Every year, around the 4th of July, we take a road trip to visit my husband’s family.  Some years, we have gone up through Canada, (always beautiful), and other times we have taken a direct route through Montana, (my old stomping grounds).  This year, David came up with a different idea; to see where the deer and the antelope play.  We dropped down through Wyoming and the Black Hills of South Dakota before arriving to his family’s homestead in Tolna, North Dakota, (their address was actually Hamar, ND, but changed to Tolna when the Hamar post office closed).

The trip started off with plenty of fantastic sightings of wildlife; elk, deer, lots of antelope, even a doe with twin fawns.  Our first site seeing stop was at America’s first national monument, Devils Tower.   Next we visited Deadwood, SD where I shopped for Black Hills Gold jewelry.  Our visit to Mount Rushmore did not disappoint.  The National Park Service does an amazing job here!  We finished our site seeing day with a visit to Crazy Horse Memorial.

Now we are off to visit David’s parents.  They live on the same farm that David’s great-grandfather, Ole Hoveskeland, (born in Norway in 1857)  homesteaded.  It is located in Dayton township of Nelson county and was farmed by his grandfather, Obert Hoveskeland, (1894-1984) and father, Don Hoveskeland.  This is a place steeped with history and tradition, (and from an outsider’s point of view, a bit unusual), brimming with  Norwegian culture.

David has shared his memories of a Norwegian tradition known as Julebukking.  Sort of Halloween trick or treating for grown-ups, usually taking place sometime between Christmas and New Years.  People would visit their neighbors’ homes in disguise.  They might check out what sort of food was in the fridge, maybe snoop in the cabinets or closets or invent some other form of mischief.  They would disguise their voices or not speak at all.  The “hosts” were supposed to guess who these intruders were and then provide them with treats, an adult beverage might be involved.

Tolna is a tightly knit community.  It’s a place where everyone has each other’s back.  The people who live here are authentic, honest, hard working, and friendly, but most importantly, they are TOUGH.  A weaker lot, (like myself) probably wouldn’t survive one of their winters. 

If you come to North Dakota, there are a few things you should know: 
They have different names for your daily meals here; breakfast is breakfast, lunch is dinner, a late-afternoon meal in the fields is called lunch, and dinner is called supper.  A couch is called a davenport and if they say that something is next to the “B”, they aren’t referring to a buzzing insect, it is a tractor.  They have different names for commonly known dishes; a casserole is referred to as a hot-dish, what I think of  as a roll they call a bun, and Sloppy Joe’s are known as Bar-B-Q.  An “uff da”, (also spelled huffda, uff-da, uffda, uff-dah, oofda, ufda, ufdah, oofta, or uf daa), is an exclamation which expresses surprise over a fairly substantial mishap.  It is similar to the Yiddish phrase “oy vey”.

There is so much more to share about this endearing place, but I recommend that you take a road trip and discover if for yourself.  (One last tip: don’t forget your bug spray!)