Hunting Preparation

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 hours. I had to take senior photos of my nephew and with the possibility of inclement weather, I wanted to get it done ASAP, so I chose to stay behind. We had just finished up the brief photo shoot, when my dad and brother arrived back. Apparently, some gremlin at the resort turned all the switches on in the boat, leaving two dead batteries and no fishing trip.

I downloaded the photos on my computer and they made their selections and then it was time to get to work.

Eight of us headed over to our “other hunting” grounds – armed with tools, nails, screws and building material and a couple of hunting rifles we embarked on our journey. Since my dad’s ranger was already on location we hooked up the trailer, some rode and others walked. I chose to walk and caught up to Nikolai who was one of the two hunters. He was hoping to avenge his early misses from right before we left, so I tried to flush some birds to him while scouting the woods for deer activity. I found plenty of activity but no birds for Nik. He later missed yet again, while his cousin, scored her second bird of the weekend.

We worked pretty steady until about 1 p.m. when we returned to the house for lunch. I made a quick trip to town for caffeine and at home, I was told my dad and brother left. So I headed back to where we were earlier – only to not find them. So I did the smart thing and called them. They had left but were close to home and about ready to head over to where I was, ultimately, I met them back at the home and the three of us worked for nearly another four hours on one stand. I did a bunch of clearing with the saw while my brother did the majority of the construction work, while my dad did some other exploring, before returning to help.

We finished what we needed to for that location and headed back to the house for some nourishment.

Sunday morning we were up and moving again – the plans were to stick around the home property. My parents headed to church, my brother and I along with Alivia – the youngest of everyone available to help, headed out to work on the stands. Of course Alivia didn’t necessarily want to help just because she likes to be outside, but she knew that if she were to help, the chances of her driving the Ranger or 3-wheeler were significantly greater and if she was the only one helping than her chances were greater yet. So Alivia helped screw in some boards, drove me to get more supplies a couple times, and helped hand up supplies to her uncle while I was busy once again running the chain saw, doing some clearing.

We spent the morning and into the afternoon on three different stand’s before finally calling it good enough for the season. We know for sure, that there’s at least one stand we want to rebuild for next year and the odds are good that we will probably want to put up another one somewhere else.

As for Alivia, she probably logged another hour or more of driving the 3-wheeler and spent the whole day outdoors with her dad and uncle, how could I get better than that?

We headed home early, stopped to visit my wife’s mom for a bit, watched the last quarter of the Vikings game – probably the most I’ve watched combined in several years and we made it home in plenty of time for the kids to get some down time before bed time.

This weekend, it will be time to shoot my new rifle; I’m looking forward to it already. Oh, and a visit to NightScreams is in order for Friday night.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that will be 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.