Saturday, March 26, 2011
Small Monster of Energy
As if completing 47 laps at the walkathon wasn't enough yesterday (an estimated 11 miles!), Nimue came home, made herself an armadillo costume out of a cardboard box, and bounced around the house for the rest of the evening.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Wet Hike
Me and Ma went on a hike at Long Ridge today. We saw lots of cool things, like mushrooms and flowers. We even saw deer! We also found a dead squirrel that freaked Mommy out. There were some fire houses here and there along the trail, too. Ma pointed all of them out to me. We also saw all sorts of views. I walked more than 3 whole miles, and I felt proud of myself. At the end of the hike, I was able to get new hiking boots at Big 5. Fun for all!(Even though I was tired.)
Saturday, March 19, 2011
The Blinky Thingie
Today me and Daddy used some parts to make a blinky (that works incredibly well). How we did it is this: we soldered some LEDs and some wires into a circuit board, then we soldered a battery box (with batteries) into place. We turned it on, and ta-da! By the way, I had fun learning to solder. :D
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
In case you need your Nimue fix...
1) Silly kid when we went up to SF over the weekend to see Frosty
2) Post rainy/muddy mountain bike ride at Coe (note the mud splats on her face!)
2) Post rainy/muddy mountain bike ride at Coe (note the mud splats on her face!)
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Week of Winter
What you want to see when you're headed to Downieville and then Tahoe for ski week:
Snow snow snow ---wahooo! As we drove up Friday night, it was snowing at lower elevation than I've seen on the way to Downieville. As an added side benefit, Chad got to trigger all the traction control features of the truck and prove that it is quite capable in these conditions.
Saturday morning dawned sunny and lazy; we spent the day showing Nimue how to use her rented cross-country skis on the snow-covered school field, Linda practiced her snowshoe-running technique (not as easy as it looks in the Title Nine catalog!), a snowman was built, and Nim got to play on the powder-covered jungle gym, followed by much lounging and reading back in the cozy house.
The next day, we all headed up to Lunch Creek to do some real skiing. Nim learned how much difference there is between breaking trail in more than a foot of snow vs. following someone else's track. Chad and I discovered that there is a temperature at which the deep snow is sticky enough to clomp onto the bottom of the skis, making downhill sliding impossible, even at a relatively steep pitch. It is quite eerie to have one's skis pointed straight downhill in the trees yet not be able to budge. We all eventually devolved to playing with the saucer -- quite fun, once Chad plowed the initial path.
Fortunately when we went back the next day, it was colder, and the snow lived up to its potential. Chad and I skied out a couple of miles in on the road at Lunch Creek and then yo-yoed joyfully up and down the hill off to the side in the best backcountry snow I've ever seen. That slope was covered in several feet of bottomless boing-y powder that launched us flying at every turn. The beauty of skiing out there, of course, is that we had the entire hill to ourselves! I'm quite enjoying having a good set of randonnee gear (the lightweight Dynafit bindings are key, but I also like the comfy yellow boots, decent skins, and Black Diamond Kilowatt skis) so I don't have to try to telemark anymore.
On Tuesday, we finally made it up to Yuba Pass, where we again bopped up and down the hill after skiing in a bit. Chad and I ran into his/Linda's friend Gunnar while we were in the process of tracking up the secret stash of snow Gunnar had been headed for -- fortunately there was still enough for all to enjoy (the excellent skin trail that Chad had put in place didn't hurt either!)
Linda joined us for much of the fun, as well as watching Nimue when Chad and I took off to yo-yo up and down the hill on skis. (thank you!)
We all enjoyed the view across the Sierra Valley from Yuba Pass. (Hello, Hallelujah junction!)
Also enjoyed the Monkey Face:
Note: Nimue told me in no uncertain terms that this is NOT a monkey face, but rather "Silly Tongue Face #2". This one's gotta be genetic.
After all that, we still had the second (Tahoe) half of the trip. We had an uneventful drive over to Stephan's cabin, where we met his family for dinner before they headed home and we settled in for an evening of listening to the next storm roll in.
6" of fresh snow overnight + storming all day + lesson with instructor she already knew = one happy Nim. I was quite gratified to hear her say "Whenever something seemed hard, I thought 'Tough like Ma', and that made it better." Chad and I had a lot of fun in the deep snow in the trees (aside from the one run which dumped us on the low-visibility powder bumps; I quite liked them, but they were apparently quite challenging for those on tele skis...).
The snow kept coming down in true Sierra fashion all night, giving us a few more feet of the good stuff. Chad carefully drove us over to Sugarbowl again in near-whiteout conditions amidst the snowplows and other drivers exhibiting varying levels of foolishness. My job was to point out any obstacles, oncoming vehicles, the edge of the road, etc. in a calm voice. "You are now close to the snowbank on the edge -- veer left." By the time we made it over to the parking lot, I had my doubts about the wind, but we were there, Nim's lesson was non-refundable at that point (at least on paper), and there were fresh tracks to be had.
We dropped Nim off for her lesson and headed up the hill.
Wind! Blowing snowing white wind! Good thing we had the right clothing for the conditions. We were warm and cozy (at least I was). A couple of the lifts were running, with very few other skiers around. Not being able to see the ground? Minor detail. Skiing by braille is entertaining when you know you're on part of the mountain where you can't get into too much trouble.
At one point, we saw Nim out with her instructor; all appeared to be well, and she can clearly handle herself in the powder. I suspect she likes it partly due to parental brainwashing ("Of course this is fun!") and partly due to the fact that the deep snow makes it easier to control one's speed. She's the careful, deliberate sort of kid skier rather than the speed demon type.
We quickly figured out that the thing to do was to ski along the edge of the trees where you could sort of see each successive piece of tall vegetation looming in front of you as a guide to the bottom. Normally I prefer to ski off trail, but there was so much new snow that the trail itself might as well have been off trail. Actually skiing in between the trees was an excercise in foolishness, as the snow had blown in so deep that you couldn't make headway except in the really steep parts. Snow blowing everywhere -- horizontally, from the left, from the right, with occasional gusts strong enough to either make you come to a dead halt, or go screaming off further than you meant, depending on which direction you were trying to go.
Great fun. I was apparently laughing my head off (the ski instructor who saw me go by made fun of me later when I picked up Nim). Both of us turned into giant snowballs at various points. What else is one to do?
Also quite disorienting -- poor Chad suffered from a bit of vertigo, which was partially mitigated by following closely behind me, thus having a reference point to determine where the ground was, and apparently Nimue and her instructor had to help another couple of skiers figure out how to get out of the trees and down the hill.
After a couple of hours of this, all the lifts went on wind hold (reported gusts to 90mph) along the top of one of the ridges) so we headed over to the lodge. I popped over to the kid hut to see how Nim's lesson had been going, figuring they'd be in for a hot chocolate break. It was tricky even navigating from one building to the next as it felt like I was in a snow globe that was in the process of being shaken by a demented monster monkey.
Not too surprisingly, the kid hut was full of staff and a few brave kids having hot chocolate. Nim's instructor saw me as I walked in, and immediately jumped into a description of how she was doing great, and was happy, and was pretty much the only kid willing to go out in those conditions. A minute later, a happy, pink-faced, hot-chocolate-bearing Nim popped around the corner to confirm. Yay Nim! I was afraid she'd be disappointed at the outcome of a conversation I had with the supervisor at that point about possible lesson refunds if the lifts were all going to close (the lessons here are excellent, but expensive), but upon hearing that all lessons were shutting down she said "Oh good. That wind is crazy!" Even I had to concur. With the storm blowing everyone off the mountain and the promise that our tickets would be refunded, we headed back to the cabin.
Minor adventures getting back to the cabin, as we had to go back over Donner Pass, but the truck with its monster chains shows every sign of being unstoppable if treated carefully, and there wasn't much traffic going in our direction due to the stretch of freeway downhill behind us being closed due to a downed tree. The last stretch of neighborhood street before the cabin had accumulated enough snow since it had been plowed a couple of hours previously to seem more like something one would ski on than drive over. The truck appears to be as good for winter silliness as it is for that of the summer variety.
Once snug and safe inside, we had a relaxing afternoon reading and watching the wind and snow rage outside.
Our last day dawned clear and sunny; we headed over to Donner Ski Ranch for a day of family powder skiing. This is a good choice for a day when skiing with Nimue, as she's good enough to ski all the trails there -- i.e. I can't possibly lead her astray like I do with Chad occasionally... Given that it's a smaller old-fashioned resort, there are way fewer people there, making it possible to find deep untracked snow all the way until we left to head home :)
For now, it's back to the warmer lowlands. There was clearly quite a bit of snow in the hills in our home neck of the woods over the weekend too, as I've heard reports of 6" on highway 17, seen pictures of snow at Rancho San Antonio (that has to have been down to 1000 feet or lower), and shivered past the remnants of snow on the side of Skyline Blvd several sunny days after the storm on my bike. (Brrrrr.....) Despite this, the irises are blooming in our front yard. Spring? Winter? Dunno.
Snow snow snow ---wahooo! As we drove up Friday night, it was snowing at lower elevation than I've seen on the way to Downieville. As an added side benefit, Chad got to trigger all the traction control features of the truck and prove that it is quite capable in these conditions.
Saturday morning dawned sunny and lazy; we spent the day showing Nimue how to use her rented cross-country skis on the snow-covered school field, Linda practiced her snowshoe-running technique (not as easy as it looks in the Title Nine catalog!), a snowman was built, and Nim got to play on the powder-covered jungle gym, followed by much lounging and reading back in the cozy house.
The next day, we all headed up to Lunch Creek to do some real skiing. Nim learned how much difference there is between breaking trail in more than a foot of snow vs. following someone else's track. Chad and I discovered that there is a temperature at which the deep snow is sticky enough to clomp onto the bottom of the skis, making downhill sliding impossible, even at a relatively steep pitch. It is quite eerie to have one's skis pointed straight downhill in the trees yet not be able to budge. We all eventually devolved to playing with the saucer -- quite fun, once Chad plowed the initial path.
Fortunately when we went back the next day, it was colder, and the snow lived up to its potential. Chad and I skied out a couple of miles in on the road at Lunch Creek and then yo-yoed joyfully up and down the hill off to the side in the best backcountry snow I've ever seen. That slope was covered in several feet of bottomless boing-y powder that launched us flying at every turn. The beauty of skiing out there, of course, is that we had the entire hill to ourselves! I'm quite enjoying having a good set of randonnee gear (the lightweight Dynafit bindings are key, but I also like the comfy yellow boots, decent skins, and Black Diamond Kilowatt skis) so I don't have to try to telemark anymore.
On Tuesday, we finally made it up to Yuba Pass, where we again bopped up and down the hill after skiing in a bit. Chad and I ran into his/Linda's friend Gunnar while we were in the process of tracking up the secret stash of snow Gunnar had been headed for -- fortunately there was still enough for all to enjoy (the excellent skin trail that Chad had put in place didn't hurt either!)
Linda joined us for much of the fun, as well as watching Nimue when Chad and I took off to yo-yo up and down the hill on skis. (thank you!)
We all enjoyed the view across the Sierra Valley from Yuba Pass. (Hello, Hallelujah junction!)
Also enjoyed the Monkey Face:
Note: Nimue told me in no uncertain terms that this is NOT a monkey face, but rather "Silly Tongue Face #2". This one's gotta be genetic.
After all that, we still had the second (Tahoe) half of the trip. We had an uneventful drive over to Stephan's cabin, where we met his family for dinner before they headed home and we settled in for an evening of listening to the next storm roll in.
6" of fresh snow overnight + storming all day + lesson with instructor she already knew = one happy Nim. I was quite gratified to hear her say "Whenever something seemed hard, I thought 'Tough like Ma', and that made it better." Chad and I had a lot of fun in the deep snow in the trees (aside from the one run which dumped us on the low-visibility powder bumps; I quite liked them, but they were apparently quite challenging for those on tele skis...).
The snow kept coming down in true Sierra fashion all night, giving us a few more feet of the good stuff. Chad carefully drove us over to Sugarbowl again in near-whiteout conditions amidst the snowplows and other drivers exhibiting varying levels of foolishness. My job was to point out any obstacles, oncoming vehicles, the edge of the road, etc. in a calm voice. "You are now close to the snowbank on the edge -- veer left." By the time we made it over to the parking lot, I had my doubts about the wind, but we were there, Nim's lesson was non-refundable at that point (at least on paper), and there were fresh tracks to be had.
We dropped Nim off for her lesson and headed up the hill.
Wind! Blowing snowing white wind! Good thing we had the right clothing for the conditions. We were warm and cozy (at least I was). A couple of the lifts were running, with very few other skiers around. Not being able to see the ground? Minor detail. Skiing by braille is entertaining when you know you're on part of the mountain where you can't get into too much trouble.
At one point, we saw Nim out with her instructor; all appeared to be well, and she can clearly handle herself in the powder. I suspect she likes it partly due to parental brainwashing ("Of course this is fun!") and partly due to the fact that the deep snow makes it easier to control one's speed. She's the careful, deliberate sort of kid skier rather than the speed demon type.
We quickly figured out that the thing to do was to ski along the edge of the trees where you could sort of see each successive piece of tall vegetation looming in front of you as a guide to the bottom. Normally I prefer to ski off trail, but there was so much new snow that the trail itself might as well have been off trail. Actually skiing in between the trees was an excercise in foolishness, as the snow had blown in so deep that you couldn't make headway except in the really steep parts. Snow blowing everywhere -- horizontally, from the left, from the right, with occasional gusts strong enough to either make you come to a dead halt, or go screaming off further than you meant, depending on which direction you were trying to go.
Great fun. I was apparently laughing my head off (the ski instructor who saw me go by made fun of me later when I picked up Nim). Both of us turned into giant snowballs at various points. What else is one to do?
Also quite disorienting -- poor Chad suffered from a bit of vertigo, which was partially mitigated by following closely behind me, thus having a reference point to determine where the ground was, and apparently Nimue and her instructor had to help another couple of skiers figure out how to get out of the trees and down the hill.
After a couple of hours of this, all the lifts went on wind hold (reported gusts to 90mph) along the top of one of the ridges) so we headed over to the lodge. I popped over to the kid hut to see how Nim's lesson had been going, figuring they'd be in for a hot chocolate break. It was tricky even navigating from one building to the next as it felt like I was in a snow globe that was in the process of being shaken by a demented monster monkey.
Not too surprisingly, the kid hut was full of staff and a few brave kids having hot chocolate. Nim's instructor saw me as I walked in, and immediately jumped into a description of how she was doing great, and was happy, and was pretty much the only kid willing to go out in those conditions. A minute later, a happy, pink-faced, hot-chocolate-bearing Nim popped around the corner to confirm. Yay Nim! I was afraid she'd be disappointed at the outcome of a conversation I had with the supervisor at that point about possible lesson refunds if the lifts were all going to close (the lessons here are excellent, but expensive), but upon hearing that all lessons were shutting down she said "Oh good. That wind is crazy!" Even I had to concur. With the storm blowing everyone off the mountain and the promise that our tickets would be refunded, we headed back to the cabin.
Minor adventures getting back to the cabin, as we had to go back over Donner Pass, but the truck with its monster chains shows every sign of being unstoppable if treated carefully, and there wasn't much traffic going in our direction due to the stretch of freeway downhill behind us being closed due to a downed tree. The last stretch of neighborhood street before the cabin had accumulated enough snow since it had been plowed a couple of hours previously to seem more like something one would ski on than drive over. The truck appears to be as good for winter silliness as it is for that of the summer variety.
Once snug and safe inside, we had a relaxing afternoon reading and watching the wind and snow rage outside.
Our last day dawned clear and sunny; we headed over to Donner Ski Ranch for a day of family powder skiing. This is a good choice for a day when skiing with Nimue, as she's good enough to ski all the trails there -- i.e. I can't possibly lead her astray like I do with Chad occasionally... Given that it's a smaller old-fashioned resort, there are way fewer people there, making it possible to find deep untracked snow all the way until we left to head home :)
For now, it's back to the warmer lowlands. There was clearly quite a bit of snow in the hills in our home neck of the woods over the weekend too, as I've heard reports of 6" on highway 17, seen pictures of snow at Rancho San Antonio (that has to have been down to 1000 feet or lower), and shivered past the remnants of snow on the side of Skyline Blvd several sunny days after the storm on my bike. (Brrrrr.....) Despite this, the irises are blooming in our front yard. Spring? Winter? Dunno.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Last sunshine for a while
Over the weekend, before the storm doors re-opened, we headed down to Henry Coe State Park to enjoy the last of the good weather. Chad needed to get a good ride in, so he took his mountain bike; Nim and I hiked, as that was where her motivation was. (When you're expecting a kid to happily traverse a trail with 1800 feet of elevation gain, you don't quibble about the mode of travel!) We all set out from the Hunting Hollow entrance, with snacks, reading material, and comfy chairs left in the truck for whoever got back first. I really expected that'd be Nim and me.
Nimue and I hiked up Middle Steer Trail, which, like most other trails in this park, has its steep bits. For the most part, she stayed quite cheerful, and we stopped to snack and/or try to catch bugs whenever her energy started to wane.
The wildflower season is just starting. The best of the blooms, at least as far as my camera was concerned, was this shooting star -- other than that, I amused myself with the bugs while Nimue ate her snacks.
Us at the top. At this point, Nim was convinced that I was Mean Ma and that she would be wiped out by the time we made it to the bottom. Still cheery though.
Fortunately, it was pretty much all downhill from here, and we went down what must be a recent new realignment of the Jim Donnelly Trail. It was surprisingly gentle in terms of grade compared to everything else around, and definitely fit Nimue's oft-repeated chant description "Skinny skinny Singletrack! Skinny skinny Singletrack! I don't know where we're going, I don't know where we're going. I hope we get there soon." This inspired a lot of skipping. I definitely want to ride up this trail now, as it seems so humane compared to the alternate routes up.
There is a map of the area we hiked here, or you can get a sense of the terrain from the GPS trace:
In the end, Chad beat us back to the truck by about an hour. This didn't seem like a bad fate, as he was happily sitting in a camp chair in the sun with a bottle of homebrew when we found him, post 20+ mile mountain bike climbathon :) We stopped at In-n-Out on the way out so Nimue could get the double cheeseburger she had been fantasizing about on the trail, and she bounced in the back seat all the way home.
This morning brought rain and crazy wind (which didn't stop me from biking, although it arguably should have), and rain is on the horizon for at least the next week, so this is probable the last of the California sunshine gloating for a while. On the bright side, next week is ski week!
Yoda meets Space Kitty
Nimue's been taking an after school cartooning class, with predictable results.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Signs of Spring
Despite all the snow in other parts of the country, it's been acting like spring around here, with highs near 70 degrees. This means that it is time to weed out all of the evil oxalis that tries to take over the lawn (left, looking rather pretty), and also that the daffodils are blooming.
It also means it is time to drag the family out on hikes:
enjoy the views from the top of the ridge:
and ride to wretched excess!
Award-winning poster
Nimue was quite proud of the fact that her class voted her poster from Drug-Free Week to be the best. We just got it back after its sojourn on the school office wall.
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