Old letters: Mrs. D. Mashias (?) writes to Mrs. Eva Mercer, 1912

I have loved reading about the pioneers all my life. I found an old letter in an antique store this weekend from a lady in Iowa to her sister in Kansas, talking about their difficulties in homesteading. I'd like to share it here. The letter is transcribed below the pictures, and I've kept the original punctuation and spelling.

[FROM: Mrs. D. Mashias (?), Lenox, Iowa TO: Mrs. Eva Mercer, Baldwin, Kansas / Aug 3 1912]

Tuesday

Dear Sister & Family,

I guess I had better write. I think our letters crossed again. We kinda have a hunch to write the same time at any rate we hear from each other . I guess we each have plenty to write about and thats the weather. To start in with, it will soon be 2 months since we have had any rain to speak of. have had only 6 in of rain fall since Jan. 1 [?] so you can form some idea how vegatation looks. Our pie plant we set out in the spring is gone. And we watered garden & everything till one well went dry. And concluded not to haul water. Wheat was not very good crop from 2 1/2 bo [?] to 16 on valley land. Oats were the same way. I think we have enough hay up to carry our few head of stock through. We have no grain for feed. Have about 400 chickens, after we cull out the roosters. We want 200 pullets. Have hopes that they will go laying before we exoust o[u]r feed money supply. And with our 3 young cows we can live. It sure gives a person a feeling they want to live in an irrigated country.

We had a fine prospect for crop till this set in and it nearly brings tears. Yet where I read there is 16 other states that have drought sections larger than Kans or more families in need, we should not complain I guess. Our potatoes done fine as to the amt of ground we had in. Would have put more in if we had been extablished and knew our land better. Sold around $50.00 worth [$1171.42 today] and by the looks we will have to be content as that is the sum total of our crop sale. Now its up to the cows and hens to feed us. Every one is worried not blue. What the end may be. This heat is driving us wild today I had to stop and come to the house. And let the outside work go on. It may look crazy or lazy but what do I care. It beats being sick. I just don't know which way to turn. Seems like I have reached the end after 4 yrs of failure. Having the children give us money to live on when we are able bodied. And work is crushing. Roland seems to think we ought to be content with a roof over our head, where its furnished. Yet when you plant and have everthing dry up just before our eyes. And no work to do. for no person has enough money to pay for anything only food.

I don't mean to complain yet these are fact of which I can't controll. Not finding fault with our Maker or cursing the Country or Govm't. Yet we can't support ourselves I know I have written about the same trend of thought in the last 4 yrs. I hope you will forgive where we work with hope we would like to reap.

We wet the ground so the chickens will keep cool. and they sure look fine. Have 2 fresh cows. I ought to have some cottonseed meal to keep them up, the dry feed is not sufficient. Have been letting the calves get their supply of feed from their mothers. So they are fat, and will sell them soon.

I hope you are well & Florence has been able to go back on her work before this. How I wish I could help you. I know Florence will say another blue letter. Why don't they move to a better state. We may.

As ever Charlie

Thurman wrote Mrs B - would like to have us back on her place

Like a pioneer

I'm having a massively exciting evening of pinning knife pleats by the light of the fireplace, just like a real pioneer. :)

And then I BASTED them in place BY HAND!

I don't know why some people hate knife pleats. They are so beautiful. I just eyeball them since the only good tutorials I've found involve math, and I can't math. My waistbands always end up too big, so I just by default make my skirts and petticoats the 18th century style for adjustability.

My puppy has been "helping" me (she likes burying her Nylabones in the skirt fabric). Right now she's leaning on me and squeaking her Blue Guy (and deafening me and my husband in the process). I wish I could get a picture, but in the dim light of the fireplace it's just not possible.So here's a picture of her from a couple of weeks ago, when I caught her in a calm moment.

I hope you are all having an equally lovely evening.

(((hugs)))

Pirate Wedding - Skirt 3 - FFFFFFFUUUUUUU

I sewed the open ends of my skirt together, stopping about 10" from the top so I could slip into it easily. Then I pinned the new valance so it adjoins its twin perfectly.

Pinned it along the length of the skirt, certain that it was straight all along. Well, it was straight.

But it wasn't even with the top edge of the skirt. It didn't meet up with its friend at the end like it should have. I DIDN'T MEASURE IT ALONG THE WAY LIKE I ALWAYS DO. It started out 11.75" from the top of the skirt, and ended up 14"-ish from the top.

My project for the evening is to pick out two rows of tiny stitches by the light of the fireplace, so I will feel like a pioneer lady. Of course I'm being nit-picky about my sewing of this costume after seeing the horrible things being sold in the thrift store a couple of weeks ago. So I sewed the fabric on with a 3/8" seam, and then went back over it and sewed the very top edge of that fabric down right along the edge. It looks awesome. Not so fun for seam ripping.

Okay, it didn't take me THAT long to rip the seams. After I did that, I pinned the valance to the skirt again, carefully measuring from the top every few inches. When I got to the end... still a lot of "underlap". Damn it.

But the good thing is? I didn't get ragey. Yay!