the dugout

The next summer papa and mama went up to a one-room house up on a hill by the road; it had a big dugout underneath it. I made bedrooms in the dugout; we stayed there that winter. The next summer we live there. I raised a bunch of chickens. Bud was still kind of working with Milton and Don.

That same summer, Papa, Bud, Chick and Don went up to Douglas Creek to haul down to the homestead some logs that had been left to build a mill or something. The logs had been shipped in. They built the first room. I had them build a little porch on that room. I put the kid outside to sleep on the porch. A skunk got started taking our chickens. I had an old hen with little ones, and he keep trying to steal those chickens every night and I put that hen under a tub and put it at the foot of the kids bed. One night he got into the chicken, the old hen was fighting him and we had skunk smell all over the bedding. We had an awful time getting that smell out of the bedding.

We stayed there that winter. The kid went to school in Rangely. That Spring Papa and Bud found a spring and fixed it so we had water on the homestead and we were able to plant a garden.

bud in construction
That summer we do almost the same, only Bud went to work in Meeker; he was working for a construction company. That is where he learned how to work with cement. Papa also showed Bud how to build a fireplace. I think we stayed there all that summer, while there another room was added to the house.

They got together; the boys did run down some wild house. Bud picks out two little mares for us to use to ride back and fourth and he would take the Buick to Meeker to work. Bud took an old buggy frame, which had two seats; the back was made to haul things in. He put it on a car chaise with wheels, which we could hook the horses up too, so we could have something to ride in.