"Hello brown one, Hello black one, last nights feathers exchanged for new ones. Hello Blackbird, Hello Starling, winters over, be my darling. Long time coming but now the snow is gone!" Josh Ritter.

I blame the winter blahs on my absence from posting but spring (a relative term and fickle season) seems to be on the way, along with the beginning of the farming season. Hopefully I will write more often. This should be an interesting year as I try to get ready for a marathon, manage a fantasy league baseball team, climb Granite Peak and do the jobs Joy wants done. Oh yeah and try to plant, water, raise and harvest crops and make some money! I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I need the attitude of my oldest son who just informed me that he is not going to run track, he is going to golf instead.
Me: "When have you ever been golfing?"
Jonah: "Once."
Me: "How do you think this is going to go?"
Jonah: "I don't know, o.k. "
I hope he has fun.
Time to get the tractors, and planters, and discs, and pipe, and 4 wheelers ready to go.

Plenty of snow in the mountains so it is time to get the skis out for me and snowboards for my kids. Today I took my oldest son and his two friends, who all have ski passes, to Grand Targhee ski resort. It was not the best weather day but there was plenty of powdery fresh snow. Visibility was maybe 5 feet in front of your face in the morning but the weather cleared in the afternoon and it was fun, thus why I have the first ski picture posted. The second picture goes along with skiing today and life. I called my wife after we were done to tell her we were on our way home. With this call my wife tells me she is going to kill our oldest son when he arrives. The cell phone bill came and our son had racked up 45 dollars worth of texting bills. That is bad but one can work it out and deal with it. More unfortunately for our son, the cell bill indicated that the majority of texts were sent at 11pm, 11:05pm, midnight, etc. until 1:30 AM on several occasions - with a girl none the less. What The Heck? When did my oldest son become interested in girls and skiing out of bounds and why do I have to deal with this now. Parenthood is the reason for the second picture and warning. I love my children but this parenthood thing is getting tough. It can risk death or at least loss of privileges (as in cell phone confiscated after school each day.) At least the other three are still skiing within bounds for now (somewhat). That I can deal with. In a closing note, Happy Birthday Ollie, congrats on making it through your 2nd year. Good luck Kenny and Jessica - your probably going to need it.

In my own humble opinion Thanksgiving is a better holiday than Christmas. There is no pressure on at Thanksgiving, the food is excellent and the only unpleasant chore is washing the dishes, which is not that bad. Christmas on the other hand is full of pressure. What would you like for Christhmas? Oh whatever. Great you've been alot of help. My youngest son though has been very exact in what he expects for Christmas with his detailed list of demands. It is a good thing I like him so much, that his demands seem reasonable. There is a new Christmas song by Paul Simon "Getting Ready for Christmas Day" that has a guitar sound that I can only describe as jangelly loose my own creation for a musical term. Take a listen and mock me if you must for my old age and liking a song by Paul Simon.

If having or writing a blog needs a purpose mine is to write down things that are happening to me and my family and the thoughts that I have about these situations. I am writing for myself and not trying to be worried about readership or response. Also since I made some snarky comments about a certain bloggers choices in music with out having my own blog for her to comment on, I felt that I should apologize and give her the chance to make snarky comments about something I might write down. This is for you Jessica.

Happy Thanksgiving. Parenting is difficult. After having a good Thanksgiving dinner my oldest son tells me he wants to take off skiing with his best friend. I would not be so concerned but the weather has been terrible, it is a resort that is 2 hrs. away, neither one has driven there by themselves and the roads to the resort are windy narrow and steep. So why do I feel like I am ruining my sons life by telling him I will take him and his friend next week. Responsible parenting is not fun and makes me feel old and uncool. Thankfully he is a good kid and even if he does hate me at least he is not in my face screaming how much he hates me.