I can't seem to really feel an "urge' to write, so I'll write without it. Consequently, it probably will not be a very systematic history of events, nor will it b as interesting as it would be if I felt "inspired." I wanted to describe as well as I can the place here and also the manner of living prevalent around here. Of course, it's all claims and the people are all pioneers. Uncle Ed & Aunt Jennie have a half section with only about 80 acres that could be cultivated. They have no well, but they could have if they could afford one. I guess, even as dry as it is, there is a little spring water in the big canyon east of the house. There are some range horses that make their habitat here on Aunt J's & Uncle Ed's place. The leader, a stallion of course, is a noble looking black horse whom people around here have named "Cyclone." They say he has never been caught.
The house here is about fourteen feet square, built of rock, quarried by Uncle Ed & Aunt Jennie from their own hills & put together by them with a mortar made from a dust called gyp also from their land. They have just a dirt floor which Aunt Jennie has covered with these heavy pasteboard boxes flattened. Then she has little rugs on that -- one fair sized square one in the center of the floor & several smaller ones, all made by Aunt Jennie. They have a little stove in which they burn cedar & pine -- also from their hills. They have a sanitary couch* which Cecil & I sleep on; an old dresser, the rest of the furniture is made from boxes. Oh, a trunk with an oil cloth serves as a wash stand, and Uncle Ed made the table. So you can see they are just as truly pioneers as the pilgrims, a rather startling thought. The house roof is made of logs with dirt & brush over the top. The barn is built of logs with brush & dirt for a ceiling. They have three horses: Fanny, Prince, both big, well fed (as Uncle Ed's livestock always is), the other one is a little gray thing, Babe, a colt of the rough bunch. It had gotten into a canyon & old Cyclone had forced its mother to leave it. So Aunt Jennie & Uncle Ed brought it up. Then they have a cave which is a storeroom & it also has a sanitary cot that Uncle Ed & Aunt J. sleep on. Then there is a chicken coop, also built of rock. Right at present, they have only two hens, a rooster & two dozen baby chickens. Oh, yes, Cecil has a Banty Hen. Aunt Jennie is raising rabbits to eat, instead. She has quite a bunch -- three bucks -- two browns & a black; five does -- one black, two browns and two yellows; about sixteen half-growns; and thirteen small ones -- between two mothers. there are only two white ones among them & I want to take them home for my kids.
Uncle Ed and Aunt Jennie certainly get along nicely & seem to love each other, which makes them pleasant people to live with. Evidently they have the three requirements of a happy marriage: "a sense of honor, a sense of proportion and a sense of humor." In exchanging ideas with Aunt Jennie since I've been here, I find that we think alike on a great many things -- well, all the major things, but sometimes differ on little things as the taste in curtains, dress goods etc.
Aunt Jennie is studying to take the Exams. She has the school here if she can get a certificate. It seems to me it takes a lot of grit to "study up" after twenty five years. We are always excusing ourselves to each other for having such dull minds and finding expressions in our reading that describes them One that I remember, a man referred to his intellect as a "vague rumor." How's that?
I can't tell yet whether the dry air is doing my nose any good or not, but I sorta think it is. I am helping the altitude by using vaporub & Aunt J & I are taking a tonic, too. I weighed 88 when I left Kansas. A week after I'd been here, I weighed 90. Some of this may have been a difference in the scales, But in another week I weighed 91 and the end of the third week I weighed the same. Altho' my mind isn't as clear as it used to be when I went to school, still some days I don't have the headache.
*I looked up "sanitary cot". Apparently they were metal framed beds with canvas sides that could be folded down, that could be used as a couch during the day and bed at night. One guess as to the name suggests that Victorians thought metal was easier to clean than wood and therefore sanitary.
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