lots of firewood

Had a friend who is a forester come over and help me figure out how to improve our woods. We have a couple areas that actually have some good trees- shagbark hickory.

Unfortunately, some of them are too close together, and will keep each other from getting their full potential. So we marked some trees to thin. Most were 3" to 6" in diameter. Hickory is a very good firewood. So I'll be cutting them down this spring.

Also, I practiced identifying trees in the winter, when you only have bark, twigs, and general shape to go on. Turns out we also have a couple pretty large ash trees that will be dying soon because of the emerald ash borers.

AND, there are a few large black cherry trees that have poor shape, and should just a well come down and let them stump sprout.

So we'll be flush with firewood for a couple years.

curling

Show of hands, how many of you have ever curled? Or even know anyone who has curled?

If you know me, now you know someone who has curled.

Last time we went up to the U.P. to visit Bri, Michael, and family, Michael was nice enough to take me to a curling practice. There is a newly forming curling club, and it's very informal training/practice right now, with hopes to get more interest and more formal, with possibly even competitions.

Gotta have new talent in the pipeline for future winter olympics, right?

So, I learned the proper form and curling motion to set the stone off toward the scoring circle, but that does not mean I am good at it. Turns out it is rather fun, but does require some balance, coordination, and "touch" to do well at it.

You need to dress warmly, since it's chilly on the rink, but you need to be able to bend and flex during delivery, so maybe cross country ski clothes?

Here is proper, olympic level form:

picture is from the wikipedia article.

And you need curling shoes. Yes, that is a thing.

It is essentially shuffleboard on ice ( we were using a hockey rink) but the placement strategy and ability to put english on the stone or alter its path with the sweepers makes it "chess on ice". Aiming for scoring, aiming for setting up blocking to prevent the other team from scoring or knocking your stone out of the scoring circle make for high demands on accurate throws.

The stone is a 40 pound polished round hunk of special granite that can take the banging and freezing temps. Only a couple quarries in the world are considered suitable, so the stones are not cheap. $500 a stone is typical for a new stone, and you need 16 for a full game set!

The wikipedia article will give you all the rules and history, for those who want to know.