I'm glad you're able to take the dogs out for a run. Thinking about the ice and all, that will be fast and tricky. Above you were talking about your "wheel dogs", it'd be hard to slow down.

Have you switched back over to the wooden basket sled?

I'm sure you'll have more snow, we will too.

We've had some crazy March weather. One morning I had 17*, 2 days later we were in the high 50's.

One day, here in the valley and local area, we had snow, hail storms, thunder storms, and then the sun would pop out. I had hail balls about the size of the tip of your pinky finger. Other areas had hail balls the size of a marble or bigger.

I've been seeing robins. Was out yesterday morning metal detecting, dug up 2 or 3 nightcrawlers, just under the sod. But a few days before, we had a small brush fire here local.

We've had snow, rain, hail, and my goodness have we had wind. Strong winds. It's like this about every March. And I think they are calling for temps in the 70's next week.

I used the basket yesterday because I had a grandchild as a passenger. We had 2 sleds with only 4 dogs on each. It was a nice run.

My son went skidooing on our woodlots. He says that he can now go anywhere, There is a thick enough crust to support the machine when it is moving.

I would guessimate that the snow packed down at least a foot. Metal roofs have dumped their load of snow.

Lakes and rivers have darkened up.

I saw my first crows yesterday.

Yea, the weather is warming up here also! but as redsnow said the wind

is blowing hard daily. We are starting to see crocus on the warm side of homes.

I'm glad to hear you had a grandkid in the basket and out for a nice ride. Never know, maybe the grandkid will be standing on the back of the sled with you in the basket one day?

While we're talking about snow, I'll tell you this. I've mentioned my friend Christie before, she is my buddy Ronnie's oldest daughter. Long story, but Christie has custody of her niece, the little girl is 6 years old. Christie told me years ago, that I was her "Voice of Reason". And she does come to me for advice now and then, and we stay in touch.

A while back, we'd had snow for a week or so, I asked if she'd had the little girl out sledding yet. Answer was: Nope. So, I figured I'd get the little girl a sled and take them out one day.

My daughter's sled would be 20 years old and it's long gone. Long story short, we called every store and shop in town, nobody has a little girl's sled. I was going to buy her a little plastic sled, small and light enough that she could handle it. The little girl is built like a bean-pole, tall and skinny.

We've got dozens of places here in town that would be perfect for a kid to sled ride. They aren't going to be a long ride or super fast, perfect for a kid.

The other week Christie and the little girl stopped by here at work. We still had snow, I asked the little girl, "You'd like to go sled ridding wouldn't you". She perked up, nodded and said yes.

Here at work today, I've asked 4 of my friends to find me a little girl's type of sled. I haven't heard anything yet.

We don't have snow now, but I expect we'll get more. I've got 68* now, and it was even warmer 2 hours ago. But that little girl needs to go sledding. She's only going to be a kid once.

I'm at work, but I'll add this.

Wednesday of this week, my buddy Chris and I were going metal detecting. I was taking him to one of my hot spots, up in Zone 52, that nobody knows!

Going up the mountain, a bobcat crossed the road. I'd just turned my dog loose, she was behind the truck someplace? I usually just cut her in the wind and drive on, she'll catch up and blow around me.

I drove up to about where the cat crossed the road, stopped and called for the dog. She was on the way, had to stop and crap again. Before she got to the truck she was winding, started down the side of the ridge making good time, she hadn't opened up yet or barked or anything. About that time Chris got out of the truck and said something to me.

The dog knows Chris, but she didn't know that he was with us. He was already loaded up in the truck before I loaded up the dog. The dog came right back up messing with Chris, and I couldn't get her started again.

At the time, I didn't think about it. My dog will ignore me when we're hunting, unless I call for her. I never thought to tell Chris to just sit tight, stay out of the way.

What I should have done is stopped right when the cat crossed the road, told Chris to hang tight and walked up the road. And let the dog find the track on her own.

But it all happened fast.

Anyway, we did find a Wheat Penny and a flat button. Junk.

I took a good tumble using the new sled. The snow was crusty and the trail icy, so I though the new toboggan sled would ride better. A basket sled stabs in when you hit the sides. Since the dogs are going at a good clip, the sled swings wide at corners.

The first corner, which is at the bottom of a short downhill, the new sled swung me out of the trail and I was surfing cross country. My ride ended with me flying head over tea kettle doing either the crab or the scorpion. I'm not sure which but there was a somersault or semi somersault involved. My neck made sounds you don't want a neck to make. I had snow covering my sun glasses, snow between my sun glasses and glasses, and snow on my eye lids. When I got back to the truck, I found that I had snow in my pockets!

I continued doing my 4 km. square trail and rode the sled in the next curves. But it was sketchy.

Except for a little knee bruising and stiffness in my neck all is good.

We are having a major melt. 12 C. and warm rain. The snow had lots of air in it, so it is taking a hit. Sledding is likely over or soon to be. I bought a load of tree length fire wood which I'll chip at. You can see the load at Musher's Tails.

Too bad postage on bulky items is so costly. Sleds are easy to find here and they are most likely on sale if they aren't put away due to the end of season. When the snow is right on a grassy hill, a flat cut open card board box can sled quite well.

Ouch. Sounds like you did take a nasty spill. Sounds like it could have been a lot worse too.

I'm not sure what your top speed would be on a good trail with the A-team ? I'm sure it's over 20 MPH. And probably closer to 30 MPH?

Yes, I've sledded using a waxed cardboard box, they are fast. I offered a box to Christie for the little girl, she didn't want one. I also thought about giving her a plastic dog food bag. You'd need to hold on to it and help the little girl climb in. On the right type of snow that would be fast too.

One of my guys found me a sled yesterday. It's a "Lightning Guider", Model #56, made in PA. It's a steel runner type of sled. On the bottom, it's marked "Betty (and her last name)". It's a good looking sled, and still has the paint. I paid $40, it's worth that much.

I searched Lightning Guider, the company closed up 1990. We'll probably never know, but I'd guess that it was Betty's birthday or Christmas gift? Think about it, that's a very nice/expensive gift for a kid.

But it's been warm here, poured down the rain here yesterday, strong winds, thunder storms, lots of folks lost their power.

I'm still looking for a little plastic snow sled. Never know but we'll probably have snow in the mountains before it does warm up? Mid March, we've got lots of time for cold weather. I remember some pretty good snows in April too.

Guys, I struck pay-dirt again. One of my guys told me about a sale at the local stockyard, they had 6 steel runner sleds, lined up for auction. He sent me pictures of them, fine looking sleds.

I didn't find out about the sale till Noon or so?

My buddy Steve lives nearby, so I called him and asked him to go bid for me. Told him my price range and all. You never know about prices at an auction, it depends on who all is in the crowd.

Steve stopped by just before closing time, told me that he'd bought 3 of the sleds. Three sleds for a grand total of $35. That's cheap. Two of the sleds will need a little bit of repair, nothing that can't be fixed up in an hour or so?

Not sure how folks in other areas polish up their sled runners? Around here we'd always use sandpaper to get the rust off the runners, and then use paraffin wax on the blades. It'll give you that extra little bit of speed.

I've got that first sled here at work, it's been a good conversation piece. We're reliving our childhoods, talking about making jumps and all the other dumb stuff we've done on our sleds.

My buddy Wardney stopped by the other week and I showed him my new (to me) sled. Wardney said that his sled was a Champion brand. He said it had more of a rounded type of front end.

Wardney stopped by again yesterday, and we looked at what I'd say is the oldest sled in my collection. Just looking at the woodwork, craftsmanship and all, it's the oldest. It's been well used, and repaired a little bit too. It's 55 inches long and really narrow, in a hard turn, it'd be hard to stay on top of that rascal.

Wardney grew up in a zipcode a few miles out of town that we call, Rig, WV. He's taken me to his homeplace a time or 2, his sister lives there now. Anyway, Wardney said that he could leave home, and with a full head of steam he could cross the low spot and pop up into the main road down the hollow, and on down to the store/post office and school bus stop.

Wardney said that his Champion sled was the fastest sled in Rig. Nobody could keep up with him. I'm sure he was a little daredevel too.

But he said they'd leave their sleds at the store, drag them home after school and said they sled down to the store 2 or 3 times later.

Big Donnie's grandparents lived up that same hollow, I've been up and down that road a good many times. When you turn off the main drag, that's a 2nd gear road, it's pretty steep. Like Wardney said, when the snow gets packed down it's nothing but a sheet of ice. I'll bet that hill would be fun!

But the last 3 sleds that I bought, one is a 45 inch "Western Clipper", a 55 inch "Yankee Clipper" and the other one is a 55 inch, "something Breaker"? It's been well used, the paint is worn off on the top. That's the narrow one. Joking with one of my buddies the other day, told him that it was probably a "Neck Breaker" And very well could be too.

Reading about Wardney brought back a few memories.

I grew up in old Quebec. Across from the apartment where I lived was the Plains of Abraham also known as Battlefield Park. It was the location of the battle between France and Britain over who would have Canada. The generals in the battle were Montcalm for France and Wolfe for England.

Long story short, Wolfe won and the battlefield was where I did a lot of running around.

In winter, sledding, skiing and snowshoeing all took place on the Plains. I do not know how big they are but they must be more than a mile long. There were many hills of an assortment of sizes suited to any type of sledding you wanted to do.

We were big on toboggans and Krazy Karpets. Remember that you had to tote them to the hill and also up the hill. Weight was a factor.

We were in elementary school ( grade3/4?) and one day "Shultz" showed up with a sled similar to what Red described above. Buddies real name was John but everyone called him Shultz because of a character on a television show called Hogan's Heros. John looked just like a young Shultz and had many of the same characteristics. Summed up, Shultzy wasn't exactly an outdoorsy type or an athlete.

Anyways, Shultz shows up with this huge, old, heavy antique sled. He was pretty bushed just pulling it from his home to the "Pimple" which was the hill we had decided to meet up on.

The hill was one where an old stone fort, from the Battle, was located. It was a smallishish round building made of stone. The hill was steep at the beginning but leveled off quite a bit before getting extremely steep as it went down to the St. Lawrence river. It wasn't really a hill at that point. It was a cliff. A wooded cliff with a shale base.

I remember that we were 3 guys but I do not recall who #3 was.

Seeing Shultz's sled we decided that all 3 of us would get on and see how it rode. The sled had sides and a back. Since it was Shultzy's sled, he got on first. Then we sat on and in front of him. Somehow, we all fit on.

The first part of the hill was steep and treeless. In no time we were flying. We were having a blast but soon we were past where we would normally stop. When on a toboggan or Krazy Karpet, dragging your feet was all the braking required.

But this was a heavy sled with metal runners. You were too high to drag your feet and we were too tangled up to even try.

As we approached the cliff, buddy #3 and I decided it was time to bail. Which we did. But Shultz couldn't jump or roll off due to the back and sides of the sled. He continued on, screaming, and disappeared.

We weren't really afraid of him going all the way down the cliff. There were too many trees for that.

After a while we realized that there was no way Shultz could get that sled back by himself so we followed the tracks. Shultz was still on the sled, moaning and crying. He had hit a tree and hurt his leg. We had a heck of a time getting him and his sled back home.

I don't remember Shultz ever coming sledding again.