The Baboon Congress

Little House in the Suburbs

136 Comments

Today’s guest post comes from Barbara in Robbinsdale

The sun had just peeped over the horizon as Ba was starting her chores. Ba and Ha (not to be confused with Ma and Pa) live in a little stucco house on the edge of Sochacki Park. There is a big ravine beside their neighbors’ little green house, and then a bit of woods where the park begins. They can see snowboarders and cross country skiers during a winter when there is some snow. There are furry animals, too, and hawks and other birds. A catbird mimics other bird songs, and can even sound like a cell phone.

Ba filled the bird feeders, watered the house plants, and went down to the big upright freezer in the cellar for something to thaw for dinner. She threw a load of laundry into the washer, adjusted the settings and made sure the lid was closed tight. Then she put in 15 minutes on the stationary bike in Ha’s workroom while the clothes were washing.

After breakfast, Ba loaded the dishwasher and straightened up the kitchen. She washed out the zip-loc bags so she could use them again. It would be too wasteful to throw them away after just one use. Then she scrubbed the porcelain sink till it gleamed and she could almost see herself in it.

Later Ba would hitch up the horses (76 horsepower in the gas engine part of a Prius) and drive into town to visit her Ma. On some days she would walk an entire mile to get there, if Ha needed to use the car. Then she would put on her Gortex parka and her Reboks so that she would stay warm and safe. If it was very slippery she might use her Yak-trax.

As some of you may have guessed, I’ve been reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books again, and started imagining being Ma…

What would be your “chores” and daily “hardships” in a Little House chapter?

136 thoughts on “Little House in the Suburbs”

  1. Rise and Shine Little House Baboons!

    My mother always loved those books, reading them to us at home and to her classes at school. I also loved them and used to pretend I was Laura, or Mary if I wanted to close my eyes to be blind.

    My prairie chores this morning are to open up the cold frame to give the seedlings air, water, and sunshine; drink coffee, feed the dogs and put them out to fight the Big Woods Panther in my back yard, then write my TB Reply–the cruelest chore of all. I’m off to the gym this morning, then off to the airport to deliver Lou who is going to Arizona to see our Arizona branch of the family. I don’t get to go because someone has to stay here to drive off the panther so it does not prey on the livestock (OK, deer instead of panther, hostas instead of livestock). Before Lou goes I have to go to the garden and pulll rhubarb for him to take to our daughter-in-law who loves rhubarb.

    I’ll go put on my corset to go to the gym…..

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  2. I, too, am tending to the seedlings (savoy cabbages), training the hops on their trellis so Pa can make beer next fall (actually, it is Pa’s barber who is the brewer. The hops are 5 feet tall already this Spring), feeding the livestock (cats, dog, and fish), and waiting for our dearest kin from the big city, (Fargo) and making the little cabin shine for their arrival. Pa is trying to find a better sausage seasoning mix, since the one he used last week had too much cure in it and has a weird aftertaste. In many respects we live a somewhat pioneer life out here. This morning we killed 8 dusty millers who had invaded through the doors and eisenglass windows. (Didn’t Laura’s house have those?) We have enough provisions from our recent trip to the big city to get us through until the garden is producing.

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    1. We have an old, old family story from Mt. Carmel Ill. The family of my great-great grandmother, Tabitha Klein, lived there in a log cabin. Tabitha played with the sister of Wild Bill Hickok. One day they were playing and saw a snake poke its head from between the logs. The girls fetched a pair of sewing scissors, then waited for the snake to re-emerge, which it did. Off with its head!

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      2. Great story! The Spring cleaning at our cabin is harder now since the hired girl (Blessed Irene, the cleaning lady) has left our employ to open a fancy shop in town.

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      3. Tabitha Klein, meaning gazelle, little. Little Gazelle. Someone should write a book with a main character named Tabitha Klein.

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  3. Along with feeding our livestock, Pa has to give one of the fierce jungle cats his morning injection. Water must be added to dry coffee procured from the local establishment. Packs must be prepped for each family member’s daily activities, including a lunch pail for each (Pa helps with provisioning the lunch pails). Then Little Miss is escorted to the wagon for school. Today I ride further into town for a visit with Doc then will return home to slave in the word and data mines through my portable electronic mining device.

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    1. Like “portable electronic mining device”, Anna – I was trying out how to describe that…

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  4. Very clever, my dear. Fun new approach to a blog opener.
    This is the second time that this has happened to me: yesterday I rough-drafted a guest blog rather similar to this.
    My mother spent her early childhood very near Plum Creek about 10 miles east of Laura and about, I guess, 40 years later.
    Here it would have to be Grandma and Grandpa. My hardships include propelling myself by velocipede 20 miles to nowhere, while watching out for the Nellie’s of our age. Mixing my wife’s awful- tasting medical powders, for the vapors no doubt, with canned peaches and strawberry jam into a smooth drink; chilled, but not in the well. Fighting off the rheumatis. About every other day visiting the pharmaceutical emporium run by kindly Mr. Target. Occasionally visiting the local library, which has mostly books printed in about Mrs. Wilder’s lifetime.

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  5. I’ll bet the warm spring weather puts a smile on Ba’s face – Now she can hang her laundry to dry outside in the fresh breeze rather than having to rely on that danged noisy contraption in her basement. 🙂

    We here at this Ra and Ba homestead have similar chores—feeding furry livestock, washing soiled garments, walking the south 40 to make sure our crops are healthy and the perimeter is secure. In between other chores, Ra will be knitting up a storm. People will actually need and use the fruits of her labor—socks, shawls, scarves, caps—come winter. Summers here are short and sweet, but winter is never far away! Been having some trouble with her spinning wheel lately, or maybe it’s the spinner herself. Can’t seem to get the hang of it, but she will keep trying. Her family’s survival might depend on it. 🙂

    Ba will put the furry livestock through her paces twice a day. He’ll probably mow hay and scrub the outhouse today as well. And roast the evening repast over the fire in the back yard. Ra will be away from the family homestead today, making the journey across the county to help her daughter’s family with their young ‘uns while they plant out their fields.

    Life goes on . . .

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    1. It’s true, Robin, Ba and Ha’s dryer died some time ago, and hanging out the wash is her favorite “chore.”

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  6. Good morning. Thanks for the interesting start to the day, Ba. Here at the house in the town on the prairie, Pops has had some trouble getting that device to work that he uses to reach out to Trail Baboon. While waiting for that device to work, he put his geraniums and begonias out side for the first time this year along some broccoli plants that he has started indoors. Pops is on his own today because his spouse is taking a short vacation. He will be trying to keep the homestead in order all by himself. He will do all of the livestock care and will round up his own grub. He wouldn’t have any trouble doing this, but his spouse might find a few things he has neglected when she returns. Pops has some trouble paying attention to some details of homestead maintainence.

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  7. ill be putting in the hostas along the homestead drive. they were being transplanted and then along came life bigger than a flop eared dog to get in the way of my doing it. i had to load into a flying machine and go off to the land of sand and neon where the have odd people who look wobbly at all times of the day and night. there are bells ringing and people shouting and crying all the time. an odd place all in all. got off the flying machine early this morning and back to the homestead where my wifi is familiar and the bathtub is just right. the little uns have activites i will shuttle em to over the weekend so i better get to my chores afore they get to me. see ya all on the blog and thanks bir fur the little trip to walnut grove.

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    1. Glad you’re back, tim – where were you – Vegas?
      Love “then along came life bigger than a flop eared dog “…

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  8. Delightful post, BiR – it captures so perfectly the way Wilder’s unadorned and economical third-person narration burrows into your subconscious mind and replicates there.

    I found it disappointing when, about fifteen years ago or so, my older niece gave a thumbs down to the Little House books. She didn’t find them charming at all; she especially disliked Wilder’s description of how enchanted Mary and Laura were with the Christmas gifts they received – she felt Wilder was preaching at her. Insisted that no child, however deprived she might be, would ever think an orange and a tin cup qualified as Christmas presents. She doesn’t know what she missed. But of course if I told her that she would just think I was being preachy.

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    1. Linda and Barbara, when I was a little girls in Japan, my parents brought crates and crates of books over with them including all the Little House series. My sisters and I loved them — thought they were exotic and exciting. We were city girls and never even knew anyone living on a farm. Who knew that we would end up in Laura’s neck of the woods?

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      1. The child didn’t care for the Little house books either. “Boring” she said. She felt the same way as Linda’s niece about the orange and the tin cup. She was also particularly verbal in her discussion of the corn cob “doll”.

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        1. And someone once told me that “Caddie Woodlawn could run circles around L.I.W.
          By Carol Ryrie Brink – I’ve never read it, though.

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        3. Oh, yes, Caddie is full of some wild adventures. Caddie was a tomboy back when tomboy girls were frowned upon. Won the Newbery Medal in 1936.

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      2. There is a charm about the museum in Walnut Grove. My daughter takes her kids there every summer since it is only 25 miles from their house. They love it.

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        1. I’m not sure why, but we’ve never been to Walnut Grove. Maybe this summer? A couple of years ago, Bill and I were driving along Lake Pepin and took a little detour to see Laura’s Little House in the Big Woods. All the way there we were tailed by 2 or 3 huge black motorcycles, bearded riders in black leather, bandanas tied around their heads. We turned right, they turned right; we turned left, they turned left. Bill and I joked to each other that Surely they were headed for Laura Ingalls Wilder’s little cabin. Well, shame on us, that’s exactly where they were going. They turned out to be Australians touring the US by bike, visiting sites of interest. We all had a nice little chat, poked around the tiny house, before they they roared off in a cloud of dust. Appearances can be deceiving 🙂

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        2. I keep stumbling on them. DeSmet is my favorite since that was the book I loved as a child. As you drive into the town from the East on 14, it is all right there, that is, if you remember the book as I do. We have never been to the Walnut Grove one without bikers there in their leathers. And often bicycle riders too. It is fun to watch the women at the museum who have come many miles. They never seem disappointed.

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        3. I have been to the museum in Walnut Grove and the depression/oversized divit by Plum Creek where the sod house was (it’s still in the middle of a farm). Went wading in Plum Creek. Lovely place to visit.

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    2. I will retell this tale: ten years ago I was working in Navaho Reservation schools. A group of beautiful fifth graders were enthralled with Little House and were so happy to have me around because I came from near Walnut Grove. I did want to to tell them that their larger historical roots should make them less than in love with the books. But it proves their charm. Their Navaho teachers were not aware of the contradiction I saw or did not care about it.

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    3. Other people who don’t think they’re so charming are Native Americans, for the way they are depicted. Louise Erdrich, to her credit, has written a series covering the same era, from a little Native girl’s vantage point – they start with The Birchbark House, and include The Game of Silence, and The Porcupine Year.

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  9. I won’t try to match Barbara’s cleverness. The pioneer life was hell on men and worse on women. Nothing in my life that I have found “hard” is anywhere near as difficult as daily life for pioneers. They worked like dogs and then didn’t even have Netflix to enjoy at the end of the day (I suppose their internet connections were too sluggish). I shudder to think of such a life.

    When my daughter was little, one of her grandmothers gave her a boxed set of “Little House” books. I resisted the impulse to read them to her when she was too little to appreciate them, for I didn’t want her to reject them and refuse to give them a fair hearing later on. When she had just gotten old enough to read I told her that I was ready to read the first book in the series to her, if she wanted it as her bedtime story.

    “I read it,” said my little girl.

    “Well, I’ll read the next book if you’d like.”

    “I read it. I read them all.”

    And that was the moment I learned that my little girl was a READER. On her own, she had read the entire series. Soon we were going to the local library, where Molly would fight with librarians who didn’t want her to check out 18 books at one time. “Wouldn’t 16 be enough?” Now Molly, fully grown, visits the world’s largest bookstore (Powell’s) and tries to buy 18 books while her loving husband tries to convince her, “Molly, you don’t have to buy all these books! They all belong to you. They just store them here at Powell’s.”

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      1. Now that I think about the novel in this blog, maybe it should be called Little House on the Chinese Prairie.

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        2. I was curious and googled to see if there is a Farmer Boy museum, and there is – http://www.almanzowilderfarm.com/ – the web site says “This historic house is the only ORIGINAL house on its original site of all those written about in the Little House book series.” I don’t do much traveling, but that’s one museum I’d really like to see. I should make it a point to get there.

          Bet your local library has it. Farmer Boy that is.

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        1. Linda and Krista and someone else have it in digital from. We talked about my getting a hard copy to Barbara who would get it to you. I am right this moment printing up a copy which a friend here is going to read and then I will mail it to Barbara.

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        3. She wants a printed copy. I assume she does not want to cover the cost of printing 385 pages. I have from my company a good printer and lots of toner to cover the printing myself.

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        4. Thank you, Clyde and Linda, I do not need a printed copy. Would be happy to read from a disc or flash drive on my computer if that’s easier for you or more easily available.

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        7. I would like to read a hard copy (just can’t sit that long at the computer), but I was hoping to cover the cost of printing it, Clyde. Please let me do that… and then I’ll past it on to Robin, Steve, anyone in range.

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        9. Ah, it occurs to me that then I could just print it out here, a piece at a time. Duh!

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        11. I posted and it disappeared or I cann9ot find it. I said that my printer died half way through printing the novel. I will not be buying a new one for awhile. I will take it into Office Max for them to print the rest. Not sure I can get it done before we go to babysit next week.

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        12. Not to worry, Clyde. Barbara and I will figure out some way to latch onto a copy that’s already out there. Some Baboons have already read it, so it must be somewhere nearby.

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    4. I’m pretty sure I would have died young if I had been a pioneer. If nothing else, from wearing a corset – ugh! But I’ve also learned that when you have to, you can do things you didn’t think you could do, so maybe I have hidden reservoirs of strength that I don’t know about.

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  10. Since we have no Pa at our house, Ma gets double duty, which most mornings includes doing dishes left in the sink from the night before, feeding the animals, picking up, making breakfast. The last week it has also included watering and occasionally fertilizing the straw bales in the back yard. (They should be ready for planting in a few days.)

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  11. Okay several follow-ups from the last few days:
    1. My daughter is set to have her kidney taken next Wednesday. This morning she woke up with an odd sac thing she could see in the back of her throat. She was scared that this would postpone the operation for the fourth time. But her doctor talked to Mayo and it is agreed it is a minor issue which will not impact the operation.
    2. Talked to building manager: she did not state the issue about bikes in the garage clearly. They can be in the garage. And I am going to store the boxes in my garage spot in a friend’s garage for a week or two. I have to take them out for the annual cleaning of the garage floor (this building is very well maintained). Then I can bring them back after she has dealt with three people about how they are using their spaces, such as the young man behind me. She wants rules but not rigidity. Very nice, and I admit would never get mad at anyone that attractive.
    3. A week or so ago the issue of my struggles with retirement came up. People wanted an explanation. If you click on my name, you will see it.

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    2. Clyde, I clicked on your name and read what you said about retirement. First of all, I’m sure you know your mother was wrong about art, althought what she said about it is hard for you to forget. I have a daughter and son-in-law who are oriented toward being artists. I think throught being involved in art they are trying to make the world a better place and they are be courageous because they do not get the support they should get for doing what they are doing.

      Secondly, I think you and most of us who are retired are doing lots of things to help ourselves and other people that have value and we should be doing those things. They include helping your family such as you do when you take care of grand children and do some other things like that. You are taking care of yourself and your wife which is unpaid work that has a lot of value. It is a mistaken idea that retirement should be a time when we do nothing or just entertain ourselves. Resources should be provided to help people in retirement, but helping yourself and people around you should be a part of retirement if you can do it.

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        1. I know exactly what you mean. I’m going to try to tackle some of those things in the next few weeks.Or at least one of them.

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  12. Ka fed and watered the furry livestock and watered some of the crops early this morning. The rain barrel was overflowing, so she filled the watering cans. She will hoe the upper garden later today and then cut the third crop of hay from the top field. Tomorrow morning she’ll wash the clothes and hang them on the line while using a portable talking machine to contact Nana and make travel plans. The furry little beast will need exercise later today and the manure will need to be shoveled.

    Tomorrow night we will go to the hootenanny!

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  14. The fact that the child did not love the Little House books did not keep me from planning a Laura Ingalls Wilder vacation several years ago. We headed off to Walnut Grove in July for the annual festival, which includes the pageant as well as a day-long party with music, food, games and even a Look-a-Like contest. Camped out, saw the sod house (actually two of them — there is another sod house, a B&B about half an hour away), took turns at grinding corn, danced around a bit and ate corn cakes and other Little House eats. It was quite fun.

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    1. When were you there, VS? We played there one summer – must’ve been 1999 or 2000, possibly 2001 but I don’t think so. We camped there. It was sweltering.

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      1. Um… child was about 10, so probably in the 2005 range? The night of the pageant, after we were ensconced in our tent, a huge thunderstorm rolled through. Luckily we were under the shelter of a big tree and a little bit up on a hill! The rest of the weekend was beautiful!

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  15. What I find so odd is that Laura Ingalls and her husband had some pretty draconian political views and were quite anti-government adn ended up living pretty marginal lives. I think Laura’s life as an adult was quite sad.

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      1. The most persuasive answer (to me) of this old issue is that the mother and daughter formed a talent partnership that depended on the inputs of both parties. As I remember it, the daughter wrote well but didn’t have Laura’s facility with plot.

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    2. I should add that my mother was very aware of Laura’s adult life and felt very connected to her. My parents had not dissimilar views to Laura’s and, what was his name again?

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  16. Test. I am having a WordPress Nightmare. It automatically signed me up to email me all comments which is a lot of email. And now it will not allow me to log out.. Help!!!

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    2. Fickle WordPress; some days it doesn’t want to communicate with you at all, then it turns into Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory (knock knock, “Leonard.” knock knock, “Leonard.” knock knock, “Leonard.”)

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    3. Oy – I thought it was just me…I have gotten an email for every comment added today. I tried unsubscribing to the post…it sort of worked. Sort of.

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      1. Aha! Sneaky WordPress is now defaulting to “checked” a “notify me of follow-up comments via email” option. And you need to uncheck it _every_single_time….

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        2. That checking of the box must have been created for me ’cause that’s the way i like it. Pethaps it’s not as desireable on a day like today when the posts are flying like bloomers hanging on the line on a windy day. Keeping the electronic Pony Express mighty busy.

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    4. Me too, about getting that. It says:
      You recently followed this blog’s posts. This means you will receive each new post by email.
      To activate, click confirm below. If you believe this is an error, ignore this message and we’ll never bother you again.
      I ignored and deleted it so far, but they lied because I got a second one.

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        1. WordPress was basically okay, although often annoying, in the past. Suddenly it has gone nuts. If WordPress were my adolescent child, I’d be clawing through its bedroom looking for little pipes or other drug paraphernalia.

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    6. Me too. I clicked on the “manage” button in one of the (many) emails and was able to delete the email request. Sheesh.

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      1. At the bottom of one of the e-mails there was a button to click about Subscription Options. I clicked it and it took me to a page that had little check boxes. You’re supposed to click the box, then click delete. But there was no Delete! So I clicked Settings and the checked “Block all email updates from blogs you’re following on WordPress.com.” We shall see.

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        1. This happened to me as well…. the first time. The second time there was a little “delete” under Trail Baboon. That seems to have worked.

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  17. I came upon a compilation of magazine articles L.I.W. wrote as an adult. Haven’t read much of it yet, but she offers homely advice, opinions on current topics, and much of it is quite preachy. She sometimes adds stories from the Childhood… She refers to Almanzo as “The Man of the Place”. What else could it possibly be named: Little House in the Ozarks: The Rediscovered Writings edited by Stephen Hines.

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    1. Might have to look that one up – sounds interesting. Would be curious to read more about L.I.W. as an adult. I’m sure she is a bit preachy…

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  18. Afternoon Ma’am.

    Well, the hardship is the desolation out here in the valley. Cut off from all humanity unless we hike out across the creek and through the pasture like Dad and Grandpa did.
    Or maybe we’ll just have the pizza delivered tonight.

    I did round up some table scraps for the guard dogs this morning… and checked on the little chicks; they’re all doing fine. Will collect the eggs later and do a few more chicken chores.

    Being as it’s Friday, it will be a quiet night at home gathered round the glowing screen. Story / movie night you know. (Donated platelets yesterday so had two hours to watch the new version of ‘True Grit’.)

    Keep your powder dry.

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    1. I want to hear, Ben, what you think of the new version of True Grit. I thought it was stupid to remake a movie that was done so well the first time. Then I saw it and decided I was totally wrong. The second version seems better to me than the first, which was good.

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      1. I enjoyed it Steve. I like the original too. But the script is so good in the first place; the characters are fun and while the dialogue could be considered corny, it’s so witty it’s fun. I especially enjoy the exchanges between young Maddie and Mr. Stonehill. And this:
        ” LaBoeuf: As I understand it, Chaney… or Chelmsford, as he called himshelf in Texas… shot the senator’s dog. When the senator remonstrated, Chelmsford shot him as well. You could argue that the shooting of the dog was merely an instance of malum prohibitum, but the shooting of a senator is indubitably an instance of malum in se.

        Rooster Cogburn: Malla-men what?

        Mattie Ross: Malum in se. The distinction is between an act that is wrong in itself, and an act that is wrong only according to our laws and mores. It is Latin.

        Rooster Cogburn: I am struck that LaBoeuf is shot, trampled, and nearly severs his tongue, and not only does not cease to talk, but spills the banks of English! ”
        LOVE IT! They don’t write like that anymore!!

        I lay there and giggled through out the movie and at the end my eyes filled up and I had to wipe them when no one was looking… Gotta love it when a story does that.

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  19. As part of our road trip to Wisconsin my 3rd grader and I stopped at Pepin to see the Little House in the Big Woods replica. There was a man with a power saw working on some repairs. I referred to him as Pa Ingalls and my son did the same when he helped us pump water. Six months later my son says, “That wasn’t REALLY Pa , was it?.” I am not sure if it was the power tool or the fact that he wasn’t dead that gave it away.

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  20. A rather uneventful day on the prairie here. I flounced off my horsehair mattress and, still wearing my nightdress and cap, started to work on the NON-portable electronic mining device as I am wont to do four days a week. Mid-morning I finally got to use the electronical butter-churny-thing to make a smoothie. My day on the NON-portable is almost at an end. Later, I will hitch up the buggy to go to a friend’s house to watch a moon pitcher on the glowy box.

    I have much enjoyed hearing how all the Little Baboons on the Prairie spend their days, most cleaverly discribulated.

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        1. My mother certainly is! For the rest of you, Holly’s husband came to my mom’s place today and tuned the Baldwin Acrosonic. 🙂

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