How much do you love Little House on the Prairie? As children, my sisters and I used to play "Little House" all the time. We watched the TV series together (loosely based on the books!) My mother made us mob caps, and I've passed mine on to Eleanor who wears it regularly. I used to love the idea of climbing a ladder to get to bed (as seen on TV) and envy Nora just a little bit when she climbs up to her loft in her nightgown and eyelet cap. Needless to say, I've read all of the books in the original series... and the Rose years... and the cookbook... and biographies. We just read Little House in Brookfield about the childhood of Laura's mother, Caroline. We were very disappointed to find out that the series is no longer in print and quite expensive used... especially frustrating after realizing that there are six more of the series! There are also stories of Caroline's mother, Charlotte and Charlotte's mother, Martha. Oy, that's a lot of books!
I love Little House in the Big Woods for it's simplicity and explanations of daily life in the mid-1800s, but Farmer Boy is my favorite of the series. This book packs in many stories of Laura Ingalls' husband, Almanzo's Wilder, when he was a boy. I recently mentioned to my sisters that I wanted to visit his childhood home, and a road trip was planned. He grew up in Malone, NY which is only a few hours from where we live. We took a ferry across the lake and had a fun drive in a car filled with my twin sisters, my 10 year-old nephew, and Eleanor.
Oh, how I wish I could share photos of inside the house, but there was no photography allowed inside. It was so lovely! Each room was furnished and decorated as it would have been when Almanzo was a child. In the attic, reached by a steep staircase, we found Almanzo's bedroom that he shared with his brother, Royal. They had another brother, Pearly, who was born after the "year" that Farmer Boy took place. However, the house is set up to mimic when book took place so he was not represented. However, the only object that is original to the house is a bedspread donated by Pearly that Mrs. Wilder wove.
To one side of the boys' room is an unfinished attic space where Father would have made his shingles. Eliza Jane's and Alice's room on the other side was bright and much larger that I imagined. (There was one older sister, Laura, that would have been grown and out of the house when Almanzo was a boy.) There were two windows allowing in lots of natural light and *gasp* a weaver was weaving on a loom between them! We spent quite some time talking about weaving with her, and my nephew had some impressive questions to ask her. He is such a math whiz and had a very intelligent conversation about calculating the materials needed for the weaving and how to warp the loom. The girls' beds were on either side of the loom. Because weaving would have been done during the winter months (when the garden did not need tending) the loom would have been dismantled and put away in the unfinished attic space to make room for visiting cousins to sleep on the floor. This bedroom was also impressive for its time because it had two closets. This would have been rare as they would have been taxed for these closets as additional rooms. One of the closets had a display of towels belonging to Rose Wilder Lane, Almanzo's daughter. They had little roses on them as she was fond of her name. Almanzo called her his "Little Prairie Rose."
Downstairs was much like I expected and felt like walking into the book with a couple of exceptions. One of them was the small bedroom off the parlor. We couldn't figure out who it belonged to. A guide told us that it would have been a guest room which made sense when thinking back to the book. They would have had to have a room to board the cobbler, the peddler, the school teacher. It also would have been used to isolate anyone who was ill, and being on the main floor, it would have been easier to keep an eye on that sick person, too. The other thing that we hadn't quite figured out was the set up of the parlor. {Spoiler Alert!} We discovered that the wood stove was between the parlor and the dining room. with a low doorway over it. The door to the parlor was beside the stove "door". Using our best CSI skills, we figured trajectories, the height of a nine year old, and the shoulder height of his big sister to try to determine where the blacking brush hit the wall. We inspected the walls hoping to find a patch of wallpaper. Alas, we found nothing! However, I did notice a shelf in the unfinished attic that had a roll of the parlor's wallpaper on it. I like to imagine that is where Eliza Jane found it when it was necessary.
The reconstructed barns were a real highlight. It was fun to imagine it full of animals and the longing that Almanzo felt to pet the young horses and colts. In fact, as part of the "Hay Days of Summer" event, there were demonstrations of beautiful Morgan horses.
There were fine examples of farm machinery and tools in the barns. I got to use a water pump which I've always wanted to do! I feel like we take for granted turning on the tap. There's something really powerful about pumping water. I think I could have some serious biceps using one of those daily!
There was, of course a cross cut saw for ice fishing (excuse my sister's hair! It was a little crowded.):
Once two Irishmen were sent out to saw ice with a cross-cut saw. They had never sawed ice before. They looked at the ice and they looked at each other and they looked at the saw, till at last Pat took a penny out of his pocket and he says, says he "Now Jamie, be fair. Heads or tails, who goes below?"
-Farmer Boy
We wandered a bit through the garden looking for something in particular and were delighted when we found a milk-fed pumpkin raised similarly to how Almanzo grew his blue ribbon squash. We were disappointed to hear that last year's pumpkin was only slightly bigger than the others (it was grown separately from other pumpkins). Then, we learned that they used 2% milk! Imagine! This year, they are using whole milk, but I suggested that they use raw milk. I might just give that a try myself. I think I have a new garden plan!
As part of "Hay Days of Summer," we had the pleasure of meeting William Anderson, a Laura Ingalls Wilder historian (he's in the first photo!) We chatted about traveling the "Laura trail", our experiences in using The Little House Cookbook, and the other series of books. I was happy to get an autographed copy of Laura Ingalls Wilder Country which I will cherish with his other books already in my collection. Also, hitching a ride home with me were Little House Paper Dolls and A Tribute to Charles "Pa" Ingalls and County Fair.
It was a truly worth while trip and more fun with the company of my family Maybe we will make it to the big woods of Wisconsin one day!
