Merry Christmas!!!

Have you ever heard the scream on the old Who song Won't Get Fooled Again? Well, that was the sound of my internal scream at 5:30 on Monday morning when I trudged out into the snow and wind to walk the dogs in well below zero weather. It was not a surprise, but it hit hard nevertheless. The wind had howled a January howl all night long, rattling the lid on the barbecue and whistling around the corners of the house. The wind had died down by morning but it was still nostril freezing cold. And I was off to a ski race.
I climbed up the hill to the bottom of the race hill dressed in a long underwear shirt, a Duofold zip turtle extreme cold shirt, fleece vest, fleece under jacket and shell. My hat was in my pocket. I don't like hats. It was grey and cold; cold and grey. The snow squeaked under my shearling boots (that are not as warm as they look). I was headed for the timing shack. The as yet unheated timing shack. There is heat, but it has to float up, and it was not floating fast. Oh, well. My thermos coffee was hot, and the company was good. I got to learn how to work the computer that keeps track of times and racers, and how to pace the race,although someone else did that. We had a view of the race that alternated between great and almost totally obscured depending on the sun and cloud cover. We took turns wiping the window which, when we arrived, was frozen and required scraping, but as the heat floated up required Bounty drying and a squeegee.

First runs over. Lunch and break time. The sun was out, the sky blue blue. Still cold. Second run began, and the heat had, most assuredly, floated up. The sun was shining into the timing shack, and we were wearing sun glasses and shielding our eyes. I was down to vest and the two shirts. Then down to the shirts, my hair and neck drenched with sweat. Encased in our little heat bubble it was hard to believe it was somewhere around 0 outside. We opened the door and windows to cool the small room down. It even felt good to go out and cool off, sort of like jumping in a cool lake from a sauna.
The next morning my husband asked if it was cold when I got in from walking the dogs. I told him no, it was quite nice out. He went out to start his car and returned to report that it was 2 degrees. Everything really is relative!!

The week progressed to warm breezes--well, really, it rained. All our snow was gone, then yesterday it began to snow again. The snow was predicted to start at 4 pm, but was late; around 9 or so it was finally snowing steadily. I woke up this morning to several inches of snow on the ground and, once again, rain. Real rain, not sleet or something in between, real rain. Heavy rain. The trees soon glazed over. The snow crusted, the bird feeders outside the window were encased in ice, as was the once rattling barbecue. Wind switch returned the rain to snow. Yet again walking the dogs: We broke through the snow's ice crust, and listened to the trees crackle. The sun broke through, glistening sliver across our ice world.
Love winter, love it!!

First Chair Hangs in the Balance

So, about an hour after my son left for the mountain the phone rang. Good. He arrived safely. "Hey, Mom." Something
Lift, mid winter, long after first chair.
sounds not right. Reject that! He called. "I'm at the mountain." Whew. "Ummmm..I'm locked out of the car."
Oh grief. "I don't have another key. Is your stuff in there?"
"I have my skis."
"So your boots are in there."
"Yeah, but Z is lending me some boots. He went home and got them."
Good. His friend is there with him, still in the dark, locked out of the car. I have AAA, he doesn't. I only got AAA for the people who have cars. "Okay, I'll call AAA." I don't want to drive up there. And do what???
Call AAA. They can add him right away. They are calling someone to go and unlock the car. Will he lose his place in line?
"AAA is coming. Keep your phone on so they can call." I'm assuming he'll be in the lodge waiting. What am I thinking???
"Well, how long will it be. Can I take a few runs?"
It is still at least 2 hours until the lift opens. "I guess so, keep the phone on."
I called AAA dispatch back a while later and found out it would be probably within an hour but no less than 30 minutes until lockout rescue arrived. Called my son again to tell him, and suggest he wait with his friend in the lift line and maybe get someone to hold his place if he has to leave to get in the car.
Husband wakes up and calls son to say he'll drive up and wait for the lockout rescue people. "Thanks, Dad, but no. This isn't your problem, I'll take care of it." Yay!
Phone rings. Son on the line. "Hey, mom, they came! It took about 2 seconds and I'm not locked out any more!"
"Great!" It is after 8, lifts open at 9. "Hope you get first chair!"
"Yep. Thanks."
He did get first chair. The lifty saved his place since he'd been there so long. And...while he and his friend were in line or getting ready to ride the lift when the college TV station came along and did a feature on them!
So, once again my son and his friend got first chair. Whew! Hope it's a good ski season. First race Monday.

First Chair

Not even 6 am, still night dark, and my son is out the door with his ski equipment to get first chair. It is opening day at the mountain--what snow they have to ski on I don't know!--and it seems like the last time I wrote the snow had just melted. I guess I'll have to fill in that pretty big blank so you all don't think the summer really is just the "bad ski season."

First chair. My son went early last year and rode the first lift chair, thus "first chair," to carry skiers up the mountain for the season. He goes up, changes in the empty lodge, and sits out on the snow by the lift to ride that first chair. The mountain opens at 9. A cold, long wait, but he'll have the lifty to talk to after 7. There is at least one challenger, a person who said he'd be there before my son this year. We'll see if he gets there.

At the end of the season there is of course, last chair, which he also got last year. He waited in the lift line to get the last chair along with a couple of people who always get last chair. When the time came the last chair regulars had to accept him onto the chair, he said. A small and funny sort of a club. Really small since the lift only takes 4 people per chair.

In between there are daily last and first chairs, none of those worth waiting for unless there is great new snow and then it is first chair and first tracks! He doesn't strive for those, but they are great if they happen.

So, let's hope it is a great first chair, first tracks and overall great ski season. If there is snow I might go later in the day. First chair after lunch?

Welcome to my new blog! I know it is an old blog, new look, but I am working on making it a new blog too. A blog that is interesting! A blog that people read! A blog that looks great--I just love, love, love it!!

The very talented Michelle Baird, owner of Shabby Creations took in a complete overload of information about me and turned it into this beautiful blog that is so me!! I don't even know what me is, and certainly had no idea when I started the makeover process--it was pitiful, I didn't have color ideas and can't visualize the end product of things like this. Do I know who I am now? Well....that is probably a post for another day.

Anyway, THANKS MICHELLE, it is perfect. Did I say, "perfect?" Fabulous!!
I will be adding and changing things on this blog so check back often. Thanks for visiting!
Check out Michelle's designs!

Roadside Trillium

Sugar looking silly

Here is a funny sheep picture I took last year about this time.
I am trying to place pictures where I want them using photo bucket so I thought I'd try this one first. Who knows how it will turn out?
Hey, that was pretty good. I like this better than the way that blogger places the photos.
Hey, I even managed to give some photo corners to Sugar, woo hoo!! Getting fancy here.

J-bird flies off to India!

Whew! In the past 3 weeks two children arrived home from college, my semester ended, all the snow melted, one child left for three months in India, my high school son went white water rafting, and our first a lamb of the year was born!

Here are pictures of J, ready to go to India. Doesn't she look excited??



J is with a volunteer program in India and will be working with disabled children. For years she dreamed of going to India, probably--partly at least--because I lived there when I was little. She heard all of my stories, and met my nanny, Helen, when she came to visit a few years ago. J is not a person who can envision things, and likes to know exactly what is going to be. When she was little she liked to be told exactly what we were going to do during the day. If there was any deviation from that plan she got quite upset. Before she left for India she told me that the hardest thing for her was not having a frame of reference for what it would be like. "It isn't as if I can say, 'well, it will be sort of like this, or sort of like that,'" she said. "I know it won't be like anything I can imagine at all."
So far India has not disappointed her and I can't imagine that it will! Even her first moments and days were eventful.
J arrived at night and had to take a rickshaw with her escort because the car that was to meet them was stuck in traffic, while waiting for her hotel room to be ready the electricity went out several times, she took bucket baths, bought a sari, visited a temple on a holiday, and she left just a week ago!

'Bye, J, have a great time!!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

This is the cake that my ds made in his culinary class. It was as good as it is pretty.

The first rainbow of the year!

Easter egg! Here is a sugar egg my son made in his culinary class. It even has a rose inside. You can see that a little in the picture taken from above.
His class made all of the flowers and the egg forms.

My first sunset picture of the year--January 8, 2008.

Closed for the season

Happy New Year!
This was the scene on Jan. 1 2008

Disconnected!

See this? This is my phone. Look closer; blow it up if you need to. Hmmmm..I bet now you’re wondering why it is not dancing in its cradle, ringing off the hook with people calling. Because this is not animated? Wrong! It’s not because this isn’t a you-tube video; the phone is silent. Yes, hear that again. Silent.

Now, take a look at this picture of my modem. As you can see, the DSL and internet lights are dark.
Your mind is probably racing now, your heart beating fast, and you are getting worried. Dark modem lights and silent phones are never good. You suspected that northern Vermont is near the end of civilization, but beyond it altogether? No, surely that can’t be, so you try again. Has something terrible happened in the wilds of Vermont--during foliage season no less--that hasn’t made it to CNN yet? Nope. Wrong again. So, what can explain this inconceivable phenomenon? Alien interference? Nope, nothing that exciting, nothing newsworthy.

Rewind to last evening, about 6. I am walking in the door. Having been given a glimpse of the future I am sure you can understand, and perhaps even feel, the dread, disbelief and horror that overcomes me as I walk in and hear dh say, “The phones are not working.”

“What? What do you mean, ‘not working?’ What phones are not working?” I ask, hand to heart, face blanching.
“Our phone. The house phone,” he says.
“We don’t have internet either,” my ds adds somberly, testifying to the gravity of this situation.

Off I head, without delay, to get one of our cell phones, which work poorly at best, and then only in a few isolated corners of the house, to call the phone company to report the outage, wondering what I was going to do with the evening. I had things to do, e-mails to check, weather and blogs to read, BBC news to check, maybe even the day in pictures, a little mahjong to play…the list is endless. So, standing perfectly still, by the window in the corner of the living room specified by dh as the place where his cell phone works, I make the call.

The phone company offices are closed, of course, but I can report my out of service line to a real person! Wow, there are some benefits to a lack of technology in the far reaches of Maine where the phone office is located.
“Have you checked your phones?” the attendant asks after taking my non-working phone number.

Okay, shift here: Remember the Shadow in Mad Magazine, the little fellow who said the things that couldn’t be said while his flesh and blood familiar said what had to be said? Well, enter the Shadow. He is standing beside me.

Shadow: “No, I had a vision while I was driving home that my phone wouldn’t be working. Since I have cell service here and not there I decided to call, because well, I knew the phone won’t be working, my visions are always accurate.”
Me: “Check the phone?” Incredulous tone of voice. “I picked it up. I don’t have a dial tone.”

“Okay,” the attendant says, “I’ll put in a trouble ticket.”
“When do you think this will be fixed?” I ask.
“Usually within 24 hours,” the attendant offers, seemingly uncomprehending of the magnitude of her words. No “I’m sorry,” no sigh of compassion.

Shadow: Anguished scream. “24 hours??? ‘Usually??’ What do you expect me to do for 24 hours without a phone or internet? Do you not understand that this can’t be? I can’t be without a phone or internet, and what if it is more than 24 hours? What then? This is completely unacceptable. Can’t you call the tech people at home for emergencies like this?”
Me: “24 hours??” Voice croaking, “Usually??? I need a phone. I need the internet to do some work. This is an unsafe situation,” I tell her. “What if there is an emergency? I can’t even call 911.”

Surely this out-in-the-woods woman understands and will do something!! After all, she is talking to me from some place in northern Maine. I can see her connected to a maze of wires, switching and pulling them in and out, sitting alone in a tiny log cabin in the middle of moose filled woods, an empty highway stretching into the trees, carless in both directions. But no, she doesn’t understand in spite of her isolation and the moose breath fogging her windows.

“I can note that you want them to come in the morning, but I don’t make the schedule.” Still no “sorry,” no empathy for my plight. “Is there a phone number we can reach you at if we need to?”

Shadow: “Lady, are you nuts? Totally nuts? Why do you think I called the repair line? But, sure, since you asked, I do have a connection to the beyond, as you clearly understand from the visions. Just beam in at 1-800-vision and you can get me any time of the day or night. No technology required.”
Me: “No, my phone isn’t working.”

So here I am, 14 hours later, the phone is not dancing, the modem lights are dark; I am disconnected in the middle of the wilds of northeastern Vermont with wild turkeys circling my house, a flock of robins eating my tiny crab apples in the front yard and a pack of coyotes yipping excitedly down in the woods.

Surprisingly, the day stretches before me like an endless river. I feel as if I can do lots of things today: take some pictures, write something for my blog, do some planting, maybe even vacuum!
And I do. I write this, do some paperwork, eat lunch, walk the dogs,…and then whammo. Along comes the phone repair man. The main wire from the house to the box has gone bad. We may have to get a new one put in, which won’t happen for at least a month.

Shadow: Another, even more anguished, scream, this time tinged with disbelief and thoughts of a permanently cricked neck from making cell calls in cell friendly corners of the house. “A month!!! No phone, no internet?? How’s that going to work??”
Did that get you? It sure got me! No sweat, though, I can be hooked up right away, and I am.

Back in business, I say good bye to the Shadow (although I have to confess he is a pretty frequent companion) and return to the house.

The day no longer stretches quite so far ahead; it is no longer quite as full of possibility as it was before the phone man arrived. I can do the things I have to do. The day is decidedly contracted. The turkeys have gone to their mid-day roosts, and the coyote yipping is getting increasingly fainter.

Epilogue
I planted anyway, and didn’t do some of those other things. It’s a good thing I vacuumed early.

My suggestion
Take a vacation. Turn off the ringer and don’t turn the computer on. Do some of those want to’s , and you might be amazed at what you get done--maybe even some vacuuming!

No ugly duckling---A rare Sunday morning treat!
(click on the picture to increase the size)

This is our resident Sandhill crane walking in our yard on Sunday morning with a flock of turkeys. This crane has been spotted in the fields near our house for the past few years. We like to go out in the evening in hopes of catching a glimpse of our friend in a large field across the road from our house. This was the closest we have been to the crane, and the first time it has been ion our yard. He (or she?) is always alone, so we were happy to see that it has found some feathered friends.

This amazing bird is one of the largest of the cranes. It has an unusual and distinctive cry, which can be heard when it is feeling threatened. Watching this bird take off is a truly wonderful sight. It is so large that it seems as if take off may not be achieved, but once airborne it flies quite easily. On takeoff and in flight the beating of the crane's wings is very audible, and once in the air the wingspan is tremendous!

The coolest thing about our crane friend, though, is that Sandhill Cranes do not frequent New England. They tend to stick to the middle of the country, summering in the north and wintering in the southwest, although there are several types of Sandhill Cranes. We wonder where our crane spends the winter.

Fabulous!

Here is a link to information about Sandhill Cranes: http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/wildlife/guides/migration/sandhill.asp
I guess it has to be pasted in the browser since I don't know how to make it clickable, sorry!

SHS loop-mates meet!!

Last week my ds and I had the great pleasure of meeting our Cynthia and her two dd's for dinner. We talked so long that her dh called to see when she would be home. I hope he didn't worry that she'd met with a nut from the internet.

Anyway, it was a great time! It is such fun to meet cyber friends for real.

Thanks for getting together with us, Cynthia and dd's!!

Note--date is the date we got together. I like to do it that way so that I remember things in the right sequence. That is why when it rains here I will post pictures from February. I don't want to spend that much time on a beautiful day. They are too few and far between. Cynthia on left, Karen on right.

Welcome to the world, Shadows End Clove!
Little Clove was the first Shetland lamb born here, and the first lamb of the year.
She will be 2 weeks old on Wed. and is really doing well. You can see a bit of her mother's fleece in the background on the left.
This picture was taken when Clove was less than a day old.
The best part was that I got to see her being born! it was amazing. That little lamb came out head first, landed on the ground with a thump and a splash and soon thereafter was being cleaned up and was trying to stand. It was not long before she was following her mother around on wobbly little legs. So sweet.

The muddy road ahead
Mud season!! The end of my road, before it reaches the black top, gets very rutted and muddy when the snow melts each spring. It is always an adventure driving the car through the mud, swinging from side to side and hoping another car doesn't come along going the other way.
Sometimes the ruts are quite deep, and then it is great to have a high car so the undercarriage doesn't scrape. Sometimes mud season happens all at once, with days of muddy roads and slippery driving. Other times it happens in stages: mud, freeze, mud, freeze. When the mud freezes cars can get trapped if it doesn't thaw during the day and if the mud is deep enough.

Old snow
Snow is beautiful when it first falls, and here for some time afterward because there isn't much traffic exhaust to blacken the snow. But eventually it does get dirty, and it does melt, and then everything looks really yucky. There is no other way to put it--yucky.
The ground is muddy with clumps of dirty ice melting, the snow is rotting with blackened edges, and all sorts of long forgotten things surface from below the snow. It is not a great time of year, and certainly one never featured in calendars!