Recreation

Y Mentors is a nonprofit, community based, program that matches youth in need of a positive adult role model with adult volunteers.

There are typically between 80 and 120 kids on the waiting list and some youth wait up to two years to become matched with a mentor.

Y Mentors is always looking for new mentors!!

Call us today at:

(507) 287-2401 for more information.

(Click on thumbnails photos to view larger images)

On Sunday, my friend Vicki Dalle-Molle and I went for a training walk on the bike trail from Hy-Vee to Mayowood (we are training for the Susan Komen 3-day/60 mile Walk for Breast Cancer-- I'll write more about that in a future post!)

We were hoping that our walk would be enhanced by spring wildflowers. We were not disappointed -- it was spectacular! So, yesterday I biked back with my camera to take some pictures, a few of which I am posting here.

Though our backyard is now almost all grass, the snow quinzee my kids and I built last weekend is still standing.

A quinzee, or snow mound hut with a hollowed-out interior, is basically a combination between an igloo and a snow cave. It's a survival or recreational snow shelter made by heaping snow into a big, domed-shaped pile, then waiting a couple hours for the snow to harden before you start hollowing out the shelter.

When building a quinzee, it's important not to pack the snow, as packing reduces the loft, or insulating effect, of the snow.

The morning after last Thursday’s (March 16) snowstorm, I observed a large flock of March robins raiding berries from an ornamental tree located at the corner of 14th Ave SW and 6th St SW.

With the ground still frozen and covered by several inches of new snow, and no earthworms to be had, this flock of early-arriving robins must have been searching for any alternative food source it could find. They hit the jackpot with the thousands of berries still clinging to this tree from last fall.

Members of this flock, estimated at about fifty birds, were taking turns swooping in from the cover of some nearby arbor vitae trees.

Saturday morning, members of the Rochester Rowing Club (http://www.rrcmn.com) loaded their boats (called "sculls") onto a trailer in preparation for Spring Training next week in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This wil be the fourth year the team has traveled to Oak Ridge for Spring Training. Spring is already underway in Tennessee, with wildflowers and redbud blooming, and no ice on the river (unlike Silver Lake, where the team usually practices.)