Old Farmer's Advice

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.

Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.

Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.

A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.

Words that soak into your ears are whispered…not yelled.

Meanness don’t jes’ happen overnight.

Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads.

Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.

You cannot unsay a cruel word.

Every path has a few puddles.

When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.

The best sermons are lived, not preached.

Most of the stuff people worry about ain’t never gonna happen anyway.

Don ‘t judge folks by their relatives.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Live a good, honorable life.. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time.

Don ‘t interfere with somethin’ that ain’t bothering you none.

Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a Rain dance.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’.

Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin’.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in

If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around..

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply.

Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

It was another awesome week of skiing, albeit some weird, changing snow conditions. We saw above freezing temps that made the snow "change" or granulize. One morning, I could barely walk down the steps to my car without slipping and sliding and then floundering on all fours. If anyone saw me they would of though no way was this girl once a professional athlete and also , no way was this girl going to be able to ski today.

But warming temps brought some of the best hero snow ever. I was a tele goddess for a 3 hour window. By dark it had set up again and the trails were lightning fast and loud. Skating on it this morning was okay, but scary fast on the down. My bum leg hates doing "power wedges" down the hill, so its lots of parallel turns and holding my breath.

I got to ski with the tele teacher guru, Dickie Hall. If you want to learn to tele, this is the man to learn it from. He gives great advice like if you want to know what ski length to use, try one size on one leg and the other size on the other leg and you'll know right away after an hour which is the size for you. But he also says everything fun in life is done with the hips, so use your hips to tele ski.

I also loved making turns with Mikey, Stroski, Spencer, Chaga, TP,Charlie, Geo and Chipper of course. What a cool group of XC nords. Thank You Friends!

Snow Coma

January has been one awesome snow month. I love skiing.

More Hashing and lots of night skiing

Wow, what an awesome week of super cold temperatures and snowy days. It was great to be up in Canaan to enjoy the deep freeze and purple powder alerts. I'm working at White Grass this winter and not going anywhere warm. I've been seeing so many friends and people from my skiing past, it has been really social. Working those busy days means lots of night skiing, which I love. Especially on my wooden skis with my buddies.

There was a large, raucous crew of iceboxers this week and for New Years. The toilet couldn't handle it, but the house was cozy warm. Even baby Ethan thought it was great.

There was a dress up blue moon hash with speed buck and sparkle horse as the oh so fast hares. How do they do it. Franco, Mandy and Me rounded up the rear , but did the whole thing. The singing and the fries at the brew pub were both tasty. These are really fun things to do even when its raining.

I have to say, I'm so glad that I don't have to train outside on a bike in these temperatures. XC skiing is just so fun and a great aerobic workout that I'm happy, happy!