Nature Hike

Here are some pictures from a nature hike we did just before the end of our vacation.

 

Egg Hunt

After we returned home we had a day of fun outdoor chores (no kidding it was lovely that day) and then Karen's prepared an easter egg hunt at her house. 

Elliott stayed in his carrier for this round, but Alden had a great time seeking out the plastic eggs full of chocolate and real eggs painted like bunnies. 

After Alden found all the prizes he took them inside and carefully examined what he had gained.

Elliott had a great time playing with Zoe the cat and his new stuffed bear.

We all sat down for a lovely family meal in the evening, but had to go home early after because Alden started to come down with a cold of some kind.

Going to the Gym

Last week Alden went to Maddie's birthday party at a gymnasium. It was great because many of his school friends were there, especially Cady, who is the tops in Alden's book.

I was not able to attend, but Ilana said he had a great time and that the gym environment was one that Alden really liked.

We did not think it through, so Alden was a little overdressed (sweater) for some activities, but that did not seem to slow him down.

Sophia Birthday

 

Sophia was sick for her birthday this year,  but Alden and I went anyway. Sophia is kind of Alden's sweetie and there was a big party planned that had to be canceled. We thought it might be really sad if no one came... of course was more floppy than sad, but I think she enjoyed seeing Alden.

Last year Sophia had her party at the Botanical gardens. This year it was just Alden and another friend named Georgia who was dropped of at 7:30 before everything was called off. Sophia got some medicine and the kids had a pretty good time after all.

Spring bonfire

We finally got around to taking care of the brush pile from last year. Darrell came by and Scott was up for a visit, which made it a pretty fun activity.

In hindsight, burning stuff in the spring is not as good as burning in the fall. Despite the weather being warm the ground was still frozen and some of the pile was damp and hard to burn.

Alden had a good time helping and playing with Darrell
The fire lasted through the night, although by dusk it was pretty well burned out... not counting the giant stumps that have bee there since 2007 and never burn. I rolled them into the woods and won't try to burn them anymore.

Playdate at our house

One of Alden's friends came over for a playdate this weekend and we all enjoyed the snow.
We made a snowman and gave him a bark mohawk. Alden's friend thought it should be a snow alien, so we gave it extra arms.

Evelyn's Birthday Party

Evelyn had a birthday party at her house this weekend. The theme was red.
We started out with make-your-own party hats (complete with googly eyes), then moved on to pin the tail on the donkey. The kids got to color and decorate the donkey beforehand.

Lastly, there was delicious cake and ice cream and dancing with tinsel.

Sophia Party

We have been hosting quite a few play-dates recently... well, two... but that is a lot for us, in Maine, in winter. Our friends the Precourts came by last week with their two kiddos William and Charlotte. This week we had the Scotts come over with their girl Sophia.
Alden and Sophia have known each other since daycare in Boothbay... 2009. They go to different schools now and live about 45 minutes away. Alden and Sophia are really sweet to each other so we try and have them get together at least once a month. We had a fabulous day, showing off the assets of chateau Gilg. The walk by the river to see the beaver dam, the neighbors llamas and our beehive were some of the highlights.
We all made pizza together, and all-in-all the social gathering took about six hours. The best part was that the kids did not have a single conflict in all that time! They played soooo well together. Everyone was very proud.

Skunked!

We had our friends Darrell and Bethany over for drinks and conversation the other day and right in the middle of the social gathering a skunk got captured in one of our garden traps.
It took awhile to figure out how to release the little bugger. Putting the cage in the car or truck to take the varmint to Peacock Beach seemed like tempting fate. So even though skunks can eat bees, I decided to let it go in on the property. We all stood around trying to think of the best way to do this. We finally came to the conclusion that we should throw a tarp over the trap, then prop open the front with a stack, and hope for the best.
Fortunately there were no casualties or amusing stories beyond this point.
We went back to our garden party.

Fixin' the Truck

On the edges of the spectrum there are repairs and patching. 'Repair' is getting as close to a restoration of original quality as you can manage, 'patching' involves making something functional with the least amount of effort. In the middle are stages of the 'fix'. There is 'fixing', 'fixin', 'fixun', 'fexun', 'pheksen' and so on. I would say I am somewhere around fixun the truck.
The truck accident last week TOTALED the truck, but for something like $600 I was able to retain ownership and get the insurance settlement. All the damage was to the truck bed (none to the frame) so my pal Darrell came by and we went at it with hammers and pry-bars.

The two best tools of the afternoon were the come-along, which we attached to a tree and then pulled the point of impact back to original position. This move fixed about 50% of the problem. The next best tool was a pipe we used to extend the handle on my ratchet set to remove the bumper and lift-gate bolts.
We made good progress and I ordered a new bumper, bumper-brackets, and driver tail-light. When they arrived I continued/ finished the fixun... and voila !

National Toboggan Championships 2011

We went to the National Toboggan Championships in Camden this Sunday. There were about 500 teams, most were local but some traveled from all over the country to participate and there were a even handful of international teams as well. The races were broken up into several categories: 2, 3 and 4 person sleds, as well as kids and experimental categories. Kerstin's friend from work, Steve (pictured above in the hockey jersey) was one of the participants in the 4-person category. Steve joined a hockey friend's toboggan team last year and has been hooked ever since. Their team made it to the semi finals last year, so he decided to look for sponsorship this year. Steve cold-called Sam Adams and asked them to sponsor his team, and lo, they did. They sent him a toboggan with a beer bottle on the bottom (Darrell is holding it in the photo above), gave the team a bunch of beer and basically told them to give it away during the event. Kerstin was happy to oblige their corporate overlords.
There were best costume heats as well. If these guys didn't win it, they certainly should have. I don't know what they were, but they rocked! We also saw a Star Wars team, a Santa Claus team and an owl-head team.
We pulled Alden around in his own sled most of the day. He wasn't so interested in the competition itself, but he enjoyed being dragged about on the ice and snow and he really liked "skating" on smooth patches of ice.
From what I could tell, toboggan championships mostly involve drinking in shacks on the ice, with an occasional sled run now and again. The sled chute funnels tobogganers onto the ice of a large lake, where most of teams were held up in their own ice shacks, drinking and barbecuing. There were also a handful of food vendors, and a large bonfire along the banks of the lake where one could warm hands and feet. Alas, there was no public indoor area to seek refuge from the cold. And it was COLD! I think it barely reached double digits (F) by midday. By the time we arrived on the site at 11, Steve and his teammates were pretty sloshed. (Note the bottle of Crown Royal on the ice. It was empty within a half an hour of this shot). We left at about 2. Alden did very well for being outside in the cold for 3 hours straight!The team names were fairly amusing. Lots of references to ash (the preferred toboggan material) with names like "Frozen Ash", "4 Ash wipes" and "Cracker My Ash". There were also lots of toboggan refs like "Soggy Boggin' Boys" and "Throbbin' Boggins". Beer and wood references were also rampant.
And here's a video of a team going down the chute. Most teams endured this rather terrifying (or so says Steve) run silently, but not these folks. I think sleds could get up to 45 miles per hour. There were a few crashes, but no injuries that I was aware of. There wasn't much technique to toboggan racing from what I could tell. As you can see on this video, the sleds are launched by officials, not the racers, using a tetter-totter-like device. Steve says there isn't much you can do to give your team the edge except for how you treat the bottom of your toboggan. The treatments varied from turtle wax to bees wax and animal fat. I have no idea which was more frictionless, but it was a heated topic of conversation among competitors.

Capricorn Ball Redux

Capricorn Ball 2011 was a little different than in previous years. A friend of the CB hosts has late stage cancer and his wife is one of the artists who frequently makes goat effigies for this party. She suggested a paper lantern salute to bring good fortune to her ailing husband, which was a very nice addition. Karen made the effigy this year, which was burned afterward.
Fifty Chinese paper lanterns were lit at dusk (video below). It was a bit chaotic because the lighting effort wasn't coordinated and it took about 5-10 minutes for the candle to heat enough air to lift a given lantern. The final effect was less a mass launch than a steady trickle of rising lanterns - they looked like new stars appearing one by one in an ever darkening dusky sky. It was magical and beautiful to watch.

The arrhythmic, quasi-tribal and uberwhite drumming that normally accompanies the bonfire was absent this year. Instead a young fella with an iPhone and a couple of large speakers made weird musical "soundscapes". His app allowed him to make different noises depending on whether his fingers brushed, tapped or made circles on the screen. This resulted in lots of atonal, extraterrestrial bleeping and digital whooshing noises. We could only stand a few minutes of it, but it went on for the whole lantern launch and burn. To spare you the same pain, I've muted the sound on the video.

Once all the lanterns were launched, Gust (the party host) lit the bonfire and the straw goat burnt up quickly.

The fire was followed by a potluck and live music by the Zulu Leprechauns, who have been the party band for years. Alden loved the band and was all over them while they were setting up and doing their sound check. However it was a bit too loud for him when they started playing and we had to scoot away to an adjacent room to dance.All the Capricorns attending the 2011 party are pictured above. It was Ilana's Dad's birthday, and since the Ball is all about celebrating Capricorns, we invited him to the party. I think he had a good time. We had black forest cake and ice cream for him back at home later that night.