Status Updates From Prairie Fires: The American...

She always remembered that place, that moment, “a wild, beautiful little body of water, a resting place for the wild water birds of all kinds, many varieties of ducks, wild geese, swans, and pelicans.”

“ Life in frontier times was a perpetual hard winter. There was joy—riding ponies, singing hymns, eating Christmas candy—but it was fleeting. There was heroism, but it was the heroism of daily perseverance, the unprized tenacity of unending labor. It was the heroism of chores, repetitive tasks defined by drudgery. Cooking and eating the same fried potatoes, day in and day out. Washing dishes in dirty water.” Reallife

“Ninety-one percent of farmers are dependent on multiple sources of “off farm” income, just as Laura Ingalls Wilder was, and her father before her.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/op...

Interesting in light of the WWOOF trend, a touristic taste of the hard life, “immediate gratification,” shallow, dip in and dip out.