Wilder on the Prairie

Episode 143   Ch. 2 of The Long Winter "An Errand to Town".   Join us this week as we discuss when the first frost is in DeSmet, cutter bar teeth, 5 cents for the cutter bar tooth, Charleton and Gerald Fuller, what a "pocketbook" is, the definition of "primly" and "rivet".

Episode 142   Long Winter ch. 1 "Make Hay While the Sun Shines"   Join us this week as we discuss 1941 Newbery winners, celebrities born in 1940, what happened between "Silver Lake" and "Long Winter", when you make hay, big bluestem grass, the definition of "to grub", garter snakes, definition of "haycock" and "whiffletree", a recipe for ginger water, and muskrat lodges.

Thank you for 100,000 downloads! :)   To celebrate, here are my 10 favorite chapters (so far) of the Little House books.

Episode 141   By the Shores of Silver Lake ch. 32 "Evening Shadows Fall". Join us this week as we discuss "Barbara Allen".

Episode 140   By the Shores of Silver Lake ch. 31, "Mosquitoes". Join us as we discuss when mosquitoes come out and what temperature, mosquito bar netting, pink mosquito bar, and what a smudge is.

By the Shores of Silver Lake   Ch. 30 "Where Violets Grow". Join us this week as we discuss violets, the weight of three-year-old todds, "draggled", the meaning of hanging a horseshoe like a "U", and "Keep the Horseshoe over the Door". 

Episode 138   By the Shores of Silver Lake ch. 29 "The Shanty on the Claim". Join us this week as we discuss a spade vs. a shovel, laths, the Timber Culture Act of 1873, wild onions, crocus, sheep sorrel, where did the glass boxes come from?, and where was the Lone Tree from?

Episode 137   By the Shores of Silver Lake ch. 28 "Moving Day"   Join us as we discuss skids, "joggling", $250 or $300 in 2024 money, "A Motto for Every Man", and "Beacon - Light of Home".

Episode 136   ch 27 By the Shores of Silver Lake "Living in Town". Join us this week as we discuss the one-mile walk into town, "ceil", "cornice", "Oh I'm As Happy As a Big Sunflower", the Jerome Beardsley family, who Louizy and Annie were, who killed Hunter, and Mitchell, SD.

Episode 135   By the Shores of Silver Lake ch. 26 "The Buiding Boom". Join us this week as we discuss $15.25, $1.75, Western false front architure, $42.50, and why Laura and Mary were arguing?

Episode 134   By the Shores of Silver Lake ch. 25 "Pa's Bet"   Join us this week as we discuss Mr. Hinz and the 2 Mr. Hawthorns, "the fat was in the fire", "anywheres", what $14 is in 2024, and how big 160 acres really is.

Episode 133   By the Shores of Silver Lake ch. 24 "The Spring Rush"   Join us this week as we discuss "greenhorns", how much 25 cents was, Fort Pierre South Dakota, "March comes in like a lamb, it goes out like a lion", what it means "to board" someone, Sioux Falls South Dakota and "to be hung for a sheep as a lamb".

Episode 132   By the Shores of Silver Lake ch. 23, "On the Pilgrim Way"   Join us this week as we discuss "Lend a Helping Hand", Rev. Alden in the late 1870s, Rev. Stewart Sheldon, Huron South Dakota, the Home Missionary Society, the word "repined", brown sugar syrup, "receipts" vs. "recipes", Jean Pierre de Smet, and "baching".

Episode 131   ch 31 By the Shores of Silver Lake "Happy Winter Days"   Join us as we discuss 1880 history in context, Yankton South Dakota, The New York Ledger, continued stories (serials), "Gypsy's Warning", "When I Was One and Twenty, Nell", "Billy Boy", "Camptown Races", "Three Blind Mice", "Nelly Was a Lady (Last Night She Died)", "Ben Bolt", "Oft in the Stilly Night", and "Banks O'Doon".

Episode 130   Ch. 21 By the Shores of Silver Lake "Merry Christmas"   Join us as we discuss setting the Christmas table, wristlets, "gathers", cheesecloth, codfish gravy, where did the cream come from?, "plenty more down in a cellar in a teacup", onion stuffing, "Jumping Jehosephat!", and the Boasts living in the surveyor's office just for the winter.

Episode 129   ch 20 By the Shores of SIlver Lake "The Night Before Christmas"   Join us this week as we discuss Ella Peck Boast, the definitions of "parbroil" and "raw-fry", claim jumpers, the ranges of voice types, and "Merry, Merry Christmas Everywhere".

Episode 128   Ch. 19 by the Shores of Silver Lake "Christmas Eve"   Join us as we discuss the scrap bag, jackrabbits, cornmeal mush, "Down the River on the Ohio", "Why Chime the Bells So Merrily", "Jingle Bells", "Mountain of the Lord", and "Gentle Words and Loving Smiles".

Episode 127   By the Shores of Silver Lake, chapter 18 "Pa Finds the Homestead"   Join us this week as we discuss going 10 miles in the snow, buffalo wolf tracks, wolf life spans, pack sizes, and Pa's quarter section.

Episode 126   By the Shores of Silver Lake ch. 17 "Wolves on Silver Lake"   Join us this week as we discuss where their shoes came from (?), whether wolves are nocturnal, and flatirons.

Episode 125   By the Shores of Silver Lake ch. 16 "Winter Days"   Join us this week as we discuss muskrats in South Dakota, the history of checkers, and the word "immoderately".

Episode 124   By the Shores of Silver Lake ch. 15 "The Last Man Out"   Join us this week as we discuss Horace G. Woodworth, the "prairie cure" for consumption, buffalo wolves, Pa's prediction of Dakota winters, "Hail, Columbia!", "Highland Mary", "Coming through the Rye", "I'm Mrs. Jinks of Madison Square", the polka and the waltz.

Episode 123   Ch. 14 in By the Shores of Silver Lake "The Surveyor's House"   Join us as we discuss gables, the history of canned food, the location of Brookings, "Mary of the Wild Moor", and "Paddle Your Own Canoe".

Episode 122   By the Shores of Silver Lake ch. 13 "Breaking Camp"   Join us this week as we discuss "Where Are You Going My Pretty Maid (Nobody Asked You", Lena's ultimate fate, Jean's fate, Pa seeing in shades of grey, Brookings South Dakota, Robery Abey Boast, and what a sherriff did in the late 1800s.

Episode 121   Chapter 12 of By the Shores of Silver Lake "Wings Over Silver Lake"   Join us this week as we discuss brant, redheads, bluebills, canvasbacks, teals, mudhens, hell-divers, swans in South Dakota, Uncle Henry, Louisa, and Charley's fate, Pa earned $300, and the Ingalls girls becoming teachers. 

Episode 120   By the Shores of Silver Lake ch. 11 "Pay Day"   Join us this week as we discuss Laura helping Pa with haying?, $1,000 in cash, Pa's revolver, rifle, and shotgun.