Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Loaf

Too bad you cannot smell this too!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

And Monday!

These are two of my little friends, Mazzy and Paige, they are sort of neighbors.
The baby beagle is Jack. The girls called him "Jack Cheese".
His owner is a skier so we expect to watch him grow up at Turner at least in the winter.
The girls being independant, riding unassisted by adults!
And note the star spangled chair, that is chair 1, AKA "Arts Chair"
Art proposed to his new wife, Dolly, in that chair during the summer a year or two back. (Art and Dolly, the newlyweds, are in their very late 70's!) Anyway, all kids are enamoured with this chair. We finagled it so the Mazzy and Paige got to ride up on this chair today, they were delighted and bouncy and I was afraid they might jiggle right out of it!








We had quite the fun day! I had forgotten that little girls are like a pile of puppies!
What great enthusiasm and energy they evoked!
When they weren't skiing they were wrestling and cutting up!
And here ends my 4 day weekend!
Now I must figure out when I am going to get my household chores done before the next ski weekend! At least Turner isn't open next Monday so I can try and catch up then.


Sunday

I spent the night in the ski patrol room with some friends.
I , luckily, ended up with the only bed!
So, early in the morning I was knitting in bed with a cup of tea before everyone was up and around and the other patrollers had arrived.
Once others arrived, they called me "granny" for knitting in bed!
Sunday, another day of skiing for me!
Today it was sunny on top of the mountain.
It was sunny for a little while on top yesterday,
but today the fog seemed to creep down a bit more.
You'll see in the photos the "lake" of fog.
It was very nice and cheery and warm in the sun, but that fog belt was very cold!




My skis taking in the sun while I sat my shift in the summit watch tower.

The Lake of Fog.

A fellow patroller, "patrolling"!
Just a little sun nap!

And the next day.....

we skied.....again!
Saturday is the day Mike is on duty as a ski patroller.
This Saturday there was a potluck planned after skiing and a bunco party following the potluck.
Bunco is a dice game that I won't even try to explain, but it is raucous fun!
It seems that it works best with at least 4 tables and the winners change tables and we decided to change hats when we changed tables, however, I forgot to bring hats so we were short a few.
I had extra fun as I was the WINNER!
(OK, there was a tie and we decided to split the pot rather than roll for the winner and therefore have a loser! So I walked away with $30!)
Mike carpooled with a neighbor, so he had to leave before the game really got startedbut I spent the night as I am on duty on Sundays
.
You ring the bells to start a game, and when the head table gets 21 points, they ring the bell to end that portion of the game.

This is how "Vinnie", a fellow ski patroller, gets his potluck dish ready!
This is downstairs in Ski Patrol Headquarters and that heater keeps our patients
(and our feet!) warm.


Apres Skiing~Friday


OK, I admit it, I have become a knitting nerd! I just learned during the first part of December and have been kind of addicted since! I love it because it keeps me occupied while I would otherwise be doing nothing...for instance, sitting at the table visiting with Mike, now I can visit AND knit! So after a long day of climbing mountians and skiing down, I settled in with a nice cocktail and my knitting by the fire. Such a life!
(this became a baby hat)

Winter Revelry

Friday January 16th, 2009~ Flat Iron Mountian, Montana.
We donned our gear and climbing skins and worked our way to the top.
the bottom was crusty and icy and we thought it might be one of those loud and scary days,
but we climbed through the crusty layer and broke out into sunshine and nice powder!
The skiing was superb!
"The cold was our pride, the snow was our beauty.
It fell and fell, lacing day and night together in a milky haze,
making everything quieter as it fell,
so that winter seemed to partake of religion in a way no other season did,
hushed, solemn."

Patricia Hampl

Here is what we fondly call the "yurt".
It is a tree that is covered with snow and the wind has blown it closed except for the doorway that you see. A "snow ghost".
We dig it out a bit more and make the "floor" flat and it is a good hide-away to get out of the wind and have a snack and warm up before the descent.


Tuesday, January 6, 2009

"By doing the work that gives you passion you uplift the world."

Icicles

We got all this light fluffy snow and then it warmed up and actually rained and things got kind of ugly for a day untill it snowed again, this made the roof slide. But the dormers are not as steep as the roof so they didn't completely slide. They had to be encouraged......

Here is Mike in the bathroom window with a shovel (that you cannot see) "encouraging" the heavy snow off the dormers.

Here is kind of a side angle view of the snow and icy hanging precariously from the dormer and over the lower roof. If this builds up a bunch and is heavy with ice, when it hits the roof below it causes damages and the screws come out of the roofing. It sounds like an earthquake must sound and the force has actually knocked things off the walls!


This is my art table and I usually have a great view out the window, as you can see, the snow nearly blocked my entire view.