What Happened "After the Storm"

I often ask myself, "How did Laura Ingalls Wilder get through hard times?"  The Ingalls family didn't lack challenges.  There were cramped quarters, hastily constructed shanties, and a lack of local coffee shops.  During this period of self-quarantine, I decided to reread The Long Winter to discover - What Would Laura Do?

The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Chapter 5 - "After the Storm"

NOTE:  According to the excellent book, Prairie Fires, by Caroline Fraser, the October blizzard covered 500 miles, had winds up to 125 mph, and drifts ranging from a few inches to twenty feet.

Here is the interior of a claim shanty.  Not much room for yoga and puzzles.

The chapter begins with Laura waking up to both silence and a snowdrift on her bed.  The blizzard has ended.  She later finds out the storm ripped a large piece of tar paper off the roof.  These days I want to hit the snooze button and not get out of bed at all.  Laura didn't have all the wonderful things (coffee, a hot shower, heat, etc.) I have and yet she leaps out of bed into air colder than ice.  Note to self:  Tomorrow get going when alarm goes off.

Pa is back to spouting ominous predictions.  "I never knew a winter to set in so early.  I don't like the feel of things."  Glass-is-half-full Ma, begins chattering about an Indian summer while Laura eats breakfast and looks at the yellow window panes. Is it possible to channel the 3 Ingalls at once?  Can a person be prepared, hopeful, and in the moment? 

Pa noticed some strange cows standing at the haystacks, so Laura and Pa go outside to drive the cattle away.  Laura, as usual, stops to take in the prairie - "The sky was hugely blue and all the land was blowing white."  

Pa fights the wind to get to the cows.  Laura is scared by the cattle since they all have swollen white heads, bowing to the ground.  Pa figures out the cows' breath covered their eyes and noses and froze them to the ground.  Pa breaks the ice from their heads while Laura laments cows being smothered by their own breath. 

The giant auk - not your typical prairie bird.

Later, Pa brings in a strange little bird he found in a haystack.  Using her knowledge from Pa's green book, The Wonders of the Animal World, Laura identifies the bird as an auk. Pa muses that the exhausted bird dropped out of the sky and sought refuge in a haystack.  

The Ingalls put the bird in a box and wander over to the windows.  They see jack rabbits surrounding their stable.  Pa threatens to grab his gun, so they can have rabbit stew.  Tender hearted Laura begs him not to since the rabbits had just survived the blizzard.  Me?  I was pleading to the page, "No Pa!  Kill those jack rabbits and salt the meat.  You are right about an impending hard winter!  Grab your gun and get going."  Unwisely, Pa listened to Laura and not me.

WWLD

• Get up and get going
• Be prepared, hopeful, & in the moment
• Offer to help 
• Feed the birds

Join me tomorrow for chapter six, "Indian Summer."  (Finally, Ma gets an "I told you so.")

Prairie "The Horse Whisperer" Eydie.  I have no idea why I am wearing my bonnet as a feed sack.  

Prairie Eydie

Chapter 3: "Fall of the Year" at the Shanty

I often ask myself, "How did Laura Ingalls Wilder get through hard times?"  The Ingalls family didn't lack challenges.  There were early frosts, eerie premonitions, and a lack of water fowl.  During this period of self-quarantine, I decided to reread The Long Winter to discover what Laura would do.

The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Chapter 3 - "Fall of the Year"

Pa - Prairie Psychic

Chapter 3 begins with three days of rain.  Pa is having another eerie premonition about the upcoming winter.  Pa has "a feeling in his bones about the weather change."  Ma blows off Pa's weather visions.  "Well, we must expect it," Ma said.  "It's the equinoctial storm." (Hrumph.  Ma can be such a know it all.)  

Dear friend, Prairie Sherry, sent me a box of books.  Bless her Bibliophile Heart.

It is important to pay attention to premonitions.  In March, I had an inkling Wisconsin would be "Sheltering in Place" for longer than three weeks.  Despite this feeling, I didn't adequately prepare.  I underestimated how much I could read during a pandemic and didn't check out enough library books.  I read 5 books during week one of quarantine.  Now I am ordering books from Amazon, buying books at Target, and rereading Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic. 

 
October 1st brings a heavy frost to the farm - killing the hay and vegetable garden.  The Ingalls spend their day reaping the garden's "bounty."  This was their first year planting in sod ground which diminished the harvest.  (Sod ground means the soil is riddled with grass roots.  Prairie grass roots can extend anywhere from 8 to 14 feet.  Thank goodness I get my garden soil in manageable bags from Home Depot.)

The Ingalls harvested:

• 5 bushels of potatoes
• 1 bushel of beans &
• Ma preserved 2 quarts of green tomato pickles

That  meager harvest was supposed to sustain a family of 6 through an entire winter.  When I heard rumors of impending self-quarantine, I headed straight to Costco.  Now I wasn't hoarding, but I did stock up on Lozza Motzza pizzas, coffee beans, and lemons.  (Not sure why I needed a Costco size bag of lemons.  If I were Ma, I'd lift my family's spirits by baking a Lemon Meringue pie.)  I can't imagine getting through three weeks on that harvest, let alone an entire season.

Mid-chapter Pa says something curious, "When I get those few hills of corn cut, husked, and stored down cellar in a teacup, we'll have quite a harvest."  Since I have nothing but time, I went down a rabbit hole to learn what "stored down cellar in a teacup" meant.  It means - "we don't have much, but you are welcome to share what we have" OR "the meager harvest could fit in a tea cup."  I love the generous Pioneer spirit!  Pa wouldn't have hoarded toilet paper or hand sanitizer.  

Ma - A Pioneer Martha Stewart

Pa goes hunting for a brace of geese.  (In case you're wondering - a brace equals two)  Ma has intuited that Pa is depressed, so she decides to surprise him with a green pumpkin pie.  The girls are gobsmacked.  Who ever heard of a green pumpkin pie?  Ma quieted her daughters by saying, "But we wouldn't do much if we didn't do things that nobody ever heard of before."  (If only Ma had access to Twitter.)  

This got me thinking - what have I done that is innovative?  Here is a short list:  

• I removed the doors from my china hutch 
• I donated my dining room set and replaced it with bean bags and
•  I pin brooches into my messy buns.  

Nothing truly original is on my list.  Possibly it was easier to be innovative in 1882 than in 2020.    

Pa returns empty handed from hunting.  The water fowl have already hightailed it South.  Pa is sullen, but the green pumpkin pie jolts him from his gloom.  The girls circle around as Pa takes his first bite of pie.  He thinks it is apple pie!  Ma has done it again.  The pie is delicious and every bite is savored.  Laura doesn't want to drift off to sleep because she wants to keep being happy about the pie.

What I could possibly cook or bake that would make my kids so happy they couldn't sleep.  Possibly loaded nachos or the Betty Crocker classic - Cherry Berry.  Sadly, nachos and high caloric desserts aren't essential items, so my kids will stick to Lotzza Motzza pizzas and lemons.

WWLD Summary

• Pay attention to premonitions
• Use what you have - don't let things go to waste
• Share what you have with others
• Boost someone's spirits by baking/cooking something yummy

See you tomorrow for Chapter 4 - "October Blizzard."

Prairie Eydie

P.S. Discover 5 books that touched my life in this Flashback Prairie Grlz post.

Prairie Grl Writes Book List - Part one

Pa is "Making Hay While the Sun Shines"

When I fully processed the information that my kids and I would be sheltering in place for an undetermined amount of time, I thought "Oh.  We can be like Laura Ingalls Wilder in The Long Winter."  Obviously, blizzards on the prairie differ from Corona-virus in Sun Prairie, but both involve families sheltered, in one place, for a long time.

I asked myself, "How did Laura get through hard times?"  I could have chosen any of her books to answer this query.  The Ingalls family didn't lack challenges.  There was locust, Nellie Olsen, and Pa changing his mind about where to settle down.  I decided to reread The Long Winter to discover what Laura had to teach me.  

What Would Laura Do?

The Long Winter - Chapter One

"Making Hay While the Sun Shines"

Chapter 1 starts with detailed descriptions of the prairie.  As a 9 year old reader, I skipped most descriptions unless they involved food.  As a 52 year old reader, I reread Laura's sentences. How could I have ever flitted over sentences like "A dragon-fly with gauzy wings swiftly chased a gnat." and "The whole bright-striped snake had a gentle look." 

I follow Laura's example by forming detailed sentence in my mind when walking outdoors.

• The birds, with swift wings, sing a welcome to Spring.
• The daffodils bravely poked through cedar chips.
• I am socially distant from the terrier wearing a cheerful, striped sweater.  

Classic Laura

After Laura finished her prairie descriptions, she asks Pa if she can help him "make hay."  Pa is skeptical and tells Laura to go ask her Ma.  (Some things never change.)  Ma is also skeptical because American girls are above doing men's work.  (Some things do change.)  Practical Ma gives in because Laura will be saving the family money. 
 
Laura "making hay" is 100% why readers love her.  She stomps hay until her braids are undone and her sunbonnet is hanging down her back.  Sweat courses down her body and, still, she doesn't quit.  Pa patiently teaches Laura how to wield pitchforks full of hay and stomp the hay into domes.  

Following Pa's example, I am using this time of sheltering in place to teach my spoiled children how to do practical things.  So far the kids have learned how to use the Whirly Pop, empty the vacuum's canister and properly fold a fitted sheet (wad it up and stuff into the linen closet).

Muskrats gnaw lots of dry grass to complete their homes.  

Pa and Laura take a well deserved break from haying to study a muskrat's house.  Pa blathers on and on about how the muskrats "gnawed dry grass to bits" and "rounded the top carefully to shed the rain."  (Another portion 9 year old me would have skipped.)  Ingalls-Wilder brilliantly uses foreshadowing when Pa says, "We're going to have a hard winter" since the muskrats had crafted such thick mud walls.

Unlike Omniscient Pa, I didn't realize how serious the corona-virus would become in Wisconsin.  I never pictured voluntarily sheltering in place, "Zooming" messages to my students, or cancelling my own Ma's 80th birthday party.

Other tidbits worth mentioning from Chapter 1:

Now that I have nowhere to go and am caught up on laundry, I can take time to look up words I don't know.  Take this fragment for instance - " . . . till the narrow battens hardly covered the wide cracks in the walls."  Battens are long strips of squared wood or metal used to hold something in place.  You're welcome.

Here is the best part of Groundhog's Day.  The groundhog is HILARIOUS!

Laura's entire day was brightened when Ma sent ginger water to the field.  Ma made ginger water by adding sugar, vinegar, and ginger to well water.  Kinda like a folksy kombucha.  

Every day I try to brighten my kids' day.  One day we played Wii Sports.  Yesterday I subscribed to Audible, so they can learn something while flopping around the house.  I am trying to forget the day I gave in and finally watched Groundhog's Day.  (Why is this movie a comedy classic?  I only laughed when Bill Murray drove through a gravel pit with a groundhog on his lap.) 

WWLD Summary:

• Notice the little things.  
• Teach someone how to do something
• When possible, foreshadow the future   
• Look up unfamiliar words

and

• Brighten someone's day      

Join me tomorrow for Chapter 2 - "An Errand to Town"

Prairie Eydie