Comments on: The Long Winter, Chapter 22: Cold and Dark

By: Laura Maxwell

Laura Maxwell — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 01:13:38 +0000

Wendy– thanks so much for your link to beyondlittlehouse! I am a big “Little House” fan, and I am enjoying this reading of “The Long Winter” so much! I actually re-read “The Long Winter” when I was on bed rest for my twin pregnancy– I gave birth to twin girls, Maia and Sarah, on 12/7/09– but I am loving the thoughtful re-caps and everyone’s comments. You even inspired me to order “The Little House Cookbook!”

I can’t wait to share all things “Little House” with my girls. And I can’t wait to read your upcoming book! Thanks again.

Love, Laura

By: Beyond Little House | The Long Winter, Chapter 23: The Wheat In the Wall

Beyond Little House | The Long Winter, Chapter 23: The Wheat In the Wall — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:51:58 +0000

[...] snowdrifts scoured (again with that word, which I didn’t realize how evocative it was until Wendy brought it up) down to the bare [...]

By: Eliza

Eliza — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:49:35 +0000

It wasn’t that the snow warmed up the house at 32 degrees, but that it insulated it so that the heat generated by the stove actually stayed in the house.

What I wondered was why they didn’t die from carbon monoxide.

By: Lauri

Lauri — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:25:51 +0000

I remember commenting about the snow tunnel to my Dad when I was younger. He pointed out how cold the house must have been that the snow at 32 degrees helped to warm it up!
I agree that Pa not being able to play the fiddle is the low point of the series. Without the music, what is to keep them going?
On an upnote, anyone else notice that Laura remembers recognizing that Wilder boy’s horses’ feet? Those must have been a really impressive pair of horses!

By: Wendy McClure

Wendy McClure — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 07:07:42 +0000

You can get a photcopied manuscript of “Pioneer Girl” from the Hoover Library, though the copy fees are pretty expensive! Most of the biographies quote material from “Pioneer Girl” and the Donald Zochert bio, Laura uses it pretty extensively, so much that by the time I finally read the manuscript I was already familiar with most of the important parts.

By: T Lynn

T Lynn — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 22:45:44 +0000

A little off-topic, but how do you all have access to the unpublished Pioneer Girl? (And more to the point, how can I?)
Back on topic, this is the only time in the books that Pa can’t play the fiddle and it has always been the most depressing moment for me – even more than Mary’s blindness. It was the point that, when I read this book the first time (oh so many years ago) that it fully hit me how cold, dark and awful that winter must have been.