One day Mother, myself, and 2 little ones went to Two Buttes, which was 6 miles, It was so nice and warm when we started we hadn’t worn any coats. Before we even got to town a hard wind hit from the north and we nearly froze. When we came out of the store, the old mare had lain down. Several men tried to get her up but no one had any luck. One man said he could get her up if I didn’t care what he did. I gave him the go ahead. All he did was take the line and pop her 3 or 4 times. Ran her all the way home, Did have a quilt on the seat that we wrapped the little ones in.

One day Mama called from outside that a snake was looking in the well. When I got there he went in, had a time getting him for rocks were piled around. One day Neal came in and said couldn’t guess what he saw. Finally got him to tell and went out and by the water barrel was a big rattlesnake, Elmer was standing near watching the snake, First I got Elmer out of the way and then killed the snake with an ax. It had 8 rattles on it.

Grandpa never got to come back for he filed in April and died in June, He was 77 years old, Uncle George Aunt Sallie, May, and Grandma came back to Colorado. Grandma filed on 320 acres next to Uncle George’s place.

We were there for 18 months. Got so homesick we sold out. So did Mama and we left December 11, 1911 for Oklahoma. We had 2 wagons. We put a 2- hole monkey stove in our wagon and had 4 horses on it. For a week we camped in a draw. Got up one morning and it was snowing. We had planned to wait until Monday. A man saw us and came by and told us we’d better get out for he had seen snow 20 feet deep. He told us to go to a place where a man had an empty stable. They let us camp and told us to burn boards off the barn to keep warm. We really needed them or we would have frozen. The farmers all had wagons loaded with wheat to take to railroad to trade for coal when the storm struck. We were only 9 miles from the small town of Kemp, Oklahoma but no one could make it. Our food was nearly gone. One farmer let us have a sack of flour that Raymond carried on foot. There were lots of jackrabbits so we had them to eat and fried bread on top of the stove. After a week, we thought we could make it so started out. We had to go back and stay another week. The people who owned the barn had us in for Christmas dinner. We went 3 miles and camped again. A man told us to burn his fence posts as he had to do. Next day we made 5 miles and camped at a school house and we helped ourselves to their coal. Each day we were able to make a few more miles than the day before. We finally reached a place north of Virden where Raymond had lived before I knew him. He found one of his old friends and we laid over 2 days and nights. Next day we made it into Raymond’s Father’s place. They had begun to worry about us since they had not been able to get any mail from us because of the storm. We had 35 cents when we got there and Mama had a little more, The horses were so poor. My old riding horse had been following the wagons and had gotten lost somewhere. Raymond pulled some boles and got a little money. I sent to town by his Mother to get outing flannel to make baby gowns as I was expecting my second baby in March. How sick I was when she bought pink instead of white. Every time the baby wet on it an awful yellow color. For awhile we lived in a half dugout across the creek from Raymond’s folks. Then we rented a place west of Cement, the old Bill Day place with a log house on it. His folks let us have a cow and some chickens. We borrowed $50.00 to live on while making a crop. Elmer got sick and Mama and Raymond fried onion sets