Week of February 23 - 29, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

Sunday was lovely from start to finish. We enjoyed great church meetings and learned much from the speakers and teacher. Dad ended up helping in a primary class at the last minute and loved it. I attended choir practice in the afternoon where I was asked to participate in a future women's vocal quartet for Sacrament Meeting.

I attended an endowment session at the temple on Tuesday morning and Dad attended Wednesday night.

I continue to listen to at least one General Conference talk each morning, study daily my Come Follow Me lesson, and when that is done I am reading in Mosiah. I also finished reading the March Ensign magazine.

I have indexed 3458 records and reviewed 23746 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

I spoke with Grace late Saturday night as she had finished her evening with her friends at the movie. She had such a good time getting henna tattoos, sitting in massage chairs, eating yummy treats and popcorn and shopping around. Just a fun girls' night! Adam is doing well and has now gotten his new glasses so he is able to see so many things. He had previously wondered why Billboards were up since they were not clear...but now he sees and understands. Glasses came at a good time since he took his state-required ACT test Tuesday. Josh is doing very well and is anxious for soccer to begin and was memorizing his poem for his Tuesday recitation. Sam had his kindergarten cap and gown pics last week, and also had his first field trip. Mike nears completion of his Six Sigma class and now waits to be hired permanently at Amazon so he can apply for a management position. Allison is keeping up with her work as well as meetings for church. We shipped the calculators Adam and Grace needed for school.

The Ethan Rice Family

Ethan finished Wade's new bed and he did a wonderful job!

Wade has even slept in his new bed and demonstrated its excellent jumping capabilities. Ethan is nearly finished with Kaylee's bed too. The kids are very excited about them.

This week included a doctor check up for Kaylee. They are watching for some scoliosis they found. She is otherwise very healthy and happy.

They are doing well and jobs are going good and we so enjoyed visiting with them on Saturday night. FaceTime is such a blessing!

The Doran Rice Family

The weekend campout was very rainy and they even got snow late Saturday night. They did have a good time, though, and enjoyed recreating in their trailer. The week was busy with both work and school. Doran and Amber decided that Legacy Laveen was not able to meet their kids' needs. Kelsie has been ratially harassed the entire year, and Kooper had an IEP that has not been acted upon all year, so they will start at a new district school on Monday. We did go Friday night to see the play that Kelsie had done Stagecraft for.

Saturday they came by to visit. Kooper did lots of coloring and play dough playing. Kelsie and Papa printed some pics of her friends she made it this school. 

Morgan

Morgan had a bit of a rough week but did enjoy the time he was able to work.

Kayty

Kayty had a good work week. She watched hockey when we were not around or when her favorite Blackhawks played. 

The Nathan Rice Family

No news from Nathan, Jessica and family this week. 

Dad's Garden

We still get lots of peas. The rain last week has helped our carrots and tomato plants. Cilantro volunteered in the garden and is going great!

Family History
Dad located the hand written life history of Dorothy Elizabeth Bean, his maternal grandmother. He typed some and I typed a lot and we completed it as it was. Here it is for you.

Life Story of Dorothy Elizabeth Bean-McFarland

This is My Life

 “I can’t let that baby die, I can’t let that baby die” Cried my grandmother. She picked me up from the kitchen table and did whatever she knew to make me draw my first breath and cry. So I owe my life to my grandmother Nancy Marshall on that cold and snowy December 30^th, 1905. She was a midwife and the only doctor in the mountain community of Marshall, Wyoming.

My father was out in the barn trying to harness the team and drive six miles to get my uncle lee. Old Bogus, the mean horse kept kicking and jumping into the manger. My father kept cursing and crying. It was snowing and very cold at this six o’clock on Sunday morning when I was born in a little one room log cabin. My mother was white and weak lying in the bed, grandma was exhausted from efforts to get me to cry, but I had finally drawn my first breath and was alive and lying on the blanket on the kitchen table.

This story was told to me by my father Ira Scott Bean many times on my birthday for years after.

Now I am seventy five years old and retired from teaching school for twenty six years. I live with my daughter Bonnie Jordan on Greely Hill, California. It gets cold here, but not was cold as in Wyoming period.

My grandmother died many years ago when I was about twenty-six years old. My father died at nearly ninety years of age at Rock River, Wyoming. My mother, Mary Marshall Bean died in Phoenix, Arizona September 11, 1966.

I loved and missed my grandmother and my father and mother, but I have a great many wonderful memories of a happy life in the pioneer days when I grew up on the ranch in Wyoming.

My earliest memory I believed to be the time I fell headfirst into a deep pool of Cottonwood Creek. I was two years old. I was helping my father dip water from the creek and pour it into a large can of trout he was going to restock the creek for fishing. Father grabbed me by my leg as I fell and pulled me out of the deep water. I told everyone that, “daddy pulled me out by the hind leg!” I used to wonder why they laughed.

I grew up on the ranch on Cottonwood Creek and was the first baby girl in the Marshall Community. They gave me the name of Little Lady of the Cottonwoods?

I recall another frightening accident that happened to me when I was two and a half years old. We had an old white horse named Bob that mother used to saddle with a blanket strapped around his middle with loops for stirrups. Then she would lead Old Bob with me riding him and she riding Lady her sorrel horse. One night we were going to the Prill Ranch about five miles down Cottonwood Creek when Old Bob stumbled and fell on his back into the irrigation ditch. It threw me out on the bank where I lay screaming. My mother picked me up. she was happy that the horse had thrown me into the sage brush and I was not under him in the ditch. She had to go back to the barn to get a rope to tie onto Old Bob’s legs and pull him out of the ditch. I cried so hard that she had to take me on the saddle with her. I don’t remember any more of that incident.

In the old days of the West ranches were often named for brands used to mark the cattle. Our ranch was named the Open B. it was seventy miles north of Laramie in the foothills of the Cottonwood Creek. My father grazed several hundred head of cattle on the meadows and grew alfalfa and rye grass.

I remember the haying season and the big read barn where father stored the hay in the loft. There were only two big red barns in the community. We had one and Uncle Lee Marshall. I remember the dances that were held in those barns in later years.

I remember the big dance that was held on the opening on the fourth of July.

I remember the time the cow chased me I was about three years old. I t was a snowy day in winter and my mother took me with her to feed and milk the cows. I wore a winter fur parka and pushed a little wooden wheelbarrow that my Uncle Lee had made for me at Christmas. The cow had just had a calf and she thought I was going to harness her calf. She started bellowing and chasing me. I ran around pushed the little wheelbarrow behind me. And the cow was afraid of it. My mother came running and rescued me!

Another early memory was the time we were visiting the Currys at their ranch in the mountains. They had a little girl named Ozell. She and I were playing in the yard which a ram came chasing me. I ran yelling for the cabin door. I backed up to the door and held onto the rams horns until mother opened the door and chased the ram away.

One morning I awoke hearing the blackbirds to their churling in the cottonwood trees. And the water of the Cottonwood Creek burbuling as it ran over the brown rocks. I also heard a thumping and bumping out in the kitchen. I opened my bedroom door and there was a horse walking around and sniffing the dishes on the kitchen table. I ran to get my mother from the yard and she coaxed the horse out into the yard. She was quite gentle with him, so he did not break anything.

I am trying to write down the earliest memoires of my life on the ranch in Wyoming. I recall the time a man visited us who had a frolicsum pup. The pup knocked me down and jumped all over me as I lay screaming. The man just laughed until my mother came running and picked me up. I was very frightened and I have been afraid of dogs ever since. My mother scolded the man but I still do not like dogs.

My daddy drove a team and wagon to Medicine Bow, a distance of about thirty miles. I would make him get out of the wagon and pick up the empty whiskey bottles along the roadside so I could blay on the bottom of the wagon. There were no rules about littering in the old days so bottles were plentiful along the roadside. These trips to Medicine Bow were made to get the groceries at Scotts General Store. WE bought flour by the hundred pounds and sugar twenty five pound sacks including brown sugar. Canned vegetables such as peas, corn, tomatoes, string beans were bought by the case. Salmon was cheap then and mother made many salmon croquettes and salmon casserole.

Sometimes we left the horses in Medicine Bow at the livery stable and took the train to Laramie to shop for clothes. I remember looking out the train window and saying, “Mama look at the fence. It is going back to Medicine Bow.” I did not know it was the train moving, not the fence.

I loved to go to Laramie and stay in the Custer Hotel. The stores were fascinating. Mother always bought us new clothes and hats for herself. I remember playing with a little girl. The lady at the dress shop gave us a box of scraps of silk, ribbons and lace left over from the hats she made. From these we made dresses and hats for our dolls. The little girl must have been staying at the hotel. I had these pretty scraps for many years. I had several dolls. One was a blonde doll with a pretty face. I caller her Prairie Rose, after a blonde rodeo rider I had seen at the Laramie Fair Grounds. Daddy always took us to the rodeo. He said he didn’t want us to be hayseeds the common term for country farmers. He always took us to Laramie to the circus whenever it was in town. I loved the bareback riders usually dressed in satin tights with feather plumes in their hair. I wanted to be a circus rider and also a trapeze performer. I wanted to travel with the circus, in impossible dream but I dressed up my little brother Ned as a bareback rider and played circus with him riding Pat our Shetland pony.

When I was quite young, we made a trip to Laramie and stayed at the Custer Hotel. It was down near the railroad tracks. Now my Daddy used to like to have a drink at the hotel bar. Once when Mother sent me through the swinging doors to get my Daddy. He held me on his lap and told the men I was his little girl. Women were not allowed in bars and my Daddy was so embarrassed that I cam in this hotel bar that he promised he would never take another drink. He never did drink again.

I remember seeing my first moving picture when I was about three years old. We had driven to Douglas Wyoming with a team and buggy. There were no cars at that time. I recall the movie screen showing a man in a restaurant carrying a large stack of plates higher than his head. When he staggered and all the plates fell off. It frightened me and I began to cry. My father had to take me outside. That was a long time ago before sound movies were made.

I also recall the trip home when I stood at the dashboard of the buggy and held my teddy bear over the edge and dropped him over it and caused my Daddy to shop and get my teddy bear.

My cousin Maude Dawes who lived in Douglas had give me a little yellow kitten and he was in a box in the buggy. I named him Douglas after the town of Douglas Wyoming. I used to say, “Douglas Cat and Douglas Town.”

I teased that cat and made him mean. He would hide under the table. I would hold on to the table and kick him. Then he would grab my foot with his paws. Then when   visitor tried to set the table, he would jump out and grab her legs. I thought this weas very funny especially when she screamed.

Mother had dressed me in my good clothes to take me to see my grandmother who lived about six miles away on Sheep Creek. We had a big pail of swill that we fed the pigs. I stood on a chair by the pail of swill and I fell off headfirst into the pail. Mother was able to pull me out. I had to bebathed and dressed all over again in good clothes to go to see my grandmother.

At my grandma’s house I loved to play in the creek a lot. Especially where it was dry and the green slime was hanging off the brown rocks. One day I caught some polliwogs and put them in a can. I called my mother and my grandmother to come see my “greenhorns”. They laughed and told me they were polliwogs! I did not know that greenhorns were people new to the old west.

My grandmother was a good cook and I remember the corn cake she used to cook in the skillet on the top of the stove. It was called corn dodgers, a flat very hot piece she baked and we put pieces of it into a bowel of cold milk. She always make it for me.

We went to Medicine Bow for groceries once a year. We drove a team and wagon all the thirty miles. We bought enough to last a year. Hundred pound sacks of flour, sugar and cases of corn, peas tomatoes and other things. It was a long trip sometimes taking two days. When we got to Medicine Bow we stayed at the Virginian Hotel I was always so thrilled to be in the hotel. It was named after a book called The Virginian written by Own Wister. The upstairs lounge, or parlor was so pretty with red furniture and red carpet. It was the first to have electric lights. They were turned on by pushing a button near the door. One story goes that a rancher could not get the light off in his room at the hotel. He pulled the dresser over and climbed upon it and untwisted the light bulbs!

My baby brother was born July 18, 1912 in the same ranch cabin that I was born in. I was seven years old by then. I recall my grandmother telling me to come see what was in bed with my mother. She pulled the covers back and there was a little baby. It was squiggling and I asked if it was a kitten.

My grandmother was the only doctor in the Marshall Community. My cousin Cassie Davidson was a nurse.

Marshall was a small community with only a store and post office it was named after my grandmother Nancy Marshall.

Growing up

Growing up on a ranch in Wyoming is a wonderful memory. The low rolling hills with the swiftly flowing Cotton Wood Creek border by huge old cottonwood trees made a lovely background for out lovely cabin ranch home.

Life on the ranch was never dull. There were horse to ride, chores to do, and riding for the mail once a week and neighbors to visit. In the summer time haying season was a busy time with extra hired hands to help store the hay in the big red barn loft. A hired girl helped cook the bountiful meal required for the hired hands they consumed great quantities of food. Beef steaks, mashed potatoes, home baked bread or biscuits, gravy, peas and other garden vegetables. Rhubarb pie with a tart pink juice.

When my father had time he shot sage chickens that made tasty fried game. Mother was an excellent cook. The breakfasts she cooked were delicious pan cakes brown sugar syrup fried eggs and coffee. For all the years I lived at home we always had pancakes or griddle cakes as some called them, French toast or waffles lots of honey or jelly and home churned butter made these foods tasty.

I recall a severe thunderstorm one day during haying season in August. We were at the meadow about a mile from home when it struck. The sparks from lightening were flying off the pitchfork and the men headed home with the hay rack going as fast as the team of horses could run. I was on my brown Indian pony and took the shortcut trail over the hill to the barn. When I got home and put my pony Brownie in the barn I ran to the house. Mother had not started supper as the sparks from the lightening had been sparking off the axe when she went to chop wood and off the kitchen stove. No harm was done but we were plenty scared.

I used to get up early in the morning and ride my Indian pony Brownie to get the working horses out of the pasture and in the corral for the hired men to harness and hitch to the hay wagon and drive to the meadow right after breakfast. It was a thrill to be up in the early morning. Birds singing the sound of cottonwood creek running over the brown rocks. The horses were eager to drink from its sparkling waters. Before I penned them in the corral.

Summer time was an exciting time on our ranch. Fourth of July meant a great celebration often a dance was held in someone’s barn loft before the haying season in August. An all day picnic and rodeo where held in the daytime of July Fourth. One time I ran my brown horse in the stake race. All the horses and riders were lined up in order at the staring post. They ran forward to a stake driven in the ground, ran around it and raced back to the finish line. My horse ran very well until a man on a horse kept hitting my Brownie across the nose with a quick. She would have won except for that mean old man doing an act that should have ruled him out.

Ordering new clothes and shoes for the celebration was a happy time selecting these articles from the Montgomery Ward or Sears Roebuck catalogues was a fascinating time. We were careful to order early so the things would arrive in time for the celebration. I remember one article very well. It was a pair of white shoes with silver buckles. Mother had made me a white dress with beading on the blouse. I was quite proud of it. I also wore a bright red dress with white collar and cuffs for the rodeo. I changed to the white dress for the big dance that night. That night at the barn dance I lost one of the silver buckles off my shoe. The next day a young man named Domino found it in the manger downstairs and rode horseback to our ranch to give it to me!

These summer celebrations were very exciting to me. There were school programs in my for the last day of school. Several home schools combined their programs and followed by a dance in the Mickerson barn. We spent many hours memorizing our parts in the play, songs and dances we were to do in the program. We always looked forward to these times.

School was long long ago when the West was young. There were no schools like today but each ranch family had their own teacher. I our neighborhood where distances were long was thirteen teachers. My Daddy was clerk of the school board and hired all the teachers. He paid the teachers $60.00 a month for me to have at our ranch. School was only six months.

One time, Daddy was in Medicine Bow to meet our new teacher. “What is school like?” I asked my mother. “You will see tomorrow” she replied. I was eight years old and eager to learn. “I want to learn everything in the world” I told my mother. Later that afternoon my Daddy arrived with the new teacher. Her name was Miss Comley. She was quite pretty, plump, with laughing brown eyes. She was shown her room. She unpacked her trunk which was a thrill for me. I was fascinated by her many pretty dresses, jewelry, and toiletries.

The next morning school began for me. The schoolroom was the living room of our house. I sat at my father’s roll top desk. I had taught myself how to read so I had arithmetic and spelling. Miss Comley gave me some words and three of them were these, those and them. Knowing I could not remember how to spell them I waited until Miss Comley went to help my mother with the dishes. I quickly wrote the three words on the wall. When she came in to help me with my words, she said, “I know you have written your words on the wall! It is not nice to cheat that way. You are only doing yourself harm!” I was so embarrassed and ashamed. I always remember that time.

  

Education

So for the next five years with a new teacher each year I continued to study. I passed the eighth grade in five years and took the state exams. I passed with a B average. During those five years I went to a little schoolhouse that my Dad and our neighbor Dean Nickerson built halfway between our two ranches. Nickerson family had two children, Loyal, my age and Lucille, two years younger. We had fun walking the mile to school. In the winter we rode skiis and if it was a bad storm my mother came after us, the teacher and I with a horse and a rope. We held on to the rope and she pulled us along on our skiis. The teacher lived half the year with us and half the year on the Nickerson ranch. During this time World War One was being fought and I was so afraid my father would half to go, but he was too old.

All the neighbor ladies formed a club for the red cross and had meetings every week to knit socks and sweaters for the soldier. The kids played war games and had a good time each meeting. My grandmother Nancy Marshall taught me how to knit socks for the soldiers.

The flu was very severe during the winter of 1920 and my music teacher Lottie Bennet died of it. It was my first sorrow with death. WE were all scared of the disease. One day I got sick and my mother kept me home from school. I had always strived to never miss a day of school and this broke my record. I was so sad to miss. It was a scary year and we all waited anxiously for the war to end. The Kaiser was the source of much news. All the young men of the community joined up in the army. The neighbors held going away parties and also raised money to send to the war cause. People turned in their gold watches and precious gold wedding rings. There was no radio in those days and we all depended on the news papers for information.

During this time our neighbors the Nickersons moved to Laramie. Here their son Loyal about 13 years old got pneumonia and died. I was crushed and we all were so sorry. It was my second time of sorrow. I did not go to his funeral but his mother Ann gave me a rose from the funeral flowers.

Now the time came for me to go to high school. My dad wanted me to go live with his mother in Omaha and go to school. I hated my grandmother and I refused to go. My dad was angry with me.

Now there was a school of correspondence for High School enrollment. My grandfather Benjamin Bean gave the tuition money about two hundred dollars to take the course. You joined and they sent you books and lessons so you studied at home and mailed the lessons back to Chicago. My mother built a desk for me in my bedroom. There for the next three years I studied this High School course. I finished all the four years in three years. I always loved to study and learn.

During this time my grandmother Nancy Marshall came to live with us. I loved her very much and we had long talks.

Now we had to have a teacher for my little brother Ned. So she lived with us the same as when I went to school. One of his teachers was Julia Bolrensky from Omaha. We all loved her and she helped me with my Correspondence School lessons.

I have been rambling on about my younger life and I never mentioned all the wonderful Christmas times that my mother made for us. We always had a beautiful tree and each year we donned our winter clothes and walked through the woods to cut a tree. I remember the way the candles lit up the tree. There were no electric lights then. We had a big dinner of turkey and the “fixins.” Some times we went to my Uncle Lee’s house and sometime the kids and parents of our neighbor the Nickersons joined us.

My mother always made a big celebration on all the different holidays. My birthday December 30 was a party time right after Christmas. I remember once Christmas when I go a lot of books, Ann of Green Gables, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Rebecca and altogether eight books. I loved to read and I soon had read them all. Among one was a book about Camp Fire Girls. I got my mother to be a guardian and start a Camp Fire Girl Club for the girls in our neighborhood. WE all loved those meeting times. We roasted potatoes in the campfire and had lots of fun. We wove bead bands made moccasins and ceremonial dresses. We met in the mountains hand had a campfire and sometimes we met at our house. It was a good time for us.

Time was moving on and I was sixteen. It was a wonderful year. All summer I went with my second cousin Jim Dawes. He lived in Nebraska but was spending the summer at his Aunt Maud Dawes. We fell in love and I got my first kiss. We went to dances and had a happy time. One day we went to Medicine Bow with my father. When they got home, Jim was very drunk and I was horrified. In those days I thought anyone who drank beer was no good. I told him I was through with him that I was going to be a schoolteacher. He replied that he would not marry a teacher. There was a dance that night and I went by myself. I cried a lot and the lady Olive Kofka told me she understood but she depended me to make the dance a success so love came and went And I managed to get over the sad part of it.

Suddenly my sixteenth year was over and I was seventeen. I had finished my H.S. of correspondence was ready to learn to be a teacher. World War One was over and there was a shortage of teachers. My brother Ned was ready for grade eight.

My father paid for me to go to University of Wyoming at Laramie for six weeks of Summer school of six weeks. There I stayed in the dormitory on the University Campus. I got a C certificate to teach school for eight months. So I began my first teaching career. I taught my little brother Ned at the small cabin father built. I was payed sixty dollars a month and Ned finished the eighth grade year. My father was still clerk of the School Board and he was retiring after Ned finished the eighth grade.

The winter of 1923 I went to University of Wyoming and earned ninety dollars a month at a new school. Out on the prairie about fifteen miles of home I went to teach at a family living on the prairie. It was the challenge of living in a schoolhouse and teaching three of the Emerson children. I lived there all week and went home weekends.

I taught the Emerson girls to dance. I made their dresses and costumes and we went to Medicine Bow and put on a show at the Virginian Hotel in the dining room. I taught there on the Emerson ranch for three years.

I had taken correspondence  dance lessons and I had also been to Denver to a big dancing class. I learned to tap dance, acrobatics and ballet. I was so excited doing these lessons. I stayed at my girlfriend’s house and rode the bus to classes every day for six weeks. I returned to my home and it was here I built a log dance hall with a crystal fireplace. It was 26 by 60 feet long. I had a girl’s camp here where girls from several town same to stay for the summer. At the end of the summer I gave a big show having trained the girls of the supper camp to dance.

It was the building of this large hall that changed my life. I met one of the carpenters there and fell in love and a year later married Ethan Erwin McFarland. I was married in Rawlins Wyoming and went to live in Laramie. I was sad to give up my life as a teacher. It was a big change in my life. I was very homesick but I was still teaching dancing in our home. I also taught a class at the university there.

Then I was pregnant and was happily waiting for my first child. I still missed my parents but they came to see me often. It was June twelfth that Rober was born. He was a beautiful baby. I refused to go to a hospoital wo he was born in our little white house. My mother had come in and was there with me. I had an easy birth and saw so proud of my little son. WE lived there about a year when the depression struck the nation so my husband Mc lost his job. We then had to do something so we moved out the Marshall and stayed ant my folks home. WE lived in the dance hall up the creek from my folk’s new house.

Mc (I never could call him Ethan) bought a ranch about six miles away over the mountain. He then took my dance hall apart and moved the logs to this ranch he had bought on  Mule Creek. Half of it he built a three-room house and the rest he built a barn. My life was not a happy one seeing all my dreams of dancing torn down.

Then I was blessed with a baby girl born at my mother’s house. My mother names her Bonnie and I made her middle name Ray for Mc’s best friend Ray Thompson of Laramie. She was born on a Sunday the 26^th of July. Now life was happy again with two lovely children.

We were still living at Mule Creek fourteen months later when my second baby girl was born October fifth at my mother’s house on the Open B Ranch. She was born on the fifth, weighted five and a quarter pounds. A lady doctor from Chicago was staying at the ranch so she was my doctor. We named this little darling Mary Myrtle after both grandmothers. So my life was now a busy one with three children to care for.

The depression was real bad. WE had a garden and one afternoon a severe hailstorm came and just about destroyed our garden. WE stood in the doorway and thatched it being demolished. So we went on welfare and Mc went to Laramie and picked up free groceries. The country had us to destroy our cattle. Same men came out to Mule Creek and shot nine of our cattle. I guess they payed us for the cattle.

When Mary Myrtle was nine months old she got whooping cough and one morning she choked. I thought she would die. I ran to the creek and got water and poured over her. Mc came running and we took her to my mother’s about six miles away. She had not choked but was having convulsions. Every so often we would give her mouth to mouth resuscitation. My dad rushed us to Laramie where the doctor there gave her medicine but she just threw it up. She had twenty convulsions before we got a second doctor who fed her intravenous injections. When she finally lived, we kept her in the hospital a week. It was a very anxious time.

We kept on a daily regime and the time rolled by.

I was expecting another baby in seventeen months after Mary Myrtle’s birth. Due in February and I had to go to the hospital in Laramie. Went to town and left my three children at my mother’s home. I found a nursing home there and it was almost a month Before my fourth child was born, a healthy boy and we named him Loyd. He was born March twenty first and weighed seven pounds.

The weather was so stormy Mc was not able to come for us until April. When I got home my mother-in-law Myrtle McFarland had come up from Nebraska to take care of Robert, Bonnie and Mary Myrtle. Loyd was a healthy good baby. I had run out of baby clothes so the neighbors gave me a baby shower, made me very happy.

Now one time my grandmother Bean’s estate was settled in Omaha Nebraska and she had left me one thousand dollars. IT was a joyous time.

Mc went to town and bought us a Ford car. As Robert was six and time for school, so we leased the homestead on Mule Creek and moved to Laramie, Wyoming.

It was in Laramie that my fifth baby was born. We named her Dorrie and I called her my little dancing girl. I taught dancing in our home and at the Catholic church. Robert and Bonnie went to school. WE lived there for several years. The kids caught such sore throats. It was a new disease called strep throat. We decided to move to a warmer climate and we went to Phoenix Arizona. We left Wyoming in a blizzard. We stopped at Red Feather Lakes Colorado where my mother in law and father in law lived. We had bought a trailer but the snow was too deep to take it up the hill so we left in at the bottom and drove up to the house.

The trip to Phoenix went well. We stopped at Santa Fe New Mexico and it was nice weather. The Indians were quite a sight.

When we finally reached Phoenix the weather was beautiful and there was a big parade going on. The orange trees had fruit and I took the snow suits off my children. I said, “Why would anyone want to live anywhere but here!”

There is no use writing about the next ten years as life went on and the children grew up. I was very proud of my five children. They did well in school. In 1943 we went on a trip to San Francisco to the World’s Fair. It was a glorious sight. We walked all day to see the sights. Finally Dorrie was to sleepy and Mc carried her.

Now we went from the Fair and drove back to Wyoming. The night we got there word came that my father in law had died at Red Feather Lakes. We went on to Colorado for the funeral. After that we returned to Laramie and lived there about a year. Mcs mother, Myrtle McFarland came to live with us. I taught dancing in our home and one night, Mc, his mother and the children went away while I was downtown and they went to Phoenix. It was a sad time for me but I followed them hitch hiking with my dancing partner Oliver to Phoenix.

When I got to Phoenix, I went out to Rose Lane where my family were living. Mc bought a new home for us and we lived there until we were divorced. The family will remember those times so no need to write about it. Mc bought a trailer house and took Robert, Myrt and Dorrie back with him to San Jose, Calif. Bonnie and Loyd stayed with me and we followed them to San Jose where I went to the Rosicrucian University. Mc was there too and when it was over I let Loyd and Bonnie go with him home to Phoenix. I followed later. I had got a job at Standard Stations in San Jose. They transferred me to Phoenix where I went to work as soon as I returned.

The house at 2211 North 24^th Street was given to me to raise my family. Robert stayed with his dad, Mac.

I June I bought a car and all the kids but Robert went with me to Oklahoma where Leslie Judson was stationed in the army. I had met him in San Jose. I worked at Muskogee Oklahoma until June when Leslie was on his way overseas.

 After a long summer, we finally got home to Phoenix. After we all returned to Phoenix, my sixth baby was born February 14^th Valentines Day. I named him Tamas Leslie Judson. Tamas was a big baby. He weighed 9 pounds 10 ounces. He was a very good baby. I was still working at the Standard Stations in Phoenix.

Three years ago at the Family Reunion at Dorrie’s home in Phoenix, I gave each of my children a story of their lives as children. I did not write about Robert as he was killed in a plane crash at Old Mexico 1974. It is too painful a memory.

This year will be another family reunion at Dorrie’s house in Phoenix. The will all remember the things I have written about.

This history of my early years up to the time of my family’s years was written July 1981.

I am 76 years old living at Greeley Hill California. I hope my children will like it.

Signed,

Dorothy Bean McFarland

Other highlights

Its wonderful to jog and smell orange blossoms or lilac as I go. 

Lots more cleaning and trashing. We continue to clean out and go through things in Dad's immaculate office, get rid of "thinking about" things in his music room, and we started on his back yard shed. We already have bags of trash and have taken one huge load to Deseret Industries and have the next load ready to go.

With lovely rain comes lots of weeds. We spent a lot of time weeding this week. Dad used the torch on the small desert grasses popping up, which was lots more fun than digging up millions.

Dad and I drove to the middle of nowhere in New River and he got a barrel cactus which he planted in the back yard.

Week of February 16 - 22, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

We had a lovely Sunday. One member of our bishopric was released and a new one was called to serve. (It's a funny kind of thing because Dad doesn't really care, but he continues to hold the record for the only adult male over 30 in our ward who has never served in a bishopric.) Sacrament meeting included stake speakers sharing messages about the atonement of Jesus Christ. Sunday school was also very good.

I completed some temple ordinances on Tuesday morning. Dad attended a session at the temple on Wednesday night.

Family

The Wilkins Family

On Monday night, Allison and the kids (Mike had done classwork all day and was taking a nap before work, so he missed the hike).  Marco Polo'd us as they hiked Red Rock Park (entry is free on holidays, which is awesome!) They had an awesome hike. The weather was great. Grace loves hiking and had a great time watching a group rock climb and she really wants to do that. Right now, she is trying to hike 1300 miles before June. (Mormon pioneers walked 1300 miles as they came to the Salt Lake Valley to settle.) Sam was a pretty good hiker too and hiked very high up! He did get tired and Adam was kind enough to stay with him while the rest climbed on. Sam even slipped and fell, and some very rude people laughed at him, but he had a great time and enjoyed being with Adam. Josh had a great hike and enjoyed a sub sandwich earlier during their President's Day break from school. Sam shared that he had a great Valentine's Day party at school last week. Their classroom aid made them a Valentine treat and his teacher made rainbow crayons for the kids. The Wilkins Family celebrated Valentine's Day on Sunday night. Josh is now in his gifted classes at school and really likes them.

I have enjoyed reading Isaiah in 2nd Nephi using the Come Follow Me lessons as well as a scripture study ap on my phone. I continue to read on my own daily in the Book of Mormon when the week's church study is done, and I am also continuing to listen to General Conference talks daily.

I have indexed 3006 records and reviewed 22116 records so far this year.

The Ethan Rice Family

Kaylee quickly called me on Monday night asking Papa and Grammy's favorite colors. The family received some sad news that Cameo's Great Uncle Cort was in the hospital with pneumonia and a possible lung mass. He lives at the Ranch that Dad and the boys have hunted at near Wickenburg and he is in his 90's. He has lived a strong and hard-working life and we pray for a healthy outcome. 

The Doran Rice Family

Dad spoke with Doran and the family on Sunday. Doran was assessing some damage repairs he needed to do. They are doing well and are busy with kids and life. They were joined on a weekend campout by Nathan and Jessica and the girls.

Morgan

Morgan worked at his new job this week and likes it.

Kayty

Kayty enjoyed her Monday birthday trip to Camp Verde to see the zoo. She had a good time, but her trip was cut short due to needing to ship an item for Poshmark. So, she used a vacation day during this slower time at work and returned on Friday.

The Nathan Rice Family

Anna came by (with family help) on Sunday to quickly drop off a special valentine and treat from her and Ellie and Emma.

I loved the sweet hugs I have missed and got to enjoy a special treat when I returned from my jog the next morning during scripture study time.

 He also came to the door late Thursday night to pick up some things we had found in the Music room. 

Dad's Garden

Garden is loving the weather and I picked 2 pounds of snow peas on Friday. We are hoping the tomatoes do well. We still have a ton of citrus too.

Other highlights

Dad stepped into high gear on cleaning out things this week. He even got into the attic...and I don't think he has been up there in six years or more. He has taken two large loads of stuff to the thrift store, and we filled the garbage can with so much stuff that I couldn't even move it down the road. I spent Thursday afternoon shredding papers from old court stuff ( lots of papers for the money the kids got from Grampa Rice that we had to file and pay taxes on every year till they cashed in their accounts) plus years of old income tax forms. Social Security numbers were on everything so I had to be careful nothing for Dad or I plus any of you kids could be discerned. We have also learned that some of our equipment that cost us so much money 25 years ago has been replaced by new and much cheaper models (ie photography equipment, DJ lighting equipment, etc.) We have listed to sell what we can and what we can't sell will be donated. It's quite miraculous for Dad to be on the tossing binge he is on, but it is only a benefit if we ever decide to move, or if something happens to us. You kids now have been relieved of days of cleanout. Dad even powered through Saturday and we got the desk moved from the music room to his office, including tons of files and lots of stuff, moved stuff out to the music room, hauled tons to the trash, visited Deseret Industries yet another time (I donate but do not shop there). Now, his office looks like an office! The couch is clear. The floor is cleaned and mopped. He has plenty of room on his desk to work too.

I visited Nano on Thursday. Nathan and family must have visited her on Sunday and she was very confused, despite her caregiver Elizabeth telling her who they were. The most difficult thing with her disease is that she thinks she is right and everyone else is wrong, lying, mean or crazy. I did get her to calm down for a bit and took her to walk around a grocery store and get a few things.

Wonderful rain on Saturday. I did get my jog in right before the rain started to fall, which was a great bonus!

Week of February 9 - 15, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

We had another wonderful Sunday. Sacrament Meeting was full of talks on the Book of Mormon and what blessings come from studying it. At the start of Relief Society, our bishop came in and spoke with us about testimony bearing. The bishopric has prayerfully decided that select ward members will be asked to share their testimonies each Fast and Testimony meeting, as well as in other meetings. He said the bishopric is responsible for assuring the testimonies born include spiritually uplifting experiences and testimonies of Christ. He said testimony meeting was never meant to be an "open mic" time. I was thankful for their very positive and building approach to what has happened in the past. The rest of our day was spent visiting with a very nice man and his two children who love vintage speakers and will purchase Dad's Altec 19 speakers next week.

I attended a session at the temple on Tuesday morning and Dad attended a session on Wednesday evening.

I attended a Relief Society Extra Meeting Committee Meeting to plan and prepare for an upcoming dinner and speaker in March. I had to use Dad's car since my battery had not charged enough.

I love coming home from my jog every day as I sit down at my desk in the laundry room and read my Book of Mormon. I begin the week with the Come Follow Me readings each day, and when that is complete I continue reading where I left off at the end of the year. I have a new phone app that explains every verse and I also watch numerous YouTube classes on my own time that add to the lessons. I continue to listen to a General Conference talk every day too.

I have indexed 2556 records and reviewed 20,305 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

We spoke via Marco Polo with nearly everyone on Sunday. They fed the missionaries in their ward last Friday night. Mike is doing well in his classes and is going to double his efforts so he can complete them more quickly. Allison is doing well and keeping up with work and kids. Mike and Allison had both spoken in church last Sunday morning. Allison's theme was "A Perfect Brightness of Hope". Adam has had some problems with migraines and was asleep when we spoke. Grace had a wonderful time at her first Saturday night dance. She got to see some old friends and danced with a very cute boy twice. She spent last week doing crazy hairdos and had a great time trying new ways to fix her hair. She is looking forward to meeting her trek family this week. (It sure is different than when Nathan went on trek. You didn't meet your family until the morning you left.) She looked forward to Karaoke night at Young Women this week. She also shared with me her science project presentation on Cookie Spreading and testing if ingredient amount changes would affect the spreading of the cookie. Sam had a book report last week for school. He chose the Dr. Suess book "There's a Wocket in My Pocket" and Allison created an actual Wocket for Sam to carry in his pocket. Sam is quite smitten with some of the girls in his class. He says he can't even look at them because they are so cute. Allison worked with one in a reading group when she helped in Sam's class, and she said Sam is so right. Alyssa is cute. Sam also enjoyed Spanish class at school and played a word game using a basketball. This weekend they are looking forward to a couple of days off school and spending time hiking.

The Ethan Rice Family

We face-timed Ethan and family on Sunday evening. They are all doing great and Ethan will travel this week for a work retreat, and Cameo will have all the school driving duties as well as working. We spoke again on Friday and Ethan shared things about the retreat with Dad. Cameo did well but felt like she also earned a retreat. Ethan ended up surprising Kaylee at school for lunch.

The Doran Rice Family

Doran and Amber had a very eventful week. Tuesday was crazy with work plus Amber stayed home to be there when the workmen came for the initial repairs on their house as per their home builder. Amber won tickets for her and Doran to attend a future concert from a radio station. Kelsie displayed her project for the science fair.

Doran and Amber have a couple of puppies staying with them for awhile.

We saw them on Saturday and Kooper and I had fun playing Legos while we visited. Meanwhile, Kelsie is busy at school every Saturday working on stage sets for the school play.

Morgan

Morgan spent Sunday with Doran, Amber, Kelsie, and Kooper. He came for a visit on Monday and spent the afternoon and shared dinner with us before his friend Kyle came to pick him up. He is still deciding what he will do in the future and continues to find odd jobs to work.

Kayty

Kayty watched hockey games this week. Her team did not win the first two games and she was screaming for the coach to be fired. She shared the movie, The Hobbit with us Friday night. 

The Nathan Rice Family

No news from Nathan, Jessica and the girls this week.

Dad's Garden

We are picking lots of snow peas daily. I am also picking carrots for salads. Dad's spinach and chard continue to thrive and the tomato plants are looking wonderful. 

Other highlights

We shared pizza dinner with the missionaries on Monday night. One of our sisters is actually from Italy and enjoyed the brick oven pizza a lot. 

Rain on Tuesday morning actually kept me from my run. That rarely happens. We ended up getting 1 1/4 inches of rain!

We have been spending lots of time cleaning. I have gotten old years' supply food tossed. We are moving things from the 'music room' that dad uses for work in his office and putting the more recreational items out in the music room. We are also getting rid of lots of things. Dad has already sold one set of speakers to be picked up in the near future. It is a back and forth process, but it will only benefit if and when we choose to move.

My car battery was dead, again, on Thursday morning as I was heading out to visit Nano, so I called her caregiver, Elizabeth, to let her know, and I set out for a morning of shredding old documents as I cleaned out and updated the Family Preparedness Book. I also got all the paperwork together and scheduled an appointment next week to get the new travel driver's license. 

Sadly, someone I had met through the internet, a valiant woman named Kim White passed away early Friday morning, after a five year battle with terminal cancer. She was a friend of others I followed, and I so valued her amazing attitude outlook. She loved the Lord and was grateful for every single breath she could take...and valued that up to her last breath. I was sad to lose this person who had shared often the perfect advice for what I was feeling at the time. What a great blessing she was in my life and the lives of many others. While I often have the most negative feelings for social media, she was one of the good things.

Valentine's Day was low key. No Valentine cards or gifts. Grandma is so busy helping Loyd that she doesn't have time. I made Dad a nice BLT on sourdough for breakfast, a great salad with heart-shaped ham slices for lunch, and chicken parmesan for dinner.