What's up with Ice Fishing?

Okay, so I haven't been ice fishing since I was probably 12 and hanging out with Micah and Paul Mullin on Fort Meadow Reservoir.  I remember it being cold, of course, and pretty boring.  I think all I remember us catching was one or two shrimpy perch and pumpkinseeds.  So my expectations were pretty low when we decided to participate in a local ice fishing tournament in Bradford.  Aiden's expectations- well, they weren't so low.  More like celestial, unfortunately.  Aiden is obsessed with fishing of any kind  at the moment.  He reads fish stories (true and not) and watches "Top Hooker" on Amazon and pretty much any YouTube video he can find of someone reeling something in.  Though he did get in some good fishing in earlier this winter in the Keys, ice fishing is pretty much his only physical outlet for this obsession at this time of year in New Hampshire. 

So we borrowed all the gear... the ice auger, the tip ups, even the cool pack basket to make us look like regulars... from Uncle Micah and then set out to Lake Todd on the Sunday of the tournament.  An hour later and only 2 holes dug, Andy was sweating and muttering under his breath about how "fun" this sport was.  Uncle Micah's auger had a broken blade and cutting through the 2' thick ice was so slow that some guy with a power auger took pity on us and buzzed five or so holes in a row for us to use.  Then setting up the tip ups, with minnows for bait, and waiting.  And waiting.  And waiting.  If you couldn't already guess, we caught exactly nothing, not even a credible bite.

Aiden was disappointed, of course, but not deterred.  That's because it was relatively exciting watching other people around us haul in fish, some of them sizeable.  One kid next to us caught a giant smallmouth bass- probably the biggest Andy or I had ever seen anyone catch - only to realize that no trophies were given out for bass in this particular tournament (bummer).  I thought he should have received some sort of prize for that one.  Kids were also reeling up large pickerel out of their ice holes, not 20 feet from our ice holes.  Even after conferring with Uncle Micah, we have no idea what we were doing wrong.  Other than the other guys were there first, and the fish had LOTS of choice that day with nearly 100 kids spread all over the pond dangling minnows at them.

Still, we have bitten the bullet and have now purchased our own ice fishing equipment.  A brand new (sharp!) ice auger and a handful of tip ups.  If the ice holds, we'll get out there again this winter to see if we can actually catch a fish through a hole in the ice.  Wish us luck!

Skiing (and Baking!) with the Siegers

We were very excited a few weeks ago that the Siegers were able to make a trip up to New Hampshire from Long Island to visit us!  Aiden's and Emma's school breaks overlapped for just one weekend, so we were able to take advantage of that time for some winter fun.  Friday was pretty rainy, but Emma and Peter braved ski lessons and later Emma, Aiden, Melanie and I headed to King Arthur Flour for a family cooking class.  We made chicken pot pie, apple crumble pie, and salad- none of which the kids were really that interested in eating (save for the apple pie, perhaps) but they had a good time helping us prepare it nonetheless.  And the adults were only too happy to eat that yummy, buttery, chicken pie.  Melanie is a baker, so I knew she would love the KAF store, and she heaped up a big bag of goods to take with her back to NY.  While we were indulging in culinary arts, they boys took Peter and Haley to the pub.  They had a good time sampling craft brews, even though the kids were "loud" in the restaurant.  Minor problems when you have beer and burgers.

Goofballs at KAF

Mixing the pie dough

Saturday was a bluebird day, and relatively warm (30s!) and springlike.  We took full advantage and skied a full day at Sunapee with the kids.  Emma and Peter did really well... both improved tremendously over the full day, and even more importantly, both were all smiles and not wanting to quit at the end of the day.  Aiden and Andy practiced their snowboarding on the magic carpet, and of course we had to get chocolate covered waffles for a mid-day break.  The kids vegged out with a movie in the evening, and the adults grabbed forks and dug back into that delicious chicken pie from Friday!  We had such a great time with the Siegers... anyone else want to come visit us?!

Casualties (on purpose)

Waffles!

Cousin-buds in their ski boots

The cool gang

The Harriers

Aiden recently joined a New Hampshire young birder's club called The Harriers.  Basically you join for a small fee and receive a signed Stokes field guide and field notebook, and then can attend a wide range of bird related field trips all over NH and coastal Mass.  On Saturday we took our first field trip with the Harriers, to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island to look for Snowy Owls.  It was a beautiful windless morning, cloudy but warm enough to be very comfortable outside standing still for good periods of time.  When we arrived, we hit the beach first, where Aiden got his first lifers of the day, a white-winged scoter and an oldsquaw.  Then a huge bald eagle promptly flew right over our heads and out over the surf!

When the group assembled, we headed out the refuge road and it was less than a minute before we spied our first Snowy Owl, perched atop a swallow nest box out in the marsh.  We scoped him for a good while, and then headed out to the Hellcat tower to see what we could see there.  Another Snowy Owl awaited us from an osprey platform, as well as a short eared owl and a rough legged hawk!  Another trip to the the beach yielded razorbill, black scoter, horned grebe, common loon, and a big flock of snow buntings.  Aiden had a great day, but Andy and I are secretly even more excited about this young birders club than Aiden is.  The reason?  We can finally go birding again, with other people even, and not have to worry about whether others will be annoyed that our kids are there, running around, maybe paying attention to birds, but also maybe throwing sticks in the water or digging in the sand or otherwise goofing around.  Yesterday was probably the best birding day we've had in years, so we are all looking forward to more adventures with the Harriers.

Haley declares routinely that she is NOT a birder

On the beach at Plum Island

After our birding, we headed over to Gloucester to meet our new niece and cousin, Finna Stevie Dean.  She is a tiny little cutie, sleepy all the time still (thankfully for M&B).  The kids marveled at their tiny new cousin for a few minutes (Haley got to hold her after mass amounts of hand sanitizer were applied) and then were off with their older cousins playing around the house.  Aiden got a tour of Uncle Micah's office at Mass Division of Marine Fisheries (thrilling if you are a 7 year old boy obsessed with fishing) which included many tanks full of sea creatures and a "beetle tank" where Micah and his co-workers throw dead fish and roadkilled birds and mammal in to be eaten, leaving only the immaculately cleaned bones, which they put up on a display shelf.  Kind of a Far Side type of working environment, if you ask me...

Little Finna

Haley and Finna

Selfie of Mom and Aiden snowshoeing at Kezar Lake

Through the Wringer

We've been sick.  All of us, with one thing or another.  I've had some sort of evil pneumonia, which has sucked the energy to do anything but just continue with basic life functions for several weeks now.  Finally, I think I am on the mend, after the good part of one month spent on antibiotics.  The kids have had all manner of cough and snot viruses, and Andy had a doozy as well, losing his voice and leaving him miserable for a week or so.  In this time, we've made it to work and school (on and off) and fed ourselves, but not much else.  No house cleaning.  No exercise for the dog.  No blogging.  Not much fun at all, really.

 Skiing with Fisher and Phoebe in mid-January, the day before their new sister was born! (and before we were really sick)

Cozy cove for Wonder Pets! viewing

 Things are looking up now, though.  Last weekend Haley was healthy enough to have a ski lesson, and we made it outside for an hour or so for New London's Winter Carnival dinner and fireworks.  The weather has mellowed out too- temps are up from the frigid way-below-zero days we'd been having, and 30 degrees Farenheit feels like room temperature now.  Today we're having a snowday- the kids are home from school with over a foot of snow coming down over the course of the day, but even that is better than -15.

Haley and her friend Ellis skiing at Ragged Mt.

The positives:  while house-bound with the subzero weather and our illnesses, we've spent a lot of time daydreaming and studying up on Costa Rica's birds for our trip in April.  Aiden's been reading up on the fish species he might catch.  A lovely mixed flock consisting of dozens of robins, cedar waxwings and purple finches have been camped out in the crabapple tree right outside our big front window for the past week.  We've set up the spotting scope and have thoroughly enjoyed mornings watching the birds flit around and attempt to swallow crabapples as big as their heads.  We're all looking forward to two weeks of watching the Olympics too, and maybe, just possibly, getting outside a bit more.  Wish us luck.

New London Winter Carnival