Østre Gausdal (Saturday, Day 10)

Jahn Frydenlund came by early to take us up to Gausdal, about an hour and a half drive from Brumunddal.

We arrived, and I was in charge of getting us back to Midtvold. :) I remembered so many of the farms and even the little coffee shop where we met Gunnar Rundtom at the first time we visited in 2006. We met Gunnar at Sønstevoll, he was waiting for us outside his home. He invited us in, and we had a nice kaffee and talked genealogy.

We then went over to Midtvold farm and were met in front by Ruth Midtvold, Per Arne’s wife, and she invited us in. We went through the old part of the home this time, and stepped into the lovely parlor which was last painted in 1869! The walls have a wainscoting on them, with a darker shade of robin egg blue below the white chair rail, and the beautiful robin egg shell light blue of the walls above. The top of the walls are edges with a hand painted border with a floral / fruit motif. In the wainscoting, there are the hand-painted scroll-work designs (one of which incorporates the date the room was painted.)

The ceiling is also original, and is a paneled white ceiling, each with robin egg blue trim. I noticed this time that in the corner where the stove was, the wainscoting was faux painted. (Probably easier than cutting the wood to fit around the stove.)

We had a nice time with Per Arne, his wife Ruth, two of their boys, and Erik Midtvold. Gunnar told me that his wife, who was ill the last time I visited, had passed away a few months ago. We did have a nice kaffee / lunch, although I did have to talk my way out of trying sandwiches with the Gudbrandsdal brown cheese slices. Per Arne, being a dairy farmer, had a hard time believing that someone couldn’t like cheese. :)

We talked about my job, and he joked that asked if I would like a job on his dairy farm. He asked if I could drive a tractor, and I told him that I could learn. He asked if I could milk cows, and I told him that I knew that was too hard of work for me, and explained that my Uncle Bob was a dairy farmer with about 30 cows, and I understood how difficult of a job that was – milking all of the cows twice a day, before the sun comes up in the morning, and again in the late afternoon, every single day of the year – rain, snow, or sun shine.

He brought out some old family books, and gave me a copy of two certificates(?) that Gunnar was very interested in. One of the books was a Psalms hymnbook. He also brought out a couple of "finds" he had recently made in his home. He has been cleaning out the attic above the living area in one of three sections, and discovered in sawdust in the rafters a couple of books. One appeared to be an accounting of activity in Midtvold farm from 1840 to 1842. Gunnar, Randi, and I looked at it, turning the pages, and Randi and I noticed Ole Pedersen's name. We investigated it closer, and confirmed that this is our Ole Pedersen Ståterkongen! Per Arne is not finished cleaning out the attic, and we look forward to any other finds he makes in the other two sections.

I gave him my blog URL, the URL for WoldResearch.org, and my email address. I hope that he can visit them and make email contact with me. :)

We then drive up through the valley that intersects Gausdal valley, to drive up to the setter of the Fjell farm. The road there wound back and forth and was very steep. A setter is a small cabin-like home that the farms would have the younger generation drive the cattle up into the higher elevations during the summer, and spend their summer days milking cows, making cheese and socializing at the setter. Needless to say, many Norwegian babies were born nine months later. ;)

We met the family which owns the walking stick of Ole Pedersen Ståterkongen. The stick is still in great condition. It is made out of juniper wood, which the family said grows several meters high and is very straight where they live. It had a hardwood mushroom-style cap on it, with a ringed stem. The wood of the stick is a lighter white, with little grooves throughout it, which are natural in the wood. The point and of the stick is a couple of inches long, and is locked in place with a metal band around the bottom. It looked to me as though the spike itself could have come from his Morning Star staff that was part of Ole Pedersen's Ståterkongen uniform.

We had kaffee with them, and Gunnar bought me a CD that they had of the songs of Gausdal. We enjoyed Norwegian waffles, which are very thin and you sprinkle granulated sugar over them before tearing out each of the five heart-shaped portions and fold them in half lengthwise to eat them. They were delicious.

We drove back home, stopping by Myrmellom at my request, so we could take a photo showing both Midtvold and Mitdvoldhaugen farms. I also got several photos of the Gausdal valley, so I could stitch them into a single panorama photo. We drove back to Midtvold farm past the Østre Gausdal church, then dropped off Gunnar at his home, and drove back home to Brumunddal.

We had eaten so much kaffee desserts that day! But, I still had room for Randi’s Fresh Soup dinner (just the beef and potatoes for me that night.)

We taught Linn’s friend Eli how to play Phase 10, and when we quit on step 6, I was winning the game – finally! ;) At one point during the game, Eli claims "Close, but no cigar!", and Randi and Linn had no idea what she was talking about. I had to explain what it meant and how the phrase came from playing carnival games.