Monday, April 4, 2011

LIttle house on the Prairie!

This is the first book in the series. I just have gotten done reading it. I have always loved the t.v. show and I have read some of the books before. I am reading them again so I can write about them.

This book is basically the beginning when Laura Ingalls Wilder was about six years old. Her Ma, Pa, her sister Mary, Laura and her sister baby Carrie lived in Pepin County, Wisconsin in the big woods. Her Grandma and Grandpa, Aunts and Uncles all lived in the big woods too.

Just before winter would set in Pa would go hunting for meat for the winter. He would smoke some of the meat and store it in the shed or up in the loft. Ma and the girls would get all of the vegetables pulled out of the garden and get the spices out too. The spices would hang up in the loft and the vegetables would be put up on the loft or in the pantry. Ma always said that Pa always like to have fresh meat in the winter.

In the winter time since the girls couldn't go out and play when Pa came back from hunting Pa would play his fiddle or he would tell the girls a story. When Pa would play his fiddle he would also sing sometimes. 

At Christmas Laura's Aunt and Uncle would come and spend the night with there kids. The kids would have to stay in the house because it was to cold outside to play. So the kids would either play up in the loft or in the big bedroom. On Christmas morning they would have a big breakfast then open there presents. The kids would play some more then have an early dinner and the family would go home.

Right before spring Pa would call the last snow fall a sugar snow. That meant that it was time to tap the maple trees. Her Pa would have to go and help her Grandpa tap all his maple trees for the maple syrup. After they had gotten this all done her Pa would come home. Then he told them at the end of the week there was going to be the big dance at Grandma and Grandpa's. This was when the whole family would get together and get all dressed up to have a nice dinner and play music to dance to.

When spring came Pa would be out in the field getting it ready to plant. He would be gone all day long. There was one time he said the whole family was going to town. The girls never seen a town. The houses were so close together and the kids were outside playing. They went into the store and the girls seen all the things in the store. The store owner knew Ma and Pa. Then when they were done in the store they would have lunch down by the lake.

Then in the fall Pa was out in the field harvesting the wheat crop. This big machine came to separate the oats from the wheat. It took eight horses to run the machine. Mary and Laura stood there in amazement holding hands. The machine was really loud with the clinking. But then they went back to the house to help Ma with lunch for the workers.

If you like Little House on the Prairie like I do you would really like the book. There are a total of nine books in the series. I do plan on getting them all. Right now I only have the first three of them. This book is really amazed me because it is a true story about her life. I have started the next book when I am done with it I will write about it.

I hope you enjoy my revue about the book and I would like to hear what you have to say about this!

10 comments:

  1. I remember reading the first one in a school library long time ago..now you remind me that I should look for the whole series now. I hope they have it in book stores here..

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  2. If you can find a Barnes and Noble they have the whole series. The only other thing I can think of is another big book store like that. The books are about nine dollars here.

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  3. I grew up about 15-20 minutes away from Almanzo Wilder's boyhood home in Burke, NY. In 4th grade we read Farmer Boy from start to finish as it was local history for us. I had a good friend who lived about a mile from the Wilder homestead and it had only been recently purchased from private owners for restoration and to be opened up as a museum so it wasn't yet open to the public. We'd walk over to the house and peer into the windows of the then vacant house.

    The first time I brought my then-fiance, now-wife out to visit my parents in 2003 we went to the farm. The barn had been rebuilt (the original burned to the ground back in the 1960s, iirc) and the house had been fully restored to the way it had been when Almanzo was growing up. It's worth seeing if your travels ever bring you up to that part of the Northeast.

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  4. Perplexio- I had just started to read the Farmer Boy book. I am on the sixth chapter right now. I just love the show and I seen the play with Melissa Gilbert. I have read Melissa's and Allison's book already. Those are really good to read. How they grew up on the show. I can't believe to have someone on here that grew up by his house. That is really awesome to know. If I can get out that way I will stop there to see the house. Thank you for letting me know that the house is still there. I also would love to go out west and see the house that Almanzo and Laura lived in together. They have also made that one into a museum. It is a ten room farm house in South Dakota. That would really be something to see. Thank you for your comment.

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  5. Burke, NY where the Wilder boyhood home is located is halfway between Malone & Chateaugay, NY.

    Incidentally Chateaugay, NY is semi-famous as being the birthplace of Orville Gibson the founder of the Gibson Guitar Corporation. Orville Gibson is buried in Morningside Cemetery in Malone (where my grandparents are also buried). And shortly after my mother graduated from nursing school in the fifties she spent some time working at the psychiatric hospital in Ogdensburg, NY where Orville Gibson died.

    I believe there's a Gibson Guitar shop in Churubusco, NY near the site of Orville Gibson's birthplace that still does a rather brisk business.

    Parts of that area are inside the Adirondack State Park (although neither the Wilder homestead nor the Gibson birthplace are) which is the largest park in the United States. It's larger than the entire state of Vermont (in land area) and you could fit Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier, and Great Smokey Mountain National Parks inside the park and still have room left over.

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  6. Wow that area is famous for a couple of people. Thank you for letting me know that. It looks like a good place to take a trip. I am going to have to let my boyfriend know that so one time we can take a trip that was.

    Just to let you know there is a house on the West side of Wisconsin that is a museum for Laura too. My mom and her friends went and visited it. I will ask my mom exactly were it is and let you know. It is suppose to be the house she grew up in.

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  7. Thanks! My wife & I have been looking for "vacations" we can do that are within relatively close driving distance. If it's far enough south in western Wisconsin it might be close enough for a weekend trip for us (we're in the SW suburbs of Chicago). And my wife was a huge fan of Little House growing up (she loved visiting Almanzo's homestead on that first trip she took with me out East).

    If you ever do end up taking that trip, let me know, I can give you tips on other things to do and see up in that area. I recommend getting passports or passport cards in advance as that area is only about an hour and a half south of Montreal, Quebec and just over 2 hours from Ottawa, Ontario. Both Montreal and Ottawa are really cool Canadian cities that are well worth visiting. Of the two I know Ottawa a lot better and prefer it over Montreal but Montreal has its perks too!

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  8. The one in Wisconsin is were Laura grew up. That is on the West Coast of Wisconsin about in the middle of Wisconsin along the Mississippi River. There is another one of Laura and Almanzo in Walnut Grove Minnesota also one in Burr Oaks, Iowa also in DeSmet South Dakota. If your wife would like more information let her know to just go on here and look up Laura Ingalls Wilder. That is what I have done to look for the museum's.

    If we get to go out that way I will keep it in mind to let you know. This way maybe we can also get better directions than Mapquest. I am really glad to hear someone else likes Little House like I do.

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  9. It's about a 14-16 hour drive from the Chicago 'burbs (depending on traffic and which route you take). So I'm guessing from Wisconsin you'd be looking at 16-18 hours.

    You can get there by going through Canada (shorter but not necessarily faster-- you go through Toronto which has the 2nd worst traffic in North America-- 2nd only to LA) or through IL, IN, OH, PA, & into NY. If you go through the US that route takes you through Cleveland so you could take a day going to or from to check out the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

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  10. That would be great to go and check out. I would love to see the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I would rather go that way then up North through Canada. Thank you for letting me know. I really appreciate that.

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