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