Introduction

I've loved history and old-fashioned things for as long as I can remember. I was permanently warped in my middle-school years by an obsession with authors like Lucy Maud Montgomery, Gene Stratton Porter, and Maude Hart Lovelace. But somehow, I never read that premier of American women authors, Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the Little House books to record her experiences as a pioneer child. She was born near Pepin, Wisconsin in 1867, but before long her father had packed up the whole family and moved to Indian Country in Kansas. There were a series of moves that took them to Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota where her parents finally settled.

Laura grew up, married Almanzo, and began a lifetime of moving around herself before settling in Mansfield, Missouri in the later years of her life. It was there she first published Little House in the Big Woods in 1931. She went on to publish 9 books in the series, plus many other works including Let the Hurricane Roar (1932) and Free Land (1938 which told the story of her pioneer childhood in an adult format.

I don't know exactly why I never read her books. I think it might be because I was given Little House in the Big Woods as a present when I was too young for it. I read it anyway and maybe that turned me off the series. I've always intended to read them as an adult, but never got around to it. Now, after a lifetime of living in crowded California, I've moved half-way across the country to North Dakota. I live on far edge of the same wind-swept prairie that Laura and her family settled. There's no way I'm not going to read the books now!

My new home state is located between Montana and Minnesota. It is the 19th largest state, but is the third least populated in the union. It had 680,000 people in 1930 before the Dust Bowl, but in 2008 had only 641,481 residents. However, the American Lung Association gives it high marks for clean air, and there's lots of room to stretch your arms and legs. It's a big change from California, that's for sure!

When I first moved out here last spring the land seemed very wide, very empty, and a little bit scary. I was very glad that I hadn't come back when there were no roads, markers, trees, or towns. Just prairie stretching as far as the eye could see, and of course the wind always blowing with nothing to slow it down. Now I'm used to the wide open spaces and find it too crowded and cluttered when I travel back to California, the land of fences, billboards, houses, and trash.

So come join me as I discover what it's like to be a 21st century emigrant (without the hassle of actually leaving my country). At the same time, I'll be learning about Laura's experiences as a pioneer back when the land was wild and untamed. And of course, I'll be experimenting with some of the "old" ways in a modern form.