DQ Challenge

Roger, Matt, Sam and Kendall are going on the DQ challenge tomorrow :(
(because they all have the day off)

DQ challenge - canoe from Moose Lk to Winton and take a portage at Winton and head to Ely where you portage through the drive through (with canoe!) at DQ and get ice cream!

Sounds like an awesome fun time to me!! But no day off for me tomorrow :(
Dad and Brian come tomorrow though so I wouldn't want to miss that even for the DQ challenge

So its been almost a whole week ... I find that hard to believe.

Not much has been happening though. Its hot and sticky now ... I'm not sure if I prefer this or the cold we had before. Carl left for his second trip yesterday morning - I didn't get up to see them off though ... we were up really late finishing laundry and he said that it was okay for me to sleep - how sweet of him, I know.

But we've been pretty busy with crews coming in and out... not much besides that.

The sunsets, stars and wildflowers are beautiful beyond description - they almost make my entire day.

I'm still not really enjoying one particular person I work with (MADISON) - he's 17 going on 7 ...that is seriously the attitude and mindset he has. I'm pretty sure he thinks its funny or that I enjoy him talking to me like I'm not as good as he is but really... it needs to stop. Maybe I'll have to talk to Joe or something (because John knows how it is and frankly doesn't care).

And... now its lunch time - Philly cheese steak day :)

PS - some kids next to me were just having a conversation about what an archdiocese is, becoming Pope, priesthood and being able to marry people ... and then something about being the captain of a ship... it was funny but you had to be here.

PPS - Dad and Brian leave home today!! I'm so excited to see them Monday!

So things lately have been pretty alright.

It took me a decent amount of patience to get onto this computer though because -someone- (who shall remain unnamed ...) has installed "triple a" onto one (probably two now) of the computers and some bozo is sitting there hogging a computer like its his own. Bummer.

The black flies have not completely died out ... but they don't seem to be biting at me anymore? I dunno. Tonight, I learned about a new kind of bug that decided to bite me ... they're biting midges or as one of the interpreters tonight tells me people call them "no-see-ums". They're smaller (or as small as) a fruit fly and when they bite ... I don't even know how to describe it. Its a sharp pain and you can't see the bug so its like "What the..." yeeah. Good fun.

I've been getting plenty of compliments on my phony French accent which is always good, no? :)

Other than that, not much is up. I wish I could go out with Dad and Brian when they come just to go... but I'd never be able to get 10 days off... its hard enough to get one. I just want to go out and experience it and not be stuck here for once. My choice I guess. Along with that, a lot of the crews tend to come back with little gifts for their interpreters (crew shirts, patches, keychains, stickers... something) and as fantastic History staff I get none of that and very little thanks as it is... it makes me feel really jealous but what can I do. Oh well.

Finally Friday

This week feels like the longest week of my life for some reason!

This morning, Carl took off with his first crew that is all his own. He was talking to me about them yesterday - sounds like things might be a little rough sometimes. One of the adults seems to have an ego/attitude problem and that should make things interesting...

As for me, its more of the same. Woke up feeling kind of crappy still (nasty cough/congestion) and then headed down to our little fort to do not much (because it rained last night (so I didn't have to water the garden) and I swept yesterday) which consisted of checking on the bunnies (who are doing well) and building tonight's fire...

Now I'm done engaging the off road crews and am just waiting around doing nothing until dinner after which there will be rendezvous.

Wow. So exciting and different I know :)

Cassie Day!!

So of course yesterday was Cassie Day - it was packed full of action and celebration! Carl came in to the SLU and woke me up around 9:15 which was sweet :) and then I got ready for the day, signed us out and waited in the parking lot for him (he was preparing a secret...).

We drove into Ely where we had some errands to do - I mailed Ariana Bell-Streety's baby shower present (the blanket I'd been making which came out a little messed up...), stopped at Subay (for lunch), Wells Fargo for money and got gas. We drove on through parts of the little town and ended up at a park/beach nearby. (I don't remember the name of it ... it starts with an "s"). We had a picnic lunch on that rock there :) it was cute and romantical. Then we spent some time walking around the little islands by the beach and just enjoying the nice day and a little dip of our feet in the water (which felt VERY nice on the bug bites on my ankles).

After lunching and laying around in the sun and the little foot soak in the water, we took off back on the road headed toward Virginia (because that's the nearest city of decent size...). We were on a quest to find an ATM that wouldn't charge a fee for me to deposit my pay check and that was ... an adventure. We drove 15 miles south of Virginia but it took much longer than it should have because of a fantastic thing called construction... after we found that, we were just in time to see the movie we were headed to. We saw Land of the Lost at a quaint little theater - the movie was okay; not as funny as I thought it would be though. After the movie, we drove around a little bit before dinner - Mom said Virginia is home of the world's largest decoy loon... we went to go find it but it wasn't there -they were preparing it for the parade (?) that is on Saturday... Then we headed to dinner and passed a Target (which means that Virginia is officially a legit city). We ate at a little place called the Whistling Bird - it was a Jamaican restaurant. We had some stuffed mushrooms and for entrees, Carl had steak and I had some shrimp linguine (it was supposed to have lobster too but they didn't have lobster...). Then it was into the car again for the drive "home".

Once back on base, Carl kept finding things to make us stay busy until "time" - we stopped by his cabin to find that he had been moved out of it during the day (so that had added a little bit of a delay on our part...). Then we headed over to the SLU because I assumed we'd just do presents there ... and all (most) my new friends (and REALLY new acquaintences) surprised me :) Then there was presents and delicious cake (from my roomies who work in the kitchen!!) and some general merriment. It was some great fun :) So here are some pictures of those happenings (these were taken by the lovely Sarah Berg herself...)

(<- exept Carl took this one) (Top L to R: Katie Berg, Sarah Berg, Danielle (she got here yesterday and shares my birthday/major!), Me, Erin Beaton Bottom: Millie Axness, Cait and Scott)

(Yeah you know I'm

attractive...Millie too...)

(Carl presents - White Olieander
and froggy umbrella :) )

Picture Catch Up

So I've decided that
I have a bunch of fun pictures that didn't seem suitable for any other posts and so I am taking the initiative to make simply a picture post. Enjoy <3 style="text-align: left;"><- Carl as a Knight at the Chicago Institute of Art :)

Crazy iguana at Shedd

Long time...

So I've been pretty busy lately - we've had rendezvous every night for the past 4 - 5 nights and by the time that's over, I'm just ready to collapse.

So... last Friday.
I'm pretty sure nothing exciting has been happening really. Lots of bugs. Engagements, rendezvous, lunch, dinner, breakfast (sometimes).

The other night, Carl and I decided after rendezvous to drive in and get some DQ (especially because my throat was sore...). We raced to get there and arrived at about 10:05 - they closed at 10. But luckily, Carl has skills with people and managed to talk them into trying to squeeze two cones out of the machine - and they did. Right as we were paying the machine "popped" and that means that there is no more ice cream - we were thankful.

Yesterday was pay day - we ran into town so Carl could open a Wells Fargo and get his pay check cashed. Oh but before that we ran to the post office to pick up a package for me from Alexandria, VA (they were another business that was willing to wait for us - they closed at 4:20 and we got there at 4:25ish). I loves me some packages :) they make me feel super loved.

Anddd I went to a management meeting this morning because John Duke has the day off ... it was great fun. Um... soon is lunch and then more engagement. No rendezvous tonight and I'm not really sure what I'll do.

Tomorrow is Cassie Day and I have it all off :D

Fab Friday

So... I know I missed out on yesterday. Still. We all pretty much had the day off yesterday. Carl and I took Emmet and another kid, Adam to the Soudan mine which was a good time. We did some Simon and Garfunkel jammin' in the car on the way there and actually ran into another staff member who was there with her brother and sister while we were there. We took an elevator.5 mile under ground at about 10 mph then boarded a little train thing and took it deeper into the mine where we climbed the 37 step spiral staircase (which apparently required a warning/disclaimer) to where the mining took place and got to see the ore shafts and hear what the drills sounded like and all kinds of fun things. It was most certainly a good time. Then on the way home, we stopped at a secret location to get something secret which I'm assuming is for my Birthday and then DQ and Pamida (so Carl could buy chapstick ... and Dorthy's Root Beer...)

Today... this morning, we helped move some benches that had been in the tent barn over to the Lodge ... in the rain. It was actually kind of nice. I got to know Maidson Shaw (our new History member) a little better and have decided I really don't like him in the slightest. He's a 17 almost 18 year old boy who is a know it all back talking snot ... I don't like him at all. We had 6 crews come off road today and so got to dress up in our fab clothes and do that shinding. We had the afternoon off after they came through because of course there was nothing to do after that. I went and finished casting off my knitting of that blanket and it looks really stupid ... somehow I managed to increase stitches and so the end of the blanket is bigger than the beginning. Hm... not cool. But... I got some mail today which is always fun. Package from home (with my itch relief products and my railroad hat and what I'm assuming is a Birthday card from the Martins (which I haven't opened yet of course) :)

Seminar Day

Today was the last day of training (YAY!). I woke up a little later than anticipated - my alarm was set for an hour AFTER I needed it to be ... but Erin's alarm went off and I woke up to that. Thank goodness.

There were seminars today led by various Alumni and other peeps. My first session today was Advanced Photo which was all right. I learned a new thing or two - always good, right? Second, I had Advanced Baking - it pertained mostly to Trail Staff but I still got to go and eat yummy snacks that the Brigade Leaders made as examples :) Most interestingly, there was a Pepsi cake made (Just for Carl Boyles... he loves Pepsi)

Then Lunch happened... and for the afternoon, I was supposed to attend "Base History" which I did not sign up for (so I skipped it) but then had Geocaching which was all kinds of fun (despite my bit of whining as we climbed and trekked through Secret Blackstone). The first "cache" was right outside base and the second one we didn't even make the full distance because it was more of a scavenger hunt - you get one coordinate and then it leads you to the key to decoding the second, third &c. coordinate and eventually leading you to the physical cache itself. But it was a nice four mile hike (that's halfway around Mackinac, mind you!). I'm pretty proud ... but looked and smelled pretty nasty for staff picture ... but we were a big crowd so you couldn't tell :)

One of the most exciting parts of hiking through Secret Blackstone I think was that there were small creeks and streams that we hiked over and there was no brodge persay - we crossed on rocks - too cool :)

I'll try and upload more pictures later ... the internet is being pretty slow and I really would like a shower and some sleep...

Terriffic Tuesday

So today has been pretty great :)

I unintentionally got the day off - we were supposed to build our history staff shed but the materials were simple 2x4s and shingles and John said there was no way we'd build that. So I had the day off.

Tonight, went to dinner with Erin, Sara, Kate, Faye and Amanda for dinner ... they left me behind because I didn't know when we were leaving. Thankfully, I went into the Admin building to ask if anyone knew they left (and they had...) I almost started crying right there but thankfully Ashley caught me and volunteered to take me into town because she was heading home anyway. I'm so glad she did. We had a great time at dinner and just drove around after listening to Beatles and Lion King :) it was pretty much really great.

AND the sun came out today and it was warm enough to not need a sweat shirt :) Now, I'm headed back to the SLU to color with MILLIE and Amanda.

Rendezvous

So ... another day late entry.

Yesterday was a pretty busy day - John, Emmet and I spent the entire morning/afternoon preparing for our first rendezvous which was last evening and thus I had no time to write.

Crews came off the water and there are now maybe 4 - 5 times more people on base and I'm not sure how I feel about it :) I mean, its good to have them all back I guess but everything is so much more crowded now and there is always a wait for a computer ...

The event went very well if I do say so myself. By dinner time, we were all really worried as to where and how we would do it because there was a good 3 - 4 hour downpour ... but it slowed and stopped right around dinner time so that was really awesome. I'll put some pictures up later if I get a chance.

After rendezvous, there was the first ever annual wild paddle ball with some of the girl scouts across the lake - Carl and I stuck around for a little bit. The food was AWESOME and it was good to see everyone having such a good time.

I had the morning off and also the evening. Today, we're supposed to work on building our History costume shed ... we'll see how that goes.

Because the paragraphs aren't big enough to work them in, here are the pictures :)

(Katie with one of the Paddle Ball cakes. We're diabetes buddies. We even have the same pump.)

A little church, a big choir.

Today of course is Sunday and I managed to get the morning off and have permission to go into town with George (of the Trading Post) and Len (the Chaplin) for church... conveniently they were already going to the ELCA church so I didn't go alone. The building was a decent sized thing but no where near the size of Faith. The congregation filled the entire sanctuary - 100 some odd people and they had a choir about 4 times of ours - I counted 31 people. Astonishing to my little mind.

After church, we headed back to base and stopped for some DQ (I'm going to gain so much weight, it's not funny). George bought me mine since I agreed to be his date for the day :) he's a cute old man. Its true.

Back at base, we went to lunch (even though I wasn't super hungry because of the many calorie breakfast and ice cream) and then I went off to be with John and Emmet - we did some practicing for Rendezvous (my flute/singing), worked on making our muskets fire and set up some secret stuff for Rendezvous which I would tell you all about if my father/brother who read this weren't coming or didn't read this. But it's all good.

OA boys came back to base today - our dining group size pretty much tripled which I find hilarious ... the rest of staff gets in tomorrow around lunch time and then I'll go from knowing the majority of the names on Base to no longer knowing any ... or rather, knowing much fewer. Also tomorrow is the first Rendezvous ... I really hope it works out okay ... we have plans and stuff but that doesn't mean much.

The weekend has been pretty decent (especially because I had a day off ;) ) and I hope that the week continues in that fashion ... I have a good amount of knitting to do in the next week or so in order to get this blanket out on time and I really would like to get through Tandia soon.

Day Off

I have the day off, had a corn dog for lunch, was given permission to eat the cookies in a package Carl's mom sent him and was told by a little 7 year old girl whom I hardly know that I'm pretty.

Aside from missing my baby sister's graduation, I think today could be a really great day :)

Irratation and Celebration

Yesterday I was eaten alive by bugs. Not only do we have mosquitoes here, we have some nasty black flies. Now we all know what a mosquito bite is like but when these black flies bite, they use four slashing teeth to cut a shallow well in your skin and as your blood seeps out, the female black fly laps it up. Her saliva (I have learned) contains chemicals that partially numb the nerves AND an anticoagulant to keep the blood from clotting ... so, like the mosquito bite, these bites swell and itch. Unlike the mosquito though, the bites of course break open and bleed easier. I have them ALL over the place (in addition to mosquito bites). The largest concentration of bites I have are on my back. I have 15 - 20 on the small of my back (where a girl would get their "tramp stamp" tattoo) and another 5 - 15 on my neck ... I also have plenty on my arms, a few on my hands and my face and one or two on my leg. ... oh and one super bite on my neck - it's swelled up so big it feels like a tumor no joke.

Right so other than itchy, today was an okay day. No Carl at all of course - they'll be on the water for 4 - 5 more days now. It's really quiet here on base and there are only 2 - 3 tables of people at each meal because everyone is on swamper. This afternoon, Emmet and I dressed up and welcomed our first crew with our little skit. I don't have pictures of it but I'm sure I'll have some pictures of my goofy clothes by some point. It was pretty fun and went well - I remembered to say all the things I was supposed to.

I have the rest of the day and tomorrow off - it should be nice. I'm not really sure what I'll do though because nobody is around. I'll probably spend a lot of it sleeping that's for sure ... and knitting or reading? Flute? Who knows.

Dinner is up in a little while and the four crews that came in today are joining us. I'm not sure if it'll be nice or not to have some noise back in the dining hall... :)

So I just got done doing laundry. It was good fun and highly successful ... and I didn't even have Chrissy to help ;) (ah sampler <3). Today I painted a beaver on the side of our voyageur canoe and it looks pretty awesome if I must say so myself. And I do. John likes it too ... I would upload pictures for you but I can't because of my computer situation. I hear the wireless is working now though so maybe after this I'll go and try out my laptop. Carl and all the other brigades left on their "swamper" trip this morning between 10:30 and 11. Last night, we were worried that they'd be leaving RIGHT after breakfast and I'd still be sleeping before they took off ... luckily (?) it took much longer to get prepped to go and things so I got to chill with the lot of them for an hour or so until I felt guilty about not doing what John wanted me to (looking at pictures of beavers so I could better paint one) so I said farewell to them and that was that. So now they're out on the water for 5 days and I can only hope they have fun and are SAFE. Somebody next to me just said, "Man, its like, raining." Annnd it is. So now, I think I'll post this and be off just in case the power goes out again... -C





(and here is what our "HQ" cabin looks like)

A Nicer Day

Today was more like a summer day I would expect. Beautiful weather. No rain. Blue skies as far as the eye can see. After breakfast, we had "girl talk" and "boy talk" - it was lame. We talked about trail stuff ... which probably half of us really didn't need. Then we did more of what happened yesterday - Carl's group rotated through and we did our history talk and threw some sharp things then lunch. After lunch, the three of us went into Ely and bought shoes for Emmet and I for rendezvous and so on ... not much has really happened in all honesty. I'm not in the best of moods ... who knows why? I'd really like to NOT go do more work tonight I really need some time to do laundry and just chill ... but I don't see that happening. I also don't know that I'll have my birthday off like John said could happen and I'm not seeing any letters come through my mailbox which is pretty depressing considering the number of people who told me they'd write. Oh well. I should've expected it to be that way but it'd just be nice if people would do the things they said.

-C

Tuesday.

Today all day long the interpreters rotated through the multiple bases on camp. They spent three hours in the commissary, three with bay post and three with us (history!). John would start out with his little speech about the history of things and something and another thing and then Emmet would show and explain the fort area, I would show and explain the Ojibwa village and then John would show and explain the "headquarters" building and idea. Then we would break off into two groups - one group played cat and mouse and the other came off with me to play with hatchets :) I started out not being very good at it but by the end of the rotations, I managed to throw two and make them stick. I was very proud! Then, we headed back and regrouped at the fort area and went through the procedure and plans for rendezvous which included quite a bit of singing which was great fun. Then lunch between sessions one and two, dinner after session two and then the three of us were on our own for the evening. We didn't do much - Emmet and I figured out our costumes for Friday when the first crews come off road (both of which are WAY huge) but hopefully the new costumes that will hopefully fit better will come by Friday. We also decided that tomorrow afternoon the three of us would head back into town to shop for shoes for Emmet and I ... I'm not too excited about this because it means spending more money. Other than that, not much has been going on. Carl's group comes to see us tomorrow morning after breakfast - I haven't been seeing as much of him as I had when we started because we've been doing different sessions and things in the afternoons and he has been doing trail dinners with his birgade. But I hear things will still be different after they return from swamper.

Falling Behind

I feel so bad that I've been falling behind with this. I told myself I would post every day's happenings but clearly, I didn't do yesterday. I'm also pretty disappointed that these computers won't let me access my camera (because I'm not an admin ... but I think Carl might be able to help me out with that).

Yesterday, John, Emmet and I cleaned up our "headquarters" - the cabin where we'll be "checking in" the crews and signing the kids up to be engages. It was a lot of work but was a good thing because yesterday was by far the coldest day we've had and we were inside doing all that. We cleaned out the drawers of the desk and not so authentic filing cabinet as well as got rid of some things hanging on the walls and laying around that we felt weren't authentic. Then, we went down to the depot and pulled out furs, clothes and other decorations to put up and around. It looks pretty good now I think - I wish I could share pictures. Hopefully, I'll be able to do that soon.

Today, the three of us went to Pine City which is about 3.5 hours from base - it was like driving up north just for the day. I slept an hour or half of one both the way there and the way home. I just hope I'll be able to sleep tonight despite my naps. At Pine City, we visited the Northwest Co fort and the Ojibwa Indian reenactors taught us how to make twine from the bark of a Basswood tree - it was fun to learn! John said maybe we could try to do that ourselves from the very beginning. I hope we get to. We ate lunch at a little cafe in town called Froggy's. Its funny being in all these small towns where everyone knows everyone else. Some of the kids at the park across the street were really inappropriate or so I think - one of them was yelling and cussing out other kids about his age around the park. Not cool man. For dinner, we stopped at Subway in Ely and then had some DQ which was delish. Now we're back at base ... John wants me to come up with something to play on my flute for rendezvous but I honestly don't know what I could/want to play. We'll have to work on that I suppose ...

The weather today was much nicer than yesterday. Yesterday, I don't think it got above 40 degrees but today was above 60 which was much better and much more like spring/summer weather. Only, we were in the car of course so we couldn't enjoy it much. I'm thinking maybe I'll go sit in the sauna for a little bit now or maybe do some knitting or maybe I will go find some music to play for rendezvous ...

Until tomorrow,
-C