Probably the most unusual thing new this year is the replica of Laura Ingalls Wilder engagement ring from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. (scroll down linked page) I think it is probably out of better material than Laura’s original that was ordered out of the Montgomery Ward catalog. On that same page find plenty of Laura jewelery and, if you have your own Jack, I highly recommend Jack’s Puppy Treats (my dog Blue pops them like candy). I also saw a couple of ornaments I want for my Laura Ingalls Wilder Christmas Tree. They’ve even put out a special online newsletter about what they are selling this year. They are also proud of their cloth dolls and flannel child sized PJs which are locally made.

Although the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Spring Valley, Minnesota is a smaller site they always have interesting and unusual pieces. This year they’ve introduced a glass ornament of their site. They sell one of my favorite Laura dolls, a cloth Almanzo doll. They also have 3 specially designed Playing Laura dresses for 18 inch fashion dolls.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum in Burr Oak, Iowa is also a smaller site with unique items. For stocking stuffers, they have laminated wooden bookmarks featuring a Burr Oak tree (I love mine) and slates and slate pencils.

The Ingalls Homestead of De Smet, South Dakota is offering free standard shipping on purchases over $50. They were surprised by how well Basic Country Skills, a new book they’ve stocked, is selling. It’s a how-to of pioneer skills. Another big seller is the hardcover set of Laura’s books in a wooden crate. They’ve introduced high quality tin cups produced by Jacob Bromwell which has been making tin cups since the 1830s, still handmade in the United States. Also, along with several of the other sites they are selling the Almanzo Wilder: Life Before Laura DVD which is a great companion for both a trip to Malone and the book Farmer Boy. It is of course also available from Malone.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum of Mansfield, Missouri has put together a special page of Christmas related items in their giftshop, including their awesome laser-cut ornaments of the Sewell cover illustrations, plus Rocky Ridge. They also are still promoting their DVD Laura Ingalls Wilder: Stories of Pioneer Girl.  It won’t let me link to sections within the giftshop. The DVD is under Collectibles and Gifts and the Christmas stuff is under Christmas.

The following Laura Ingalls Wilder sites are still open and allowing you to order for Christmas. I’m listing the cut off date for Christmas orders to reach you before Christmas as given to me by the homesites. The Walnut Grove museum is especially counting on mail orders this year because they normally get walk in traffic at the gift shop all winter, but they have construction going on right now so they are mail-order only this year.

Walnut Grove MN

Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum

Phone 1-800-528-7280

Last Day for Priority Mail – December 16th

De Smet SD

Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society, Click on Gift Shop

Phone 1-800-880-3383

Last Day for Priority Mail – December 16th

Ingalls Homestead

Phone: 1-800-776-3594

Last Day for Priority Mail – December 21st (16th for regular mail), call if questions

Mansfield MO

Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum

Phone 1-877-924-7126 (Toll free)

Last Day for Priority Mail – Sometime between December 12th and the 16th

Malone NY

Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder Farm

Phone (518) 483-1207

Last Day for Priority Mail – December 1^4th

Malone also says for their set up, online ordering has a quicker response.

Spring Valley MN

Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum (Store not online)

Phone (507) 346-7659

Last Day for Priority – December 10th

Burr Oak IA

Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum

Phone (563) 735-5916

Last Day for Priority – Not giving a last day, it’s up to the customer

And Don’t forget you can also get your Laura fan memories of Laurapalooza 2010 and gift memberships.

Sarah S. Uthoff blogs at TrundleBed Tales; look for her on Twitter and YouTube.

Since I first heard about a possible conference with only one subject – Laura Ingalls Wilder – I was in. There was no question. I’d get there one way or the other, no matter where it was. I planned for it (we rarely take trips longer than long weekends), I talked about it (a lot), I worried (I always do), but most of all…I was excited!

However, in the last couple of months before LauraPalooza, my mom, who had been in poor health for several years, began to have more health problems and was in and out of the hospital. I wavered back and forth about going. I was afraid to be away if something happened, but I knew that my mom, who had always supported my love for Laura Ingalls Wilder since I first started reading her books, would want me to go. I talked to family and they all encouraged me to go. I believe I even posed the question on facebook. I wrestled with myself.  In quiet moments in those last days leading up to leaving, I even talked to my mom about it. At this point, Alzheimer’s and illness made conversation, which my mom so loved, next to impossible. She was stable though and her condition seemed to be improving, so I decided that we would head to Mankato, Minnesota State University and LauraPalooza. That was the day before we were set to leave. I had yet to pack, gather up paperwork, books and make sure that I was leaving my business work all caught up. Earlier in the year I had made tentative plans to stop in Burr Oak, Iowa (the homesite that Laura doesn’t mention in the books) and Spring Valley, Minnesota (where Almanzo, Laura and Rose lived with Almanzo’s parents for a year). I was hoping that we could still squeeze them in. They were “on the way” after all.

And on to LauraPalooza 2010 we headed! Looking back, especially going through the videos that Sarah Uthoff has posted for the past week, I realize that much of my time was clouded with worry about my mother. I was determined to have the wonderful time that she would have wanted for me though. My first best memory? Seeing my Laura friends for the first time “in real life”. Through the past several years, I’ve made a handful of Laura friends…all through the computer. I have to say that I would consider these friends some of my closest and those who know the real me. It was really special for me to actually be able to see (and hug) so many of them. Since I already felt such a bond with them, being able to sit down and share together meant the world to me. I would see a familiar face and…it was just so wonderful to finally be able to be there with them spending this time together. And the new friends? I love every little conversation that I had with everyone who shared my enthusiasm. And after that, I am far from a Laura expert, just a fan who always wants to learn more, and it was so great to listen to the presenters, learn tons of new stuff that I didn’t know (some things that I didn’t even know I could know!) and be with other people who love Laura in the same way that I do.
And one more thing…I was never a “Little House” tv show watcher, but I gained a whole new admiration and respect for Dean Butler. I really love the work that he’s been doing to preserve Laura and Almanzo’s legacy.

We did get to visit Burr Oak and Spring Valley on the way to LauraPalooza. And, since my husband very patiently accompanied me on the trip, the stops on the way home were all about him. Antique stores, an old iron mine, the largest pump engine in the world, a couple of “junk” stores…you get the picture.
Sadly, my mom passed away just days after our return and I was never able to tell her all about my adventure. I know she would have been so very happy and excited for me.

So LauraPalooza 2010 alumni – share, spill, let us in on it! What are some of your favorite moments? What are some of your best memories?

Beyond Little House was set up with the idea of promoting the conference, but we weren’t sure what to put up during the actual conference. I had already decided to give my Flip camera a workout by filming highlights and they proved very popular as way to share the conference with people who couldn’t be there and for people attending the conference to help organize their thoughts about the day. This week we are going to reshare those videos with you. Unfortunately there are some issues with sound, for which we apologize, but efforts to improve it with the equipment then at hand were not successful. I hope you will enjoy them anyway. You’ll probably want to adjust the volume on your computer all the way up for some sections.

Also as part of the buildup to the conference I posted a series called And One More on the Way which were places which mostly didn’t have a direct connection to Laura, but were tourist spots that you might want to add on your trip. I heard from several people who did exactly that. I hope to repeat that next year as part of the build up of the conference and while I have some already on my list I would welcome your ideas on what I might want to include.

The link to the post will include a link to the video on YouTube, a short summary of what is included on that day’s video and links to websites of things, people or places mentioned in the video. The first video covers my trip to Mankato with stops at two Laura homesite towns on the way.

Laurapalooza Trip Day 1

This first day of traveling to LauraPalooza includes Decorah and Burr Oak, Iowa; Spring Valley, Minnesota; and former longtime Burr Oak director Ferneva Brimacomb.

Sarah S. Uthoff blogs at TrundleBed Tales; look for her on Twitter and YouTube and Blog Talk Radio
Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association, Vice-President and Membership Chair

Pepin, Wisconsin - May 15th

Independence, Kansas  - April 1st

Walnut Grove, Minnesota – April 1st

Burr Oak, Iowa - April 1st

Spring Valley, Minnesota - June 1st

De Smet, South Dakota - Remains open all year for limited hours but extends hours and opens Sat. starting May 2nd and is open 7 days a week starting June 1st.

Ingalls Homestead  in De Smet, South Dakota – May 28th

Mansfield, Missouri - March 1st

Malone/ Burke, New York  - May 28th

Keystone – June 1st

Sarah S. Uthoff blogs at TrundleBed Tales; look for her on Twitter and YouTube and Blog Talk Radio

Steve Luse Interview

A new feature of the Trundlebed Tales Radio is a 15 minute roundup of what’s going on with Laura fandom this month will be done near the beginning of each month for the duration of the Laura “season.”

April Update

The next episode  of Trundlebed Tales Radio will air live on Wed., May 4, 2011

10 PM ET, 9PM CT, 8 PM MT and 7 PM PT

and will feature the Seeking Laura Letters Project.

Sarah S. Uthoff blogs at TrundleBed Tales; look for her on Twitter and YouTube and Blog Talk Radio

We arrived late in the afternoon on a Friday, to discover the state park offered much more primitive accommodations than we expected.

Pit toilets.

Ugh.

But, since everything else was booked up, we set up our tents and resigned ourselves. We built a big fire, making shish-ka-bobs on a cast iron grill over the pit. We warmed water in the kettle to wash hands and dishes with, then made s’mores using our nice, metal turning sticks. Our friends arrived shortly after dark, and we helped them get set up before turning in for the night.

Temperatures dipped for the first time all summer. We were cold, but we’d planned ahead and brought wool blankets. Somewhere in the early morning, wolves howled from the top of the ridges that surrounded us. Owls called to each other all night. And in the blurry dawn of morning, I hustled myself to the pit toilets to confront a sign: Watch out for timber rattlers.

I shuddered for a moment.

We set up our Coleman propane camp stove, rather than starting a fire, and fried bacon and eggs for breakfast. My good friend at the site next to us, Shawn, had brought her Keurig cup-at-a-time coffee maker, but we found its electrical plug didn’t fit the one in her van floor. We toted it down to the toilets, where we found one three-prong electrical outlet, and took turns making our coffee, giggling as we noted on the way back that one enterprising camper had set up a picnic table with an extension cord. It was loaded with a coffee maker, a waffle-maker, an electric skillet, and a hair dryer.

Back at camp, we put all traces of food away, to keep it from raccoons and bears, and loaded up to go to the Niagara cave. My foster daughter spent the entire trip–all thirty minutes–mapping our cell phone coverage. We had cell phone coverage for maybe five minutes of that ride, but we know exactly where that five minutes was. Her new call was–”There’s a tower!”

I fretted as we got into Harmony, 22 miles away, that I didn’t have enough cash on hand; I’d forgotten to stop at an ATM. Fortunately, the cave people took credit cards.

The Amish quilt store and ice cream shop, however, didn’t. So I trekked up the street to an ATM to get cash to get ice cream.

As we left Harmony, I took a closer look at our map.

Burr Oak was less than 10 miles away.

Score!

A quick ride later, we pulled in at the visitor’s center in Burr Oak, with the Man of the Place rolling his eyes only slightly at my giggly excitement at visiting a Laura site–an unexpected treat in the middle of the trip. The only other time I’d been in Burr Oak, the Master’s Hotel, where the Ingalls had stayed, was closed for cleaning. This time, I got the full tour, with my foster daughter enjoying the tour with me, and saw the room in which the Ingalls family lived while Caroline cooked and served in the adjoining dining room. It struck me then, how tiny that room was for five–going on six–people. How did Caroline manage, pregnant and serving 75 people per meal per day? Or Laura and Mary, who had the horrible job of cleaning chamber pots?

It was only on the way back home that the irony struck me.

Pit toilets seemed a little less inconvenient.

Keurig coffeemakers didn’t exist a century ago.

We had lighters and matches to get our fire going, and propane when we couldn’t get it started.

We could travel 100 miles, round trip, in well under a day.

Cell phone coverage? The Ingalls wrote letters as often as they could, but mail was sparse, hard to come by, and hard to get to the people who wanted it.

And when wolves howled for us, we were awed–rather than terrified–because we had the safety of our tents, our vehicles, and park rangers within shouting distance.

We talk about the pioneer experience in terms we understand, but I don’t think we twenty-first century people really get the full magnitude of the conveniences we enjoy until we see these spaces, and face our own ironies.

Still, I think I’ll probably ask for an electric campsite the next time I go.

It will be easier to plug in the coffeemaker.

Laurapalooza Trip Day 1

This video covers Day 1 of my Laurapalooza Trip – July 13, 2010. It covers Decorah, Iowa, the owner of Hart’s Tea and Tarts tea shop, Burr Oak, Iowa, Ferneva Brimacomb (former director of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum in Burr Oak), and Spring Valley, Minnesota.

Read my And One More On the Way post about Decorah here:

http://beyondlittlehouse.com/2010/06/20/one-more-decorah-iowa

Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum in Burr Oak, Iowa

http://www.lauraingallswilder.us

Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Spring Valley, Minnesota

http://www.springvalleymnmuseum.org

Sarah S. Uthoff blogs at TrundleBed Tales; look for her on Twitter and YouTube.

Lake Pepin Beach

A women’s club named the Farmgirls has decided to do a Laura trip/service project. It started with one chapter, but grew to include members from multiple groups. They are doing a link of the entire Laura homesite  loop, but they aren’t just visiting the Laura sites. Instead they are doing a volunteer  project to help the organization at each one. Some people are making the entire loop. Others are just going to visit a few of the stops.

They are keeping a blog of their experiences here:

http://farmgirlsontheloose.blogspot.com

Read news stories below -

Walnut Grove Stop:

http://marshallindependent.com/page/content.detail/id/517220.html?nav=5015

De Smet Stop:

http://www.argusleader.com/article/20100608/COLUMNISTS0113/6080304/Callison-Farmgirls-on-the-Loose-

Sarah S. Uthoff,  http://www.trundlebedtales.com

Read my blog: http://trundlebedtales.wordpress.com

And look for me as TrundlebedTales on Twitter and YouTube

Laura Ingalls Wilder: Journey of a Pioneer Family at Los Rios Rancho in Oak Glen, California. May 30-31, 10 am – 4 pm. Features an exhibit on loan from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum in Mansfield, Missouri, as well as wagon rides, butter churning, and pioneer crafts and games.

Prairie Days at the Little House on the Prairie homesite in Wayside, Kansas.  June 13, 10 am – 3 pm. Music, food, wagon rides, exhibitors, and more.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Days at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum in Burr Oak, Iowa. June 27,-28.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Days at Old World Wisconsin in Eagle, Wisconsin. July 25-26, 10 am – 5 pm. Watch this video for more details.

If you plan to attend any of these events and would like to write up your experience afterward for this blog, please contact us at beyondlittlehouse @ gmail.com. Thank you!

So with my current lack of female interest in the Little House series on the female side of my family, I was especially gratified to come across this story about a mother and her sons traveling to Pepin, Walnut Grove, De Smet — and even Burr Oak. She weaves in boy-only commentary throughout her travelogue, which makes for an interesting twist.

The photo slideshow to the story is here on the website for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, which is where the story first appeared this past weekend. The print version will appear online tomorrow.

Hmmm, maybe I’ll ask my daughter to read this story?