March 28,1913

Dear Diary,

It is so nice and warm this morning that I am sitting outside facing our home. It isn’t much to look at especially by city standards. If Roy hadn’t told so many stories of growing up in a sod house, I would worry what he’d think of it. At least our house isn’t sod, it’s made of logs with mud plastered between. Papa and his brothers built it from trees they logged from the hills around here. They came here to homestead with my Grandma Jessie in 1888, eight years before I was born.

Inside we have a big room with a cook stove that also keeps us warm during cold weather.  Mama and Papa sleep downstairs but we kids all sleep up in the loft.  Let me tell you it gets mighty freezing up there when it is cold.

When we need supplies, we either get it from the general store in Aladdin, 8 miles away or go to Belle Fourche, 23 miles away and an overnight trip.  Sometimes we order stuff from the Sears catalog and pick it up from the train in Aladdin. You can buy almost anything that way, course you also must pay for it, so we don’t order much.

Papa is busy now getting the land ready to grow his oats, wheat, corn and rye along with the hay for our animals.  Soon Mama and I will be working in our gardens.

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April 2, 1913

Dear diary,

I have just finished churning the butter and cleaning the separator. I don’t mind doing the churning but I cleaning that separator is a real chore. I have a few minutes to write before it’s time to start the baking.

I am a bit fretful today. Roy wrote to me and mentioned that his parents are planning to move to Missouri to be near his Mother’s family. I don’t have to tell you I don’t like the sound of this. What if Roy decides to go there, too?  I know he could still write to me but I’d lose my Puyallup connections to him. It’s just troublesome.

I guess I need to stop writing. Mama says it’s time to start the baking. Besides the usual bread and biscuits, she wants me, to make a cake.

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April 15, 1913

Dear Diary,

I am at Grandma and Grandpa Smith’s. Sadie and I are having a fine visit.

Can you believe it? Bert asked her to marry him. Of course she said, yes. Grandma and Grandpa seem pleased. Grandpa said Bert was a fine man and he’d be proud to call him son-in-law.

I have been helping Sadie put the finishing touches on the new dress she will wear for the ceremony in Belle Fourche. It won’t be much of a wedding just Sadie and Bert and Grandpa and Grandma and Mrs. Marchant. Papa says there is too much farming to be done to spare the two days it would take for us to go. Maybe Mama, Hazel and I can hitch a ride along with Grandma and Grandpa. I hope so, anyway.

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