The locals here say that Groundhog Day is the point in winter in which you should have 1/2 of your firewood left. We ran out of wood the day before Groundhog Day, Katie likes to keep the house warm enough simulating a tropical island and our stove has been going full time since we returned from Florida in November! So off I went last Monday to my grandfathers camp in the mountains to cut standing dead trees for firewood, after several hours of snowshoeing and cutting I had a truckload full of firewood.

Last weekend was the Seacoast Classic Ski Race at the Snowbowl. I work part time running races and teaching racing at the Snowbowl. Hoku was excited to race as she's been in a class that meets twice each week where she is learning skiing from someone other than myself. Most of the 100+ kids in the program raced last Sunday on the course which I set. Hoku did well in the race, she enjoys being at the Snowbowl. In fact so much so that we end up spending all our free time there as this winter has been very snowy with our last storm dumping over 14 inches of powder. I've been skate skiing or snowshoeing after work at the State park 3-4 times each week as the days are getting longer with the sun setting after 5pm.

Katie and I have been busy finishing our website for our charter-tour business. You can check it out at makanatours.com
We hope to have a full schedule of charters this summer in Maine and next winter in the Bahama's. Speaking of which we've been receiving our weekly Bahamian updates from all our cruiser friend's we met there last winter. If you've been reading this blog you know we have a catamaran commonly called a "cat", cat's don't hibernat so next winter we'll return to a tropical environment, gotta go.

Aloha,

Rick