In a re-enactment of days gone by, Harold Rolfsrud, ranch foreman, outlines the day's tasks for the Brothers Rolfsrud in the obviously staged photograph, above.
Visitors from Western North Dakota
Harold and Marilyn Rolfsrud arrived at the Tucson Golfhouse at 10 a.m. today. Harold is our first cousin, the second son of our father's oldest brother, Halvor. He and his wife have been staying in Phoenix with Harold's sister, Karen Kirmis, and her husband, Don.
Once upon a time, the "boys" worked at the Rolfsrud family farm in western North Dakota as indentured servants and learned many of life's lessons there, too numerous, of course, to be listed here.Therefore, tales of bull snakes, high-stakes fencing technology, over-ripe manure turning to ammonia, and just who Aunt Martha liked the very best circulated freely this morning around Cafe del Solveig.
Up until now, our capable Cousin Harold has navigated his world by dead reckoning, using his God-given sense to guide everything from John Deere tractors to small airplanes. Only recently has he acquired a magical new technology to guide him, a GPS Garmin electronic navigation system, mounted on the windshield in the family Cadillac, which he drove here from NoDak. Worked great, until he got to Florence, AZ, this morning. Flummoxed, he went back to dead reckoning. Anyone who has ever driven through Florence knows exactly why.It was a beautiful day today, but not as warm as most have been recently, merely in the mid-60s. We believe there was only one person in all of Arizona sporting shorts today. He was from North Dakota.
Kathleen put up a breakfast for six, we talked memories, we talked reunions, we talked toothless grandchildren (see photo); we asked Harold about ethanol. News flash: their son, Guy, will be relocating soon, with his family, to Granite Falls, Minnesota, where he will continue his career as a charter pilot. Granite Falls is a growing hub of ethanol development, and qualified pilots are in demand there. So Guy will again be just down the road from the Twin Cities -- at one time he lived in Hutchinson.It was wonderful to see Marilyn and Harold, we always enjoy their company. Depending on who you ask, they are considering building a new house for themselves in North Dakota. So part of the day's fun was finding ideas for such an enterprise in the model homes hereabouts. There are tons of models in Saddlebrooke, of course, so we soon began our merry tour. Meanwhile, Steve and Virg excused themselves for a round of golf. After all, they only have five chances on this trip and they were blown out yesterday.
We can truthfully report that Harold held up reasonably well through the first half dozen model home visits. Then the yawns, then the comments like, "you know, you have seen one, you have seen . . ." and so on began to overtake his usual good sportsmanship.The highlight for him was perhaps the discovery of monogramed towels at the Laredo model. "Gee," says the cattleman, "if it had been an HR it would have been my brand."
Shortly after that, Harold was returned to our family room and deposited in a recliner in front of his Fox News channel while Marilyn and Stan soldiered on, this time through the exciting million dollar models. Amongst their many observations: interior doors a full foot taller than 6 foot, 5 inch John Rolfsrud and a walk-in shower with his and hers entrances.
A steak dinner at Kathleen's poker place (see previous post) and then our day guests were off, motoring back to Phoenix, via Florence, fearlessly piloting their way under a starry sky, with only the jackrabbits and javelinas to challenge them.
Earlier, Harold and Marilyn shared a stack of photographs of so many dear family members. We will post a few of them here soon.Among the memorable photos were ones taken of a family outing with Louise Haugen last spring -- she's Harold's sister who died last fall (See December archives). And the Christmas Card from their daughter Kelli, whose husband, Jiro, tonight is somewhere in Iraq, serving as a helicopter pilot and flight instructor. (Click on photo to enlarge it.) Our thoughts are with them during what has to be a most difficult time.
It is always great to see family in a new and distant place. Won't you come soon?The photograph at right, of Grandma and Grandpa Rolfsrud with their grandchildren, taken last Christmas, is the grandchildren's absolute favorite photo of grandma. We can't imagine why.
