Tuesday March 23rd

This has been a very disagreeable day. Cloudy raw east wind and raining or snowing most of the time. I cleaned out the cellar but as I didn't work at it very hard it took me most of the day. It was in bad shape as all the old pumpkins & squash that I put down there had rotted. I have been cudgelling my brains all day to figure out some way of relieving our financial situation as it seems useless to wait much longer for the fortune to come. We are about $300.00 in debt besides the mortgage of $300 and I have got to do some fencing this year and the barn needs shingling. I also want to get a couple of good cows and set out some more fruit and if I could only finance it would try to run my brooder again and raise about 500 chickens. We looked over my insurance policy and could borrow about $225.00 or $280 after the next premium is paid on it, but that wouldn't pay our debts, so I think I will have to try and raise about $700 on a mortgage if I can find the money.

Wednesday March 24th

I went over home this morning and Frank & I bagge dup a few oats for mebefore dinner and this after noon