Dear James,
It’s the end of another Sunday and a rainy one too. It started to rain at 7 this morning and has kept it up off and on all day. We were caught without any wood but while the children went after the milk, I sawed enough wood to last us today and tomorrow morning. The saw works much better now.
We walked over to Mrs. Shaw’s Friday evening and brought home a young rooster. There being no one else to do it I chopped its head off with the new ax, plucked it and cut it up ready for the kettle. We all wished you were here to help eat him. We read half of “The Lone Cowboy” today and dug up a bunch of “funnies” that we hadn’t looked at yet,
The place looks quite cozy now that things are straightened up. I put the odd boxes out in the old house. We need a lamp now. It gets dark much earlier now and the lantern is smelly and doesn’t give a very good light. We’ve all been tired enough to turn in early so far.
We went out to gather cherries Friday afternoon. We had picked a small pail full when I caught my hand on a hidden barbed wire. It jabbed thru the big vein in the back of my hand and the vein started to puff up right away and the hand swelled. We went home and I opened up the cut and put on some Pepsodent, then got some boiling water and put on hot compresses the rest of the afternoon. That stopped the swelling and the pain and today it is just a little sore to the touch.
I put the phonograph on the chest and we’ll use that for papers and magazines and the clock. I use the lower part of the kitchen cabinet as a refrigerator. I wish you could be here too. The children went out to look for hazelnuts but didn’t find any. Jensen’s cut corn all day Friday and Saturday. They haven’t thrashed yet. We haven’t walked around the farm yet. Some day soon I’m going to follow the north line fence to the N.W. corner.
Instead of sending us money this time get each of the youngsters and yourself a raincoat. Get a red one for Ruth and a yellow slicker for John. If you want to send us groceries, send dried fruits, rice, macaroni, brownies, graham crackers and some cheese. We need some writing tablets too. I think we’ll write 3 times a week after this. I’ll mail letters from here on Saturday, Tuesday, and Thursday. It seems so long apart to write only twice. We intended to take pictures today but the weather prevented us. We’ll do that as soon as we can. We must get the milk now and then to bed.
Love from us all,
Martha
P.S. Jenson just brought us a nice load of wood. We are piling it up in the old house now. Some of it is too long to use in the cook stove but we can use it in a heater. John is going to write you a special letter all his own. He says we write all the news.