Outside Winter Weekend

Marcus grabbed some air as he guided his sled over the bump on the hill while sledding on Sunday afternoon a few miles from home in Pennington. Photo by Allan Olson.
By Allan Olson
The weather outside was so delightful, it truly was very nice this weekend, there wasn’t anything frightful about it. The weekend was so nice it didn’t snow and the temperatures were above freezing instead of well below the donut it felt great.
This weekend, I didn’t embark on some crazy adventure through a frozen Cedar forest, instead I walked on the frozen waters of Cass Lake visiting with all the crazy anglers out trying for the big prize at the Chamber of Commerce Fishing tournament and getting many pics of the event on the ice. That evening the family did some cleaning, trying to get some things straightened up in the house for the millionth time.
We finished up the cleaning chores in time to eat supper and then enjoyed a movie together which finished up just in time for me to get in bed at the normal time – 10 p.m. For the second morning in a row I managed to sleep in crawling out of bed sometime after 8 a.m. on Sunday. It will be the last weekend of the month where I will be able to sleep in that late on both days as the remaining two weekends are filled up with morning obligations on at least one of the two days.
In the late morning I set off for a drive hoping for some good outdoor shots on the warm sunny winter day, looking for deer or eagles or something that would be a great target for my lens I only found the wide expanse of Lake Winnie and a little later I spotted my trumpeter swans still hanging out on the Mississippi River near the Third River Road Bridge. I had really hoped maybe I would spot the otter again, but I only saw the signs of him and not the animal itself.
I made my way home after taking a few photos – rushed the kids to finish up some other chores and we loaded the vehicles with sleds and met up with my brother and a couple cousins on a nearby hill for a nearly two hours of sledding. The kids went up and down the hill several times swapping sleds and hitting the bump in the middle of the hill to go flying – a couple of them also tried sledding through the trees as they went into the woods at the bottom of the hill.
The kids were disappointed to leave but there outdoor gear was wet and the wind was picking up and it was time to get home.
This week’s battle at home has been homework – doing homework with my oldest daughter can go from peaceful and easy to world war three in a matter of minutes. Last week, it seemed like we were finally making progress on this pile of homework when, we let it lapse on Saturday – not getting any of it done and then most of Sunday until I remembered it that evening. Then it was a battle from the onset as she didn’t want to deal with the rotten math homework. Finally we were done battling and just sent her to bed instead, hoping that maybe she will get a little done at school and we will work on it again during the week.
The rest of the evening was quiet and uneventful as we planned for another busy week of juggling work, school and kids. Around here a week is seldom dull and something will undoubtedly occur to break (maybe even literally) any chance of doldrums.
A chance to go fishing is in the forecast on Sunday and with any luck, maybe we will bring home enough for a meal or two.
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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