Cows:

“Stand perfectly still and don’t worry. They are just as afraid of you as you are of them,” my grandfather instructed as I was given my spot in the pasture. The closer they came, the more the fear crept into my small frame. But I stood my ground even as these massive animals came toe to toe with my five-year-old frame. I tried the stare-down effect. As their eyes met mine, their tongues fell from their mouths like long pieces of red licorice. Sure enough, they turned into the corral when they approached the line marked by me and my siblings.

I married a “cowboy” of sorts or at least the descendant of one.  My Rigby found me on Second East when we were 15. His grandfather, Eldro Rigby was the superintendent of the Branch Agriculture College farm (SUU) from May 10, 1937-1959.

I never met Eldro, but I am told my Rigby is very much like him.

Life on the farm:

Written By: Eldro Rigby.

“I started working for the college on May 10, 1937, for $80 a month and the house… I was close to home all the time, and I would get up early in the morning to go out and lamb sheep or irrigate, then milk cows, and go back home for a couple of hours.

It was very hard work and in the winters so very cold. We wore coveralls and boots and our clothes would freeze to us. The coveralls would get wet and then freeze and we almost had to thaw them to get out of them. This went on for 20 years.”