X-C skiing

With the "warm" winters we've been having in Halifax. cross country skiing is something that doesn't happen too much for me. Nevertheless, Saturday, I managed to overcome inertia and go for a little glide. As you can see from the image below, there was not much snow, and an ATV beat me to the trail...

the weather was nice though, about -9c and sunny with very little wind...

...took me a while to get the stride and rhythm, I forgot how much fun this is...

A bit icy in spots, but it's only January so there should be lots of chances for more....

Old Faithful (not)...

Hot Chocolate was in order of course...

other end is a spoon...

Route followed...I was surprised to realize that I had gone about 1.3 kms in the trail. It only seemed like a few minutes, then again it's easy to cover ground on skis, much quicker than snowshoes. Oh, well, I'm hoping to get some more of this in. One setback though, my ski boots had succumbed to some sort of dry rot while in extended storage...they were falling to pieces (literally) by the time I got back to the van. Not to fear, for a new pair is on order...

more to come...

Belated Happy New Year

We're beyond the first week of January already, WOW ! We all stayed put this Christmas season. Not too busy, but lots of food,fun, and celebration. Christmas morning was quiet but nice...

I think everyone was a little more tired than excited, the by-product of growing up I'm afraid...

 We all headed out to a homeless shelter to help serve Christmas Dinner to some friends in need. It's good to have the strength to help. We even made it back home in time to put our own feedbag on...

Alas, the boys and their friends had to sit at a separate table. They got over it though.

Switching to New Years, I remember a tradition from home where folk went to church on New Year's Eve to "ring in the new year". Thankfully, a bunch of "young adults" have handsomely resurrected this practice with a service called "Arise". Joel and James were in the thick of things, playing guitar, drums, singing etc. 

I'm glad to see that the new generation is picking up the ball where us "older" folks have so often failed. God help my generation and our collective complacency, Amen.

(above Photo by Ibimina Koko, and I stole it without his permission)

Winter Driving

Here in Halifax, we don't often get winter in the true sense of the word. Here along he coast, most storms has some element of rain or ice pellets, often with very little snow. Still though, it's unpredictable, and winter city driving can be treacherous. Making things more complex, my old van is rear wheel drive, and even though the engine's in the back too, there's not much weight or traction back there. Properly rated winter tires are hard to find so I'm trying to work out a compromise. I have a pair of those mud and snow (M+S) rated tires, but they are not the best. Normally, I just stay put if the roads are bad, but I get concerned about getting stranded out somewhere while the weather turns yucky. So I'm trying something old fashioned: Tire Chains. I picked up some at Princess Auto recently. i saw them there last year, but the $99 price tag made me procrastinate until the other day I saw them marked down to $25.08. Bingo. They are a funny design, with two ratcheting gizmos for self-tightening.

I had yet to install the M+S tires, so I figured I should check the fit...

They fit just fine, so I went ahead and put the tires on...

The chains install quickly and easily, without having to do any jacking or moving. My plan is to keep them in the vehicle, and hopefully if I get caught out in miserable road conditions, they'll help get me home. See below for an installation video from the manufacturer...

Christmas Root Beer 2012

I've rambled on about this before, and normally it's a last minute thing. HomeMade Root Beer needs a full week or so to carbonate properly. In previous years, I often got around to making it just in time. This year I had it ready by December 1st or so. The downside (isn't there always one?) of course is that the first batch is almost all gone. No big problem, I'll make another one.

Fortunately, a good friend gifted me with a nice green milk crate of 16 large reusable bottles. That made the second batch a much easier undertaking since the extra bottles meant I didn't have to wait for the first batch...not that I had to wait long :)

 

I did have a slight issue with the bigger bottles though; see the red circle in the picture above, where the bottle is touching the metal shank of the capper. I was a little hesitant to apply pressure, thinking it might smash said precious bottle. I got around it by using a different capper (it pays to have more than one of most things) that did not have that block of wood attached to the base. I could have removed the block, but that's work :)

 Anyway, the first batch is all but gone, and the second will be ready to drink by the weekend. My prediction is that at the rate it's being inhaled, I'll need a third batch before Christmas day, not a bad problem since I'm one of the guilty parties...belch !!

The old standard was HIRES Brand extract, but that seems to have vanished. For the last few years, all I've been able to find is this ROYAL Brand. However, it seems to taste just as good. This year it's gone up to about 6 dollars a bottle. Add a bag of sugar, yeast, and bottle caps, and the cost is between 10 and 15 dollars.That;s not really "cheap" when decent President's Choice Draft Root Beer can be had for 50 cents a litre. Then again, it's not about the money  :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!

 

Red Neck Wood Rack

One of the dirty little annoyances associated with using wood as a primary source of heat is the mess it makes. In my case, I generally store it in one corner of the basement while the stove is in the other corner. During the process of carrying it from there to here, lots of pieces of bark and debris end up along the trail. This is picked up by the various size 12 & 13 socks that frequent the area and tracked everywhere. I needed a tall and narrow transport/storage device, and I'm lazy if not clumsy. All of this combined and resulted in my prototype mobile wood rack. A cheap stand-up dolly, 3 "acquired" milk crates, and some nylon tie-wraps resulted in this:

I need to attach a 1 x 3 or so to the bottom crate to help it sit a bit more level, but so far so good...

Handwarmers 3

This is my third post about these things...kind of an obsession I guess.

See first post here.

See 2nd post here.

Yesterday, I received an envelope from Hong Kong, containing some of the new mini aluminum hand warmers. To express it mildly, I'm impressed. They come packaged like this:

 Inside is the warmer, a little faux fur bag, and a little cup for measuring out the proper amount of lighter fluid:

 These things are tiny:

 The construction is very similar to the Zippo and the other knock-offs, and bonus, the burner fits the bigger models too.

But here's the kicker: with less than an ounce of fuel, my first "test" burned for almost 15 hours. That's less than 25 cents worth of fluid for 15 hours of heat. The aluminum is too hot to the touch so it's necessary to keep it in the bag. Four of these can be acquired for the price of just one of the Zippo units. A better alternative than those hideous disposable things. The lighter fluid is readily available, $4.49 at Princess auto for 12oz:

Quick Dessert, saw it on Facebook

Saw this on a friend's Facebook page today...had to come home and try it out...

Start with a bunch of frozen berries in a 9x13 pan

Cover with a (dry) white cake mix

Carefully pour a can of lemon lime, sprite etc on top.

Bake for 45 minutes at 350F

and it's almost gone...

Except for a few powdery spots where the cake mix didn't dissolve, it turned out great !!