Guest post by Barb Mayes Boustead Flooding in Yankton, South Dakota, Spring 1881 Spring is here! Those of us who live on the Plains know the sense of relief all too well, how feeling mild temperatures and seeing green growth…

Guest post by Karen Witham In which our hero and his brave sidekick set out in search of lifesaving wheat… The chapter opens: “In the third night of that storm a stillness woke Almanzo.” There is then a rather touching…

Guest post by Jennye Woolf It is funny that this chapter is titled “Breathing Spell” since the entire chapter seems as though people are holding their breath waiting for the next shoe to drop. It starts off still but so…

Guest post by Karen Witham Coffee grinder This remarkably short chapter (in my Harper Trophy 1971 paperback, it’s three pages) is all about food, or really, the lack thereof. It opens with the family eating the last of the potatoes.…

Guest post by Barbara Mayes Boustead The chapter begins on a hopeful note, on a day full of sunshine.  After the day’s chores, Pa heads across the street to hear the news.  He returns with 4 pounds of ox meat…

Guest post by Sommer Sorenson We open this chapter with Pa busily working to keep his family warm. His brilliant idea for hay sticks has a price… they must continually be keeping it in supply and so when Pa is…

Guest post by Dr. Laura McLemore Céad míle fáilte I have to tell you people that it is very difficult to write about blizzards as I am sitting only a few hundred feet from the Alabama coastline.  And before I…