The snow is finally thawing and I feel it's safe to say this winter is finally at an end. It was one of the coldest in decades, so we had major snow accumulation. One or two storms a week of 8+ inches piled up in January thru mid March.
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| I learned the hard way last winter--you have to clear the way for the mailman or you don't get mail |
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| You may think I'm exaggerating because this shows what was "blown" off the driveway, but we still had to move the snow to get from the garage to the street, so you can still be impressed. |
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| Our front walkway goes from puddle in afternoon to ice overnight as the days get warmer. |
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| Pathway to the chicken yard |
So, what do you do for fun in a long New England winter? Winter sports!
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| Curtis and Trevor both improved their skiing skills. Curtis took lessons thru the school ski club every Friday for two months and Trevor often came along to ski on his own. |
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| We tried ice skating at the local park (very bumpy) |
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| We decided it's much more fun at the indoor ICEnter |
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| Curtis |
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| Trevor's harder to capture because he moves so fast! |
We even went to our first professional ice hockey game (it's a big deal here).
Another thing we're trying for the first time is maple sugaring (it's kind of like making lemonade out of lemons). Here's some pics of Trevor and Jonathan tapping our trees.
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| Here's the set up--tap, hose, milk jug |
Now that the afternoons are warm, the jugs are starting to fill up. The downside is one gallon of maple sugar boils down to 1/4 cup syrup. So, it's cheaper than the beehives, but not as much product to show for it.
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| Jonathan, Curtis and Trevor went on a winter campout with the YM. They did lots of outdoor activities, but slept in cabins with woodstoves (the high temps were in the 20s and lows below zero). |
