France
Feb. 14, 1917

Dear Bro -

I received your very welcome letter from home of Jan 11, last Saturday, and it always cheers me up to get the home news. I just got a letter from Janet to-night, she seems to be having a pretty good time at Guelph. I guess I am a day later in writing this week but the fact is we have had another move. We have moved out of the dugouts and are up with the 3rd Entrenching headquarters just now. We were in the dugouts thirty-six days and we just worked thirty-four.

We had yesterday off to get moved about two miles but we just got in from work about 4 a.m. the night before. To-day we were on a working party not far from here. We were putting up an internment camp. I was handling barbed wire all day. Four of us ran off about twenty bales. Some wires are put on straight but most of it was run off the spool and let tangle for making entanglements inside the fence to keep Fritz from taking a notion to crawl through under some night We are having a change at least. We are quartered in tents but the job isn't quite so hard. At the last there was a good foot of frost to pick through and then about five feet of chalk in the bottom of the trench.

The weather has softened a little, it thaws quite a bit towards noon, but is frozen quite hard in the morning. They seem to think the winter has been pretty cold for France. It was pretty nippy for a few nights. It always seemed to be the coldest just about the time we went to work or about sunset.

I am glad you have gotten two letters since we moved from the Base. The two of them seemed to go across to-gether somehow.

Janet mentioned something about not getting one of the parcels I sent home from London England. I suppose if you haven't gotten it by this time that you will probably never see it. She wanted me to tell her at least what was in it. There was a half dozen of handkerchiefs, four for mother, one each for Maybelle and Kathleen and a fountain pen for Janet.

I think that last letter contained a lot of news for its size. You seem to be getting on pretty well with the wood-cutting and logging. I am glad the team is coming up to the mark in some things. I suppose they would go at the logs just like taking a load of gravel out of the pit. Just like as if they only had on a wheelbarrowful. Pork seems to be worth something now-a-days I remember that sometimes when I am eating my slice of bacon for breakfast, and often wish for more. Cattle is looking up too. Are you fattening any of the young stock this spring like last year.

Has Mr. Sharpe had a return of his old trouble. Father and mother seem to have had quite a time at Elenville. I wouldn't have minded the banquet part of the programme myself.

Talk about freight being tied up with munitions, if you were over here you would think that there must have been some transporting to get through the amount of shells and stuff stacked up here in places like cordwood.

Has Harry been sick or was it just a cold he needed medicine for. I hope he has not had any bad effects from his dose of poison, he would be pretty sick for awhile.

I got a letter from Toronto from Mr. Scott when the Canadian mail came in. The Canadian mail seems to come across about twice a week. I also got one from Victoria Rowcliffe saying that they had sent that parcel but it got here before the letter did for a wonder. It is queer how they work that parcel post business.

I am pretty well but was not sorry to have a change of jobs again. We have not had any further word about going up to the 58th

Things seem to be more lively on this part of the front the last few days. The artillery has been pretty active at times. Some noise when it all starts moving.

I hope everybody is well at home and everything is going right. Earl Mitchell seems to have had quite a siege of sickness, I guess this is all this time.

From your Bro.
John Strang