read the obituaries. This week had two interesting ones. The first was comical. The widower was referred to as irritating, the cat was annoying and there was a snail,  two extra spouses and a lover mentioned.

In general, I’ve been encouraged by how long people live here and young deaths are less common. Yesterday, there was an obituary for a man in his 40’s. In reading it, I learned that he was predeceased by his wife. In my mind, I thought perhaps he was so distraught by her death he committed suicide.

I was partly right. Today’s paper had an article about the murder – suicide that led to his death. He was predeceased by his wife.

Sweater circle

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I have been working with fleece

The fleece made it ashore


from Pam and Gary since August. We carted it to the island off Salem, MA by boston whaler and dinghy. I didn’t have hot water or a bath tub so I washed it in batches with Joy in a spackle bucket

Washed

after I trimmed off the dingleberries. It remained in our car while we cruised on the boat for two months. It moved with us into our house in the Adirondacks.

Once we settled in, I started playing with it in January. I hand carded it and spun it P1310090.JPGin a few different weights. Then I designed sweaters for Pam and Gary’s grandkids. I based an Aran sweater P3250073.JPGon one that Tim’s mom had made for Jeremy and Andre 20 years ago.

For the girls, I got colorful. I dyed the yarn with Kool Aid P2230071.JPGand then made two seamless yoke sweaters, one with stripes Kool aid kardiganand the other with a hawaiian flower. Hawaiian sweater I wasn’t sure if I would have enough yarn to finish so the last of the 4 sweaters I knit from cuff to cuff and incorporated all the colors. I think I like the aran and this funky sweater the best. Now all the ends have been trimmed and I am getting ready to send them off. Now what will I do?Cuff to cuff handspun

Climbing lightweight

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That’s me.

This was the view from a hike Tim and I took this weekend. Beautiful isn’t it? We cross country skied to the trailhead and then donned snowshoes for the rest of the hike. The best part was the gentle rolling ski back.  The problem was that I could barely enjoy it.  We had to climb up a pretty steep section – hands required- which violates one of my main hiking tenets.  I use only my feet.  But Tim was ahead of me, it didn’t look that far…how bad could it get.  I had picked the route which avoided using a ladder so it was basically my choice to come this way.  Good move on Tim’s part because it eliminated any friction over trail choice.  He knew to keep a fare distance ahead of me though.

So after getting around the icy, steep section and then the steep section, and post holing to our knees, we got to these beautiful views.  Instead of enjoying it though, I was thinking:  boy those are dark clouds over there, I hope a storm doesn’t pass while I have to navigate down that steep, icy section.  How am I going to get down that steep, icy section?  Are my snowshoes going to blow away?  Maybe we should go back the ladder way.  This is why I am an almost climber.  This wasn’t even a high peak.

There are 46 “high peaks” in the adirondacks, initially all thought to be over 4000 foot elevation.  It turns out, a few are a touch short but the list remains.  Those who climb all the high peaks are 46’rs.  Maybe I will be 2/3 of a 46’r. This would make me a 31’r.   But now that I look at the view from the comfort of my office, it is pretty awesome.

Decay in the woods

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The rusting remains of heavy equipment always surprises me in the woods.  I think this is more of an oxidative process than natural decay.  We’ve seen snow cats, wash machines, cars, trucks in various stages of decay. Acid rain accelerates the rusting and decay process.  Maybe these rusting implements can become a marker for acid rain levels just like the lakes and sea birds.

We snowshoed Hoffman Notch from Loch Mueller in cement like snow.  The plan, Loch MullerThere were still ice walls and frozen streams, which was lucky since we seemed to cross streams every five minutes or so.  I was really impressed by how long it took us to drive from one end of the trail to the other.  We covered a lot of ground.

I was on the road, by car, snowshoe and skis a lot last week.  I took a trip to Long Island and watched Lost with Cooper, Liz and her family.  I guess I could add sideways time travel to my events last week.

I was surprised to be able to watch TV at the gas pump!!

Too much TVThe gas pump

What could have possibly generated the need for this?  Running out to get gas in the middle of your favorite show?  Don’t want to miss the show from the in-car entertainment system since the engine is off to pump gas?  Next there will be TV sets along the trails.  It’s bad enough they are in restaurants, doctor offices.  There’s no getting away from it.  However, it’s become so expensive, maybe I’ll go to the gas station to watch Lost next week.

Next I went to winter camp with Kristi.  We went dog sledding, sort of.  There wasn’t any snow but the dogs still enjoyed pulling the sled around.  I learned how to make a foolproof fire starter with cotton balls and vaseline. It even lights in the rain.  We avoided burning the camp down though.  It had been predicted to rain all weekend but we lucked out.  Yesterday, we went to NH and went backcountry skiing.  It was raining when we started but turned to snow as we ascended. That was good because it cushioned all the falls and the way back.

Of course my camera battery died the day I got there so all I have to show for it is my badge.  Badges! We don’t need no stinking badges!!
Doe camp badgeThe flip side

I’ve lost my guiding star

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Tim and I had these magical, star sapphire rings. When the sun strikes them, a star appears in the crystal. There are many legends associated with star sapphires and I always thought of it as a protective talisman. It was in a custom fitting and had been loose and I was going to go the jeweler on Monday. Really. I think I was too attached to the ring because I am sad it’s gone and I am discombobulated. I have been venturing into the darkest places that I live.

I have been down the shower drain, in the kitchen sink trap, the dryer lint trap and I’m waiting to get into a few more. I’ve used the wet vac to suck out the shower drain and then sifted through the detritus. I’ve sifted through the vacuum cleaner bag and the kitchen garbage, after a dinner a few days ago of roast chicken and brownies.

I am already going to places I wouldn’t have dreamed of visiting if I still had my ring,

Reflection in the Boquet

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We’ve been able to enjoy the snow. Monday we cross country skied on the Lower Ausable Lake. The trail is approached through an exclusive summer camp club that allows access on the trails, but not the lake itself. It ended at their private dam.
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There is a neighborhood fox. Yesterday we were able to watch it catch breakfast in the field across the street.
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Tim is hopeful that it will find our moles, which dig around the house as soon as any dirt is visible, and enjoy them as dinner. We even took down the wind chimes.

Yesterday I went snow shoeing with a local group on the Champlain Area trails and we hiked up South Boquet Mountain. Alas no camera, but the views of Lake Champlain, the High Peaks and the Green Mountains of VT were stupendous.

I’m spinning and knitting like a maniac. So far two sweaters near completion from the fleece. Two to go and warm weather is quickly approaching.

Could this be cabin fever?

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I’ve engaged in several indoor projects over the past week or so that make me wonder if I have cabin fever.  My outdoor activity has been shoveling and snowblowing and I got tennis elbow in the winter from shoveling heavy, wet snow.  I’m such a wimp.  So my mind turns indoors.

Yesterday, I made yogurt.

Yogurt

This is in preparation for our lighthouse gig next winter in Tasmania, where we have to arrive with our three months worth of food.  There will be no trips to the grocery store and we enjoy yogurt, which I found is very easy to make. I followed a recipe in Mother Earth News.  The only ingredients were milk and a little yogurt starter.  The art is in maintaining the right temperature.  I tried to keep it warm in a water bath in the crock pot and may have overheated it in the end.  It tasted good in a smoothie this am though. Next I’m going to try it with powdered goat’s milk and keep it warm in a cooler.

I’ve been writing medical articles for livestrong.com about women’s health and a couple have been published.  They are not for the feint of heart.

And I’ve been knitting and spinning.  I’m still working on the good old fleece.  I’m in the home stretch with only about half a garbage bag left.  I’m almost done with an aran cardigan, just waiting for new needles to arrive to finish the neck, and have begun my kool aid series of girls’ sweaters.  What fun.  I spin and knit while watching the Olympics.  Luckily, when I do make it out of the house, the local food store carries all flavors of kool aid.

Handspun aran sweater
Kool aid sweater body

It’s time for the heavy equipment

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The snow fell and fell. We used the snowblower and shovel twice and then our neighbor came by with one of his toys. The driveway was pristine until the clouds dumped sleet on it for 24 hours. Now it’s a slushy mess.

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I quit about here.  The snow was too deep for me to cross country ski.  I apent some time shaking the snow off the bent trees instead.
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We shoveled a path to the bird feeder.  It would be squirrel proof if the squirrel had bothered to read the directions.  It’s supposed to sit on the wire loops at the bottom, which will slam the feeder shut based on its weight.  The red squirrels have been acting like prairie dogs.  They’ve got burrows under the snow and pop their heads out.

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They are kind of cute though.

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Trusty snowblower

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It’s snowing with about 20 inches predicted. I broke out the snowblower this am after a foot of snow had fallen. Too late. I had to manhandle the snowblower through deep snow. Now we’re just waiting to do it again because it is still snowing.  It looks beatufitul outside and it is nice and cozy inside.  Most importantly, I cleared a path to the hot tub. Life is good.
Oh yes, did I mention that I ate bear?  We went to a potluck, which is the major way of socializing, bring your own plate and booze.  I brought spinach pie, someone else brought bear stew.  It was actually very tasty.  Tim kept saying, “It tastes just like chicken”.  I think more like beef but it was very good.  Now for popcorn in bear fat.