A working weekend

Two of my aunts working hard at making fresh lefse for our family reunion later in July.

By Allan Olson

This past weekend was a little different than the previous one (which I spent celebrating my big 4-0). Instead of laying around, eating cake and doing as little as humanly possible, this time I was busy. 

It all started on Friday, when I had originally planned to do some of the weekend’s work. Instead, just as I was about to retire for bed on Thursday evening a niece sent me a message asking if I could come to Duluth on Friday to take some senior photos of her and the big grand piano at the music camp she was attending. 

Like most family, I do what I can to accommodate – in particular for my nieces and nephews. In most cases this would have been pushing it too far, since I already had my day planned and now would have to change it to get up early and spend a day on the road. But since it was Duluth and I do have other relatives I could visit while there, and it was a pretty special request, I decided to do it.

So I got up early on Friday morning and hit the road long before I was planning to. To add to the fun I took Abigail, Marcus and Alivia along – there was no reason for them to sit at home by themselves, so they might as well get up and go with me. 

We made it to Duluth shortly after 10 a.m., well ahead of the 11:30 arranged time for the photo shoot with my niece. I visited with my cousin’s wife for a bit, and then Abigail and I headed to meet my niece for pictures, while the others staying behind to play with their cousins.

At the photo shoot, we found a lot of things “less than perfect” about the room; it was a music studio, not a photo studio. The color was too orange, and the light was too dim, and even though I brought my studio lights along I wasn’t sure about bringing them in there. Between the three of us, we did figure out a few different poses and hopefully she likes at least a couple of them. If necessary, perhaps a bit of photo shop work will make up for the lack of lighting.

Back at my cousin’s again, I visited some more before finally walking the three houses down the street to my aunt’s house, where she was busy making lefse. I’m a pretty big lefse fan, but I’m pretty sure that until Friday I have never been present when it was being made. Man, was that awesome! So hot and fresh, with butter and sugar. Mmm, mm! 

After visiting for a while, I walked back to my cousin’s house, and since it was already so late in the day I waited until he got off work so I could at least say hello to him as well. Before leaving, I went back to my aunt’s house one more time since another aunt was there now, too, so I went to say hello to her as well. And yes, Abigail and I snuck a couple more pieces of fresh lefse – so good!

Much to the disappointment of the kids, we finally headed home only about 2-3 hours later than I intended. We made it in the door by 9 p.m., after stopping at Teal’s to stock up on food supplies.

I fully intended to not get up at 7 a.m. or earlier on Saturday, as had been the trend all week, but my body clock is set and I was wide awake at 7, and by 7:30 it was time to get moving. As my dad would say, “It’s daylight in the swamp,” which was his cue for getting your butt out of bed when we were kids.

Most of Saturday was spent working either at work or on projects at home, like hauling garbage and doing yard work. I recently purchased a battery operated weed trimmer and I’m trying to get my yard trimmed in those hard-to-mow spots, and it’s taking a good amount of time. In addition, since it’s battery operated, it requires time for re-charging versus just filling up with gas and going on. The real trade-off for me was  that it’s a lot lighter than a gas-powered model.

The kids were not happy with me because I made them work all day, particularly the oldest who proclaimed that since he was at BSU all week he shouldn’t have to help clean up at home. My youngest son was also defiant, so after telling him about something that required his attention, I decided to toss it on the floor so he could see it. That got his attention, but he wasn’t happy about my method.

The highlight of the day was taking my wife to see a play at the Paul Bunyan Playhouse. We found it quite enjoyable, and are planning to take the kids to see a show in a few weeks. 

Another part of Saturday that was not so enjoyable was that I think I came in contact with some sort of poisonous plant. Maybe it was just a fireweed, I’m not sure, but now small parts of my arm have a rash and a blister. This comes right after a spot on my leg healed up from an earlier dumb decision to wear shorts while geocaching. As a kid I used to play in the woods all summer long and not worry about poison anything, but for some reason in the last couple years I seem to have become susceptible – it’s not enjoyable.

Sunday is the proclaimed day of rest, and that’s what I did. I had the boys make  breakfast (with a little assistance from me) and then I just focused on resting, and for the most part they did as well. That afternoon my wife and I made Rommegrot – a Norwegian traditional pudding – for the first time. That was pretty amazing, too. 

Alivia and I brought Nikolai back to college, went and found her a replacement pair of sandals after she wrecked hers helping me with garbage. Back at home, I got more weed trimming done, and with that I think I’m about officially caught up.

This week, I’m thinking about mowing the lawn again, but after mowing it twice in one week before my birthday, I just might leave it alone until after the Fourth. My wife has a family reunion coming up and she will be gone for nine days, which means that except from when I’m with her at the reunion, I will be “baching it” at home alone, as I still have work to do, and Nik will still be at college.

Rest assured, no matter what our activities are this summer, we will be taking photos to document our busy lives. I encourage you to do the same! 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.