The sky was overcast and it wasn't to cold for a winter day. We were running low on wood, so, my dad decide to go across to Owl Slough and get some wood. My dad filled up his old "300" Ski-doo with enough gas for a round trip run, grabbed his chain saw and took off. It took him 30 to 45 minutes to get to Owl Slough and a half hour to cut down the tree and cut off the dead branches. My dad tied the tree to his snow machine to drag it home, then he began to try to start his snowmachine. It did not start after pulling on it for awhile, so he changed the spark plugs, but it still wouldn't start. So, he started working on the engine to see what was wrong with it, but he still couldn't get it to start. It was getting late and that's when my dad started to walk home. It was around 4 p.m. when it started getting dark and Fred's axe was starting to get heavier. It started to get windy and then it started to snow. My dad was getting very thirsty but he didn't want to eat any snow. As soon as my dad got to the slough he started to clear the snow from the ice and started to chop the ice. He grabbed a couple small pieces and started chewing on them. By now it was dark, snowy and windy. The snow was getting deep and he knew that he had to stop somewhere and make a fire because he started to stagger. He saw a dark outline of tall cotton woods and he headed for them. Once there, he found some dry cotton wood branches and made some shavings with his pocket knife and made some kindling with his axe. After several attempts his fire started burning. He kept it going through the night with dry cotton wood from nearby. Sometime in the night the wind stopped blowing, the sky cleared up and it started to get colder. He managed to keep the fire going until dawn and as soon as it became lighter he started walking home. He didn't realize it the night before but he had reached the mouth of Owl Slough and made a fire. The sky was clear as the sun came up and the ground was sparkling white because of the freshly fallen snow from the night before. As he neared the slough Ed came by with his snowmachine and gave him a ride home.

5th grade