@dram12 Good news. I am glad you are having a four-feet family, plus your daughters of course. Looking back the best have been my dogs and cats and my one daughter and her boys... All more than grown up now...
I'm fine as can be, now pushing 84. Age brings slowdowns and limitations, the worse -unexpectedly- being balance. I have taken a few bad falls, the last on ice covered by an inch of fluffy snow... l'm telling you this, given your move north. Be careful.
I am enjoying your take on the Vikings. They were my favorite reading characters long before I found genealogy and Northerners on both sides of my family. One was most likely a mercenary given a farm in reward for services in one of the many wars (colourfull stuff with one reigning duke dying on an iced up lake and almost devored by wolves...) long before the French revolution. Then, the Kings of Sweden were supplying warriors to other monarchs of Europe... My mother's maiden name came to Lorraine with someone from a farm, probably in Denmark, dedicated to Hella where the help traditionally got the same moniker 'Helle.'
Anyway, take care and my best to you and family.