Page 55 - Ninety Miles From Nowhere

expressed a desire to be helpful.
A few people, out of the goodness of their hearts and asking nothing in return, sent me gentle and wise advice on how to make a go of it on my homestead. One person suggested I raise squab, since it had said in the article that I had trouble with hawks and owls. A couple of people suggested the raising of goats and both preferred - Toggenbergs.
One man from Denver was a veteran and was drawing $20.00 a month compensation but was living “good” on it. He always took advantage of bargains - things that really amaze us in these days at present prices. He paid 10 cents for a large box of oat meal; potatoes and onions, 1 cent a pound (or 65 cents a sack); eggs, two dozen for 25 cents; Hills Bros. Blue Label coffee for 25 cents per pound; navy beans, 7 lbs. for 25 cents. So he ate well, paid the rent, and bought the necessary clothing on $20 a month. Once in a while he took in a 10 cent, or even a 15 cent, movie. Imagine!
Another very interesting letter was from Mr. A. Garlick, or Gurlick, from West Last (sic) Vegas, New Mexico, who was a former principal of Kelly School.
He suggested I get some black and blue game chickens, because “they are good rustlers, and get on the wing quickly from coyotes.” I should also get a burro for carrying wood, and to neck with my saddle horse, or even to neck up with the cow. He enclosed some grains of red flint corn which stands drought and matures in from twelve to fourteen weeks for green corn.
If I should be in Socorro, Miss Truex, who lived on his property, would welcome me to a bunk for the night.
Mr. Gurlick also recommended Toggenberg goats for milk winter and summer. He said they were “very capricious feeders.” One of his goats from San Antonio, south of Socorro, would eat cactus by the hour, and another fed a great deal on soap weed. He claimed some survived on pinon branches.
Mr. Gurlick said he was a musician, a stenographer, and a school teacher - “not always a wise one.”
When school was out, Red, Van and I returned to New Mexico in Dad’s car since mine was still out of commission.
Red went hunting alone one day and was gone all day. We knew he had intended to make a short trip, so we were very concerned when he didn’t return as soon as we expected. Our worry grew greater as time went by and he didn’t appear. We thought of Van’s going down to Warren’s store for advice, or help as the case may be, but Red had the keys to the car in his pocket. Finally Van walked to the store and Mr. Warren brought him back. They returned, after dark, just as Red appeared - belligerent because we’d worried. He had gotten into the wrong canyon which let him farther and farther away.
This was the summer of 1933 and I still didn’t have a cabin on my claim. Leon, Smitty, Red and Van built it from scratch, since Leon said the part Van and Archie Davis had started the year before was not plumb. They made short shrift of the job,