A Winter Weekend


By Allan Olson
Another week has flown by, and the month will be over by the time the next issue of the Cass Lake Times hits the newsstands. I don’t mind winter too much, but I really prefer the warmer weather to the cold, and snow over the cold as well. So I’m looking forward to closing the book on January and turning the calendar page to February, which means we are just that much closer to spring.
This past weekend wasn’t overly exciting; I did some office work on Saturday while Nikolai was at robotics. Then we headed home so he could do some work there, while I continued north to pick up my sister in-law. Abigail had her check-up at the Shriners Clinic, and my wife’s sister agreed to accompany her on the drive to the concrete jungle.
On my trip to the big town of Mizpah (a half-way point where we met for the pick-up) I decided to do some geocaching. My first stop was a quick grab and I was back on my way. The second stop wasn’t quite as easy to find; I finally gave up after 15 minutes, not sure if it was there in the snow or if I just wasn’t seeing it.
I headed back to my vehicle to warm up and plot my next stop – a multi-cache, meaning there was more than one step to the process. Thankfully, this was only a two stage cache and thanks to the melting snow, I found the first stage easily and by following the directions on it, the final piece was easy to find, too. However, the recovery of it was a different story. There was a fishing pole (a piece of wood with a rope and washer tied to it), that I retrieved from the first stage. The goal was to use that tool to recover the container which contained the log book I needed to sign. Unfortunately, the container was frozen to the ground in the bottom of the PVC pipe attached to a fence post. 
I went back to my vehicle to find a couple tools to help in the process and returned with a shovel, a fork and a block of wood. In the end, I used all of those plus the fishing pole to finally free the container and sign the log book to make the find a success.
After that I did some research on another cache – which ended up being really easy – before heading on to meet my passengers for the ride home.
Back at home, I decided I would catch up on some recorded programs and hid in the bedroom most of the evening, only venturing out for supper.
On Sunday morning I saw the girls off and then headed back to bed. It took a couple hours but eventually I made it back to the Land of Nod and enjoyed a mid-morning nap. I spent the remainder of the day in the house, watching a couple movies with Alivia and eventually found myself caught up in the television show Alaska: The Last Frontier. I have no idea why I was drawn into it; I have no desire to live in the bush like the characters there do, but I sure would like to spend some time photographing the wildlife in that area. I found the show mildly interesting and it was a good way to spend the day.  
I did step outside a couple of times, where I briefly debated getting some fresh air and exercise, but found it rather chilly despite the sunshine, and so retreated back to the comfort of my home.
I managed to feed the three kids left at home with me; we enjoyed hot cereal for brunch, and mac and cheese and hotdogs for supper and I think the kids snacked in between. Usually if they are hungry they will find something to eat, unless they are told we will be making something soon.
Tentative plans for this weekend include traveling on a frozen lake near Northome for a geocache, and a long hike with a couple of other crazy like-minded geocachers into a frozen swamp for a cache last found in December 2014. It should be an interesting experience and one I would never venture on my own or with the rest of the family because with my navigating skills I probably wouldn’t make it back.

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.

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