Tell about a favorite Uncle.
Well I told you a little about each Aunt and Uncle last post but this time I will tell about a favorite Uncle. I did like all of my uncle’s just like my Aunt’s but since Uncle Mont lived in Duchesne and I was around him a lot more than any of the others then I had a lot more experiences with him. Since dad and Mont owned the ranch together then a lot of the time that I spent with him was while working at the ranch. We would always start out at his home near Nana’s in Duchesne. One of Mont’s favorite tricks to pull on us as we ate breakfast before leaving he would was dare us to eat a raw egg. He would show us how it was done by holding the egg above his mouth and then with one hand cracking it and letting the egg go into his mouth. I was never one to follow suit on that dare.
I remember one time when I went with he and Lynn to bring the sheep down from the ranch to Duchesne. We went early in the morning 7 miles up Indian canyon to the ranch and then got on horses and herded the sheep down the 7 miles to Duchesne. We had one dog and I have no idea how many sheep but I can remember that it was one very long day going down that canyon. I was used to riding a horse but not for an entire day and so the saddle became extremely hard and my seat extremely sore. But I did have a lot of fun as we would occasionally have to help out the dog and ride the horse around the sheep to get them back with the group. We had sack lunches and stopped to eat them while the dog basically kept the sheep feeding in a group near us.
Mont had a neat sense of humor and that was probably why I didn’t mind the nickname and his constant use of it when talking to me. He was always very kind except to cats and he had a dislike for them. Uncle Mont lived longer than any of his sibling and had cancer in his mouth so that a good portion of his jaw had to be removed in his later years. He also was far more at home on the back of a horse and in his last years the only place he could relax without pain was while on his horse. He had arthritis pretty bad also and one day for some reason got a bunch of dirt in his mouth. The next day he noticed the ability to raise his arm a little higher than before and could only guess that the dirt had done it. He visited us not long after that and while there took out his spoon and jar of dirt and ate a full spoon of it. Stan and I were both there with him when he did it and that was when he explained to us the reason then lifted his arm straight above his head which he had been unable to do the last time he had visited us. It was special dirt though and he had to always go back to the same place to get more. Some minerals were apparently in the dirt that helped him. I also was always amazed at how he and dad could just lay down on the hard ground and sleep in the heat of the day with their hats over their eyes. He was my hero and always will be.
