Copper Cannon

I used a lathe at work to turn the barrels for the canon's I made. There was a time at work when there was no work from orders so we were told to keep busy doing work so that we wouldn't get laid off. The big shots from the Administration building would come down to the machinist building and want to see us working. I built more things than anyone. The Plant Manager and Engineers asked me to build things for them. I built a spray nossle for the Plant Manager. He used it to spray alfalfa at his farm in Grantsville where he lived.

Mountain-Man Chairs

When Michael's children were young, we visited them at the Mountain Man Rendezvous at Fort Bridger, Wyoming. I made some chairs/stools for them from ones I had seen at the rendezvous.

My First Saddle

Ivan bought a saddle in an auction at Price for his kids to use. I (Jerry) used the saddle to break horses. I didn’t own a horse, but my older brother Monroe gave me a horse. Monroe had a two-year old horse that was an excellent barrel horse. Every time Monroe got on it the horse would throw him off. This is the horse he gave me. It was a high strung thoroughbred. When it was in a parade, it would dance down the street.It was a thoroughbred stallion. I plowed up a 40-acre field while breaking it. One day, the horse ran through 5 barb wire fences in Castle Dale and it got cut up so Monroe had to shoot it. Later, I bought a bigger saddle that I used to break horses. Ina Lee Magnuson’s dad (Byron Johansen) raised and sold thoroughbred horses. He had a ranch at Scofield, Utah. I went there for the summer to build fence. My brother Monroe and wife Ina Lee lived there during the summer. Byron Johansen had me ride his horses before he sold them so he could tell them the buyer that the horse has had a saddle on it and it has been ridden. One day I rode seven horses in one day. There was one horse that I wouldn’t ride. So, Byron Johansen said he would ride it himself. He got on the horse and the horse jumped twice then it fell over. Jerry said when he was deciding which horses he would ride he would watch the horse run past him in the coral and if it didn’t look ride-able he wouldn’t ride it. Byron Johansen raised horses on the desert. He had a stallion that belonged to the government, a thoroughbred, that he used as the Stud. He had a contract to raise horses. At one time, he had 30 horses. He sent some horses to England and the Queen of England rode them in polo contests.  They were all good thoroughbred horses.

The saddle I used to break horses, my brother Monroe kept it when I moved to Sandy.

Rifle 30-30

My cousin Rose's husband, Hurst (Ivan Hurst Thygerson) used to go deer hunting with our family. During World War II I (Jerry) was looking for a gun and there were none available. I sent to Sears, Montgomery Ward, etc. and they didn’t have any guns for sale. Hurst went into a pool hall and there was a 30-30 rifle on a punch board. He punched the board out until he won the rifle. He brought it and sold it to me for the amount it cost him. Rose is my Dad’s sister Maria's daughter's husband. At the time, he was probably in his 40’s and I was in high school. I wanted the gun to use deer hunting. My Dad had a 30-40 Krag rifle. Ned has it. The 30-40 Krag rifle was from World War I.

A punch board looks like a checker board. In the punch board are small holes with small pieces of paper rolled up with a different number on each paper. A person wanting to "win" a prize, will pay to punch one or more papers out of the board. Example, 20 punches for a dollar. If the paper has a number on it that corresponded with a prize, the person wins the prize.

Blacksmith Tools

I have my blacksmith tools in a museum in Fairview, Utah. My tools include, a forge to heat metal. You burn coal in the forge and heat the metal. I have a power hammer, tap and die, hammers, pliers, and an anvil. I took a blacksmith course at the trade school, and I was able to acquire my teacher’s anvil. An anvil is the main item used by a blacksmith. My anvil is a dud. It doesn't ring when you hit it. The teacher at the vocational school I attended sold it to me. Anvils are suppose to ring when you hit them with a hammer.

Fly South For The Winter

For ten years, in the first part of January, we would leave our home in the north, drive south to enjoy warmer weather in our motor home. When Lavon lived in California, we drove to her home, then on  to San Diego, then over to Yuma, and up to Quartsite, Arizona. One year we went to Tucson and Phoenix. We returned home in March to do our income taxes.

This is the ad from 2006 when we sold the motor home.

1992 Allegro – Class A – Motor home

All aluminum construction

New engine with 11, 222 miles

New transmission with 7873 miles

Length 27 feet

Sleeps 6 adults and 3 children

Saguaro Cactus Walking Sticks

A man who parked by us when we were on our Snowbird trips to Arizona was from Boston. He made canes out of cactus and he had a wood burning set to carve pictures on them. The canes were made of cactus that had died. When the cactus died you could push the cactus over and take it apart and make canes out of the cactus. The handle is the top of the root of the cactus. The following pictures are of some of the canes/walking sticks I made for Sheila, Celeste, and Emeline.

What was it like to live in Ivan and Orilla's Home?

We didn’t have an electric stove, just a coal burning stove. It was this stove in the kitchen, and a fireplace in the living room, that were used to heat our home during the winter. My bedroom was upstairs. A man who lived in Price and worked with the BLM would come and Pheasant hunt with my Dad. One day he brought an electric stove for Orilla. He said he could no longer stand, Orilla cooking on the coal stove.

After that the fireplace was all we had to keep the house warm. Ice would form in my bedroom and I would jump out of bed and run downstairs to get warm. When I was in my bedroom, I piled on blankets to keep warm. We bathed in a wash tub in the kitchen. We didn’t have a bathroom until I was out of high school (just an outhouse). They didn’t get sewer to our house until I was out of high school. Our home was located under the bench, a mile from downtown Castle Dale and a mile from downtown Orangeville. The house is still there. When I was in First grade, we rented a place in Castle Dale. My Dad heard that the house under the bench was for sale so he put some money down on it and we moved there.

Turkey Pens in Huntington

Built by Zen. Later, I (Jerry) tore the pens down and used the 2x6s to build a cabin at Skyhaven Acres at Miller’s Flat Reservoir.

Broken Leg

When I was 5 years old, I broke my left leg. My brother Monroe and I were running down the street to our uncle's home. Monroe ran across the street and I (Jerry) ran after him, and Pete Johansen, Ina Lee’s grand dad was driving down the street in a Model-T Ford and he accidentally ran over me. He jumped out of the car, scooped me up, and took me to the doctor a couple blocks away. Monroe ran home and told his Mom what had happened. Pete Johansen was nice. He came and visited me every day. I had to lay in bed. There were pulleys that lifted my leg up and down.