A winter pastime.

Frost after some snow--ideal conditions for sledging--and just what we needed for our homemade sledges of our youth. The first one I can remember, made by father, had irons, from the base of an old bed, for runners, hence the need for crisp snow, as they were so narrow, and a plank of wood, somehow attached for the seating area! It must have been at least 4 feet long and sat 3 of us quite easily. It was the envy of the rest of the farm kids.
Later models we made ourselves, with old fence posts as runners and short pieces of plank nailed across for sitting on. There was no real attempt to check that the posts were parallel and we often ended up with a snowplough rather than something that shot downhill. Sometimes, though, we did get it right and spent many hours out in the snow. We would lie on our stomachs and steering was by trailing the appropriate foot. The chosen run was in the field called, strangely enough, "the steep field" and was about 250 yards from top to bottom. Unfortunately there was no flat area at the bottom on which to gradually come to a halt. You either hit the dyke or baled out beforehand.
As my brothers grew older they changed the models. One type in particular had a large wooden box and this was to be a sort of cabin, in which we would sit and charge downhill, we fondly thought, the prototype of many, maybe we could even patent the design.
It weighed a ton and after we had struggled up to the field we couldn't get it through the fence. That was a complete failure. Bang went our fortune!
Elder brother had learned how to weld, so he fashioned a new model from lengths of old dairy piping welded together. Depending on your leg length you chose the appropriate bar to sit on. This model actually worked quite well, except for the fact that your backside collected snow all the way down the run. It was perfected by attaching some old sacks along its length.
The worst accident I can remember occurred when there was a very thin layer of snow but there had been severe frost. The sledging was going well. My cousin and younger brother sat astride my back as I lay on the sledge and we pushed off, gaining speed, due to the weight. Alas, the runner hit a large frozen cowpat protruding through the snow, the sledge stopped but we continued downhill at a fair speed, with my hands trapped underneath me. When we finally came to a halt all the skin had been scraped off one side of my face by the frosted snow. We went home, I was patched up by mother, with vaseline and a thin headsquare to cover the tender area, and back uphill we went. We couldn't afford to waste good sledging conditions!