The Porcupine - "our best pet"

The porcupine was probably the best pet we ever had.  I don't remember that he had a name, maybe "Porky."  My older brother, Oscar, brought a gunny sack to school one day.  After school he was going to Buck Hollow (on the East Mountain) to see Heb (Heber) Simpson.  Heb kept his sheep in Buck Hollow and Oscar was going to go see if Heb had any leppy lambs he could have.  Leppy lambs have been abandoned by their mother and need to be bottle-fed to survive.  The sheepherders don't often have time or supplies to bottle feed the lambs and so will give them away.  Oscar was riding his horse toward Buck Hollow and noticed a mother porcupine walking with two baby porcupines following her along.  Oscar got off his horse, picked up one of the baby porcupines and put it in his gunny sack to bring home - but didn't go to get any lambs.  I remember that night when Oscar pulled a little black ball about two inches long out of the gunny sack.  We could hardly believe what it was.  I think my parents were tickled about having a porcupine to raise.

My sister Ellen was about four years old and she donated her "Betsy Wetsy" baby bottle to the cause and we fed him with cows milk.  When we first got him, he had black coarse hair - kind of like horse hair.  As the porcupine got older, his hair grew to about one inch long and then the quills started growing up through the hair.  After the quills grew in, we couldn't pet him like we had before.  He liked to be petted on his head.  We would hold out our index fingers a few inches apart and the porcupine would come over and put his hands on your fingers.  Then we could lift him onto our laps and pet his head.  He was a very good pet and never tried to strike us.

I don't think Uncle Raymond was "tickled" we had him.  Uncle Raymond had just planted a row of pine trees and our porcupine liked them.  He'd climb up in the trees and nibble on the bark.  Uncle Raymond would bring him back to us in a bucket every now and then.

Laurel Hill was our school teacher and she began planning a pet show at school.  Our porcupine was about a year old and we wanted to take him to the show.  After school, we decided we didn't want to take the porcupine home and we'd play with him the next day.  So we walked around the school yard checking the fence.  We plugged any holes in the fence, so he would be safe and stay put.

The next morning we found him laying dead in the road.  He was in the middle of the road where there is the main road through the valley and then it branches off and goes over the mountain to Grouse Creek.  We were so sad.  We'd left him at school and he'd been trying to come home when he got hit.  Before school started that morning, we held a little funeral and buried him in the school yard.  We found out later that Curtis Nelson had been in Burley that day and was on his way home that evening and ran over our porcupine in an unfortunate accident.

Through the years, we had lots of wild animals as pets: coyotes, bobcats, owls, deer, and lots of lambs - but the porcupine was our favorite.  I think we tried more kinds of wild animals as pets than anyone else did.  The Baker's had deer pets.  Uncle Raymond's family didn't have wild animal pets, but one year he had the Brownies write us a note at Christmas time asking us not to chase Uncle Raymond's geese.

Cora's Trip Scrapbook

In 1941, Mother went on a trip with Laurel Hill, her mother, sisters and some cousins.  Laurel was the school teacher at the Lynn School for several years and boarded with our family.  Mother and Laurel were good friends.  Laurel's brother, Jack, was on a mission in Missouri and joined the vacation for several days.  I really didn't realize that she was going anywhere until right before she left.  Things at home didn't change for us, but I got to do all the cooking while she was gone.  When she came back she told us stories and showed photos of the things she'd seen.  I think her stories are what gave me the desire to see the places she told us about.

The last few years Paula has been scanning family photos and we found many photos of Mother's trip.  She asked me questions, but I couldn't remember much information about the trip.  Recently, we were happy to have the opportunity to borrow the scrapbook that Mother put together about the trip.  We scanned the scrapbook and you can see a copy of it, and relive her adventures, by clicking here.

Introduction

We started this blog as a way to share family stories, photos, writings, histories and memories of Philbert and Cora Lind - along with stories about their ancestors, siblings, family and friends.  I hope you'll enjoy it and suggest additional ideas.  I think it's important for us to know about our family and what they wrote.  After Dad died, Mother talked to the (LDS) Church about their interest in acquiring his writings for their historical department.  However, since they were mostly family related, the Church suggested that they be maintained within the family.  Mother gave Dad's original diaries, small daybooks, spiral notebooks,and other collected histories to me. She also made available other family histories to me.  I've spent many years typing his diaries and other writings.  As long as they're just on my computer or in boxes, they aren't useful to the entire family.  With the advances in technology, it's now possible to share the information easily with the family. Please feel free to share the information with those that would be interested. I'm not a fast typist, so I'm still typing up Dad's diaries.  As I get items completed, we'll get them loaded for you to enjoy - so please keep checking back.  If you have stories to request or information to share, you can contact me at mnjlind@gmail.com.

When you click on a link to access saved files, they are hosted on an external website that will allow you to view the files. If you try to download the files, it will ask you to download some software before you can download the files.  The files and photos on the website are, by necessity, lower quality than is on my computer.  If there is a specific file or photo you'd like to request, please let me know and I'll make sure it is sent to you.