Another weekend bites the dust

Turtles in a half shell – turtle power! – Okay not really, but these painted turtles sure were enjoying their sun-bathing on a log in a local swamp. Photo by Allan Olson.
Another weekend bites the dust
By Allan Olson
The appeal of the rural life is the sounds of nature and not the sounds of sirens and traffic, at our house most of Saturday morning it wasn’t the sounds of nature that we heard but rather the sounds of mowers. Thankfully, Nikolai is now old enough, rather big enough to keep the mower running and I set him to the task of completing the mowing that needed done, at least the areas I wanted him to get done. While he was working on that, I was running the weed trimmer, to get all the areas I couldn’t get close enough to with the mower. In addition, I also had a turn at the mower taking down some tall grass in areas that I didn’t want him driving on, in case something broke, that way it would be my fault rather than his and he wouldn’t get the blame for being reckless.
So that was how the late morning and even part of the afternoon was spent by the time I was done, my arms hurt from gripping the heavy weed trimmer, but I got the worst of it completed and my yard no longer looks like a hay field, of course some areas one might be able to get a bale or two of hay from the cuttings but that’s hardly the point.
The afternoon was spent with some friends planning an event and the evening was spent, largely just relaxing, the thought of having a fire was in my head and I even picked up a few supplies, but by the time it got to that time of day, I was too tired to make the effort so I guess we will need to wait for our first camping trip to sit and relax by the fire.
Saturday, also consisted of making my at least weekly trip to the dump where I managed to capture a couple images of turtles on a log in the swamp.
On Sunday, it was cleaning day, I slept in until nearly 9 a.m. which is a minimum of three hours past my normal rousing time, I made Malt O’ Meal for the family for breakfast and then we started some work. During the afternoon, I worked on my stuff, while making sure kids were cleaning downstairs, while Mom and Nikolai did some baking for the evening meal. While we never managed to get the house entirely clean, it certainly looks presentable and I think if we ever got all the rooms cleaned at the same time, it would be amazing.
In addition, I had Marcus and Alivia cleaning up after the rabbits and before too long, they were arguing about whether they had cleaned up under a set of cages, while I’m not sure how it was something to argue about since the proof is literally on the ground, they still did. In the end, Alivia was right and they had not cleaned up under a couple cages and Marcus finally sulkily agreed that they hadn’t muttering, “I thought we had.” More likely he was like any other kid and just wanting to be lazy and not finish the task I had asked them to complete.
That evening, we had guests for supper, we played a game of poker, which we all sucked at and then went decided to try the more “challenging” game of Yahtzee.
After our guests left it was time to relax for just a little while longer before it was time for bed and another work week.
With the school year ending, I’m just going to say my thanks to the great staff at Cass Lake-Bena schools for helping to educate my children. This year, was another year of so many fun things for the kids and a year of growth. This fall, Nikolai will start his third year in Middle School, Abigail and Marcus will begin their last year of Elementary School and Alivia will start the second grade. It’s amazing how fast time has flown by insane how soon it will be before I will have school and college students – that must mean I’m getting old.

Thanks to everyone for reading, and as always, please be safe while enjoying your favorite outdoor recreational activity and on the lakes, and remember to take pictures to preserve a lifetime of memories. Remember to drive safely, and watch out for those buses carrying our children. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

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