Page 42 - Ninety Miles From Nowhere

under the bed — the coolest place in the house. The temperature was always cool enough to keep it fresh — just so it wasn’t in the sunshine.
Once in a while a sheepherder, herding his sheep all over the hills near my cabin, would bring me a quarter of lamb or mutton — a very real treat for me.
The only meat I could buy or keep for any length of time was either bacon or salt pork. I always bought either one in a slab because it kept better. Even the bacon might mold, usually on the skin side only, and I’d wash it off with vinegar.
When some homesteaders returned home and gave me their huge garden, my vegetable problem was solved. I would go by there, pick green beans by the bushel (and any other produce ready to harvest), and drive on to Dr. Reed’s cabin. Mrs. Reed, her daughter, and I canned vegetables nearly all day. We made great inroads on the garden produce.
This kept me busy until Mother, Van and Jack returned in August. The canned vegetables really came in handy with the four of us there. After the beans had quit bearing there were turnips, beets, and pumpkins enough to last us all winter.
Once the three members of the Cornelius family (including Earl’s brother Garrett), the Gibsons, and I went fishing with the Freemans in their truck. We drove west past the O-Bar-O Mountain and turned south to Willow Creek where we turned left (east) into the Gila Forest. We slept that night with the sound of rushing waters, in some creek on our way, ringing soothingly in our ears.
The next day we drove as far as we could in the truck, even more deeply into the forest. Then we walked until we came to Iron Creek, a tributary of the Middle Fork of the Gila River. On the way in we met Scotty McClaren, the owner of the Magdalena Drug Store. He was very disgruntled because he had caught his limit within an hour and had to stop fishing. I think the limit at that time was twenty-five fish.
The men in our little group started out fishing, but the brush and willows along the banks of the stream were so heavy it was impossible for them to use rods and reels. They finally cut willow poles from the creek bank and used plain hooks with grasshoppers for bait. All of the women caught grasshoppers with our straw hats, and as fast as we caught grasshoppers the men caught fish — wonderful fighting rainbow trout from the headwaters of the Gila.
What a feast we had that night!
Just before time for Mother and the boys to return, a band of horses came by the cabin. Diamond was in the pasture George had fenced off for her, when she jumped the fence and ran off with them. That meant I had one less chore to attend to, but nothing could repay me for the loss of the services and enjoyment she had given me.
Soon after the family came back, Van borrowed a neighbor’s horse, and he and Leon rode all one day looking unsuccessfully for her. We never saw her again.