Change

Ayurveda - the science of longevity and good health - says that winter is the season for Kapha, congestion and sluggishness, a phlegmatic constitution, tending to overweight.
But Daisy's hair is shedding, the top of the frozen lake reflects standing water, and spring birds are singing.  The season of in between.  It is forecasted to be windy today, blowing from the west, bringing Vata, unsettled air, movement, anxiety for change.

Jim is cleaning out the cold wood stove, Pitta wannabe, we've restocked the wood ring, and have already packed up to go.  Looks like Vata wins today.

Quite an Accomplishment!

What would get rid of the fishermen?
It was a phone call and the words, "Come home!" clearly heard in the morning meditation.
When next the fishermen were spotted, just two hours after they had set up, they were reeling in their lines and folding their tip-ups!  One was talking on his mobile phone and using his free hand to load up his ice sled.

They departed, leaving only their holes and one fish breakfast for the crows.  We stayed after all.
And accomplished three things:

1.) Jim set up the mouse-eaten and mouse-soiled sissy box

in hopes that it would act as a deterrent for all fishermen this weekend, one of two free fishing weekends in Maine. 
2.) The chickadees were nosing around the birdhouses.  So Jim took them apart to clean them out and make them ready for the springtime nests.  He found an old nest and eggs.

Not sparrow, not wren, but chickadees!
3.) I marked the route to Everest Base Camp.

After dreaming about the trek, my back hurts this morning.

Food for Eagles

Ice fishermen disturb our morning right out in front, not twenty feet off the dock.  They leave their catch flopping and dying on the ice while I'm drinking coffee.  It's enough to make me feel murderous.  So we're packing up and getting away from our get-away.  The sooner the better.

YS 2.34 Maintain a centered calm by befriending the friendly, rejoicing with the virtuous, showing compassion for those who suffer and disregarding the wicked.  Out of sight/out of mind, wicked men.

Part Two: Burn Hut

Skiing in is beautiful.

The hut looks like a hut.

From the side the propane tanks are chained to the walls.

The outhouse does not have a fur-lined seat.  Sitting on the seat in the middle of the night is cause for pause.  I can never prevent that final gasp and whimper.

The hut is heated by wood and we feed the stove.

All night long.  The stove smokes even with the dampers completely open.  But it's warm enough to wear short-sleeve shirts.  Our water supply is melted snow.

We ski in the meadows,

through the aspens,

climbing and falling.

At the end of the trip we eat cake.  Lemon torte cake with raspberries and lemon cream cheese frosting.

And that's the end of a beautiful tradition.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Happy Valentine's Day

Sunny days and milder temperatures should lead an adventurer outside to scale Waumbek or Cabot Mountain.

 We shall not cease from exploration  

And the end of all our exploring 

Will be to arrive where we started 

And know the place for the first time.

 ―T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

However, Valentine's Day intervenes, and the adventure occurs at the mall instead of outdoors,

where visits to candy stores tempt,

 glittery dresses invite admiration,

sparkling Uggs beckon to the eye,

and the pink wrapping at Vicky's stops us in midstride.

Hubba Hubba.

Today, Honey Badger don't need no stinkin' mountain.

VDE

 Part One: Final Winter Hut Trip

Driving into the mountains and skiing into the mountains with packs are not much different.

 HA!  What an embellishment!  But there is now a new picture to replace the pulk picture on the screensaver from two years ago.

On the way up to the hut, we met three skiers and a dog recording their powder skiing moves.  I wish we could see the dashing-through-the-snow video from the webcam on her back.

We reached the hut before sunset and after 5 hours of skiing uphill.  We explored the surroundings, tracked over everything, and started a smokey fire for the duration of our stay.  We prepared a dinner of high altitude salt, smoke and spice, accompanied by tortillas, gumbo and more salt.  Two of us slept the sleep of near 10,000 feet, that is, not much.  The third purred like a generator all night long...

Resting

It will be quite enough of an adventure today doing all the backpacking laundry.  The good computer is being finnicky, and the old and slow computer will have to do the online work today.  Maybe we'll all have a rest, being Sunday, after all.

Tom's BDay

Those born on this day are talented craftsmen, adventurous homebodies, sharp-tongued with a hidden sweetness.  They walk the thin line between cocky and introverted.

 Here in Colorado it has been mild in the mountains, mild in the town.

I am heading back to the East today after a successful trip of no injuries, no fights, skiing and cake.  More pictures will follow when I get home to reorganize.

The next adventure?  Coming up!

Off to Burn Hut

My sweetheart sent a picture to remind me of home.

Yesterday, just after writing that it was going to be sunny, the dawn showed two inches of snow.

So a Green Bay Packer hat on a brother, a sister, and two dogs went for a walk in the snow.  But that was so yesterday.

Today is sunny, my pack weighs 35.4 pounds, the skis are waxed and the skins are packed.  Off we go into the San Juan Mountains.

Until we meet again...

Le Pant, Le Pant

Getting ready for a back country ski beginning tomorrow, the mountains show freezing fog in the area where we intend to ski.  Looks sunny for the next few days.  The altitude kicked me yesterday, but we may practice skiing today up at the Black Canyon.  Breathing practice first, then herbal tinctures for altitude, a pork breakfast, and only then, Black Canyon.

Where's the GB Packers?

Some years ago I bought two bird batiks from a young artist and hung them on the wall of the Hovel in front of the computer table.  It was such good feng shui that I left them there.  We also have a bejeweled and beaded horseshoe made by the same artist that hangs above the entryway.  I wonder if she's still making beautiful objects d'art.

The most recent artistic project I undertook involved magazines, water soluble glue and a posterboard.  Poster 2012  contains chocolate, moonshine, whoopie pies, shoes, travel, people in groups, and animals.
Travel to Colorado today will also have all of these.  Flying on Superbowl Sunday out of New England  should make for a quiet travel day.  I'm not taking my computer, but if I can borrow one, I will post the beauty of our backcountry skiing.  Returning on the twelfth.  Love to all.

Barb's BDay

Those born on this day belong to the geniuses of the zodiac.  Loyal, with an eccentric sense of humor, cleanly organized, unable to tell a lie, but able to tell everything else.  Happy Birthday and many happy returns!

On a different note, I have been searching for that specific picture of the dining room in Ogallala, NE where everyone balanced spoons on their noses at the dinner table.  It's not so much the outward shelf of the noses that balanced the spoons, but the oiliness that stuck them there.  This topic came up because in the winter, wearing gloves precludes using an iphone.  It is something about the warmth of human touch or maybe the oiliness.  I have learned to use the phone in a rudimentary way with the tip of my nose.  Such talent!  A different kind of genius!

Java Jive

Manojavitvam - moving as fast as the mind

The coffeemaker is sluggish and water pours out of the overflow valve back into the reservoir.  Something is stuck in the mechanism and won't allow water to push through the premade K-cup.

Being a systems expert, I stand in front of the blue light, repeatedly punch the button for a large cup, muttering, "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," and wish for a hammer.  Soon enough all those punches translate into a cup overflowing in slow motion.  Manojavitvam.  This morning the mind moves sluggishly until pounded by coffee. 

Groundhog Day

"Groundhog Needs Sunblock"

This is the prediction from the Farmers Almanac.  So much for an early spring.  Tell that to the Nebraskans enjoying 60-70 degree weather.  Or our friend from Venice, FL who texts,"79 here, miss you".  Hope there is enough snow in the San Juan Mountains to ski more and snowshoe less.  The suitcase is already packed sans cookies that are still in the freezer and the red jacket that is here at the lake.  All in good time, just like Punxsutawney Phil, all in good time.

I wonder if there were animal rights activists protesting in PA.

Rabbit Rabbit!

We are driving on a day that might not be so good for driving.
A day that might be better spent reading by the fire.

A day of reading books that speak of someone else's adventures.

But no.  We are going to breakfast with the flyboys.  Visibility is too restricted to fly for real, so we will hangar fly and eat eggs and ham.  Hope you have a great February!