Earth Day and Arbor Day

This month saw both Earth Day and Arbor Day. I celebrated Earth Day in my usual way, by forgetting to wear my official Earth Day T-shirt….again. I also got a free tree to plant from the National Mississippi River Museum, but it’s still in a vase on the kitchen table.

Arbor Day is much more important to me. One of my favorite gifts to send people is a certificate from the National Arbor Day Organization that trees have been planted in their honor. It also played an important role in many one-room schools. There were entire books (I have several) put out by some of the states each year on how to properly celebrate Arbor Day in your school with informative lessons, poetry, and photos. Iowa’s state quarter features a slightly modified image of Grant Wood’s painting “Arbor Day.” Find out more about it, here http://www.usmint.gov/kids/coinNews/50sq/2004/ia.cfm Be sure to check out the great coloring page.

The idea of Arbor Day started in Nebraska with Sterling Morton. His house and grounds are preserved and the National Arbor Day headquarters is nearby in another of his former properties. My family used to make it part of any trip west to stop by Nebraska City (south of Omaha) and tour the house. It has a Tiffany Glass skylight and a gorgeous rose garden. Two of Morton’s sons started very successful businesses, Morton Salt and Redwing Cornstarch. One of them endowed an Arboretum in Chicago, another place to stop and think about Arbor Day.

 Sarah S. Uthoff 

Articles, Articles, Articles

We have a selection of new Laura Ingalls Wilder articles today. If you can’t get the links to work, click on what you can link and copy and paste the rest of the URL.

First up, we have a story on CNN about the 75th Anniversary of “Little House in the Big Woods.”

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/04/27/littlehouse.anniversary.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Second, here’s an article I found via our friends at the Ingalls Homestead website. http://www.homeandawaymagazine.com/content.cfm?a=311

Third, here’s an article about me with a full color photo, from the Kalona News.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18259431&BRD=1140&PAG=461&dept_id=151360&rfi=6

Sarah S. Uthoff

Wilder Bus Trip – Part 2

I just heard today they definitely have enough people to go. If you are interested, contact them very soon.

Sarah Uthoff

Bus Trip to Malone (Burke), New York

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Burr Oak is sponsoring a bus trip to Malone for a special event September 22nd in honor of Almanzo’s 150th birthday. “Join us for a trip into our pioneering past to visit the Almanzo Wilder Museum and Homestead in Malone, NY September 19-25, 2007 during the spectacular fall foliage display….We will also make stops at The Market Barn (60 shops with antiques and Adirondack collectibles) in Malone; The Von Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, VT including a horse drawn wagon ride; and Danbury, CT to drive by and briefly stop at 23 King Street, the former residence of Laura’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane.”

I was going to go out for this event anyway and I was delighted when I found out about this bus trip. I think it will be a great way to see Malone for the first time. Please come join us. You can e-mail me or contact the museum directly for more information.

Sarah Uthoff

Website Update and Photo of the Fortnight

I just uploaded my first major revision of the website. I’ve added five new pages. The one I’m most excited about is Photo of the Fortnight. Every two weeks I’m going to put up a new photo from my collection. I hope you enjoy it. First up is a shot of Rocky Ridge Farmhouse from a different angle (most photos show it from the front). I’m really excited about this feature and I hope you enjoy it. I chose to put it in as PDF, but you can find the new link every two weeks right here http://www.trundlebedtales.com/page11.html on the Photo of the Fortnight webpage.

Sarah Uthoff

Pronouncing Names Correctly

Everybody likes you to get there name right. (FYI you say the U in Uthoff, you don’t pronounce it.) Many people get hung up, saying Al-MON-zo, instead of Al-MAN-zo for Laura Ingalls Wilder’s husband. For a chance to hear authors say their own names. Look at this website that was recently recommended on LM_Net.

http://www.teachingbooks.net/pronunciations.cgi

Sarah Uthoff

Animal Update

Awhile back I posted about our bottle lambs. We had five for a little while, but over the last few weeks we lost two of them. You can battle death hand to hand on a farm, but you don’t always win. The ewe lamb went a girl who wants to eventually show sheep in 4-H. The two boys went to a farm that usually does farm tours for local schools. They should get a lot of love there, but it was hard to say goodbye to them yesterday. My grandmother points out that we still have 4 ewes to go, so we might have some bottle lambs yet, especially because it’s supposed to drop below freezing tomorrow night. Last year we kept our one bottle lamb well into the summer. Bobbolink got to the point where he would bite through any nipple we gave him, so I had to teach him to drink out of a bucket. It’s harder than it sounds. Lambs have the instinct that they have to but their mother to get her to let down milk. It makes for some interesting feedings.

We also had our first calf born on Saturday. We have Herefords and they look adorable as baby calves. It was touch and go for a little bit, but she had it on her own and it’s been up and running around.