One of my favorite things about Laura Ingalls Wilder’s writing is her eye for detail. I credit Laura (and Rose) with teaching me how to view the world through a cultural historian’s eye.

That said, how could I possibly resist our winning haiku?

Each meal coarse brown bread
Ma’s surprise-codfish gravy
You can’t beat the Scotch!

Thanks to all who entered, and congratulations, Kelly Kathleen Ferguson, winner of a copy of the paperback of The Heroine’s Bookshelf: Life Lessons, from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder.

May your winter be short and may the only whirr of the coffee grinder be one that’s preparing a holiday indulgence!

~Erin Blakemore

To kick off the holidays in wintry style, we thought we’d try something a tiny bit different this time … a haiku contest to accompany a giveaway of the book.

Here are the rules:

1. Write a haiku about The Long Winter
2. Post it here in the comments

That’s it! You have until the end of the day on Monday, December 12. Erin and I will choose our favorite and bestow the winner with a copy of The Heroine’s Bookshelf, which features a chapter on The Long Winter and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Happy writing!

Laura woke up suddenly. She heard singing and a queer slapping sound.

“Oh, I am as happy as a big sunflower (Slap! Slap!)
That nods and bends in the breezes, Oh! (Slap! Slap!)
And my heart (Slap!) is as light (Slap!) as the wind that blows (Slap! Slap!)
The leaves from off the treeses, Oh! (Slap! SLAP!)

Pa was singing his trouble song and slapping his arms on his chest.

Laura’s nose was cold. Only her nose was outside the quilts that she was huddled under. She put out her whole head and then she knew why Pa was slapping himself. He was trying to warm his hands.

He had kindled the fire. It was roaring in the stove, but the air was freezing cold. Ice crackled on the quilt where leaking rain had fallen. Winds howled around the shanty and from the roof and all the walls came a sound of scouring.

Carrie sleepily asked, “What is it?”

“It’s a blizzard,” Laura told her. “You and Mary stay under the covers.”

Careful not to let the cold get under the quilts, she crawled out of the warm bed. Her teeth chattered while she pulled on her clothes. Ma was dressing, too, beyond the curtain, but they were both too cold to say anything.

They met at the stove where the fire was blazing furiously without warming the air at all. The window was a white blur of madly swirling snow. Snow had blown under the door and across the floor and every nail in the walls was white with frost.

Pa had gone to the stable. Laura was glad that they had so many haystacks in a row between the stable and the shanty. Going from haystack to haystack, Pa would not get lost.

“A b-b-b-b-blizzard!” Ma chattered. “In Oc-October I n-n-never heard of…”

I was thinking about all of the stories that Laura tells throughout the entire series. Some are happy stories and some are sad. Most of the time the stories have a happy ending or at least a lesson to be learned and that’s what I’ve been dwelling on lately.

There are so many chapters or multiple chapters that tell a particular story with a happy ending. I guess if I have to pick one that really stands out, for me it would be towards the end of On The Banks of Plum Creek. You all know the one, right?

A three-day blizzard has just ended and Pa decides to head to town. Ma voices her concern and urges him not to go. Something very unlike Ma, in my opinion. Pa tells her not to worry and heads off to town. The hours tick by slowly until Laura notices that sky has changed. Indeed, a blizzard is coming. A blizzard that goes on until the fourth day when the wind finally calms and the snow stops.

At some point in my life I have come to realize that the scene that I had once looked at as a daughter, I had now begun to see as a wife. Can you imagine the worry and dread that Ma felt for over three days? Where was her husband? She had that bad feeling about the short trip to town in the first place. She probably knew that he would try to make it home to his family before the blizzard hit. And she knew that he was out there. Somewhere. I’m sure she wondered whether she would see him again.

Ma kept that lantern in the window and she waited and waited. What a happy ending when Pa dug his way out of the creek bank so close to home and walked through the door!

I could go on and on, but I wonder…what is one of your favorite happy ending scene from the Little House books?

Please share in the comments below!

Why was the winter so long?  And do we still have long winters in the same pattern that the old Indian described?

Kathrine

Dear Kathrine:

This question is best answered by Barbara Mayes Boustead in this episode of Trundlebed Tales radio, a radio show by Sarah S. Uthoff. Barb works for the National Weather Service and was a presenter at last summer’s LauraPalooza, where her topic was the real-life weather of that winter 1880-1881. She also maintains the blog “Wilder Weather.”

How NASA sees the storm, via satellite

While the snow is minimal here in what could easily be blizzard country, I’m hearing reports from all over the country about record snowfall and cold temps in what is reported to be the largest storm seen in the US in 50 years. I’m also coming across more than a few Long Winter references — and not just from Little House fans!

What’s the weather like where you’re at? Have you thought about grinding wheat or twisting hay yet? Share in the comments and tell us what you’re seeing.

Yep, we’re wheat farmers around here.