Kerosene Range

(The picture below is a Kerosene Range – Mother (Anna) cooked on one similar to this one when we lived in Las Vegas – Of course ours was a later model – note the removable oven on top)

From Neil

Dear LaVora June 26, 2010


This past week I received an e-mail from Jane, Uncle Boyd and Aunt Ardis’ daughter. As I read it, I could not help but be grateful for the time Boyd and I was able to spend together while working on the Altonah Cemetery. It was good to be able to get reacquainted with my Uncle Boyd and Uncle Lee. It was good to hear from Jane and to learn something about what is going on in their lives.

As for me I guess one might call me a gardener of a sort. My crops, however, are limited to apples, cherries, peas and currents. I guess I’m a generous person because I share with the birds and bugs. Maybe “share” is not correct for between the bugs and birds they have claimed the cherries and they have their eyes on the apples. The birds and I are challenging each other to see who gets the most currents. The peas, they are three feet high and growing. And yes the birds like these too. Oh well Mother said her father, our grandfather Winkler, used to say he raised enough for him and the birds too. I guess that is alright but I did not expect them to bring all of their friends and relatives.



Have a good month.



Love, Uncle Neil

 
 
My pea patch June 29, 2010

From Neil

Dear Family May 30, 2010

Interesting, here it has been a month since we returned from Hawaii. “My how time goes when you are having fun” One might say, we experienced a small part of what life is like on the island of Maui. I’m really happy that Jerry and Marylyn gave us the opportunity for this experience. There was the sea, the sunset, the beaches, the impromptu church service, the people, the pineapple, the oat meal cereal, the games, the winding roads with miles of “Vista Grande”, the Sugar Museum, the air port were Jerry had to look for us, the sugar cane fields, the volcano that put us on top of the world in all its windy grandeur, the great meals, our outstanding driver and cooks and the wonderful family we were with. What a great vacation. Thank you, Jerry, Marylyn, LaVora, Dewey and Beverly. And now it is back to reality.

Since I have been home things have been moving pretty fast here as well. I have been able to attend a pre wedding bar-be-cue, the Wedding and the wedding reception for Rebecca and Douglas. I’m sorry Rebecca, I still see you as a little girl getting lunch for your grandpa. I must say that all of these events were wonderful and one of the things that make it wonderful was that the family was able to be there, in the temple and at the reception. It was another great experience. I’m sure Ella was and is pleased.

And with all of this wonderful things going on I find it still rains, snows, gets cold, wind blows and the sun shines, the peas still grow and the apples trees still set in Utah in the month of May. It has been a good month. I hope yours has been as good or better.

Love,
Neil

China Trip Link

If anyone wants to read my post on my trip to China...just click on this link:  China Trip

Can't wait to see everyone in Nauvoo!  It is coming up so fast!

Love,
Allison

I Remember My Grandmother Atta Ashby Murray Part lV

Grandmother was always kind to me as I think she was to everyone. To me she was a beautiful lady and I loved to be with her. There were times when I would help grandmother shell peas. I recall as we shelled the peas grandmother would tell me stories about my father. Everyone who knew my father was aware of his love for flowers. It seems that as dad would be riding his horse, Old Jimmy, while taking care of the cows, dry stock or other duties, he would see these Indian paints or flower. He would stop Jimmy and dismount so the he could pick a bouquet of flowers for his mother. I guess more than once as he would be picking the flowers old Jimmy would get away from him and go home. Grandmother said she would see Jimmy come home with out a rider and eventually here would come Wilmer walking home.
LaVora tells of Grandmother remembering when she was planning on marriage she was concerned that after she was married that she would not have a bed as good as the one she had at home. I guess her bed at home had a down mattress. I would guess after she was married it was quite a while before she had a bed as good as the one she had at home. I say this because of the stories Uncle Lee told about their straw ticks they slept on. He said they changed the straw every fall after they finished thrashing the grain. He said a new straw tick, until your got it broke in was hard to stay on top. He said you would keep sliding off.
Grandmother’s father was a lover of horses as was grandmother. I guess Grandfather Ashby had some beautiful horses and I understand that he treated them very well. From what I understand this was a hard change for grandmother because Grandfather Murray never did have the facilities to care for the horses that Grandfather Ashby had. I understand that this was a bit of an irritant for grandmother. In Grandfathers defense, however, in the east end of the barn where we milked the cows there was a place for horses and at times I saw horses in the barn.
LaVora would tell of the times when grandmother went to gather the eggs, which of course was an everyday thing. At times, there were those hens that were in their season of wanting to start a family. In preparation for this event the hen would start laying and hiding her eggs. She would do this until she would accumulate a number of eggs and then she would sit on them so that the eggs would stay at a certain temperature and in time baby chicks would start to develop. I guess Grandmother tried to have some control over this chicken nature thing and would seek out the nests and collect the eggs from under the hen. The hens were not too happy about this egg napping and would pick Grandmother when she would lift them from their nest and take the eggs from under them.
I recall one Thanksgiving when for some reason all of the family was gone except for Dewey and myself. I don’t know where the folks were but I do know that Dewey and I were left to take care of things around the place. I don’t recall how old we may have been but what I do remember is that my Grandfather, Grandmother and Clyde showed up at the house with a full blown Thanksgiving dinner so that Dewey and I would not be alone. So that day we had Thanks giving dinner with our Grandparents and Clyde. I have always thought that was real grand of them to be concerned about us two little grandchildren who were all alone for Thanksgiving. As I recall it turned out to be a wonderful day.



Then there was the first time we noticed grandmother’s legs failing her. There were grandmother and other members of the family outside, to the north of the house, standing close to where the cistern was located. It seems we were getting ready to go some place, probably to Roosevelt, when for no apparent reason grandmother fell. I think Clyde caught her and we helped her up as she exclaimed, “These crazy legs of mine”. This was the beginning of a problem that only got worse. Grandfather took grandmother too many Doctors and Clinics but I’m not sure whether or not the Doctors ever diagnosed the problem. By the time they moved to Taylorsville the problem had progressed to the point that she needed our help when ever she tried to walk. She always expressed her appreciation when ever we assisted her.

William Ashby Family

A typical farm yard of 1920 s



(By NRM - 6-14-10)

From Anna and Wilmer Murray’s Journal

Saturday 7, 1980


I called Jeanie and awakened her. I wanted to report my time that I put in Friday. I told her about Harold Groves. Dad tried to get the pump to go and it was just a little stream. So he said we would have to go to Basin Builders to get another set of fixtures. After we got a few more things done we went over and picked up the things. Dad was too tired to do anything about it as we had hoed in the garden all morning. So he went to sleep. Paul Self was over by the Reed trailer so I called him over. He primed the pump and got a little bigger stream and told me to put dough around the pipe where it goes into the pump. Then he went home. I made the dough and put it on. Alice Hayden was here watching me. Boy it did the trick. The water really flew. We were happy that Dad didn’t have to do all that work over.

I called Mrs. Rogers to see if Van and Charlene had arrived. They hadn’t. But they came about five O’ clock. We fixed supper and made beds. Van and I put the baby bed in our room. Soon we were all settled for the night. I was the last to go to bed as I baked the bread. Van had the heel of one loaf with butter and honey on it.



Sunday 8, 1980

We all went to church. (I was up first as I wanted to pick some flowers to take up, and get dinner on to cook.) Sacrament meeting was Pam Brokaw’s farewell meeting. It was nice. I forgot my purse so couldn’t give her any money. So after meeting I came down to get it. Louse Roberts had forgotten her purse too. So she rode down with me to get it. We enjoyed La Rue Lambs lesson and Floy Johnson gave a good Relief Society lesson too. I forgot my flowers so Dad and I went back to them. Charlene and Van set the table and put the carrots on. Soon we were enjoying our dinner. They had to put the dishes all in the dishwasher before they could go. Soon, they were on their way. We enjoyed them so very much. Hope they come back soon. Little Marc liked me from far away. He cried if I took him but would laugh at me while his mother had him. He is such a lovely baby. After they left we had a little nap. Jeanie Brown couldn’t find Harold Groves Census paper so Dad and I went up at five o’clock and I made a new one. La Dene was really nice. She is having a new house made soon and wants us to come to the Home Warming.

We went to visit Fred Todd, his daughter Nancy and her husband, Doug. Then we went over to tell Paul Self how well the dough worked on the pump. Alice Hayden came over and I told her I found another loaf of whole wheat bread. This was after Charlene left.

I Remember My Grandmother Atta Ashby Murray Part lll

I remember grandmother preparing the meals. In those days there were not deep freezers like there are today. So when grandmother was going to have a chicken dinner she would send one of the boys to get a chicken from the chicken coop where you needed to catch the chicken and prepare it so that grandmother could cook it. (I could go into some detail here but I will save it for some other time.) The number of chicken you would catch depended on how many people there was going to be to dinner.
I remember Grandmother and the other women in the family in the bramble patch picking what ever was in season. It might be raspberries, gooseberries, currents, etc or all of them. I think this was one of the times when the women in the family did their visiting and catching up on what was going on in their lives and the lives of their families.
I remember grandmother drying the apricots. The apricots that were grown on the trees at the farm were not large. Actually they were quite small but yet they were tasty. I remember picking these and grandmother putting them on a sheet and covering them with some netting and then hanging them between the lines on the close line to dry. The netting was to keep the flys off of the cots as well as keep the birds form eating them.
I remember the day I got hurt when banging two hammers together and a piece of the steel from one of the hammers flew off and hit me in the neck. I remember grandmother comforting me while she cared for my wound. Grandmother was a very kind person. As Ella wrote once, Grandmother always referred to the boys as “little men” (or man). It was generally, “her little man”
I remember this one day when she was going to a Relief Society meeting. I recall she was all dressed up, I did not see her dressed up very often, but this day she was. I recall the boys or grandpa had Old Twin saddled and ready for her to ride to her meeting. As I recall the thing that interested me that day was that she rode side saddle.
Grandmother must have always been active in Relief Society and was loved by all of the sisters. I recall an event that Uncle Boyd told me happened when he was a sealer at the Provo Temple. I guess in the sealing sessions, he and probably all of the sealers, tell a little about themselves before the session gets under way. This day, after the sealing session, a sister came up to him and said “Oh you are Sister Murray’s little boy”

Grandmother always took care of the things that went on in the house and I have seen her feeding the chickens but I do not recall her ever being in the stable or caring for any of the morning and evening chores. Yet I recall being with Clyde in the mountains getting out poles for fences on the farm and coming home late at night and when we got there all of the work was done and everyone was in bed. So when it was necessary grandmother also milked cows and fed the life stock.

Grandmother was always so kind to me as I think she was to everyone. To me she was a beautiful lady and I loved to be with her. (By NRM – 5-20-10)

From Anna and Wilmer Murray’s Journal

Saturday 17, 1980


I worked in the raspberries, meant to get the ironing done but didn’t. Oh, I finished the binding on the quilt before I did anything. We went gathering asparagus. We really found some good ones. Dad got caught in the fence and had to shed his sweater. He said he called but I didn’t hear him. LaVora called this evening. Stacy was going to the Junior Prom. Wish we could have seen her. I crocheted a little before going to bed. I don’t know if Dad will feel like going to conference tomorrow or not.



Sunday 18, 1980

Dad said he would try going to conference. Sister Roberts called for a ride. The other widows went with Sadie. We enjoyed conference even if Dad did get tired. Keith Mortensen found us seats in the Chapel. When we came out we could not find the car. Doctor Condie told us to wait until everyone left then we could find it. I told Dad where it was but he did not think so. But we went the way I wanted to go and there it was. Dad was really tired so he rested remainder of the day.