Dear Loretta and David, Thank you so much for the letter and for sending us the holiday edition of the Northwoodsman. Wow! Did that bring back memories! I really can't remember the last time I saw a North Woods newsletter, perhaps in the late 60's or early 70's! How is the good old farmhouse? Is that where you normally live? Has it been insulated? I remember one Christmas in particular that our family decided to go to New Hampshire for Christmas vacation. I think it was the late 60's. The farmhouse had precious little insulation and Glenn Hodgdon was good enough to close off several rooms for us and encase them in some sort of plastic sheeting. I believe the rooms that he fixed for us were the kitchen and the little room just off of the kitchen that used to be the laundry room and on the other side of the kitchen there was another bedroom and a bathroom. (Rosy and I slept in the converted laundry room under blankets and quilts so numerous and heavy that they bent my toes back!!) It was our first visit to New Hampshire in the winter and it was COLD! We had a lot of "firsts" that year. It was the first time we literally slid (at least half of the way at least) on our bottoms from the farmhouse down to the waterfront. It had snowed, gotten a bit warm, and refrozen into the slipperiest mass of ice we had ever encountered. It was a great thing to be young because we sure fell a lot. It was the first time we had ever seen the lake frozen and it was so solid that big trucks were out on the ice. I'm sure you've experienced this by now but it was the oddest sensation to walk way out into the middle of the lake and not be treading water! I'll be thinking of you on your daily walks through the woods. My father [ Traylor Rodgers - editor's note ] started working at North Woods when I was about five years old (before that he was at Sandy Island) and I think I must have walked on every patch of ground at that camp. It was the most wonderful place to explore and since it was summer no one cared if I came home with muddy knees and feet! I wish I could see what you're seeing right now but since I can't, take a walk for me! (Hope you get to see that elusive moose.) Katy