LIW geekfest

If you are not a fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder, feel free to ignore this post :-)

Dad spent the day doing minor maintenance and running errands but Mom and the boys met up with our neice Susannah for a visit to Rocky Ridge Farm.

As I (Mom) write this, we are listening to a CD of tunes that were mentioned in the Little House books recorded by a musician playing on Pa Ingalls actual fiddle!

Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield MO is the home of Laura and Almanzo for most of their lives and where she wrote all the Little House books. The white house is the main farmhouse that they built by themselves, one room at a time. It is set up as they lived there with their actual furniture. No photographs allowed indoors but I took pics of the postcards I bought showing some rooms and some pics from the museum. I was able to see and touch Laura's writing desk! Well, the sign said "Do not touch" but I couldn't help myself. :-) There were chairs built by Almanzo himself, his collection of canes which he needed after recovering from diphtheria as a young man, their very own pictures and books and everything. In the museum we saw Pa's fiddle, some of Laura's schoolwork, and manuscripts from some of the books. She had beautiful handwriting! There were also letters from Ma and Laura's sisters, clothes, books, etc. used by Laura and her family and watched a short film about her life in Mansfield with recordings of her actual voice. In the 1920's their daughter Rose built the Rock House for them on the other side of the property. It had electricity and hot and cold running water, both unusual for that time and place. They lived there for 8 years and that is where the first four Little House books were written. Then they moved back to the white farmhouse where they spent the rest of their lives, and the rest of Laura's writing was completed. It was wonderful and I can't wait until I get a chance to visit the homestead in South Dakota. (Not this trip. And definitely in a warmer month.)