No school! Biggest storm of the year!

Last night's storm dropped a ton of snow in the mountains of Western Maine. No school in Rumford or at the University, so we're celebrating that special feeling of the gift of a "Snow day!" 

The piles of snow around the driveway are now getting very high. Today's shoveling will be a formidable workout and reminds Rich once again of his "two good reasons for hosting exchange students":

SHOVELING SNOW!     

We don't blog, but we're still here! signed Alex & Peter

The past ten days---maybe two weeks...three weeks?---Alex and Peter have been in charge of the Blog. We hope you've enjoyed their various entries.... (Just kidding, of course. Michael, that's a small jab–only small.) 

The picture above is Saturday afternoon just after the guys skied Black Mountain of Maine for five hours. They said it was the best skiing of the winter. Afterwards, Alex took a 40 minute nap on the dining room table and Peter caught up on Facebook. 

This week has been winter break for Maine public schools. Peter headed off to Presque Isle, Maine for the Class B State Ski Championships. Presque Isle is about 6 hours north from Rumford. You may read about the State Ski Meet on Maine High School Skiing's website: http://www.mainehighschoolskiing.com/  Peter had a great time in northern Maine and enjoyed the skiing. 

Alex battled a cold for most of the week. He headed to Portland with Rich for a university business meeting on Monday and Tuesday. They had a gourmet pizza dinner at FlatBread Pizza with Kate Kennedy and her husband, Nate.  Kate is a novelist from Cape Elizabeth and she directs a division of the Maine Writing Project in Portland. 

A second big snowstorm of the vacation week is set for Sunday. Homework and house cleaning will complement the shoveling! 

That's what's happening in Rumford these days. 

Dinner at The Breton's Home

One of the gifts of this year for Alex, Peter, and Rich has been getting to know Gloria and David Breton. Five years retired as volunteers and host parents of Youth For Understanding kids in Connecticut, the Bretons volunteered to take on "The Kent Family" for the 2008-2009. Our monthly meetings have been easy-going, fun affairs. 

On this cold, snowy Friday evening, Gloria fixed up a feast. Our starters were scrumptious stuffed mushrooms followed by an incredible mixed salad. The main course of lasagna enticed us into too many extra helpings! But there was more: a lemon pie (A REAL LEMON PIE!) with a side of thick chocolate chip cookies. The evening was filled with wide-ranging talk and laughter, as Gloria and David, two host-parenting pro's made us feel right at home.  Here's to Gloria & David!  

Shoveling the Camp Roofs at Weld

(Click on photos to enlarge)

During snowy Maine winters the roofs of the camps in Weld get thick with snow. This day, Alex and Rich headed over to do the chore. Alex fitted up with snowshoes and Rich on his cross-country skis, the two trekked down the mile-long camp road to Burt's Point. As you can see, Alex became quite good on his snowshoes.   

No problem!

Three feet of snow on a camp roof? The question is, Where are Ryan and Tyler when you need them?

During...

About 15 minutes into the shoveling, what looked to be a simple job clearly turned out to be that four letter word: W-O-R-K. But Alex was game...

Just about finished

About an hour later, the job is nearly complete.

Soft landing

After the shoveling, the small reward was jumping off the roof into waist high snow. 

Snowbound chairs at the Little House

Weld Mountains 

in Wintertime

Heading home...

After a long afternoon of shoveling, Alex makes the mile-long hike up the camp road to a turkey and cheese sandwich and a Diet Mountain Dew.