To clean the ice on the 1/3rd size rink is a real endeavour. Snow blowing, scraping, and then shoveling off all of the wispy bits. Followed by checking the entire pad for cracks, hollow spots, rough edges, and then to flood the ice even further takes time aswell. Drilling a hole in the ice at the water source, dragging the pump down to the water, running stacks of two inch rubber hose, and then letting it flood for three to four hours. It’s a whole thing. Plus you add in the time it takes to get four kids, and several adults dressed, skates & helmets on, and a good two hour skate, and your day is over. Add in some meals, a hot tubbing session, and any other work done around the property and you’ve got yourself a weekend chock full of manual labour. Which is why my shoulder, arms and chest are all sore to the point of hurting. Love it.
Used the small electric Toro snowblower to clear of sixteen inches or more of snow on the back deck. I had to do that in layers, as the little Toro didn’t like being rammed into the bottom of a frozen, icy pile of snow taller than itself. It doesn’t look like much, but after an hour of holding it up in the air to clear off layers, my arms, back, and chest are just groaning today, let me tell you. Still much better than shoveling all that by hand. I imagine that job would have taken me about 3 hours to do manually, and just over 1 hr to do it with the mechanized helper. Huzzah for technology!
It’s Sunday Funday again. Not the usual Lazy Sunday we have around these parts. It is a good time to get out and do stuff, although the cold does inhibit some of the fun. Just have to play in moderation to avoid frostnip, bordering onto frostbite. Sledding, skating, tobogganing are all lots of fun. The snowmobiling is not advised right now as the kids helmets don’t all have face shields, and that wind is dangerously cold. So would I rather lie in bed until 10:00am, have a hot brunch, and then watch movies or read for a good portion of the day by the fireplace? Yes, yes I would. But the kids? Not so much. So activities it is. Probably why some weekends don’t feel very restful as we jump from one activity to another.
Almost a whole month past Christmas and the kids still have a few Lego sets left to build. I took it upon myself to Plough through the submersible build. I finished the main sub, and got 3/4 of the way through the sunken wreck / shark lair. And my oldest built one or two other small ones aswell. There should still be two or three left to go. All small, maybe 250 pieces each, or around there. That’s always a solid move if I want some peace. Lead them to Lego! They will either sit quietly and build for the better part of two hours, or immediately start to squabble over pieces. I think I have it worked out, new sets equal peace, building from the same bin of parts is mayhem. Hence so many small new kits for Christmas/Birthdays.
I have a sneaky suspicion that work is going to pick up in the next couple weeks. I need to review some documentation for a job I have to quote on. I will leave that until later on Monday afternoon. I’m hoping to do some repairs early tomorrow on the van’s bumper before I dig into actual paid work stuff. It’s lashed down pretty well to the body of the van, in order to get the kids to school, but I’d like to try and repair it in a more stable manner if I can. Hot staples, wire mesh, and melting plastic, what could possibly go wrong. At least the temperature is supposed to go up a few degrees this week, so I don’t have to work in subzero temps. Small miracles and all that. Ciao Bella.
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