Spring Fever

By Allan Olson

It just might be true, spring is in the air. Of course for those of who have lived in the tundra of Minnesota long enough are skeptic enough not to get their hopes too soon as Mother Nature has a way of wreaking havoc on the unsuspecting.

Abigail at a geocache in Clearwater County.

This weekend, I attended the Leech Lake Perch Jerk on Lake Winnie along with many other parents, volunteers and of course the children. I spent most of my time walking around the ice getting photos for this week’s paper and pausing occasionally to jig my line that Nikolai and Alivia were tending to. As usual – we didn’t get a bite, I really thing that if someone said, “come out fishing right now, they are jumping out of the hole” and if I showed up immediately – the bite would quit. Of course I guess any fishing trips I would like to do now would require that new annual government piece of paper as the previous ones have expired again.

While the temperatures were definitely nice for an outdoor fishing event on Saturday – the little wind that was blowing provided a much cooler effect four miles out on the lake – also the added snow from the day prior contributed to that factor. The sun finally decided to peak out after 2 p.m. and the relief from the cold air was great.

After the two kids and I returned home on Saturday I decided the fresh air and all the walking created the need for a siesta – so after reading a few pages of my book, I took a nice 45 minute nap and woke up feeling refreshed. However, I still didn’t do much the rest of the evening.

On Sunday, it was a great day to be outdoors, the three youngest spent some time outdoors and came back in with most of their stuff wet. I was quick to tell them to get it on the heat – because I knew if I didn’t the next time they needed to use it – the stuff would be still soaked. Earlier that morning, I was in charge of breakfast, serving up some breakfast sausage, bacon and French toast and by the afternoon I was ready to get some exercise to wear it off. So I invited my niece to head out with me – at one stop, we redeemed ourselves on a hide that we were unable to find a few years ago and the next stop was one that I had been planning on – but never got around to it for a long time and it paid off. We parked along the road and headed off in search of a cache – about 600 feet into the woods and once we approached the area it was a quick find. Inside the cache container, was a gift card for Caribou Coffee, I figured it was empty and had been just left in there, but decided to grab it just in case. I showed my niece who was super excited and decided to call the number to see what the balance was – I wasn’t getting my hopes up  - however, when she found out what the balance was I was excited also – it wasn’t empty – it had $8.12. So with that discovery and with the afternoon fading away we headed to Caribou to redeem our reward. My niece and I both enjoyed a very nice large blended coffee drink and with perks reward upgrade I had and the gift card – it only costs a little over $2 – my cheapest visit yet!

Enjoying our drinks, we headed home and on the way I decided that it was time to have a little fun outside. I asked my niece to tell Nikolai and Abigail to come outside – saying I wanted to talk to them, well Nikolai wasn’t falling for my antics but Abigail did – or perhaps just didn’t care what tricks I was up to until I started launching snowballs at her. Although she wasn’t bothered much as I she was quick to defend herself making her own snowballs to throw right back at me. Soon all the kids – including my niece were joining in the snowball scramble in a free for all fight. However, as they say it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt and Nikolai was once again the victim of a white wash and got just a little “hot under the collar.” Somehow I ended up with the blame for it – while I know one of the snowballs I launched hit him in the head – it was his cousin who rubbed snow in his face – and for the record – each of the kids got their fair share of direct hits on me as I had at least one snowball go down my back and one down my pants – a very chilling experience. In all – at least for me it was a lot of fun engaging in a snowball fight with my kids and acting like a kid myself. Of course – for some reason my arms were a little sore on Monday – I wonder why?

Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.