My Little House on The Prairie

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I always liked to think all people should have lived just like the Wilder Family. Did you know that Laura Ingals' lived a short way from where I live. DeSmet, So. Dak. is about 40 miles from my house.

After my parents passed away, I had so many of the things I had grown up with, momentos, some large some small. I lived in a large mobile home but there still wasn't room for all the things I dearly loved. My brass bed, my old trunk, Ma's old sewing machine, and here dishes and so much more. I wanted a playhouse for the grandkids and so we, my other half, and I started to build a small---------------play house for the kids. We run across some already made roof truses, so we built the play house the size they were. As it began to take shape, I wondered if everyone would think me a bit crazy, but I thought how wonderful it would be to make the playhouse big enough for the things of Ma's. I begged for an extra foot here and another 2 feet there, until the playhouse was big enough for a kitchen with cook stove and table and hoosier cabinet. Then a bedroom was added to one side to accomodate my brass bed. I and my oldest daughter, who is as sentimental as I, helped me wall paper and paint until it turned into a neighborhood showplace. The next winter we built some furniture for the (parlor) which hadn't even been built yet, but I knew if it was cute enough and got enough attention, I could get handy Ken to build me a parlor onto the Little House.

The Little House, as we call it now, is the size of a claim shanty. It has a kitchen with loft, a bedroom and a wonderful parlor complete with a fireplace. There is no electricity, no water unless you haul it in a pail, no telephone, no television and it is heated with the cook stove and the fire place. I have found and made clothes for the big girls to dress up in. They all think it is so wonderful to dream in. It is not really a play house anymore it is a dream house. My kids and their families have all stayed over the weekend in the Little House and showed their children just how it was to live on the prairie. It is very quiet, like stepping back in time to a quiet peaceful time. It is about 50 feet from my kitchen window and I can sometimes almost see Ma sitting on the porch rocking and crocheting.

Would you like to take a peak inside?
Please, come on in.

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