Both sets of my grandparents were homesteaders around the first decade of the 20^th century – north western North Dakota near the Montana border for my father’s family, Norwegian immigrants whose families had settled in Wisconsin where dad was born in 1904. Mother’s parents settled on land in north eastern Montana near Redstone, where mom was born in 1912. Both of my parents lost their fathers early on so the families didn’t exactly prosper and the land was eventually lost (worthless as it was!). Both of my grandmothers were robust, hard-working pioneer women who kept the families together and who lived into their 70’s.

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