I’m actually in Minnesota right now, not Craftsbury–it’s funny how I always feel like I don’t have any time to write blogs when I’m in Craftsbury–but here in Grand Rapids, MN there’s plenty of time for things like that. I’m a little bummed to be missing out on the excitement of the big opening Eastern Cup back on the home turf, but I’m racing some biathlon IBU cup trials out here and hoping to qualify!
Some of these pictures are a little old now, but they’re all from our last few weeks in Craftsbury after getting back from Finland.
Clare skiing in the sunset on Murphy's field after the awesome Thanksgiving Blizzard that brought us mid-winter-like conditions for a few days!
Our new friend Mo (after her sweet mohawk), the grouse. Mo has been hanging out around the house, and followed us the entire time we stacked wood and did other things in the yard. She even followed me down to the range and hung out while I had shooting practice! As you can see, the snow melted…
Pat an Nils put the roofing on our beautiful completed woodpile! Its a good thing Pat was there, or we might not have made it quite so perfect. Now we just needed to get the woodstove installed!
Pat tried out Pepa's gypsy cough remedy (which all the other Bulgarians swore by too)–put honey all over your chest and cover it with a paper bag. Then soak a sock in whiskey and put that around your neck. Pepa was on his case until he tried it–but I think he was actually supposed to sleep with it all on, instead of hang out and read Cosmo (thats right, caught!) for half an hour.
It finally got cold enough for snowmaking, and they fired up the guns!
Proof that we can go out (near) Craftsbury! Claire's in Hardwick had a "Glitter Ball", and we stayed up past our bedtimes to go! The boys came too, but they weren't as glittery…
The snowmaking crew was able to make huge piles, and then spent several days spreading it around a 1.5 k loop. Here Pepa's overseeing. Pat and Dylan drove truckfulls of snow all day.
Pat works on rigging up the stove insert for our nice-looking but very inefficient fireplace.
And now we have a wood stove!! HUGE thanks to George and Charlotte Hall, who gave us the stove!
