Reunions

Our family farm in Iowa is just outside of Decorah. The town is by no means huge and so it is relatively easy to get from place to place, not mention quick. It took a mere five minutes for us to get from downtown to the country. Once you start to drive outside town you are literally surrounded by nature (minus the power lines as seen above). You always know you are close to our farm when you see the bluffs. The bluffs, which are shown above, have been in our family for generations and we actually have photos of the family up on them from the very beginning of the 20th century!

The farm is called Siewers Spring (pronounced Seever) because of the springs that run through the land. My grandfather tells stories about how they used to swim down under the hill/mini bluff you see above when he was a boy. They dove into the caves that are found below and he and his cousins talk about the drawings on the wall which we believe are from the Indians that originally lived in the area.
Sadly, though still very picturesque, the dam that was built in the mid 19th century caused major erosion and the caves are no longer accessible.

Our family home was built in the mide 1800's and finished in 1864. It originally had a flat roof, but this was changed in the 1900's to today's roof.

The back, outer wall of the home is actually built out of stone, not brick, because of the Civil War. The inside of the home has four bedrooms, a sewing room, a music room, a sitting room, a kitchen and a dining room. The dining room was home to our weekend project, the lunch buffet.

Since our family has very close ties to Norway we choose to celebrate that in the decor for the weekend. We had lots of red, white and blue on our lunch table.

Even our cupcake cake matched!

For dinner, another family member made an all-American meal...a whole, roasted pig! We had a wonderful time watching this process (it was not for the vegetarians). In a sense we felt as if we were connected to our ancestors as the would have cooked things somewhat similarly (not exactly the same, but you get the idea). After dinner we enjoyed a bonfire and then it was time to head back to our more normal hotel before I froze!

Before we headed out we had to try to catch a glimpse of the bald eagle and the eaglets. Do you see their HUGE next in the tree next to our farm? While we had no luck late at night, I did catch them during the day and in the morning. The eagles used to live in a tree up on our bluff, but their nest fell during a storm so they have moved to a new tree at the end of the road. Above, the eaglet is actually sitting on the house where my great grandparents lived. The Decorah Eagles became quite famous this year and my parents even spotted them on TV in India last Fall!

Family is so important and you can learn so much from your relatives. My family immigrated from Norway. My great grandfather and his siblings (they ranged in age from newborn to 21!) grew up on our farm and lived through the Depression. They were humble people that worked hard. I am so grateful to have so many photos of my family as well as several books on life before my times. Knowing and understanding your roots is important and helps shape each of us. I encourage each of you to dig into your past, you never know what you might find. You just might be related to someone that invented something we use everyday, you might have relatives that fought in a revolution, you might have some dirty secrets, or you might descended from a royal family (this is my claim to fame)!