Dear Daddy – The Farm Letters

Dear James,

We were glad to get your letters Monday and the package came yesterday just in time for your clothes to get in the wash. Last night we had a nice little shower and it looks like showers all day today. It will be a blessing if it does rain as everything is terribly dry. The vines are still green tho’ and the tomatoes are growing good, but so many of them get a big rotten spot on the bottom just as they get ready to ripen. It is good that I set out so many plants, just a few would have yielded nothing. I found 2 small ripe ones yesterday and gave them to the children. I found the library card and am sending it along.

I haven’t seen any plowing yet but the corn is all cut and nearly every one is thru threshing and silo filling. They’ll probably get out after the rain. I’ll send you your clothes tomorrow. We won’t go to town this week as I have all the supplies we really need but am sending you a little list. How would you like to have us drive down and get you and we could take a few things back with us? We would come right back and you could drive all the way home. School starts here on the 5th of September and we’d have to come down before that as I don’t want the children to miss a single day if things go right. They can start here anyway and if we decide that it is best to move back to Minneapolis later it will be all right.

We are all well. Let us know about the fishing trip.

Lots of love from us all, Martha, Ruth and John

Dear James,

We were glad to get your letter and hear about your fishing trip. I wish we could have helped you eat them. I believe we’ll have a try at it before school starts. We’ve had some excitement here too. Mitzi got run over yesterday morning, on the way home with the milk. She had jerked the rope out of John’s hand or else the rope came untied and she got in the way of the car. Her hind legs are bruised but no bones broken that I can see. She can barely drag herself around and whined and whimpered all night. Her appetite is good but I guess I’ll have to get some castor oil.

Mr. Rood and Mr. Jenson hauled in 2 loads of sudan grass yesterday and stacked it at the end of the other stack. The millet is growing good since the rain. Our share of the thresh bill was $1.01 and I paid it. There were 101 bushels of oats at 3 cents per bushel. Mr. Rood wants to know if he should put in the crop next year. He’d like to put in rye on the big square field and oats on the south 18 acres where they did the best this year. He has the oats in his granary but I believe I’d either sell them or store them here somewhere so he won’t have the responsibility of them.

I got up before 6 this morning and have bread set. We want to go to town this afternoon and I think I’ll get some peaches and grapes. We picked most of the corn and I am drying it. It has been real cool and there was frost in some places night before last so they say.

I hope when you write again you’ll have better news of the N.R.A. [National Recovery Administration] We are all well but get on each other’s nerves. This uncertainty about everything is hard to bear. Here is a recipe I think you’ll like. Try it with apple sauce for desert.

Sour Cream Gingerbread

2 eggs
&frac12 cup white sugar
¼ cup molasses
Three fourth’s cup sour cream
&frac14 teaspoon soda
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Beat together eggs, sugar, molasses. Add half of the cream. Dissolve the soda in the remaining half and add to liquids. Sift dry ingredients. Combine mixtures and beat until smooth. Bake 30 minutes in a moderate oven.

Well James, I wish I knew when I was going to see you again. Until we do lots of love from us all, Martha, Ruth and John

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,

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,

We received your package yesterday and were glad to get everything. We are well supplied with paper and envelopes now and groceries except for butter and potatoes. I think we can begin to use ours as the vines are drying up. We need rain badly.

Mr. Rood and Eddie fixed the hay stack yesterday while I was in the garden. They put poles on each side this time to keep it in place. Eddie tried to tell the children that they had jumped on it and knocked it down, but they had kept away from it entirely knowing you would want them to leave it alone. They have hauled all the grain away so the fields are bare except for the grass. I looked at the hazelnuts –they are not quite ready to pick, in a week I guess.

If that is the yellow bath towel it is ours. I have the others here. In making beet pickles you boil the beets with the skins on until tender, pour cold water over them and slip the skins off, cut them up and pour the boiling vinegar and sugar over them. I cup vinegar, 1 cup water and 2 Tbsps. sugar and a dash of cinnamon is a good proportion.

We use your rustic seats a lot and they are very attractive. We had a picnic out in the grove last night. We had potato salad, fresh biscuits and jam, bean pickles, bananas and cookies. I have picked another mess of peas and beans enough for another jar of pickles. The children are planning on having them for school lunches.

John had carved you a real nice horse’s head that he was going to send you in a letter but one of the ears broke off and it discouraged him. He has two cut fingers now – not bad but he’ll learn to be careful. John gave Ruth his printing set as he never uses it. They broke the bit boring holes in some badges. Can you send us another one? The dog has some hair worn off on one side, and the skin is cracked and rough. Is there a salve we can put on? I hope you keep well and get plenty of work. Lots of love from us all and a big hug and kiss apiece, Martha