What winter? 2015/16 Season recap.

Well winter was such a tease this year.  We didnt get any snow storms that provided 8 or more inches of snow.  The best skiing was in January where we had a little base with 8" of fresh on top for a week or two.  We ended up using the toddler tow quite a bit (given that it doesnt require a lot of snow to ski).  It was fun to have family and friends over for Rusty's 3rd bday party.

Melissa and Jackson on the tow.

Everyone had a blast.  We even did some sledding too.

Mike took his sledding skills up a notch.

Jay and Zoe.

Birthday cake for the birthday boy.

Kricket and I both did a lot of skiing before or after work during sunrise/sunset.

Looking down homerun glade to the house.

It was definitely a year to ski on manmade snow.  The green beginner trails were actually pretty epic!  Rusty took his first solo turns and the rest was history.  Here is Rusty at Pico.

Pico season pass holders get a free voucher to Sunapee so we skied there as well.

We're lucky that the clostest nordic center to our house happens to make snow on a 5k loop.  This was Elet's first time on skis.

We also skied a Smuggs.  Here is Rusty and Elet with mom.

Throwin down the pizza wedge.  Elet was more into throwing down the 11's aka french fries.

Lots of front yard skiing too of course.

Rusty did a lot of biking in the snow too.

He often requested that we bring his bike along so that he could ski AND bike.

By March Rusty was skiing most of Golden Express at Pico on his own.

Pico closed early but luckily our passses were good to use at Killington which stayed open well into April.

Looking forward to reviving this blog for the upcoming 2016/17 season.  Hopefully we'll have more snow and if that's the case Ibshould be much more motivated to keep this blog rolling!

Finally...some snow

We had the warmest December on record.  It was odd to have 50-60 degree days in December but it gave us a chance to get ahead on projects such as fire wood for next year.

The toddler tow is ready to go... just add snow.

I finally hacked off the end of the exhaust pipe on Roxy.  The end of the pipe was pointed directly at the PT lumber blocking used to hold Roxy up.  This was the culprit of a small fire last year ;)

I also did a little more glading in key spots such as the approach to the new drop jump.

...and below.  Lots of open space in case of an unexpected yard sale.

The new (skiers right) approach to the bottom of the tow is looking good.

Getting into the holiday spirit was a little odd without the snow.  To help make it feel more snowy we created our annual  xmas tree village complete with a ski slope.

The tram actually moves and the kids spent an entire night just watching it.

We did get a few small snow storms.  Not enough snow to really ski but great for biking.

And then finally... Snow!  Not a lot but just enough of the dense snow for toddler tow hill and nordic skiing around the yard.

I was happy to see that the new tow setup seems to be working really well so far.

It pulls more than one person up the hill this time without any slipping on the drive wheel.

Elet just started to walk and I was amazed to see him chasing after his big brother already.  Here he is climbing up the hill.

Checking out the rope... not yet, but someday bud!

I also groomed a short 400 meter loop around the yard for nordic skiing.  It gets a little boring but at night it's not so bad. It's a great way to get a quick ski in after work.  On my first ski I somehow broke a ski.  Not really sure how as I was just cruising along only to notice a broken ski.

When I came in and showed Galen the broken ski he simply suggested we fix it with tape..  So we did.

Jay came over to check out the improved toddler tow.  He took our xmas tree for a ski.  There you have it.. tree.. skiing.

Into Fall

Hard to believe it but winter is just around the corner!

We spent an afternoon installing the new sign for the Rochester Gap Trail.  It's a great short 0.3 mile hike/bike up to a viewpoint overlooking the gap.

Galen and mom did a little trailwork as well.

I've been slowly working on the toddler tow extension.  Added 3 new towers to double the length (now 325' long).

Jay fabricated two more return wheels for the big tow so I was able to get those up on the new tower brackets that I installed last spring.

Fall is also a great time to ride bikes.. into leaf piles!

Who said you need snow to go sledding?

I also started building a drop jump.  The idea is to create a manmade cliff feature.  At first the board was waaay too high.

I brought it down a bit so that the ramp only slopes up a little bit.

It's a pretty solid 10' drop but with 2-3' of powder the landing should be fun.

We also got the rope up on the big tow.  It went smoothly except for the fact that we had to jump back and forth between two come alongs to get the rope stretched onto the tires.  We're thinking a battery powered winch might make it a lot easier next time.

With the first snowfall it made it feel like it was time to rally to get the toddler tow upgrades done.

We bought 1200' of 5/8" twisted poly-dac rope for $430 (including shipping).  Only needed 650' (they come in 600' or 1200' ft rolls) so a friend of ours who also wants to build a small ski hill for their kids in moretown is going to buy the extra 550' ft from us.

I stopped by Middle Mtn to see if Casey had any old extra riding mower wheels hanging around.  Sure enough he had several in the junk pile out back.  The extra third rim was used to lock the none drive wheel.  Jay welded a bolt pattern so that the other two wheels could be bolted together.  The duel wheel setup is the way to go.  I flipped one wheel on backwards so that both tires could be inflated without having tonremove the wheels. The rope sits in the groove in between the two tires.

The day after we hung up the rope our neighbor showed up..  ready to ski?

Bill (the master splicer) offered to splice the toddler tow rope so he came up and spliced the ends together.  Later that day I fired up the mower and the new drive wheel (along with the new rope) seems to be working really well.  Looking forward to testing it out once the snow returns!