Family Reunions

It has been way too long since I've been back to Forest City where the family farm is located. In Addition to the Heritage Farm Award presentation that my cousin (my Dad's cousin's daughter) set up, Lois also hosted a Halvorsen Family Reunion for descendants of Isaac Halvorsen, the first family member that owned the family farm. Here she is telling the history of the family. She is quite a good story teller and has worked hard pulling together family history from research her mother left as well as a lot of research she did on her own.

In addition to many of the Halvorsen descendants that I really didn't know, my cousins on my Dad's side of the family, Scott, Dennis, and Kelly Routh as well as Elaine Kingland and Karen Gustafson were also there for the reunion. It was wonderful to see all of them. Just a few of the cousins in front of the Century Farm sign.

A few days later, Mary Jane and I had lunch at my cousin Elaine's house and I also got to see her cousin Ruth and meet Ruth's husband Gary as well as Elaine's husband Joel. Ruth, Elaine, and I were roughly the same age and spent lots of holidays together when we were young.

It just happened to be the day of the eclipse. Gary had a pinhole viewer.....

I tried a selfie photo over my shoulder....

but it was all a bust because the sky clouded over and we didn't get to see a thing.  Back at the farm with Lois and Mary Jane. Lois has done so much work since she took over the farm from us. The grounds are beautiful where the homestead was located and the fields are covered in corn nearly ready to harvest.

It is definitely a family Heritage farm and we have the sign and certificate to prove it.