So we're here in Manitoba for two more weeks (assuming Russian troops stay out of Ukraine) after valentine's day. I've been cooking with buttermilk and catching up on things I didn't get around to doing before we were going to leave last week. Plus making some crocheted hats for grandkids, so far Spider-Man, the Hulk and Marshall from paw patrol.
Monday evening we enjoyed speaking to a life group at church after having dinner and board games with Doug and Marcie. Wednesday night Garry was off with the boys because the Winnipeg Mens league is on again. They even won the basketball game. It was nearly midnight when they got home.
Garry's refereed a couple basketball games this week, but several were cancelled because school was closed today, so no weekend tournament. Thursday night was cancelled because there was a storm and blowing snow.
Anyway, when Garry got home Wednesday night, he asked if i wanted to go ice fishing with them Thursday morning at five thirty. I found my old boots and dug through the suitcases looking for my warm leggings to wear under my jeans.
We were up and almost ready to go when Josh and Noah pulled up in the pick-up. It was still dark when we got to the lake and unloaded the snowmobiles, but the sun was just rising when we found the lawn chair they left to mark where they fished last time. Actually my chair, Noah had grabbed it from the garage that day.
It didn't take long to get set up, but Garry's plan to shovel the snow away from the area to set up the tent on, wasn't the best idea, because when they drilled the holes to fish in, water bubbled up from the lake and we ended shoveling snow back in to adsorb it. Unfortunately the heater got wet and then froze.
Eventually Josh decided to cook some garlic sausage on the camp stove, which was dry, then Noah held the heater over it and melted the ice, dripping water pouring out of it. The little tank ran out of propane, but luckily it did melt enough, and we started warming up after it got started. That was about the time the snow and wind started outside.
We had a great time fishing, even though Josh forgot the frozen minnows so we had to use fake ones. Unfortunately the fish didn't like them. The wind was blowing harder and suddenly it tried to blow the tent away. Everyone grabbed for it as we sat in our camp chairs. The tent came back down with Josh and I sitting on the outside and Noah and Garry inside.
We got it back in place and Garry and I held on while the boys went out and piled snow around the side and put in a couple anchor stakes to hold it down. Which it did, although a big gust would have us all thinking about where to grab it.
We got the heater back on and returned to fishing, and talking and opened a bag of Doritos. The holes were no longer in a straight line along the edge of the tent since it had moved a little while going up and back down. Since the cook stove had no fuel left, Josh rigged up a way to cook hotdogs with the heater.
After a second round of hotdogs, I thought I had a nibble around twelve forty five so they decided to fish until one o'clock and go back a little earlier than they had to, since Garry and Josh were referring that evening. They were going to save time on filleting fish. The wind seemed to be blowing less, however we found drifts around the snowmobiles and you couldn't see the shore, or our tracks to get back to the launch. Did I say no one else was on the lake?
Anyway, everything got packed up and in the sled, and we hopped on the snowmobiles. Did I mention the last time I rode behind Garry on a snowmobile it was more than forty years ago? The ride back took longer than twenty minutes. In fact the snow finally stopped about twenty minutes later, and we weren't sure where we were on the lake. We stopped a couple times and checked the GPS on Noah's phone and figured out how to get back to the truck.
I climbed in the truck while they loaded everything up. However I'd left the door open a crack and had to move some snow off my seat. The drive home was a little slow, because we'd gotten quite a lot of snow. Garry ended up napping after the basketball games were cancelled for road conditions. In the morning, a lot of roads were closed for blowing snow, although it wasn't too bad out here in St Labre.
The chair is still out there, hoping to see it again.
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