Tractor envy gripped the Rolfsrud boys when they saw Ty Rolfsrud, 13, fifth generation Rolfsrud farmer, driving the John Deere of their dreams.
Envy came during this week's Golf Oil Tour, when the three sons of Beverly and Erling Rolfsrud putted golf balls into 54 North Dakota cups, then inspected the raw beginnings of a 55th hole to be drilled on their immigrant grandparents' homestead.
Grandmother and Grandfather Nils and Rebecca Rolfsrud were required to annually turn the soil on their desolate western North Dakota claim, or forfeit the land to the government. Their struggle has ended, but five generations later, Rolfsruds still work that same soil. This week the original homestead dirt was scuffed by 13-year-old Ty Rolfsrud, running a mammoth tractor that would dwarf the model driven by Erling and Beverly's boys when they tilled that soil 35 years ago as summer hired hands at the Rolfsrud farm. And, of course, the behemoth would have satisfied Grandma and Grandpa's original annual commitment in just a matter of minutes.
Video is 1 minute and 30 seconds.
