most marvelous of all

While cyberbessie is busy, enjoy this orange flower, in celebration of Ben Woodworth's party, held on this date in 1882 (a mere one hundred twenty-seven years ago). Did you have supper at eight o'clock?
- posted by pioneergirl at 8:00 PM

 
fill your own ice-house*

Ice-houses were only practicable in northern latitudes where water freezes to such a thickness and with such certainty as to make its harvesting profitable. In building an ice-house, there are two conditions to be considered: First, the cost of constructing the ice-house, and the cost of the ice to fill it. In localities where harvesting ice is expensive, it made sense to spend more money on a well-built and insulated ice-house. Where ice was comparatively inexpensive, it was more economical to build a cheaper but larger structure, and harvest a greater quantity of ice.

The Wilders' ice-house was "built of boards with wide cracks between. It was set high from the ground on wooden blocks, and looked like a big cage." (Farmer Boy, Chapter 6, "Filling the Ice-House") According to Laura Ingalls Wilder, it took three days to fill. For the Wilders, ice was both plentiful and in close proximity. It cost only time and the wages paid to French Joe and Lazy John to harvest it.

Based on the surface-to-volume ratio, the most cost-effective shape for an ice-house was theoretically the sphere, followed by the cylinder. The most practical ice-house shape for the family farm, however, was the cube. The smallest practical dimensions were 10x10x10 feet; the greater the size, the more economical the ice-house would become in proportion to the amount of ice it held. A 10x10x10 house held 1000 cubic feet of ice (1000 blocks of ice, each a foot square); a cubic foot of ice weighs 57 pounds. Therefore, the weight of the entire ice-house of ice would be 40,000 pounds. (How much did Father Wilder's 20-inch square blocks of ice each weigh?)

While you might think that under ground might be a good place for an ice-house -- after all, didn't the pioneers store food in an underground cellar to keep it cool? -- earth is a great conductor of heat. While it might make sense to have an underground ice-house during a hot summer when the air is hot but the earth is a constant 47 to 52 degrees or so, in the north, there are over 200 days per year in which the air temperature is colder than this. In addition, the conductivity of the earth is over twice as great as that of air.

Like the Wilders' ice-house, it's best to raise the floor off the ground, to allow for water to drain away from the ice. But the floor must also be insulated from the warmer earth, from one to two-and-a-half feet was advisable. The material should be both light and porous in order to trap insulating air: sand, crushed stone, or cinders. Sawdust, which the Wilders used, was not highly recommended because it both decomposed and compacted when wet. Almanzo and Royal's tight packing of the sawdust perhaps did more harm than good!

Although Laura Ingalls Wilder doesn't say, it's possible that the Wilders' ice-house had its board sides both battened and sided. The open construction, however, suggests that the Wilders relied on a larger quantity of ice and saved on the cost of construction of a better-insulated storage facility.

If you want to play with perfect ice cubes and don't have a nearby pond, a cross-cut saw, or hired help that will work for wages paid in salt pork, purchase some "perfect cube" silicone ice trays. A few seconds under the tap, a little freezer time and some sawdust, and you can fill your own miniature ice-house.

* Ice-house not included.
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:16 PM

 
after the froe

I've always loved it that when Almanzo goes to watch his father working at his shaving-bench, Mr. Wilder asks him: "Be you having a good time, son?" Is there any place in the "Little House" books where Laura is asked if she's having fun, or encouraged in her play?

Mr. Wilder is shaving shingles, a skill we assume Almanzo learns at some point, even though a single swipe or two with the draw-knife satisfies his curiosity on that day. And in keeping with the idea that whatever you want to know how to do in the "Little House" world, you can find on youtube, CLICK HERE to see a video about shingle-making. Knowing how many shingles you would need for a given project is another skill Almanzo probably learned to "figure." Here are some early math problems involving shingles, meant to be used in the grammar school. Can your nine-year-old solve these math problems?

1. In measuring shingles, the average width of the shingles is supposed to be 4 inches. The length varies, but they are always laid so that more than two thirds of the shingle is covered by the courses of shingles above. If they are laid so that 5 inches of the length are exposed to the weather, a shingle 4 inches wide will really make how many square inches of roof? 1000 shingles will make how many square inches of roof?

2. When shingles are laid 6 inches to the weather, each shingle will make how many square inches of roof? How many shingles will make one square foot of roof? How many shingles are required for one square (100 square feet) of roof?

3. How many shingles laid 6 inches to the weather are required for one square foot of roof? For one square of roof? For a roof 20 feet long, each slanting side of which measures 9 feet in width?

4. Find the cost of the shingles for a roof measuring 45 feet long by 20 feet each slanting side at $4.50 per 1000 shingles, estimating that 675 shingles will make one square of roof.

5. Find the cost of the shingles for a roof 36 feet long, each slanting side 19 feet wide, the shingles being laid so that seven shingles make one square foot of roof, and costing $5.20 per 1000.

6. A shed roof 18 feet by 40 feet slants only one way. Find the cost of the shingles required for it at $4.80 per 1000, the shingles being laid so that 7-1/2 shingles make one square foot of roof.

7. The shingles for a roof cost $68.25. Each side of the roof measured 25 feet by 35 feet, and the shingles were laid so that 6-1/2 shingles made a square foot of roof. Find the price per thousand.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:50 PM

 
it could kill a man

The story of Mr. Corse using Father Wilder's blacksnake ox whip to deal with the Ritchie gang sounds a bit like THIS story, which appeared in newspapers in 1906. Is that Almanzo and Miles peeping in the door?
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:46 PM

 
you cannot do this with bread
Last night, I popped some popcorn and poured a cup of milk brim-full. I filled another cup with popcorn. I put the kernels of popcorn into the cup of milk, one at a time. And the milk domed up, and then..... my cup ranneth over.

I've seen the YouTube and I know the reasoning behind it. But if you really fill the glass/cup to the BRIM with milk, it's going to spill over.

You cannot do THIS with bread, either. But Royal could do it with wood.
- posted by pioneergirl at 9:48 PM

 
jonas lane
Was there really a teacher who was hurt so badly by the Ritchie gang that he died? I haven't a clue.

In Farmer Boy, Mr. Corse accepts the teaching job at Almanzo Wilder's school only to avenge the death of his friend, Jonas Lane. There is no former teacher's name given in the manuscript, but there is the following about how the cause of death:

...The boys would not come to school until about the middle of the term and from the first were surly and rude to the teacher. They would act worse and worse until he would try to punish them. Then all together they would attack him, put him out of the school house and lock the door against him. Last winter they had struck the teacher's back across a seat and injured him so that he had died of it in the summer.

- posted by pioneergirl at 9:13 PM

 
when in doubt, check the manuscript
Where exactly did Almanzo go to school? Who was Miles Lewis? Who was Mr. Corse? Who was Jonas Lane? Based on their historical age differences, were Almanzo and Royal ever in school together? Why did Laura fudge the ages of the Wilder children so much? Did Almanzo really wear a waistband full of brass buttons to school? And was the school term ten weeks shorter after Mr. Corse beat the crap out of the Ritchie gang?

I've been having a hard time getting into Farmer Boy this time around. So I read my notes and files. I deciphered a few deeds. I made pancakes. I looked at my photos and videos, and I read some old research letters. I spent time on ancestry, seeing if there was anything new. I read the back issues of Farmer Boy News. Finally I read the manuscript!

I still wonder about Mr. Corse and Miles Lewis, but not so much about Almanzo's school location. Reflections: A Brief History of Burke says that the school was District 8, and the schoolhouse was at the corner of today's Perham Road just south of the Wilder Farm. I talked to some people in Malone this summer who think that's the one. That schoolhouse is clearly marked on the 1876 map, but the Wilders were no longer living in New York at that time. There's an 1851 map at the courthouse (FBN says it's from 1858 - see the Spring/Summer 1987 issue; did I misread the date on the map, I wonder?) and there is indeed a schoolhouse indicated in the Perham Road location, although it is no longer standing. One problem is that school records exist from about 1911 on, and Farmer Boy is supposedly set in about 1866.

Over the years, Farmer Boy News has contained several interesting articles about the Farmer Boy school. Was it Skeelsboro school (fictional Hardscrabble; the real Hardscrabble settlement was in Spring Valley, Minnesota) or the schoolhouse on Brainardsville Road in Bellmont Township? A schoolhouse is still standing in that location and the Wilder Museum showcases this school location in a display of maps and photographs. The description of the mile-and-a-half walk to the schoolhouse in Chapter 1 of Farmer Boy sure suggests that Laura was writing about the "way through the woods" to the Brainardsville Road School. When you remember that Laura Ingalls Wilder never visited the Malone area, it's quite remarkable that her fictional route can so easily be followed on the map today.

In the Farmer Boy manuscript, there is mention of several schools by number! Nick Brown, the tin peddler, tells a story that includes the following:

"...And that reminds me," he went on with a chuckle. "I was at No. 5 schoolhouse at meeting last Sunday and announcing the next meeting place Brother Rhodes said, 'The waters are pretty high between here and No. 4 schoolhouse, but I will preach there next Sunday if the Lord is willing. And I will preach at No. 3 schoolhouse, the Sunday after, whether or no. It's on this side of the creek!"

If you go by the school numbers on the 1876 map, District 2 is north of the Burke Post Office. No. 5 is to the west, No. 4 is immediately north, and No. 3 is to the east. The Little Trout River (the creek?) lies between 4 and 5. All are pretty far from the Wilder property.

But the manuscript also includes this about Almanzo's school:

...The big boys who sat on the back seats were as large as the teacher and nearly as old. They all lived in Hardscrabble neighborhood, up above Hardscrabble Hill and they went to school only in the winter. It was their boast that no teacher could finish out the winter term at No. 7 schoolhouse and since they had become the "big boys" of the school, no teacher had.

In Burke Township, District No. 7 (in 1876, mind you) was located north of the railroad tracks and northwest of Burke; again, quite a distance from the Wilder farm.

District No. 7 schoolhouse in Bellmont Township, however, is the one on Brainardsville Road, just down the road, down a hill, and through the woods, one and a half miles from the Wilder farm. The 1876 township maps for Burke and Bellmont don't quite line up, but the bits shown above include the two schoolhouse locations, the Wilder Farm, and the approximate route to No. 7.
- posted by pioneergirl at 3:43 PM

 
oh, farmer boy!


This past summer, when I was at the (James) Wilder Homestead in Burke, New York (childhood home of Almanzo Wilder of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series), I went a little crazy taking Flip videos of the farm, Dean Butler, the way to the schoolhouse through the woods, the Morgan horses, Dean Butler, the long way to the schoolhouse by car, the Trout River, Malone, Dean Butler, and random driving around. I filmed for my own future reference, so what you see is what you get. Here's a quickie early morning walk around the Wilder farmhouse, bouncy footsteps and all. Can you spot Dean Butler?
- posted by pioneergirl at 6:30 PM

 
in which ma is afraid
In its last chapter, Little House in the Big Woods comes full circle to close the story. The cows are brought into the barn to be fed; the attic is full of good things to eat; and Jack Frost once again drops by at night. There's been no fresh meat in the house since spring, so it's time for Pa to go hunting, but Laura and Mary won't be waking up to see any dead deer hanging in the trees this time.

What the heck is wrong with Pa? He watches a deer and doesn't shoot. He watches a bear and doesn't shoot. He watches another deer and forgets that he has his gun, so he doesn't shoot. Seriously, that man would forget his penis* if it wasn't attached.

Yes, I know the picture Laura paints is one of cosy firelight and contentment; I've felt it, too. But I've also read the series too many times to be fooled for long. I know that Little House on the Prairie begins with too many people and too few animals for Pa. And so they leave the Big Woods forever.

In a story edited out of the Big Woods manuscript prior to publication, Laura tells us that when Pa went to town to buy the winter provisions, he was again late coming home, so Ma pulls in the latch-string to wait. As she sat sewing by the fire-light, she hears a fumbling at the door; someone is trying to get it!

After a few minutes, someone knocks but doesn't speak. Ma sits quietly, not breathing. And then the noise is at the window, and there is a face peering in. It's a rough looking man who says, "I see you are alone. Let us in. We won't hurt you." His voice is gruff, but Ma's no dummy. Ma says nothing, Jack growls angrily, and the face disappears. For some time, the men stand talking under the window, but eventually the voices go away.

When Pa finally comes home, Ma makes him talk to her before she would open the door. Pa says the men were likely from a river gang that had gone up the river, but he didn't expect them to be so far inland.

Ma wasn't afraid of bears or wolves or wild hogs. But Ma had been afraid tonight. Laura knew for she had seen Ma's face in the lamplight.

Maybe Ma should have given the men cornbread. It worked in Indian Territory. And now we know why she always insists on curtains, even in the Surveyors' House when the nearest neighbor is forty miles away. Perhaps this is even the reason Pa has both a gun and a pistol in Indian Territory; Pa may be stupid enough to find himself without his gun on occasion, but Ma never will!

[*If you are reading this blog aloud, feel free to substitute the word "beard". Romines may be offended, but your delicate ears will not.]

Permalink: http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/983
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:01 AM

 
hats off

Although Caroline Ingalls braided her straw hats out of oat straw in Little House in the Big Woods, rye seems to have been the fiber of choice. It was sown in the fall and harvested the following June. Tied in loose bundles, the stalks lost their heads to the chopping block, then were scalded to release the green sap. After drying in the sun for several days, the straw was ready to use.

Massachusetts was the center of the "straw bonnet" industry for well over a hundred years, and it's possible that Caroline Ingalls was simply continuing an art that had been passed down from her Massachusetts ancestors. Even in traditional straw bonnet making, ladies taught their friends and daughters various braids and sewing techniques, and there was a time when the manufacture of braided straw for hats was purely a domestic affair, even if it went to the factory for finishing. Children usually did the cutting, boiling, and laying-to-dry, then everyone took a turn at braiding the straw, which, as Laura Ingalls Wilder mentioned, had been soaking in a tub in order to soften it. If such braid went to a factory, it would be sorted into latticed bins for finishing, but in many cases the process continued in the home, with the braid lapped and spirals sewn into hats, shaping them over plaster forms for a proper fit. Hats in this stage were further smoked, bleached, dried, blocked, and finished, a process Caroline Ingalls abbreviated at home.

Laura Ingalls Wilder describes Ma's straw braids of seven and nine strands of small or large straws, plus a braid that is beautifully "notched all along the edges," like the one shown at left. While there are many different ways to braid both seven and nine strands, one option is shown above. Check out THIS page for links to straw braiding and hat-making pages. If you forgot to plant your rye this fall and will be ready to braid your own hat this spring, you can order braided straw HERE.

If Ma made such beautiful hats, and Laura learned how to do it, and Pa grew oats in De Smet, why didn't Laura or Ma make the rough straw poke-bonnet for Laura in These Happy Golden Years? Or did they...?

Permalink: http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/985
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:14 PM

 
is it still a snark if you get paid to do it?
This from Publisher's Weekly:

Megan Lynch at Riverhead has acquired world rights to the new book by Wendy McClure, The Wilder Life, via Erin Hosier at Dunow, Carlson and Lerner. This humorous first-person narrative exploration of the life and work of Laura Ingalls Wilder retraces her real and fictional pioneer journeys, while also reporting on the phenomenon of Wilder's contemporary fandom. Riverhead published New York Times Magazine contributor McClure's I'm Not the New Me in 2005, and will publish the new book in 2010.

Permalink: http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/987
- posted by pioneergirl at 6:30 PM

 
cradle scythe

In Little House in the Big Woods (Chapter 11, "Harvest"), Pa and Uncle Henry cut their oats with a cradle. In Farmer Boy (Chapter 19, "Early Harvest"), Father Wilder and Almanzo cut their oats with a cradle. In Farmer Boy, Laura Ingalls Wilder tells us the difference between a scythe and a cradle, but since there are no scythes in Little House in the Big Woods, she doesn't bother.

A snath with a blade is a scythe. A scythe with teeth is a cradle. Cradles are used to cut oats; scythes aren't. A snath is the long S-shaped wooden shaft with a handle near the middle and a long curved blade at the end, forming a scythe. The cradle is a frame of wood with long curved ribs added to the snath and projecting above and parallel to the scythe blade; it cuts grains and lays them in a straight swath. The cradle acted as a gathering rake and allowed the harvester to deposit the grain in an even pile with every swing of the scythe

Back when Pa and Uncle Henry were cutting oats in the Big Woods, a strong man could cradle two to three acres per day. A fifty-acre field would keep a man occupied for twenty days. About a week was all that a man could count on before his grain became too ripe to handle without waste, but Uncle Henry (at least) must have had a small oat field of about five acres, since it only took the two men a day to cut his oats, and that was counting the afternoon distractions caused by Cousin Charley.

To see a youtube video which includes both the cradle and shocking oats (it's not at the beginning, so keep watching), go HERE.

Permalink: http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/989
- posted by pioneergirl at 6:30 PM

 
rose wilder lane: ghostwriter in the sky
Making and Breaking the Myths of the Prairie and the New Woman
by Bill Nygren

Have you seen THIS November 2008 article about Rose Wilder Lane? Check it out!

Permalink: http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/991
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:02 PM

 
"a pretty girl, with dark eyes and black curls"
Because Mary Ingalls and Eva Huleatt* walk together and talk nicely while Laura and Clarence climbed trees (apparently Pa didn't grub out all the sprouts), I always pictured Eva to be about Mary's age. She wasn't. Eva was born in 1870, so she was the same age as Carrie.

Eva remained single until after the death of both parents. At age 36, she married Watson Leitch (hmmm, Mary Power's sister married a Leitch) from Maiden Rock, and they moved to Colorado and then to Illinois.

Too bad Eva wasn't in Chicago during the Hard Winter, or I'd suspect her family of being the "friends in Chicago."

*See William Anderson's Laura Ingalls Wilder Country for a photo of Eva Huleatt.

Permalink: http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/993
- posted by pioneergirl at 6:30 PM

 
going to town

Permalink: http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/995
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:14 PM

 
turkey red
When Laura and Mary go to town in Little House in the Big Woods (Chapter 9), they are doing so for the first time in their lives, at ages four and six. They are going to a store for the first time, too. This begs the question: has Ma not been to a store since Mary was born?

One can only hope not, but throughout the "Little House" books, it's Pa who does most of the shopping, not only for seed and tools, but for food, clothing, fabric, hair ribbons, hair combs, and shoes. In the Big Woods and in Indian Territory, the Ingallses are simply too far from town to make it easy to go as a family; perhaps fear of theft also dictated that someone remain at home. It's not until the family is living on Plum Creek that age and proximity allow the girls (and Ma?) to go to town - and shop - on their own.

In Ann Romines' Constructing the Little House: Gender, Culture, and Laura Ingalls Wilder (University of Massachusetts Press, 1997), she implies that "shopping decisions" in LHBW are an example of Pa's asserting his dominance over Ma:

In the first Little House book, Charles Ingalls teases his wife by threatening to strip her of her right to make these crucial decisions about clothing for herself. At the store, he insists that she have fabric for a new apron, although she protests that she doesn't "really need it." "But Pa laughed and said she must pick it out, or he would get her the turkey red piece with the big yellow pattern. Ma smiled and flushed pink, and she picked out a pattern of rosebuds and leaves on a soft, fawn-colored ground" (LHBW 170). Clearly a complicated dynamic is at work here. Although he is strapped for funds and can afford only enough inexpensive cloth to make an apron - not a dress - for his wife, Charles Ingalls makes the purchase into a major opportunity to exercise his will publicly. He allows Caroline Ingalls no say in decisions about how the funds will be spent (perhaps she would prefer knitting wool, or a favorite food?), and he playfully threatens decisions, the choice of the fabrics she will sew and wear. Even from young Laura's perspective, the fawn-colored calico is an important expression of her mother's taste and character. (Romines, 111-112)

Pa may be in control, but if that family was going to be wearing something other than skins, like Adam, then somebody was going to have to do the picking-out of materials, and that person was Pa. Didn't he do a fine job with the china blue calico for Mary? The dark red with golden dots calico for Laura? You've got to love a man who can pick out the perfect dress goods, a man so in tune with his women that he can joke about the "turkey red piece with the big yellow pattern" because knows Ma's likes and dislikes to a T.

Ma doesn't seem to need a dress at all, and Pa's ability to afford the cloth for one isn't the issue; certainly that shopping trip isn't one taken by a family that is "strapped for funds." It's generosity. Ma has just picked out calico for two shirts and a jumper for Pa (and perhaps some of the white goods for underwear will be his, as well), and he wants Ma to also have something new and pretty. He knew she didn't need calico for a new dress because he had brought her the lovely brown calico with the big, feathery white pattern only months earlier. Ma obviously has clothes a-plenty, because she wears a brown dress with purple flowers to town!

Couldn't the verbal exchange while shopping also be taken as a sign of love and complete sympathy between Pa and Ma, perhaps even a private joke between them, and Pa's will had nothing to do with it? I bet Pa's eyes twinkled over that turkey red calico!
- posted by pioneergirl at 6:30 PM

 
life and jack london

"The World of Jack London" at www.jacklondons.net has a transcription with photographs of Rose Wilder Lane's 1917-1918 serial, "Life and Jack London," originally published in Sunset magazine. Check it out!
http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:46 PM

 
happiness approaches!

While riding in the sled to the dance at Grandpa's (Little House in the Big Woods, Chapter 8), Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote that "the horses shook their heads and pranced, making the sleigh bells ring merrily." The next time we read about Laura and sleigh bells in the "Little House" books, it's when Laura hears the sleigh bells on Prince and Lady as Almanzo Wilder approaches the Brewster schoolhouse to take her home for the weekend: "It seemed to her that the wind had a strangely silvery sound.... The strange sound grew clearer, almost like music. Suddenly the whole air filled with a chiming of little bells. Sleigh bells!" (These Happy Golden Years, Chapter 3.

Did Pa never have sleigh bells on his team after leaving the Big Woods? It makes me think that sleigh bells were tied to happiness in some way, and surely Laura associates the sound of sleigh bells with being happy in the "Little House" books. It's the sound she hears every time Almanzo comes to take her home from the Brewster school, and on that last trip home to stay, Laura writes that "her heart was so light that she felt like singing with the sleigh bells." (These Happy Golden Years, Chapter 10) Even if you ignore the fact that sleighs and sleigh bells probably were a luxury (notice they're on a sled in Big Woods, not a sleigh), or that the Ingalls family didn't have room to pack such frippery when going to Indian Territory, or that Pa didn't even have horses on Plum Creek for a while, there's no way around the fact that sleigh bells are just, well, happiness inducing. LISTEN!

Sleigh bells have been around for well over a thousand years, first as good luck charms or to ward off evil spirits, then as a symbol of wealth and status (weren't Almanzo's double strands of bells thought better than the single strands worn by the other boy's horses?). While they are both decorative and beautiful, sleigh bells also served a more practical function in Laura's day. The sound warned other people on the road that there was someone coming, and they were especially useful during snowy or foggy weather. Like Laura in THGY, one can hear the bells get louder as they get closer; that's your cue to slow down or get a little tighter grip on the reins just in case you're driving Barnum and Skip that day.

Next time you visit Burr Oak, why not take a side-trip to Classic Bells northeast of Postville, Iowa? While they don't keep regular "store" hours (call first), the owners have an amazing collection of vintage and new sleigh bells for sale and also sell at events; check out their website. No horse? Try some for the dog... or at least a strand for your back door, to let you know when someone's there!
- posted by pioneergirl at 6:30 PM

 
sap skimmer

Grandpa Ingalls used a basswood ladle to skim his boiling kettle of maple sap in Little House in the Big Woods (see Chapter 7, "The Sugar Snow"). When boiled, the maple sap produces a sugary foam which contains impurities that must be removed. These impurities might be insects, twigs, dirt, or even mold. The longer sap is boiled, the more foam will be produced, but it will contain fewer and fewer impurities. It takes thirty gallons of sap to produce just one gallon of maple syrup; that's a lot of boiling and skimming!

Basswood comes from the American Linden, about thirty species of trees in the genus Tilia. The tree is native to most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere, in Asia, Europe (where it is known as Lime), and eastern North America; it is not native to the western United States. The Linden is a large deciduous tree reaching a height of around fifty feet. From the trunk outward, its branches get smaller and smaller; the leaves are heart-shaped, and after flowering with wonderfully fragrant blossoms, the tree is covered with tiny fruit resembling green peas. Linden is an important honey plant, and the flowers are also used to make herbal tea.

Basswood is both tough and light and is not apt to split while being worked, so it is a favorite for cabinet work, boxes, broom handles, butter bowls, and other kitchen items. Perhaps Grandpa Wilder carved his own ladles out of basswood. THIS might inspire you to try carving one for yourself.
- posted by pioneergirl at 6:30 PM

 
the latch-string is always out, except when it's in

In Little House in the Big Woods, in the chapter where Ma slaps the bear and Pa hits one over the head with a big stick (or thought he was, at least until that first whack), does Ma pull in the latch-string because she doesn't want the bear to get inside or because it's night-time and Pa isn't home yet? If there's a bear outside and Pa comes home, mightn't he need to get inside in a hurry? Of course we know Ma's worried about Pa. He's late, there's a bear, and Pa doesn't have his gun.

In Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder goes into great detail about how to make a door and latch . So does Daniel Carter Beard - one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America - in his 1914 Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties: The Classic Guide to Building Wilderness Shelters (reprinted in 2004 by Dover Paperbacks). This handy book gives you detailed instructions in how to build everything from a fallen tree shelter to a log cabin, and how to safely use the axe that will help you build them. The best part is the over 300 illustrations; see one of the drawings of latch and latch-string assembly below. Not only does Beard show you the latch from both inside and outside the door, but from the side of the door as well.

- posted by pioneergirl at 6:30 PM