Midwinter's Day

Joe Zuraw carved out a tractor path to the top of the hill yesterday, and today Joe and I spread some sand on the newly rediscovered road and were able to get my little Matrix to the clearing. It's been a cold winter on the hill, but so far not a lot of snow. The cleaning looks like a wind-blown moonscape, frozen solid but down to bare ground in many spots. The trails have some drifting snow, I walked part of the Farrington trail and the snow varied from ankle to knee deep.



With a bit of luck from the weather and a solid workday next Saturday, the hill should be usable for star parties in February.

All of the buildings appear to be wintering over just fine, and so far the trails have seen a significant amount of blow-down. We still have the back half of the winter to go through, but for me it was nice to be back on the hill for the first time in six weeks.

Just to preview the upcoming spring, we'll again have a Memorial Day feast on the Saturday, May 29. It will be just two days after the full moon, so don't expect any great dark sky viewing, but Saturn will be just past opposition and Mars will be high in the south at sunset. Expect a few new geocaches to be hidden, and we'll have the First Annual Arunah Rocket Challenge: You goal, launch a model rocket (NAR approved!) keep it in the air for the prescribed time (to be chosen on launch day, but say 75 seconds) and try to land it on the bulls eye. For every second away from 75 seconds, and every yard away from the bulls eye, you get one penalty point. The person with the lowest score wins!


Bring your own rocket, or build one on site (I'll have a few kits available, plus a selection of engine sizes). You can have up to 3 chances, so you can change engines, add weigh, or change parachute / streamer size to you get that perfect combination.


Circle September 14 on your calendars. We're going to have a fundraiser at Flatbread's in Canton CT! We'll get a few dollars for every pizza sold that night, plus we'll have a raffle and some telescopes out on the sidewalk. Invite friends! Flatbread's has great food and is a fun place. It's at the Farmington Valley Shoppes, with great shopping for everyone in the family. Kohl's, Barnes and Noble, Dicks' Sports, Talbot's, Kid Jamboree, and other specialty shops make it a fun destination even of a drive for some of us.

-Ed