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Old Mission, Mich Feb. 20th 1927

My Dear Miss. Taft: - We are having a cold spell again for a few days after 2 or 3 days of rain & fog. It has been dreadfully damp here this winter & last Fall. Joseph found yesterday that some of the corn in the center of the crib is spoiling. It is the same as every thing elso no nice warm weather to properly ripen it. My squashes have spoiled & even to the potatoes are not nice like other years.

The bays are frozen over now & the ice has roared all day. Have you ever heard ice roar? I never did until I came here & I wondered what it was at first. The wind came up last Thursday after the rain & blowed the ice all in heaps but these last few nights it has been still & cold so it has had the chance to freeze again.

Joseph thinks we are going to have a nice Summer on account of the way the winter has been acting. We haven't any little calf here yet but expect it any day. People have driven their cars all winter & the roads are a glare of ice in a lot of places.

Feb 22nd Well we were having zero weather when I started this letter & now it is raining again. I suppose the ice will break up again. Was so in hopes it would stay for a while at least. Rosie & her family will come from Howell next Monday. I hope they are cured & can be like other people.

We have had one other chance to rent our house but wouldn't do it. I hardly know what to tell you as I had planned on living there long enough to harvest the cherries. So Joseph thought it best not to rent the house. It is an ideal location for to sell fruit or any thing there for most of the tourists stop there to take pictures & view the bay. Right out in front of the house is where Henry Ford viewed the island before he decided to buy it. Some day if we keep the place we intend to start something there that will bring in money to us.

Mrs. Lardie is very anxious to know what you & we folk are going to do next summer she slung it at me in that smooth little way of hers. I suppose Miss Taft & Alberta both will be stationed along the road to sell cherries. And is so afraid we will sell cherries at our place. I have heard so many little speeches of late that she has made. If she happens to write to you it will be to find out all she can. Of course she wants all the money there is in things for herself & is afraid between you & I we will beat her to it a little. If she can make us leave here she will do it the same as some other people she made have trouble. Just so as you can't get the best of her. When she calls up & asks a lot of questions I try to be on my guard & not tell more than is wise. Well it is way past my bed time & I am dreadfully tired.

Hope every thing goes nicely at school now since you had the change. Lovingly Essie