"My Crazy Kids"

There were a lot of highlights at our first Christmas celebration, but my photo on left, features three of my great-nephews: Brayden, Greyson and Brody. By Allan Olson Christmas will be gone for another year before this hits the newsstands, and my family will have celebrated the holiday once at home (a very low key celebration), once with my wife’s family and once with mine. The latter two were replete with food, noise and laughter. There was a new generation of kids is joining in the fun this year, ages 4 to newborn. Two of my nieces at Christmas - our annual pic.  I would like to say the weekend started right after school on Friday, but instead I was working late in the office trying to get things done for this week’s publication. When I got home, I had to explain to kids the importance of cleaning up certain messes before we could enjoy any holiday festivities. They finally got the message that I was serious about not leaving for Christmas until thei...

 Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, from my crazy family to yours! By Allan Olson It was another one of those weekends with a lot of stuff going on, and it became a divide and conquer kind of thing. On the home front, there were tasks that needed completion in the house, and on the work front there were things I needed to be at. And then there was a family cookie decorating event, too. Saturday morning found me wishing I could sleep in, but for some reason that became an effort in futility. I had too much on my mind, and there were things I wanted to do, including a book to read. Maybe I’m just getting old… I can go to bed earlier but I can no longer sleep in.  I can’t say I was overly productive on the home front Saturday, but at least I did get the garbage hauled. I also got my book finished; now I’m down to eight books to read, with only about three weeks to finish them all.  I headed into Cass Lake for the afternoon to watch the champi...

Nikolai at the first island cache of the day on Crystal Lake, south of Highway 34 between Walker and Akeley. By Allan Olson Oh, the weather outside is so delightful… please hold off with the snow. I had spent the previous weekend mostly working and/or just staying at home, so I vowed that one way or another I wasn’t going to let that happen for a second weekend in a row or I just might go crazy. I had some tentative plans made for geocaching with a couple kids, perhaps in the Menahga area, since there are some new ones there from this summer I haven’t logged yet. Then my Roseau friend messaged me about my weekend plans, since he had secured it off. We discussed some options and since he has this area mostly cached out, there were not a lot of options for us both. My budget limited me to no real distance and one day only, especially since my wife was gone for the weekend and kids would be home solo if they chose not to go with me. We finally came up with...

 Abigail and I enjoyed the nice spread of goodies set out at the Teal’s Market Holiday Open House last week. The food was delicious, and we both enjoyed our evening meal at Teal’s. By Allan Olson This past weekend I didn’t go out geocaching or hunting, although either activity would have been enjoyable. I did manage to get out and take some photos of outdoor scenery and things happening in town, but I was far from physically active. I confess that I took a nap on both Saturday and Sunday. I thought about going into my garage and putzing around with a few things, but really the only thing I had to do was organize some wood in the garage that I didn’t get to when I cleaned it up earlier this fall. Instead, I spent several hours Saturday morning and again on Sunday doing work things. We also stocked up on food on Saturday with a big grocery outing – ouch – but it was necessary. We had plans to do some family photos on Sunday, but that didn’t happen, either...

Left: My great-nephew Brody helping me play Euchre. Right: Alivia was the most dedicated geocacher of the group, getting out and assisting me at nearly every stop we made in the woods of Aitkin County. She most certainly found more than me; I think I had four finds to my name! By Allan Olson As is usual on an extended week, we were plenty busy. There was a mountain of food for Thanksgiving dinner, and guests started arriving as early as 10 a.m. My wife and mother-in-law and Abigail (who is usually only found in the kitchen when the food is done) were busy preparing dishes for the day’s feast.  The night before, Abigail had also prepared an amazing pumpkin pie cheesecake. I will admit that with all the pie choices we had on Thursday, I didn’t even sample it until the next day. But hey, the best part of hosting Thanksgiving dinner is having lots of leftovers – especially turkey, for cold turkey sandwiches. Thursday was spent crazing and cooking, eating...

 Unfortunately, my boys and I were all skunked while deer hunting this year. All we can do now is hope for better luck – and warmer weather! – next year. By Allan Olson I really enjoy hunting with my family, but I really didn’t want to make the trek north again this weekend. I really wanted my dad and my brother to knock some deer down so I wouldn’t have to head for the woods once again. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and my brothers all had other stuff going on this weekend with work and family, so me and the boys headed off for the woods one more time. The real story is what happened on Sunday,; the rest of the weekend was largely a dud. On Sunday morning Marcus and I took our normal stand, one that he could shoot from with his vertical restraints, should the occasion arise again. So on a fine Sunday morning, we were patiently (or perhaps impatiently, since we weren’t planning to hunt the full day) waiting on stand. The last two weekends we had heade...

My boys and their grandpa during hunting season. By Allan Olson It seems that this hunting season has been one of missed opportunities, at best. I sent a couple shots flying at a running doe this past weekend, but I missed. So did Nikolai, who started shooting at the same deer after I did, since it was running in his direction. Marcus was in the stand with me and tried to get lined up for a shot at the fawn before it bolted, too, when momma suddenly took off, but the little deer did not cooperate and so no shots were fired by him. We spent the better part of four days shivering in the cold conditions, waiting and hoping for a good opportunity at a deer, but it never happened. Coming into this season I was really not sure what to expect having Marcus with me in the deer stand; first of all, he’s a rather talkative sort and I wasn’t sure he could keep quiet in the stand. Also, there’s a lot of teasing and ribbing that goes on at deer camp, and one never knows how an ...

My youngest son Marcus joined me in the deer stand for the first time this year. Unfortunately for us, a good opportunity to take a deer never presented itself. By Allan Olson It’s been a few years since I had a new hunting partner. Nikolai is on his fifth season now, and his second year of hunting alone. I have to admit it was really nice last year not having to share my stand. While I usually stayed in the same vicinity as Nik, I enjoyed having a nice peaceful stand all to myself while on the hunt for the mighty whitetail. This weekend, Marcus took to the woods with me for the first time, and I was a little concerned about bringing him out, given his inclination for talking, but I have to say he did pretty well. While he did get a little chatty at times, he kept his tone pretty low, and when he didn’t, a gentle reminder was all it took to get him to tone it down a tad. As usual, the hardest thing was to get him out of bed, particularly on the first morning. I...

Nikolai was a little flush right after his race; Abigail was a little more rested, having completed her run about 30 minutes prior. By Allan Olson It was another Saturday spent covering Robotics, and it was a fast-paced yet long affair. I tried to capture some special moments for not only the local teams, but other teams as well. That was not an easy task, due to the effects added by colorful lights and a smoke machine, but I did the best I could within the limits of my camera’s capability. After a couple years covering these events, I’m starting to get familiar with other competitors – in particular, which teams have some awesome builds and can nearly win a full round solo. Regardless of any single team’s ability, each team is treated equally by one and all teams in the competition, across the board. Every team has something to offer, and it all works out in the end when the top teams get to pick their final alliances. Part of the fun of covering these events ...

 I finally got to meet my sweet little newest great-nephew last week, and it was the highlight of my week.   By Allan Olson This past weekend was a wonderful weekend to stay at home. Of course, it would be foolish to think that I actually just stayed at home – that’s not likely to happen. However, I didn’t spent any time in the woods geocaching, nor did I make it out hunting for anything else. The plan for Saturday was set about three weeks ago – we were going to the haunted house in Bena that night. Earlier in the week my niece called me to ask if I would make caramel rolls for them on Saturday if they came over to help. Since I had all the necessary ingredients except the ice cream for the caramel, I said I would, as long as they agreed to help. My niece and her friend showed up early and brought a dog that Marcus agreed to watch for the day. I had the bread dough sitting out, rising (although a whole lot slower than it did the last time I made rolls ...