Different types of wood are used, depending on the meal. In the morning, Manzanita is used, and breakfast is usually ready in five minutes or so. With pine chips, lunch takes about ten minutes to cook. For dinner, baking, and general heating, oak is used. For bathing, water has to be heated on the stove or over the hearth and carried out to the bath house behind the main ranch house.
People are polite and hospitable.
Nothing is every locked. There is always a huge pot of boiled coffee on the fire, and no guest is ever turned away without a meal. Yet, the hills abound with mountin lions, and even cattle could be dangerous. Everyone carries a gun, and no young person is allowed out of sight without one. Roan Durham Cattle, called shorthorn today, are not the easiest cattle to work, especially on an open mountain range with so few fences.