Dear James,
We had to bring out the winter coats and mittens this morning. The temp was 20 at 6:30 AM. Sat. night the rain water in the boiler froze but I had drained the car radiator in the morning and covered the hood. We went to bed about 9:00 and left a good fire and at 1:30 I got up to let the cat out and put in more wood so it wasn’t quite so cold. We should be able to hold fire all night by getting up twice. Jenson is going to bring us another load of wood this Friday afternoon. On Saturday I finished the south and east walls of the living and we moved the chest of drawers and the bookcase and stand and John’s cot in, and put the round rug in front of the heater and it all looks quite cozy.
Jensons dug their potatoes Sat. and got 20 bushels, they said. They are digging Wrightly’s potatoes on shares.
This morning I shall mend some winter clothes and then bank the north end of the house. I believe you could build a tar-paper lean-to there for the car. I wish you were here. We could get wood in together. It is going to take a lot of it. We didn’t go anywhere on Sunday. I had to iron all morning and the children took turns reading out of “The Little Pioneers.” And we all helped fill the wood boxes in the evening and walked down to get the milk.
If the mice aren’t too bad we can keep some surplus food in the attic. It is cool there and cleaner and easier to get to.
I must stop now and see what I can accomplish. Am glad you found everything O.K. there. Love from us all.
Martha, Ruth, and John
P.S. John has been very good about getting in the wood.