Dear Daddy – The Farm Letters

Dear James,

It is Monday morning. Yesterday was hot and sultry and we spent most of the afternoon reading. I got up early (6:30) and finished some cleaning I hadn’t done on Saturday and the children had their baths and we washed our hair before breakfast. Then I baked an apple pie and some cookies and we had dinner, pot roast and gravy, potatoes, corn, pickles and apple pie. It is so dry the ears of corn are small but they taste good.

We went to town on Sat. morning. There were two truck-loads of CCC boys in town. John got a hair cut and one of the officers in charge of the camp was there getting a hair cut and shave.

Just as we were turning in to get some gas at the Standard Oil station the battery went dead like it did before. There were no cars there so the two attendants got our car into their yard and looked over the starting system and found the cable had worked loose. He tightened them and told me how to fix them if it happened again. The roads are rough and the ends of the wire jiggle loose.

I’m afraid we’re too late for blueberries. I didn’t see any in the stores. Let me know the prices of fruit and I will buy here when the price is right.

There isn’t much news only we all miss you so. We got your letter Sat. but the package didn’t come. John is carving all over the place. He thinks the knife is OK and the chain keeps him from losing it. Ruth made me a little match box and nailed it up and it is really handy.

Some of the paper on the shed roof got loose and I had to climb up and fasten it down yesterday morning. It had been very windy. Mitzi and the cat are better friends but still have to have a round or two to show the other who’s who.

Well this is all. I’m sending my account sheet and it is the last one in the book. Send me a filler so I can use it for the milk. Lots of love from the family, Martha

Dear James,

We were glad to get your letter yesterday and that you could spend the day out of town. We’re having real cool weather. This morning we were glad to stay by the stove.

Yesterday we picked a nice mess of corn for dinner and string beans enough for supper and a qt. of pickles. We’ll have another mess of peas about Sunday. The brown beans are ripe and the children shelled out 2 cups full. I am baking bread today and making some chokecherry jam.

Mr. Rood and Eddie were cutting and raking the poorest oats yesterday. They came here for a drink and Mr. Rood said he thought it best to haul the bundles over to his place and thresh them there and he would sack up our grain. He also said we wouldn’t have to pay for any twine if we didn’t get the straw. He said he had a cow (a 4 yr. old) with a week old calf he would sell for $40.00. It was in Bryan Sells’ pasture. I was going to try to buy potatoes at Sells so in the evening we drove to Roods and Mrs. Rood went with us to Sells. I couldn’t get any potatoes but saw the cow. She is coal black and they said she is part Jersey. She had a pretty little calf, nicely marked but the cow was small and seemed a little wild to me. So there you are.

I bought a book of stamps from the mailman yesterday. There was a sub on for two days. I must get this letter mailed so goodbye and lots of good luck. Be sure to tell me all the news and send us a Sunday paper if you get one. Love from us all, Martha

Dear James,

We are gathered around the family table writing letters. It is now 8:30 PM. We reached home by way of Wadena, and Park Rapids. From Brainerd to Park Rapids the road is wonderful. We stopped at Little Falls for gas and oil, 3 gals gas and a qt. of oil, 77 cents. We bought groceries at Menagha. 1 doz. eggs, 5 lbs. potatoes, l qt vinegar (so I can make bean pickles), 1 loaf bread, 2 pkgs, corn flakes, total $1.11 also 3 ice cream cones. We ate lunch just outside Little Falls. We had packed lunch for you too but forgot to give it to you before we left. What bus did you take to the cities? We met two, one about 8 o’clock and one about 9. The car worked perfectly and the weather was ideal.

The first thing we did was to look at the garden. The potatoes are still blossoming and have grown a lot. Ruth dug 2 hills and found 10 potatoes a little smaller than an egg. The sweet corn is in the milk and the corn is beginning to tassel. The cabbages are forming heads and the onions are ripe. The tomato plants have many, many little tomatoes set on and the plants are 3 times as big as they were.

There must have been a heavy rainfall lately as the garden soil was washed some and both tubs and boiler were full of soft water. The cat came running from the barn as soon as she heard the car. She had moved the kittens again.

I unloaded the car and picked a basin of raspberries, enough for supper. I brushed our coats and picked all the hair off of them and hung them away. I feel pretty tired now and am only waiting my turn at the tub. John is already asleep. The children were both very good all the way up here.

I am sorry I was cross with you but you’ll simply have to be more patient. I’ve been thinking over what we talked about, and if you get more work I think we ought to rent a house and stay with you this winter. We can’t even bear to think of another winter up here alone. And then we can spend the summer months up here and rent out the land as before. If your work gets less you might see about the loan and find out if you can quit it and go to farming and I guess this farm is as good as most of them.

Eddie Rood was cutting the oats on the north half of the field just as hay, on the rest he will use the binder. The millet and sudan grass look nice. The grain isn’t ripe enough to harvest yet. The grass in the yard is green and everything is just as we left it.

Be sure to get your new shoes right away and pay Ted all up if you have enough money.

I’m sorry again for being cross. Bruce had been here twice while we were away, on the 17th and the 22nd of July. He left 2 notes.

(Continued in A.M.)

We’re all feeling great. Had a good sleep. It is cloudy today and as soon as this is in the mail box we are going after the cherries and the garden. Blueberries were 10 cents a lb. in the store. I hope you are rested now and that things will go well with you.

Lots of love. Martha

Dear James,

Well good news at last. We’ve had the most wonderful rain and none too soon. I believe this will give the oats a chance and the garden will be O.K. now. We went to church this morning. Services were at 11 O’clock. It’s a nice clean little church and we enjoyed the services. We just got home when it began to cloud up. We covered the car and gathered in some wood and then came a nice heavy shower. The children put on their bathing suits and had lots of fun. The grass in the yard is looking green again. I drove down after the milk this morning and used Jenson’s pump to put more air in that tire. The car sounds fine.

I forgot to tell you I broke one of the windows trying to open it, the one on the North. Sat. I finished tacking the last of the screen on the windows and tacked screen on the inside of the open places in the Little House and painted the seat. It looks nice.

I felt awfully tired after we had come home from church and lay down for a while. I fell asleep and the children were quiet and didn’t waken me and I slept all afternoon. We had dinner at 6 o’clock, macaroni, bacon and chocolate pudding.

Oscar Jenson’s son is to be married around the 4th of July. They say there is going to be a big neighborhood picnic at Stony Lake on the 4th. I don’t care whether we go or not as long as you are with us. I liked the book you sent me. It was so warm Friday I just sat down and read the book and have read parts of it twice.

The dog kept me awake most of the night barking. I had her in the house and her growling is enough to frighten any one away. Some of the corn is up to John’s waist and the rain will boost the rest along. The lower part of the garden is still pretty weedy and I think I’ll leave that for you to hoe.

Well I’m going to bed now. Let me know right away what to do,

Love, Martha

Dear James,

I am waiting for the children to come home with the milk so will write to you. We looked for a letter from you but none came. It has been cool the last three days but no more rain after that thunder shower. The oats are pretty dry and don’t seem to grow any. The garden stuff is all right except the peas are beginning to dry up. There are pods 2 inches long on the early ones and a nice rain would save them. I hoed the onions, carrots, cabbage and pop corn yesterday. That is 4 inches high.

The Nevis creamery had their annual picnic Wed. We needed, butter and meat and the children wanted to go so we packed a lunch and went to it. The tires were getting soft and the pump is broken so I stopped at the garage there and had the man there put in a new inner tube in the left rear tire as you know there was something wrong with the valve. He also pumped up the rest of the tires. We drove along the lake shore aways and finally came to the end of the road at a cottage by the lake. We turned around and went back the same way and met a nice herd of Guernseys being driven in by a woman, and an empty hay-rack with a couple of young men in charge. The road was soft and narrow and I didn’t care to turn out and the cows acted scared of the car so I just stopped it and turned off the engine and the Lady and boys drove the cows by on both sides. The cows acted as tho’ they had never seen a car before and tried to climb the bank on both sides of the road. There was room for the hay-rack to pass us without our turning out as the ditch wasn’t deep so we went merrily on our way home. The children wanted to go in bathing and there is a nice pool by the bridge near Bryan Sell’s so we drove over there and left the car in their yard and their two children went out with us and we had a nice time. We stayed there about 30 minutes and went back to Sells and lo and behold we had a flat tire, the one I had just had the new tube put into. Then we remembered that the car had sounded funny just before we got there and when we got the tire off, the tube was completely ruined. I’ve saved it for you to look at, it looks as tho’ it had been pinched when it was put in. There was no sign of a puncture. Well, we got the old tube and changed the valve so we could pump it up and put that in the tire when I came to get the pump it was gone and so were our pliers. Sell’s pump was no good and we could get only a little air in the tire but we got home without any damage being done and I jacked up that wheel and left it that way. We checked over your tools and could find nothing else missing but the pump and pliers. I was in the car all the while it was in the garage and we know we had the pump in the trunk and the pliers too as I put them there myself. Maybe you can read between the lines. Maybe you can pick up a pump down there and bring it with you.

We heard County Agent Olson speak at the picnic. He spoke on feeding cows and explained a plan whereby farmers could get a thorough-bred calf and keep it for three years and have the use of it to improve their herds just for feeding the animal and paying registration costs.

Well I must close now. I hope you are well and we surely are looking forward to July 1st. Lots of love from us all,

Martha and the children