Sunday, March 28, 2021

Late winter 2021

Aunt Katy and kids visited in late Feb for a dose of winter

We took a chance on a downhill skiing expedition. Since none of the adults would put on downhill skis, the older 4 kids were left to fend for themselves, having never taken lessons

The mountain, Berkshire East, had 4 lifts and lots of trails

Turns out they had a great time toodling around on the green slopes

Meanwhile Katy and I rented XC skis and toodled around the woods


Back at home we made Japanese candy


They all tasted very strange

The next weekend a cold snap froze the ponds again and we skated on the Arlington Res with the swans, ducks, and gulls. We even got in a game of 3-on-3 hockey.

Tessie's poem. Yes we have had a lot of winter rain

On the first nice day of Smarch we hung the new bat house. This one can comfortably house 40-50 bats and I'll let you know if it gets occupied

Pooled Covid testing was extended to elementary school kids and now Tessie gets to spit in a tube each Monday that she is in school. So far across the district since testing began in Feb they have caught a handful of cases, including one in the other half of Caroline's team. Because the teachers all had to quarantine, Caroline's in-school week was taught all by Zoom!

We scan the barcode before submission on Monday and results come out on Wednesday

Boda Borg reopened and we hopped over for a 4 hour session. We were in the zone and finished 16 quests in 3 hours. There were only 18 quests open and if you finish all of them in 4 hours, you earn the Questmaster title. The last 2 were ultra physical and we could get to the final rooms but were unable to complete them. Tessie and Erin had the upper body power to get us close, but we need one more lightweight monkey bar expert and maybe we could do it. 

Seems like we can only get XC ski times at night. We ventured off by moonlight over the frozen tracks.

Caroline's first downhill run (she's in the light blue jacket)

Heather's latest knitting device

Boda Borg we missed you

Sunday, February 28, 2021

Winter 2021

January and February gave us a few weeks of winter to enjoy outdoor activities

Even with remote school, there were 2 snow days

Menotomy Rocks came through as usual with the 1st ice of the season

Later on Spy Pond was skatable for one Sunday with decent gray ice

Night XC skiing at the golf course

We worked on the National Historic Trails Junior Ranger booklets. For the Pony Express NHT, they asked to draw how else you could have transported the mail across the West in the 1860s

Catfights have lessened as the boys settled into a mostly peaceful coexistence




If Trader Joe's sells a 1.2 oz bag of dried strawberries for $3.49 and nuts.com sells a 5 lb bag for $70 (including shipping), and your daughter eats 1 oz of dried strawberries a day, how much money do you save by buying the enormous 5 lb bag? Answer: $163

Homemade fougasse was pretty good, but still not quite as excellent as Beach Pea bakery 

COVID vaccine slots in Florida for Grampa Mike and Nana were available through weekly online lotteries at 6 AM. We learned the multiple device and browser window trick in order to score Hamilton tickets, and it worked again. Heather was able to land appointments for both of them.

No trips away from home for Caroline's birthday. Grandma Joan and Grampa Ed visited for the vacation week.

Notice how Tessie has the common sense to bail before hitting the fence but Caroline stays in for the ricochet

Who needs a sled?

Tessie figured this out by ear herself