Keepin it cool

Davis home on the ranch near Haswell

 to Davis Families - Round Robin

from Lou Butler

28 February 1999

in response to a letter and pictures 

compiled from sharing memories at a Davis family reunion

Looking at those pictures of the ranch site really brought back a lot of memories.  One of my memories which I have told about often, was the summer I was there when Grandpa Davis and Uncle Johnny built a "refrigerator" of sorts north of the back porch of the ranch house.  They built a frame out of 4 x 4's and 2 x 4's and put in a few shelves and then covered it with several layers of wool sacks.  They then piped the water to it from the line that came down from the well up on the hill to the south of the ranch house and let it fill a top shelf and drip down all sides.  The breeze then went through the wet burlap, and it was surprising how cool it kept the butter, etc. in the refrigerator.

I am amazed and fascinated by their ingenuity!