Recently Ken and Charlene Palmer were in the news after the 10th of 10 children graduated from college. Below is the article published in the Sanpete Messenger on May 14, 2008:Mt. Pleasant: This past Mother’s Day, Charlene Palmer had what any mom would want: All of her 10 children are successes.
All are college graduates and all are married to college graduates. Nine or the 10 have associate’s degrees from Snow College. All 10 have bachelor’s degrees from Utah State Univeristy. And three of the 10 have master’s degrees.As for the spouses, besides all having bachelor’s degrees, three have master’s degrees, while three others have doctorates—one in law, one in medicine and one in veterinary medicine.Better still, most of Charlene and Ken Palmer’s 10 children and 29 grandchildren are close by. Seven of the children live in Sanpete County and three have built homes on the family’s 700 acre farm, which hugs the Wasatch Plateau three miles east of Mt. Pleasant.
Lucky couple, you say. Not according to Nate, the Palmer’s oldest son. He attribute’s his parent’s success to “patience and hard work.” They didn’t come out of an agricultural background. “But they were willing to give everything up, move down here to farm and learn to live on it,” Nate says. “They did it on their own.”
Both Ken and Charlene Palmer grew up in Davis County. Ken got his degree in political science at Weber State University and Charlene got her degree in elementary education from Utah State University. But they wanted to live and raise their children on a farm. Ken’s father, an attorney, also had a dream of owning a farm.
“Things fell together,” Charlene says, and the family acquired the historic John K. Madsen Ranch, once famous for ramboulais sheep, the breed that made Sanpete County one of the sheep capitols of the nation in the 1940s and 1950s.
The Palmer grew hay and grain, and kept about 100 sheep and up to 80 beef cattle. The farm created the setting for one of the most important things Charlene wanted to teach her children—how to work.In fact, according to daughter Maggon Osmond, who now lives in Mountainville, one of Charlene’s favorite statements as, “No workee, no eatee.” Another of her oft repeated admonitions to her children was, “No complaining.”
The Palmer held a family council every Sunday night to figure out who had to be where the next week and arrange for every child to get to his or her appointed activities, while at the same time making sure the farm work was covered.Everyday, the boys fed teh animals and the girls milked the cows. But they didn’t work on their own. Ken always worked side by side with them. “It was a family effort,” Charlene says.
Although Charlene’s focus was the home, she did her share and more, her daughter, Maggon, says. Every Monday, she did laundry from sun up to sun down. Every Tuesday, she made six loaves of bread and five batches of oatmeal cookies. The cookies were always hot out of the oven when the school bus pulled into the driveway, so the Palmer children always shared some with the other kids on the bus. By the time the children reached high school, most were active in sports or student government. They had to learn to budget their time among school activities, studies and chores. If the family returned from a ball game in Emery County at midnight in the middle of the winter, the boys would bundle up, load about 15 bales of hay on the tractor, and go out and feed the animals, Charlene says.
But living on the farm wasn’t all work. With their property abutting the mountains, the kids frequently mounted their horses and rode up trails where they mingled with nature and wildlife. “I don’t think any of them are sorry they were raised here,” Charlene says.
Grandpa saddles Sundance.
One of the Cowgirls settles into the saddle.
Nate and his littlest Cowboy saddle up.
Nate and his mom herd the cows. Paul arrived at the spring pasture with his two boys at 6:30 AM. They had all the cattle gathered into the corral when everyone else arrived. Thanks Paul and boys!
The Cowgirl and her Dad traded horses. Now she and Canyon are keeping the cows moving.
Leaving the spring pasture behind.
This man was out tending his garden. Little did he know what was approaching his open gate.
Grandpa gives the Cowboys and Cowgirl instructions to keep the cows out of the man’s yard.
Baby Cowboy’s favorite part of all: riding the four wheeler with Grandpa.
Some in-laws were visiting, so we put them to work.
Some bicyclists stopped to watch the show.
One of our nephews was here for the weekend and we put him to work, too. Run, run, hurry! You gotta block the fence opening before the cows get there!
Crossing the street.
Merging onto the highway.
There was quite a bit of traffic that actually helped keep the cows moving on one side of the road.
And then we heard this before we saw it. They seemed innumerable going on and on and on.
We were as much of an oddity to them as they were to us.
All the traffic gave the younger help some rest time.
The summer pasture is within sight.
Grandma and one of the Cowboys who helped round up the cows early that morning watch.
Finally, they are released into the summer pasture for three months. Then we’ll repeat this adventure in reverse.
