Laura and Mary Had Never Seen a Town
The nearest town was far away. Laura and Mary had never seen at town. They had never seen a store. They had never seen even two houses standing together. But they knew that in a town there were many houses, and a store full of candy and calico and other wonderful things – powder, and shot, and salt and store sugar.
Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House in the Big Woods)
It hit me when I read this quote from the book, can you imagine never having seen a store? Can you imagine what they would think if they walked into this Whole Foods?
It’s just amazing how our lives are so different than they were 150 years ago. We don’t head out to the store that often, especially now that we buy a lot of food locally. But with cars and the interstate system, Mr Chiots and I can drive 50 miles to Cleveland to visit a Whole Foods or 25 miles to our local small health food store and be home within a few hours. To me the big grocery is full of plantains and mangoes and things I can’t get here at the Farmer’s Market.
Can you imagine having never seen a town, a store, or even two houses sitting close together?
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Quote of the Day: Little House on the Prairie
“Now Pa carefully took the nails one by one from his mouth, and with ringing blows of the hammer he drove them into the slab. It was much quicker than drilling holes and whittling pegs and driving them into the holes. But every now and then a nail sprang away from the tough oak when the hammer hit it, and if Pa was not holding it firmly, it went sailing through the air.
Then Mary and Laura watched it fall and they searched in the grass till they found it. Sometimes it was bent. Then Pa carefully pounded it straight again. It would never do to lose or waste a nail.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie
I loved reading as a kid with Little House and the Narnia series being my favorites. Every couple years I read through the The Chronicles of Narnia. I’m reading through the Little House on the Prairie Series this winter. I find myself being amazed at her description of how nothing was wasted, truly a lesson we could stand to relearn. I’m sure I notice different things reading them as an adult that I did as a girl.
What were your favorite books as a kid?
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Book Report: Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting
This past weekend I took an entire day off. I enjoyed a few cups of tea while reading through a book cover to cover in almost one day (Mr Chiots wanted to watch movie in the evening, so I finished up the book the next morning). The book I read through was Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting.
It’s a delightful book, easy to read. At first it’s a bit hard to follow because he tells the story like we think, jumping around. When something reminds him of another story he tells the other story. The result is a wonderful weaving of past and present, a great example of the way memories flood our minds when something stirs them up. Sprinkled throughout the book are the lessons he’s learning during his quest to become a small farmer or live a more self-sufficient lifestyle. It’s a great representation of how we are all the sum of our history, our life from birth shapes us into who we are. What we experienced in childhood often permeates our adult lives.
If you’ve ever thought of keeping a few chickens, having a small farm or currently do farm you’ll find a lot of wonderfully familiar stories in this book. I’d highly recommend putting it on your winter reading list! I might add a few of his other books to my future reading list (Truck: A Love Story, Off Main Street: Barnstormers, Prophets & Gatemouth’s Gator and Population: 485)
Read any great books lately?
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Book Report: Heirloom, Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer
“What taste I got of the kind of farming I would eventually embrace came on the mornings I helped Jimmy and Mildred King, the couple from Mississippi who have moved into Milt’s farmhouse, clear a tree-strewn patch of rocky, sloped Eckerton land. With nothing more than a shovel, they had turned every square inch of the half acre their house was situated on into a lush vegetable garden. But before Jinny could get this shovel to break the surface of the ground we made available to him, he had to clear out hundreds of trees, stumps, and rocks the size of radial tires. It was Mildred and Jimmy who first turned me on to fresh-out-of-the-ground carrots, sweet potatoes in need of no sugar, tender okra, lettuce with identifiable flavor, peas direct from Valhalla. Mildred’s basement full of canned vegetables, too. Pickled garden-fresh beets were my favorite. I would slurp the purple vinegar from the softened nuggets and then devour the tangy earth-flavored flesh. Mildred gave me some jars of pickled beets in exchange for my labor.”
-Tim Stark, Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer
Since we talked about winter reading lists yesterday, I thought I’d recommend adding Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer to your list. It’s a fantastic book about gardening and life. It’s filled with lots of laughs and a few touching moments. Tim, the author, fell in love with heirloom tomatoes while living in New York, these tomatoes took up all the space in his tiny apartment and finally the landlord made him move them. He planted on his family’s land and ended up with a glut of tomatoes, which he decided to sell at the farmer’s market. This book will be a wonderful read for anyone that enjoys gardening. Tim stories of weeding, groundhogs, tractors and mud will lift your spirits during these cold winter months when working in the garden is impossible.
What kind of books do you usually read in the winter? Gardening books, or novels?
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Winter Reading List
I have a long list of books I want to read this winter. I keep a note on my desktop (a virtual post-it) and whenever I come across a book that sounds interesting I add it to the list. I’ll request these from the library this winter and read through as many as I can. I want to read through the Little House on the Prairie series this winter. They were my favorite books growing up, so I thought it would be fun to read them again.
I really want to focus on learning more about herbal remedies and natural healing, so those books will come first. I also want to read through East of Eden again, since it’s my favorite book. What books are on my list?
I don’t know if I’ll get through all of these. I am a fast reader thanks to all those speed/comprehension drills in grade school, but I don’t know if I can finish them all.
What books are on your winter reading list, any good ones I can add to my list?
