The June 21 paper had a picture of an adobe brick house, not a sod house, north of Bethune.

     I may mention the difference, for a sod house the prairie was plowed up, the sod had the grass on the pieces laid carefully one on top of the other with the grass down to build the walls.

     The adobe was, made out of soil, no grass on it, mixed with straw and water or soil, they had their adobe holes or ponds, hauled in the dirt or soil, added straw and water, hitched up 2 teams of horses, wore hip boots, went in the middle and drove the horses round and round, straw and water was added as needed.  The mud was turned over and over with a fork, mixed some more till thoroughly mixed, a thick stiff mud.

     The adobe house was built a 14" high by 12 or 14" wide round, let set a week or 10 days or until dry enough to hold the next round, all by fork, each round smoothed on the sides.  The adobe brick, had wood frames 6" x 12 or 14" with handles on end, the frames were dunked in the water, laid on level ground filled with adobe mud, punched down by hands (no gloves) till all the holes were filled, smoothed on top, the frames pulled up, dunked in water and refilled again.  When the bricks were dry enough, they were turned and finely piled so air could circulate to dry completely, then the blocks were laid up with dirt mortar to hold bricks in place, the secret to all that building was to get the walls straight.

     My sisters and I made the bricks for that house, and many more.

                          --Theresia Kramer