Audio 1: Only Temporarily Yours
It isn’t just about me. This is just one piece of a larger, continuous chain or series of people that have lived lives here. And so it doesn’t feel like it’s mine per se, or that it’s anyone’s. It’s only temporarily yours. But that that’s not an unsettling or bad thing, that’s actually a really good thing.
Anne Puotinen
Audio 2: Critical Decisions
As my dad grew older, he was not able to do as much on the property as he would like…but he made some critical decisions. And what he did was, he had new tins put on the buildings that he wanted to have saved. So you have new tin on the sauna. New tin on the blacksmith shop. New tins on the barn. New tins on the grain shed. And essentially what we’ve done then, up to this point, we’ve honored that vision of my father and we have, to date, saved those properties and we’ve gotten rid of some other out buildings that didn’t have that designation.
Art Puotinen
Audio 3: Belonging
A lot of people get rid of these places. They’re money grabbers. You put out far more money. You don’t get any money in return. And so people who are interested in being practical, tell you immediately to sell these places because they just take, that’s what they do. We look on it differently. We think that that’s true but, because of the heritage, because of the hopes and dreams and aspirations of the immigrants that were here and all that they did, all that they had to do to make things happen for them. Besides the excitement they felt to have the opportunity to do that. So, it’s a whole combination, it’s an emotional thing that you can’t really put a price tag on. And it’s important to me to be a part of that and I feel a part of that.
Judy Puotinen