"My Crazy Kids"

By Allan Olson It doesn’t seem to make a difference if the week is short or long, the days still go by in a blur. Since the kids were off Thursday, I took that day to have a “dad” day and went to play in the woods with a friend. I met him at 6 a.m. and we took off for Hill City. Our target was a series of caches that form a star in the woods. We spent the day hiking and driving, pushing our way through patches of thick brush, carefully avoiding water traps. When they couldn’t be avoided, I embraced the challenge of swamp water by putting on my water-proof boots. By the end of the day, we had logged about four miles on foot and added 32 more caches to our total – not a huge day of finds but still enough to make us feel like we accomplished something.  I got home a little after 7 p.m., exhausted and tired from spending a full day out in the warm, fresh air. The kids enjoyed their day off at home, doing a minimal amount of work – just what they were asked, wit...

By Allan Olson As the fall season is quickly winding down to the “hunting” season it was time again to do some preparation on the deer stands to make sure all is in good shape for the upcoming hunt. Friday evening we headed north – sometime after 6 p.m. –about an hour later than I had planned, but plans change. The best thing about the trip north was seeing the northern light show from the vehicle after dark. The lady auroras were dancing across the sky –in what appeared to be a very brief show. Because we pulled over on the side of the road and we were only about 10 miles from my parents, I didn’t take any photos but it was still nice to watch. At my parents I went outside several times in the next couple of hours to see if they would start dancing again – but since they didn’t seem like they were going to I opted for bed instead. The next morning, my dad and older brother headed out to the lake, they decided the night prior that they were going to try and fish for a couple ...

Photo: Alivia and I did manage to get out hunting during the week while everyone else was busy with school stuff. We only had about an hour and chased up no birds, but it was still a great time to be outside. By Allan Olson It was a pretty decent weekend weather wise, except I didn’t spend as much time enjoying it as a I probably should have. It wasn’t like I was a shut-in all weekend; I just didn’t get out hunting or fishing. I’m thinking I might as well put my motor away and flip my boat over, because it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting out on the water again this year. Friday night was a good one as the girls and I watched the Panthers cruise to a homecoming football game victory – their first in nearly a decade! The victory made shooting pictures at the game tons of fun – and the decent temperatures made for comfortable conditions all the way into the fourth quarter. Most Saturdays I like to stay in bed, at least past the time I normally get up for work...

Abigail looking through the contents of a geocache we found in the Pillsbury State Forest. This particular cache could have been crushed by a large tree that was uprooted on top of it, but instead was just pinched a little, so we were able to find it and open and close it without problem. By Allan Olson By all accounts, Saturday was a perfect day to be outside. It would have been perfect for fishing or hunting, but instead I did a different type of hunting – hunting “for little containers in the woods” – i.e., geocaching. Earlier in the week I asked all the kids if they wanted to go with me on Saturday for our semi-annual ditch cleaning event along Highway 71 between Menahga and Park Rapids, and then go geocaching afterwards. Abigail volunteered right away, and the others all indicated that they would rather stay home. I asked the same question again on Friday, and got the same results. I crawled out of bed at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, woke Abigail up, and we l...