one red cent

I received the above penny (not its real size, goosie) in change recently. Santa did not bring it to me. At first, I thought it was a Canadian penny. Canadian pennies were pretty common in change in Montana, and I thought nothing of it until I realized I wasn't in Montana any longer, so I looked closer.

It was an 1894 penny.

That's one ten-thousandth of what got lost in the writing desk in On the Way Home. I think I'll buy a nice slate pencil.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:33 PM

 
hello, divas!!

- posted by pioneergirl at 7:46 PM

 
rest in peace

Tasha Tudor (August 28, 1915 - June 18, 2008)
Memorial website HERE.
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:50 PM

 
manchester monument fund

From the 11 June 2008 De Smet News: "On the first anniversary of the historic Manchester Monument and the fifth anniversary of the tornado [that destroyed Manchester], the Manchester Monument Fund is offering two DVDs, featuring the June 23, 2007, dedication and storytelling programs. A companion CD includes more than 200 dedication and other historic photos of the community. This project will help build the Manchester Monument Fund to partially support future enhancements or maintenance at the site. These colorful and historic programs are keepsakes that you will enjoy over and over again. They would also make outstanding gifts for friends and family."

To order the two DVD and one CD set, sent a check for $38.50 (made out to Spirit of Manchester) along with your name and mailing address to:

Spirit of Manchester
TV Productions, Inc.
305 Fifth Street
Brookings, SD 57006

- posted by pioneergirl at 11:03 PM

 
how to cook a husband
From Kitchen Echoes, a cookbook of "tried and approved recipes" from the ladies of De Smet, South Dakota, 1909, published by the Aid Society of the First M. E. Church:

"A good many husbands are utterly spoiled by mismanagement. Some women go about it as if their husbands were bladders, and blow them up. others keep them constantly in hot water; others let them freeze by their carelessness and indifference. Some keep them in a stew by irritating ways and words. Others roast tem. Some keep them in a pickle all their lives. It can not be supposed that any husband will be tender and good managed in this way, but they are really delicious when properly treated. In selecting your husband you should not be guided by the silvery appearance as in buying a mackerel, nor by the golden tints as if you wanted salmon. Be sure you select him yourself as tastes differ. Do not go to market for him, as the best are always brought to your door. It is far better to have none unless you will patiently learn how to cook him. A preserving kettle of the finest porcelain is best, but if you have nothing but an earthenware pipkin it will do with care. See that the linen in which you wrap him is nicely washed and mended, with the required number of buttons and strings tightly sewed on. Tie him in the kettle by a strong cord called comfort, as the one called duty is apt to be weak. They are apt to fly out of the kettle, and be burnt or crusty on the edges, since like crabs and lobsters you have to cook them alive. make a clear, steady fire of love, sweetness and cheerfulness. Set him as near this as seems to agree with him. If he sputters and fizzes, do not be anxious; some husbands do this until quite done. Add a little sugar in the form of what the confectioners call kisses, but no vinegar or pepper on any account. A little spice improves them, but it must be used with judgment. Do not stick any sharp instruments into him to see if he is becoming tender. Stir gently watching the while lest he lie too flat, and too close to the kettle and so become useless. You cannot fail to know when he is done. If thus treated you will find him very digestible, agreeing nicely with you and the children, and he will keep as long as you want, unless you become careless and set him in too cold a place."

- posted by pioneergirl at 9:13 PM

 
food, glorious food

This is week three of the "I Remember Laura" blog-a-thon hosted by Miss Sandy at Quill Cottage. The topic is family recipes handed down from generation to generation.

I never knew any of my father's family, and according to my mother (whose family had a cook when she was growing up), she wasn't allowed in the kitchen except on rare occasions. She was allowed to cut up some ingredients for potato salad as an adult, that's all! And maybe because of this, my mother never liked to cook and never liked for us to "make messes" in the kitchen, either.

The two family recipes I have from my grandmother were passed along when I was a child; they're for Brunswick stew (only a list of ingredients) and sour cream pound cake; click on the link to see the recipe in my grandmother's handwriting (she died in 1966). I know my mother and uncle longed to know how to make Ham Pie, but they never could figure it out, and they never saw it made or asked how it was made. All they remembered was that it contained ground country ham, fresh corn, and fresh tomatoes. At age 86, my mother says she can still remember the exact taste!

I do remember my grandmother's Brunswick Stew, a southern staple. When we visited, we would wake up to the smells of pork and chicken and onions. Everything was ground up using an old-fashioned hand-crank grinder and it simmered on the stove all morning. My mother would ask if it was "try-able" yet, and I remember tasting it from little blue bowls, the onions not quite done yet. I do make Brunswick Stew at least a couple of times a year.

One of my favorite "Little House" foods has always been Vanity Cakes (see On the Banks of Plum Creek, Chapter 23, "Country Party"). Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote a letter to her Aunt Martha Quiner Carpenter (Ma's sister) around 1925, asking her for the recipe, if she knew it. A portion of Aunt Martha's reply to LIW is below:

I don't fry, and I've only had vanity cakes once when a friend made them one year at Rocky Ridge Day in Mansfield. I do make popovers.

My father loved to cook (he died in 1988), and one of the things he often made for breakfast after he retired reminds me a bit of vanity cakes in taste. It's called Golden Lamb's Pancake, which I suspect was a recipe he copied out of an Early American Life magazine, which he was always trying recipes from. The Golden Lamb is Ohio's oldest inn, and the recipe may be one of theirs, although I don't know for sure.

Unlike fried vanity cakes, this pancake contains a little milk in addition to the eggs and flour. Poured into a piping hot iron skillet and placed in a hot oven, it rises in air-filled puffs that will remain crispy if you don't add the lime juice at the end (I almost never do, and I rarely add the brandy). It's a pretty breakfast or dessert pancake, and a really easy batter to prepare. Serve with fruit or maple syrup; you can pull pieces off or slice into wedges. I made the pancake in the photo while I was writing this blog entry!

[Note: I've had several comments that my pancake is exactly like a Dutch Baby - or German pancake, which I'd never heard of. It is! Thanks!]
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:50 PM

 
button, button

This is week two of Quill Cottage's Laura Ingalls Wilder blog-a-thon: "Beautiful buttons." For more information, click on the linked photo in the sidebar.

There are all sorts of buttons mentioned in the "Little House" books, not only plain ones but buttons shaped like blackberries, brass, cut-steel, dog-head, gilt, gold with a castle design, horn, jet, pearl, shoe, and wooden. We learn from The Long Winter (Chapter 19) that Ma Ingalls keeps her buttons in a button bag. I keep mine in a blue mason jar. I also have the metal Scotch tape can that my mother always kept her buttons in; she gave it to me when I moved back to Georgia. My favorites it are brass buttons from my father's Navy uniform, leather buttons from my parents' winter coats, and little mother-of-pearl buttons from a favorite dress of mine from kindergarden; they had two holes at one edge, which I always thought was really special.

I never thought about collecting buttons until I read 121 Pudding Street in elementary school. The book was published in 1955 and is by Jean Fritz, and there's a "Little House" connection; Fritz won The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in 1986. In 121 Pudding Street, one of the characters (Miss Pursey, you can see her in the book illustration in the photo above) collects buttons, which are everywhere in her house.

In one of the older Victoria magazines, there was an article about button strings, similar to what Mary and Laura made for Baby Carrie in On the Banks of Plum Creek (Chapter 13). For the past couple of years, I've strung buttons for my LH Christmas tree. I don't really have many "fancy" buttons like Caroline Ingalls collected, but I do have a button from a War of Northern Aggression uniform. My favorite buttons are either wooden or made of deer antler. I'm also partial to tiny little baby buttons and old, interesting white buttons. I inherited my grandmother's treadle sewing machine, and there was a little jar of buttons in one of the drawers. Over thirty years ago (wow) I used some of them to make the oval pin shown at left.
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:13 PM

 
steal this hymnal

In a letter dated August 5, 1940, Carrie Ingalls Swanzey wrote to her sister Laura Ingalls Wilder:

...I believe we sang the same pieces (hymns) in Sunday-school that were used in church, it has been later years when they got to thinking the old hymns were too slow and solemn for the younger generation. Now there is No. 8, 13, 18, 25, 42, 74. I remember all those and a few more... of course they were all written before 1871; they must have been picked for the best and more modern, though of course they did not say "modern" then.

The numbers above refer to hymns in the Ingallses' copy of Pure Gold for the Sunday School, by Reverend Robert Lowry and W. Howard Doane, published in 1871 by Biglow & Main in New York. Laura Ingalls Wilder mentioned some of the hymns from this book in the De Smet "Little House" books. See my prairie song companion for more information about these LH songs and others.

Here's my pdf file of PURE GOLD FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL; I've bookmarked the songs used in the LH books. Feel free to save and/or print for your own non-commercial use. I apologize in advance for the size of the file.
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:59 PM

 
journeys with josh
Josh deBerge from KSPR in Springfield, Missouri, today reported this (edited slightly):

MANSFIELD - Nestled in the rolling hills of Wright County there's a little white house where more than 50 years ago Laura Ingalls Wilder penned the famous Little House books. Now the home is part of a museum that highlights her life.

Visitors first view a short film showcasing some of the most important events in Wilder's life - from her childhood spent moving from location to location in the northern Plains. It wasn't until Wilder moved to Mansfield that she started writing the Little House books based largely on her childhood experiences.

The museum houses the original manuscripts and other relics of the past that played an important role in Wilder's life. Perhaps the best part of the house and museum is its beautiful scenery. The quaint house sits on several acres just east of Mansfield.

To see the news story about Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rocky Ridge Farm - featuring director Jean Coday - click HERE. Original story is found HERE. You'll need the lastest version of Adobe Flash player to view.
- posted by pioneergirl at 5:20 PM

 
mrs. sherwood

He who will not go to bed till he pleases every body will have to sit up a great many nights. -- G.E.M. Sherwood, July 13, 1892

- posted by pioneergirl at 12:02 AM

 
helen gentry

This new, uniform edition of the eight "Little House" books is something to be grateful for, indeed. It is designed by Helen Gentry and illustrated with an authenticity that reflects eight years of perambulatory research. Children have loved these warm, tender family stories since they were written and have gained from them a fine sense of values and a vivid picture of our pioneering days in the 1870s and 80s. In fact, no writer for children has excelled Mrs. Wilder in portraying the past. Her stories are based on her own happy childhood, when the family was a closely-knit unit and pleasures were derived from simple things. Laura is five years old in the first book, and grows older in each, so that the last two include courtship and marriage. The one exception is I, which deals with her husband's boyhood. -Saturday Review, November 14, 1953

Helen Gentry was co-founder and part owner of the publishing firm, Holiday House, the first American publishing company dedicated solely to children's books. In addition to overseeing all design and production at her own firm, she occasionally served as a consultant for other publishers.

Gentry, a master printer and self-taught book designer, was a pioneer in producing fine books for children. Prior to the mid-1930s, books for children were almost always a product of the lowest standards of good printing. Gentry insisted that typography, illustration, printing, and binding be of the highest standards so that books could be preserved and treasured for generations. She was most noted for her use of type interacting with illustration, often used in the "Little House" books.
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:23 PM

 
they look so young

I came across this photo in my files tonight, while looking for something else entirely. I forgot I had it. It's of Frank and Emma Cooley with baby Paul, taken in De Smet, Dakota Territory, 1885, the year Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder were married. Frank was 25; Emma was 20 (she was born three days after Mary Ingalls). No, Emma wasn't a midget; she was just a tiny woman.

Geoge Cooley isn't in this photo because he was born the following year. That's a little toy wagon Paul is holding.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:01 PM

 
"i remember laura" blog-a-thon

Sandy at Quill Cottage is hosting an "I Remember Laura" blog-a-thon on Mondays through the month of June in memory of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the "Little House" series of books. Each week will focus on a particular theme: this week it is quilts; week two will be buttons; week three will be recipes, and week four will be books and music. There is also an art swap in connection with each week's theme; click on the picture above - or the one in the sidebar at right - for more information.

The chairs were chunks of big logs. The floor was the earth that Ma had swept clean with her willow-bough broom. On the floor, in the corners, the beds were neat under their patchwork quilts. -Little House on the Prairie, Chapter 9, "A Fire on the Hearth"

When I was a little girl, I slept under a pinwheel quilt that my paternal great-grandmother had made for my father when he was a little boy (shown above). I fondly remember pointing to the different patches at night while my father told me what they came from: "That was from my grandmother's apron; that was from a dress she wore to church in the summertime; that was from a pair of pajamas I had when I was five."


I didn't start quilting until I was an adult. I made a baby quilt for Pearce; I hve it on the table behind me. I made a nine-patch quilt for him because they're mentioned in the "Little House" books; the quilt shown here is one made by Mary Ingalls. It is on display at the Laura Ingalls Wilder / Rose Wilder Home & Museum in Mansfield, Missouri. Also on display is a crazy quilt made by Laura in the early 1900s.

When Ginny came along, I made her a baby quilt out of the leftover patches from Pearce's ninepatch, and I made doll quilts for her. Both Pearce and Ginny have quilted Christmas stockings. Ginny slept under a bedspread I crocheted for her; I was just tired of quilting, I guess, and moved on to something else. When she Ginny about two, I did make her the quilted jacket shown; it's of "the gingham dog and the calico cats." Click HERE to see a closeup of the dog and a cat. I made a quilted log cabin jacket for myself, and adapted the pattern to use for Ginny's. I had to dig it out of a box in the closet to photograph it; it's hard to believe she was ever that small!


I've blogged about this "double nine patch Irish chain" quilt before. It was made by Laura Ingalls Wilder and daughter Rose Wilder Lane; the quilt is on display at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. When Ginny was in the 4th grade, I sewed all the nine-patches for a quilt for her, and pieced them together. She'll be a senior in college this year and I still haven't quilted it. It's an easy quilt to piece, though; I've put my own pattern HERE. They also sell a more detailed pattern in Walnut Grove. The whole quilt is made up of only two different nine-patch blocks; can you see the two blocks in the image below?



Although quilts are mentioned in all of the original "Little House" books (the ones published during Laura Ingalls Wilder's lifetime), it's interesting to note that the actual quilting is never mentioned, only the piecework.

If you're interested in LIW-inspired quilts, check out Johanna Wilson's Prairie Quilts: Projects for the home inspired by the life and times of Laura Ingalls Wilder. There are patterns in connection with each of the "Little House" books, and beautiful photographs throughout.
- posted by pioneergirl at 8:39 PM