Ambrose Stories - Kaare & Randi Knutson

Kaare, who immigrated to the U. S. with his parents in 1923, remembers that wood was very scarce in the early days. His mother would go out to the pastures to collect cow pies.  She brought these home to dry.  When she baked, she used dried cow pies for fuel.  They produced excellent heat for baking bread.

Randi immigrated to the U. S. in 1956 to keep house for her great-uncle, Haakon Olson, and his co-farmer, Hans Brenden.  During her first spring here, in May, there was a three-day dust storm. They had a coal furnace and the NW wind would blow the furnace smoke back down the chimney so badly that they couldn’t breathe.  They had to use an electric space heater instead.  They stuffed towels in the windows in mostly unsuccessful attempts to stop the choking dust from getting into the house.  Haakon and Hans always took a nap after dinner.  One day during this dust storm when they got up from their naps you could see their silhouettes on the beds, made by the dust settling around their bodies as they slept!  After the storm was over they had to haul dust away from the house by the wheelbarrow full.

Now, of course, there are a lot more trees and different farming techniques so we don’t get such terrible dust storms anymore.

Randi Knutson is still an Ambrose resident.  She still hates to dust.