"southern lady"
Yesterday I picked up a copy of Southern Lady magazine (published in Birmingham, Alabama, by Hoffman Media), thinking it would be a good joke to mail it to a friend who is lucky enough not to be held hostage in the south. The cover advertises "table settings, easy recipes, flowers, and more!" I wasn't holding too much hope for this publication.

A section of the magazine is about hosting a "Teddy Bear's Picnic," which always suggests a prairie picnic. I had such plans for one of those at the first New Perspectives conference (isn't it about time for another one???), but we ended up doing something else. I've always wanted to host a full-blown prairie party or "Little House" site gathering or run a LH B&B, and it was interesting that this magazine actually had quite a few ideas that could be adapted to the prairie theme quite easily.

One that caught my eye was the "vase in a vase" technique of sandwiching something between a small container of flowers and a larger glass vessel. The photo in Southern Lady uses buttons! I'd thought of wheat kernels or corn or Christmas candy or big conversation hearts, but not buttons. Cute! One photo shows flowers in a tin pail. Why not use a tin lunch pail or a tin cup?

Another photo shows crocheted coasters. There are a couple of patterns in the RWL needlework book that would be suitable. Or use nine patch coasters.

A sugared violet is used to decorate a cupcake.

Then I noticed that at the bottom of an article about collecting cream pitchers (they don't show a cow creamer, but Laura had one), there is this: "It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all." - Laura Ingalls Wilder

There hasn't been a book yet published that did justice to the concept of a "Little House" prairie party. Maybe I should write one.
- posted by pioneergirl at 9:18 PM

 
ma said something that laura could not hear

In On the Banks of Plum Creek (Chapter 14, "Spring Freshet"), Pa looks outside during the night to look at the creek. But he can't see a thing because "it's as dark as a stack of black cats!"

Thanks to earth's light pollution, it would be a rare thing these days to go outside and not be able to see anything. Thanks to five street lights within sight of my front door plus multiple neighbors who feel the need to leave their porch lights on 24-7, I can go outside and read the phone book at any given hour of the night. I do not feel the least bit lucky at being able to do this.

Look at THIS map of the night sky. Light pollution. Even De Smet is lit up in the night sky (yeah, I hate the street light on the Ingalls Homestead, too). On the portion of the map above, De Smet is right below the letter D. Going east (right), the dots are Lake Preston, Arlington, Volga, and Brookings. The big dot west (left) of De Smet is Huron. The bigger dot south of Brookings (at the bottom of the image) is Sioux Falls. Pierre and North Pierre are the double-dots west (left) of Huron. Compared to the dot that is De Smet, where I live has a dot the size of a freaking golf ball.

Once again, mark your calendars to participate in NATIONAL DARK-SKY WEEK from April 17-24. Don't you love how they squeeze an extra day of darkness into that "week"?
This will be during the period of the new moon in April as always.

You don't have to sit around in the dark that week, although it's a thought. But you can think about switching to lower wattage outdoor light bulbs or investigate changing to directional fixtures. Turn off lights in rooms you aren't in, and keep the curtains or blinds closed to keep the light inside. If you have two fixtures outside, unscrew the bulb(s) in one of them. Show your support in simple ways.

Keeping the porch light on during daylight hours is ridiculous any time of the year.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:36 PM

 
rain

- posted by pioneergirl at 10:35 PM

 
"just change a few things, mama bess, and it will be your own..."
Rose Wilder Lane, "Quarrels of the Proverbs," San Francisco Bulletin, February 12, 1915.

Have you heard about the Proverb family?

They quarrel dreadfully.

Here they have been leading us about by the ears ever since we were innocent and confiding babes.

"Let dogs delight to bark and bite for 'tis THEIR nature to," one of those Proverbs used to say to us, sternly, whenever we pulled sister's hair.

And one of the most popular of them is ALWAYS saying:

"Practice what you preach," you know.

So of course we always supposed THE PROVERBS were quite perfect, because they acted so superior to us.

But now they are "talking back" at each other.

Really, there are some DREADFUL disagreements among these Proverbs.

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." Says one of the oldest of them with a very smug expression, I must admit.

"But practice makes perfect." Says one of the younger ones, sweetly. The younger generation is SO disrespectful!

"And if at FIRST you don’t succeed, try, try again," chirps an impatient little one, and makes a face around the corner of the door before he runs away.

"I did not mean that at all," the first Proverb says, angrily.

And adds, sternly, "Children should be seen and not heard."

Whereupon the demure little Proverb sitting in the corner with her hands crossed look up innocently and says:

"Out of the mouth of babes cometh wisdom."

I really should dislike to tell, my dear, what the Proverb family says then.

But they are constantly contradicting each other flatly.

"A rolling stone gathers no moss," one of them-the one with the long gray beard-says pretentiously.

"A setting hen never grows fat," one of the others will retort immediately, in the meanest way.

"An honest man is the noblest work of God," meekly says the tall thin one in the black coat with his long then hair combed straight back. There is nothing generous about the Proverb, you know he means himself the minute he says it.

"Honesty is the best policy," immediately puts in the short, fat one with the watch chain and the plaid suit. And he says it with a very nasty emphasis on "policy."

Oh, they are a hateful family-the Proverbs!

Always trying to do others good.

No wonder we hate to hear them spoken.

Mrs. A.J. Wilder, "When Proverbs Get Together," Missouri Ruralist, September 5, 1918.

It had been a busy day and I was very tired, when just as I was dropping off to sleep I remembered that bit of mending I should have done for the man of the place. Then I must have dreamed, for in my fancy, I saw that rent in the garment enlarge and stretch into startlingly large proportions.

At the same time a familiar voice sounded in my ear, "A stitch in time saves nine," it said.

I felt very discouraged indeed at the size of the task before me and very much annoyed that my neglect should have caused it to increase to nine times its original size, when on the other side of me a cheerful voice insinuated, "It is never too late to mend."

Ah! There was that dear old friend of my grandmother who used to encourage her to work until all hours of the night to keep the family clothes in order. I felt impelled to begin at once to mend that lengthened rent, but paused as a voice came to me from a dark corner saying, "A chain is no stronger than its weakest link."
"Shall a man put new wine into old bottles," chimed in another. Of course not, I thought, then why put new cloth---.

But now the voices seemed to come from all about me. They appeared to be disputing and quarreling, or at least disagreeing among themselves.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive," said a smug, oily voice.

"But practice makes perfect," piped a younger voice, sweetly tho with an impudent expression.

"And if at first you don't succeed, try, try again," chirped a small voice with a snicker and it seemed to me that the room was filled with soft laughter.

Evidently thinking that something should be done to put the younger folks in their place, a proverb with a very stern voice spoke from a far corner. "Children should be seen and not heard," he said and a demure little voice at once answered, "Out of the mouth of babes cometh wisdom."

This was really growing interesting. I had not realized that there were so many wise proverbs and that they might fall out among themselves.

Now a couple of voices made themselves heard, evidently continuing a discussion.

"A rolling stone gathers no moss," said a rather disagreeable voice and I caught a shadowy glimpse of a hoary old proverb with a long, gray beard.
"But a setting hen never grows fat," retorted his companion in a sprightly tone.

"An honest man is the noblest work of God," came a high, nasal voice with a self righteous undertone.

"Ah, yes! Honesty is the best policy, you know," came the answer in a brisk business-like tone, just a little cutting.

"A fool and his money are soon parted," said a thin, tight-lipped voice with a puckering quality I felt sure would draw the purse strings tight.

"Oh, well, money is the root of all evil, why not be rid of it?" answered a jolly, rollicking voice with a hint of laughter in it.

But now there seemed to be danger of a really violent altercation for I heard the words "sowing wild oats," spoken in a cold, sneering tone, while an angry voice retorted hotly, "There is no fool like an old fool," and an admonitory voice added, "It is never too late to mend." Ah! Grandmother's old friend with a different meaning in the words.

Then at my very elbow spoken for my benefit alone, I heard again the words, "It is never too late to mend." Again I had a glimpse of that neglected garment with the rent in it grown to unbelievable size. Must I? At this time of night! But a soft voice whispered in my ear, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," and with a smile at grandmother's friend, I drifted into a dreamless sleep.

- posted by pioneergirl at 10:27 PM

 
hey, billy yank. we would like an apology.
Over half a million farms came into being as a result of the Homestead Act. Heads of family or men over the age of 21, black and white, were allowed to file a claim, as long as they had not borne arms against the United States during the War of Northern Aggression.

My ancestors, part of the almost 75% of southerners who were never slave-owners, were not allowed to homestead. They fought during the unpleasantness because - as the late, great Shelby Foote once put it so well - "the Yankees were down here shooting at us."

I was allowed an all-too-brief taste of the west, and I know for a fact that my ancestors would have homesteaded if they had been allowed to do so. I'm proud that they didn't turn tail and go west anyway, but I'm still a little pissed about the Homestead Act.
- posted by pioneergirl at 9:29 PM

 
"the rediscovered writings of rose wilder lane"
After typing and then deleting the list of stories / articles in the recently published compilation of RWL articles - twice - I'm putting it here so I don't have to go through this again.

The 150-ish page book is edited by Amy Mattson Lauters and published by University of Missouri Press. I am including publishing info for the originals; Lauters didn't include page numbers for locating articles via ILL. Hmmm, might be fun to transcribe the public domain ones from the original.

Mrs. Lane Goes to Hollywood
"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Stars!" Sunset 40 (January 1918): 38-41.
"Mars in the Movies." Sunset 40 (February 1918): 39-42.
"How I Became a Great Actress.." Sunset 39 (October:17-20, November: 29-32, December: 21-2, 1917).

Mrs. Lane Writes about the War
"The Girls They Leave Behind Them." Sunset 41 (November 1918): 36-8.
"A Bit of Gray in a Blue Sky." Ladies Home Journal 36 (August 1919): 33.

Mrs. Lane Writes for the Red Cross
"The Children's Crusade." Good Housekeeping 71 (November 1920): 20-1.
"Mother No. 22,999." Good Housekeeping 70 (March 1920): 22-3.

Mrs. Lane Writes from Abroad
"Budapest for a Bath." World Traveler (May 1923).
"Edelweiss on Chafa Shalit." Harper's 147 (November 1922): 762-8.

Mrs. Lane Writes About Herself
"I, Rose Wilder Lane, [Am the Only Truly Happy Person I Know, And I Discovered the Secret of Happiness the Day I Tried to Kill Myself]..." Cosmopolitan 79 (June 1926): 42-43, 140.
"How I Wrote 'Yarbwoman.'" The Writer (May 1928).

In Mrs. Lane's Opinion
"Don't Send Your Son to College." Woman's Day (August 1938): 4-5, 44.
"We Women are Not Good Citizens." Woman's Day (March 1939).
"Don't Tell Me How to Live My Life." Woman's Day (September 1939): 6-8. Typed manuscript "Let's Be Ourselves Again" from HH Library, Box 31.
"We Who Have Sons." Woman’s Day (December 1939): 4-5, 41, 44.
"Force Won't Keep the Peace." Woman's Day (February 1945).

Mrs. Lane Writes from the Heartland
"We Go to a Wedding." Woman's Day (June 1940).
"Minnesota Farm Boy." Woman's Day (July 1940).

Mrs. Lane's Final Work
"August in Viet Nam." Woman's Day (December 1965): 33-35, 89-90, 92-94.
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:55 AM

 
nobody puts halfpint in a corner
News from Playbill: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/106569.html -- Do you think they'll borrow the song, "Let's Go Pioneering?"

A starry cast has been assembled for the upcoming workshop presentations of Prairie, a new musical based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's popular "Little House on the Prairie" book series.

Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura in the TV version of the "Prairie" books, will play Ma in the workshop of the new 20-character musical with Patrick Swayze, recently seen in the London revival of Guys and Dolls, as Pa. The cast will also boast Sara Chase as Laura, Michael Arden as Almanzo, Sara Ford as Nellie and Olivier Award winner Jenny Galloway as Mrs. Brewster.

The new musical features a book by Beth Henley, music by Rachel Portman and lyrics by Donna DiNovelli. Francesca Zambello, who will helm the upcoming Denver world premiere of Disney's The Little Mermaid, will direct the staged readings of Prairie.

The design team includes Adrianne Lobel (sets), Natasha Katz (lighting) and Martin Pakledinaz (costumes).

Producers of the April 16 and 17 by-invitation-only Manhattan workshop include Ben Sprecher and wife Amy Sprecher; co-producers are Louise Forlenza, Bob Boyett and Wendy Federman.

The producers hope to launch a spring 2008 national tour of Prairie prior to arriving in New York.
- posted by pioneergirl at 7:55 PM

 
nobody puts halfpint in a corner
News from Playbill: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/106569.html -- Do you think they'll borrow the song, "Let's Go Pioneering?"

A starry cast has been assembled for the upcoming workshop presentations of Prairie, a new musical based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's popular "Little House on the Prairie" book series.

Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura in the TV version of the "Prairie" books, will play Ma in the workshop of the new 20-character musical with Patrick Swayze, recently seen in the London revival of Guys and Dolls, as Pa. The cast will also boast Sara Chase as Laura, Michael Arden as Almanzo, Sara Ford as Nellie and Olivier Award winner Jenny Galloway as Mrs. Brewster.

The new musical features a book by Beth Henley, music by Rachel Portman and lyrics by Donna DiNovelli. Francesca Zambello, who will helm the upcoming Denver world premiere of Disney's The Little Mermaid, will direct the staged readings of Prairie.

The design team includes Adrianne Lobel (sets), Natasha Katz (lighting) and Martin Pakledinaz (costumes).

Producers of the April 16 and 17 by-invitation-only Manhattan workshop include Ben Sprecher and wife Amy Sprecher; co-producers are Louise Forlenza, Bob Boyett and Wendy Federman.

The producers hope to launch a spring 2008 national tour of Prairie prior to arriving in New York.
- posted by pioneergirl at 7:55 PM

 
ten inches to go

I have missed almost all of a lovely spring-like day because I've been inside dealing with the contents of one very large wicker laundry basket. This morning it and several shallow boxes were full of papers, printouts, and articles (plus the odd scraps of paper with little notes that I haven't a clue what they mean now!) that had accumulated during the months I was - it seems - doing next to nothing in the way of getting organized.

Once things are put where they're supposed to live, I can usually lay my hands on it fairly quickly. I have filing crates identified for easy grabbing by big labels on the front, each with a "Little House" book title on it. That doesn't mean that Malone research is necessarily in the Farmer Boy crate. In fact, it isn't. I have notebooks for articles by-and-about Laura and Rose, but some articles are in folders. Some folders are in notebooks. Some notebooks are in a box. I used to collect cardboard tomato boxes because they were the perfect size for storing unfiled papers. I had stored them (empty) in my car while it was in storage. The Man of the Place decided to use them to store trash, so good-bye tomato boxes. I therefore have taken over some wooden boxes he made for storing his computer disks, back when people used lots of disks for storage. That's one of his my wooden boxes in the photo above.

I did manage to file everything that belonged in file folders. It's just the notebook stuff that's left "to be dealt with." Over ten inches' worth. De Smet ruler is shown for scale. I guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow.

Oh yeah, and I still have that pile of scraps of paper with the mysterious notes.
- posted by pioneergirl at 6:21 PM

 
see rock city

In Little House in the Big Woods Chapter 12, "The Wonderful Machine"), Laura Ingalls Wilder tells us that it "was great fun.... Laura was scampering and chattering like the squirrels, from morning to night." Squirrels are only mentioned in the first three "Little House" books. Surely there were squirrels in Walnut Grove? I can understand about not seeing them in early day De Smet, since you don't typically have many squirrels where there are no trees in which for them to hang out.

Mrs. Wilder doesn't tell us that Pa hunted squirrels, or that the family ate them, but perhaps they did. I know from an 1869 cookbook that "Squirrels may be fried as chickens, or stewed in a pot with a little water. If you make a pie of squirrels, they should be stewed first to make them tender, and then made in the same way as chicken pie. Squirrels also make very good soup." Somehow, I am picturing Squirrel Nutkin on his furry haunches, stirring a little pot of barley soup atop a little toy cast iron stove...

In his "The Story of Pa and the Deer in the Woods," (Little House in the Big Woods, Chapter 3, "The Long Rifle"), Pa includes red squirrels as one of the animals he saw as a young boy growing up in the Big Woods. Charles Ingalls didn't actually "grow up" in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, having moved to Jefferson County, Wisconsin, in the early 1850s. In Wisconsin, red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) are associated with conifer forests and gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) with hardwood forests. While gray and red squirrels can coexist, they do compete for territorial rights.

If I had a remembrance book, I would mark down that this was the day that I purchased a squirrel feeder. I'll probably live to regret attracting the rodents, since I also live inside the city limits where I or anyone else can't legally hunt them. I don't think I've ever seen a red squirrel, and although almost a million gray squirrels are harvested by hunters each year where I live, there are still a lot of them hanging out on and beneath my bird feeders. The plan is to entice them to another part of the yard where I won't constantly have to go after them with a broom.

Since my squirrel feeder has a hinged wooden lid and the idea is to make them lift the lid to get to the food (I'm using raw peanuts in the shell), I've decided that I should paint the top, a la SEE ROCK CITY. But what "Little House" reference to use? LIW RWL like my license plates? SEE DE SMET? I ♥ LAURA INGALLS WILDER?
- posted by pioneergirl at 5:34 PM

 
salted kerosene
In Little House in the Big Woods (Chapter 2, "Winter Days and Winter Nights"), Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote: Ma sat in her rocking chair, sewing by the light of the lamp on the table. The lamp was bright and shiny. There was salt in the bottom of its glass bowl with the kerosene, to keep the kerosene from exploding, and there were bits of red flannel among the salt to make it pretty. It was pretty.

I thought about this today as I put my empty glass lamp on display. Back before the move, it was filled with lamp oil, which is kerosene that has been more refined than it was back in Laura's day, to reduce both the soot and the smell. Because my lamp was part of my "Little House" collection, I had added a handful of coarse sea salt and some bits of red flannel. It always surprised me that the red dye from the flannel never tinted the oil, nor did the salt dissolve.

From time to time, people in one LIW group or another have discussed how the salt could have kept the kerosene from exploding. From time to time, I've researched it and I still haven't a clue.

In the mid-19th century, naturally occurring petroleum was separated into three main components - naphtha (which includes gasoline and benzene), kerosene, and paraffin oil - according to their boiling ranges. Naphtha boiled at a lower temperature than kerosene, and the more naphtha in the mix, the more your lamp would sputter. It might even explode. Everything I read tells me that pure kerosene does not explode, so the "kerosene" people put in their lamps might be any range of purity, something that you just had to take the seller's word for back then.

I spent a lot of time looking at old newspapers tonight, and kerosene lamps sure did seem to explode a lot. And burn down houses. And kill people.

One hundred parts of crude petroleum would yield 16.5 parts naphtha, 55 parts kerosene, 19.5 parts paraffin oil, and other coal-oil products. The difference in these by-products was not in kind, but in degree. The difference in naphtha and kerosene was a perfectly arbitrary one; the difference is that naphtha is a little more volatile and inflammable than kerosene, meaning that it doesn't burn as well as kerosene, but it explodes more readily.

In those days before automobiles, the naphtha part of petroleum was pretty much considered worthless (3 or 4 cents per gallon), and refineries tended to burn it off to provide heat, rather than hang onto it. But the more naphtha they were able to sneak into the more desirable stuff called kerosene, the more waste was avoided and the more profit realized.

Apparently, it's the vapor from kerosene that will ignite. So a filled lamp tended not to explode as often as a lamp low on kerosene. And the more naphtha in the mix, the lower the temperature at which the explosion might take place. Of course kerosene lamps get hot; just touch the area around the burner of one when it's lighted.

Now for the salt. If it's the vapor (and apparently you need just the right amount of air) that ignites and explodes, uh, the salt is lying there on the bottom of the lamp and not anywhere near the vapor, right? In fact, laboratory sodium (not salt) is often stored in kerosene, and the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve (688.5 million barrels of crude oil as of December 1, 2006) is stored in salt domes below the Gulf of Mexico.

And I still don't know how the salt kept the kerosene from exploding. Or even if it did.
- posted by pioneergirl at 9:47 PM

 
bill and gene do it again
Once again, the Unshelved ™ guys, in their infinite and collaborative wisdom, are spot on in their comic strip so far this week, "Little House" wise. You can read this week from their archive starting HERE. Use the arrows at the bottom of the strip to go to the next one. (While you're at it, go to their store and buy something.)

"Arrggh, I got marketed to!!" exclaims Dewey.

Hello, new "Little House" photo covers.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:59 AM

 
the only known recording of her voice

Back when Roger Lea MacBride was still alive, Laissez-Faire Books sold a casette tape of a speech made by Rose Wilder Lane in the 1950s. If you missed buying it then, now you can order the speech on CD:
http://www.lfb.org/index.php?stocknumber=LI6984
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:13 PM

 
still life with shelves

The strangest thing has happened. I no longer want all my "Little House" stuff sitting out on display on every surface.

I spent a lot of years buying everything. I could outfit a bed-and-breakfast and decorate each guest room in a theme from a different "Little House" book. And don't think that wasn't what I had in mind when I collected this stuff.

Although I've actually stopped buying each mug, doll, plate, and tin lunch pail every Laura Ingalls Wilder museum, bookstore, and giftshop sells, I think my decision to de-clutter is more because this haven (office, computer room, whatever) is the smallest one I've had in the past four houses (and I'm still pretty pissed about putting my bed-and-breakfast plans on hold). This room also has two doors, a closet, a fireplace with hearth and mantle, and five windows, so there's just not all that much available wall space to work with. Add that to the fact that I've also lost at least half of my usual book shelf capacity - even though I do have a fourteen-foot bookcase in here - and trust me, things are tight.

This house does have ten-foot ceilings, so I bought seven white wrought-iron brackets at Anthropologie (www.anthropologie.com - I love that store!), and The Man of the Place made and painted some lovely shelves for me so I could have over-the-window display space. I've been trying to remember what television movie I saw back in the seventies or early eighties that made me fall in love with over-the-window shelves - was it "The Corn is Green," the one with Katharine Hepburn? The shelves in the movie I saw had books on them, which I think is also an excellent idea, if there's an easy way to get to them.

Since it's raining fishhooks and hammer handles today (see On the Banks of Plum Creek, Chapter 14, "Spring Freshet"), I'm in the process of moving "Little House" stuff up a ladder and onto the shelves.

Now, if only there was a clever display solution to thirteen plastic storage crates full of files. I'm thinking that it would be nice to actually see the fireplace in here. And no, they won't fit in the closet. I've already tried that one.
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:22 PM