Snowmama- the Ski Mama

Snowmama's, this is the position I applied for. Found it on Facebook. This is something thru Park City and posted on facebook site.

I had to fill out an app with several questions; one asking about a favorite memory involving skiing. I had many memories and it was difficult to decide which memory to use. I did write about the time we took our lunch in a backpack up the chair lift, skied down until we found a perfect picnic spot and then all 5 of us sat down in the snow, spread the table cloth, put out the food and we had a picnic in the snow. I

I also wanted to write about the time we were helping Justin learn to ski, he was about 4 years old. He was afraid to just go down the slope by himself so for the afternoon I skied with him, his skis between mine in the snowplow form. After going down several times slowly Justin decided to go down on his own and from there he took off and left me in a cloud of snow dust.

Dale and I met when I was talking to a college friend about skiing. He walked up and joined the conversation and we left together. We skied for our honeymoon at South Lake Tahoe but in those days he thought that he didn't want to bother skiing with me; he was convinced that he was so much better. Now we stay together.

Our oldest boy, Nate, was born in February. We drove up to Sierra Summit and took turns skiing and holding our 2 week old little boy. I'd nurse Nate when it was my turn to take him. We bought one ticket and put it on a jacket we both could wear, trading the jacket with the one whose turn it was to ski.

About 3 years ago we were concerned about our grandson; he was afraid and being blind in one eye we thought that skiing would give him confidence and a way to work on his depth of field. We took he and his sister plus our 2 other grand daughters to the local ski hill, Shirley Meadows. The 80+ year old instructor who taught our boys was happy to help out there. By afternoon the 3 girls were doing well but our grandson was timidly plowing down the hill. I skied with my grandson a couple of runs talking him thru the turns then he took off as did the girls. Yikes, they raced straight down the hills.

Our youngest grand daughter, the sister of our grandson, at first said that she absolutely did not want to ski and only agreed to come along to play in the snow. Unfortunately for her I tricked her into taking a lesson as I wanted for her to try the sport. She isn't very athletic but I just wanted for her to try. She squabbled about the lesson but went along with it. On our drive home she asked when we'd ski again. I told her that I didn't know she wanted to ski again. Her reply: “Grandma, I said I wanted to ply in the snow and skiing is playing in the snow”. Now just a couple of weeks ago she asked if we'd get to ski as soon as there was snow.

Yes I do want to be a “snowmama/snowgrandma”.

Old Friends; Stepping Back in Time

Upon returning to civilization from the High Sierra's I found a phone message from our close friend and Dale's cousin, Rick Penner, that his mom Ella, had passed away. His mom had lived for many, many years in Shafter while our friend lived in L.A. Several years ago Ella moved to L.A. in order to be closer to her son, she was 89 and died in her sleep, What a great way to go.

Ella, was to be buried in Shafter so Rick and his wife were coming up for several days. We invited them over and opened up the house to them as good friends/family do.

The family is Mennonite so there are traditions that are followed here, mostly that after the service a meal is served to whoever whats to join. There are a selection of potato salad, macaroni salad, green salad, cold meats and cheese and zwieback, a sort of double roll made from yeast, butter and lots of butter. This roll is like a dinner roll with another pinch of dough on top. The meal is served by the “Fest Committee” a group of people who put together the dinners for the various occassions.

We came to Shafter in 1973 but prior to my arrival I really didn't know anything about the Mennonites but found that I just didn't exactly fit with the entire group. That is not to say I didn't like the people, I just didn't fit with the way they did things. We did try to fit in for a short time but then found that we were better suited to get together with the individuals rather than my joining the sewing circle, ect. We moved out of Shafter in 1991 and really haven't been back so we haven't seen most of these people since.

As we attended Ella's memorial service we didn't think much about the meal to follow, we just knew that there would be one. So when we went to the dining area I was struck by the fact that many people working with the Fest Committee were the same people who were there when we left.

Seeing some the people we used to know was like stepping back into another time. One couple we had been friends with had changes but seem to be making the best of their developments. The man has completely gone blind from glacoma and the wife has had a small stroke. The man still has his sense of humor telling me that I look better than ever. Easy to say when your blind! We both had to laugh.

The most shocking was seeing a friend who had lived with his family in the house closest to ours on the farm. This guy was so kind; after I'd gone thru a horrid bout of pnumenoia I'd developed a mass of junk in my lung and it had to be removed. I came thru the surgery and my friend, after working on his farm all day, went home BBQ'd up some venison, made artichokes and brought them to me still hot. The surgen said that it was the best food I could have eaten.

Unfortunately my friend has not been good to his body for the past 10 years. He is several years younger than I am but looks to be in his 70's. He uses a cane, is gaunt, long scraggly hair, almost looking like someone one would see homeless. This shook me.

I realize that everyone around us lost our farms and times were hard but most everyone made the best of life and made a new one. This friend did not use the incrediably great skills that he had but rather dwelt on his losses. I'm sad for this guy but happy nevertheless that we got to see him along with our other old friends. I think I'll keep on going to the gym and making the best of every day!

Fall Foliage in the High Sierra's

For several years now we've hoped to get into the Eastern Sierras to view the fall foliage and since I bought my Canon it has been my goal to shoot photos of the foliage too. Finally last week we had our chance.

Tuesday after a quick dinner with my mom and a night at a rest stop just south of Bishop we made it up into the Sierra's by Wednesday mid-morning. We'd read about 2 different campgrounds that we wanted to check out. The 1^st near Sabrina Lake turned out to be closed for the season; the 2^nd, one with hookups, was so ugly we passed it up. Instead we went to Upper Intake 2, a small campground along a stream where we found a site tucked away in a corner.

After unhitching the 5^th wheel we took off for South Lake; we hiked out of South Lake once back into Duzy Basin where we met our middle boy, rendezvousing on a glacier. On the way to South Lake we saw groves of Aspen's changing colors and I started shooting my photos.

We thought that because we had gone back to the gym and working out we'd have no problem with hiking; we were wrong. Thursday found us huffing and puffing on the backpack trail to Piute Pass, stopping every few feet for water and raisins. We did find beautiful groves of Aspens which was what we went for. I shot photos to my hearts desire, well at least until I was really tired from carrying 10+ pounds of camera equipment and being out of shape. Needless to say the huffing and puffing was a little embarrassing when we ran into a group of 4 hikers who'd been on the road for 10 days, all of them older than Dale and I and just hiking along.

On our last day we went back to South Lake in the early morning light for some photos then back to North Lake for those photos. We'd also carried a bottle of Pipestone wine for some photos that we promised the winery. We ended up not only taking photos of the wine in the foliage but having a nice little picnic and a small glass of wine (for the photos of course).

We are now hoping to get back into the high country in about 2 weeks but that trip is iffy. In the meantime we are hitting the gym a little harder. No more out of shape for us; no letting some old guys hike circles around us in the high country!

Thoughts About Our Country

I realize that everyone has a different opinion on politics and religion and I hate discussing those two subjects with people just because I won't be changing anyone's mind nor will they change mine. Since I'm mostly out in left field with opinions I'm usually in disagreement with everyone.

Last night I saw my neighbor outside and said hi to him. We started talking about how it was going; he'd had some tough times for a little while but then again he and wifey give kids everything under the sun and then some. The house is completely packed with stuff that they buy, but I digress.

I'd simply made a comment about the possibility of my hubby retiring due to a mess with our county (he is a county health nurse) and my gosh, my neighbor went off about taxes. Taxes are too high, there should be no taxes, no health care for anyone, no social security, nothing.

I'm always puzzled with people start advocating a very limited government. Would we like to give up the Social Security, building protections, consumer protections, education departments just so we could eliminate taxes? Then what would happen to our roads? Our infrastructure? Free education? My neighbor is convinced that the tax money for everything has been misused, so not doing anything at all is going to help? Of course he only repeated the no tax mantra when I asked how the infrastructure would be fixed.

Maybe I'm naive but when our farm was going down we had to let our health insurance go. This meant we did not go to the doctor for anything even though my husband had a high rate of melanoma in his family. I wasn't so stupid as to think that we could raise money by having a yard sale. We didn't pay taxes throughout this period. Well I'd rather pay taxes any day because it means I'm making money!

I'm not an expert by any stretch but I just think Haiti and Somali when I think of no oversight at all on anything. What do we really want for this country? I want a lot more good than selfishly keeping every penny I make.

Not the Cleaning Person

“I wasn't put on this earth to clean”; that is and has been my mantra for many years. I've never been a person to clean up and probably never will; I know my weakness here.

For quite a few years we'd had a housekeeper then late in 2006 I had the brilliant idea that I could keep the place clean, saving the money we'd been spending on the housekeeper to spend on a trip to Europe. About November 2006 our housekeeper started cussing about various things I'd asked and then as my dad was dying she decided to quit. That was fine as it fit into my plan to let her go.

Since that time we've attempted to keep the house up but it rarely looks good throughout the entire house. Most of the time I don't look so just don't see it; easy way to take care of the problem right?

A couple of days ago, like I do once a year or so, I got a bug in my butt and started cleaning up this place. Today I just had to clean in my bedroom. Now several of my rooms have high ceilings. I'd vacuumed the entry ceiling and then went to my bedroom. I was trying to vacuum behind the wine racks but couldn't reach the ceiling. As I stretched and turned I winched my back; ouch! I never could get the spider webs in the corner at the ceiling but hurt my back and ended up having to take some ibuprofen.

I did finish cleaning up several rooms but with the sore back. I hate taking medicine so just sucked it up. When my hubby came home from his morning job I told him that here was the proof that I wasn't put on this earth to clean. See, if I wouldn't have been cleaning then my back would be fine! Now I don't believe in gods etc. but it makes for a great excuse! Time to get a housekeeper as I don't want more back problems.

An Afternoon at Prairie Creek

On Saturday we finally made it to Arcata, to our son's. Arcata is in the redwood country and we've been wanting to go back to Prairie Creek State Park, a park about an hour north of Arcata. We suggested to our son that we all pack up in the truck and go, returning when our daughter-in-law got off work.

We first stopped at Wildberries, an upscale grocery store nearby buying lunch stuff that we could eat in the car: smoked salmon, cheeses, juice, crackers, and so forth. We all stuffed as we drove.

Prairie Creek not only has redwood trees but also has herds of Elk. We thought that it would be fun to see the elk with the kids and maybe do a hike then go to the Visitor's Center.

Justin use to work for the CCC so he showed me a site where they cleared out everything and replanted natural grasses, restoring the area to the way it looked many years ago. We then hiked thru the redwoods to a waterfall. Kids walked and ran up and down the trails looking for wild blackberries to eat.

Elk were out and I got excited to shoot some photos of several close to the road. Like the stupid visitors, I ran up close to get a good shot. Justin was really upset as one elk was getting a little nervous. I did have to admit that I did get a little too close but I didn't really think that the elk would bother me. Isn't that what they all think?