Either Fabric or Fins

Well the planets, moons, sunspots finally aligned and Sophia and I were able to get out to make use of her new christmas present, a blaze orange tip-up. Last year when we went out ice fishing people were catching fish on tip ups and ever since then she has been asking to "Fish with flags." Her grandparents came through on the big holiday and Saturday was the first outing. We emptied some cookie dough out of a bucket in the fridge to use as a minnow bucket, picked up some minnows on the way out of town and made the big drive 15 minutes from the house to find a frozen slab of ice. Sophia was very excited once I drilled through the roughly 14 inches of ice with the hand auger and she able to get her tip up set. We had practice setting the tip up in the kitchen and even more enjoyable for her was to practice running from the living room to the kitchen when I made her flag pop. This by the way was easily 45 minutes of entertainment the previous weekend. With her tip up set she figured I should get another hole drilled for her so she could jig too. She had picked out a rabbit hair zonker from my fly box and wanted to give that a try. By the time I had three holes drilled and plunked a line in myself it was hot chocolate time. The sun was bright and there was no wind so the 8-10 degree temperatures were quite comfortable. As the day wore on Sophia made a couple of trips to the 'neighbors' to see the fish (bass) that they were catching and took some breaks to go wander the ice. At one point she came back to me and said "Dad, I am brave and true, but is this mostly ice?" My thought was "brave and true" are you writing a literary epic? Unfortunately she didn't hook anything on the tip up but got very proficient at clearing the holes of ice and easily talked more than every other person on the ice combined. Merrick was too young for this trip and he was home napping and then off to hunt textiles with mom, I think fabrics tend to herd up this time of year. As is usually the case she is ready to go home long after I am, and I think she was willing to wait until she caught a fish on her tip up. Once the sun went down (quickly followed by the temperature) I was able to convince her that it was time to take her chocolate laden mitten and the rest of her home. Where after filling her belly with a ham dinner that Lisa had been cooking in our absence her eyes got pretty heavy.

Long days and longer days

With the end of 08 finding us outside so often, 09 is beginning to look a lot like my living room. There was holiday travel and even a couple of short hikes and some driveway hockey, but as the days have gotten longer they have really gotten longer. We are looking forward to a return to routine. We did get the Christmas tree moved outside and Sophia strung popcorn, in a race against Merrick's hand to mouth helpfulness, to place on the tree. The tree hangs out in the backyard with it popcorn garland to serve both as food and shelter for the birds until spring. With the nesting birds the tree will slowly be turned into smore's fuel during the summer nights. The weather has been less than cooperative with high winds bringing low wind chills or as is the case today-rain. Partially weather and partially other inconveniences have required our initial ice fishing outing, but we are hoping to rectify that situation next week. Sophia and I did get all the gear in order and ready to go. The rain does mean that the "zamboni" has come to the back yard rink. I suspect the fresh ice will find us in the mood for an afternoon game today. Merrick finally got his shovel. The single kid shovel has been a source of quarreling for a number of weeks. With his new implement he is a shoveling fiend and borderline obsessive about it. He can easily spend an hour just pushing snow around and throughing it into the air, which generally lands on his own head. Sophia and I hit the indoor ice on Friday for some open skating and our races quickly devolved from just a mere head start to her requiring me to go to the blue line, then back to the goal line then race to the other end for the finish line--she independently discovered the lightening drill at age 5. We have also spent some time on the water slides at the YMCA and indoor activity but it was as close as I was allowed to having the kids join the Polar Bear club.