My beginnings...

I am mostly of Norwegian and English descent. My great-grandfather and grandmother on my Dad's side, Jens and Amalia Halvorsen, came over from Norway when my grandfather, Martin Halvorsen, was about 2 years old. They ended up settling in the Grand Haven, Michigan, area. You can read more about it at: http://www.halvorsenfamilynews.info/.

My grandfather married Flossie Hall Halvorsen and settled in the Decatur, Michigan, area and farmed for the rest of his life.

My great, great, great-grandmother on my Mom's side was a daughter of a Lord and Lady in England, but was disowned for marrying a commoner, an Underwood. Eventually, the Underwood family that my Mom descended from came over from England and settled somewhere on the eastern seaboard. My great-grandparents ended up moving to the Cassopolis and Dowagiac, Michigan, area, where my grandfather and grandmother, Myrtle and George Underwood, met and were married.

My parents, Hall Halvorsen and Beulah Underwood Halvorsen met at Glenwood Union SDA Church in Dowagiac, Michigan, where their parents were members. They were married June 22, 1940. My Dad was 23 and my Mom was 19. They are both now deceased and buried in Crane Cemetery, Dowagiac, Michigan.

I am the youngest of 10 children. My mother was an artist, musician, and writer who became a farm wife and mother. My father was a "Jack-of-all-Trades," but the love of his life, next to God, his wife, and children, was farming.

Before I was born, my parents ended up having to sell both of the family farms. I don't believe my family ever truly recovered from that loss. We lived as nomads for many years, not having a place to call home for any length of time.

Finally, when I was 13 or 14, my Dad got a job with Don McKenzie, (one of my Mom's cousins who is now deceased), managing a farm Don had purchased in southwest Michigan, not far from the family farms. For the next 23-plus years my parents settled down, my Dad was doing what he loved to do, and we had a place to call home.

Growing up I couldn't wait to leave the farm and find my own life in a city far away. So, I traveled to Arizona, Tennessee, Kansas, and other places, doing a lot of things, seeing a lot of places, and having a lot of fun. Eventually, I found myself wanting to go back home to Michigan, to my roots, where I have been since. The family farms will never be ours again and I will eventually move on, but the family roots live on within my heart.

This blog is a place to share my thoughts and feelings about my beginnings and my love of sitting on a country porch, looking out over a field of corn or alfalfa, while the sun is setting in the western sky.