Building a Dwelling

I had laughed at those houses in the settlement we came upon after leaving Pueblo, with their roofs of green sods, but when Mr. Middleton and I set about planning the family homestead, we were glad enough to use the same humble material for our roof, because it could be put on more quickly than any other.

In order to save the labor of felling and shaping as many trees as would be needed for high walls, we dug down into the earth four or five feet, so that, as one of the children said, our house was hardly more than a hole in the ground.

The floor was beaten hard by the aid of short lengths of logs which we held upright with pegs for handles, raising and dropping them until the earth was so solid that one's footprints made no mark.

The walls were raised five feet above the top of the excavation, making the height from the floor to where the roof began not less than ten feet on the side which we intended for the front, through which we cut a doorway and window openings.

The roof poles were put on slanting, for it was to be a shed roof, the rear wall of the house being only about seven feet high, and the slope of the top not less than three feet, while the width of the building was only ten. Our covering of sod would serve, on so steep a pitch, to shed water admirably.

In wet weather we did not suffer from the dampness because of our lack of glazed windows, for a blanket hung up in front of the openings served to keep us comfortable, and it was only occasionally that we had to shield ourselves from the outer air, so friendly was the climate.