December 27- It’s another beautiful day! I am now officially living in a dream land. I watched the Steelers’ game in the morning. Good job Steelers (or should I say bad job Ravens). After the game, I bundled up, strapped on my snowshoes, and headed out to tour the property. The temperature was a warm 34 degrees, and the wind was non-existent. I walked up the hill behind the hotel with the sled in tow. I saw coyote tracks and bighorn sheep tracks. The sheep must bed down on top of the hill because I saw ten or more spots where they have laid down in the snow. My guess is that they lay up there in the morning to soak up the morning sun. There were tall blades of grass sticking out from the snow that were covered with ice crystals. They looked just like the rock candy you can buy in the store. I took some pictures and headed down, via sled, to the lakeside of the hotel. Everything was just so quiet! I found a good sled-riding hill and made a few runs down. I had a pretty good crash, but it was so much fun. After sledding, I headed back to the cabin to exchange the boots and snowshoes for my five dollar thrift store ice skates. There is a big frozen puddle right off the side of one of the buildings. It was big enough to rekindle my ice skating skills. Turns out that ice skating is just like riding a bike (it just comes right back to you). Now, I am back inside watching the sun go down and the Eagles beat up on the Broncos.
December 28- I put in some hours over at the hotel...more painting! We are now down in the basement of the annex. It is kind of dark and spooky down there. The sun was shining again, but the wind is back. It was in the high 20's, but the wind made it feel much colder. There was a nice sunset over the mountains!
December 29- Today was another long day of painting. The blue skies have vanished, and we are back in a windy, gray winter wonderland. Today, we braved the lake and trekked across it on the way over to the hotel. It is pretty solid! We hope to get out there soon with the ice auger and drill a hole in the ice. I didn't see any wildlife nor did I see any sheep tracks. I'm not looking forward to another day of painting in the cold dark basement.
December 30- Guess what! I did some more painting. Luckily I only worked into the early afternoon. Jeff and I drilled our first hole in the lake. We used a hand auger to drill through the lake. Basically, the auger has extremely sharp blades on the bottom and a handle of the top. It is kind of like churning butter, only harder. The circular motion creates the hole in the ice. The ice was 18 inches thick!!! It was getting dark, so we didn't fish. I ice skated for a few minutes before going inside to warm up.
December 31- Two of our friends treked out here (over seven miles) to meet us for the holiday. They got a very late start (4:30 pm), so we hiked in the dark for most of the way. We had a wonderful time with our friends, and it was nice to see some friendly faces. The best part was that they brought us our mail. That means I got your Christmas cards. I can't even tell you how happy I was to get the cards! They are awesome!!!
January 1- HAPPY NEW YEAR! All four of us treked across the lake to the hotel. We went sledding a couple of times, but it was incredibly windy (and miserable). We spent most of the day inside spending time with our friends.
January 2- Our friends left this morning. Jeff and I had planned to hike out part of the way with them, but it is very windy again. Luckily, the wind will be at their backs all the way to their car, but Jeff and I would have been fighting the wind to get back to the cabin. So, we will just relax today and probably shovel some snow.
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