A Day on the Lake

Family photo minus Molly & Costa, plus Deb Zwang,

who wanted to be in our family photo!
Alianza Zwang on skates for the first time!

Montana pole Dancing.

Nat and Silas on ice.

Earlier in the evening.....

It wasn't all guns and beer!

There was goodness and Light and Peace.

Warning! Content Advisory, may not be suitable for easily offended!

Yes! There was a gun, and some "adult" beverages and only one ornament got broken and it wasn't by either of these two gangsta's!

Natassia will tell ya that story!

Thankfully Mike recovered from his moment of insecurity and everything was fine. But I did find blue plastic BB's all over the house, I am sure I haven't yet found them all!

L8R that day

Thank-You, Costa, for the hats!

We just LOVE them!

It was like a house full of Santa's.

(or something? Gangstas, perhaps?)

(read heavy sarcasm here!)

December 25th

The Christmas morning breakfast rising by the fire.

I am hoping they will hury so that I can cook them and the smell will wake Mike up....but, alas, he arose before they were ready!
We went for an afternoon skate and he found this nice, 4 on one side-five on the other, white-tail skull with the lower jaw intact.
Makes a romantic skating photos doesn't it?!

The table top tree with the romantic holiday blurr...

December 24th

AKA Christmas Eve.

Why don't other holidays have "Eve's"?

I worked most of the day and then made a stop at the grocery store on the way home...Oh MY! Everyone else in town was there too!

Madness!

Then I stopped at a small Lake that is on the way home to do an "ice check" and ended up skating for an hour the ice was SO good!

The formations shown above were in the ice, I think one looks like a snowflake, most of them did, but notice how the second one looks like a frog! The NW Montana version of crop circles!

When I got home, for some nutty reason, I made homemade marshmallows, they are really good and it was a very fun science project! We shall roast them over an open fire on New Years Eve!

Then I got Mike to go skating on Bull Lake with me.

It has a skiff of snow on it, but you can't tell with skates on!

Look how beautiful it is in the gloaming of the day!

Both shots are taken with the camera sitting right on the ice and the timer set. I didn't make it into this shot, but you can see my skate track!

Winter Solstice

O winter! ruler of the inverted year, ....

I crown thee king of intimate delights, fireside enjoyment, home-born happiness and all the comforts that the lowly roof of undisturbe'd retirement, and the hour of long uninterrupted evening, know.

William Cowper
When the world was really cold a week ago, or so, I started making ice luminaria, thinking that I would make so many that I would line the driveway; clearly I was thinking to much! And loving the ice too much.
Now we have had rain. Thawing and rain!
But I did get 4 nice ice vessels and last night, on the longest night, I lit them up brilliantly!
Welcome Winter!

People on a string...

My view on the way down.
Margeaux on a string, taken from the chair.

Mike pretending he was a passenger and being evacuated by the pros.

Getting Down!

Chairlift evacuation practice!

One of the most fun things we do as ski patrollers!
Here I am self evacuating.
Looks like Mike is behind me.

On the ground again!

Or "grounded"!

Troy Kids

Troy is a good, old fashioned, Norman Rockwell type of town.
I really love that about it. Kids still play outside, all the time.
Yesterday on my way to work it was terribly icy and it was
lightly freezing raining on top of all of our snow that we had gotten
and the town streets and sidewalks we really thick and messy.
There on the road side was a young boy (first or second grader-ish) riding his bike to school, pulling his sled behind him with his backpack on. It was like 4-by-cycling!
Sometime in the middle of the day it began raining in earnest, the street crews were bustling to get things cleared and the world as we knew it was turning to deep, thick moosh in short order! UGh!
When i was packing my car to leave for the day, in my alaskan rain boots, I looked up because I heard a noise, and it was a young girl, (I am thinking 3rd grade), riding her bike in her one piece snowsuit and whistling at the top of her lungs!
She was not going very fast as she was riding through thick slush, but she was happily persevering as she whistled her way to her destination!
Now that is what I am talking about in Troy!

Sneaux

Well, it started Saturday and it hasn't stopped yet.

The snow, that is.

It is very light as the weather has been quite cold still.

I am sure the ice is good beneath its white blanket,

but it is too deep to skate well anymore.

Sometime in the night the snow turned to freezing rain.

I am not sure how that happens, how it can rain at 27°!?

Anyway, I couldn't park my car in the garage or carport last night

as the garage is full of basement stuff and the freshly planed wood for the basement walls and the carport was full of Mikes car and my car looked like a glazed donut this morning! AND it did not just scrape off! I had to turn on the car and turn up the heat and loosen the layer before scraping!

Needless to say, the roads are "slicker than slime on a slipper" this morning! WoooooHOooo! Montana Winters, you never know what you are gonna get! The neighbor, Eric of the BarbErics, was plowing this morning for the first time and if the weather holds, I am thinking runner sledding might be the next winter activity for this winter girl!

Stayed tuned for your Montana winter updates!

And then on Saturday it snowed!

So far, still good beneath a light layer of super light powder.Love these skates!
The neighbors finally came out for a little skating action in the snow!

More "art" shots!

I can't help myself!

It is the budding artist within me trying to bloom!

(snort!)

Yes! There are snow angels and there are ice angels,

or perhaps they are "snow angels on ice", you know sort of like

"Barbie on Ice" or "Barney on Ice"?
This happens to be neighbor Barb, of the BarbErics, so it is

rather close to "Barbie on Ice".

(not that she'd be fond of me saying that!)

The Friday Sk8ers!

I had the camera right on the ice and was just pushing the button.

This illustrates how well you could see throught the ice!
It was better than this really, but this begins to show it.

More Alvord Lake

My attempt to illustrate some off the ooos and aaahhhhs of my day!

Just look at this ice! reflective!

They modeled glass after this stuff, I am sure!

Part 3! Yep! 3 Lakes/1 day!

This is Milnor Lake.

It is across Highway 56 from Savage Lake.

These lakes just froze this week with the cold weather,

so when the snow fell last there was not ice for it to land on.

The ice on these lakes is crystal clear, you can see the bottom of the lake!

It is very eerie!

But the skating is phenomenal!

Lily pads frozen into the ice perfectly!

When you skate over them you think you are walking on water!

Super sunny day!

I almost felt guilty for tracking up the Lake!

We did our best to skate it all up!