February Skiing "Up North". . .

Bad Dad and The Young Master on Day #2.

The Grand Duchess gives us a slight smile as she glides by on Day#1.

Don't look now, it's The Young Master leading the way.

The Young Master demonstrates Step One of the Dead Bug method for getting up after a fall.

No, not toy soldiers, painting, or wargaming, but healthy, bracing winter fun outdoors at Forbush Corner Nordic Center outside of Frederic, Michigan. Our second visit this winter.

15 miles on cross-country skis over two days with some pretty challenging hills on certain intermediate and difficult runs. Very cold temperatures, blowing snow, windchills below 0 Fahrenheit, and near whiteouts at times on Day #1 completed the picture. It was almost our own Heroes of Telemark moment. . . without the heavy water plant guarded by German soldiers above a forbidding gorge.

Day #2 was warmer, sunny, and just as delightful. The Young Master kept a running tally of falls. Paul - 1, Mom - 1, Bad Dad - 3. But I plead a sticky left ski on a frightening run called The Roller Coaster. However, I did manage to make it down all but two of the hills on that particular trail, including the final one at the end, a screamer called The Corkscrew. Don't ask how I managed it. When you navigate a hill successfully, it is over before you know it.

As an added bonus, the Nordic center where we were hosted two races for area skiers on both days! We were not part of that, but it was really interesting and fun to observe the proceedings and hear the cowbells before we skied along our way. Amazing how fast some of those amateurs (some well into their 70s by the look of it) are on skate skis. Needless to say, they were all finished, packing up, and gone by about 11:30am both days.

We returned home late Sunday afternoon tired and a bit sore, but relaxed and loose. That evening, after showers for everyone, fresh pajamas, and dinner plus a little bedtime reading with The Young Master (still working our way through Harry Potter Book #5), the Grand Duchess and I polished off our leftover half-bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, that we brought home with us before the hearth.

A fitting end to 2.5 days "Up north" as they say here in Lower Michigan (aka "The Mitten"). We now return you to our normal programming. . . Painting toy soldiers, rule writing, and tabletop wargaming

-- Stokes

Comments

tradgardmastare said…

Sounds great family time, glad you all enjoyed it.

1:17 AM

David Morfitt said…

Yes, that does sound like a very enjoyable break for you and your family. We all need times like that (not necessarily skiing, of course! ;-)).

Look forward to seeing what you get stuck into on the toy soldier front next... :-)

All the best,

David.

11:33 PM

A Little More Brushwork. . .

A little more brushwork on the first batch of (my version of) the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment yesterday (Saturday). Taking a different tack this time and addressing many of the details first before the white coats and other larger areas of uniform. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've painted the (dark) red stocks of the enlisted men. Always a difficult and frustrating item to paint, it made sense to paint from the inside out as it were and get that particular detail out of the way first rather than try to paint it in later after much other painting has been accomplished. Trying to reduce the need for later retouching of other items on the figures you understand. Hopefully, I will be able to get back to these later today after a second trip back to the Apple Store for help with a couple of new iPad issues and, following the return home, some revision of Google Slides for tomorrow's meetings with my students. -- Stokes P.S. And according t...

Basic Reds Done at Last. . .

S till quite a way to go with the current batch of 20 human figures and a horse (of course), but they're actually starting to look like something after all of the red distinctions. Quite a bit of painting in hour-long sessions the last week as and when time has allowed. Mostly applying the basic dark red to facing areas and turnbacks followed by the inevitable touch-ups to clean up wobbly edges and those misplaced, minute splotches of Citadel Khorne Red. They're looking like so many Austrian infantry regiments of the era at this point, but the eventual flags will turn them magically into the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment, more or less, of the AWI period. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. One frustrating point (ahem) of sad discovery. I've started trying to use those Winsor & Newton 'Series Seven' brushes (#1 rounds) purchased last spring, and the blasted things simply will not keep a point. Very frustrating since I have heard over the y...

It's Early Days Yet. . .

M aking some early progress with Batch A of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment over the last several days/evenings. Nothing terribly exciting just yet, but the basic black, brown, and flesh areas are done as are the green bases, and gray undercoat. The latter two areas needed some careful retouching early in the week. Next up, the neck stocks. I might just do these in red for the enlisted men although some of my source material suggest they were black, but I always look for an excuse to shake things up a bit. Any errant splotches of red (or black) can be covered with another application of light gray before I move onto the next step. "Giddy up!" as one Cosmo Kramer might have said. -- Stokes

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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