"THE LONG WINTER"

:DittoS:

I'm late too Sabrina---guess I didnt post much a few months ago. The Long Winter is a book I used to read almost every summer. I guess to keep "cool ". LOL
This is my favorite of them all. It just shows the good that comes from working together and it displayed the beginning of Manly and Laura's relationship. I've read up on this winter (I think 1869-70) it was many months of blizzards and very little food. BUT no one died. I can imagine how nice it must have been to see springtime!

Isn't it amazing how no one died during the long Winter and no one in the Ingalls family even got sick? I think the severe cold must have frozen all the germs! But... Carrie did seem to become even more fragile as a result. With her head aches and weakness afterward, I wonder if she was anemic.

I sure would like to know how the Boasts made it through in their claim shanty....

I remember the first time I read this book I was so afraid that Carrie was going to die!

I'm currently reading this book and have about a fourth of the book to go yet.

I like Laura and Pa's discussion about the muskrat on page thirteen (Make Hay While the Sun Shines). It's a very interesting and though provoking conversation.

I always feel so sorry for Almanzo when Lady gets away from Mr. Foster. I think it's quite amazing that the townspeople didn't seem to become extremely angry with Mr. Foster. If that would've happened today, there would've been some fireworks!

I'll comment more when I finish reading the book. :)

Prairie Dweller wrote:

I always feel so sorry for Almanzo when Lady gets away from Mr. Foster. I think it's quite amazing that the townspeople didn't seem to become extremely angry with Mr. Foster. If that would've happened today, there would've been some fireworks!

Same here! I wonder if they did get angrier then Laura let on. Maybe Laura or her publishers didn't think it would be appropriate... ??? But then, she has other "angry" scenes in the book so... I don't know. Foster did butcher his cow later though. Maybe he told them he would do so that same day and that smoothed things over with all the men. Wouldn't you love to be able to ask Laura such questions?

lol Yes, I would!

I finished reading the book last night.

I love the suspense of Almanzo and Cap's trip. Even though I've read the book multiple times, it's still very exciting.

There are several things in this book that I really would like to see. One being the button candle and the other being the twists of hay. I don't fully understand the button candle.

I also like how ingenious Ma is when it comes to baking with very little of the correct ingredients.

I also have a question. Laura and Almanzo are really ten years apart, but by the end of this book Laura is fourteen and Almanzo is nineteen. Does anyone know why Laura changed the age gap between them?

Okie-dokie, thanks! I thought that it'd probably have something to do with it not going over well with the parents, but I wasn't certain. Thanks! :)

I am terrible with remembering numbers but it seems to me that I have read a few different age difference quotes concerning L&A. I finally gave up trying to figure it out!

I was very disapointed that the DeSmet Little House gift shop was out of hay twists. They might have some now though. I really wanted to feel one and buy one for our history center.

I saw detailed directions for making the button light but I can't remember where. You might find an image if you Google it.

I think the portrayal of absolute dispair of the Ingalls family was wonderful in this book .When Laura and Carrie have to get home from school due to the blizzard i found it disturbing that when they did finally arrive home Pa was just leaving to go get them ,,,,,would have thought as soon as sky changed color he would have figured they could be in some trouble and needed him ....Just my thoughts

Hmmm... That never occurred to me. I guess in my mind, the fact is firmly established that Pa can do no wrong! Of course he could, though. Some would call him irresponsible for dragging his family all over the country, making them live in a dug out, etc. but... Pa is my hero so I know he must have had his reasons. How's that sound?

:kitty:

I've been reading this one for a couple days and so far I like it.

Oh good! I'm glad you like it. Some would say it gets dreary but I find it inspirational.

I'm reading this book and I'm really enjoying it. I think it's really cool how they were able to survive such a hard winter

I like to read it in the Winter. It makes any Winter (other than theirs) seem easy!

Picture of a train stuck in the snow in southern Minnesota on March 29, 1881. The Ingalls' Christmas package and mail would've been stuck on this train or a train similar to this one.......can you imagine digging it out of the snow???

I love it! That picture really makes it real doesn't it?

Yikes! No, I can't! That's really quite amazing! My area got over one hundred inches of snow last winter, but it's nothing compared to that picture!

Thanks Rhonda ...where we live it has never snowed so this picture helps me related much better.....one day we hope to travel a bit and see snow

bethandmanly:

Your review of the Long Winter was wonderful! I thought this book depicted prarie life like I never had seen it in the other books. I learned a lot about the effects of nature just by her descriptions of the thick-walled muskrat homes or when Pa couldn't even find one goose or duck on the lake. What seems to have drawn me in more to this book is when I constantly wondered if DeSmet will actually make it through that winter and I'm glad they did! I read somewhere that the because of Laura's precise weather-related accounts of the Long Winter, her book has been used as a resource in a college course on Early American history.

my old teacher used to read the entire series to us in the third grade but only i have recently read it for myself. I keep wondering what phenomon in nature would cause a winter like that since Man didn't do it and there were no powerful volcanic eruption around that time

Well, that's true, but judging by the horrible winter we had in New England this year, weather can be a freaky thing. We set a new record for snowfall in January. I don't remember it being as cold this year as it has been in past years. Then this month we got hit with a load of rain, which on an already soaked ground was not good. Today it's going to hit 60 and tomorrow it will go past that.

Yep. It's like long hard winters are here to stay. In my country, Argentina and in Europe too, we are experiencign really hard winters.Summers are not so fierce lately. Maybe we have one or two days of extreme heat but no more than that. Winters are hard and c-c-cold in my cuntry the EEUU and Europe. It happens time to time.

Vanesa.