When I go to Idaho to visit, I find there is something going on inside, trying to remind me who I am, and where I came from. I don't mean being a daughter of God, and coming from a royal home in heaven. That goes without saying. I mean my roots, my upbringing, my heritage. I love the wide open spaces, the clean air. I love that we never locked our house or car doors growing up. Oh, except the time we went on a week long vacation, and I remember seeing my dad lock the house before we left. It was something I had never seen him do before. It left an impression. Our dogs and cats ran free, always around at feeding time though. Upon moving to Phoenix, I found it weird that people had to keep their dogs confined in a backyard, with fences no less!! I rode a bus to school for 12 years. The small farming communities had their own elementary schools, but the whole county of Bear Lake went to the same junior high and high school. There were 136 in my graduating class. (Remember I said that was the whole county.) In high school, we had released time seminary. There were 6 full seminary classes in the day! Yes, just about everyone was a Mormon. So not only was I raised in Rural America, but Rural Mormon America. Now looking back, I LOVE IT!!
I lived on the same farm my dad was raised on and my grandparents still lived there, just 100 yards or so from my house. I could go to grandma's all I wanted and many times a day if I wanted. I remember taking my doll, in her doll buggy, to my grandma's and asking my grandma to "babysit" her so I could go off and play something else. My grandma graciously accepted and I would go off on my way. I loved to go to grandma's to play her piano. We had one in our basement, but I didn't always enjoy being in my basement. It felt dark and sometimes scary. So going to grandma's was much better. She would play for me when I would ask her. I have her piano today. It's old, it's worn, somewhat out of key, but it's grandma's. I remember all of grandpa's flowers and his vegetable garden. There were several apple and pear trees too. He loved growing things, and grandma loved the flowers and canning the fruits/vegetable. Grandpa not only loved to plant, but he was always fixing and mending his flower beds. He made an underground watering system for his flower beds, with pipes and sprinklers from the well to each of his pyramid flower boxes. Doesn't seem too impressive now days, but this was long before the days of automatic watering systems. He was just tired of running hoses all the time, so he created a solution for himself. He hated weeds and loved a weed free garden. He was never too old or handicapped to work in his garden. In fact, he died at 89 while weeding his raspberry patch. He would get on his hands and knees and slowly crawl through the rows while pulling weeds. He went out to weed the garden, and was later found with his head resting on his arm, as if he had just laid his head down to rest for a minute. He had a heart attack and died peacefully while pulling weeds. My grandparents' love of the gospel definitely shaped my life and sparked a testimony in me. Living next to my grandparents all my childhood, I LOVE IT!
Our farm had once been a dairy farm, Peacedale Dairy. My grandparents provided milk to many locations through out the valley. Alfalfa was grown in the fields to feed the dairy cows too. When I was a child, we still had the dairy cows, but only a few. We didn't provide milk to others anymore, just enough for us. I grew up on milk straight from the cow, to the milk bottle, to our fridge, whole and unpasteurized milk. I didn't know what store bought milk was like. We still had the alfalfa and wheat fields though. As soon as I was big enough, I got to go out with my dad and older siblings to help move the sprinkler pipe. I was probably about 7 or 8. Before that, I begged him to let me go too and help. It wasn't fair that my 4 older brothers and sister could go and I couldn't. Moving sprinkler pipe was a daily chore most of the summer, except when the crops were being cut and harvested. At first there were 6 of us, my dad and 3 brothers, 1 sister and me. As the summers went on and as each of my siblings started leaving home for various reasons, it would dwindle, until it was just me and dad moving the pipe. When I left home, he worked out an agreement with the neighbors to do most of the farming of the fields. Moving sprinkler pipe was part of my daily summer life, and I DIDN'T LOVE IT!!
I must have been about 9-10 here. My brother David would
bring lambs home from the nearby sheep ranch. These lambs
were "bum lambs" or orphaned lambs. We would feed them
from a bottle every few hours until they could eat on their own.
My grandpa and his flowers. That whole area became
a vegetable garden in later years. I remember the
vegetable garden, not the flower garden.
My oldest brother, Charles, in our grandpa's yard with
more prize winning flowers. People would enter their
flowers and vegetables in the county fair. Grandma and
grandpa would often win awards for them. On the lower
left corner is one of the pyramid flower boxes grandpa
built. He had numerous flower beds and boxes through
out the yard. They always took pride in a well kept, clean
and beautiful yard.
My brother David with our grandma. He always
had a cat in his arms. See the milk cans on the right.
That's how they collected and transported the
milk. I love the lilac bush in the picture too.
She had several lilac bushes in the yard.
I've always loved lilac bushes.
Too bad they don't grow in Phoenix.
My grandma and grandpa with their dairy truck. They would
transport milk to the whole valley in this truck.
This is my dad as a teenager in one of the fields on the
farm. The trees in the background is where the house is, and
later my house would be built. This is one of the fields
I grew up moving irrigation pipe through. There is
also a second field about the same size.
This was not an uncommon site on the farm. This is my
dad and older brothers, Charles and David. My grandpa is
in the background. Years later, the deer would be hung
in our garage. Although my dad never took me hunting,
I did learn to skin the deer after they would bring them home. It
would only take about 30 minutes to drive to good hunting areas,
so there was no need to go camping, just pack a lunch
and go. I learned my hunting skills later, as an adult. My dad
gave me his 30.6, which I have hunted with and
still own today.
I'm sure as I continue writing My Story, via this blog, there will be no rhyme nor reason for the sequence of things, or the things I write about. So, no doubt, there will be much more about my youth and family. Just what ever I feel impressed to put in writing.
To Be Continued.......
UPDATE, April 2019
Wow! Reading that brought tears to my eyes. I wrote that 7 years ago. Who would have guessed that I would end up living in Idaho again. So here I am, in Idaho Falls. Some of my friends here know I am originally from Idaho, but a lot don't. I think the impression a lot have of me is that I am this out-of-place woman from the big city. If only they knew the sweet comfort I feel in this area. It is home. I feel moving here has stirred those farm girl roots, and I love it! I quite often wonder what my neighbors think when they drive by or jog by and see me on my hands and knees in my front yard, playing in the dirt. Oh, there is a purpose to that playing..... planting, pruning, weeding, (I hate weeds... thank you Grandpa for that DNA). I see so many parallels here....my vegetable garden, my flowers, constantly on the lookout for weeds. When I am on my hands and knees in the yard or garden I often think of my grandpa. When I canned and preserved some of the garden yield last year, my thoughts turned to my grandma. I appreciate the time they put in, because I now know and experience just how much time such things take. I appreciate my dad, who held a full time job working a midnight shift for the railroad, while farming during the day and getting his sleep in shifts. When I see my flowers thriving, I think of my mom. She always wanted flower beds and never got them. I understand now just how busy my dad was and just didn't have the time. And my grandpa's underground sprinkler system with pipes... hahaha, I really did think he invented that. I didn't know anyone who had such a thing. We are currently putting in a sprinkler system and doing a lot of the work ourselves. Yup, there I am again, on my hands and knees filling in the trenches and placing the grass back in, hoping the trench areas will recover faster. There is peace in that Idaho dirt and I'm finding my roots in that Idaho dirt. (pun intended). AND I LOVE IT!
From last summer. Life in Idaho!
