Sometimes going outdoors to play is messier than normal.  Winter is melting away here in Minnesota with warm temps and rain. A nasty way to finish a beautiful winter.  The end result is that our snow is disappearing at an astonishing rate leaving behind lots of mud and puddles.

The barnyard is a muddy mess!  Water is having a tough time finding it’s way out and the sheep are having an equally tough time navigating through the mud and water. If there’s one thing sheep don’t like it’s rain and wet. The lambs are filthy, the ewe’s very unhappy and Nemo pushes his way into the barn at every opportunity.

Good thing we all have rubber boots.  I did chores yesterday and couldn’t resist trying to make little ditches with my heels in the mud to direct the water out of Sam’s tire ruts and into the pond.  I can remember Laura as a little girl stomping through the puddles at every opportunity, guess I know where she gets it from.

I know I’m late for last week but I’m so committed to this challenge that I wanted to make sure I posted that I did do my meal!

 I scored on Wednesday nite when I found a solitary spaghetti squash on the bottom of the pantry shelf.  I baked it up while I put some pork chops out to defrost.  It was a simple dinner, do I do anything else compared to all the culinary expertise in this group???

 Local pork chops from the freezer cooked on the grill with a homemade rub on them, spaghetti squash with butter and salt, strawberries from the freezer and rolls from Great Harvest Bakery. yum!

You all need a little background here.Once upon a time there were four Nordic Walking Instructors struggling to change the way America, or at least Minnesota, walks.   With poles in hand they taught classes, led group walks, scheduled clinics and walked miles and miles.  Many listened, many took up their own poles, but there was still so many who didn’t understand Nordic Walking.  So the four came up with a plan.They planned a Nordic Walking event at a local park, one of their favorite places to Nordic Walk. They believed that if they created the perfect opportunity walkers would come.  Put trails and poles and instructors together and who could resist?And then others found out about the perfect plan and the plan grew and expanded to fill North America.It’s not a fairy tale. Four of us created Great Lakes Nordic Walkers, www.greatlakesnordicwalkers.com to promote a Minnesota Nordic Walking Expo. Three Rivers Park District graciously agreed to host it at Hyland Lake Park Preserve on June 12, National Get Outdoors Day.  Perfect!Seems that Nordic Walking North America, www.nordicwalkingna.com, was looking for a location for their 2nd Annual North American Nordic Walking Expo and came across our perfect plan.A new partnership was formed, Nordic Walking North America and Great Lakes Nordic Walkers presenting the Second Annual North American Nordic Walking Expo, hosted by Three Rivers Park District and sponsored by Hoigaards, Midwest Mountaineering, Nordic Walk This Way and Nordic Walk for Life.  June 12 at Hyland 9-4pm.It will be “the place to be!” for Nordic Walkers. So tell a friend, bring your family, announce it from the rooftops!  Make a plan to join us!  It’s going to be quite the adventure!!!

Sometimes standing in the kitchen is an aha moment.

I had worked all day and then led a winter Nordic walk with 15 walkers at Centennial Lakes this evening.  I was very hungry when I got home.  I was glad that I had  planned ahead and browned some Thousand Acre Ground beef to make tacos for dinner.

Dan called to say he was going to watch the last Ski Challenge Race night with the Hoigaard’s Team, he couldn’t race this year becuz of his broken hip, but he wanted to have a beer to celebrate the end of the season. I came home to an empty house and an empty stomach.

I put a locally made tortilla shell in the pan, layered some fresh Wisconsin Cheese on it to melt, and heated the local beef already cooked. I took out MN Dairy sour cream, my sister’s homemade salsa, hothouse lettuce and aha I had a local dinner with all the ingredients in the pan. 

(The only exception was the Ortega taco seasoning I used)

We started our last day at Big Sky at the top of Lone Peak. We signed out to ski the North Summit at about 10:45am.  Look to the very top and think about skiing down the snow field towards the line of rocks in the center of the photo. It was cold!  like 5 degrees. So the snow was stiff and so was I.Once again there was no turning back so we took turns skiing the “whale” and the “gorge” down to the safe spot.  I definitely got my cardio workout.  The total vertical is 4000 feet to the bottom of the “6 shooter” lift at Moonlight. Essentially you go from the very top to the very bottom.  I need to tell you that this is definitely outside my comfort level of skiing.  It’s very high, very steep and the snow was less than perfect. but the sense of accomplishment for having made it down in good style will keep me pumped all the way home to Minnesota.

A road trip is great, allows you to bring local food with you where ever you go. We brought lots of eggs from my chickens to enjoy in Big Sky. Local breakfasts this week included bacon from our pig, omelets from our eggs, bread from the Blue Moon Bakery here in Big Sky, MN Creamery butter, and maple syrup from our neighborhood. Always good to have a big breakfast before heading out to the mountain.The other favorite thing to bring along is one of our homegrown chickens. Bringing it frozen keeps everything cold in the cooler. Last night Michelle, my niece who lives here, and I roasted the chicken in the oven stuffed with lemon and garlic,made MN wild rice with sauteed onions, celery and garlic and a not so local salad on the side.  I know it sounds a lot like Laura’s dinner from last week, and I completely over do chicken but that’s one of the blessings of growing your own, it’s so easy to take them out of the freezer!

 It’s been an incredible week here in Big Sky!  lots of firsts for all of us.  I wanted to give you a better perspective of what we’ve skied.This is a picture from the top of Challenger looking across the Headwater runs. You can see the very top of the chairlift and the small lifty shack that we skied around to go across the top traverse.  From there it was all downhill.The Big Coulior that the kyds have been skiing this week is the white strip just to the right of Lone Peak, seen here from a distance.  The small speck right on top is the Tram tower.   Sam skied it with Michelle on Friday, her first time to drop in.  It’s a thrill to watch them come down.At night there is a single light in the building so you can always see the top of Lone Peak. We did the Montana Yurt Dinner on Friday night. It’s a snowcat ride up into the hills and then dinner in a yurt with a bonfire and sledding under the stars.  Instead of riding the snowcat back down there was a small group of us that took the sleds and walked and sledded the 2 miles back to the base. WOW. We followed the cat track down under a star filled, cold Montana sky.  It was so much fun!Tomorrow we’re going to try and ski the North Summit. We’ll start at the top of the tram and ski all the way down the north side of Lone Peak and end up at the bottom of Moonlight.  If the lines aren’t too long and it’s good light we’ll be on it.  One last first before we head back to Minnesota.

The past two days have been beautiful up on the mountain but even more than that they have included first times for Sam and I.  If you look at this picture of Lone Peak you can see the Big Couloir off to the right, that’s the gully that winds down, a stream of snow surrounded by rocks on both sides.  It’s about half way to the right of the peak.In order to ski this you have to be decked out with full avalanche gear, check in and out with the ski patrol, and have nerves of steel to be able to make the drop into the couloir.  Sam lived out here for 4 years and never got to do it but on Tuesday the stars aligned with great snow, good visibility and short lines at the Tram and to do the Couloir. He and Brian dropped in at 1pm for an epic run. Here’s a closer view of the actual couloir, you can see 2 small dots at the top, that would be Sam and Brian.  Awesome!Yesterday we skied Moonlight Basin, great snow on some of my favorite runs. I had never taken the lift up to the Headwaters at the top of the ridge but when Sam and Brian invited me to come with them I had to say yes.  You start by hiking up hill to the chairlift, this discourages the not so good skiers from trying it. At the top you have to side step up to the high traverse, a thin ribbon of snow that wraps around the hut and runs along the top between bands of rocks.  Once there you are committed!  I followed Sam, not daring to look down or around me, focused on the snow under my skis and his voice reassuring me it was fine. The truth is that I’m not good at heights and my heart was pounding!At the end of the traverse was Fire Hole. It’s a “medium” wide gully and the snow was soft and deep!  I followed Sam down to meet Brian (he couldn’t do the high traverse on his snowboard)  and then we took turns going the rest of the way down.  The first turn is the hardest, but once into the rhythm I was able to just keep doing one turn after another and made my way down in fine style.  Laura’s voice was in my head to keep “touching” my pole and keep turning even tho she wasn’t there with us.  The best advice to have when on the steep and deep.It felt really good to challenge myself, and I was proud of what I could do.  The best part was my “support team” of Sam and Brian, it was their encouragement that gave me the extra confidence to go for it!  Thanks guys!!!!

According to the billboard coming into Bozeman, Montana: You Belong Outside!At the end of a long and difficult drive across North Dakota and eastern Montana we finally arrived in Bozeman about 8pm on Saturday nite.  It was another hour up the canyon to Big Sky and I couldn’t wait to get out of the car.  As i emerged from my cramped, static position of 16 hours I was greeted by stars, millions and millions of stars adorning the sky above Lone Peak. A deep breath, a long stretch and I knew I was where I belonged - Outside, under the heavens, surrounded by fresh snow and the anticipation of a great week ahead.Skiing with friends and family - priceless!

ok, so I didn’t really fall off the map but I have been traveling and not cooking much. I’m not sure if that’s the good news or the bad news altho I do find that most of what I’m doing at home is at least 50% local. I have to say that I’m extremely jealous of all of the pacific coast families enjoying the first fresh veges from the gardens.Last week we were in Colorado skiing at Winter Park, Vail and Crested Butte. As we ate our way across the country we did score a wonderful local meal at the Cast Iron Skillet in Winter Park. They serve “never ever” beef, making note that most “additive and anti biotic free” beef is free for the last 100 days.  The beef that they serve is totally free from birth. An interesting thing to broadcast on their menu. Way to go Cast Iron Skillet!  I ordered the ribeye with sweet potato fries and root vegetables. It was delicious!  What a treat at the end of a long day on the slopes.I was home for 4 days before hitting the road again this morning and arriving in Big Sky, Montana tonight.  I did manage to do a quick local meal of home grown roasted chicken with potatoes and carrots still in the pantry from the last farmer’s market complimented by strawberries from the freezer on local ice cream for desert.So now we’re in Big Sky but we did manage to bring local goodies from home with us, watch for how we use these special ingredients this week!