little house in the big woods

Once upon a time, sixty years ago, a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of ogs. -Little House in the Big Woods, Chapter 1, "Little House in the Big Woods"

This is the log cabin at the top of my "Little House" tree this year. Actually, there is a tin star and a bunch of stalks of wheat (picked at the Ingalls Homestead) behind the cabin, and a fiddle to one side. Sometimes I can't make up my mind.

Merry Christmas!!
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:01 AM

 
home for many days

So Pa sold the little house. He sold the cow and calf. He made hickory bows and fastened them upright to the wagon box. Ma helped him stretch white canvas over them. -Little House on the Prairie, Chapter 1, "Going West"

You can't have a "Little House" tree without a covered wagon. This one is made of resin.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:24 PM

 
are there oyster crackers in the pocket?

"...Just as I was leaving, Fitch showed me the buffalo coat. He got it cheap from a man who went east on the last train running, and had to have money to buy his ticket. Fitch said I could have the coat for ten dollars. Ten dollars is a lot of money, but--" -On the Banks of Plum Creek, Chapter 40, "The Fourth Day"

Okay, so it's not real buffalo hide, but you get the idea. And it is a little coat - rather, it's half of one - because rosebunting kept the other half for her tree. I pity her poor Ken doll, only wearing half a coat these days.
- posted by pioneergirl at 8:23 PM

 
when carrie was sixteen

Christmas presents were hardly to be thought of, the way the crops had turned out, but Manly made handsleds for Laura's little sisters, and they would buy Christmas candy for all. -The First Four Years, "The First Year"

This is an example of a time that the manuscript shouldn't have been edited. The original says that Almanzo made a handsled for Laura's little sister, but apparently MacBride didn't want to slight anyone, so he let Carrie get one also. When Laura was sixteen, she was teaching school. When Carrie is sixteen, she's playing with handsleds. Must be all that spoon-banging that slowed her development...

Aw look. Little sleds with Carrie and Grace's names on them! Another rosebunting find.
- posted by pioneergirl at 7:22 PM

 
ma could make beautiful hats

Ma sewed hats for Mary and Laura of the finest, narrowest braid. For Pa and for herself she made hats of the wider, notched braid. That was Pa's Sunday hat. Then she made him two everyday hats of the coarser, widest braid. -Little House in the Big Woods, Chapter 12, "The Wonderful Machine"

This ornament was originally a doll's hat, which is also Little Housey, since Laura made a straw hat for Charlotte.
- posted by pioneergirl at 6:21 PM

 
"she's about twenty inches thick"

Side by side, they sawed two straight cracks through the ice, twenty inches apart, and twenty feet long. Then with the ax John broke the ice across, and a slab twenty inches wide, twenty inches thick, and twenty feet long rose a little and floated free. -Farmer Boy, Chapter 6, "Filling the Ice-House"

A few years ago, I found icecube ornaments. The two on my tree have a little brass rod through them for hanging. I also bought a package of "ice" that goes with Snow Village or some other display series; they are exactly the same size.

I've found silicone icecube trays that make the exact same size (as these fake blocks) real ice cubes. And being the person I am, I've saved enough sawdust and wood scraps from construction projects to build my own little ice-house, should I ever feel the urge.

If you want ice to freeze and be clear, let the trays sit awhile before placing them in the freezer.
- posted by pioneergirl at 5:20 PM

 
"i brought our milk on the hoof"

Laura and Lena picketed the cows not far apart in good grass. Every morning and every evening they met to take care of the cows. They led them to drink from the lake, and moved the picket lines to fresh grass, and then they did the milking, and while they milked they sang. -By the Shores of Silver Lake, Chapter 10, "The Wonderful Afternoon"

There are lots of cows in the "Little House" books; this glass cow is in honor of all of them, especially Bossy and Blossom, Ellen, Rosie, Sukey, and Wreath of Roses. Rosie? Yep, she's the other cow in Little House in the Big Woods.
- posted by pioneergirl at 4:19 PM

 
"well, they can play with your noah's ark..."

The Noah's ark was the most wonderful thing that Laura had ever seen. They all knelt down and squealed and laughed over it. There were zebras and elephants and tigers and horses; all kinds of animals, just as if the picture had come out of the paper-covered Bible at home. -On the Banks of Plum Creek, Chapter 22, "Town Party"

An ornament added this year; a gift from rosebunting. While Christmas shopping, I saw a really cute wooden Noah's "count-down" ark with a wooden tree on top. All the wooden animals had little string loops, and were kept inside the ark until you put them on the tree. I forgot to go back and buy it!
- posted by pioneergirl at 3:18 PM

 
trixy shot ahead like a streak

That night after supper, Laura chose her saddle from the descriptions and pictures in Montgomery Ward's catalogue and made the order for it ready to mail the first trip to town. She could hardly wait for the saddle to come but she shortened the two weeks' time by making friends with Trixy. It was a beautiful all-leather saddle, tan-colored and fancy-stitched with nickel trimmings. -The First Four Years, "The First Year"

A little leather saddle, suitable for anyone except Big Jerry.
- posted by pioneergirl at 3:29 AM

 
plum-plump! plum-plump! plump! plump!

There were many kinds of plums. When the red ones were all picked, the yellow ones were ripe. Then the blue ones. The largest of all were the very last. They were the frost plums, that would not ripen until after frost.

One morning the whole world was delicately silvered. Every blade of grass was silvery and the path had a thin sheen. It was hot like fire under Laura's bare feet, and they left dark footprints in it. The air was cold in her nose and her breath steamed. So did Spot's. When the sun came up, the whole prairie sparkled. Millions of tiny, tiny sparks of color blazed on the grasses.

That day the frost plums were ripe. They were large, purple plums and all over their purple was a silvery thin sheen like frost. - On the Banks of Plum Creek, Chapter 9, "Grasshopper Weather"

The frost plum is the American Damson or Frost Gage plum. The skin is deep purple, strewes with russet dots, and covered with a thin bloom, which Laura called frost. These plums ripen in October.
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:35 AM

 
"who? who?"

"'A big boy nine years old is old enough to remember to mind,' he said. 'There's a good reason for what I tell you to do, he said, 'and if you'll do as you're told, no harm will come to you... If you'd obeyed me, as you should, you wouldn't have been out in the Big Woods after dark, and you wouldn't have been scared by a screech-owl.'" -Little House in the Big Woods, Chapter 3, "The Long Rifle"

I think this owl looks a lot like the Garth Williams' illustration in Big Woods.
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:15 AM

 
spookendyke

When I was a little girl in the Ozarks I used to start every year to school. I had a donkey. He was a stubborn, fat little beast who liked to slump his ears and neck and shoulders suddenly when going down hill, and tumble me off over his head... -Rose Wilder Lane

Donkey ornaments are easy to find.
- posted by pioneergirl at 9:13 PM

 
it was not her fault at all

Dear Papa, I meant to write you sooner, and hope you have not been worried by not getting a letter from Mama Bess. She was hurt by a streetcar last week but is all right now. She does not want anyone in Mansfield to know about it, because she says it looks as if she could not take care of herself in a city, but on account of not writing for so long she thought I had better write and tell you. - West From Home, letter dated October 20, 1915

Laura never would have fallen off that streetcar - going full speed - if Gillette hadn't jumped off it as he did. Why would Gillette jump off a streetcar going at full speed, anyway?

This ornament is actually a glass mini Christmas light cover.
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:13 AM

 
mary's had a poem on it

When all the trading was done, the storekeeper gave Mary and Laura each a piece of candy. They were so astonished and so pleased that they just stood looking at their candies. Then Mary remembered and said, "Thank you." - Little House in the Big Woods, Chapter 9, "Going to Town"

These conversation hearts are made of Fimo clay and stamped with the candy sayings. I'd like to make some more of these one day, now that my Fimo skills have improved a bit. I also want to make clay ribbon candy and other "Little House" candies as ornaments for my tree.
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:12 AM

 
plunk!

Something hit Laura's hed and fell to the ground. She looked down and saw the largest grasshopper she had ever seen. Then huge brown grasshoppers were hitting the ground all around her, hitting her head and her face and her arms. They came thudding down like hail. - On the Banks of Plum Creek, Chapter 25, "The Glittering Cloud"

Like a cricket on the hearth, a grasshopper ornament is supposed to bring you good luck. I didn't know that when I noticed a display of paper and wire grasshopper ornaments at a hippie-granola food store a decade ago. Like Laura when she saw the dog's-head button, I just squealed when I saw the tree full of grasshoppers. I only bought four of them, but the others are so well hidden on my tree that I couldn't find them when it came time to photograph.
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:11 AM

 
charming Billy

His eyes twinkled at Ma while the music laughed and whirled and then he would sing... - By the Shores of Silver Lake, Chapter 22, "Happy Winter Days"

Pa sings "Billy Boy" in By the Shores of Silver Lake and These Happy Golden Years. I remember seeing the glass cherry pie ornament and immediately thinking about the song (rather than any pie mention in the "Little House" books), because "Billy Boy" was one of the first and only songs I learned to play on the piano. I guess it could be a choke-cherry pie ornament as well...
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:10 AM

 
"its eyes are so black"

Pa promised that when they came to the West, Laura should see a papoose.

"What is a papoose?" she asked him, and he said, "A papoose is a little, brown, Indian baby." - Little House on the Prairie, Chapter 1, "Going West"

While there is only one mention of a papoose in the handwritten Pioneer Girl manuscript, the theme is prevalent in Little House on the Prairie. Laura Ingalls repeatedly asks when she is going to see a papoose.

Yet, it was always interesting to me that when Laura finally does see a papoose, the word itself is not used, only that she sees babies riding in baskets and wants one.

The ornament is a papoose necklace daughter Ginny wanted when we visited an Indian museum in Montana back when she was a wee thing. When Ginny no longer wanted the necklace, it became mine.
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:15 AM

 
yes, a bag of oranges

Laura had retreated to the other end of the room, beside Carrie and Grace. When Almanzo looked toward them, Grace said, "I made an extra bag of candy."

"And I brought some oranges," Almanzo answered, taking a bag from his overcoat pocket. "I have a package with Laura's name on it, too, but isn't she going to speak to me?" - These Happy Golden Years, Chapter 25, "The Night Before Christmas

Just how big was that overcoat pocket, anyway?

Oranges are part of this "Little House" Christmas and the one in Farmer Boy where Almanzo finds an orange in his stocking. There's also the "piles of oranges" at the County Fair in Farmer Boy, and the memorable "orange flower" from Ben Woodworth's birthday party in Little Town on the Prairie. In the handwritten Pioneer Girl manuscript, Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about those oranges: There were plenty of seeds in oranges those days and the membrane between the section was tough so they separated easily without spilling a drop of juice.
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:22 PM

 
"that will leave just two to grow"

Blackbirds kept flying up around her. Suddenly she stood stock-still. The blackbirds were eating the corn!

Here and there she saw bare tips of ears. The husks were stripped back, and kernels were gone from the cobs. While she stood there, blackbirds settled around her. Their claws clung to the ears, their sharp beaks ripped away the husks, and quickly pecking they swallowed the kernels.

Silently, desperately, Laura ran at them. She felt as if she were screaming. She beat at the birds with her sunbonnet. They rose up swirling on noisy wings and settled again to the corn, before her, behind her, all around her. They swung clinging to the ears, ripping away the husks, swallowing the corn crop. She could do nothing against so many. - Little Town on the Prairie, Chapter 9, "Blackbirds"

Nothing says "Happy Holidays" quite like a couple of life-sized blackbirds perched on the branches of your Christmas tree.
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:33 AM

 
"i'm buying some wheat from you boys"

"Here's some wheat to go on with, Caroline," Pa said, setting the pail down beside her. She reached down to it and felt the kernels.

"Oh, Charles. Oh, Charles," she said, rocking. "I might have known you'd provide for us, but wherever did you get it? I thought there was no wheat left in town."

"I wasn't sure there was or I'd have told you. But I didn't want to raise hopes to be disappointed," Pa explained. "I agreed not to tell where I got it, but don't worry, Caroline. There's more where that came from."

Almanzo figures that the wheat Pa took amounted to "a peck, a peck and a quarter," and that it wouldn't go long to feed a family of six. One peck equals eight quarts (dry measure). A quart is four cups, and it takes about three cups of flour to make a loaf of bread. I've yet to measure the "before" product to see how much seed wheat it takes to make a cup of flour, but I'd guess that the pail of wheat only lasted a few days.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:36 PM

 
"that's my wise girls"

Late one afternoon, when they had been sliding and were coming home warm and breathless, Mrs. Boast said, "Laura, come over to my house a minute." / Laura went with her and Mrs. Boast showed her a tall stack of newspapers. She had brought all those New York Ledgers from Iowa. / "Take as many as you can carry," she said. "When you get them read, bring them back and get some more." -By the Shores of Silver Lake, Chapter 22, "Happy Winter Days"

I always wondered why Mrs. Boast had those stacks of New York Ledgers, and why Ma didn't seem to object to them.

The New York Ledger, first published by Robert Bonner in 1855, was one of the earliest and most successful storypapers. Storypapers, also called "six-cent weeklies," were weekly newspapers that featured an array of serialized stories, poems, humor, fashion, and current events intended for the entire family. These papers enjoyed enormous circulation. By 1870, the New York Ledger claimed an audience of 377,000 readers. With columns devoted to love, marriage, and baby care, the Ledger catered to a predominantly female readership. Its serialized stories focussed heavily on romance (domestic and historical) and its illustrations included many images of women. Format: 8 pages, with a front-page illustration (sometimes signed by the artist and/or engraver) and additional images inside each issue. Last issue published in 1898.

Although you can't tell from the ornament photo, each of the little newspapers in the stack has a different cover from an actual New York Ledger and is an uncut 8 pages printed on newsprint. I used the same "back" page from an 1879 issue of mine, but (shhhh) the other interior images are cover scans as well. You can't really tell the size of the ornament from the photo, but the front pages are 2.5 x 4 inches; you can actually read the headlines and date on each issue!
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:34 PM

 
laura squealed when she saw it

That afternoon, when Carrie was asleep, Ma beckoned Mary and Laura. Her face was shining with a secret. They put their heads close to hers, and she told them. They could make a button string for Carrie's Christmas! -On the Banks of Plum Creek, Chapter 13, "Merry Christmas"

I do not have a dog's head button, but I have buttons with dogs painted on them, a mouse-shaped button, pink china rose buttons, and a castle button.

I also have buttons from my mother and grandmother, and I have some that I am particularly fond of, such as brass buttons from my father's and husband's Navy uniforms, a button from my favorite dress when I was four (the two holes are at the top of the button, which struck my fancy even back then), and a Civil War era Goodyear rubber button. I also have a button with one hole, lots of cottonwood buttons, some elk antler buttons, and a big blue mason jar full of buttons that sits by my desk.

My grandmother kept her buttons in a drawer of her treadle sewing machine. I inherited both the buttons and the machine. My mother kept her buttons in a big round metal Scotch tape can. In On the Banks of Plum Creek, Ma brings out her "button-box," but in The Long Winter, the buttons are kept in a "button bag."

Sadly, I can't trace my love affair with buttons to "Little House." I like buttons because of Jean Fritz's 121 Pudding Street, and yet there is a "Little House" connection; there is always a LH connection! Fritz won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in 1986.

Button garland is easy to make; just get a needle and thread (dental floss or fishing line is stronger) and start stringing! In the photo above, I like the top garland better, because it doesn't use as many buttons and you can see the faces of them. It's tailor-made for 4-hole buttons.

Buttons are mentioned a lot in the "Little House" books, both specific buttons, and by type in passing, such as shirt buttons or overcoat buttons. Laura sees "cards of buttons of all types" in Clancy's store (Little Town on the Prairie, Chapter 5, "Working in Town").

Buttons to be on the lookout for include the following: shaped like blackberries, covered in brown silk, brass, cut-steel, dog-head, gilt, gold-colored with castle and trees, shoe buttons, horn, jet, pearl, round and green, round and black, and wooden.
- posted by pioneergirl at 8:56 PM

 
then she saw their stringy, bare, red-brown legs

Tracks of big moccasins and smaller moccasins were everywhere, and tracks of little bare toes. And over these tracks were tracks of rabbits and tracks of birds, and wolves' tracks. -Little House on the Prairie, Chapter 14, "Indian Camp"

Moccasins appear in more chapters of Farmer Boy than Little House on the Prairie, but the one moccasin does double duty on my Chistmas tree. It was a gift, and I hope its mate is hanging on a "Little House" tree in the Pacific Northwest.

Webster says that a moccasin is "a shoe or cover for the foot, made of deerskin or other soft leather, without a sole, and ornamented on the upper side; the customary shoe worn by the American Indians. Almanzo Wilder wears moccasins "exactly like the moccasins the Indians wore" (Farmer Boy, Chapter 1, "School Days") - not because he was an Indian, but because he "was a little boy." Almanzo wore moccasins all the way to Chapter 23, and it seems like Mother Wilder would have been happier with another pair of moccasins for Almanzo than with the boots Father Wilder had the cobbler make.

In Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder describes seeing Indians wearing both plain and beaded moccasins. There are many patterns for making moccasins online; an ornament would be good practice! I don't know a thing about beading moccasins.... yet.
- posted by pioneergirl at 9:32 PM

 
six pairs

And his red mittens were on a string that went up the sleeves of his coat and across the back of his neck. That was so he couldn't lose them. -Farmer Boy, Chapter 1, "School Days"

Mittens are mentioned in all eight original "Little House" books; they are often given and received as Christmas gifts. Both Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder are said to wear red wool mittens connected by a string so they wouldn't get lost.

If you want "Little House" mittens to decorate your tree, you can have more than just the red wool ones...

Jack Frost is said to wear white mittens. Ma and Aunt Eliza knit mittens in squares of red and white (entrelac?) for Pa and Uncle Peter. Mother Wilder knits mittens for Almanzo using a "fancy stitch" on the cuff. Mary gets a blue pair one Christmas, and Laura gets a red pair. Then Laura and Mary knit "Fourth of July" mittens for Carrie. Lots and lots of mittens are mentioned, but Laura Ingalls Wilder doesn't describe any but these and red ones. Both children and adults wear mittens in the "Little House" books.

The little 3-inch mittens pictured above are knitted back and forth on size 3 double-pointed needles using a sport weight wool yarn. I used 4 needles so I could leave yarn on one pair of needles while knitting the thumb with the other pair. I crocheted the thumb seam because it was faster. And I didn't weave in any ends; they were brought to the inside of the mitten, tied off and cut, leaving a short tail.

It took me way too long to find this pattern just now, so I'm including it here for my own reference. It might not make sense unless you're a mitten knitter already; sorry.

CUFF: Cast on 23 stitches with size 3 needles.
Row 1: Purl 1, Knit 1 across
Row 2: Knit 1, Purl 1 across
Repeat these two rows four more times, then do Row 1 again.

BODY: Knit across row, increasing 5 stitches evenly. = 28 sts
( ) Purl
( ) Knit 13, place marker, increase twice, place marker (the thumb will be between these markers), Knit 13. = 30 sts
( ) Purl
( ) Knit, increasing at first stitch after marker and before last stitch before marker. = 32 sts
( ) Purl
( ) Knit, increase at beginning and end of markers. = 34 sts
( ) Purl

THUMB: Knit to marker, leave stitches on needle, add st to left needle, knit to last stitch before marker, add stitch, leave remaining stitches on needle. = 10 sts on middle needle. Now work on thumb only.
( ) Purl ( ) Knit ( ) Purl ( ) Knit ( ) Purl
( ) Knit 2 tog, pull all stitches through with crochet hook and crochet thumb seam with right sides in.

HAND: Drop crochet loop and pull through space at base of thumb to count as picked up stitch which is put on left needle, knit across thumb, pick up stitch on left side of thumb, knit across rest of hand. = 28 sts
( ) Purl ( ) Knit ( ) Purl ( ) Knit ( ) Purl
( ) Knit ( ) Purl ( ) Knit ( ) Purl, placing marker after stitch 14

SHAPING:
( ) K 2, sl 1 as if to knit, K 1, PSSO, knit to within 3 sts of marker, K 2 tog, K 2, sl 1 as if to knit, K 1, PSSA, knit across to last 4, K 2 tog. = 24 sts
( ) Purl
( ) Knit shaping row = 20 sts
( ) Purl
( ) Knit 2 tog across row = 10 sts
Use crochet hook to pull stitches through, and pull tightly, closing top. With right sides together, crochet mitten from tip to cuff. Tie off and cut yarn. Turn mitten right side out, leave extra yarn inside.

Since these are decorative mittens - and not worn - I take a lot of shortcuts I wouldn't take when knitting mittens to be worn. I normally knit mittens in the round, but the tiny mitten is easier to knit flat, and seam the thumb and outside edge. I crochet the seam simply because I can do them in a hurry and not have to cut / join yarn.

For FOURTH OF JULY mittens, I cast on in red and do Rows 1 and 2 in red. Switch to blue, but don't cut the red yarn, and do two rows in blue. Switch back to red, but don't cut the blue yarn this time, and do two more rows in red. Do another blue stripe and another red stripe, so the cuff is RED / BLUE / RED / BLUE / RED. Switch to white for the body and thumb of the mitten.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:12 PM

 
"so i just brought home the bacon"

This Christmas season will be a busy one, with family and friends and parties and out-of-town guests. I'm also working on a "Little House" project and trying to get organized for an upcoming research trip. Today begins a countdown to Christmas, compliments of my LH tree...

From Little House in the Big Woods (Chapter 2, "Winter Days and Winter Nights"):

When Pa came back he had both a bear and a pig in the wagon. He had been going through the woods, with a big bear trap in his hands and the gun on his shoulder, when he walked around a big pine tree covered with snow, and the bear was behind the tree.

The bear had just killed the pig and was picking it up to eat it. Pa said the bear was standing up on its hind legs, holding the pig in its paws just as though they were hands.

Pa shot the bear, and there was no way of knowing where the pig came from nor whose pig it was.

"So I just brought home the bacon," Pa said.

The bear is a wooden ornament made by Midwest Imports, I believe. It was originally holding a fish, which I replaced with a pig I made out of pink Fimo clay. I probably should turn the pig around so the face can be seen. Maybe next year...
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:02 PM