Kids are still out of school, or at least some are, which means terror on the ice…I love the little princess who spent most of her time digging her toepick into the ice near the wall, so that an unsuspecting novice can fall and break his/her neck, but hey, ice is never perfect. It used to be a scary prospect, but I’ve gotten steady enough (and deep enough in the knees) to skate over such demonic traps. If your knees are bent, your skates glide like a powerboat, heel-heavy, nose light and high, rising over ridges, ripples, and princess-dug holes. If you stand up, straight legged as you skate, your skates are more like the Titanic, bow-dipped, stern-light, and you will plow into the first trench that offers itself and go arse over teakettle. But bending your knees is not as easy as it would seem, because you have to know where to set your weight so you’re stable. (The correct answer is just about under your inside ankle bone.)

I still flag after about thirty minutes, but I’m flagging after harder and harder skating. And I’ve got to remember to wear that knee brace out onto the ice: it’s a simple under-knee band that prevents your knee knocking in (a bad habit on the ice anyway). Since I’m practicing inside 3-turns, which can put too much stress on a chancy knee, that’s a thing I just can’t forget.

I’m making progress on the book, amid all this mucking with the files.

It’s roast chili lime chicken tonight. Hope it works.

The weather’s turning colder. I pulled the last pond pump today, just hauled it ashore so it won’t freeze into the ice. This is a leaf-collector in a pot filter. IE, a 5 gallon plastic bucket with a handle. You put a mag  5 pump into it with a hose that juts up well above the bucket, shove some filter floss (in our case, old polyester pillow stuffing, which is cheaper) into the bucket, weight it with a rock or two, and shove it out to float—yank on a rope tied to its handle, so it tips, fills and sinks at the correct depth. Secure the rope under a rock on shore, so you can reel it in. The pump once turned on sucks water into the bucket, and that water has to go through the pillow stuffing on its way to the pump. Ultimately it collects all the leaves that fall onto the water. Pull the bucket out, toss the pillow stuffing, and you’ve thrown away all the fall leaves that could be causing troubles with your pond chemistry before spring.

Our fishes are all sound asleep now. We can see them, if we look under their floating shelter. Its strange, to watch a creature hibernate. The water is fairly clear, so they have no psychological or physical protection but that floating sun-screen we tossed atop the water, and it gives them, I hope, a comfortable privacy. We’re sure it has already foiled a local raccoon. They have their heater down where they are, and a second one floating on the water surface that keeps the ice from at least that circle.