More YouTube. Hey, once you get started it’s hard to stop!
This one is from the Thunderstruck Teaser. Here’s some background info from the YouTube summary:
For over a decade Team Thunderstruck has searched the mountains for the steepest, nastiest, most astonishing riding areas. And now glory has been found… With over 20 death-defying first ascents Thunderstruck 6 makes sure NOTHING is the same in the world of freestyle hill climbing. From The Krazy Canadian’s 2000 foot Ladybird first ascent to Randy Swenson’s amazing Couloir Overhang first ascent, the riders of Thunderstruck prove that there really is nothing that cannot be climbed!
Our house is finally on the market once again. It’s on a crappy market, but we figured that it had more chance of selling on the market than off. Hopefully we can sell it and move north to more snow and more sledding! Check out this piece of Central Massachusetts history (really, it is historical). If you’re interested, let’s make a deal!
There are lots more pictures at our realtor’s website, Neylon Real Estate. Not sure where he got those pics of that nice clean house, he must be really good with photoshop :).
In Bill’s opinion, one I share with him, these guys might just be crazier than the Sled Porn boys.
Why My Kids Will Never Skateboard
Frankly because it just scares the crap out of me. The first one is kind of funny, in an “at this guy’s expense” kind of way. The second one is just unbelievable (but don’t worry it has a happy ending).
Ever wonder how these guys do this stuff? How they learn to flip sled without killing themselves? Where Sled Porn got its name? Watch this video and you’ll find out. Watch around 4:40, too, to find out how these guys have the time to do it. Sounds to me like these guys really have life figured out!
Bill didn’t know a thing about YouTube until he started following me on my blog. Now he’s an addict. It’s actually a step up since his former evening habit was obsessing over property potentials on Maine real estate websites. But now that that question is basically solved since we intend to buy his Mom’s property, he needed something else to obsess over at night on the net, and YouTube is it. The upside is that he’s found some really good stuff, which you can plan on seeing a lot more of.
Bill’s YouTube Pick of The Day
Okay, he’s not home right now so he can’t confirm for me that this is his exact pick of the day, and he probably has better ones, but he’s been big into the SledPorn videos. They are very cool, with lots of big air and big action, and crazy killer stunts (literally–someone did die making one of these, although I don’t think it was this one).
With out new nephew (by marriage) in Iraq, the war and troops are tops on our minds, so I thought I’d pas this along.
Today at 4:00 (EST) Tom Remington of the Black Bear Blog will air “From the Frontlines” from the main SkinnyMoose homepage. Here’s the link to watch “From the Frontlines.”
I’m not very familiar with this, but it raises funds to support the troops by providing care packages. In any event I’m sure it’s an interesting watch.
On this topic of letting kids go outdoors, I find myself evaluating why this is important. Here’s one of the things I came up with.
The Outdoors Means Freedom
When I was young one of the best reasons to be outside and be gone was to regain a sense of freedom and composure. I could think and play and do and not be bothered by anyone else. I had time to regain my sanity. I’m thinking lately that that is something my kids are missing, and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that there is no free outside exploration going on.
Let’s think about this. I have 4 kids. We own a little over half an acre. It’s a 3+ bedroom house. Nice, even large by some standards of living, but after a while it all starts to close in. I have 4 kids that are hardly ever–unless they’re in school, which they’re not now–more than 1/2 an acre away from each other. And I wonder why those older two just can’t get along (as is I should wonder…I had siblings!).
I have a serious inclination that if my kids were given a little more free reign that behavior and atittude would improve. And creativity would increase. They’d figure out, like many of us did who grew up outside, that you have to find ways to entertain yoruself and find ways to respectfully utilize what you’re given. But most of all, my kids could feel more free and confident, and more in control.
I have raised all my kids to be fairly independent, and I by no means lead everything they do, but nevertheless the immediate presence of adults takes its toll. One way or another, I always impart my infulence, even if it’s only subconsciously.
I’m sure that as a community of sledders here we can get this. Freedom is why we ride, in part. I would be very surprised if there was a sledder here who arugued that with me. That freedom is part of why I’m not sure communicators are a good idea–if I had one people could be talking to me and breaking my mood. I have enough talk at home.
I think it’s important to find ways to give my kids some freedom within reasonable bounds. I think if more kids could experience personal freedom, away from the interference of adults, we’d be raising a more independent and thoughtful society of kids. It’s a little scary to consider the alternative.
On a related topic, here’s proof that our kids really are out of touch with nature and the outdoors.
Out of the Mouths of Babes
In the interest of expanding my children’s horizons, I was sharing stories of my youth with my daughter the other night when we were cleaning strawberries we had picked at our friend’s house that day. I was telling her about the huge garden my parents always grew and about putting up food for the winter, freezing vegetables and the like. I did live on a farm, as I’ve mentioned, so we did a bit more than most, but it’s not as if no one else grew or grows their own food! Still, the question from my young daughter was this–”Were you poor when you were growing up?”
Huh? Ah, no.
Why would you ask?
She asked because she thought we must have grown our own food because we were too poor to buy it. I had to explain all the other myriad reasons why one might choose to grow their own food (the recent salmonella/tomato scare being top of my list).
The most interesting thing about this is that we have a garden! We grow some, not anywhere close to all, but some, of our food–and this whole conversation took place as we were preparing berries to freeze for later!
So do our children have a disconnect with nature and the outdoors? With where their own food comes from and how it gets where it gets? With the possibilities for them personally utilizing the land and the bounty of nature? I’d say, sadly, yes. Even when you think you are teaching different lessons the answer is yes. My own daughter sees gardening and self-sufficiency as a frivolous past-time; just a fun thing we do for the heck of it. Despite my best attempts to convey the best of what I learned by growing up on a farm, my kids still think groceries come from stores and only poor people grow things for themselves. I’m sensing a definite disconnect with the natural world growing here…
I guess this is sort of related to snowmobiling, but more related to those things we’ll talk about that are of interest to like-minded individuals.
You might recall a while Back I mentioned a book that is on my nightstand, Last Child In The Woods. It’s a book about our children’s growing disconnect with nature and independent experiences. One of the issues that the book mentions is the shrinking radius of world our children are allowed to explore on their own. One “startling fact” the book lists is that by the 1990’s the radius from the home where children could explore on their own had shrunk to just 1/9th of what it was in the 1970’s. In short, kids today barely have enough room to wander around their yards whereas in generations past the fields and woods were open to them.
Of course, the author, Richard Louv, does know that there are some very valid reasons for this–in part the shrinking of open space, fields, and woods, but also the increased need for safety with the lunatics that prey on kids.
What’s been on my mind lately is what to do about it–how do you find that balance as a parent in a world that is bearly trustworthy? My oldest is nearing an age when I feel like he should be able to strike out and explore on his own. I know I did. By the time I was 10 my parents hardly knew where I was all day. Most of the time is was in the woods, riding ponies, or playing in our fields. Of course I was lucky to have that access because I lived on a farm, but still…I could let my son go a bit in the woods adjacent here, but how do you know when it’s safe? How to hedge odds in your favor? How do you prepare and protect and still allow your child that natural freedom that should rightfully be his?
It’s not easy raising kids like we were raised in this modern day and age. The way I’m going, the kid will never be allowed to ride a bike alone-and I don’t even consider myself an overbearing parent! Just a reasonably cautious one. How, then can I feel good about raising an independent and self-sufficient adult? Sometimes I wonder if that’s even possible anymore…
