ExtraDays

By ExtraDays

Drive to Upham

I grew up on a farm 1 mile north and 1 mile west of a small North Dakota town called Upham. When I was 16, my family moved to Oregon, but not my two oldest sisters. Kathi, 81 now, and living in MN, had just gotten married when we moved, and Beatrice, 80, got married a year or so later to her ND boyfriend, and now lives in Minot. 
Today, her daughter, Lori, drove us to all the places we wanted to see near Upham. This picture isn't of our old farm, nor is it of the farm where Beatrice lived for years, but she did live in this tiny, old house for a few years, including when her third child was born. The house is across the road from her farm and was quite a bare bones place. She used a counter top hand pump to get all the water they used for drinking, cooking, bathing, and washing diapers. After about 3 years, they moved back across the road into a brand new house. No more outhouse for my sis and her family. 
One of the Extras is of the farm house where I lived growing up. When we moved away, and sold it, it was rented out for 20 or 30 years, but for just as many years it has been empty, has slowly deteriorated and is now unsafe to enter. The nice, big barn blew down about 40 years ago. The last time I was here there was a well-used deer trail right through the yard. 
The other Extra is of the cloud burst that cooled us off on the drive back to Minot.

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