From Kivela, with love

Kivela is Uncle Arvi’s farm, founded in 1923, where my Ukki grew up. Always one of my favorite places to visit in Finland, and by the end of the day, I was ready to move to the Finnish countryside. It is BEAUTIFUL.

Of course we capitalized on the scenery by taking pictures.

Uncle Arvi himself is completely charming, I mean, how could you not love this face?

 Besides being an expert farmer and uncle, he has his own little museum of antiques in and old barn, and this vintage bike is the centerpiece. I don’t really know anything about it, but he fixed it up himself!

Thanks to Leena (Arvi’s daughter) for the picture.

We also got to see the place where my great-grandfather was born and raised. His house is gone, but the little barn still stands in the middle of the woods. He was born in 1896. Its hard for me to believe that anyone connected to me lived so long ago!
I also learned for the first time that my great-grandfather, Mikko, had planned on immigrating to America in the 1920’s. He had all the paperwork and arrangements ready, but at the last minute decided not to go. Uncle Arvi had the papers back at his house:

I guess learning about your relatives isn’t a big deal to most, but I found it extremely cool. If Mikko had moved to America…well this blog probably wouldn’t exist, for starters.

And now you have some idea of the extensive webs of Finnish family on my mom’s side. I’m working on a family tree, mostly just to keep everyone straight!