A weekend at home – NOT

A weekend at home – NOT

By Allan Olson

We made it until about 9 a.m. on Saturday morning of our stay-at-home weekend, and the rest of the weekend remained busy from morning until night.

I knew it was a false hope that we would actually stay at home for at least the majority of the weekend, and I knew by midweek that I wasn’t going to be staying at home for at least Saturday, and then I found there was something for Sunday, too.

Like I mentioned, we left home by 9 a.m. on Saturday, with our heading westward. A friend had recently bought a home and moved onto some property about 60 miles to the west.

There was also an ulterior motive for visiting our friend (besides seeing her and her soon-to-be-husband’s new home). Several years ago, when we were younger and had only one child, we bought a raffle for a pony at the local fair – on the condition that this friend would help ultimately take care of it, as we knew nothing of raising equine. As fate would have it, we didn’t win the raffle, but I knew who did. After a quick discussion with my wife, I approached the winners and offered a cash alternative for the pony, and it was a done deal. We had a one-year old pony for our two-year-old son; that really defied the age rule about the combined ages of the child and pony should equal 20.

After talking to some other friends, we found a home for the pony for the first winter. We helped clean up the stalls and transport the pony home, and from day one it was a perfect match.

Nikolai and we parents spent many evenings and weekends at our friends’ home a few miles away that first winter, helping and learning to take care of the pony. He spent time learning how to feed, water, walk and brush her, along with other maintenance needs.

That spring we helped transfer our pony, now named Lily, to her new home near International Falls, where she then spent the next seven years.

On the occasion when we ventured in that direction and had the time, we would stop and visit our friend. Each time she would come to Nikolai and greet him like an old friend.

This spring she was moved to her new home, and we went to visit her yet again. She was pregnant with her third baby, and when Nikolai went to find her in the pasture, once again she greeted him like the friend he is.

On our visit this weekend, we got to meet her new baby, who was too skittish for new acquaintances. Lily, however, was just fine with us invading her space, and even tolerated the kids on her back. When her baby called, she would carefully go find her, still aware of the passenger she was carrying.

Since that time, our friend has multiplied her horse herd by at least 12, just because of what we started all those years ago.

Later I decided to get some work done at home. I got motivated enough to knock down the tall grass in our future garden spot and patio location. I finished it just as I ran out of gas (literally and physically) and weed string. I was done – it was too hot to do anymore of that work.

A couple hours later we tried our luck at a few close-by geocaches we had yet to uncover. As luck would have it, we found one of the three. At one stop, we didn’t even get out of the car. We skipped the next location, too, as it also looked extremely buggy. I got out at the third stop, since it looked better but still swampy. After I located it, the kids were allowed to come for a look. I went back to the previous stop, but was unable to locate it, likely due to the heavy foliage and the spotty reception for my cell phone GPS.

We started a fire for the kids on Saturday night, but they ended up getting in trouble and were sent to bed, so their parents enjoyed the fire without them.

Sunday was another busy day. I took the kids to a show at the fairgrounds, where the Mounted Posse Shooters were performing. It was pretty interesting to watch the combination of horsemanship and marksmanship. I could have watched them all day, but the kids – being kids – got bored. We made a quick trip home for lunch, then were back on the road again for a baseball game.

A few hours later we were back home again – for good.

I was tired after a long day of taking care of my busy children, and I needed to go to bed early.

“Are we doing anything this weekend?” I asked my wife late Sunday evening.

“I don’t think so,” she said.

“Good, I need to stay home,” I said.

“Yeah right,” she said. I think she knows me after all these years and realizes that if I’m not busy, I will be bored, just like the kids.

While the plan for this weekend is to stay home, the lawn needs to be mowed, and I’m sure I’ll find some other work that needs to be done. Who knows, maybe we’ll end up on a geocache hunt somewhere. One thing I know for certain is that summer is already fading fast, and back-to-school time is right there on the horizon.

Please be safe on the lakes – wear your life jacket, keep the kids safe, and remember to take a picture to preserve a lifetime of memories.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week. For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com