Just as I was about to call down, I heard one of the boys call up, "Can't you take it a bit slower? We'd at least like to have a little conversation on our way down." I knew from that jesting that there couldn't be too much damage, otherwise he couldn't joke about it. We soon learned that no damage had been done since I had injected the 4×4 into the whim just in time. There were a few bruises, but that was all. Life at the cave was somewhat rugged at first because we didn't have many of the comforts of home. At first we would sleep in the wagons, then we brought out some canvas tents from Carlsbad and this made living much more comfortable. As operations continued I had hoped to build some sort of small house and move my family out to be there with me. But my time was so busy in the early phases of the operation that I had little time to think of anything but getting the guano out of the ground. [Illustration: Artist's conception of Long's move to Big Cave area.] After a while things became more or less routine and I could then think of some more permanent living quarters for myself and family. My brother-in-law, Charlie Hannsz, also had more spare time now that the roadwork was done and the initial construction chores had been completed. Since he was a fine carpenter, I let him have the job of building more permanent living quarters. We found the most satisfactory type of housing was what we called tent houses. These consisted of boxing plank for the floors, with the wood also extending about half way up the side or wall of the house. The upper half of the wall was canvas, as was the roof. These houses were relatively easy to build, and served our purpose adequately. After the first house was completed, we built another for my father, A. B. Long, and my mother. Then we built another for Charlie Hannsz and his family, making a group of three houses. My wife made our place quite comfortable inside. She was an immaculate housekeeper and she had the knack of knowing how to make our little tent house look like a home. I felt quite contented living there. The food problem was a difficult one, for all our supplies had to be brought out from Carlsbad. At first my wife did all the cooking for the men, but this job soon became too much for her, especially as the operations at the cave grew and more men joined the force. Eventually the men had to make other arrangements for their meals. Most of them did their own cooking, or they would divide up into small groups and take turns cooking for the rest. The Mexicans would cook their own meals off by themselves as they seemed to prefer a different menu from the rest of us. This section of the state was good for cattle grazing and this was quite an industry in itself at the time. There was a man by the name of Simms who had quite a herd near the cave and sometimes during the night we could hear these animals near our camp.