Laura Ingalls Wilder's Home

I love the Little House on The Prairie television series. I say love, because I still watch it. I turn it on when I am on the walk -fit or other machines doing my exercise.
We had a chance to see the house where Laura and Almanzo lived and raised Rose, their daughter. They had a son that died at 12 days old and never had any other children.
Laura Ingalls Wilder moved from Minnesota when her daughter Rose was 7yrs. of age after a friend brought back a huge, red tasty apple from a visit to MO. The Wilders saw a vision of having an apple orchard of their own and moved there in 1894. In Sept. of that year they purchased Rocky Ridge Farm.
Below is the sign that greets visitors to the house and museum. No pictures were allowed in any of the buildings. To my regret, I can't share pictures of the furnishings that were made by Almanzo, or the pretty, delicate china and tea sets that Laura had.
The sign below explains the history. The first is the front of the sign and the 2nd is the back side.

This is the front of the house which was added years later.

The small, low part of the house on the left is the one room they built and lived in for some time before they added on. It was the kitchen and bedroom all in one.

Laura was only 4' 11" tall and Almanzo only 5' 2'' so the counters in the kitchen were very low.

The had quite a bit of land for their orchards.

Rose grew up to be a published author and world traveler. She was awarded $10,000 for a piece she wrote and decided to buy her parents a new home about 1/4 mile from the Rocky Ridge homestead. This was a Sears catalog home. Yes, Sears and Montgomery Wards had homes you could purchase from their catalog. Isn't that funny. She paid $1,200 for it and then added upgrades for a grand total of $1,500.

This house had 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room and dining room. It also had closets that no other house in the area had. People came to visit just to see the closets.

Rose encouraged her mother (Laura) to write about her life. This is where Laura wrote her first book, "Little House In The Big Woods." The rest is history.

See plaque below:

This is the front of that house.

The back view.

With all the modern conveniences that this house had, the Wilders were not comfortable living there and after a few years they returned to Rocky Ridge.

We were able to see a film where she was promoting her book and heard her voice. We saw so many interesting things that we could not photograph. We thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you're having a good week.

Trip to Missouri

Back from a little R & R.

Our first stop on our journey was to Sikeston, MO. We wanted to arrive there at dinner time to eat at Lambert's Cafe. If you have never heard of this crazy, funny, great food restaurant--you will have to research it. It's been around since 1942. They have two locations in MO and one in Foley, AL. The web site is on the sign below.

As odd as it may sound, they throw the wonderful, hot rolls at you. It is an unusual dining experience, yet one of the funniest and best ones we've ever had.

It's so busy, we were told it would be a 2 hour wait. No problem, we checked into our hotel and did a little shopping. Jim is handing us our number in the wait line.

WE came back just as the number ahead of us was being called over the loud speaker outside--150---We couldn't believe our ears, as we were 151. We hustled in just in time.

As I was walking to our table a roll was thrown my way. You can see me catching it in the left corner of pic.
They toss them clear across the room. They are wearing food service gloves, of course. Yes, a few do hit the floor, but surprisingly most people catch them.

It's one hopping place.

They have so many workers doing so many different tasks.

Oh, look there goes another roll in mid air.

This is the little cart that travels up and down the isles.

Here's the four of us stuffing ourselves with all the down home cooking! They bring super-sized mugs and you never need a refill.

The large yeast rolls are out of this world!

Look at the size of this girl's salad and that slab of ribs on her mother's plate. The meals are so large they are hard for one person to consume. We gave it a good shot though. lol You could have rolled us out of there, we were so stuffed.

There is a waiter with sorghum going around at all times to drizzle on your rolls or you can have honey or jelly.

They also came around with "free sides", such as fried potatoes, okra, macaroni and black -eyed peas. They dish them out of the pans they were just cooked in.

I had a picture of them doing it but it was out of sequence when I downloaded -and as you know we can't move the pics anymore.

They use old appliances as part of the decor.

Outside is this Amish buggy.

Well, our next stop is the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead, where all the Little House on the Prairie books were written. It was a highlight of the trip for me. I still watch the reruns.
We made these stops as we headed to Branson . I'll post them in the near future.

Hope your week is off to a great start!

Welcome To Our Home

We love to decorate for the seasons. The neighbors love to see what is going up next. lol We are at the very entrance to our neighborhood and the first house they see when they enter. Hubby was busy replacing the summer flowers with Mums and putting out the Fall decorations.

Everything looks so bare when we start the changeover. He's digging a hole for the new Mums. He loves getting out and playing in the dirt, I mean planting in the dirt.

The Fall door decorations.

A Fall flag with a metal pumpkin hanging on a little hook with a Welcome sign from Cracker Barrel. Oh look, there's one of the Mums he just planted.

Our temperatures are very mild till Jan. so we should enjoy the Mums for several months.

Hubby stopped and asked neighbor that had corn if they wanted all their corn stalks. They were more than happy to get rid of a few, so behind the little scarecrow they went.

A Fall arrangement at the front door.

A tiered pumpkin between the garage doors. He's lighted for the nighttime.

I found the rocking chair covers at Cracker Barrel and thought they were so cute.

These little guys I painted years ago. Whoops, I should have washed the stand they are on. Excuse me, I'll be right back.

A pumpkin welcome mat awaits your visit. Come on in and sip some cider and have a piece of pumpkin pie. We'll get to know each other a little better.

I'll be taking a little blogging break. When I get back we'll wander around on the inside, ok?

Till then take care!

Happy Fall Y'all

It's that time of the year! The leaves are turning, some are falling, the air is crisper at night and it's time to decorate for Fall.
There's a longer window of time for your decor to stay out , so it makes it soooo worth while to pull out the tubs and start the process. Really, these decorations are up longer than Christmas. I have so many more at Christmas to get out, for a shorter time span.
I mentioned last year that I try to buy colored tubs for each occasion. It makes it easier for me to find my things. I keep them in the garage and pull them down but only bring in one at a time to avoid too much clutter, in case I get called away to something else. You know how that goes. lol
I put a piece of paper in each tub to let me know which room the items go to.

I 'll show you the kitchen in this post and hope I don't bore you with too many pictures. This is a shot from the Family Room into the kitchen.

This is a centerpiece on our kitchen island. Hubby got into the act again, which is fine with me, and made this arrangement. Since he isn't working now, he wants to get into the hubbub of things.

This sets on the pass-through adjoining the family room. I'll same that room for another day.

I did little groupings around the kitchen counters for eye appeal. There's so much white in the kitchen, it brings in color, as well.

There are so many Fall plates and items to bring in the warmth of Fall.

A Lazy Susan that I painted years ago. The children are doing different chores with apples.

It's the time for apple picking, Carmel apples and apple cider. I love 'em all!

This is one of the kitchen chargers, also used on the tablescape.

I put my rooster plates on a small wall as you enter from the garage. They'll find a new home, again when the Christmas plates come out of hiding.

The Fall tablescape.

This little guy sets on my windowsill. Always greets me with this smile in the mornings.

Mickey is always ready to make my cooking a little more pleasant, smiling at me from the stove top.
I found him last year at Disneyland. He was begging for someone to give him a real home. I couldn't resist that face.

How's all your decorating going? A few more days and it's officially Fall 'yall.

Can't wait to see all your beautiful things.

Thanks for all your visits and comments.

The Big Catch

This is a first for Jonas, our grandson. He got to go fishing with Papa while us girls went to garage sales. He just turned three and didn't really know what he was getting himself into.
Papa had a little pole, just his size.

Jonas had no qualms about picking up worms for his bait.
He sat on the bank and watched his bobber go up an down. He wasn't too happy with that after watching Papa with a larger rod that was being reeled in. He wanted to do the act of reeling instead of just sitting.

Snack Time! Jonas started eating his snack and said "Papa, the ducks are coming to visit me"! Little did he know they were after his food.

Papa told him, "They want your food, Jonas. Give them some". He did and the black one with the red on his head tried to take a little finger with it.
He was fine and didn't even cry after getting nipped at.

With one little mishap of Jonas falling in the water, all in all, it was a good day. He caught the big one. lol

See the little Blue Gill he's holding up.

Well, time to get back to fishing and hope for the "BIG ONE" next time. Good Job Jonas!

I hope you all had a great weekend and have a prosperous week! Thanks for "bobbing" over.