Almanzo is Hiding "Seed Wheat"

I often ask myself, "How did Laura Ingalls Wilder get through hard times?"  The Ingalls family didn't lack challenges.  There were dark days, false hopes, and sequestered seed wheat.  During this period of self-quarantine, I decided to reread The Long Winter to discover - What Would Laura Do?

Cold and dark have enveloped DeSmet once again in Chapter 17.  LIW says, "It was hard to be cheerful."

I am also finding myself "Cheer Challenged."  I can be cheerful and upbeat every other day, but not every day.  Being a single mom during a pandemic is tough.  My three kids and I have been shut in for approximately a month and a half.  I am making the meals, playing the games of cards, keeping up with laundry, and doing all of the nagging.  Nagging is the worse because there are so many things to nag my kids about. 

• Get fresh air
• Take a shower
• Do the homework you said you did, but didn't
• Practice your instrument
• Get on your zoom class
• Talk to me

(NOTE:  I wish Ma had written a book on child rearing since she never nags.)  Luckily, I have friends and family who still take my calls between assembling puzzles and baking muffins.  They cheer me up every day, so I can start all over again.

Fuller's Hardware - where everyone knows Pa's name.

Pa's trips to Fuller's Hardware have dwindled.  He spends his days rationing hay for the livestock, telling bear and panther stories to Carrie and Grace, and playing merry tunes on the fiddle every night.  The Ingalls' supplies are nearly depleted.  There is only flour for one more baking.   The kerosene lamp is only lit for supper.  There is no meat or butter.  Thank goodness there are still some potatoes.  Laura, correctly reading their situation, desperately hopes a train will come before the flour runs out.

Through the magic of 3rd person narration, LIW takes us to the back room of Royal Wilder's feed store.  Almanzo is building a false wall to hide his seed wheat.  "I'm nailing up my seed wheat so nobody'll see it and nobody'll bring up any question about it and it'll be right here when seedtime comes."  Almanzo is afraid Royal will sell his seed wheat to hungry townies when he isn't looking. 

Almanzo had raised his own seed wheat in Minnesota.  This simply involved plowing, harrowing, sowing, cutting, binding, threshing sacking and transporting the seed wheat 100 miles in a wagon.  No biggie.  The success of Almanzo's homestead was dependent on him sowing  seed wheat in the Spring.

Helpful Royal whittles a plug for Almanzo's false wall.  The chapter concludes with Almanzo saying, "Folks manage to get along when they got to."

WWLD

• Realize it is hard to constantly be cheerful
• Hope for the best

See you soon for Chapter 18, "Merry Christmas."

Prairie Eydie