Nepal, snowshoeing, and an ice saw

Having fun every minute. Even the quiet night is interesting. The moon is 2/3 full and it illuminates the soft serene snow - magical. Everywhere we go people seem to be enjoying themselves - isn't this beautiful - a sleigh ride in the snow.

We tried out a new restaurant in Crested Butte today. It's called Sherpa Cafe and is owned by a mountain guide and his family (their last name really is Sherpa) who left Nepal due to the long time Maoist insurgency and political unrest. . Seriously, we now have a Nepalese restaurant in our tiny town.  The food was great -I had a Tibetan noodle dish and Mark had Nepali Chili. If you're in need of a guide to climb Mt. Everest, Pemba, the owner, is still taking people up. This summer as a matter of fact. He said he's usually gone 4 weeks and his wife and kids will take over the restaurant until he's back. While we were there, a woman asked if he would speak at her church, and a phone call interrupted their conversation. It was a reporter wanting to do a story on Pemba. He was very nonchalant, said call back in an hour, it was too busy. I think he must have been getting a lot of attention since they've been here.

Went snowshoeing again - what a difference. Walking in our trail is 10 times easier!  We were surprised no coyote or fox had jumped in our track. There are lots of tracks everywhere around the house now. Those are rodent tracks of some kind back and forth in the top photo.

I must qualify the fun every minute comment. The never ending snow shoveling, in fact, sawing the ice/snow , off the deck is not really fun, at all.  Mark has actually been using an antique ice saw that came from his dad to make some headway in the frozen stuff. This amazes me, a hand forged steel possibly 1800's tool is working better than anything.