Fall Cleanup Time

 Fall cleanup time

By Allan Olson

 Last week’s “snowstorm” convinced us that, if nothing else, the season is definitely changing and like it or not, we could soon be knee deep in snow.

Things were relatively qui­et at our place this weekend. On Saturday morning I took pride in losing two games of chess to a 10-year old neph­ew. Following his departure, we headed to town to shop for a few grocery items and new shoes for the kids. We’ve de­cided that next spring we will be investing in some boots for the kids for our geocach­ing adventures into the woods so they don’t trash their good shoes. Upon examination of their footwear, we discovered that of the three youngest, the shoes of two had holes and the third wasn’t far be­hind. Nikolai’s shoes were already replaced earlier for the same reason. I suppose I could make them go barefoot for a year to solve the prob­lem, but they might object to that, at least during the winter months.

On Saturday afternoon, after attending the Cystic Fi­brosis Walleye Classic fish­ing tournament weigh-in, I returned home and decided to take a nap. The rest of the evening was spent in a simi­lar quiet fashion, and I even took in part of a movie the kids were watching.

On Sunday we decided that we needed to get the lawn fur­niture put away and the yard cleaned up, since it wasn’t raining or snowing. So, with a little assistance from the children, the yard furniture is now put away for the remain­der of the season (unless we get some unexpected warm temperatures) and the lawn toys are stowed.

The boys decided that we needed to stock up on “fire­wood” for the campfire and hauled several wagon loads of various sized sticks from the woods to the shed. While that wood won’t burn long, it will make great kindling for starting fires next summer. The girls helped the boys (at least a little), and I know that Bob carried a few sticks for them, too – although I think he was taking them away, not bringing them to the shed.

With the kids working on cleaning their bedrooms, I de­cided to clean up their book­shelves by weeding out some younger-age books and the well-used books. I only got about halfway through that project before I abandoned it to go to an auction – my first in 11 years. At that sale (11 years ago) I came home with only one item; ; I stayed at this one for five hours and returned home with nothing. I was outbid on the items I was interested in, but at least my pocketbook didn’t get any lighter, and I didn’t fill my house with anything un­needed, so either way I guess it was a win-win situation.

This week promises to be interesting, as I will be solely responsible for feeding (pizza and hotdogs?) and caring for my children. My wife will be abandoning me again for her yearly trip to the metro with a sister-in-law to visit an old friend. Hopefully, the kids won’t be starved and I won’t have pulled my hair out trying to keep some semblance of order by the time she returns.

Adding to the chaos while she’s gone will be a visit by my older brother and his three kids, so there could be two of us pulling our hair out (his hair is thinner than mine) before the weekend is over, while we wait for our wives to return.

It probably won’t be that bad – but anything’s possible.

While the open water fish­ing season is winding down, the partridge season is in full swing, and archery deer sea­son is also going strong. Just taking a walk in the woods is always a good option, so bring a kid to teach, and if you bring a gun, please re­member this simple golden rule: “Be sure of your target – and beyond.”