Ingalls Homestead
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American Masters Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page will premiere on December 29 at 8pm on PBS. We are excited!!! If you just can't hardly wait, check out this sneak preview virtual event next Thursday, December 17. Details below. Registration is required and limited to 1,000 participants. It is free and open to the public. You can register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrate-the-life-and-legacy- The sneak preview will be 30 minutes followed by a moderated conversation with a variety of Laura experts. Producer Christopher Czajka will also be popping into the live chat to provide some commentary. Interested in more information about this project? Check out this site - pbs.org/lauraingalls #LauraIngallsPBS #AmericanMastersPBS

We are celebrating Small Business Saturday today ! Special pricing on Little House Book Sets without a crate and 15% off store-wide throughout the day. Promo code HALF-PINT. Free shipping over $75. Gift wrapping at no cost this year, please note this request at checkout. UPDATE! Well folks, that is embarrassing! We were having trouble with shipping section of our checkout page. All should be fixed now! Thanks so much to those of you who gently pointed out the problem.

We are busy soaking up the last few sunny autumn days. One big projects is making old-fashioned lye soap for washing clothes at Ma's Little House and for sale in our giftshop. Joan has rendered about 40 pounds of pig lard and 80 pounds of beef tallow and hopes to make around 150 pounds of soap. The lard and lye soaps was done earlier this fall month and is cured and cut. Yesterday she was working on the beef tallow soap, which will be curing until the new year.

Originally located a couple miles southeast of the Ingalls Homestead, the Johnson schoolhouse now rests on the southwest corner of this quarter of land. The original schoolhouse was in a fire and then rebuilt in 1889. Laura and her sisters did not attend this little one-room schoolhouse. They would walk one mile to attend school in De Smet (the original schoolhouse they attended is still located in De Smet at the @LauraIngallsWilderMemorialSociety). By 1883, there were 385 p...ublic schools in the Dakota Territory. That number grew to 3,000 by 1889 and the majority were one-room schoolhouses. Teachers in these schools typically had little formal teacher training. In the beginning, the majority of teachers were men but women soon outnumbered them. There were 6,044 women and 686 men teaching in rural schools by 1918 in South Dakota. These teachers taught 1st-8th grade students. Eighth grade graduation typically signaled the end of formal education for some students and the start of their working life. More info at-> https://history.sd.gov/museum/docs/One-RoomSchoolhouse.pdf Laura started her first teaching job when she was just 15 years old at a one-room country schoolhouse 12 miles from her parents' home!

In the spring of 1880, Pa started to build his family a little claim shanty. He first built a 140 square foot half house for his family of six. Laura described it as having a slanted roof. Pa then started to build the second half of the shanty in 1881. This addition was another 140 square feet. Laura wrote that the new part created two tiny bedrooms, each with a window. While attending the Iowa School for the Blind, Mary learned to play the organ. Pa and Laura worked and s...aved money to purchase a pump organ as a surprise for Mary’s homecoming. Pa decided to build a 12x16 foot addition to make room for the pump organ. Once completed, Ma declared that the shanty was now a real home. This reconstructed claim shanty was built according to the description Pa provided in his proving up papers. Filing Testament of Claimant forms was required to obtain ownership of a homestead claim.

Camping on the Prairie - Pioneer Style Camp in a covered wagon, share s'mores around the campfire, and relax while watching the sunsets on the homestead.

Good Morning from the homestead

Meet the Mules Monday Molly and Dolly are two of our mules that typically drive together. They are draft mules (bred from a draft horse mare and male donkey (jack)).... Draft mules have the size and power of a draft horse combined with a donkey's ability to work in the heat and eat less food. They inherit the strength and boldness of a horse and also the sure-footedness and patience of a donkey. Fun Fact: Mules can't reproduce because they have an extra chromosome! Horses have 32 pairs of chromosomes and a donkey has 31.

Through Laura’s books, you may have read about the beautiful Morgan horses owned by Almanzo Wilder. He owned the beautiful teams Prince & Lady and Skip & Barnum. Morgan horses were thought to be a light horse used for draft (A draft is a large horse used for pulling plows/wagons/carts, usually a heavy load). The bodies of Morgan horses made them suitable for performing a wide variety of tasks. Their ground-covering gaits enabled them to cover many miles at a steady speed day... after day. They were a favored horse for all types of work due their hard-working attitude. The Morgan horse is found in a variety of colors including bay, brown, black, chestnut, gray, palomino, dun, and buckskin. The height of this breed averages between 14.1-15.2 hands tall. http://imh.org//breed/north-america/american-morgan-horse/ Pictured below is one of our Percheron teams Annie & May. The Percheron is a large draft breed, known for its well-muscled body, intelligence, and willingness to work. The breed originated near Normandy, France and served as a war horse, carrying knights into battle. As time went on and agriculture took more precedence over battles, the Percheron horses were bred for more weight, size, and strength. Thousands of Percheron horses were imported to America in the late 19th century and soon became the favorite of both the American farmer and teamster who would move freight on the nation’s city streets. The Percheron horse is typically gray or black in color and its height averages from 16 to 17 hands tall. http://imh.org//onli/breeds-of-the-world/europe/percheron/

Guest artist, James Pollock, Pierre, SD, will be featured in a plein air painting demonstration video starting at 1:00 pm on Saturday, Aug. 8. A Zoom discussion... with the artist will follow. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Pollock_(artist) See event details for Painting On The Prairie 2020. See more

Guest artist, Stephen Randall, Sioux Falls, SD, will be featured in a plein air painting demonstration video starting at 3:00 pm on Friday, Aug. 7. A Zoom discussion with the artist will follow. https://stephenrandallartist.smugmug.com/ See event details for Painting on the Prairie 2020

In 1879, Charles Ingalls, lured by the prospect of free land from the Homestead Act of 1862, moved his family to the Dakotas to homestead. Thousands of other pioneers headed for the Midwest in hopes to claim 160 acres and turn it into a family farm that could be passed on to descendants. Other pioneers only stayed the required 6 months to buy the land and then sold it. To them, the land brought money for future endeavors. Under the Homestead Act, to claim 160 acres of land y...ou had to be at least 21 years old, be a U.S. citizen, male or female, and single/head of household. A settler would have to take up residency on the land within 6 months and could not establish a legal residence anywhere else. He/she would have to build a dwelling that was at least 12 x 14 ft. and cultivate at least 10 acres of land. Lastly, they had to live on the claim for 5 years. After living on the land for only 6 months, there was the option to pay $1.25 per acre and own the land. Picture this 160 acres is about the size of 148 football fields! More about this at -> https://history.sd.gov/museum/docs/HomesteadingDakota.pdf

The barn kittens have some serious Monday vibes going on

Located on the northwest corner of the homestead are the five cottonwood trees that remain of the thousands Pa planted on his homestead claim. These last living cottonwood trees are dedicated to Pa's five girls. Laura said on her 1937 visit to De Smet, " Yes, these are the trees my Pa planted."

Slough (sloo) You may have heard this term used more than once in Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. While living on the homestead in De Smet, the Ingalls family not only had a slough on their quarter of land but they also lived by the Big Slough. A slough is a marsh or swamp habitat. It provides year round food and shelter for various species, nesting sites for waterfowl, stopover sites for migrating birds, and a habitat for endangered species. During the winter months, slough...s become a habitat for deer, pheasants, and other wildlife. Sloughs were typically thought of as wastelands or hindrances to travel and agriculture for early settlers. Yet, some early pioneers recognized the benefits of living by one. Benefits of living near a slough included easier access to hunting, fishing, and trapping, surface and ground water supply, and forage production. (https://www.fws.gov//Doc/Eastern-South-Dakota-Wetlands.pdf)

Just some good, old-fashioned jump rope making.