Life in Sugar Tree Hollow

My Favorite Homestead Girl

    Laura Ingalls Wilder is one of my favorite people :)  A wonderful example of a homesteader, talented writer, supporter of basic women's rights and a spunky personality to boot!  My daughter is named for her and for my great-great grandmother.  When it came time to decide her middle name though my grandma lost (sorry Granny Laura Mae!) and Laura Elizabeth won :)  I patiently waited through four boys to be able to use that name

    I especially love the things Laura wrote besides the well treasured 'Little House' books (originally entitled 'Pioneer Girl').  'On The Way Home' and 'West From Home' are among my favorites because they include entries from Laura's journal as they traveled from South Dakota to the Ozarks ('Land of the Big Red Apple' she called it) and letters she wrote to Almanzo as she journeyed to California to visit their daughter, Rose.  I also enjoy her articles for the Missouri Ruralist, although I haven't read as many of those as I would like.

    Her home in Mansfield, Rocky Ridge Farm, was the first place Harold and I visited when we took a trip out here almost 16 years ago to see about relocating from southern California to Missouri.  The story the volunteer told during the tour of her home about how the fireplace came to be built with native stone instead of bricks had Harold snickering and whispering that Laura and Almanzo sounded a lot like him and I :)   Apparently while Almanzo went to town to buy and haul the bricks back, Laura found beautiful stones on their farm she wanted to use instead.  When Almanzo got home with the bricks and Laura told him she changed her mind, he wasn't happy.  And who could blame him?  He didn't want to have to take those bricks back to town.  He didn't see the difference between a fireplace built by bricks or rocks.  Laura told him if she couldn't have the fireplace made from the stones then she didn't want a fireplace at all!  Ha, ha.  Yep...Harold and I have had a few of those discussions! 

    We like to take the kids and revisit their home every few years and the last time we were there in 2004 we were able to also see the Rock House that Rose built for them, a real treat.  It reminded us of the older homes in California of the 1920's and 30's.  Nice and modern for it's time.  Beautiful view of a valley too.  But, like Laura and Almanzo, I preferred the ol' white clapboard farmhouse with it's cozy library sectioned off in the living room and nice front porch.  I can see why they moved back :)

    One reason why I like 'On The Way Home' is Laura and Almanzo came to the Ozarks for many of the same reasons Harold and I did so although she moved to this area before I was born, I feel a connection to her through her writings.  I have always told Harold that one of our kids will grow up and high tail it back to life in the big city like Rose did.

    Laura's life, in a way, reminds me of my grandmother on my father's side.  Grandma Anna was born in 1909 in rural Kentucky.  As a girl she migrated with her family to the Ozarks in SW Missouri and then NE Oklahoma, most of the time in a wagon if I remember right.  Not too many country folk owned cars.  When she married she lived in Kansas, Texas and finally California.  She was a little girl during the Great War, came of age just before the Depression, lived through WWII, the 50's, the 60's, etc.  A living history book.  Grandma Anna used to tell my siblings and I stories about her growing up and years as a young mother.  Sure wished I had written them down now.  My parents have some notes and someday I'd like to compile a book for family history.

    A family from our homeschool co-op wrote a book called  'Laura Ingalls' Friends Remember Her '.  It started as a homeschool project in 1992 by the father and son and has interviews from Laura and Almanzo's close friends in Mansfield, MO, not far from where this family lives. It has been recently reformatted and new material has been added.  I'm looking forward to reading it.  They also wrote 'Devotionals With Laura'  discussing Laura's favorite Bible verses and notes she made regarding them.  Both of these books can be found at www.ashleyprestonpublishing.com and www.amazon.com

    And finally, I just read tonight that Laura Ingalls Wilder was poultry editor of the St. Louis Star newspaper.  What more can I say??  I KNEW she was a kindred spirit! 

Which Way to Dead Man's Curve?

Real American Home Boys

No Christmas For You!

  I wanted to write this about a month ago when it first started bothering me but life has a way of getting busy and crazy. 

    I think it should be illegal to have anything Christmasy out before Thanksgiving.  No decorations, ads, music...nothing...nada...not one stinkin' thing!  I mean, really. Halloween is such a big deal in stores and with some folks and so is Christmas but where is Thanksgiving?  Hurried up and smushed in between the two.   I love Thanksgiving! So where are the Thanksgiving decorations and songs?  I mean it hasn't been that long that they've had Halloween lights on the market  (like Christmas lights except they're black and orange) so why not Thanksgiving lights?  Brown, yellow, orange and red?  It could happen.

    If I hear Christmas music on the radio before Thanksgiving, I change the station or turn it off.  My kids are trained to do the same thing whether it's the TV or radio.  Although of course they sometimes like to tease me and say "Hey Mom, listen to this!" just to watch me fume.  If we walk into a store where Christmas music is playing (yes, it's been playing at my local grocery store in rural America for two weeks already) I loudly protest and if possible, complain to every employee I see. 

    Remember the Seinfeld episode with the soup Nazi?   Jerry and his pals loved to go to this great take out soup place but if they didn't order the soup just right, place the money on the counter and carefully back away or if the chef just plain didn't like how they looked or what they said he'd bellow in his accented voice, "NO SOUP FOR YOU!" and demand they leave.  It's on YouTube (isn't everything these days?) if you want to watch it. 

    God has a really funny sense of humor.  My husband, Harold, loves Christmas SO much.  He could have it all year long.  I love the Christmas season too but it has to be confined to December.  I don't even really like it starting the day after Thanksgiving.  Harold loves the specialty Christmas stores in Branson and at Silver Dollar City and loves going into them in May or whenever.  Not me. Not interested until December.  I wanted to get married in early summer or fall.  Guess when he wanted to get married?  Yep.  December.  So we did.  December 12th.  Had our friends and family buy their live Christmas trees early, then borrowed them and set them all up on the church stage with white lights all over.  Looked and smelled like a small forest up there.  And he was as happy as a clam.  I was OK.  It was hard to find a facility big enough for our reception due to Christmas parties.  It was cold.  Our guests froze while waiting outside to throw rice or birdseed or whatever the heck it was.  Now, each year when we celebrate our anniversary, everywhere we go is decorated for Christmas and he is happy. 

    I was talking with a fellow homeschool mom yesterday and she, her husband and four kids were missionaries to Thailand up until 2 years ago.  She said Thailand is a predominately Buddhist country and it was weird for them to not see Christmas decorations in the stores or hear Christmas music over there.  We talked about the extreme differences between Thailand and America.  I walked away from that conversation wondering if somewhere on the planet somebody is doing it in moderation.

   A couple of weeks ago I heard Christmas music in my own house.  Horrors!!!  It was only the beginning of November!!  I followed the sound and found Harold sitting at the computer listening to Christmas music on iTunes while surfing the 'Net.  He looked up when I walked in and was singing along, happy as can be. I, of course said, "Ack!  No Christmas for you!!!".

Black Walnut Stain Removal, Bugs and Acne...oh my!

    

   I took Zech and Luke to the Mennonite farm and feed store in our area to sell the black walnuts they've been collecting this fall.  They didn't gather as many as they have in years past but enough for a little money in their pockets.  We had a lot of rain this year so the walnuts were nice and big but with the economy being so awful we saw a lot more people collecting them than in years past.  I think the best year Zech had was a few years ago when he collected about 300 pounds

    Anyway, the real reason I am writing about this is because of black walnut stains.  Zech accidentally wore his new jeans to load the walnuts in the van and got the gunk all over them.  He needed these jeans to wear to youth group tonight and we had a narrow window of time to get them washed and dried before he needed to leave.  I have never had success in washing out black walnut stains.  In fact, the year he worked so hard and collected 300 pounds, he just had an old pair of jeans he used when he worked on them.  I never could get those clean with laundry detergent and all fabric bleach.  They were forever stained.

    So when we got home from town, I tried to look online for a home remedy stain removal for black walnuts.  I found anything from peroxide to lemon juice to salt & vinegar.  I had Zech scrub the stains with cold water and a bar of Octagon Soap (found at my local grocery store in the laundry section for 69 cents).  There were a lot of stains, on the front AND back.  Blah! I even told Zech that these new jeans may have just made a quick transition from goin'-to-town jeans to farm jeans, lol.  We let the soap set in while I made a paste of salt and vinegar.  The salt/vinegar paste worked wonders for removal of hard water stains and lime scale in my bathroom and kitchen about a month ago...the gunk literally melted off...so I decided I'd try that one first. 

    I applied the salt/vinegar paste and let that set while the washing machine filled up with cold water, then threw them in with my homemade borax/washing soda laundry detergent that I normally use.  I also put in the same amount of all fabric bleach I normally use.  I let it all wash together and thought I may even need to do this whole process a second time because the stains were so bad.  Honestly though, I figured this pair of jeans was done for   To my shock and surprise, there is not a single black walnut stain left on the jeans!!! 

    So was it the Octagon soap, the salt/vinegar mixture, the all fabric bleach or a combination of some or all?  I don't know for sure but I am thankful to have found something that works efficiently and quickly for fabric!!!  So now we're gonna try it on the carpet in the back of the van 'cause the boys forgot to lay down a tarp before they put their walnut bags in. Oops.  Zech forgot he didn't lay a tarp down and ended up sitting in the black walnut goo in the back of the van at the feed store while he was watching the walnuts go through the huller.

   I also did some reading on Octagon soap this evening and found that many people use it with great results for acne (my teen boys are always on the look out for something) and for ticks, chiggers and other pesky bugs because of it's lemon grass scent.  Makes sense because I make up an inexpensive, all natural bug spray that has lemon grass essential oil in it every summer.  Plus every spring we stock up on herbal soap made by a local homeschool mom that that helps keeps the bugs away.  One has lemon grass in it and one has lavender.  Gonna have to see if the teen boys will let me give them a facial with Octagon soap, hee, hee.  Supposed to scrub it on, let it harden and dry for an hour before rinsing.

    I bought a bar of Octagon for the first time this summer and used it only a couple of times but with great results. I have used Fels Naptha and Kirk's Castile soaps in the past but I think Octagon is going to be my favorite product now.  Sorry Mr. Clean Magic Eraser...you're second in line.  I have a new best friend.

Autumn welcome

   I know the calender says that autumn starts in mid-September but for me autumn doesn't occur until a few things fall into place.  Surprisingly, they all did in one day. Today.

    We woke up to a cool, rainy day.  While in town dropping the older kids off at a homeschool activity, I caught a whiff of one of my favorite autumn fragrances, a fireplace! By late afternoon, the temperature had dropped and it was quite chilly. Brrrrr.  The colors of the leaves out here in the country are bright and beautiful and then this evening, my most favorite autumn sight and sign that fall is officially here...wild geese flying over our little farm   I know all of these things are old hat to many Ozarkers but this girl from southern California will never tire of the autumn sights each year.  I've observed them 13 years so far and it hasn't gotten old yet! 

    Well, fall clean up on our farm continues as well as gathering firewood for our outdoor wood stove to heat the ol' farmhouse this winter.  It is a busy time but in the coming days, the sound of migrating geese will be a welcome accompaniment to the rhythm of our work.