About this time we bought land and built a home Lawrence,( which was still standing 1944). I don't remember much about Millard Creek, but I well remember when we located on virgin land up Huntington Canyon and it was called Hughes Canyon. We built two or three log cabins there. We saw lots of deer and beaver: there were also lots of service berries and choke cherries and wild grapes. We'd take clay from Bluehill and mold animals, cowboys, etc. and then we'd dig caves under the creek bank and leave the clay models there all winter. Sometimes when it would storm, four different colors of water would come down the creek from the clay soil.

In the daytime we would let the cows up the canyon and turn the calves down the canyon. It was our job to see that they didn't get together. I would let the calves go to the cows at milking time and then pen them up again. We would always take some young pigs and let them run loose during the summer, and feed them the whey from the cheese. In the fall we'd drive the pigs in with the cows and Will and I would drive them back to town.

We had a dog named Rove. We could show him a cow or even point in the direction of one and he would bring it back to the place. We had killed a deer and hung it on the side of the house one day, and the dog ate part of it and drug it off. Will swore at him and said, "Rove, go find that meat." The dog went off and came back driving a little hungry calf. We saw lots of deer and beaver; there were also lots of service berries and choke cherries and wild grapes.

Just before we left Lawrence to go to Blue Valley I started school. A girl taught us and I still remember some of the things she said: that "gad" as a swear word was just as bad as taking the Lord's name in vain. Her boyfriend would come in a sleigh to take her home, so we decided one day we'd snowball the team. We had a supply of snowballs when he came and we pelted the horses and the team ran away. She got as much kick out of it as we did.
Later we had a big tall man as a teacher, Don Woodard. There was a big stove that sat in the middle of the room and the pipe went up and then ran through the room and then up the chimney. One disobedient boy was grabbed by the teacher and thrown back and forth across the stove pipe. The child screamed but was obedient after that. A few days later at recess I jumped and ran when the bell sounded and the teacher came to the door and called me. When I came back, he was rolling his sleeves up and he was going to throw me over the stove pipe. I begged and promised to be good so he relented. We had a speller, reader, arithmetic and a slate. Every Friday afternoon we would choose sides and have a spelling contest. I spelled the school down a number of times but was poor in reading and arithmetic.

There was a man named Rob Hill, and whenever I passed his place he would come out and tell me he was going to cut my ears off. I was frightened, but decided I wouldn't run from him any more, so I gathered some rocks. He was harnessing his horses and he left them and come toward me as I passed, getting out his knife. He said he was going to cut my ears off so I threw both rocks and hit him. He went straight and told my father. When I went home for dinner, Father asked me about it and I told him all about it. He said to come and go with him. We went and talked to this man. Father said he was mighty glad that I could throw straight enough to hit him and he said, "I'll tell him to do it again if you don't leave him alone."

I was baptized in the Huntington River when it was snowing and a cold north wind was blowing. A young couple was re-baptized at the same time for getting into trouble before they were married. I remember they had a new wagon and a harness that had red hames.

When I was a child we were instructed never to take the sacrament or hold the dish with our left hand. The bread was passed on a plate and we each took a sip out of one big goblet or glass for the water. Fast day was held on Thursday in the afternoon. We paid fast offerings and tithing in kind; for example, when I was running cattle I'd keep a record of every tenth calf and then we'd turn them to the Bishop for tithing.

Father took his family and just pulled up and left the farm in Huntington, leaving a fortune in coal and oil in the ground they owned. I went back to the Hughes Ranch many years later. I could remember just where everything was and it looked very familiar.