Some of you may finally be reading or rereading the Little House series by now. I can't believe how engrossed we've become on this trip! The De Smet, SD stop was our final Little House stop and by far the favorite. It was the homestead, where Ma and Pa settled and are buried. Silver Lake is here and the Twin Lakes where Almanzo courted then married Laura. This is essentially Little House icing on the cake.
Just looking about the prairie and imagining life here in the late 1800's sends an awareness through your body of what people went through to bring us to the West. How Pa and other men like him chose their lot
in the first place is inconceivable. Not a tree in sight. Wind! Thinking about them surviving The Long Winter out here, or simply surviving their first year with 6 people in a one-room shanty smaller than my dining room makes me want to cry in shame! What a bunch of wimps we are! I swear I'll never complain again! Ever! Reading the stories, but then being here...smelling, touching and seeing is beyond words.
The best thing about this site is that the kids could run free across the prairie and there was so much available for them to do. The well actually worked, the barn had animals. They played on their first see-saw, washed clothes on a washboard with lye, had a mock spelling bee in the old school (Peanut spelled 'succeed' and then coached Doodle to spell her own name). They got to ride in a buggy, climb in a stagecoach, use machinery (corn shucker, wheat grinder, rope spinner) and they even got a turn with the reins in the covered wagon!
When Peanut came running out of the barn to announce there were kittens I thought she was going to burst. She started panting, "Mom, mom this is the BEST Little House stop ever. THERE-ARE-KITTENS-UPSTAIRS-IN-THE-BARN!!!!!"
Both girls wanted Laura and Carrie dresses (Doodle's bonnet was no longer sufficient) and have since refused answering to their own names. They are 100% in character. The Cute Factor of them running across the prairie was enough to do me in, but hearing them at bedtime say, "Goodnight Laura. Goodnight Carrie," will surely be the end of me!
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