Sandra: This chapter is a game-changer. 

Erin: Laura’s hot stock is rising– 

Sandra: Little Bachelorette on the Prairie. 

Erin: — as evidenced by the nameless bachelors who suddenly want to take her out riding. Whatever, they don’t get names. As cool as Laura is able to remain, Almanzo is the only suitor who rates his very own name. 

Sandra: I wonder if this is before or after the kissing games referenced in Pioneer Girl? 

Erin: Laura’s skepticism over the prairie being turned to woodland is understandable, but also a bit chilling. Big foreshadowing here. 

Sandra: I know, right? The tree claim! Ominously: “He said that if trees would grow on those prairies, he thought they would have grown there naturally before now.” 

Erin: I can’t help but think that chokecherries represent our girl Nellie, who is now getting her comeuppance in a tiny shanty and (gasp!) a homestead with only oxen. 

Sandra: We should feel sorry for her the way Laura does, but we don’t. 

Erin: We’ve been carrying this resentment around for Laura. 

Sandra: Love how Laura says “the whole country seemed different to her.” It’s like when the guy takes you over to the next town in his spiffy, shiny Camaro with the faux-fur Playboy seatcovers. Oh, wait … 

Erin: Don’t think of Nellie. DON’T THINK OF NELLIE. 

Sandra: Whoa, Nellie. 

Erin: Laura’s cool demeanor is a sharp contrast to the omg-too-too-ness of Nellie, who is suddenly JUST CHARMED by everything ever.

Sandra: I kind of think Pa is glad for the chance to witness this meeting in the buggy. Good entertainment.

Erin: Oh, my kingdom for a glimpse into Almanzo’s take on all of this.

Sandra: “Is Laura still here?”

Erin: Nellie. You do not know who you are messing with. This is the girl who rocked the desk off its fasteners and who moved a pile of wood indoors by sheer dint of determination.

Sandra: “Almanzo seemed to be enjoying the drive.” Oh, men. Remember Roger and Elaine? 

Erin: Okay, I’m starting to feel bad for Nellie. Who knows what she endured in the intervening years? 

Sandra: Willie’s adolescence? Oh, look. Laura’s practicing the tried-and-true tactic of being the last chick out of the car. 

Erin: Well played, Mrs. Boast! She knows what’s up. 

Sandra: Both the Boasts are so on to her. 

Erin: At least Laura has a sense of humor about the whole thing. 

Sandra: So does Laura the writer: Nellie clutches Almanzo’s arm, “which he very much needed to use just then.” Snicker. 

Erin: OH SNAP! Laura’s feigned apology for making Almanzo go her way is priceless. 

Sandra: Meow! 

Erin: DOUBLE SNAP. Laura won’t go driving if Nellie’s part of the picture. Poor Almanzo. Trying to be nice has now ticked off both women.   

Sandra: Almanzo: “What the frick just happened?” 

Erin: Party fail, Manly. Don’t you know you should never assume a lass will go out with you next Sunday? 

Sandra: We interrupt this catfight to bring you a letter from Mary, who’s having so much fun in Iowa she’d rather summer there than on the clean Dakota prairies. It makes Ma a little woozy, and she even complains for a second, before remembering she’s Ma. 

Erin: The detail of the potatoes getting too brown is just perfect. It suggests Carrie’s hand suspended in mid-air as she waits to hear the horrible news about Mary. 

Sandra: Laura’s bummed mood continues all that Saturday night and into Sunday morning. Interesting: a phrase I’ve never noticed before. “As she rode to church in the wagon she said to herself that she would ride in a wagon all the rest of her life.” Is this the equivalent of resigning oneself to a lifetime in Mom’s minivan? 

Erin: Laura’s resignation is tempered with wild hope. You know it’s serious when you don’t take off your brown poplin. 

Sandra: Right you are! Almanzo is back! And the seat next to him is empty! He does a great job of playing the clueless man, as a clueless man. 

Erin: Oh, Almanzo. You were smacked down, and you know it. 

Sandra: Now we have regular Sunday drives, where the 19th-century horn beeping earns nary a grunt from Pa and a warning to be home on time from Ma. They pick bouquets of roses together. Romance! 

Erin: A buggy full of roses. Bow chicka bow bow. 

Sandra: Then Almanzo—how sweet of him to remember!—surprises our heroine with dear, sweet, merry Ida. The girls gather roses while they may, oohing and aahing over the twin lakes, and, of course, gossiping. Ida’s got her Elmer, and Cap has looked westward for new love, while Mary Power now likes the bank teller. Is it just as easy to laugh in the summertime? 

Erin: Do I detect a tiny bit of jealousy in Laura’s exclamation about Cap? 

Sandra: Oh, SNAP indeed. 

Erin: Oh, CAP? Hmm.  Oh yeah, the drive with Ida. Almanzo is tuned into Laura’s every sigh. Now they’re discussing…the wild thing. Okay, wild things and the pioneer instinct to shoot them dead. SWOON. 

Sandra: Secret eyes behind Ida’s oblivious (but merry) head! I can’t stand it. 

Erin: This secure robe-tucking is just too-too.

That project is now well under way, I’m happy to say. And I’m excited to share it. Come on over.

In other words, is traveling solo to LauraPalooza worth it?

I had been thinking about posting about my favorite part of LauraPalooza, and I hadn’t decided what to write about yet. But as I answered her, I knew. I know this will rhyme a bit with Sarah Sue’s answer, but there’s no other way to say it: the best part of LauraPalooza was the people. And the people started with the knowing.

The truth is, the emotional high started with the trip there. I don’t have much memory of my flight, but after landing in Minneapolis, I distinctly recall the organic co-op where I stopped for lunch (chicken curry sandwich!) and the salon where I partook of a mani-pedi all by myself (parents will get this). Then there are flashes of the ice cream social (moved indoors because it was in the high 90s, and humid), and then, next morning, that first-day-of-the-conference feel when you just see person after person’s expectant, smiling face, and you exchange knowing looks with each one of them because even if you’ve never seen them before in your life, you know. You’re all there for the same reason. You all know the significance of the phrase “brown poplin” and you all pronounce “Al-MAN-zo” the same way. You don’t say this, but you know it anyway.

It takes two to make a smile, and smiles by the pair were lighting up the ballroom. Fans were bonding over conversations in the lobby of the dorm, or after unexpected pairings at breakfast, in the hallway between sessions, or over the banquet tables for the sit-down meals.

Laura Ingalls Wilder herself joined six other LauraPalooza attendees at Pub 500 in Mankato, Minnesota

I knew less than 10 people in person before embarking on my trip. This photo, of seven of us attendees at Pub 500 in Mankato on Friday night, is the best indicator of how that changed when I arrived.

Before LauraPalooza, I had met exactly one person in this photo, and it wasn’t even in a Laura context. Whether I was singing Ben Folds songs or sharing beer recommendations or talking about our respective careers or sharing parenting commisseration or laughing over the previous night’s karaoke (and oh yes, there will be karaoke), by the end of the conference, I was able to call all of these people friends.

Attendees who showed up solo, tell us how it was. Were you lonely? Did you feel strange? Did you feel as if you did not belong?

Many have noticed that the subscription option is missing from the Homesteader part of this website. I removed it a while ago, to make sure no one was ordering something they weren’t going to receive.

That’s because, well, there’s no other way to say it: after ten years, I’ve decided to cease publication of the Homesteader.

Nothing bad has happened. The world of Laura is alive, well, and thriving. But times have changed, and so has my personal life. A regular print publication requires more time than I am able to give, and I won’t put out a shoddy product. (Subscribers know that they have not received Issue 20 yet. Which is the winter issue. It is now spring. Perhaps you can see the problem.)

I am not leaving anyone high and dry. Facebook is rife with pictures of all the homesites. Sarah Sue Uthoff’s radio show provides interviews with homesite representatives. There’s this blog, and the LIWLRA, and LauraPalooza, not to mention so many other blogs — all able in some way to let you get your Laura fix.

It will be a smooth ending. I am still producing issue 20, and then this summer’s issue, which is 21, will be the last. Because I stopped accepting new subscriptions and renewals a while ago, the vast majority of subscribers will receive all the issues they paid for. Those who do not will receive refunds. Or, if they wish, they will have the option to negotiate an alternate purchase; while I am saying goodbye to the Homesteader in its current form, back issues will always be available.

Plus, I am by no means done writing about Laura. Stay tuned.

A more detailed explanation on the hows and whys behind my decision can be found in Issue 20 ,which will be shipping within the next few weeks. Ideally before summer.

To underscore a few of the most important points:

1. The $275 bundle with everything is only the top level. Usually there are several versions of the bundle at different price ranges, and we don’t know what those are yet.
2. Money given to PBS is a tax-deductible donation.
3. This is just the first way the things in the bundle are being offered.

It’s true; $275 is indeed a heck of a lot of money. But we might want to look at the big picture . This pledge drive special is a good thing for the Laura Ingalls Wilder community. There is no way it will do anything but generate interest for her. This interest will, in turn, trickle down to the homesites and to groups like the Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association — the only group that promotes Laura-related research and hosts events like LauraPalooza to showcase it, and also hosts this blog. (LIWLRA was actually created because even 75 years after her books began to be published avenues for Laura-related research simply did not exist. Isn’t that crazy?)

Yes, Dean’s DVD is a wonderful production, and we all want to own it. But it’s worth considering that his projects have taken a lot of his personal capital. One can’t expect him not to recoup that if he can. Moreover, we would not have his quality Little House work if he did not care about the product. Registrants of the last LauraPalooza were lucky enough to see the documentary, and to his credit, he edited it afterwards to address the audience’s concerns. He didn’t have to invest that time, or that money.

The fact is, after investigating different methods of getting this documentary out there for three years, this was the best avenue he could find. Heck, if it wasn’t for this PBS-related release, it might have been a lot longer before it was released in any form at all. Or, worst of all, it might never have been released for sale to the public; many documentaries aren’t.

If you can’t or won’t be pledging to get it, don’t despair! As time goes on, it’s highly likely you will be able to obtain it another way. The biggest implication of the pledge drive is that the people who are willing to pledge will be the pioneers and will get it first.

The best thing we can do, as ambassadors of Laura, is to spread the word about the pledge drive. Contact our local stations to make sure they run it, whether we plan on pledging or not. Pledge if we can. And if we can’t, we can wait patiently until the DVD is ready for individual sale. I haven’t been told that will happen, but I’m comfortable in saying that it seems like something that would logically follow.

I know this is disappointing to some, especially in these economic times. Perhaps Laura herself said it best. Remember the sage/onion fight in the beginning of The Long Winter? Laura first retold that story in The Missouri Ruralist. After relating how in the end how Pa didn’t even get the goose, she said:

“This little happening has helped me to be properly thankful even tho at times the seasoning of my blessings has not been just such as I would have chosen.”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been smitten with Kara Lindsay and Kevin Massey ever since they played Laura and Almanzo, respectively, in the Little House musical. Sadly Little House never made it off the tour and onto Broadway, but the two actors have been keeping busy just the same. Kevin’s currently on Broadway in “Memphis” (as an understudy for Huey), and Kara just this month made her debut starring in a stage version of the 1992 musical film “Newsies.” You can read about the show in an inerview with Kara here.

Admittedly, part of my longstanding dedication to Kara and Kevin is the fact that they fell in love while playing Laura and Almanzo–and they’re still together. (I interviewed them twice about their roles and their relationship in the Homesteader, issue 14 and issue 16.) In the interview linked above, she says they’ll probably be together “forever.” Yes, it brings a tear to my eye, that does.

If you’re in or around the NYC area, catch Kara in “Newsies”! Here’s a cool preview. Kevin also maintains a Facebook page where he updates when he’s going on as Huey.

Reader Kirsten Johnsen was wondering what in the world was up with this documentary. People want to see it! Sarah Sue Uthoff responded that basically, we have no update, but she suspected that the upcoming PBS pledge drive special might give the distribution a boost.

In fact, she’s on the right track. And there is an update. It just came in over the weekend, and I have not had a chance yet to post it.

The documentary will be available not singly as we’d been expecting, but as part of a package for PBS’s pledge drive special in June. From Dean:

I’m delighted to announce that LHOP: The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder will be available through PBS as part of “The Pa’s Fiddle Collection” that supports PA’S FIDDLE: THE MUSIC OF AMERICA.

The Pa’s Fiddle Collection is composed of five items available exclusively on PBS for a $275 pledge to your favorite PBS member station:

1. Pa’s Fiddle Concert DVD
2. Pa’s Fiddle Concert CD
3. Making of Pa’s Fiddle DVD
4. Pa’ Fiddle Primer CD
5. LHOP: Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder DVD

So although we cannot obtain it singly, by pledging to PBS, we can obtain it.

 See the video preview for the PBS event here.

We have been hard at work preparing for registration and I am happy to announce that we have a page of Frequently Asked Questions ready to go. We hope we have covered your concerns, but if you have a question you don’t see addressed, please comment below or email us. If you have a child who may be attending, you will also want to read our Camp Laura FAQ.

We also have a Registration page ready, where the link to the registration form will be tomorrow.  This year we have made registration easier than ever. If the technological grasshoppers don’t plague us (prayers to Reverend Alden accepted), you will be able to fill in the PDF online via your keyboard, save it to your computer, and email it directly. No printing out or writing by hand, unless you want to.

Edited to add: It’s been pointed out that we didn’t say we were going to share the programming with attendees, which would make it difficult for people to weigh the decision of whether to invest the time and money to attend. My apologies–that is nowhere close to true. While the final schedule won’t be out for a while, the programming for the conference will be shared as soon as possible after prospective presenters are notified whether or not they are accepted. Those notifications will go out tomorrow, February 7.