Laura Ingalls Wilder Home ~ Part 3

Is it too early for a tall glass of iced tea?  Not at my house.  Maybe you'd rather have coffee?  Have a seat and I'll pour you a glass or a cup and we'll revisit my trip to Mansfield, MO where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived for 60 years or so.  I have shown photos of her home and told a little bit about her life there in Part One here and in Part Two here.  If you missed them, you might want to check them out.

I'm still kicking myself because we didn't take time to find a place to stop and take photos of the many beautiful coneflowers we saw along the highway on the way to Mansfield.  The one above is in my garden and I recently bought another and planted.  I love these flowers, as you may have noticed!   Okay, now on to Laura's house...

After we toured the museum and Laura's house, we were then given directions for the short drive to Laura's other home that she lived in for 8 years.  As you can see by the sign above, Rose, the daughter of Laura and Almanzo, had a more modern home built for her parents.   Laura wrote articles for magazines and publications and sold her first book "Little House in the Big Woods" in 1932.  Rose was doing very well with her writing and made much more money than Laura did, according to the tour guide.  I was surprised to learn this, I had no idea that Rose was so successful. 

The stone house is beautiful, inside and out.  I really loved it and also the setting in among the trees.  Rose spent a good deal of money to make this house, that was built from a Sears home plan, look like an English cottage.  When she was through making changes, the cost of the house was double the original price.  There are many beautiful built ins, a modern kitchen and a tiled bathroom.  We only saw the five rooms on the main floor, but there's a couple of bedrooms upstairs and a basement where Laura did her laundry.  Photos were not allowed inside.

The house was built using local materials such as the field stone for the siding.  The floors were a beautiful pecan wood.  All of the furniture we saw had belonged to the Wilders including some chairs that Almanzo had made.  

Rose also had a small garage built for her parents and it was sided with the same stone as the house.  In addition to the garage, a brand new car was gifted to her parents, Laura and Almanzo, too.  I didn't get a photo of the garage because the tour was about to start and I had to hurriedly snap the shots of the house and the barn that was partially hidden in the trees.  If you missed seeing the barn, it is shown here.  

As you already know, Laura and Almanzo only lived in this house 8 years.  I asked the tour guide why they moved back to their other house and he told us that Laura said the other house was "home".  I imagine that I would have felt the same way.  Although the stone house isn't really all that large, it must have been quite grand in it's day.  However, there is just something about the other house that was more appealing, at least to me.  It had that homey, cozy cottage feel that I love.  
 
I feel like I should write "The End" now.  But, quite frankly, I didn't want this story to end.  I can't wait to go back and see the museum and homes again.  If you are ever in the Branson area, Mansfield is only about 90 minutes away.    

Until next time...

Just One Of Those Days....And A Reminder

Yesterday was not one of my better days.  The coneflowers have nothing whatsoever to do with this post, they are just here to make me feel better while I write this.
    
Do you sometimes feel you should have just stayed in bed?

My morning started out with an appointment for the car.  Oil change, tire rotation, etc.  I waited and waited.  It seemed like they called everyone's name but mine.  Finally!  They were finished and I could leave.  Yay!

There was another 4 hour wait until my next appointment at the Health Center for my mammogram.  I didn't have to wait long there to get flattened out and x-rayed.  The technician was very quick and efficient.  Hopefully, the news will be good.  I hadn't had one in...well, let's just say that I was overdue.  You women out there...if you haven't had your yearly mammogram yet, please do so!  My gyn reminded me last week that they were just as important, more so for women my age, as the pap/gyn exam.  

It was so hot yesterday and I noticed, while shopping when I was killing time, that several folks had their cranky on.  I might have been one of them.  I'm not a hot weather person.  Or cold weather, either, for that matter.  A good lunch did help matters a wee bit.   

Finally, the appointments were completed and I was homeward bound....and then...what is that noise???

Yep, that dusty flat tire is mine.  I called hubby and said "Help!"  It was the longest 20 or so minutes of the day waiting for him to arrive to change the tire for me.  Sitting on the side of a highway is a wee bit nerve-wracking.  Luckily I had my camera with me, so I amused myself by taking pics of the cornfield on my left side and the soybean field on my right side.  I zoomed in on the irrigation taking place near the trees.  The cloud formation was interesting.  I thought it looked like a man's profile with an old-fashioned hair cut complete with a pompadour.

Why don't people slow down when they see a car on the side of the highway?  

Hubby arrived and tried to put air into the tire but it wouldn't hold.  So he proceeded to change the tire all the while telling me to get off the side of the highway and into the car.  I wouldn't do it because I thought the cars just might slow down if they saw me.  I said I didn't want him to get hit.  He said I was the one likely to get hit.  He said he would sue someone if they hit me.  I said he probably wouldn't get to because if they hit me, then they would likely hit him, too.  I think he may have shot me the look just about then.   

(For either of my children who might read this, I was not standing on the highway.  Your mother wasn't about to go to the trouble of spending all day away from her computer just to get hit by a car!  Provided, that is, that said cars stayed on the highway and didn't run off the road, which can happen.)

It turns out the tire had a puncture caused by some kind of bolt.  It was patched and I was good to go.  The old brick cottage was a welcome sight after a long, hot day.   

Until next time...

Barn Charm

We recently took a day trip to the Amish community which isn't too far from where we live.  There are barns galore, as you might imagine.  We traveled on a lot of dusty gravel roads and the day was very hot and sunny.  It was a challenge to get a good shot because the sun was either in my eyes or else a car would come along kicking up the dust just when I was shooting.  

Once in a while, we would meet a horse and buggy.  The one in the above photo that I snapped from a distance just happened to be on the paved highway.  Look at the horse's feet.  None are touching the road.  Looks like this horse is wearing horseshoes, too.  

It is a very interesting place to visit and we didn't just drop by to snap barns, although I certainly took advantage of the many I saw to do just that!  I will share more in a later post about our visit to this community and there will be...surprise!...more barns from this trip in future Barn Charm posts, too. 

Be sure to visit Tricia's Barn Charm to see some wonderful barns!

Thanks for stopping by!
Until next time...

A Hot Monday

It's hot in my neck of the woods!  All I want to do is sip something cold and stay inside where it's cool.  I'd like to tell you about all the things I got done last week and crossed off my to-do list, but not many were.  At least those things requiring much work.  :)

My shoulder is better and I think it is partly because of the exercises I've been doing that were given to me by my chiropractor.  Plus I've not been lifting or doing anything that might aggravate it. 

I don't know if I'm going to be able to return to my usual blogging routine yet at least as far as commenting is concerned.  This will be another busy week filled with several appointments.  The first one on the calendar is a haircut this morning.  I can't wait.  I think my hair grows as fast as the grass in our yard!  

When I'm not here in blogland, I miss it.  Truly.  It's something that I really look forward to and I enjoy putting photos with my little posts.  There are so many ideas and so little time!  I also love seeing what you are up to!  

One of our recent day trips took us back to the Amish community which is only about 30 miles from us.  It was a fun day and I'll share a few photos later.  I also will finish my Laura Ingalls Wilder Home series soon. 

This little munchkin gave us a bit of a scare.  Oh, not because she's high up in the tree, but because she went missing for a couple of days.  It seems Mama Kitty took all 5 little ones for a hike and left them somewhere else overnight.  The next morning 4 of them returned home, but not this one.  Finally, last night she showed up.   We had to wonder if this is part of a training exercise that kittens undergo before they are weaned.

 
Have a wonderful day, whatever the weather!   

Until next time...

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday to you on this first day of July!  Do you like coneflowers?  Mine have just started blooming in earnest the last few days.  I have just, in recent years, begun to appreciate this beautiful flower.  Don't know why I overlooked it for so many years.  We found so many blooming along the right-of-ways on our trip to the southern part of the state over a week ago.   We even passed a small field covered in them.  I was driving and didn't get photos, but I can tell you they were just beautiful.  I always think of the things that I should have taken time to see or snap after we return from a trip.   Tell me that I'm not the only one to do this!

This will be a busy week for me and I will be taking another blog break.  I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I've somehow hurt my right shoulder and have had trouble using my arm.  It seems to be a tad bit better today, but I have really been neglecting some things so I feel I better stay off the computer for a while.  I actually considered taking the whole summer off, but I just can't seem to stay away from blogland that long!  I need to complete my series of posts on the Wilder Home in Mansfield, so I may sneak in a post on that at some point.  If not, it will be one of the first things I'll do when I get back.  Have a wonderful week and have fun celebrating our nation's birthday on July 4th!! 

  
"From every mountain side

Let Freedom ring."

~Samuel F. Smith

Until next time... 

A Birthday...Flowers...Kittens

  "The earth laughs in flowers."   ~  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Flowers are everywhere it seems.  Even beyond the boundary of the yard and out in the field are Queen Anne's Lace, Daisies, and Daylilies among others.  I'm not complaining for I love flowers.  Otherwise, why would I plant over 40 pots of them?  Yes, I do have that many, but I also have 5 little 4-legged furkids that love to play in them, so I don't know how long they will survive!  Plus the very hot weather we've had is beginning to take a toll on a few of them.

Here is little Cali, who thinks she's hidden under the Sweet Potato Vine.  I love these vines, they always do so well.

The sweet potato vine in the larger pot has a variegated leaf that I really like.  So do my kittens.  They seem to think that anything trailing out of the pots is there for their amusement. 

It doesn't take much to amuse these little cuties.  This one is having fun playing with his mama's tail.  I may have already mentioned this, but I'm going to have a hard time giving the kittens away. 

A very special, tall and handsome man has a birthday this weekend, so I want to say...
                     Happy Birthday, Brett!   
We are planning to see our son at some point over the weekend.   There is this pretty lady he's seeing, so we'll have to work around that!  I wonder if he would like a kitten or two for his birthday?  :)

This time last week, we were on the road heading to Mansfield MO.  After our tour of the Wilder homes we went to Branson.  Since we'd just been there the month before, I didn't take many photos.  It was very hot last weekend.  Tomorrow will be another hot day, then it's supposed to cool off for a few days.  I can't wait!  Do you have special plans for this weekend?

Until next time...

Laura Ingalls Wilder Home ~ Part 2

There is so much I could say about our tour of the Laura Ingalls Wilder home.  One of the first things I thought, after being in Laura's house just a few minutes, was that in spite of all the tourists that wander through every day, it's really as if she has never left.  You can still feel her presence there.  It's as if she had to run to the store for something and would be right back.  

Maybe it's because everything in the house is like it was in 1957 when Laura died.  The only things that have been changed are the replicated curtains and bedspreads.  And the lineolem in the kitchen was replaced because the original was quite worn.  All the furnishings in the house belonged to the Wilders.

The Wilders came to Mansfield MO in 1894 and purchased this 40 acre farm which had a one-room log cabin.   After living in the log cabin through the first winter, they built a room onto the side and the next spring they moved the new room to the present historic house location where it is now the kitchen.  A second room with an attic space above it was added to create a two-room house with an attic bedroom for Rose.   Subsequent rooms were added on as they were able.  

Here's a layout of the house that was on the brochure that was handed out on the tour.

We started our tour of the house where the arrow is on the right side of the illustration above.  We went through a small porch area into the kitchen.  You can see where her wood cookstove sat almost in the center of the kitchen.  In the late 30's, Laura got a small apartment-sized electric range for summer cooking.  

The Wilder's house, including the other house that Rose had built, was the only house in the area that had electricity from 1928 to around 1950.  Rose had paid for an electric line to both houses at a cost of around three thousand dollars.  

Laura was a short woman, less than 5 feet tall.  The baking cabinet that is between the two windows in the kitchen was quite low.

Next, going through the door into the dining room and on the left is a very narrow ladder stairway which Rose used to get to her attic bedroom when this was just a two-room house.  I have no idea how they ever got any furniture up that very narrow stairway!

There is a pass through to the kitchen and cabinets on the dining room side which were left in place when the house was added onto.  Besides the dining table and chairs, there was a homemade chair made by Almanzo in this room as well as the clock which was mentioned in "The First Four Years".  Almanzo would wind this clock every night.  Laura's rocking chair remains where she used it.  Fan mail and birthday cards sent in 1957 are on the side table.  

The bedroom was built on the south of the house so that it would catch the summer breezes.  This room was long but not very wide.  Laura and Almanzo each had a twin bed to sleep in.  Her bed was nearest the bathroom.  Almanzo's handmade canes are still in the holder near his bed in the west end of the room.  According to the brochure, Laura called Almanzo "The Man of the Place" in her magazine articles and said he was a very good jack-knife carpenter.  He also made the small bedside table for her.  

In the office is the small desk where many of the "Little House" books were written by hand on a tablet.  There was a small day bed couch next to the window where Laura would sleep in the early morning hours after writing through most of the night.

There is a step up and over the landing into the parlor area.  The upstairs is not open to the public.  Upstairs, Rose's bedroom is above Laura's and a guest bedroom is above the music room and dining room.  

The music room was originally designed as a formal dining room, but Laura said that it was not practical on a farm and converted it into a music room.  There was an organ in this room and an electrola that dates from 1928.

The library is a very small area that was created by partitioning off the east side of the living room.  Shelves were built on all four sides but an area was left for a doorway.  Rose's 1904 graduation picture has a special spot on the north wall.

According to the brochure, Laura wrote that everything was used from the farm that could be, for financial and sentimental reasons.  Almanzo and another man finished out the portion of the house called the parlor by hand.  Laura called her windows "living pictures" and positioned them so that the outside world was visible.  A 1942 picture of Laura and Almanzo is on the mantle.  

The rooms are really fairly small in this house, but also very adequate.  The simplicity of this old farmhouse is very appealing and it felt like "home".  I can see why Laura loved it there.  

We left the house by the front door which opens onto a small porch.  The view of the grounds with many trees is very pretty.  A photo of that view is next.  

Whew!  If you've made it through all of this, you're a real Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, too!   This post has turned out to be much longer than I thought it would be, so I'll have to show the photos of the other house that their daughter, Rose, had built for them another time.  I also have a little more to the story to share!

Until next time...

Laura Ingalls Wilder Home ~ Part 1

On the first day of summer, last Friday, we headed down the highway to Mansfield MO on a little trip that would take us nearly 4 hours to get to our destination, but that time frame includes stopping for an early lunch.  Mansfield is a small town with a population of 2,400 and was the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder for over 60 years.  I've been a fan of Laura's and her books for many, many years and had never seen this before.  I'm glad we went!  My hubby enjoyed it very much, too.

After parking in the graveled parking lot across the highway, this is the scene that we first saw as we walked up the gravel lane toward the house.  The museum is very close to the back of Laura's house.  There is a book store and gift shop to the left of the museum.  That is where we saw a short film about the Wilder's before we began our tour.

First, we went into the museum to purchase our tickets for the house tour.  Eight dollars for senior citizens...what a bargain!  This included a tour of the museum and later a tour of the house that Rose Wilder Lane, Laura and Almanzo's daughter, built for her parents.

The museum wasn't very big, but was so interesting and I wish I had a photographic memory to describe all I saw.  One of the things I loved seeing was the fiddle that Charles (Pa) had while Laura was growing up and later handed down to her.  This fiddle is still played on special occasions such as when they hold a festival.  

There was a buggy that they used in traveling that was much smaller than I would have thought it would be to carry their belongings.  We saw Laura's treadle sewing machine that stitched many of their clothes.  There was a beautiful white dress of Laura's that she made that had such detail like little vertical pleats on the bodice and lace.  She must have made it for a special occasion.  

There were quilts that Laura had made, including an appliqued quilt she made when she was 89, a year before her death.   Also displayed were many handwritten letters and notes, manuscripts, Bibles, books, dishes and furniture that belonged to Laura and her family.  Displayed were many photographs and tintypes of all the family, too.  And, I can't forget the lap desk that hid a 100 dollar bill that helped Laura and Almanzo buy the acreage where they lived.  We saw Laura's jewelry box, some of her jewelry, and even her small revolver that she used to shoot small game.

This house started life as a small cabin and Almanzo added on rooms as they were able to do so.  The front part of the house where the fireplace is was built by Almanzo, but we were told he had some help with the building of that part.  

I feel like I'm writing a book, and there is much more to tell, so I'll end my visit to Laura's home for now and finish up later with Part 2.  I'll also show photos of the second Wilder home that their daughter, Rose, had built and gifted to her parents.  

Until next time...

Barn Charm

We just got back from a few days away.  The first town we stopped at on our trip was Mansfield, MO where we saw the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Or, I should say homes.  We saw the home Laura and Almanzo built and also the home that Rose, their daughter, had built for them which was just down the road a bit.  The Ingalls only lived in this more modern house 8 years before moving back to their first home.  

At the second house, I snapped a picture of the barn and this was as close to it as I could get.  It was a very interesting tour and I'll be sharing more about it and also some outside photos of both houses later in the week.  We weren't allowed to snap photos inside.

Linking with Tricia's Barn Charm  

Thanks for stopping by!
Until next time...

June Note Card Party

 It's time once again for the Note Card Party!  I've chosen 

Pretty in Pink as my theme for this month.

There may be at least a touch of pink in one of these photos!  

We are to choose 4 photos that have been previously published in 

our blog that we might make into note cards. 

Our hostess is Vee, from A Haven for Vee.  Please drop by 

A Haven for Vee to see many beautiful note cards.

 Thanks, Vee, for hosting this fun party!

Until next time...