Laura's House and rain on the prairie

This Sunday morning, rain is what is on my mind but I should delay that thought until after I discuss yesterday's activities.

We had a leisurely bacon and pancake breakfast at our camper and then set out west ward around ten am.  A nice drive mostly along US highway 14.  Just after passing the state line into SD there was a very small roadsign saying "Dakota Stonewear, Bushnell, 1 mile' with an arrow pointing down a small road to the right.  We passed it so quickly that it hardly registered and was too late to turn.  Dakota Stonewear is the folks who show up at the Oshkosh trade fai every February, and from whom I always buy at least one piece, usually a mug. 

Continuing west on 14, we passed Brookings and soon found the turn to the Little House, on a gravel road about a half mile south of Hwy 14.  Again a charge to wander around the grounds, but probably worth the $10 per person, after having driven this far.  There is a replica dugout,as it was in Plum Creek, but this one is in good condition, and lets one get a real sense of what it must have been like to live in one of these small holes.  They also compare it to a tar-paper and wood shanty, which was the other cheap easy house to build. 

A small house, the size and location of the original Little House is there, having started as a one room house, the Ingalls' had put on a two bedroom addition, the total size of which is smaller than our camper/trailer.  And they then added a second addition almost doubling the size of the house, and this became their parlor.  

There are two over sized covered wagons, which one rides to the far corner of the 160 acre property to visit a one room school house.  This having been moved to the Ingalls property in the late 1950s when it finally stopped being used as a school. 

They also keep 10 acres cultivated with corn and wheat, to show the size that was required by the government in order to qualify for free land under the Homestead Act.  This 10 acres they plant and harvest using horse drawn implements, which look to me to be from about 1900.

Now, what was I saying about rain?   A line of thunderstorms went through our camp grounds about 4 this morning.  We had to wake up and close all our side curtains on the trailer.  This is just what we do NOT need today, as we will be packing up this morning to drive to New Richmond, WI to visit with Darrel and Kirsten.  We want to see the new deck which they have added to their house over the last few weeks.  The pictures looked great, now we see it in person.

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Moving on to a technical matter with Blogger, I believe I should be able to post photos, but have not figured out how to do it yet using this Android App. so it remains a text only blog until I learn more about how to use it.