Chicken Business

 

Being in the chicken business was a change of life.  We bought baby chicks and waited for about three months to get our first egg.  The chickens were all laying good when they got sick..  The eggs had a thin shell and weren’t saleable.  Farmers Feed and Supply, where we had bought the baby chicks, told us what to use for medicine and to just put it in a tank on the third floor and let it go into the water fountains.  What they didn’t realize and neither did we, was that the medicine needed to be mixed thoroughly.   The medicine came out to strong and all the chickens had a double dose of sulfa and were dying fast.  We should have just killed them but we struggled to keep them alive.  They never did lay good again.  Now instead of eggs being sixty cents a dozen they were thirty cents a dozen, just what it cost to produce them.  That was the only disaster we had.  The next batch of chickens really produced and we made a healthy profit.

  We realized that the middle man was making the most money so we started delivering to the stores in I.F. and some families in Rexburg.     It required a lot of work to feed, gather, candle and package the eggs.  People came to the house to buy eggs and wanted to sit and visit for hours and I didn’t have time for that.  I finally figured out a way to get my scriptures read.  I would have Steve read aloud to me while I worked with the eggs.  I thought he would gain a testimony of the gospel that way.
       The bad thing was that we packaged the eggs in the basement.  Once a week Jess would lift the cases of eggs, up through a basement window and I would load them in the pickup.  Jess  had a bad back and lifting up with a case of eggs made his back bend back wards and he had severe pain.  The doctor told him he could be cured if he would sleep in a bed with his knees raised up and take the pressure off his back.  We set up a hospital bed in the front room and Jess slept there every night for months.  Eventually his back pain eased but he had to be careful how he lifted.  I had to stand on a chair with a case of eggs and lift them through the window.  One of the boys would finish pulling them through the window and then I would go outside and lift them to the pickup.

Church Dedication

   The church was finished and we were using it but it couldn’t be dedicated, until our share of the cost was completely paid.  The last few months we were ask to make a monthly cash donation.  It took until Dec. 12 1954 before the money was raised.   I was disappointed when I learned the Sterling W. Sill was the General Authority coming to dedicate our building.  He was a new General Authority and I didn’t know anything about him.

      The dedication was a rich spiritual experience.  The Primary children sang with all their hearts and Jeannette Sharp and several leaders of the ward spoke but when Sterling W. Sill started to speak, it was like magic. The spirit filled the room and his talk was outstanding.  I have often wished a copy had been made of the talk but that was before cassette players were invented.

     Lee turned eight in Dec. and was the first one confirmed in the new church.  It was tradition to have the entire family come for dinner, the day of the confirmation.   My family, and all of Jess’s family came but it was easy to have a big group, when everyone brought something and I had room to set tables for everyone.

This was the last Sacrament Meeting held in the Old Rock Church.  Grandma Rachel is on the far Left in the middle. Steve is the boy on the front row far right, next to Clyde Bybee.

New Church

 

   There weren't enough classrooms in the old church. I was a Sunday School  teacher so I brought my class to my house each Sunday morning and back to the church for closing exercises. Everyone was happy to be getting a new church.

Archer ward was united as we worked together to earn the money to pay for our new building. We put on banquets, where the sisters donated the food. The husbands bought tickets to come and eat the food their wives had cooked, washed the dishes and cleaned up the mess after. We put on shows at the school house. The one we made the most money on was, was a minstrel show presented six times in other wards. We had a magician show that did really well. Zella was Primary President and we served the dinner for the Primary stake conference. We were exhausted as we cooked the food, carried it to Rexburg, set up tables and served the dinner.

I don’t think this would be appropriate today!  Eldon Robison is the first Black man on the back row Left.   Norman B Erickson in the middle and Karl Grover on the far right.   Most of the others are anyone's guess!

Strawberries

   I had a big garden and a wonderful strawberry patch.  I picked the berries the day Tom was born.  They needed to be picked again the third day, when I left the hospital.  I took Tom out to the edge of the patch and wrapped him in a blanket.  I didn’t realize how sensitive the skin of a new born baby was.  When I got back to the house, one side of Tom’s face was a bright pink.  I had left one side exposed to the sun.     Ten years previous, Rachel had sent away for some special strawberry plants. I got starts from her and still had some 20 years later.  I had three long rows south east of my Archer home and planted 3 long rows, in Burton and all the Jensen family enjoyed them.       After I moved, Rex’s grandson said the berries were fabulous and wanted to know if I wanted to pick them the first year after I moved away.  I planted a few by my mother’s house in Lyman, when I lived there.  I wanted to have a strawberry patch, when I got a permanent home again.  

The fall after Tom was born, I stayed at Rachel’s and helped cook for the men.  This was the first year I hadn’t picked spuds.  I realized how much I always enjoyed the freedom of working as hard as I could from morning to night.  That is a pleasure, when you only do it for two weeks out of a year

The Chicken Business Begins

     The winter Tom was born we decided to go into the chicken business.  Eggs were sixty cents a dozen, which was high and wheat was cheap.  Jess figured on paper, that with normal results, he would be able to take flying lessons with the profit.  At this stage of life he didn’t dream he could ever afford to buy an airplane.  He just wanted to learn to fly one.

  We hired Ellis Rice to lay the cinder blocks for our three storied building.  It was huge for the day.  The first time my sister Marva  saw it she said, “I didn’t think you were going to build a church in your back yard.”  Jess and I were Ellis’s  helper.  We carried the blocks to him and mixed the mortar.  Since Tom was just a baby, Jess would get everything ready for Ellis, before he left in the morning and I would help in the afternoon.  It worked great.

Ellis was a hard worker and had the know how to do a good job.  I cooked for him and that was a hardship, but he appreciated it.  

  Ellis started working the first part of January, 1954.  It was the day after I had been sustained as a counselor to Lila Moore in the Stake Primary Presidency.  We were meeting at nine and we were going to select the officers and teachers.  I thought surely I would be back at noon.  Just in case I put some beans on the slow burner and left.  I didn’t get home until late in the afternoon.  Lila Moore, Lucille Ricks and Cleo Johnson and I covered the list of every Primary board in the stake, and after much prayer we made the final decision.  I felt the spirit telling us whom to choose.  I know the Lord cooked dinner that day.  When I got home, late that afternoon I rushed out to see what the men had eaten for lunch.  Ellis said that was the best beans he had ever eaten.  All of my boys know what Jess cooked to go along with the beans, he scrambled some eggs. 

Tom learned to walk at seven months because, while I helped Ellis, Tom was in a walker bouncing around on his feet and he was good natured, with Garth helping to entertain him. Lee and Steve were in school.

Tom

   Tom was born Oct 1, 1953       

     The men decided to bring the church calves down before spud digging started.  Tom was due soon and I assured Jess that he would only be gone twelve hours and nothing happened that fast.  He hadn’t been gone an hour when I realized that things were moving.  I thought if I kept busy the day would go faster.  I was sure that Jess would be back before I had to go to the hospital.  I picked the strawberries,  (I had a huge patch) washed the car and started to bottle apples.  All at once I realized I couldn’t wait any longer.  I phoned my mother and she said she would take care of the three boys and Rachel said she would go with me to the hospital if I drove.  Rachel had assisted with many births and I was grateful she was with me.     The nurse seemed to be in slow motion, as she prepared the admittance sheet.  Finally I told her, “I am going to have this baby right here if we wait any longer”.  She didn’t look convinced.  Rachel said we could fill out the paperwork later.  Tom was born half an hour later.  The nurse came and apologized to me.  She said that I didn’t look like I was big enough to have a baby.  Tom was a healthy baby and Jess didn’t know he had another son for eight hours. 

      We made a mistake when we named Tom, Richard Thomas.  We had planned on calling him Richard. There were four boys named Richard born, within just a few months.  We decided that would make four Richards in the same school.  We decided to call our son Tom.  We should have had the named changed on his birth certificate.

       Tom was the quickest and most active baby I had.  He was always on the go.  He walked when he was just a few days short of eight months. He climbed everything.  One day when I came in from the chicken coop, he was sitting on top of the fridge.  He was grinning from ear to ear, proud of what he had done.  He had climbed from a chair to the top of the stove and then stood on a kettle and from there climbed to the top of the fridge.  I prayed constantly that my kids would be protected, when I had to leave them.  When I went to the chicken coop during the summer, I would put Tom on the back lawn in his walker, that way I could see him by looking out the window.  He was a good baby and would play by himself.  The other boys were always around and would help watch him.

Building the Archer Church

  Building the Archer church.     The old church house, that stood just east of our present church, was not adequate to meet the needs of our fast growing ward.  Jess was on the committee that decided which type of building was needed.  The men met for hours and poured over plans.  We rode down to Utah with Russell and LuDean Grover  to look at the new churches, that had just been completed. It was easier to make decision looking at a building, than it was to look at plans.  

       Building the Archer church was a community project.  The actual work began May 8,1953.  Mr. Willmore was the general contractor and all of the labor was donated.  It was a thrill to see the progress week by week.  Jess’s Dad was one of the main men on the finance committee.

      Jess and Rulon Wilcox were given the assignment to buy calves in the spring and then haul them to Island Park country, for summer pasture and bring them back to the farmers, in the fall.  It required a lot of work and cooperation for everyone.   Jess worked many hours and always furnished his truck.     It was successful the first year.  They made a good profit.  The next year the calves were high priced in the spring and cheap in the fall and they didn’t make any profit, after all that work.  Jess always felt badly about the second year.  .