An icy weekend



The fold out ice fishing tent

It is Sunday night and we have had a great weekend, with plenty of snow activity!

    

checking for a lost fishing rod.....

 

Yesterday Frank was taken ice fishing by his colleague, Mike, and his brother, Gary. They drove out of town some way to set up for the long haul. Gary has a special sled which converts into a tent with seats so the fishers can keep warm and also see down into their holes (ice holes, that is). Frank was able to cut his own ice hole, but none of them had any luck. Frank came home with some spoils from one of Mike's previous fishing and hunting expeditions. We are having roast venison for tea tomorrow night!

 

Frank's (glowing!)  ice hole



Gary and Mike cutting their ice holes



Valentine's Day is coming up and at school the children all give each other cards. In preparation for this we bought a class set of cards (with teacher card included) for this very purpose. They are bilingual, and Liam chose the set based on the characters from 'Cars'. This week they will be making a box at school in which to collect their cards on the 14th.





 

We had a great day outdoors today sledding and playing in the snow. There is a playground and park just a few doors from our house, and we met one of Frank's colleagues, Joel, and his son, Cameron, there for sledding. It was great! I think I was the one who got the biggest kick out of it! (Unbelievable, I know.)

The race is almost on.....we lost.....



I did it!



Then we went back out to the dairy for some more play and to see the cows being milked. They milk 60 cows twice a day. Liam really enjoyed checking the temperature of the milk and helping Laura, Reid's mum, drain the bottles into the tank.

Frank and the little thrill seeker



 



It snowed all day today and the drive home from the dairy at about 3.30 was our worst so far. It was very slippery and very difficult to control the car. Frank did a great job. I would have parked the car and had the family walk home in the snow!!! This evening I heard our driveway being shovelled, and on investigation we found Tom and his son, Ian, shovelling it for us! We had thought we would do it tomorrow, but apparently it would have been very heavy by tomorrow, so they came around to do it. It was so kind of them. We still have a lot to learn about this winter business!!



Liam in the milking pit



 



The view from the passenger's seat on the way home