Sad Passing of a Favorite Auntie

RE POSTED FROM EARLY BLOG WITH A FEW ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

A couple years back I took a picture of the Cow Camp. Time has not been kind to the actual building but I and most of my siblings have fun memories of the Cow Camp. In the summer my uncle and family moved to the Cow Camp so he could manage a large cattle ranch. It was a treat to go for ride with him in the jeep when he set out salt blocks.

There was no electricity. Light was from kerosene lanterns, warmth and food was from a wood burning stove. There was a hand pump and a sink. My aunt Fern ironed clothes using sad irons. These were solid metal irons that heated on the wood stove,very heavy things. I would have settled for wrinkles. One of my favorite dishes was cinnamon pull apart that my aunt made. Mom tried that recipe once but it was very labor intensive and didn't last much past a brief cool down period. There were beds upstairs that all the kids slept in there were a bunch of us and there were thunder mugs under each bed.  I have a singular memory of being shown the contents of one of those mugs and thinking that the it looked like canned tamales that came wrapped in paper, never quite got over that.

Us kids loved to go hunt for dynamite wire. Bits and pieces of the blue, yellow and red stuff could be found at a nearby blast site. We would scramble around and gather the stuff up and weave rings and bracelets. If there were any snakes amongst the rocks we probably scared them to death.

One of my favorite memories from Cow Camp involved a porcupine liver. One summer that we visited somehow a deer came to a slightly out of season's end on the property. Dad and my Uncle put the carcase in the barn. To keep us cousin's big ears and big mouths occupied, my uncle showed us a piece of lodge pole pine studded with porcupine quills. Very impressive. Even better was the large bowl containing the heart and liver. This is the Gods' honest truth, for years after that, my best story at school was "Do you know how big a porcupine's liver is? It's almost as big as the porcupine!". I was almost of legal age when Mom and Dad told me the other side of the story.

Aunt Fern had recently been hospitalized with pneumonia. Judy Horn Trent face booked that she had died.  Uncle Clayton has been ill himself.  And prayers are flying every where.  Aunt Fern had just the best sense of humor, she worked hard, loved her family and as near as I can remember, I don't think she ever wore anything but a dress for every day wear.  God Bless you and keep you, Aunt Fern.