movies
The sum total of my knowledge about the Wilders and movies is that Rose Wilder Lane hated Shirley Temple, or at least she wrote that she did. I only mention movies because it's Academy Awards night and I've only been to two movies this Oscar year. One was "Finding Neverland," which I enjoyed a lot, even though I recognized the historical inaccuracies it contained.

Another made-for-television "Little House" movie will be broadcast next month, and I'm sure there will be people quick to point out every last nano-scene that doesn't meet their definition of accurate. Enough already!

I can enjoy a movie about a favorite author in spite of the inaccuracies, as long as it's a good movie -- well written with believable characters. If it's a bad movie, all the accuracy in the world isn't going to make it worth sitting through.

It's the same with books. That Burr Oak book is no LH book....
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:55 AM

 
another wilder in the west
I am confused about Laura Wilder Howard (Almanzo's sister) and the time she spent in De Smet in the 1880s. Supposedly Laura Ingalls and Laura Howard worked side-by-side sewing in De Smet.

Laura Wilder had married Harrison Howard in 1874 and they had four children. If Eliza Jane had charge of two of her sister's children for a while (as she wrote in her homestead file), and if Laura Howard was in De Smet without children for a while (when she was living with Eliza Jane and working as a seamstress) - where were the Howard children during this second period of time? Were two of them in De Smet, or all four? Or none? Why was Laura Howard living and working in De Smet when she had four children.... where? Why did she leave Minnesota and (apparently) her children in the first place?

What is most puzzling is that Harrison Howard's headstone inthe cemetery in Spring Valley indicates that he died in 1897, as do death records. Eliza Jane wrote that her sister had "no means of support except their father" in the early 1880s, but what about Harrison Howard? Was the couple separated? Divorced?

Obviously there is more here than meets the eye.
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:16 AM

 
ankle grabbing
I've been reading accounts "old timers" wrote about Burr Oak in the 1860s and 70s. Lots of them remembered fondly the deep old swimming hole in Silver Creek. It was north of town and, yes, it was the same Silver Creek that trickles behind the Masters Hotel today. So I got to thinking... What if the swimming story from On the Banks of Plum Creek actually happened in Burr Oak?
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:57 AM

 
say cheese
It pops up every now and then somewhere: a discussion about when the photograph of Mary, Laura, and Carrie Ingalls was taken, and if Grace's photo was taken at the same time.

When Anderson's Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography was published in 1992, it contained (and still does!) side-by-side full-page copies of the Carrie/Mary/Laura photo and the Grace photo. The caption beneath the "three girls" photo dated it to "around 1880." Details that you couldn't make out in, say, the photographs in Zochert's book, were fun to analyze and puzzle over using a magnifying glass.

Were those the Indian beads Carrie was wearing? Why was Mary holding a book if she was blind? Didn't Laura say she started wearing her hair up when the family moved to Dakota Territory? Why wasn't Grace photographed with her sisters? Why is Laura making a fist? Had Mary's hair grown out after being shorn close? Is that curtain behind Laura's head or fluffy hair? Is her hair in ringlets? Has Grace been crying? Is Grace sitting in the same chair that's in the other photo? Is that fringe beneath Laura's hand? Is she gripping the back of Mary's chair? How old does Grace look? Is that the same fold in the drape in both photos? Does Carrie look frail? Is Mary too flat-chested to be fifteen? Does Mary look blind? Why is Mary wearing a ring?

Interesting questions, and fun to ponder. But invariably, someone will point out that the girls had to sit still for thirty seconds or more "back in those days" to have a photograph taken. The truth is, by 1880 - and years earlier, in fact (if, like me, you think the photographs were taken earlier than then), photographers were using the wet collodion process which had drastically reduced exposure time to only a few seconds or less, depending on the light. This was followed by gelatin emulsion, then dry plate photography.

Somebody should ponder how you get a toddler - such as Grace Ingalls - to hold still with a calm expression on their face for thirty seconds.
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:15 PM

 
let's follow the moonpath
There's a full moon tonight. It's clear and cold, but calm. I'm here alone, so I decided to take a night-time stroll around the pond, mainly to see if there would be a silvery moonpath like the one Laura and Carrie follow when they slide on Silver Lake.

It was very bright outside and I could see my way clearly. The snow had mostly blown to one side of the pond, but there was no moonpath. Now, I know the pond is solidly frozen, because kids play hockey on it, but I'm not sure I could have been tempted to slide even if there had been a lovely moonpath.

Mostly I thought about all the times I walked around that pond with the dog - me with my walking stick and her swimming after ducks or bounding away through the tall grass or leaping through the snow. I remembered the times we'd go sit in the snow and just watch the world go by for a while. I know for a fact that Georgia would have walked across the ice tonight, moonpath or no. And I would have followed.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:10 AM

 
when i am old
When I am old, maybe there will be a retirement home where all the LIW obsessed can grow senile together with our folders and bits and piles of research. What I'm afraid, though, is that all my brain cells will turn to mush except the ones that hold the LIW content. I'll turn into one of the Ingalls girls, and often murmur, "If only Freddy had lived" or "I wish Minnie Johnson had kept in touch."

There are certain LIW people I hope don't show up at said home, because they'd probably want to play mad dog.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:12 AM

 
twilight knitting
When LIW was 76, she wrote: "I like to crochet and knit and embroider, to piece quilts and quilt them. I have done and still do a great deal of such work."

Some of Laura's needlework references were edited out of the "Little House" books prior to publication -- little things like saying that Laura was crocheting with Clark's Number 10 thread or that Mary's apron had a pocket to keep her yarn from rolling to the floor. But it's obvious from the items on display in Mansfield that Laura loved fancy-work. Maybe it was only certain aspects of hand-sewing that she didn't like?

In the manuscript for By the Shores of Silver Lake, it's knitting that Mary doesn't put away at twilight because she can see with her fingers. Mary was knitting a pair of socks for Pa; they show up at Christmas in the published version. Ma put the stitches on the needles for Mary, and Laura picked up stitches that Mary dropped.

I thought about twilight knitting today. I was knitting on two-color socks when the sun went down and I couldn't tell the colors apart, so I had to stop. I thought about Mary, but what I really wanted to know was what kind of heel she used in Pa's socks!
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:51 AM

 
article swap
I've been sitting here working on a Burr Oak map. I started it a few weeks ago and got frustrated with the look of the "slanted" town block outlines, so I shelved the project for a while. I'm sure there must be a reason towns are laid out at a slight angle. De Smet is 15 degrees east of north; part of Burr Oak is west of north. I appreciate the fact you can draw Walnut Grove using only horizontal and vertical lines!

It's hard to get back to maps after a while away from them; I have to be in the mood to work with them. I had actually drawn a Burr Oak Township map and forgot why I drew it. There were little red squares that I finally figured out were 1870s' schoolhouses, but it's not like Laura Ingalls Wilder mentions any schoolhouse but the one she and Mary attended, and that only in Pioneer Girl. I guess at some point I felt the need to point out the other schoolhouses in the area.

But just now, I stopped and decided to look through the pile of Burr Oak folders and refresh my memory about Burr Oak in general. And I found something that was totally unrelated to Burr Oak, and it made me smile.

It was a summer 1998 letter from Gina at MUMPS headquarters, only that was pre-MUMPS, discussing the RWL articles we were in the process of copying for each other. I hadn't realized that we'd been swapping articles for that long! What made me laugh was that I've now got so many LIW-related things of Gina's here that I keep them in a plastic storage container. [It's the "in case I die, everybody knows these aren't mine" box...]

I'm not a very organized person; I'll admit that I do best when there are piles of papers around me and stacks of books on the floor and about a half dozen projects in the works. It's probably a good idea to be going through folders. No telling what else I might find.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:25 AM

 
fred dow and the surveyors' house
I'm becoming even more familiar with Fred Dow's family. There are all sorts of "things" written (even by Mr. Dow himself) that say that the Surveyors' House was located on his claim. I'm just having a hard time wrapping my brain around that one, and I'd like to be convinced, I really would. The land in question is the SE 27-111-56. It's north of Silver Lake, a half mile east of original De Smet, and the railroad tracks run through it. The original town's 4 blocks are in the SW 27.

The story is that Fred Dow filed on his claim in June 1879 [correct; he first filed on June 3], and that he went home to Minnesota, then returned in April 1880 to find a house on his claim [the Surveyors' House] with a family [the Ingallses] living in it. Mr. Dow said that he returned in April to "establish residency" on his claim and to build a sod shanty. The trouble is that his claim was a tree claim - meaning there was no residency requirement. Of course he could live there, though.

Also, Fred Dow is on the Minnesota census for (June) 1880, along with his parents. So. Did he "establish residency" then go back to Minnesota shortly afterwards? His father, James Dow, filed on a tree claim to the east of his son's, but he relinquished it to his son in 1882, and it became Fred Dow's preemption.

The rest of the story is that supposedly Mr. Dow was sought out at his home in Minnesota and asked if he would "sell or trade" his land so that the town site [that would be De Smet] could be located there. He said no. The townsite was platted in September 1879. You just wonder how "they" found him in Minnesota...

It ended up that the town was built on the homestead filed on by Richard Pope, but his is a name you never hear.

Where I have a hard time with all this is that De Smet history tells us that the Surveyors' House was moved into town years later. But when? There's a plat map from the early 1880s and it doesn't show a house on Fred Dow's tree claim at all. But it shows a house on Robert Boring's homestead claim to the south. To the south of Fred Dow, and the land that actually includes the north shore of Silver Lake. So I have a hard time understanding how the Surveyors' House could be on a tree claim with no house, and on the north shore of Silver Lake when the north shore isn't part of the land in question.

Fred Dow is worth studying, and so are his brothers. One was Edwin Dow, who married Frank Cooley's sister. Another was James J. Dow, who was the superintendent of the blind school in Fairbault, Minnesota. James Dow had a daughter named Mary Amelia. Fred Dow married Mary Glover, and her siblings were some of Laura Ingalls' students in the Wilkin School; Mary was no longer attending school in 1885. Nate Dow and Fred Dow shared a common Dow ancestor 7 generations back.
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:59 AM

 
grandma wilder
You hear about Rose Wilder going to Crowley, Louisiana, to finish high school. You hear about Eliza Jane Wilder in Crowley. But when Rose was in Crowley, wasn't her Grandmother Wilder living close by? Mrs. Wilder died the year after Rose graduated, and she was living with Perley at the time- not too many miles from Crowley. But I don't think I've ever read anything that suggests that Rose ever spent any time with her grandmother. Sad...
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:01 AM

 
by great jupiter
I was looking through The Long Winter tonight and stopped at the part where Mary, Laura, and Carrie have an "entertainment" by reciting from the Independent Fifth Reader (Grace recites nursery rhymes). I've had a copy of the 5th Reader for years, but it's been years since I paid much attention to it, so I decided to read The Speech of Regulus and the poems Laura and Carrie recite: Tubal Cain, The Sculptor Boy, The Swan's Nest, and Paul Revere's Ride.

The only one I was familiar with was Paul Revere's Ride, since I memorized that in the 8th grade. I didn't expect to be entertained by the 5th Reader, but here it is two hours later and I've decided I may as well just start over and read it cover to cover. The night is young.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:56 AM

 
pure green skies
And the other thing I didn't remember from Little Town on the Prairie...

So Laura said, "The sun is sinking, Mary, into white downy clouds that spread to the edge of the world. All the tops of them are crimson, and streaming down from the top of the sky are great gorgeous curtains of rose and gold with pearly edges. They are a great canopy over the whole prairie. The little streaks of sky between them are clear, pure green."

Pure green sky? I was convinced that Laura meant blue and this was another HarperCollins typo, but it's blue in the Sewell edition and in the manuscript. I live in the land of big sky, and I've been watching sunsets lately with green sky in mind. I suppose the golden light could cause a green color, but I've not seen it. Maybe it's a fall thing, not a winter one.

I also didn't remember the earlier "fancy" description of the sky - the one Mary didn't care for, comparing the sky to a king's bed curtains being closed around his bed. Back in By the Shores of Silver Lake, Mary didn't care for Laura's description of the road breaking off at the edge of the sky, but it seems okay now for clouds to spread to the edge of the same sky.

Anyway, what I always notice in this chapter of Little Town in the Prairie is that Ma is going to make cottage cheese balls with onion for Mary's last night at home. And Mary doesn't like onion!

The last thing Laura "sees" for Mary on this last walk together is more sky: "The sun has gone through the white clouds. It is a huge, pulsing ball of liquid fire. The clouds above it are scarlet and crimson and gold and purple, and the great sweeps of cloud over the whole sky are burning flames."

It's often been said that Laura Ingalls Wilder's talent for vivid description must have come from seeing everything out loud for blind Mary. But did you ever stop to think how short a period of time this actually would have taken place? Mary lost her sight in the summer of 1879. She left for college two years later. A good part of one of those descriptive years was spent during the hard winter, when one supposes there wasn't that much to describe, vividly or no. When Mary returned from college for good, Laura was married and no longer living at home. Of course Laura visited Mary on occasion, but "seeing aloud for Mary" was really only Laura's full-time job for about two years.

Certainly Laura was quick enough to see "for two," and the years she spent being Mary's eyes helped hone an already-existing talent; it didn't create it.
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:25 AM

 
thunder-pumps
Morning freshness was in the air. Meadow larks were singing, and up from the Big Slough rose the thunder-pumps with long legs dangling and long nexks out-stretched, giving their short, booming cry.

I finished reading Little Town on the Prairie for the eleventy-seventh time yesterday, and I made note of a couple of things that I honestly didn't remember from other readings. LIW's mention of "thunder-pumps" was one of them: see Chapter 5, "Working in Town."

The bird is the American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus), an endangered species of the heron family. They inhabit wet, marshy areas - like the Big Slough - and their song is described as a booming "ooooom-a-lunk" that carries for long distances.

You can google to hear the call of the American Bittern. Montana Fish, Wildlife, & Parks has a wav file linked to their online field guide. After listening to the call, I don't think I've ever heard one at the Big Slough all the times I've been there (and all the nights I've spent on the Ingalls homestead). But there are recently-taken photos online of bitterns in Brookings, so hopefully they're still hanging out in De Smet as well.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:17 AM

 
"i am going to serve a tea for refreshments"
Laura Ingalls Wilder hosted her Study Club in February 1939. She wrote Rose that she was going to serve a tea for refreshments. She would make sandwiches this way: "Cut the slices of bread, equal number of brown and white, with a heart shaped cutter. Then out of the center of half the slices of each, cut a smaller heart. Spread the whole heart and on it put a heart with the small heart cut out of its center. Then put a little brown cut out heart in the cut out place in a white sandwich. And in a brown sandwich put a little white heart."
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:36 AM

 
"as near as i can figure, e.j. was right"
What year was Almanzo Wilder born?

In a letter to Rose written in 1937, Laura wrote: "Manly was supposed to be 21 years old. To enter a homestead a man must be 21 or the head of a household (married). E.J. told later (she would) that he was only 18. Manly has never admitted it but as near as I can figure E.J. was right."

It always seemed funny to me that Laura wouldn't know when her own husband was born. Or did she know, and we don't? I'm not talking about book Almanzo at all, but the real one. The real one whose birthday was February 13... but what year?

The Wilder family Bible burned, so that's no help. Almanzo's birth wasn't recorded in Franklin County NY birth records, so no help there either. He's not on church records in Franklin County or in Fillmore County, Minnesota.

Looking at censuses (which aren't always correct!), even they aren't consistent as to Almanzo's age. -- In 1860, Almanzo is listed as 1 year old (as of June 1, 1860). If he was born in 1857, he would have been 3. Royal's and E.J.'s ages agree with their birth years. -- In 1870, Almanzo is listed as 11 (but both Royal and E.J. are two years off). -- On the 1875 Minnesota State census, Almanzo is listed as 14; Perley (the only other child at home) is listed as 6 (correct if born in 1869). -- On the 1875 New York state census, Almanzo is listed as 16, with no occupation and not in school. -- On the 1880 Dakota census, Almanzo is listed as 22 (Royal 32, E.J. 29). -- In 1900, Almanzo is listed as 39. -- In 1910, Almanzo is listed as 51. -- In 1920, Almanzo is listed as 61. -- In 1930, Almanzo is listed as 73. Btw, his death certificate says he was born in 1857, information given by Laura.

There's a sometimes consistent 2-year difference in Almanzo's age through the years. Not exactly scientific, but on top of Laura's apparent belief that Almanzo was too young to homestead in 1879, enough to make one wonder.

Then there are a couple of interesting items in Wilder history. In a supposed 1872 letter, James Wilder wrote that Almanzo was working out for a dollar per day. At age 13? At age 15? In an 1874 letter, James Wilder wrote that Almanzo was in school. At age 17? The 1875 census (age 14 given) does indicate that Almanzo was in school. (I probably shouldn't say that I find it hard to believe that Almanzo was still in school at age 17.)

Almanzo needed to be 21 in order to homestead. If he was actually born in 1857, there would have been no question about his age. But even before publication of By the Shores of Silver Lake (in which Almanzo is introduced again, but not his age), Laura is writing that "as near as she can figure out," Almanzo was too young to homestead. Remember too, that Almanzo filed on his claim in 1879, not 1880. An 1857 birth year makes him old enough to file; an 1859 birth year does not. I even looked at marriage, death, and divorce records in Minnesota and Dakota Territory, thinking that perhaps there was a first wife who died. If Almanzo had been married, he could have filed on a claim, no matter what his age.

Sometimes you take things on faith. Sometimes it doesn't matter. Sometimes you dig and dig and you still aren't satisfied. I'm still not satisfied.
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:40 PM

 
who?
Fred Dow, Romanzo Bunn, George Pirlet, Thomas Garvin, Jonathan Otis, Walter Wheat, Porter Johnson, Metta Aldrich, Merle Trousdale, Nettie Fonger, Alma Davies, Vena Rowan, May McCarney... These are just a few of the people Laura Ingalls knew in De Smet, but didn't include in the LH books.

Romanzo Bunn invented the Bunn Package Tying Machine. It is still in use in Post Offices all over the United States.
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:56 AM

 
there's something wrong with this picture
A few years ago, while on the telephone with my mother, one of my daughter's friends interrupted to ask what our dog's name was. "Georgia," I replied. "We named her after my grandmother." At which point my mother interrupted to tell me that my grandmother's name wasn't Georgia, it was Georgie.

I knew who baptised Louis Bouchie, but I didn't know my own grandmother's name? Sad, but true. I never really researched my own family, probably because I have relatives who do a thorough job of it. For the record, my father's mother's maiden name was Georgie Francis Sisk (1901-1921).

And Louis Bouchie (1859-1894) was baptised by Reverend John Bate.
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:33 AM

 
cemeteries and headstones
Today is Laura Ingalls Wilder's death day. It's also the day Rose's dog Bunting died. On a happy note, it's Mrs. Power's birth day.

I've had people be horrified that I want my ashes plowed under at the Ingalls Homestead when I die. "What, no marker so your descendants can find you in a hundred years?" I don't care whether they know where I am or not, which even I don't quite understand, seeing as how I spend a lot of my time finding out death and burial details of all those "Little House" characters.

But no marker. Plowed under would be preferable (behind horses, please), but it's also fine with me if my ashes get dumped down a gopher hole. I wouldn't want anybody to be squeamish about eating something that grew in my area. In my perfect fantasy, someone is plowing me under while whistling "Here's to the Maiden," my favorite LH song. And since it was a drinking song, if anybody thinks they just have to be there, they might as well be raising a glass of something. To drink, not toast with.

I hate funerals, and I hope to never go to another one. I love cemeteries - every bit as much as I don't want my final resting place to be in one. When I visit De Smet, I also visit Myrta Spooner's grave in Lake Preston. She's not a LH character and I doubt she ever knew Laura, but they were about the same age and the Spooner and Ingalls families lived seven miles from each other in the 1880s. When I was deep into school research years ago and studying every school district in Kingsbury County, it seemed like almost every month there was some glowing report about Myrta and how well she was doing in school. Myrta wanted to be a teacher and helped with classes in the Lake Preston school about the time Laura was busy lamenting the fact that she was going to have to teach. Laura may have wanted a college education, but Myrta got one; she was in classes when Laura was in the classroom. And one winter break in 1886, Myrta came home, got sick, and died -- aged 17 years, 11 months, and 26 days. I tell you, I just cried when I learned that.

So I visit Myrta's grave and think (as I'm sure her family did) of what she might have become and what she did in her short life. One trip to Wisconsin also included a weekend in Walnut Grove, and I remember having a few hours to myself one afternoon, so I drove to De Smet. It was a pageant weekend and the place was so crowded that I (imagine this) didn't even visit the Homestead or the Memorial Society or even drive down Third Street. I didn't go to the De Smet Cemetery, but I stopped at the Lake Preston one.

As for the De Smet Cemetery, I'd like to someday raise a glass of fine Scotch whiskey to old Tom Power there, but I fear it's the kind of thing that would get you written about in the newspaper, and not pleasantly... So I'll be content to raise one in spirit, and wish the Ingalls markers weren't set in concrete and Pa's marker hadn't been moved to the front (he's really buried in the back row of that lot), and wish somebody hadn't seen the need to outfit many of the graves in those newer uniform grave markers. For pete's sake, some of those LH people might not have wanted markers; they might have wanted to be plowed under.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:35 AM

 
didn't ma ever go anywhere?
Although I'm a real home-body myself (except for research trips!), I wonder about Caroline Ingalls. She arrived in De Smet (or what would become De Smet) in September 1879 and as far as I've been able to figure, she only left the county that one time in 1881 when she and Pa took Mary to college. So in her forty-three and a half years living in Dakota, did she only leave the one time? Didn't Ma ever go anywhere?

We know that Pa took Mary to Chicago. We all know where Laura went. Carrie traveled to the west coast, and she spent years living in Colorado and Wyoming. Grace vacationed on the west coast and in Minnesota. Rose was all over the world. But Ma stayed home. After Pa died, it doesn't seem that she even left the neighborhood.

Obviously, Caroline Ingalls really meant what she wrote before her 1860 marriage: Who could wish to leave home and wander forth in the world to meet its tempests and its storms? ...Not one. It seems to me, though, that Ma had her own share of tempests and storms no matter where her home was, and whether she left it or not.
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:18 AM

 
railroad maps
Every now and then I find something that makes me stop and think about the railroad, specifically the Chicago & Dakota branch of the Chicago & NorthWestern Railroad that was laying track west of the Winona & St. Peter line that stopped in Tracy, Minnesota, back in 1879. I've spent the better part of the last three hours looking at Minnesota maps, section by section from Tracy west. I'll probably be at it for a while, but I just thought I should check in before midnight. Btw, you need written permission from the Vice President of today's railroad (Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern) before you can walk (explore) the railroad right-of-way. And don't forget to be wearing safety orange when you do...
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:56 AM

 
happy laura ingalls wilder's birthday
Tonight I made whole wheat rolls in honor of Laura's birthday. It's not that I didn't want to make gingerbread or celebrate by having graham crackers with chocolate frosting inside, I just wanted to make rolls.

I guess because of our recent return to winter weather, I've been thinking about the hard winter and things like sour dough biscuits. I have some sourdough starter descendant from the '70s (the 1870s!) and both seed wheat and whole wheat flour in the freezer. I started thinking about grinding some of the wheat in my coffee grinder and making biscuits - honest to goodness "Little House" late-in-the-hard-winter biscuits. So I moved the starter to the refrigerator a few days ago in anticipation of today.

I spent some time looking at sour dough bread/biscuit recipes the other day. Some of them actually call for milk, but that's not the way Caroline Ingalls explained it. Sour dough starter was the substitute for sour milk, and biscuits contain lard or butter or some other fat, which the Ingallses didn't have all winter. All the recipes I see for biscuits also call for baking powder, even the one in the "Little House" Cookbook. Did Ma have baking powder throughout the hard winter? After the trains got through, she was thankful for "cream of tartar and plenty of saleratus," so apparently not. Saleratus is sodium or potassium bicarbonate (i.e. baking soda), and baking powder is pretty much the same as two parts cream of tartar and one part baking soda.

So whatever Ma ended up calling what she made: biscuits or brown bread, they weren't biscuits, but bread. "We don't need yeast or milk to make good bread," Ma says in The Long Winter, Chapter 19, "Where There's a Will." Then again, late in the hard winter, Ma is adding baking soda to her starter; oh well. What I made tonight is the baked combination of 3 cups flour, 1/2 cup starter, 1-1/2 cups warm water, and a little salt. Without grease, it's pretty much the equivalent of whole wheat French bread, I'd say. I ground about 1 cup of flour from "seed wheat" and used commercial flour for the rest. It rose several hours and I cheated and greased the bowl. I made one round free-form loaf in a cast iron pan, and I greased that too.

I liked it, but my family has more modern tastes so I also made angel biscuits. These are guaranteed to rise, having both baking powder and yeast. The recipe also calls for milk, butter, and sugar. I will try not to mention "Little House" food until Almanzo's birthday, when I will make stacked pancakes, and tuck them under a blanket cake.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:41 AM

 
backward, turn backward
I've spent the past few days trying to organize hundreds of pages of De Smet research into one nice, neat document. I sat at the computer all day yesterday; I never even got dressed all weekend; sometimes that's how it goes when you're on a mission. I'm not anywhere near being finished and my eyesight is fast giving out, so I'm off to make boiled custard from scratch, then go to bed, where I won't read before falling asleep; I know my eyes couldn't handle it, even if there is a huge bundle of papers sitting here that sure could use sorting.

Let's see if I can remember the custard recipe from scratch... Scald 5 cups of whole milk. Reduce heat slightly. Add 3/4 cup sugar and 2-1/2 heaping tablespoons cornstarch. Slowly add 1 whole egg and 3 egg yolks (beaten together), cooking and stirring constantly until the custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and add two teaspoons vanilla. Strain. -- Obviously this is wicked bad stuff but very tasty.
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:26 PM

 
to go with our bread and butter
Gina and I have proven it to be true: there's not a thing on earth that you can't come up with a LH association for. Some things are just easier than others, and a person has to be mighty quick to come up with something faster than Gina, who is the master. But there I was, having a solo LH moment at Harthorn's this week. Okay, it was really Wal-mart, but you get the idea.

Right there on the shelf were little flat tins of smoked herring. And suddenly I hear Pa say: "I've brought us a treat! Smoked herring, to go with our bread and butter!" (Little Town on the Prairie, Chapter 8, "Fourth of July")

I didn't buy any. But what a great idea it would be to give people canned herring and firecrackers on July 4, with a little note attached: "To go with your bread and butter." And suddenly I'm trying to figure out the legal way to mail food and firecrackers across country, and wishing the event this July in De Smet was a few weeks earlier, because wouldn't that make a great gift for friends who'll be there and sure to get the connection immediately?

I guess I'll just have to give everyone some turnip seed...
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:32 AM

 
the truth about lemon verbena
Laura Ingalls Wilder never mentioned lemon verbena. Not the plant, not the scent, not in any manuscript or book or article, not once. Period.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:07 PM

 
good hickory smoke
In Little House in the Big Woods, Pa has a hollow tree smokehouse. I always wondered what kind of tree it was - hickory, maybe? Somehow it always bothered me that Pa reached up inside through the door and down through the roof to hang meat on nails he had nailed inside - again, as far as he could reach to nail from both ends.

There was a smokehouse story edited out of the Farmer Boy manuscript before publication, also a maple-sugaring story edited out, among others. But in the Farmer Boy smokehouse tree, Father Wilder hung his meat from nails at the top of the tree, on strings of varying lengths so that the meat was suspended throughout the hollow cavity.

We know the Ingallses had string, because Pa used some to tie the end of the pig's bladder. Not that there needs to be a vote or anything, but I like Father Wilder's way best.
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:49 PM

 
cottonwood trees
In looking for something, anything, that may have happened today in "Little House" history, I read an interesting report written in 1911 (but alas, in July):

What is thought to be the largest tree in De Smet is a cottonwood in A.W. Hoyt's yard that measures seven and a half feet in circumference ten feet from the ground. This tree was set out by David Floyd about thirty years ago. The next largest tree is in W.S. Andrews' front yard, also a cottonwood measuring seven feet. This tree is now being cut down, being past its usefulness as a shade tree. The cottonwood is a rapid growing tree and was quite generally planted in the early days, but it is too short lived to be of much value and no one has planted them during recent years.

Lest people wonder why nobody measured Pa's cottonwoods at the time, I'm sure that trees "so far" out of town wouldn't have been worth fooling with.

The cottonwood (Populus fremontii) is a tree that grows where it can keep its feet wet, i.e. next to a slough. The western side of the Ingalls homestead provided the perfect habitat. If you look around next time you're at the Homestead, there are other cottonwoods still growing around the perimeter of the land. I've seen photos from when most of the 160 acres was in hay, and I'd imagine anything planted farther in just didn't stand a chance.

Everything I've studied says that the life expectancy of a cottonwood is 150 years maximum, and that a 100 year old tree is oooold. If the trees on the Ingalls Homestead are indeed some of the ones Pa planted, then they are already more than 125 years old (if he planted actual trees, not seed). They're not likely to be around for too many more generations to enjoy, except in photographs. [I hardly ever see postcards of the Lone Cottonwood anymore, yet 15 years ago that was a hot item.]

Nobody asked me, but I'd be taking softwood cuttings from those trees every spring and rooting them like crazy, and I'd be collecting the seed from female trees and planting those as well. I'd be nurturing the volunteer trees that spring up by the road, and moving some of them to a site where they'd get less competition from their elders. I know I'd pay good money for one of "Pa's" cottonwood tree clones or offspring, and I bet a lot of other people would too. Don't be waiting 25 years and then thinking something should have been done (and I don't mean selling little disks of dead cottonwood wood...).
- posted by pioneergirl at 3:56 PM

 
shelf life
What's the shelf life for a LIW obsession? In my case, it hasn't expired. I know a handful of others who keep researching and learning about Laura Ingalls Wilder and don't disappear suddenly or rest on their laurels.

I don't know why it should matter, but I always seem to be surprised when someone who has had a serious interest in "all things Laura" suddenly disappears after a month or even two years at it.

This is Laura's birth month. She was born February 7 (1867), and most fans know that. More serious readers might know that today is Caroline and Charles Ingalls' wedding anniversary (1860). If you're a Farmer Boy enthusiast, you might know that James Wilder died on February 1st (1899). If you've really researched, you might know that on this day, the Kingsbury County Bank was incorporated (1885), and if you were getting obsessed about it, you would have remembered to remember that because this was also the day (1892) that Thomas Ruth became president of said bank. And if you went to the time, trouble, and expense to read Rose Wilder Lane's diaries, you'd know that on February 1st, Laura Ingalls Wilder finished her "Indian juvenile". That would be Little House on the Prairie, of course, and the year would be 1934. If you spent a heck of a lot of time picking nits, you'd know that two Missouri Ruralist articles were released on this day: "The Road Women Travel" (1921) and "Turkeys Bring $1000 a Year" (1924). And that's not even all that happened on this first day of February in "Little House" years past, I'm just tired of typing.

Now if there was only someone out there more obsessed than I am, I wish you'd get in touch, especially if you're an expert on tomorrow. The trouble is, as far as I can tell, not a single thing happened in "Little House" history on February 2nd. Laura never even mentioned groundhogs once that I've been able to find...
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:18 AM