"My Crazy Kids"

Christmas Weekend  The gingerbread masterpieces were finally complete, and it was time for that “finished product” photo. The next day, the kids enjoyed eating on one of their creations, and the other one, well, it disappeared into the great white beyond. Photo by Nikolai Olson. By Allan Olson Since Christmas falls in the middle of the week this year, it’s hard to determine which weekend, exactly, is Christmas weekend. For us (and I’m sure many of you) both this past weekend and next be Christmas weekends. Saturday was a busy day for me. I attended the Big Bear Wrestling Tournament in Cass Lake, watched a lot of exciting matches, and enjoyed some tasty food. I had Abigail with me, and she was greatly amused with the fact that I had to spend money to feed her – especially since I ended up spending more on her for food in the first couple hours than I did the whole day previous with Nikolai. We visited the malt machine and, while the prices were affordab...

Weekend of peace ---It looks like Santa told a couple of these kids that they were getting a lump of coal for Christmas! They probably didn’t believe him anyway. By Allan Olson It was mostly a peaceful weekend, which means the kids weren’t fighting (much) – they like to save that for in the vehicle – and since they were “good,” it made for a more peaceful weekend. On Friday night, however, instead of the normal late night because of the weekend, it was normal bedtime for our children as their attitudes earlier in the week dictated that it be so.  That meant it was a normal bed time for me, too – YEAH! The best part of sending the kids to bed early is that I can do the same. On Saturday I slept in – I think I made it until about 7 a.m., a full 90 minutes later than my usual rollout. Our plans were set for the day – my wife was heading to shop for a few Christmas gifts and household items with her mother, while I and the youngest three were heading to the ...

A chilly weekend Oh, Christmas Tree! The kids get enthused every year about the prospect of hunting for the right tree and then decorating it. By Allan Olson Regardless of what the calendar says, winter is officially here, with the 16 inches (or more) of snow that dumped in the area last week, followed by the sharp blast of cold winter air that dropped temperatures down to near 30 below on Thursday morning. I think it safe to say that winter is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. The weekend kicked off with all of us taking in the basketball games on Friday night at Cass Lake-Bena. Both teams played well, but unfortunately, they didn’t both win. Our entire family was there for the evening, although the younger three left for home at halftime of boys game when mom decided that the kids were getting restless and tired and it was time to go. Nikolai and I stayed for the duration, and what a game we saw! It featured multiple lead changes, ...

Thanksgiving Weekend #8241---With the decent temperatures over the Thanksgiving weekend, the kids were tempted by the recently-frozen Big Rice Lake and decided to explore. This beaver lodge appeared to attract the most interest. Even the dog found the large conglomeration of sticks, grass and mud interesting. By Allan Olson Oh, what a weekend! All week we had been working, working and working some more to get the house in order for the loads of company we were expecting on Wednesday, Thanksgiving and into Friday. We didn’t know exactly who was going to be staying how long, but it didn’t really matter, since our plans were to stay home. After the kids finally got their rooms cleaned – all I have to say is that if they would have put half as much energy into working as they did into complaining about working, their rooms would have been cleaned much faster, but eventually everything was picked up and ready for the vacuum cleaner. (Their bookshelves have...

Track Soup Once Again Here I am, bundled up in my deer stand on Sunday morning, and not a deer in sight – the story of my hunting season for 2013. Maybe I’ll bag a couple next year to make up for being skunked (at least) two years straight. By Allan Olson It was off to the hunting grounds again late Friday evening. I was really hoping that finally, this weekend would be one when I could finally pull the trigger on something. It was not to be. Before my departure, I debated over and over whether to leave Friday evening or get up really early on Saturday morning. I don’t enjoy driving late at night, but then I don’t enjoy getting up really early in the morning either, so my options weren’t that great. I finally decided at about 7 p.m. to pack my bag, gather my hunting gear one last time, load it all in the van and head for the hunting grounds one more time this season. That decision wasn’t made any easier by the fact that I knew that my cousin his family w...

A New Generation – of hunters By Allan Olson I headed back out to the hunting grounds this weekend in pursuit of the wary whitetail. I hunted Friday evening and all day Saturday and Sunday. In hindsight, I guess I could have stayed home and enjoyed the warmth and comfort. All I really got was plenty of exercise and fresh air. Okay, I admit I could use the exercise, but I would have been better off geocaching – at least those I can find. I stood in my stand on Friday and watched a deer sneaking through the tall grass, but it was across the road on someone else’s property. A couple of hours later, I watched a doe sneak into the woods across the creek from me; however, since I had no doe permit and my niece and her dad were much closer, I let it go. Unfortunately, they didn’t see it, and it didn’t stick around for a chance to meet up with flying lead. That was the last deer I saw while hunting – except for the “pets” in my parents’ yard, a pair of fawns that e...

Track Soup By Allan Olson Well the first weekend of deer camp is over, and I have done nothing to help fill the freezer so far. I did freeze myself, however. By this time last year we had almost filled our limit of tags; I had attempted to fill mine twice, to no avail. All we had to show for our hunt this year was track soup – and that doesn’t taste very good. The call to rise came early on Saturday morning, as my dad woke us up at 4:30 a.m., long before the crack of dawn. We devoured a hearty breakfast of French toast and sausage along with some wake-up juice. Soon it was time to don our hunting gear for the first time in a year. Several layers of clothing later, it was time to head out to the stand. I chose the stand where I had ended my hunt last year, just to see if maybe I could get lucky and the buck that I shot at last year might return for another dodge-the-bullet party. I finally left my post for the morning at 9:00, figuring my horned friend wasn’t keen ...

Adventures in Geocaching By Allan Olson I think that the real reason the weekends seem to go by so fast is because we simply have too much fun. If we sat around bored all day, perhaps then our weekends would last longer. This past weekend I managed to sleep in on Saturday, about 90 minutes longer than I normally do on the weekdays. It was not near long enough in my opinion, but since I couldn’t sleep, I got up and did some reading. Before long it was time to get moving for the day, since we had company coming in the form of my brother and family again. We picked the kids up at the store and headed out geocaching, aiming for the goal of reaching our 600th find. That goal was achieved, but not in our usual fashion – as an entire family. This time we split into two teams – the girls and the boys. We needed seven caches, and whoever got to three first and back to the designated spot would win. From there we would go together to find #600. Well the boys’ team – my...

A Geocaching Sunday The kids and I standing with our third geocache of the morning at the Three Birches Boat Landing in the Chippewa National Forest on Lake Winnie. By Allan Olson Another weekend has come and gone in the blink of an eye. So has another chance to sleep until noon – not that there’s much chance of that happening with four kids in the house. My wife and daughters headed to International Falls on Saturday for a baby shower. The girls had been talking about this event all week, and they were excited to go. Their mom, on the other hand, wasn’t quite as excited to be traveling with them. The boys hung out with me at the Fall Festival in Cass Lake for several hours on Saturday, and once we were done with that we headed out in search of a geocache north of Bena along Lake Winnie that had been recently published. We got to the location and we were working against the clock of diminishing daylight, and it was winning. This was supposed to be a th...

A busy weekend By Allan Olson Last weekend flew by, even though it was a four-day break from routine for some people, including my children. Since we already had four kids at our house, we decided adding a couple more wouldn’t matter. Two of my oldest brother’s kids ended up spending the entire four days at our place while their parents worked at the store. Since the youngest is older than Nikolai, it wasn’t a big deal – it was play time. The kids already had hours of play time together before I even got home on Thursday, and of course, there was chaos in their wake. The visitors walked into an ambush, being greeted by four kids armed with rubber bands when they came in the door. From what I was told, my brother and the kids quickly joined in the foray and returned fire. Sounds like fun! That evening we all enjoyed a light meal, followed by a personal-sized pie, your choice of pumpkin or banana cream. On Friday, we attended the grand opening of the store. I did...

Weekend with the kids   Photo cut: Since the cache was nowhere to be found, the kids decided to have some fun and climb all over this huge root cluster. They tore chunks out of it, kicked it and just had general destruction fun. I figured it was better they did it out here than in my house, so I let them have at it.  By Allan Olson I was left to my own defenses for four whole days this past weekend. If a kid asked a question, there was no, “Go ask your mom.” I couldn’t pass the buck. I was even in charge of meals. I picked up the kids from school on Thursday, and we arrive at home to an empty house – well, mostly empty. Bob (the dog) was still there to greet us. My wife had absconded for the remainder of the week with my sister-in-law for their annual migration to a friend’s home in the large urban area to the south. That evening, the kids played outside on their bikes and I sat outside and watched them. I put some air in their bike tires (abo...

 A Weekend Away  Photo: Abigail just had to have some time cuddling with her little cousin while we were visiting the relatives this weekend. By Allan Olson The first week of October is already over, and pretty soon... well, I don’t need to spell out what is going be happening soon. The past weekend, like most, just flew by. We had intended to leave home by 7 a.m. on Saturday morning to head north for the weekend, but that plan fell apart when we didn’t even wake up until 6:45 a.m. We intentionally didn’t set the alarm, but figured either the kids would wake us up or one of us would wake up in plenty of time – guess we were wrong. We finally left shortly after 8 a.m., with weekend plans including a birthday party and a baptism in the two days we would be gone, and sighting in my rifle and hopefully getting a little time to scope out some of the hunting area. I dropped all but Nikolai off at my in-laws, where the birthday party for my nephew was that aftern...

A Fall Weekend By Allan Olson Well, it was most definitely a dreary and largely unadventurous weekend. With no geocaching, we barely left home at all. On Saturday it rained, and it rained, and then it rained some more. Now, I’m not complaining about the rain, because we really needed it, but let me say that the timing (as usual) could have been better. It rained all day long, making conditions unfavorable for outdoor recreation. We went to town in the afternoon and got a few staples for the coming week’s meals, and then returned to the solitude of our remote location as soon as we could. It was a very boring but relaxing day. That evening some of us dined on some very fresh pumpkin pie to close the day. On Sunday, I started the day off by putting off feeding the kids, and then when they got busy, I fed myself and quickly went back to finish my book. I know – mean – but it was nice and relaxing. Soon the kids started bugging me, and I had to feed them or face the c...