Day 12: The Long Winter

Amanda insisted that we go to the Ingalls' Homestead today. After all we are only about 90 miles from De Smet... I told her that it better be awesome, and it was. The kids had a blast. We got some discounted tickets on Groupon which made it even better. One of the best parts was that they encouraged touching, climbing, and exploring. There were several demonstrations going on at the homestead. Right behind the visitor's center was a woman making soap with lye and lard.

There was also a merry-go-round and see-saw.

The tour was self guided. While Sophie was a little disappointed that it wasn't the original house, we saw a reproduction of a sod house and a prairie shanty.

The next structure was a reproduction of the hay roof barn that Pa built on the homestead. If you aren't familiar Laura Ingalls Wilder was an American author who wrote several memoirs about the life of her family as they traveled westward and settled in the Dakota territory. The TV show "Little House on the Prairie is based on her books.

We also got to see a reproduction of the house that Pa built for Ma.

I tried my hand at the lasso, but it didn't turn nearly as well as it looks like it might have...

One of the kids' favorite parts was riding the cart and pony...

Also, the covered wagon ride to the school house.

At the school house we got a lesson on how one room school houses functioned and saw first hand a variety of desks and school implements. Some were over 100 years old! Sophie, David, James, and, Michael all got to participate as characters in the schoolhouse story.

After a visit to the school house we came back to the farm and got to experiment with some of the equipment that pioneers used. The kids shucked corn and made corn cob "babies" and "super heroes," and used a rope twister to make their own rope from bailing twine.

We also visited West Bethany Lutheran Church, which had been moved to the Ingalls Homestead.

On the way home we stopped at a Dairy Queen for a late lunch. That was an entertaining experience. It looked like there was not a single employee in the place over the age of 14 and none of them were particularly interested in making food or serving customers. There was, however, no shortage of workplace drama while we waited for our meal. Almost an hour later we left for Sioux Falls and our campsite.