(2)
There was some government land open for filing close to the ranch owned by one of Bolly’s uncles, so that is where he wanted to file. It was seventy-five miles to the nearest town, Roswell. This was in New Mexico where one can look as far as the eye can reach and see nothing but rolling prairie.
I just knew I would die from lonesomeness so far away from civilization. And the mere thought of having no conveniences such as I had had all my life, gave me the emptiest feeling in the pit of my stomach. I knew that we would have to haul water, use kerosene lamps, flat irons, and even go out and gather our fuel, which happened to be cedar wood on this place.
But I knew it was impossible for us to live in town where living expenses were so high, when we had no job and no money even for the bare necessities. And after all I knew that love and a life with my husband were the only important things in life to me.
Bolly’s mother let us have forty dollars which was the amount required to file on a six hundred and forty acre homestead. So I swallowed the lump in my throat and out to our new home we went, and to this day I have never regretted a single moment of the three years we spent on the homestead.
Although it was a lazy life and we seemed to be accomplishing nothing, we were very happy in our love for each other and had many happy times together out there, but were to learn that we were accomplishing more than we realized.
We arrived at our new home with very few worldly possessions. Bolly’s uncle loaned us a tent which we pitched on a hill overlooking the biggest ravine or draw on our place. This served as our home until a New Mexico windstorm blew it down and tore it to pieces. Bolly borrowed a well drill from his uncle and went right to work.
There wasn’t a prettier spot in the whole country than the one Bolly chose for our new home. It was rough rolling country, which I have said, a large ravine running thru it, and also several small ones. The hillsides were covered with scrub pine and cedar trees, huge picturesque rock and in the summer time; every colored wild flower imaginable dotted the slopes of these ravines.
But it seemed that this piece of land was good for nothing except to look at, as we couldn’t make a living on it by farming and it was, of course, too small for ranching. It couldn’t be farmed because, in the first place it was too rough and rocky, and in the second place here was never enough rain for dry land farming and of course it could not be irrigated, as that part of the country is noted for its lack of water.
So from the beginning it looked as though’ we would be lucky if we barely existed and were able to do so only thru the goodness of God and a little help from wonderful relatives on both sides. Bolly was only able to get a few days work at long intervals helping the neighboring ranchers. But of course every little bit helped. Although we didn’t starve or get very hungry, very often, we learned what Depression meant.
A few times our diet ran to pinto beans twice a day and for a period of about six weeks we didn’t have any flour, but we lived thru it.
After the wind tore our tent to pieces we made our first move. We took a little scrap lumber and some poles cut from the timber