Kamloops Jan 18th/82

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Dear Sister Tempe

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I received a letter from you some months ago which I could not well answer just then as I was very busy, working by day and far into the night, but I had no intention that such a long time should pass without writing.

I suppose I am too much in the habit of putting off writing my letters for a season of more leisure or a time more convenient in some way, and such a time never seems to come. In reality I never have much spare time unless it be by night and I do so hate to write by night that I am everlastingly behind with my little accounts and even business letters which require some urgency are often delayed.

Times here for business are dreadfully dreadfully dull and have been for a number of years, there being but little money in circulation.

Scarce anything one produces on a farm can be turned into cash unless it be beef cattle and even they are very low and not of ready sale as the market is overstocked with them. Last spring the weather was cold and wet, so much so that that grain crops were late in ripening and the rains and the early frosts in the fall damaged most of the grain. I had near 100 acres in grain and by good luck rather than by good management secured it without harm as I am aware of, but the year before my wheat was a failure altogether otherwise than for fodder. The winter before last was the coldest and longest and most severe in every way on record here, and a third of all the cattle in the country died I believe, if not more. I lost nearly a third of mine after feeding most of my grain. Not from starvation but as I believe from exposure to the fierce cold winds and the extreme cold.

Owing to these mishaps and to the failure of a number of my creditors to meet their engagements I have been hard enough pushed for the last three years to make ends meet. Having been forced to live most economically and do without things I have been greatly in need of.

However I now have some 200 head of cattle, I believe, and about 40 horses and the steers I may sell next summer and the grain I can dispose of I hope will place me out of debt and buy me a few comforts besides.

Last fall I had some excellent apples, from 15 to 20 bushels I think, as good fruit as I ever ate any where I think but my pear and plumb trees all died two years ago and my cherries. About three plumb trees only so far recovered as to bear a little fruit last summer. Plumbs as large as hen’s eggs nearly and wonderfully nice.

Currents I have had every year since the bushes were large enough to bear in abundance, both red and black.

I was unable to collect any wild flower seeds for you and in fact I know of none which are curious or pretty. There are but few varieties here and most that I have seen are similar to such as you have. 

I have written this at night and in great haste and there are things I may have written about which would interest you more perhaps if I had time to think.

So far this winter the weather has been wonderfully mild and there is not over twoo or three inches of snow on the ground nor has there been, only for a little time at very first and we usually look for the winter to be breaking up in a month from now.

Your affectionate brother

Whit. Chase