I can't in good faith report any news as a Standardization Instructor Pilot from Sweden due to the fact that we are in the weaning days of a national treasure called Winter Sports Holiday.
As it turns out, winter in Sweden can be harsh. This causes everyone to be locked in doors and inadvertently sharing in may things such as germs. This is the time of year that kids were historically getting very sick and passing their little nasty germs onto their parents at home and further sharing into the work place. This reality was the genesis of taking a week off each year in these indoor days, hence the excuse to have a Winter Holiday. When in Sweden, do as the Swedes do, stay away from that nasty thing we call a J.O.B.
So the Hastings clan embarked on the tradition with an attempt to participate in some winter sports. Our brand new cross country skis had been delivered around three weeks ago and we were well prepared to put them to their inaugural use. The big problem is that the snow began an amazing disappearing act just in time for the Winter Sports week away from work and school.
We were shown a new past time to get us off the couch and into the outdoors of Sweden, this new activity to us is known as Geocaching. Nerds across the world have hidden small "treasures" all around and with the aid of a GPS, they are logged into a website and published. Nerds such as ourselves utilize GPS', or in our case, donate $10 bones to the App Gods of the iPhone world to search for these hidden trinkets. It has been an absolute blast. We have walked into areas around this country that we would have never seen and discovered locations that we will probably visit again during the summer months. It has proven to be an excellent source of curing cabin fever and breaking the spell of the boob tube. We spent Monday near a castle ruins and into the forest near Lake Roxen. Here we found two of three caches we set out to uncover.
Tuesday we joined forces with our Landlord and new friend, Axel, along with his two young boys to a small ski hill. Unbelievably, there was enough snow to allow Mia to put in her first day of skiing. I am not sure if there are other parents out there that can remember the first time on skis with their child, not something I can call the best time of my life. After all, kids, or for sure my kid, is much smarter than her parents and can't even imagine listening to coaching or advice from her parents. This made for a few hours on a bunny hill that I wouldn't like to repeat. Eventually, we got something past the goalie in her brain and some tips sunk into the ears and some actual skiing occurred. Even a trip up a very "old timey" t-bar rope tow lift up a decent ski hill was shared by the three wayward adventurers. At the end of the day a successful trip happened and we were happy. Dinner and too many beers happened later that night with the McGettigan clan on a nearby farm.
Thursday we were invited to the farm of our Landlords brother and sister-in-law. Whitney has made the trip several times to enjoy riding with new good friend Linda. What an amazing farm and home! We were escorted around this amazing property and were witness to some very different ways to farm. They had all indoor beef cattle, like close to 300. They were a Charlaise type breed. The barns were huge and very amazing. The farm is completely self sufficient in all ways. Most notable to me was the heating system. It was a huge hopper filled with wood chips from waste wood and trees across the property, fed into a huge furnace, heating water that was fed into around 15 buildings for heat and hot water. Amazing. My thoughts were of my buddy Zman, wishing he could be there to look around and discuss the differences in the cattle business. We stayed for a "typical Swedish" dinner, Moose roast, potatoes, brown sauce and the ever present Lingonberry jelly for the meat.
Friday was spent back on the hunt for Geo treasure. It was a rigorous hike to find all four caches that were on the list. This time it was a reclaimed water fowl nature reserve. The first site was easily found after a great hike in terrific surroundings. The second was a serious event. A direct course via iPhone GPS landed us at the bottom of a shear cliff completely coated in a lush moss. The deep forest had a carpet of the lush green on downed logs, rocks, and the forest floor. I made an attempt to scale the cliff, much easier going up than coming down. A few skids to my near death later, we decided to depart the area as losers. We scaled the map to a larger scale and decided to make a different approach. Whitney is a serious competitor and was unwilling to give up on this particular cache. Eventually, we made it to the top and discovered the treasure to discover the box contained a US quarter from our home state of Wyoming. That was just too weird and a great reminder not to give up. I can't imagine not finding that Wyo Quarter this far from home.
Things have begun to really come together for us here. Still feeling pretty out of place but getting used to that feeling and navigating this country in a way that makes us feel like we know how to get things done. I am positive we are doing it different, some may say wrong, but it is definitely the Hastings way to do things in Sweden. I don't giving a crap if people think we are weird, take a number in get in line.
As it turns out, winter in Sweden can be harsh. This causes everyone to be locked in doors and inadvertently sharing in may things such as germs. This is the time of year that kids were historically getting very sick and passing their little nasty germs onto their parents at home and further sharing into the work place. This reality was the genesis of taking a week off each year in these indoor days, hence the excuse to have a Winter Holiday. When in Sweden, do as the Swedes do, stay away from that nasty thing we call a J.O.B.
So the Hastings clan embarked on the tradition with an attempt to participate in some winter sports. Our brand new cross country skis had been delivered around three weeks ago and we were well prepared to put them to their inaugural use. The big problem is that the snow began an amazing disappearing act just in time for the Winter Sports week away from work and school.
We were shown a new past time to get us off the couch and into the outdoors of Sweden, this new activity to us is known as Geocaching. Nerds across the world have hidden small "treasures" all around and with the aid of a GPS, they are logged into a website and published. Nerds such as ourselves utilize GPS', or in our case, donate $10 bones to the App Gods of the iPhone world to search for these hidden trinkets. It has been an absolute blast. We have walked into areas around this country that we would have never seen and discovered locations that we will probably visit again during the summer months. It has proven to be an excellent source of curing cabin fever and breaking the spell of the boob tube. We spent Monday near a castle ruins and into the forest near Lake Roxen. Here we found two of three caches we set out to uncover.
Tuesday we joined forces with our Landlord and new friend, Axel, along with his two young boys to a small ski hill. Unbelievably, there was enough snow to allow Mia to put in her first day of skiing. I am not sure if there are other parents out there that can remember the first time on skis with their child, not something I can call the best time of my life. After all, kids, or for sure my kid, is much smarter than her parents and can't even imagine listening to coaching or advice from her parents. This made for a few hours on a bunny hill that I wouldn't like to repeat. Eventually, we got something past the goalie in her brain and some tips sunk into the ears and some actual skiing occurred. Even a trip up a very "old timey" t-bar rope tow lift up a decent ski hill was shared by the three wayward adventurers. At the end of the day a successful trip happened and we were happy. Dinner and too many beers happened later that night with the McGettigan clan on a nearby farm.
Thursday we were invited to the farm of our Landlords brother and sister-in-law. Whitney has made the trip several times to enjoy riding with new good friend Linda. What an amazing farm and home! We were escorted around this amazing property and were witness to some very different ways to farm. They had all indoor beef cattle, like close to 300. They were a Charlaise type breed. The barns were huge and very amazing. The farm is completely self sufficient in all ways. Most notable to me was the heating system. It was a huge hopper filled with wood chips from waste wood and trees across the property, fed into a huge furnace, heating water that was fed into around 15 buildings for heat and hot water. Amazing. My thoughts were of my buddy Zman, wishing he could be there to look around and discuss the differences in the cattle business. We stayed for a "typical Swedish" dinner, Moose roast, potatoes, brown sauce and the ever present Lingonberry jelly for the meat.
Friday was spent back on the hunt for Geo treasure. It was a rigorous hike to find all four caches that were on the list. This time it was a reclaimed water fowl nature reserve. The first site was easily found after a great hike in terrific surroundings. The second was a serious event. A direct course via iPhone GPS landed us at the bottom of a shear cliff completely coated in a lush moss. The deep forest had a carpet of the lush green on downed logs, rocks, and the forest floor. I made an attempt to scale the cliff, much easier going up than coming down. A few skids to my near death later, we decided to depart the area as losers. We scaled the map to a larger scale and decided to make a different approach. Whitney is a serious competitor and was unwilling to give up on this particular cache. Eventually, we made it to the top and discovered the treasure to discover the box contained a US quarter from our home state of Wyoming. That was just too weird and a great reminder not to give up. I can't imagine not finding that Wyo Quarter this far from home.
Things have begun to really come together for us here. Still feeling pretty out of place but getting used to that feeling and navigating this country in a way that makes us feel like we know how to get things done. I am positive we are doing it different, some may say wrong, but it is definitely the Hastings way to do things in Sweden. I don't giving a crap if people think we are weird, take a number in get in line.
WOW!! Great adventures...Wyoming quarter..a sign you are all on the right trail!!!
ReplyDeletexo xo xo MeMe