Winter Camping

No skis. Snowshoes for this trip. Wed. night we went out for four miles across the lake with headlamps. Thursday we headed out and camped just shy of two miles out on the lake. We missed our intended camping area because of the poor visibility. We did find a sheltered area on a point near the entrance to Pikes Bay.
.Here's my pack full of warm goodness. I use almost everything I brought and was quite comfortable in some challenging conditions. The videos below show the windy trek across the lake. Some of the blizzard conditions in camp and the calm camp the morning after. There was brilliant sunshine. The foggy look is condensation on my lens. Thirty mile per hour wind and temps of minus single digits made for some cozy tent time. Ipod and phone kept me company.

Solstice Has Arrived

The winter and summer solstices are two of my favorite days of the year; they're like going over the top of the roller coaster. Equinoxes are boring; they're where we wait to get on and off.

This painting is the work of Bryce Herrington.

Basment's Soon Set

I hauled down 1,600 lbs of Quikrete to fill in my basement floor. About the same mass of material went up too. Studs are up, plumbing rough-in is about done, floors filled in.

Still need to get the electrician in, have my guys put up the drywall, have the plumber finish up; then I'll put linoleum down, finish the dry wall and paint. After that it will just be some trim jobs.

A lot of work, but, so far, we're under budget. I've also made sure that I have a good place to sit and watch the Vikes play at the Gopher's stadium.

부븸밥 bi bim bop

The family was invited to a bi bim bop dinner tonight. Bi bim translates to mixed-up and bop translates to rice. Meat, spinach, eggs, cucumbers and rice were all tossed together at the table and served with gochujang chili paste.

Bi bim bop is quintessential Korean cuisine; eating it is more than a meal. It seems putting down a bowl of this is like raising the Korean flag and pledging allegiance to ones heritage. It's like lutefisk, haggis, or menudo without the scary bits.

Korean gochujang chili paste (고추장)
Sweet chili and sesame paste sauce. A new favorite condiment

Number One Song The Day I Was Born.

Find the top song from any date here.

Something to Remember on a Hot July Day.

Issued by The National Weather Service
Minneapolis, MN
4:13 pm CST, Sat., Dec. 11, 2010

... BLIZZARD WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST SUNDAY...

THE BLIZZARD WARNING IS NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST SUNDAY.

* TIMING... LIGHT TO MODERATE SNOW WILL DIMINISH THIS EVENING... BUT SIGNIFICANT BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW WILL CREATE NEAR WHITEOUT CONDITIONS.

* MAIN IMPACT... 9 TO 18 INCHES OF SNOW... SIGNIFICANT BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW AND REDUCED VISIBILITIES.

* OTHER IMPACTS... BLIZZARD CONDITIONS... ESPECIALLY IN OPEN COUNTRY. WIND CHILLS WILL PLUMMET TO AROUND 30 BELOW ZERO OVERNIGHT. WIDESPREAD BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW WILL RESULT IN VISIBILITIES TO NEAR ZERO AT TIMES.

====================================================\\-]o

I like my skier :)

Bath Project Moving Along

Minnesota Kind of Weekend

I've been working for the last several years to come up with trail grooming equipment for my middle school and high school ski team. Last year I procured the groomer, and Friday worked a deal to take delivery of a hold-over 2010 new Ski-doo Skandic Tundra like the one pictured above. Lots of wrangling, but I hope to be making corduroy tomorrow out of our new fallen snow. Got a great price from a local buisness wanting to help the students out.

My other ski team, Minnesota Youth Ski League Program, jumped from 11 people to about 30. We had our first meeting Sat where we issued 16 sets of skis, boots and poles to kids ranging in age from 4-13. Should be a blast.

Sunday the family and I drove to the Hampton Tree farm and cut our holiday tree. The conifers were layered with snow and the deciduous trees were coated in hoar frost making for a seasonally splendid setting. Kids and I managed to set down a few ski tracks in the park behind the house too. In the evening we set our tree up and added twinkling snow flakes and blue icicle lights to the front of the house.

Winter's fun and it starts getting lighter again in just over 2 weeks.