Written by Val Heisler on Apr. 5, 2017

Since we are going to be gone this weekend, just want to wish an early HAPPY BIRTHDAY to cousin Barb and her wonderful husband Pete! Hope you both enjoy your special days and have fun celebrating! Happy 60th Pete! New decade for you!

Written by Val Heisler on Apr. 5, 2017

Written by Bonnie Feist on Apr. 5, 2017

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERICA!
Wishing you a great day today and more great days ahead this coming year. Thin king of you ,grand daughter and hoping your new job is going well and that you will have a fun day. I am taking Mom and Dad to the plane this evening so they can celebrate with you a little later.
Love, Grandma Bonnie

Written by Val on Mar. 28, 2017

Thanks for the update on Chance! Sounds like a great opportunity! Hope he loves it! Well, spring has arrived in ND & the Feist Ranch is dealing with some flood issues. The water has been coming up over the past several weeks and yesterday it rose quite a bit. I stopped at the farm to do my chores (mom is in North Carolina) and dad reported that things were starting to flood in the back. We did some sandbagging to stop it from one area back by the feed supply and then with some much appreciated help, we moved the cattle to the hills! By the time we got them moved and the fence fixed, when we returned back to the yard, the water was already coming through the alleyway where the cattle had been. They were living in cow poop knee deep or more in areas, so they needed to get out of their anyway. Today, the water went down enough to make us feel more comfortable that the house will be OK. Mom is visiting Carl & Olga until April 3rd. She is enjoying the nice weather there. Hopefully by the time she returns home the water situation will be much better!

Written by Desiree on Mar. 26, 2017

Great pics Shelley - you look amazing! I'm back from Omaha helping Chance get familiar with his new surroundings. He has accepted an apprenticeship doing welding and ironwork. He's getting paid to go to school and learn this trade which is pretty awesome! He'll be there for a couple of months and will be living in a studio/hotel apartment which the company is paying for. He's always enjoyed doing metal work and Dave says that he's a natural so it's a good fit. We drove in his big truck out to Omaha last Monday and I flew back on a nice cheap flight.

So glad that Spring is finally here and everything is getting green. I was really starting to get the winter blues. Hopefully, ND doesn't thaw too fast and experience flooding again.

Glad that you recovered from the flu Val - Dave got it last year and was so sick. Have a great time on your trip to Vegas with your friends :-)

I'm hoping to get up to Casper next weekend when London goes to prom and will get some get pics to post on the website.

Love to all.

Written by Shelley on Mar. 23, 2017

Written by Val Heisler on Mar. 22, 2017

Wow Shelley! The pool looks amazing! And the view must have been amazing too! Glad you and your friends had a great vacation!

Written by Val on Mar. 22, 2017

So good to see some posts on the family website! Things were pretty lonely here for awhile! It's that time of year again when the yearly fee for having the website came due! If you enjoy our website, it would be great if you could send a donation to Shelley to help keep it going! Thanks!

So wonderful that Cindy was able to make an extended visit to Casper to spend time with Audrey. I talked to her on her birthday and she was so happy to have both Cindy & Jill there. She sounded so good on the phone! I do truly hope that she will consider coming to ND for the Haga reunion. It is going to be a great time! Hope everyone will consider coming back to ND for it!

How fun that Cindy got to help London pick out a prom dress! Those are very special memories! I am sure she will be beautiful! Can't believe she will be graduating from high school! Heard that Chance has moved to Nebraska? Can anyone fill us in on what his new job is ? Sue Doeling was here visiting her parents last week and I was able to spend an hour or so visiting with her and Steve (who was in MInot for one day on his way to Williston for a work related visit). Was great to see them both. Steven is such a nice young man and was so excited to be in ND in the winter & see snow! He was also excited for a train ride to Williston where he was going to meet with two other co-workers & see what happens in the oil field. Hope it was a good experience Steven! Kevin & I drove to Williston last Sunday to pick up a boat his employer had on display at a sport show. Was a nice day for a drive. Things have definitely slowed down out there, but reports are they might be picking up again.

Mom leaves for North Carolina tomorrow for a visit to see Carl & Olga & their new puppy! Kevin & I will try to keep watch on dad and the water. We are supposed to have temps near 50 so more melting should occur. I will be leaving for Vegas on March 30th to try my trip with my friends once again (had to postpone due to my bout with the flu).

Love to all! Please post some news! We all love keeping up with what is going on in your lives!

Written by Cindy on Mar. 21, 2017

Hello everyone, I am back after spending 16 days with my Mom in Casper, had a good time. Got lots of her "errands" taken care of, one of them being getting her drivers license renewed, the state of WY now requires someone to apply in person with all kinds of information available to show them, including a birth certificate which was one my mom has used for all these years but was not a notarized copy from the state of ND, so got that sent off and luckily got it back on the Friday before I came home so is all taken care of(oh, but wait, now they need a copy of her marriage certificate but will wait until we come back in 4 years! Mom was really perturbed LOL)
Snowed the first night I got there and blizzard conditions the next day. however, things improved vastly as my time there went on. Even got out and got the yard cleaned up, now they just need a little moisture(rain preferred) to green things up.
Got to spend wonderful time with John, Candy, London, and Talon- I was in on a spectacular day shopping for prom dress for London, she was a dream-tried on everything and anything Candy and I picked out-so many lovely choices-in the end picked a beautiful "Cinderella" dress, she looks like a princess and I will always treasurer the day!!!!
My mom is good, physically doing well but tires quite easily and forgetful but not enough that she can't be alone, just makes me sad because I know she benefits so much when she has someone close and its not just a short visit. She sleeps in and enjoys being at home.
Jill came up for a long weekend for her birthday-jeez, how can she be 81! I am trying to convince her that we should visit ND for the Haga reunion, will just have to wait and see how things go.
Very important that I thank all of you for her on remembering her bday with gifts, cards, and phone calls. Barb and Pete the photo album brought her undescribable delight, she went through in many times while we were there and I'm sure she will look at it often, of course she most enjoyed looking at her "young, good-looking Art" wants to get the one of the shirtless "hunk" blown up-LOL, reminds me how "gushy" they always were-remember how embarrassed Faron and I were by it! Lots of precious memories-THANK YOU< THANK YOU!
Back to reality in Greeley today-to the tax preparer to sign our tax stuff so it could be submitted, to Target and Sam's for all the items for the inlaws, to the doctor with them both-yowsa, Casper was my vacation;)
Will close for now, love to you all.

Written by Shelley on Mar. 20, 2017

Written by Bonnie F on Mar. 12, 2017

Greetings from the ARTIC or however you spell it. Another cold and snow filled day. Will spring ever come and then what? high water? I certainly hope not. Noone has been on the family web site since March 1 so thought I would share what has been going on out here at the farm. 2 pigs were butchered on Saturday, March 4th, thus began our week of cutting and wrapping 4 sides of some very FAT pigs. Curt assured me we would be saving so much money doing it ourselves and that he knew just how to do it. We dealt with this all last week, it was stormy most of the time anyway, but by Thursday I was ready for it to be over. Never again! Friday we ground up the sausage meat and made breakfast sausage with the help of Curt's friend Bob Hazel, he had a food sealer, and was the only one who would make it work. Tastes pretty good , tho salty, just what us old folks need more salt!! Sunday the hams and bacons went in the smoker we borrowed and now it is just to wrap them up and we will be done.
Now I must start thinking about my upcoming trip to NC to see Carl and Olga and my Grandpup! Should be a welcome change from daily farm duties. Hope all of you are enjoying some better weather.Keep posting , Love, Bonnie F.

Written by Val on Mar. 1, 2017

Hello from the "House of Influenza"! I cannot tell you how sick Kevin & I have been. In 38 years of marriage I don't ever remember us being this sick, this long at the same time. We both went to work today, but we are wiped out. Today was the first day in 7 days that I left the house. The fatigue is incredible. It is going to be a while before we are back to normal. I was supposed to have left on a vacation with two friends to Las Vegas one week ago. The morning I was supposed to leave, I knew I was going nowhere. I was the trip planner so had to muster enough energy to get things cancelled/rescheduled. About the only thing I could do after that was sleep, when I was not coughing uncontrollably! Kudos to my mom who made "deliveries" to the front door for us during our incubation! Know she had enough to do at the farm, but there was just no way either of us were able to go anywhere! Was so thankful I did not have small children to take care of.

So very sorry for Jenny in the loss of her kitty. It is so hard to lose a pet. Hugs to you.

Kudos to Kathleen & her partner on winning their competition. I think we need a live performance sometime! Good to hear Sue will be visiting her parents & bonus that Steven will be in ND!

I better sign off for the night. Need to get to bed. Need lots of rest!

Written by Cindy on Feb. 27, 2017

Hi all, Not much to report here, like just plugs along! Sorry to hear you are sick Val, I hate when I have to miss a vacation, know you wanted to celebrate with your friends and also check in on Erica. Bummer, feel better soon.
Jenny is dealing with animal problems, "Mokie", Matt's bird was sick and died over the weekend, it was his pet for 24 years so was very difficult for him. They had been to the vet and had gotten hydrated with IV fluids but didn't help. One of Jenny's cats "Shelby" was to the vet Sunday night and is not doing well, something with the kidneys, she is heart broken and took the cat home and is watching her, she has to inject fluids over the next several days but says the cat just isn't acting normal so kinda expecting the worse, I feel so bad for people with animals that get sick, just don't know what to do for them since the animal can't verbalize its needs.
We are suppose to get some snow today-Yuck! but hopefully won't last long. Have to help out the inlaws again with appts this week but then hope to go to Casper and stay a couple of weeks with my Mom. If I don't plan ahead can never seem to leave, the inlaws ALWAYS have needs!
Take care everyone and stay healthy!

Written by Sue on Feb. 26, 2017

Hi everyone. Great news about Jill! So glad! Sorry to hear Val and Kevin have the flu. It hasn't been too bad down here. Probably because we've had such a mild winter. We set an all time record for the number of 80 degree days in February. We only had two or three days that were below normal.
Kathleen and Craig were in their first pro dancing competition together last weekend. They really only had six weeks to practice since she started as a pro. They were hoping to place in the top four. We were all thrilled when they took first place! She's really enjoying her job change. Definitely has hours that are an adjustment, working from 12:45-9:45 every week day.
I'm looking forward to coming for a quick visit to my folks over my Spring Break. Steven's company is actually bringing him to ND at the end of that same week so he will get to see my folks for a day before heading to Williston. He is hoping it's not too cold. He's heading to a ski store to buy some warm gloves.
My love to all!

Written by Bonnie F on Feb. 23, 2017

Glad to hear the good news for Jill. Will try to call Audrey this weekend. Val sick with the flu, couldn't go to Las Vegas as planned,they will reschedule. Bonnie F