Channeling Laura, New Challenge

Every time I see the name of this blog it brings to mind a classic childhood book: Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This is the first of the Little House series and it was my favorite by far. No endless prairies here, just a hand-hewn log cabin in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Pig butchering, fiddle playing by the hearth, stories of frightening black panthers... Laura's life seemed exciting yet simple, difficult yet fun.

And how easy it was to relate to Laura! Unlike her older sister, Mary, Laura wanted to be outside, following her Pa around the woods. She had a tough time sitting still for needle point or other "girl" tasks. I could see her in my mind, jumping from one freshly cut pine stump to another with her bonnet falling down her back, her braids coming apart."I wish I lived in the Olden Days," I would tell myself before running outside to make maple taffy in snow or whittling down a pointy stick.

In the clichéd twenty-first century way, I channel the nineteenth century by tending my little garden and trying to make homemade Christmas presents. Our house isn't made out of hand-hewn logs we felled ourselves, but it is a little house that certainly has its own type of hand-built "charm." And our big woods maybe aren't quite as big as pioneer-times Wisconsin, but we do have 2,000 acres of University Forest as our backyard.

I'd like to think that Laura would approve. After all, she wasn't a perfect nineteenth century girl either.

A little garden made a little garlic.


-------------------------

And what about this New Challenge?
I'm thinking of trying to swim, boat, or ski on every lake in Maine. A pretty cool life goal, but I'm thinking it might be a bit unrealistic. It really depends on how one counts the lakes. According to maine.gov, we have over 6,000 lakes and ponds. That number decreases to about 2,222 if you only count named lakes over 10 acres. If I go with that number it means that I'll finish in about 40 years if I hit a new one every week. Hmmm...