Old Sturbridge Village...Laura would have loved it!

After a particularly cruel and snowy winter, it is with great joy that I announce:

Spring has sprung in New England!

Once again, Springtime in New England means a heraldry of birds chirping, squirrels skittering, leaves sprouting, lupine leaping, and lambs...the lambs are, well, "baa-ahh"ing.  With a Central Massachusetts accent, no less!

That is to say, no Spring in this part of the country would be complete without the arrival of the lambs at Old Sturbridge Village...

...And what better way to celebrate the coming of Spring and the arrival of the lambs than with a visit from Laura?  Animals held a special place in Laura's heart throughout her life.  From "going for the cow" in Burr Oak, to raising chickens at Rocky Ridge...from riding bareback over the Dakota prairie with cousin Lena or learning to ride sidesaddle on her pony, Trixy, Laura's life is filled with stories of animals and all their contributions to her health and well-being.  Laura was known as a woman whose fondness for animals extended to feeding the turtles which congregated at the back steps of her Ozark home and teaching daughter Rose to tame the birds which nested among the trees of their dooryard.

And then there were the sheep!  Both Manly and Laura thought sheep were a wise investment, and a memorable section of The First Four Years declares the purchase of a flock (in partnership with cousin Peter) which turned a profit just in the sale of the first year's shearing as one of the few successes the Wilders would enjoy during their early married life.  These sweetest (if not necessarily smartest) of all creatures were a regular feature of the farm, and in my pursuit of understanding the woman behind the novels, I take pleasure in knowing  I have a built-in-excuse to exclaim over the supreme cuteness of each Spring's newest ewes and rams.

And wouldn't you know?  When "Laura" made a couple of visits to the Village this Spring, one of her intentions was to visit the wooly little bundles at the Freeman Farm.  Yet, it would seem that on the first visit, 9 April, the Girl Scouts were visiting, too, and they just had to meet Laura...So, rather than greet the new lambs, she had a nice, long visit with the Girl Scouts.  Everyone learned a few things about each other's favorite famous, and sometimes not-so-famous, American women, and Laura's new friends  learned that some Ingalls cousins and ancestors had their share of fame, too.

Lambs grow up quickly, and Laura did not want to miss them in all their wobbly cuteness, so she scheduled another journey.  This time, she opted for a quiet Tuesday morning, the 3rd day of May.  Quiet?  Well, that's what she expected, but...this time the Homeschool Families were visiting too!  And they, too, just had to meet Laura!  After a little while, everyone was talking about traveling and moving and packing and saying goodbye to old friends in old places only to make new friends in new places.  There was lots of lively conversation and everyone tried to guess what crazy contraptions and obsolete oddities Laura had brought along in her prairie schooner.  Afterward, lots of hungry travelers found refreshment in some of Mrs. Wilder's very own special recipe gingerbread--including Laura herself--but still, no lambs!

"This simply will not do!" Laura thought to herself.  She must find another excuse to make the long journey to Sturbridge Village before those lambs were grown!


Then, a bulletin was spotted: Wool Days, 28-29 May.  This was a day not to be missed!  Laura had often heard stories of the fun Manly and his brother Royal would have at shearing-time.  Manly--that is, Mr. Wilder, you know--had grown up on a sizable farm far up North in New York, where his father raised horses and lots of sheep.  As a boy, Manly, who was known as "Mannie" back then, learned to care for the sheep and prepare them for a shearing long before he was allowed to care for a single horse.



Mother Wilder and Mannie's sisters would prepare the shorn wool and spin thread from it.  Then Mother Wilder would arrange it on her big loom and weave cloth for the family's clothing.  Wool Days at Sturbridge Village would be a celebration of all the parts of raising, and tending sheep.



This would be a celebration which no animal lover could miss.  But the lambs by now are too grown up.  They are so big it is difficult to distinguish the lambs of the spring from last year's.  But the celebration would still have a lot of interesting sights, and shearing was only the beginning.

More exciting to Laura was the demonstration of sheep herding with Border Collies.  Those beautiful dogs with the piercing eyes made such a lovely sight, and they worked so hard!  It would almost make up for missing the lambs...especially when she heard their trainer call out to the dogs.  There was such a familiar ring to their names: Dottie, Brittany, Bonnie, Nellie and...Bessie!

The demonstration was fascinating, and the dogs were almost as adorable as the newborn lambs which have eluded Laura all this spring.  Yet, Laura still managed to enjoy her visit, and this time she learned a great deal more than she expected about how to make an animal--even one that seems like an ordinary pet--work for its keep.  The farmer is also the trainer, and his Border Collies are no slack-jawed lie-abouts.  Dottie is a lightning-fast Shedder.  She separates the sheep into groups by numbers, such as "two in the pen and four to the gate."  Bonnie is a small, very spry, but sometimes unruly young dog; she is still considered to be in training.  Brittany is a beautiful roan color, and at 11 can pierce your skin with a steady gaze.  At 13, Bessie is getting tired and has slowed down a bit, but still loves to play with her pal Nellie, a 12-year-old high jumper!  Watching the dogs steer sheep, goats, and ducks all over the pasture was exhausting, but vastly entertaining.  And that made up just a tiny bit for the loss of seeing the lambs.

So, although it may be that Laura will have to wait until next Spring to greet any more new lambs, it can rightfully be said in this situation that Ma's words ring true:  "There is no great loss without some small gain."