Kuna, Idaho 1980 – 1984

In 1980, Mike was asked to apply for a supervisor trainee position in the Boise Idaho State Office for the USDA APHIS Wildlife Service program. It was an opportunity to get his foot in the door for management so he took it. They rented a small old farm house near southeast of Meridian, Idaho, in January 1980. The house was in disrepair but the rent was right for Mike’s salary. The house was poorly insulated and they had to buy space heaters to keep Jacove’s room warm. That year was a wet spring. The septic drain field was saturated and caused the sewer to overflow into the cow pasture just a couple of feet from the side of the house. Needless to say the smell was not too desirable for a couple of weeks. They attended the Kuna 2nd Ward. Jan being Jan, made friends easily and was called to the primary the next week after they moved. Mike always introduced himself in church as Jan’s husband because most people already knew Jan because of her outgoing personality. Mike, on the other hand was quite and most people couldn’t believe they were married to each other.

Jan made good friends with one of the sisters in the ward who’s husband was in the military and was being transferred to Texas. They had just built a small three bedroom house in Kuna and asked if Mike and Jan would be interested in buying it. They gave them a price they couldn’t refuse and Mike and Jan moved in June, 1980. It was at 542 Dawn Court and backed a football field that was being used by the elementary as a play ground. The neighborhood had young couples and lots of kids. Mike and Jan had to plant all the grass & trees, and landscape the yard. As the family grew, Mike converted the garage into a family room and built a shed/shop out back.

Anne, Mike’s hound had pups shortly after they moved to Kuna. Jacove was about three years old and loved to play with the pups. One time she came up missing and Jan was frantic, thinking the worst – that someone had kidnapped her. Mike rushed home and after looking all over, finally looked in the dog house and there she was, curled up with the pups, fast asleep.

In 1982 Angie was born. Jan was so small and the doctor was afraid the baby was getting too large for her, so he started her a week early to avoid complications. Angie was born in a birthing room and was as cute as a bug’s ear. She had lots of dark hair that eventually turned blond. She had blue eyes and was very roly-poly. Angie’s personality is a lot like her mother, very loving and always smiling. She always made friends without trying and put her desires aside for others. Angie played hard and was tough on clothes, especially shoes. It got to the point where Jan had to buy shoes with guarantees because she would wear them out so fast. She was also quite clumsy and had scabs on her elbows and knees clear into middle-school. One time when she was about 2 years old Jan dressed her up in a new white jump suit. Mike had to meet one of the trappers at the warehouse on a Saturday to give him some supplies, so he took Angie with him. While he was in the warehouse talking (BS-ing) with the trapper and not paying attention to Angie, she was down on the floor crawling around under the benches and shelves. Her white suit turned brown with dirt. The trapper bought her licorice and by the time she ate it she had it all over her too. When Mike brought her home, Jan had a cow.

Shortly after Mike started to work out of the State Office, the District Supervisors for the North and West Districts retired and to save funds, Mike was given both districts. He supervised the trappers on the west side of the state from Canada to Nevada. Needless to say he was on the road quite a bit. The district supervisor position was the most enjoyable job Mike had during his career. He got to see most of Idaho on horse back and hiking. He worked extensively with the trappers and respected their dedication and work ethic. The Wildlife Service program is one of the few programs in government where the employees have to be forced to take time off. Each trapper felt a personal sense of responsibility when one of the livestock within their district was killed by predators. Most employees worked on weekends, early mornings, and late evenings to minimize losses, even though they are not required to do so. Many give up large amounts of annual leave each year because they liked their job so much and choose not to take it. Mike found this to be the case through-out the entire program in all the states as his career took him higher in management and across the country.

Because of the large area Mike covered, he had two summer camps, one in Price Valley near McCall, and another in willow creek on the South Fork of the Boise River north of Gooding, ID. The camps had pastures for Mike’s horses (Sam and Red) and Mike would try to take Jan and the kids whenever possible. While Mike worked, Jan and the kids would enjoy the solitude of the camp. The Price Valley camp had a small stream running though the pasture and Mike would catch brook trout to eat for dinner. When weekends rolled around, they visit the surrounding communities. The willow creek camp had the Boise River running through it and hot springs. The spring in the pasture was too hot to bath in, so they’d hike up willow creek to another set of hot springs and have baths.



The sheep owners would move their sheep to corrals in August and ship their lambs to market. This was an enjoyable time as the trappers helped sort sheep and partook of the evening feast that followed. One time when Wilson’s were shipping lambs at their corrals on the Boise River, the Basque foreman had his wife and daughter from Spain visiting. Neither could speak English. Jacove and their little girl struck up a conversation and spend the afternoon together just jabbering away. They seemed to understand perfectly what the other was saying. This was the first time Jan tried rocky mountain oysters. Mike had developed a taste for them but Jan still can’t get past the thought.

Mike was the District Supervisor when Mt. Saints Helens blew in 1982. The eruption covered north Idaho with anywhere from 2” to 8” of ash. He had to make a trip to the Lewiston area the day after the eruption to check on a trapper that suffered from emphysema and provide him a filtered dust mask. The employee retired a couple of weeks later because the dust irritated his lungs too much. The area was devastated. One could hardly see while driving down the highways. The timber industry had to halt operations for a few weeks because the vibration caused by the chainsaws made ash rain down on the workers from the trees. The livestock operators had to haul hay to their livestock because forage couldn’t be found. The trappers lost most of their trapping equipment that was in use because they couldn’t find the landmarks. The whole area looked like something from a science fiction movie. This was something Mike will never forget.

About 1984 Congress was just exploring moving wolves from Canada to Idaho and Mike was asked to attend a wolf seminar near Kalispell, Montana to discuss possible impacts wolves would have on livestock. He took his pickup and camper, and Jan, Jacove, and Angie accompanied him. After the seminar they made a detour through Glazier National Park and visited a lot of the sights in that area. When traveling on the Road to the Sun, Jan just about got out and walked. It was a steep and narrow road with lots of traffic. They traveled down through the small towns between Glacier and Missoula, visited Bison National Monument, traveled up over Lolo Pass, down the Clearwater River, and back through Riggins to Boise.

Family Home Evening was the kids favorite night of the week, especially at the end of the lesson and the kids would get to play a game of their choice. Most of the time the game included “Pickle, Pickle, Who’s Got the Pickle” “Buckle, Buckle Bean Stock” and “Hide and Seek.” Mike would usually pull out his guitar and play some old country western songs and when he’d start playing “Mule Train” Jacove and Angie would start galloping around and around the coffee table. When he’d finish the song, Angie would come over to him and say, “Play it ‘gain daddy.”