"My Crazy Kids"

Alivia happened to be at the right place at the right time, and so was the first of the kids to try the apple jelly. She also helped me make the jelly and apple butter on Sunday evening, August 27. By Allan Olson My time spent outdoors this week with the kids was spent picking crabapples instead of geocaching or fishing, but frankly, between my schedule and the weather, neither of those were really viable options anyway. A couple of weeks ago, I got a lead on some crabapples but knew I had to wait a little longer to get them because of my schedule and because they needed just a little more time to ripen. So I set my plans in motion and after checking with the property owners one more time, I finalized the plans for harvest. Since I didn’t have any of the necessary canning supplies, my mother supplied me with her pots and other tools so I could get started on the process. I also reached out to friends on social media in search of some additional jars, and ended ...

The group of us on the island at Long Lost Lake, which is about 23 miles south of Bagley. We were a pretty happy bunch after finding a geocache on the island that was last found in 2011. By Allan Olson For me, last weekend was the one I look forward to most each year (over the last four years) – the annual Northstar Geoseekers Geocaching Weekend.  The Northstar Geoseekers consists of cachers mostly from across Minnesota plus a few from North Dakota. We meet once a year, and not everyone attends our annual event, but one thing is certain – those who do all have a great time. This weekend’s event convened in the big city of Bagley – a mere 45 miles from my home. I thought about just driving back and forth each day, but in the end, I convinced Nikolai to go with me and camp. Actually it didn’t take much convincing; while he can be a loner, he enjoys the company and laughs of the adults in the group, and at the same time he fill the role of older sibling to...

Alivia greatly enjoyed her time on the jet ski – probably logging more time on the machine than either Nikolai or myself. If it has a motor, she wants to drive it. By Allan Olson Why can’t we flip the work week with the weekend? It really doesn’t seem fair to have only two days of fun and five days of work. There was not enough time for everything I had planned last weekend – but in the end, I guess it worked out. My wife had a family reunion in the big city of Warroad, and the kids and I stayed away – far away. I dropped her off at about 8 p.m. on Friday. The kids and I planned to eat at a fast food joint, but due to some less-than-ideal behavior by the younger ones, that cool treat was cancelled when I exited the building, embarrassed by their behavior. Instead, they had to settle for a couple pieces of gas station pizza and we hit the road to do what I wanted. I had two geocaches in mind for the evening, and dark was approaching fast – thankfully daylight ...

Nikolai and his big catch. By Allan Olson It finally happened. For the first time since May, our boat finally got back in the water. Nikolai and I headed out late Thursday evening for a test drive, and tossed our lines in the water. We caught four little ones – certainly nothing worth bringing home to clean – so they were tossed back. We had so much fun, though, that on Friday evening we made a repeat performance. The weather was perfect for a night on the water, and even better was the phenomenal sunset that we were treated to. The fishing was also greatly improved. I had no more than dropped a line before I was reeling in a fish. Unfortunately, that one was small enough to go in a fish bowl, so back it went. Not to be outdone, about 30 seconds later Nikolai was reeling in a perfect fryer walleye – the first one we’ve ever caught on this lake (although I’ve been told there’s plenty in there). Anyway, for the next couple of hours we fished in nearly the same ...

-At my insistence, we took a group photo by the State Park sign before our parties split off and went our separate ways. Of course, the photographer screwed up and left his tripod at home in the other vehicle, so we had to improvise as best we could and use the hood of a vehicle; hence the slight angle of the shot. By Allan Olson Sunny days were here again on our annual camping trip to a MN state park, this time to the Big Stone Lake campground near Ortonville. Unlike our two ventures last year in which we were rained out and then flooded out, respectively, not a drop of rain dampened us on this trip. Instead there was a whole lot of sunshine. It was so nice that we didn’t even bother to put the rain fly over one tent, and the screens were left open on the other. The tradeoff for all that sunshine as opposed to rain and cooler temps was that we spent more time in the vehicle and consumed more gas touring the countryside during the warmest parts of the day. It...