May all who enter as guests leave as friends

Written by Kari Sundberg, Eagle Editor

Shannon and Denise Ostby hosted some special guests recently who were first-time visitors to the Grygla area. Coming from an Amish Community west of Greenbay, Wisconsin, the Ostby’s friends, John and Katie (and family) made their week-long trip to town one of business and pleasure.

Coming from Bonduel, Wisconsin, which is a town a little bigger than Grygla, the Kauffman and Ostby families originally knew each other and met through their shared interest and ownership of Percheron horses. Shannon used to buy colts from John’s dad before John was even born. Both families still raise Percherons with the Kauffmans having about 75 on site right now in their pasture.

John’s family owns a building supply company, which sells textured steel that’s made in Stanley, Wisconsin. It’s made in a residential rib that looks really sharp and John says they do about 90% of the roofs back home with this steel. “It’s the best quality, best looking and best option,” he plugged.

Well, Shannon was in the market for a new roof and he was sold on the idea. The Kaufmans were up for the task and thought it would be a great way to tie in a family vacation. Shannon took off in the early hours of Monday, August 19th, and headed to the halfway mark where friends dropped off the Kauffman family; they met at the halfway point within 3 miles, just this side of the Cambridge/Princeton area. Up until their visit, John had only been as far at the St. Charles area. He was born in southern Iowa and moved up to Wisconsin when he was 5 years old; same goes for his wife Katie.

After arriving to the Ostby residence Monday afternoon, the crew got right to work putting the steel on the garage. Along with John and Katie, were their children, Kara (4), Owen (3) and Ethan (2 months), and also more man power in the form of John’s two brothers, Jesse (18) and Dan (17), and their cousin Jeremy (17). 

Tuesday the front side of the house was done, which took quite some time with all the dormers. “In fact, there were only four sheets total on the front side that didn’t have to be cut,” John laughed.

Wednesday brought a day of relaxing to the group who headed to Lake of the Woods and fished walleye, which was a first for all of them. One short of their limit out of Arneson’s Rocky Point, the group had enough to enjoy a fish fry back at the Ostby residence that evening. 

It was back on the roof the following day!

With speaking Pennsylvania Dutch (close to the German language) and not speaking English around home, John and Katie’s kids haven’t learned the English language yet, but it’s something they will pick up once they start school and get more interaction with English people. 

Katie said she enjoyed her stay up here so much, but felt guilty for not having any work to do. The couple bragged up all the food that was served to them during their stay, along with Marie’s famous popsicles that their kids loved. Their children also enjoyed driving the golf cart around the Ostby’s yard all week. John laughed and said, “We were surprised our Kara could even drive a golf cart! She doesn’t even drive a horse yet!”

Since they were so close in proximity to other friends, the family was going to head to the Bontragers in Clearbrook on Friday, August 23rd. John said they are close family friends who own horses together and he was really looking forward to finally seeing their farm and business, as they make a lot of cabins.

After that visit, the Kauffmans headed back to their community in Wisconsin on Saturday, August 24th, after a great week of work and fun with friends.

They were more than happy and willing to sit down for a visit and newspaper write-up, but they are unable to pose for photos. However, they did share this one above of them up working on the roof.