Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Easter with the WDs

Tim and Todd did the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race this year. This year the water was high.  Four times average height at 11ft at the USGS stream gauge! The rest of us waited at 6 Mile Falls to see our Daddies come through:
This is my pitiful picture of them when they finally came over the falls. They are the ones in the red canoe you can hardly see under the bridge.
Thanks to the skilled folks at Whittling Fog Photography, though, we can see the whole show go down step by step.

  1. First, Tim and Todd approach the falls, aiming for the central sluice, but ending up a bit river-left of it.  Note: this is dangerous, because left is where the rocks lie!
  2. Next, they slide left.
  3. Then, they reach the white water!
  4. They seem to bounce out.
  5. But it's not so clear they've escaped.
  6. Then, it's done, and Todd is hooting.
  7. Finally, they celebrate with a "Mando."
Susie lazed around during the whole visit. Whoever said parenting young kids was hard work?
She set us up with the sweetest Easter egg decorating operation ever:
Book reading with TD. The kids were so into it that Reid ended up eating that entire rhino:
The Easter loot was like nothing you've ever seen:
 
Truly.  We think we now know how Easter is done.
 
And so do our kids. 

Then, we celebrated with large moving wooden structures, which, as you can see, is awesome.
It was great to have some time with the WD clan.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Even Obama deserves maple syrup

Liam made this drawing before breakfast this morning. I asked him about it. He said it is President Obama taking the day off to tap trees and make maple syrup. Note the sugar shack and the bucket on the tree collecting sap.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Maple Syrup Sunday

Checking buckets:
Daily records for number of quarts of syrup produced:
Our friend Jenny is doing her master's work on the effect of climate change on sap flow. We got to see her operation. The kids are as enamored of her as we are:
The University extension program's sugar shack:
Forty to 50 gallons of sap are required for 1 gallon of syrup. That equals a lot of steam:
Then we had pickles donuts and maple syrup on… Not snow! Maple syrup on ice cream. A second best.

Then Katie lifted 90 pounds of child to show them the evaporation equipment!

In honor of spring, Reid and Katie had lunch outside today:

Friday, April 4, 2014