Dressing for a blizzard

It is not an option for the girls to stay inside when it's snowing outside, no matter how hard the wind is blowing or how big the storm. At least they're getting some wear out of their ski goggles this year.

They love the snow.

Look out for potholes!

Our 4-H ski club was well-attended yesterday and it got a little tricky on the Mountain Division Trail with the snowmobilers. There were a lot of machines on the trail and our large group of kids didn't really want to ski in a single file on the side of the trail the entire afternoon.

So we ventured over to the less-traveled paths around Otter Pond and the kids really enjoyed the hill leading to the pond.

It's all about the thrill of speeding down a hill for the kids, not to mention it takes a lot less effort.

But after skiing on the pond for a while we spotted a couple of ice fishing holes that were freshly drilled. And then we saw more ... and more of them; there were at least a couple of dozen scattered all over the place.

My concern wasn't that the kids would fall through the ice - it was clearly solid - but that one of them might catch a ski tip in one of the holes and lose a ski or take a hard fall (the holes were kind of hard to spot until you were right next to them). We moved off the pond and headed back to the main trail to play it safe.

Those kids who weren't grossed-out by the dead fish wanted to know why the fisherman didn't take them home. It seemed a mystery.

We also stopped by the boat launch on Sebago Lake to see what was happening over there. The kids and I love to check-in with the winter ice fishing village that pops up on the frozen lake every year.

We even got to see an ice drill in action yesterday. Boy those things are loud.

It's all about hockey in one form or another

Yesterday the girls participated in the Girl Scout's USM Girl Sports Day. They had reluctantly agreed to go to the event after I convinced them it would be fun. Both girls barely lasted a season playing soccer when they were each in kindergarten and have resisted even considering playing that or any other sport I've suggested. It's not that I think they *have* to play sports, I just want them to simply try a season of a team sport to have that experience.

So when this Girl Scout event came around, I thought it was a the perfect opportunity for them try a variety of sports in a stress-free way. 

So what did they think about clinics where they learned how to play each sport?

Basketball - L: "It was a boring sport to play." G: "It was OK but I don't think I want to play it."

Soccer - L: "I liked soccer but I don't want to play it." G: "It was good. I will think about playing it for fun at my house."

Lacrosse - L: "It was too hard for me to catch the ball in the little net." G: "I didn't like lacrosse."

Field Hockey: L:"I LOVE field hockey! It was fun! And I was good at it too. I liked that!" (don't think I can use enough exclamation points to express her enthusiasm on discovering this sport) G: "I liked field hockey but I wouldn't compete, I would just do it for fun with my friends." (This is high praise from G. for a competitive sport; she is the sensitive one in the family and doesn't like the win-lose notion.)

I should not have been surprised at L.'s enthusiastic response to field hockey. If I had really thought about it, I should have known she would like it. Anytime I've suggested she play ice hockey - her favorite sport to watch - she has scoffed at the notion saying she doesn't want to get pushed around and beat up like they do at the Pirates games. I can't blame her for that so I haven't tried to convince her to try it. But field hockey offers the same type of action without being a serious contact sport. She's totally hooked on it now and was disappointed to discover that she has to wait until the end of the summer to join a team.

The girls also worked with the USM cheerleaders on a half-time routine for the women's basketball game that afternoon. All I can say is that my girls were not so keen on the cheerleading thing but they gave it a good effort and had fun (and they thought the USM cheerleaders were really nice).

The USM cheerleaders worked with the Girl Scouts on their routine before the game.

I realized that I hadn't been to a basketball game since college so I was looking forward to going to a game with the kids. Of course, it took me a few minutes to figure out how to explain the game to them because I'm not nearly as familiar with this sport as I am with hockey.

L.'s first question was to ask how many periods were in the game. Bless her heart, she's a hockey fan all the way.

But she and G. enjoyed the game; L. especially enjoyed yelling and clapping in the stands for the team as well as the cheerleaders (they did a lot of impressive flips). She really does know how to share her home team spirit.

The USM women's team warm-ups.

In between clapping and yelling (USM scored a lot), L. sat watching this clock for several minutes wondering what it was for. It finally dawned on me it was a play clock and a shot on net (or whatever it's called in basketball-speak) had to be made within 30 seconds or the buzzer rang.

It's too bad we've *discovered* college basketball so late in the season. It looks like the play-offs are just around the corner so there aren't many opportunities left to go to another game.

And on our way out of the game, L. caught a glimpse of the men's hockey team playing a game.

"We gotta go to one of their games too!"

It all comes back to hockey for my L.

Freckles of ice

Our ducks are not too bright, which you are likely aware as I have lamented about this many times before. But still, I am struck by their dedication to the water. Even when the outside temperature falls into the single digits (or below), they still go for their morning swim. And when they jump out of the water trough (eventually the hens push them out so they can drink the water), they sport icicles all over their body.

Clearly I can't image having ice hanging off my body, particularly my mouth, worth this daily ritual during the winter.

R.I.P. Flipper

Unfortunately Flipper the  rooster died this week. We believe it was old age, more than the cold (which he was handling well with the help of his larger feathered-friends), that caused his death.

The kids were doing their morning chicken chores when they found Flipper dead in one of the nesting boxes. Unfortunately for me, this happened on a morning when Fino was at work. I couldn't leave the dead chicken in the coop all day so that left me with the task of finding a resting place for him.

I didn't want to pick up the dead rooster in my hands - I was already queazy enough just looking at his dead body - so I found a shovel to use instead (I guess the upside of losing a chicken in the winter is that the body was frozen solid so he wasn't too hard to scoop up).

But then there was the issue of what to do with the body because in all the years we've had chickens (almost 6 years), Fino has always been the one take care of this part.

So there I was walking out of the coop with the dead rooster in my shovel and two upset children still trying to figure out what to do. I had the girls say a quick prayer and then sent them into the house. I then proceeded to walk into the woods several hundred yards behind my house and put Flipper under a big pine tree. I knew the wild animals in the backyard would 'take care' of him and told the girls what I had done and said it was probably better that way so those animals would have some food.

The girls didn't want to talk much about Flipper dying but the next day L. wondered what would happen to "Chickenland" now that "the king was dead." It seems that now Napoleon, our only remaining rooster has been dubbed the new king.

I guess he was aptly named for his new role.

Napoleon the rooster is tiny, even by bantam standards (he's on the left next to his sister). He looks like a 6-week old Rhode Island Red breed chick. But he makes up for his size in other ways by making a lot of noise and intimidating the hens by pecking at them. Little did we know that he would so completely be living up to his name.

Fun on the multi-use trail

We spend a lot of time on the Mountain Division Trail in the winter. It's near our house and the snowmobiles pack the snow down to make it decent cross country skiing terrain. Our family budget doesn't always allow for skiing on the groomed trails at Smiling Hill or Pineland (a family of 4 costs around $36 for the day trail passes at each place). Of course you get what you pay for and groomed trails make skiing easier and faster. But the multi-use Mountain Division trails are a nice option for us as long as we accept its quirks and take precautions to deal with the snowmobile traffic.

These trail signs appear at regular intervals along the Mountain Division Trail but we occasionally see an ATV as we did this weekend.

Because the trail is popular with snowmobiles, we are always listening for the sounds of one approaching and try to ski to one side of the trail to allow for moving out of the way quickly. I remind the kids whenever they start moving into the middle of the trail to get back to the side because snowmobilers sometimes go too fast and don't always see us at first (but in our experience, that is not often -- the motorized people are usually courteous and slow down and wave as soon as they spot us).

On the Standish end, there are many smaller trails off the main one that wind around Otter Pond. Those smaller trails are not typically used by snowmobiles so it's nice to have some time away from them. Of course we had to forge our own path but the kids still enjoy the follow-the-leader games.

About an hour into our trek on Saturday Fino and G. realized that they had each others poles. G. has grown so fast that we've had a hard time keeping up with equipment she feels comfortable with (she prefers longer poles and they are nearly the same size as her dad's).

And part of sharing the trail means using our common sense. For instance, there is a portion of the trail with a fence between the tracks and trail. As we headed towards that part, we realized that if a snowmobile was coming in the other direction we had no place to get out of the way except to jump down a large embankment. We opted to ski onto a smaller trail through the trees to avoid that area.

The benches placed at various intervals along the trail are great for water breaks  so we can sit down without having to take off our skis.

And the small hills on the trail are enjoyable to ski down but not so big that the return trip up is fairly easy.



The kids had so much fun on Saturday during our trail ride (we did about 2.5 miles round trip) that we took our 4-H Ski Club onto the trail instead of playing our usual games on the field. We did less than half the distance we did the day before but with all the talking and laughing the group did, they said it felt like they skied a couple of miles.

Indoor play with Webkinz when mom's sick

There were no outdoor adventures this week at the Almeida homestead. I was sick and in no shape to do more than our basic weekly schedule (which was hardly restful) so the kids spent more time than usual on the computer.

Both girls received Webkinz stuffed animals for Christmas from their cousins in New York and have been consumed with their animals and its virtual "room" online.

Basically Webkinz are small stuffed animals that have an ID tag. Kids log onto the Webkinz website and register their animal's ID number. The website hosts a virtual room for that animal and gives the kids virtual money to decorate their room and play with their pet. When the kids run out of money, they are prompted to play games (some more educational than others) to earn more for their pet. (The whole concept of Webkinz is quite clever; basically by purchasing the stuffed animal you've bought a subscription to a website.)

The other component of the website is the Kinz Chat, a way kids can virtually visit their friends who also have Webkinz. But the kids have to know their friend's Webkinz user name to "chat" which I really like; I can easily monitor who they are talking to. 

So this week the girls were in Webkinz bliss because both of our home computers were available for them to play with their pets and visit each other's rooms.

G. had talked to me previously about making a video of her pet online to share with her Webkinz-less friends for her YouTube channel. As I was recording G., L. decided to spice things up as only she can do.

L., while visiting G.'s room through the Kinz Chat, had her pet tell G.'s pet "Looks like this room isn't decorated yet." This prompted G. to gasp and yell into the other room to ask why L. thought that.

"Because you're room is naked!" L. replied.

I caught this bit of "action" on the video clip but as you can see below, L. has a very different idea on decorating.

G.'s room with its calming color scheme yet has a little fun thrown in with the little trampoline (lower left).

L.'s room - and although a bit hard to detect with the busy color scheme is the big giant white bunny decoration (white blob just left of bottom center). It sort of speaks for itself.