Bill III's Blog » winter

Winter is here

Bill — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:41:42 +0000

It seems that fall was taking its time with moderate temperatures and sunny skies. It was a great time to be out in the woods. I spent quite a bit of time working on clearing the ski trails of downed trees prior to the snow fall. I would take off after work and clear trails for a couple hours each evening. I think I cleared about 20 trees. This appears to be a constant battle as Erin and I took a quick ride out to one of the trails we had completely cleared and in just a short distance came across two new downed trees crossing the trail. :( Snow is on the ground now, so it won’t be long until its time to strap on the skis and head out on the trails.

After our quick ride we came back to the house and while Erin was working on school work I started hauling wood for the first time this fall. I loaded up both the inside and outside wood boxes and got the stove filled up ready for a match. Here is a bit of a photo progression of the work.

All this work because the outside world is beginning to look like this….

Great Saturday

Bill — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:27:15 +0000

Slept in this morning until 9. It was so nice to get some extra rest. I don’t know what it is about the week of school after a long break, but it really wipes you out. After some honey nut cheerios I dropped Erin off at Jesse and Aprils house and went out for a ski. It was about 6 below when I stared skiing. The sun was shining a the snow was sparkling everywhere. The trail was snowed over from the wind and snow we had last night so I was breaking the trail again. There were lot of fresh tracks already out. I wasn’t sure but I think there were fox, wolf, and deer.

After skiing I hauled wood to fill up the “wood box” outside our house. Then I relaxed and took a sauna.

Skiing

Bill — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 03:27:27 +0000

Double click to play.

Back to Skiing

Bill — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 01:38:30 +0000

I went for a ski after work today. There was a lot of snow on the trail. at times it was above my knee. Im guessing it averaged about a foot and a half of new snow. This caused the skiing to be slow and more of a walk than a glide. It was great to be out in the fresh air and watch the sun setting behind the trees. As I was skiing along I flushed a grouse that had been bedded down underneath the snow. There wasn’t really a trace of it being there, and as I skied up onto where it was hiding, it exploded out of the snow leaving a perfect set of wing prints in the snow.

I have a really cool app on my iPhone called RunKeeper. It kept stats on my progress including distance traveled and average speed. Every five minutes it would announce the duration of my ski in both time and distance and then let me know what my average speed was. On the way out I was averaging 37 minute miles and by the time I got back to the car the average was down to 27 minute miles. By no means was this a quick ski. It will be interesting to see what I get to for a speed once the trail is nicely broken in.

Here”s how my fuzzy face fared from the frosty frigidness. (like my use of appropriate f words?)

Let the new year begin

Bill — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 05:07:57 +0000

2010 was a great year with lots of fun and lots of work. I’ve been working very hard on getting my masters in educational technology. In 2010 I completed 27 credits, 9 in the spring semester, 9 in the summer session, and 9 in the fall semester. I’ve only two classes left and will finish the program this summer. Erin and I have some exciting news, and it doesn’t involve a baby. In the last month of the year we officially purchased our home on lake Vermilion. We love living on the lake and enjoy getting out in all the seasons Northern Minnesota has to offer. School (work) is going well. I am teamed up with a guy named Steve who works for a technology company based in Duluth. He comes up to Virginia twice a week and we hammer out the tickets created by our staff k-12.

We’ve had a nice amount of snow this year so far. I’ve only been out skiing once though. I am hoping to ski at least three times a week in the coming months. I may have blogged about this already, but I’m not sure. Jesse and I built a sauna this summer. We’ve been using it quite a bit and I’m really excited to use it after skiing this year.

Well. I hope to blog more often in 2011. We’ll see how that goes.

New pipe

Bill — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 02:03:31 +0000

We installed a new stove pipe today. We were able to install it so any creosote that drips down the pipe will go back into the stove and get burned back up. The new pipe is nice and shiny black. I’m looking forward to a nice fire once things cool off a little more.

Flares

Bill — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:08:34 +0000

Chimney Heat

Bill — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:27:45 +0000

Winter Camping

Bill — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 01:40:21 +0000

Thinking about packing….

Bill — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:08:58 +0000