Hunting and Birthday

Hunting and Birthday

By Allan Olson

I had to give it one more chance, we had three deer hanging in the garage at my parents and seven tags left to fill, I had my opportunity once and failed – Nikolai had yet to have an opportunity and even if he was okay with it – I wanted him to have a chance.

On Thursday evening – sometime after 7 p.m. I set the nose of my vehicle for the north country once again – I wasn’t going to get up early like the week prior, I wanted to beat the storm and be settled in before it got nasty. So with the vehicle loaded Nikolai and I took off hoping that just maybe we could knock down a couple deer with some well placed shots.

Prior to our departure we learned that my younger brother headed north earlier that day in time for the evening hunt and was bagged his deer – a first in three years. A couple hours later once we arrived at my parents, we learned that he had led flying all over at three different deer – well he says he only fired four rounds but have a tendency to exaggerate that number on occasion. Regardless, he was pretty sure he might have hit another but it was at the end of the day when he was shooting flames into the night and they decided to look at daylight.

The next morning we all found spots over near that land and at a pre-determined time I switched stands with my brother to allow him to go look for any other deer that might be down. A while later we were informed that he did indeed have another deer laying down from the night before – so good news for the family. The rest of us – Nikolai, my older brother and I all headed over where my dad, niece and youngest brother were at the scene of the cleaning. I stayed in my vehicle for a bit having a couple snacks and waiting thinking they were going to be done soon – when I found out that there was yet another deer that met its fate that night. Nikolai walked over to the rest of the party while I stayed back and on the way he found another deer, he approached his cousin and asked her if she wanted to see the other deer? “I did, its right over there,” she said. Nikolai countered, “No, it’s over there,” he said pointing in a different direction. So my brother was able to connect with all three deer he took shots at which brought our harvest up to 6/10. In all it wasn’t a bad season even if we were without deer for the first three days of the season.

Nikolai and I gave it our best hunting until Saturday morning, leaving promptly at 8:30 a.m. – just when I promised my wife I would so I could be home for the birthday party for Alivia. Once home, I set to removing the snow off my deck and some other work outside prior to helping with a few finishing touches inside. The guests started arriving at 1:30 p.m. and the fun began for little Miss Alivia who was excited to have some friends over for her big ninth birthday. The theme this year was “cupcake wars” – Alivia made around 100 cupcakes prior to the big bash and the kids with some assistance needed to make the frosting from scratch and add some “secret” ingredients in it to give it some flavor. In the end, it really wasn’t a contest as the kids didn’t care that much but they all certainly had a lot of fun decorating their cupcakes and of course eating them. The kids laughed and played and ran all over the house and outside in the fresh snow for several hours before most of them headed home. A couple of cousins begged to stay for the night – so in the end I consented.

Sunday morning, my wife headed to work and I was in charge of breakfast, I made enough French toast for at least three more people along with sausage and bacon to top off the morning meal. Once I ensured things were cleaned up, I hid in my room while the kids played; monitoring them occasionally to make sure they weren’t trashing the house before more guests arrived for Thanksgiving. When a bunch of kids are together something is going to end in a disaster - usually it’s a mess or a kid’s toy or something broken – not this time. My oldest kid ran up-stairs and yelled – the water is leaking out of the water heater. It most certainly was – apparently he was using the top of the water heater for his hiding perch for hide n seek. I have informed them more than once, that my laundry room and furnace room are off limits for playing. Apparently he forgot this rule and ended up breaking a pipe on the water heater. I quickly shut that water valve off and started cleaning up. He had to call his uncle to come help – because I have no repair skills. Of course I didn’t have all the right stuff to fix it but my brother thought he could temporarily fix it. I was standing directly in the line of fire when he turned the water back on and the pipe separated under pressure and I ended up with a face full of water and soaking my clothes. I changed again and we headed to town. I decided that if it was going to be fixed we were going to get it done right with the proper parts.

He made an inventory, grabbed the parts, I paid the piper and we headed back home again. Thankfully, it worked and we didn’t need to make another trip to town for more parts. In all it was adventurous weekend and one to remember.

Plans for this week – will be a food coma on Thursday and then the rest of the weekends plans are undecided.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit. Be safe on the winter roads!