Indiana, Pa.
May 9, 1952

Dear Mrs. Altman,
I thought we would get down your way before this. My sisters want to go too, or I could go some afternoon, but we'll get there some day. Sorry you had so much digging to do but I had some of that to do in my time.

The kitchen drain runs along the side of the coal house and out by the garage. That one at the corn crib is just one they put around the barn. My father was a tanner by trade, and he had his vats where the barn stands now, and he wanted a good drain for fear the barn would be wet.

I will take you the keys to the corn crib as the padlock may still be there yet. I left the room door in the garage and a big cupboard in the kitchen, but the Uppermans may have taken both.

The walls of that house are solid brick and it makes it hard to nail anything to it, but you don't need to be afraid of the house falling down. They burned the brick below the corn crib and built that house and the Townsends. Townsends have the original Wherry homestead. It was built in 1840 and Grandfather bought - the 300 acres - about ten years before.

You do not have my stove. I sold the old one to Jim Smith and brought my good one along.You are more ambitious than I am, but then you are much younger. I seldom bake anything but pies or rolls. Helen is our cake and cookie baker. We can buy such good bread that tastes like homemade, and a loaf lasts for almost a week.

I left a lot of Oriental Poppies at the top of the garden in the center, and I hope they bloom for you. We set some out here this spring and I just came in from setting out Delphiniums and Hardy Asters. Glad the rhubarb is nice for you. I tried some here but without success. The ground needs manure to make it thrive. I miss the garden soil for my plants. P. The sun porch was only enclosed in 1936 because of the bathroom. We didn't decide to close it in until after the bathroom was put in, and that is why the pipes run up the through the kitchen and the trap put in the room above to keep them from freezing. We thought that the soil pipe might still freeze and give us some trouble, so we enclosed the porch in and weren't sorry. We used it in the summer a lot for a sitting room.

I'm sure you are improving the place, but don't work too hard and make syourself sick. Sincerely,
Bess Wherry