More Winter Wonderland

Once again, I was reminded this weekend of how far out I live. The kids and I took a trip to town to stay overnight. Driving to Warroad on Friday held lovely blizzard conditions and I thought about turning around more than once. I have heard that Canada doesn't plow snow in a timely manner. Coming home on Saturday after the storm had cleared, I learned this rumor is true. It was basically an hour of driving on a highway that only existed in my memory. In some places there was a one-lane "road" that had been packed down by cars/trucks before me. I felt like I was driving in a field. The big bonus was that any oncoming traffic was usually logging trucks, which make for outstanding roadmates--white knuckle driving in the snow drift as far over to the side as I could get. There was a time in my life that I didn't even plan to have kids and thought I'd live in a big busy city. Now here I am in the middle of nowhere driving them through waves of snow and getting passed by some Dodge sedan. Remind me again, how did this come about?
After cleaning one cabin yesterday, Jenny and I headed out for a snowshoe. It was a sunny day, 20 degrees. Perfect conditions. We took a trail that started through the woods and then went out on the lake. I'm still not crazy about being on the frozen lake, but I'm getting better. There is too much snow to see the ice now, so that helps. I might add that our snowmobile trails are better kempt than Canada's roads. That's right Canada, I said it!

Along the way we saw some beautiful real estate opportunities. Somebody is probably embracing fond memories of this stellar domicile.

There is a naughty little bobcat on the loose that almost got in the back of the garbage truck with Rick and Tyson one day. Then he went down to Susan and Dwayne's house and got in thier garbage. To be fair, Sue is an excellent cook--can't say I blame him. We think these were his tracks on the trail. His are on the left of Tucker's big paw prints. The tracks wandered clear out to the lake. This bobcat is a busy fellow with a lot of free time for tomfoolery.

This portion of the trail is on the lake. I think this is Andrew, I can't remember. The dogs were hot on Bobcat Bob's trail. Tyson says the bobcat's name is Sugar, but I can't get on board with that.

This is Jenny stabbing at some ice buildup on my snowshoe with a pair of scissors.

Looking back on the lake at where we've walked, dog's trail taking off to the left, my snowshoe tracks in the middle and snowmobile tracks on the right.

Later in the afternoon, it was time to get Tyson outside. He gets amped up around 4:00pm and is a force to be reckoned with if he doesn't burn off some energy. I said we were going for a walk, while he thought we should be driving the mule. (Like a golf cart.) He is just like his father in this way. Why go by foot when you can drive something with a motor?

Watching him pull this sled around, I realized I would get more bang for my buck if I loaded it down with something heavy. That should tire him out a little sooner. I didn't do it, but I'm not opposed to it in the future!

And here would be the Angle Inlet twist--the modified jog stroller that now has skiis. And Andie Joy stuffed right in the middle of it all.

We only made one lap around the campground before the sun started going down and it got cold. This little red nose being the proof. I think it's funny that I'm outside all day in 20 degrees, but I only thought it was cold when the sun went down. Also, one of our friends went to North Dakota last week and I knew the location of the town she was going to. It's happening, I'm being sucked in by Minnesota. I'm....one of them?