Iowa Farm in Winter

Iowa Farm in Your Pocket: A Beginner's Guide, by Kirk Murray

December 8, 1909—excerpt from BACHELOR BESS

Bachelor Bess: The Homesteading Letters of Elizabeth Corey, 1909-1919, contains the letters Bess wrote home to her family after she staked a homesteading claim in Fort Pierre, South Dakota.

December 8, 1909 / Fort Pierre, South Dakota
To: Mrs. M. M. Corey

"You folks think you know something about cold weather but you dont. I had got used to having my hair, eyebrows and eyewinkers covered with frost and ice till I looked like Santa Clause when I got to school but Sun. night beat that all hollow. I went to bed with the covers over my head and just a little air hole over my right eye and when I woke up in the night I found when I put up my hand to turn down the covers that my hair and the blanket were covered with hoar frost. . . ."

Bachelor Bess: The Homesteading Letters of Elizabeth Corey, 1909-1919, edited by Philip L. Gerber

February Gardening Tip

Considering how windy this winter has been, we thought it was only appropriate to give you some pointers on how to protect your plants from wind.

Contrary to popular belief, tin cans protect seedlings only from winds. They do not protect from cold. For cold protection for seedlings planted early, remove the lid and cut off the bottom of a plastic milk jug and place over the plant. Remove in mid-May.

—Barbara Rusk, Ames Garden Club

Gardening in Iowa and Surrounding Areas, by Veronica Lorson Fowler with the Federated Garden Clubs of Iowa