Lifestyle on the prairie for early Nebraska settlers often integrated dwelling in a sod residence, frequently named a “soddie.”
Sod houses were employed through the prairie states due to the fact trees were scarce unless you have been near to a river. These imaginative settlers used the provides at hand to develop a restricted property that would defend them in wintertime and summertime. The earth and the prosperous prairie grass the place the buffalo had lately roamed had been plentiful so the pioneers produced sod residences.
The 1st action was to obvious the grass exactly where the property would sit. This would help keep snakes, insects and mice out of the home. Assist, but they nevertheless manufactured it in.
Some cedar would be necessary over and under home windows. The prairie sod (the best layer of the ground which integrated the roots, the grass and the soil they grew in) was cut with a special plow known as a slicing plow. This sharp plow was required simply because the prairie sod had been undisturbed for generations and was quite thick and restricted. They could only cut what they would use that day due to the fact the grass and roots held it jointly and it would dry speedily and crumble.
These sod bricks, recognized to many as “Nebraska Marble” would be minimize to approximately three feet in size, 6 to twelve inches higher and 2 to three feet thick. They ended up laid one on prime of the other and staggered like bricks so they would be tighter.
The bricks were thicker at the bottom or the soddie would crumble. The walls were typically about 8 feet tall. The thickness of the partitions of a sod property (about 3 ft) produced them great in the summer and simpler to warmth in the wintertime. The in no way-ending prairie wind, did not blow by way of a restricted soddie.
I lived in a sod house on my parents’ cattle ranch until I was 6. For me, dwelling in a sod house was just house. It was the only house I had at any time recognized. The place in which Dad rocked me and produced up tales to explain to me. The area where Mother cooked for us and study tales to me. The residence was in no way as essential to me as the cattle ranch that surrounded it and my horse.
There was no electricity, running h2o or phone. We utilized kerosene lamps for light-weight and all perform was completed by hand. The h2o arrived from a pitcher pump or a close by windmill. If you desired to get a concept to a neighbor, you rode horseback to notify them or, if you were lucky ample to have a vehicle, you could drive. City was 12 miles away and during the despair we drove with a team and wagon. That intended likely to town and back took all working day. Dad usually couldn’t consider a whole working day off, so Mom and I would make the journey.
The window wells ended up deep and Mom stuffed them with residence plants. One particular day, when I was about 4, I discovered a bull snake crawling out from all around the geraniums. Mice were a continual struggle and insects seemed to breed in the partitions. Nevertheless, a soddie was reasonably cool in the summer season. Ours was heated with a wood-burning prepare dinner stove and a pot-bellied stove in the living/dining room.
Trees have been very unique. They guarded the cattle in the wintertime and gave shade in the summer time. The early settlers have been offered double the land granted by way of the Homestead Act if they planted trees. This was known as a tree claim.
“We failed to minimize them down for wooden. Rather, we walked out with gunny sacks and picked up cow chips. Mother and Father mentioned when they 1st arrived to Arthur County, they located buffalo chips. From time to time Father would acquire some coal and place a piece in at evening so the fire failed to go out right away. It obtained quite cold on a winter night so we took a heat flat iron to mattress and put it by our ft to keep us warm.”
The earliest sod residences were sod (grime) on the inside as nicely as the exterior. Usually the roofs were sod also and could be a beautiful environmentally friendly in the spring when the rains and the solar came. This made the sod residence extremely difficult to hold clean.
The residence we lived in was plastered on the inside of, but was nonetheless tough to hold cleanse. It was a tiny square sod property with two bedrooms and a dwelling/dining room. Sod Grass Company -to kitchen was built on. It contained a wooden-burning stove. Wood was so scarce, nonetheless, that individuals residing on the Nebraska prairie utilised cow chips for gasoline equally to cook and to warmth the home.
These pioneers elevated huge gardens and canned most of their food. Kitchens grew to become sweltering in the summer time heat.
Most sod houses are absent now, but there are nonetheless a handful of in Arthur County, Nebraska including the 1 Mother lived in when she first went to the sand hills.
It was a way of lifestyle that is prolonged absent in no way to return. Most folks don’t miss out on it, but there was considerably family members time simply because there was no Tv set and a peace that are unable to be identified in a city. Children ended up safe to roam until they ran into a rattle snake. It was a day I really like remembering, but I never feel I’d want to dwell that way once again. I wouldn’t get to engage in on my personal computer.
Dr. Jeanne Hounshell is the creator of historic romance novels, Becoming Bestemor and This Cherished Love. Dr. Jeanne is also an Inspirational Speaker, Life and Overall health Coach, Seminar Presenter, Publisher and retired Medical doctor of Chiropractic. She lived in a sod residence until finally she was six and tells of this experience in This Cherished Love.