The Winter of 2009

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Ice Skating and Snow Shoeing

One of the great perks about living on a lake is that in the winter you can take out the ol' shovel and start shoveling away. So this winter, Jake and Nicole Bouchard and Mike Fabio came over to join Lisa and I in some ice skating and winter fun. After skating for awhile we did quite a number on carving up the ice and Mike made a home-made hand pushed Zamboni. Didn't work to bad at all. It involved a metal snow shovel, a heating coil from a water heater, a plastic reservoir and a pump in a five gallon cooler on wheels (and a small generator to work the pump). Sweet toy and actually helped glaze the ice really really well! Across from the lake is a large stretch of land owned by the only remaining Shaker community in the United States which is a great place to tromp around in a pair of snow shoes. The one thing I wish I had documented better was the Shaker community while I was in New Gloucester, alas I will just have to go back and visit and document it then.

Winter Hiking and

Varying Talent

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I look like I'm gonna fall over and Fabio looks like an olympic champion.

Sliding

One afternoon, some friends of mine from University of Maine at Farmington came out to hike up Black Mountain out in Western Maine. Not a bad time, the snow was deep and warm and it wasn't too hard to tromp up to the top of the mountain through some old logging roads and hiking trail. At the top, we took out some nice plastic alpine sleds and took turns sliding down the trail and through old logging roads, quite a good time!

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