Keeping busy

One of the highlights of my week was finally being able to visit the Pennington Bog – a place I’ve always wanted to visit – on Thursday, June 26. I was given a tour by a naturalist working with the Chippewa National Forest. – Photo by Allan Olson.

By Allan Olson

I’ve never been very good at sitting idle. In fact, I find I’m likely to cause more problems if I’m not busy with something, and keeping busy is something that has not been a problem for me the last few months. The latest weekend was no exception.

I had been after the kids all week long to get their rooms picked up to the point where I could clean the rugs while they’re out of town at a family reunion. I guess they didn’t take me serious until I came home from work Friday evening to find their rooms still not clean. Now granted, they weren’t too bad, but they still left more work than I was willing to put in to them. It wasn’t my mess or my room, and I certainly was not going to clean it for them. They are plenty old enough to take care of their own chores. Because of that delay, it also delayed our departure to head north for the family reunion. Instead of leaving by 5:30, it was nearly 7 p.m. before we got on the road with two vehicles packed plus a trailer.

We don’t typically take two vehicles – why spend the extra gas money? – but I had to come back home for work and Nikolai had to be back to BSU for classes. My original plan was to come back on Sunday, but a cousin messaged that she would be in town for a baseball tournament with her son on Saturday and was looking for a place to stay the night. I discussed it with my wife and we decided that I should just come back one day sooner to help out a family member.

So once we got up to the camping spot we chose for the week for my wife and most of the kids, we unpacked the trailer and got them set up, and I found myself something to drink and sat and visited, then wandered around the farm visiting with others before finally crawling into the makeshift bed in my vehicle at about 1 a.m. The only one of my kids still up was Nikolai – he said he retired about 3 a.m. – Abigail would’ve as well, but I sent her to bed.

On Saturday morning Abigail and I headed into town to visit my parents at the Farmers Market. My dad was having a great day already selling his homemade furniture, and it only improved. We headed back to the farm for a bit, then returned about 90 minutes later to help deliver some pieces he sold. Abigail convinced her mom to let her go to her grandparents’ house instead of the festivities at the farm. It was a win-win for her and my mom. Abigail got some alone time with her grandparents – something of a rarity – and my mom got help unpacking stuff from the farmers market and some other work in the house from her granddaughter.

I headed back to the farm with my wife, and less than two hours later Nikolai and I were on the road for home. After a few stops in town for supplies – including frozen bread dough for making rolls – we made it home about 7 p.m.

My cousin arrived about an hour later, and I visited with her for the next couple hours before calling it a night. I was exhausted from the late night prior and the busy week.

I was up and on the road again early Sunday morning. Somehow, in the midst of everything, I forgot that Abigail had taken off with my camera, and in the process it got left in the camper instead of in my vehicle where I thought it was. My wife needed a few more items from home anyway, so it all worked out. We met about halfway, exchanged the aforementioned items, and went our separate ways. Back home again at about 11 a.m., I found Nik and our company had just finished breakfast, so I enjoyed some food as well and then did some cleanup that didn’t get done prior to our departure on Friday.

That afternoon, I did some things for work and then brought Nikolai back to college. At home, I started the process of making rolls, finally getting them all made and cleaned up by 10 p.m. – just in time for bed.

The rest of the week I will be working, and hopefully by Tuesday night I will be back at the reunion and with a chance for a ride in a private aircraft to take some photos of the event and the surrounding area from above. I just hope the weather cooperates for my ride in the sky.