STEAL A GIFT TRADITION

Last night the Mason clan had their annual steal a gift party at Gary and Margee's place.  It was a fun time.  Lots of laughs.  For those of you who do not know about this it is pretty simple, at least the way we play it.  Everyone brings a wrapped present.  Numbers are drawn out of a hat and number one picks a gift first.  Then number two can either steal the gift the first person opened or pick an unopened one.  Gifts can only be stolen twice so that gift becomes "dead" after the second steal.  I am sure there is a strategy there some how, but I haven't figured it out yet except for being the second person to steal a gift.  As I said, there were a lot of laughs!

 

 

Still cold around here (single digits), but we do have snow and warmer temperatures in the forecast. As soon as we get some new snow will be skiing again.

FROST

We have had frost falling from the sky the last few mornings.  It is cold with a cloud layer above us, but not very thick.  Thought it was snowing when I first saw the stuff in my headlamp yesterday as I headed out for a walk.  But when the sun came up, we realized it was just frost falling.  The crystals look a lot like snowflakes and I guess you could call them snow because they are just frozen water.

Frost on our deck railing.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Connie and I opened our gifts on Christmas Eve.  Early Christmas morning we headed up to the ski hill.  Met up with the Slaughters and another friend Dave.  Had some great runs as the snow was pretty darn good.  We skied most of the day, then the Slaughter family came back to our place, and we had a late Christmas dinner.  And it was really good.  Ike and Connie cooked up some steaks in cast iron skillets and the oven.  New way of cooking them that turned out great.  Of course we had appetizers, desserts, and a lot of other food.  I was stuffed.  I am sure I gained 5 pounds!  

Hope you all had a great Christmas and your New Year will bring many smiles to your faces.

Riley S. is a snowboard instructor and is waiting for his student.  Rustin S. is also an instructor but I did not get a picture of him.  In fact, we hardly saw Rustin all day.

Ike and Dave.

Here we are about to set out for the day.

Dave and Ike at the top of Chair 4 waiting on the girls.

Ike zipping up Brenda's jacket further.  It was a pretty cool day as you can tell from the frost on the dead trees.  They are from the fires of 2000.

Connie with her always present smile when the skiing is good.

Skiing

Met up with Ike and Brenda on the ski hill today.  It was okay, but they sure could use some more snow.  We had a fun day and lots of laughs.

Brenda and Connie in their new ski jackets.

NEWS OF THE NIECES

We had a lot of news about some nieces Saturday.  Got a Christmas card from Leslie announcing that the Baer family is expecting a child sometime in June.  A few of us are hoping for a girl, but with three older brothers, that might be more than any child could take.  And one of the older brothers has a bit of a mischievous side to his personality!  But I would think that Eliza and Maisy would like to have another girl in the family.  And niece Natalie is pregnant so Eliza might have a sister.  Lots going on with that side of the family.

The 19th was niece Angie's 40th birthday so we were all over to their place for cake and ice cream last night.  During that celebration, niece Teresa's daughter Ashton called and said she had just got engaged to her college sweetheart Kyle.  They both graduated last year I think.  So that made the birthday party even more festive.

A FEW POWDER TURNS

Connie and I spent the morning skiing some powder at our little resort.  They said they had 16 inches of new snow, BUT we think it was closer to 10.  It was good though.  The roads were a bit icy going up this morning.  Ike and Brenda did not go because of their steep road getting out of their place.  Not many people up there skiing but most of the group we are friends with were there.  We had a great lunch with them.  Most are in their 60s and 70s but still skiing up a storm.

Connie's morning did not start off so good.  A spare battery for her mp3 player somehow got into her boot!  What really puzzled us was she did not notice it until we were skiing down.  So she walked around the lodge, walked out to our skis, put them on and skied down to the lift and rode it up to the top without knowing it was there.  When we got to the first cat track going down, she stopped and got it out.

Not the light fluffy powder we like, but it was powder.

riding up chair 2.

Lots of blue sky and frosty trees.

CHRISTMAS TREE UP

As you probably all know, Connie is not known for her traditional Christmas Trees.  I think we have pictures of every tree we have had in 30 some years of marriage.  I can remember paper bark birch, willows, sagebrush (one of my favorites), sticks, etc.  Anyway, ours is now up and ready.  It looks like a red willow to me.  Real cute though.

Connie and her pal with the finished product tonight. (click on photo to enlarge)

FIRST DAY OF SKIING THIS SEASON

We drove up to our little local ski area today in the snow.  We were hoping they had gotten more snow than the snow report said, but there were only a couple of inches.  We did hunt around and found some "powder" but there were a few tracks in it.  Lots of things sticking out of the snow also.  I did one run that Connie didn't - sometimes she has more sense than me - and I dropped in a hole or something.  The backs of both skies released and I did a face plant.  I hate it when you hear that click - click of the bindings releasing and you are in control, but not for long!  The groomed runs even had a few pieces of grass sticking out.  We all agree we need more snow!  Forecast is good, but I think they are just trying to get us skiers hopes up.  We got our pictures taken for our season pass and made a few runs.  Had lunch and came home.  Not a really hard day on the slopes. 

Connie in her new ski jacket coming down Southern Comfort.

 

 

 

Our boots and some gear drying by the fire.

University of Montana Grizzlies win

The U of M won their FCS semi final game against Appalachian State 24-17 to advance to the championship game next weekend against Villanova.  That game will be played back in Tennessee.  I didn't watch the whole game, but caught the 2nd and 4th quarters.  The whole game was the last 3 minutes.  The cold, wind, and snow made for an interesting game.

We brought the horses home from Tracy and Angie's today.  Forecast is for quite a bit of snow.  They were out of pasture over there and Tracy was having to feed them so they might as well be over here with the rest of the herd.  I think they were glad to get home.

Been having some problems with one of the stock waters for the horses freezing up.  Hope we got it fixed.  Put a new heat cable on it.  It is a lot warmer now than earlier in the week.  30 degrees warmer.  Still not above freezing, but not below zero!!

Catmay making herself at home in a box.

Connie and Zeus being couch potatoes watching a movie.

Brrrrrr it is cold in Montana

We had 11 degrees BELOW zero this morning and it warmed up to a whopping plus 3 degrees!  And now new snow - rats.  But there is some forecast for tomorrow night.  And the big news is:  our little ski resort is going to open a few lifts Thursday.  Might go up and check it out.  There was quite a bit of construction on the lodge this summer so will have to see how all that looks.  Will make a few runs just to check the equipment and legs out.

Frost on the window pane in the shop this morning.

More frost.

BACKCOUNTRY SKIING

BACK COUNTRY SKIING

The weather has been such the last few days that Connie and I have been in the house more than out.  So it was clean a few storage closets out!!  Yikes – what a job, but every once in a while, you got to do it.  I can’t believe how much “stuff” Connie and I have accumulated over the years.  But I think we all do.  Anyway, in the process of going through our stored rubber maids trying to cut down on the number of them, I came across our old climbing skins for backcountry skiing from back in the day (70’s and 80’s).  We would put them on our wood skis and climb up hills usually around Portage or Hatcher Pass in Alaska.  After spending a good portion of the day climbing and exploring we would ski down to the parking area.  I always said it was 3hours going up and 30 minutes coming down.  I don’t think those are the exact times, but you get the idea.  I am getting back into backcountry skiing this year and was just trimming up the new skins that are being used nowadays.  What a difference.  Back then we used old WWII type Army surplus ones.  They strapped on with cotton straps and were always loosening up.  They did have a synthetic type of hair like the new ones that is pointed towards the tail of the ski, but the new ones have a sticky surface that you just stick on the bottoms of your skis.  There is a loop in the front and a clip in the back to keep them on.  Easy on – easy off with no frozen straps!  Quite a change. 

And the size of the skis is also quite different.  The old woodies are 61mm at the widest and my new ones are 86mm at the narrowest and 136mm at the widest.  Today, all the alpine type skis are wider, some being called “fat boys”.  But they are really good in the powder.  Ross commented the other day when I was showing him my new ones that they looked wide enough to water-ski with.  All of the gear is different.  The old bear trap kind with the cable hooking around the back of your hiking boots has been replaced with a very high tech binding that you can use as both a “free heel” type and the regular downhill with the heel locked down.  The boot you use with the new binding is the same boot you use with regular downhill bindings.  I am going to really like the idea of being able to lock down your heel and come down the hill as I am most used to.  My telemark turns with the free heel type binding left a lot of room for improvement.  I sure did a lot of face plants and never really mastered it.  But now I don’t have to. 

We are patiently awaiting more snow in the mountains.  There is some, but not enough for me at least.  Below are some pictures of the old and new type backcountry skis and a few of the deer that have shown back up in our yard after hunting season.  As always you can click on the picture to enlarge.

 

This gives you an idea of the size difference of the skis.  Skins are laying on the backs of each one.

The old Army surplus skins on the bottom - new ones on top.

The bindings.

 

 

 Deer in the yard.  Nothing is better than flowers even if they are dead and frozen.

COLD

It has turned to winter around here.  When we left this morning for our walk the temp was 5 above.  What snow we have is sure squeaky!  The moon is still looking pretty full but of course is staying up longer now.  I did not get a very good picture this morning of the moonset because it was still high in the sky at sunup.  And my finger were getting cold.

Just a few clouds up at the north end of the valley (click on picture to enlarge).

missed photo

2 December 2009:  When I went out on my walk this morning, I missed a great photo or two.  As many of you know, it was a full moon last night so the moon sets about the time the sun is coming up.  We are clear and cold here in MT right now so the moon going down in the west over the Bitterroot-Selway Primitive area, and the first pinkish morning sunrays hitting those snow capped mountains would have made for a great picture.  But I did not have a camera with me.  I had just walked around our place and was headed up to meet Connie who was coming back from her walk.  When she met me, she asked if I had a camera because up higher it was really a pretty moonset.  But of course I did not have one in my pack.  I am trying to do some serious walking with a pack on to get ready for skiing.  I will add a camera tomorrow though!  More weight – better shape!

 

Use your imagination and the snow capped peaks replace the Utah red rock and the forest replaces the water.  Leave the moon and the sun alone!

I have been working on getting my ski gear all ready to go.  I purchased a new pair of boots this fall and was adjusting a pair of skis to them, but could not get the forward pressure adjusted quite right.  Ended up taking them down to the local ski shop where Robert did it for me.  He said I had the pressure pretty well out of the right range!!  The moral of the story is - let the professionals do it.  Bindings are a lot more complicated now than they used to be.  Safer I think though.  No opening date for our little resort either.  They need about another foot in order to open.  The storms seem to be going around us or fizzling out.