Dear Daddy – The Farm Letters

Dear James,

We received the packages and the letter and the money. I’m glad you had a chance to thresh. They are threshing around here but it doesn’t take long at each place. I am going to wash clothes as soon as we have breakfast. I shall work indoors today as it is still cool at 7AM.

I made another quart of bean pickles yesterday but the children want to eat them now. We found a few large potatoes yesterday. The stack in the yard is the oats they cut and did not thresh. The measurements are 15×9 feet at the base and about 7 feet high.

(Continued by Ruth)

Mother is washing and I am finishing her letter for her. We are playing cow-boy and having lots of fun. How much do you think a rist watch would cost? I have earned $1.37. Well I can’t think of anything more so love from Mother and Me.

(Continued by Martha)

It is 6:45. I got up at 6:00 AM and have been puttering around waiting for the children to bring the milk. We’ve had a nice rain. It started after midnight and rained until I got up and it is cloudy and the air feels like more rain. We have half a boiler of nice clean rain water. Last night we went out to the garden and picked off all the blossoms and green tomatoes from the plants, leaving just those that have a chance to ripen. There are about 200 plants and figuring 2 tomatoes to a plant we should get a good lot of them. They are beginning to turn now. They are sort of yellow at first and now they show streaks of red. I told the children I’d pay them a penny for each ripe tomato they bring me from their vines. Each has a row and they happen to be the best rows in the garden.

I had to stop a minute and get my meat. Yesterday afternoon Chester Vokes stopped in and asked if we wanted a chunk of beef and he brought it just now. I got a nice roast and a small piece for frying for 40 cents.

I washed yesterday. I took the blue piece quilt apart and washed front and back. I’ll send your clothes and the books tomorrow. Can you get Mitzi a new collar at the dime store? This one is pretty small and we like to have her wear one. The children use the chain when they take her out walking and she behaves nicely.

All these little details aren’t much news but it is all I have to write about. Bryce Rood cut the Sudan grass yesterday. John rode around with him and he said in places it was over Bryce’s head. Bryce is about Ruth’s size.

I guess I’d better get at the ironing. The children are going to wash the dishes. I haven’t heard anything about school but I suppose Mrs. Anderson will be around to take the census as she did last year and can tell us. They don’t need any clothes except John a light shirt. Love from us all, Martha

P.S. Get your new shoes. The money you sent us will do until pay day.

Dear James,

We looked for a letter on Sat. but none came. I hope you are all right. We are all feeling real well. We are going out “nutting” after the mailman comes. Please let me know if you received the laundry and glasses and my last letter. All of yours have come thru except the one I expected on Sat. Perhaps you are busy getting things tended to.

It is 7 AM. The children are gone after the milk. I got up at 6 AM and it was real chilly. The sun was half-way up the prettiest oak in the front yard. Mitzi sleeps in John’s house now. I let her out the first thing then built up the fire, got the children up and have bread set. We must wait for breakfast until I get the milk.

Sat. AM I baked a rhubarb pie, some cookies and cake and cleaned the kitchen and gave all our heads a shampoo. About 4 o’clock PM we went to Park Rapids, got our supplies and were home by 6:00. I’d hate to be caught in that town after dark.

They threshed at Jenson’s and George Wrightly’s Sat PM. 2 different rigs. It took only a little while. You never saw such tiny little grain stacks and I hope I never do again. I haven’t heard whether Rood’s have threshed or not. Sunday morning we went to church and in the afternoon we walked to the Wrightly corner looking for hazelnuts. Some one had stuck up a sign on our land advertising a camp and I took it down. If one starts, they all will and these camps have no connection with us. I threw the sign down there but shall take it away if some one else hasn’t removed it by this time.

After we got home I read half of “Hans Brinker” to the children. We had supper and had our little meeting and went to bed.

Tom Mix is at the Orpheum this week. The children are crazy to see him. If you get a chance, you go and tell them about it. Some one drove in Sunday morning and wanted us to buy a Journal so we did. The kiddies are coming so I must get breakfast. Goodbye, lots of love from us all, Martha

Dear James,

It doesn’t seem possible that almost half of August is gone. It was so cold when we got up this morning we hurried around to put in windows and get a good fire started. We had a little shower last night but hardly enough to settle the dust. I did most of my house cleaning yesterday and today I shall bake and try to get to town this afternoon. I haven’t had the car out since last Sat.

I broke my glasses yesterday cleaning them so I sent them to you. I insured them for $15.00. The children hauled away the logs in the yard and I raked up the scraps and mowed where the grass was the longest and it looks pretty nice. I wish we could buy paint and oil and give the house

a couple of coats. It would look quite nice. What are you doing about the mortgage payments? Divide the money as you think best but I’d like to pay this up as soon as possible. But get your new shoes first. That is an order. I like the note book you sent and shall mark everything down as you do. I am waiting so anxiously to find out what the company will do for you boys. I made another quart of bean pickles yesterday and cooked some rhubarb sauce and canned one pint. I think I’ll can a few more cans of sauce and then make some jam. We have most of the pint jars filled now.

I am out of face cream. Will you get a tube of the new kind the Pepsodent people put out if it isn’t too expensive? And another package of absorbent cotton. Have your hands healed? The children each have $1.30 saved. I wonder about buying stockings now or waiting a while. Maybe you could get them cheaper now. Just cotton ones but good weight for the children. Ruth wants 9¬Ω and John 8¬Ω and I take 9¬Ω too. If you see anklets real cheap you might get Ruth 2 or 3 pairs. I believe you can get them for 10 cents a pair or maybe less that is if you have time to look around. I’m looking for an early fall anyhow.

John picked us another mess of corn last night for supper. The ears are awfully small but taste good. We won’t have any for canning unless I can buy from someone. We are using our own potatoes. John digs us a supply each day. Most of the hills are green yet and if we had a good rain they would grow much larger.

I am sending the Library card and we surely appreciate the books only the children could read many more. One book lasts them a day. I can’t think of any more news. I wish you were here and I wish we were caught up on taxes and mortgage and had enough ahead to pay all expenses for a year. After you pay the last on the bank loan let’s put $10.00 in the bank each month (not counting the regular savings) and have that to meet these big bills.

Well I must close now. Lots of love from us all, Martha

Dear James,

It is now 7AM. The children and Mitzi have gone after the milk. I am sitting by the East window and the fresh morning breeze is blowing in upon me. We got up at 6:30 and had a nice shower before that so the world looks pretty good. We had another nice shower Monday night that put 2 ins, of rain water in the tubs.

I’ll answer the questions about the garden and let John write of other things. The potatoes are still green. The dry weather dried up the corn, the ears are awfully small and only the lower kernels filled out. We had a mess of peas on Monday, it may be the last we’ll get. The beans are still bearing, I get enough for a qt. of pickles each time. The cabbage still looks good and the vines have taken on a new lease on life since the rain. The tomatoes look the best and we should get quite a few ripe ones. They stood the dry weather better than anything else. I believe we’ll get a little popcorn too.

Ruth and John have been playing office this week. They each have an office fixed up. Ruth has the table and John, a chair and telegraph wires between them and lots of messages are sent back and forth. Ruth is printing me labels for our fruit jars and I pay her a penny a doz. for them, and she buys the paper from John, 4 sheets for a penny. I’m to pay them a penny a load for clearing away those old logs too. We cleaned out the old raspberry bushes on the N side of the house and are going to plant wild flowers there. Don’t you think it would pay to spread the straw out and plow that strip and set out some raspberry bushes now? I believe they should do better set out in the fall as they would get a good root-hold before next summer and stand the drought better, and that is what we have to contend with. I wish, if you can, that you would visit some farms that have their plants staked up and see how it is done. If we can get the plants started this would be a good source of income.

I ironed yesterday morning and sent your clothes. I mended all afternoon and got thru with that job except for a few stockings. I had a good sleep last night and feel fine. I take setting up exercises night and morning to limber up my back and it helps. We’ll be glad for the books. They both liked Hans Brinker”. Darryl has been over to play twice lately.

Will you send us some Toilet paper and a dozen oranges, medium sized, as John wants me to make some rhubarb conserve. Send me the sleeve length you like best, measuring from the under-seam to the outside edge of the cuff. How are your Mother and Father feeling? Do you think you can get a ride up with someone? The fishing seems to be pretty good now.

Take good care of yourself. One pole on the battery is loose and the wire jiggled loose from the other one. The car runs fine and the battery is strong. How much would a canvas to cover the whole car cost? I hope they decide about you boys soon. Lots of love from us all, Martha