Memorial Weekend

Memorial Weekend

By Allan Olson

It was a great weekend for outdoor activity – at least every day but Monday, on this long holiday weekend and I like many others spent as much of it as I could in the great outdoors of Minnesota.

Our goal for the weekend, was attending a graduation party, fishing, a graduation exercise and all around enjoying the outdoors.

We left our home in the sticks of Pennington Friday evening, far later than we had originally planned and finally got to my parent’s home in Lake of the Woods after 9 p.m. Since the daylight is still lingering we found my brother and family all still outside working and playing. Since my niece had rolled up on the three-wheeler as soon as we arrived I decided to take a turn on it prior to unloading the vehicle, I took a quick spin down the dirt road and enjoyed the cool evening breeze before returning to the farm to unload my vehicle.

That evening, the kids decided that they were going to play spot and even though the last time I played with a bunch of kids at my home, I managed to hurt myself landing on my face – I decided to join in the fun anyway and even volunteered to be it first. I really had fun but after over 30 minutes of fun I decided to be safe and quit before I managed to stumble and hurt myself again.

Saturday morning – we took a drive and worked on getting some family photos at scenic overlook. We took my niece with and she did a great job helping us capture some images of our family.  That afternoon, we attended a niece’s graduation party. It’s amazing how fast time flies, when my wife and I were dating less than a year she was born and now she’s a young lady moving into college in the fall. As a bonus she will be attending college nearby and will be looking for some home cooked food on the weekends and in exchange we will be getting some child supervision for days when my wife and I want to escape.

After the graduation party we headed back to the farm to change into some fishing clothes and headed out to the big lake. We left the farm at 3 p.m. and were on the lake a little after 4 p.m., we fished about three hours and I landed the only fish of the day, a small sauger that I released. That evening I finished mowing my parent’s lawn as the kids who were in charge of mowing earlier in the day forgot a small section of the lawn. 

Sunday morning two of my brothers and I headed out to the family hunting grounds to continue working where they had left off the day prior. We spent about two hours trying to break ground and clear years of grass off the tough sod so we could get some fresh growth to encourage the deer to stick around our hunting area a little longer during the hunting season.

Some of us attended my nieces graduation ceremony and then headed back to my parents once again to pack the vehicle and the rest of the kids to head home.

The weekend was pretty much a blur of activity running from one thing to another and not a lot of rest – at least not until Monday when I slept in far later than I would’ve thought possible and then in the afternoon I even managed a good nap. Of course if it wasn’t raining on Monday, I probably wouldn’t have slept all day since my own lawn is starting to look like a hay field. Thankfully – Nikolai was able to get the worst of it mowed last week but it won’t be long and that too will need mowing again.

Over the weekend I also managed to find two geocaches and hide three, in all it was a fun and productive weekend.

This weekend – not much is planned, but I’m sure we will find some time for fun.

Thanks to everyone for reading, and as always, please be safe while enjoying your favorite outdoor recreational activity and on the lakes, and remember to take pictures to preserve a lifetime of memories. Remember to drive safely, and watch out for those buses carrying our children. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!