Fast Money

We are up north in Thief River Falls for the whitetail opener. As we drove further and further north today I was struck by how much I love the prarie. I know many people don't find these vast stretches of open land beautiful but something about all this open space speaks to me. It's probably because it's home! We enjoyed a delicious pre-hunting meal made by my mom...my favorite wild rice hotdish. As we visited about the past few months and shared stories Uncle Stan told me a great story about dad for tonight's blog. The Olson's spent a lot of time as young boys trapping gophers. Back then Kratka township paid 5 cents for a gopher tail and so both Stan and Myles had a jar of gopher tails filled with salt to turn in to the county for their compensation. About this time the family took a trip out to California. When they were in Nevada they stopped at a gas station and Grandpa Rufus let each boy spend one of their hard-earned nickels on a slot machine. Dad struck it rich and came back with a handful of coins. "This is way better than trapping gophers", he remarked. Now we know where his love for the casino came from.