9 Ways to Live Like Little House on the Prairie

When I was a child, I used to dream of living on a homestead just like Laura Ingalls Wilder in her “Little House” series. I longed for wide-open spaces, a barnyard full of animals, and prairies full of wildflowers. I wanted to cook food over an open fire, sleep outside under the stars, and travel by covered wagon to a brand new place.

It’s incredible to think that all those dreams I had back then have since come true. And it’s only since I’ve gotten older that I can see what a huge influence her books have had on my life. My desire to be as self-sufficient as possible, my independence, my stubbornness persistence, and willingness to take risks and try new things…I believe that those values and character traits come directly from constantly reading about Laura’s life as a pioneer in the 1880s. I am who I am today, in part, because of her.

Pioneers like Laura Ingalls Wilder were incredibly self-sufficient. And, learning how to become more self-sufficient, even in small ways, can provide so many benefits. It can help you build confidence, slow down, develop a strong character, and even help you bond as a family.

The Benefits of Self-Sufficiency

Life in an 1880s homestead was far more difficult than we can imagine today.

Homesteaders had to haul water for meals, cleaning, and baths. The constant work of growing, preparing, and preserving food was incredible. Wood had to be cut to keep the cookstove fire going year-round, and provide heat during the winter months. Clothing was hand-sewn, hand-washed, and hand-mended when it fell into disrepair.

Most of us (myself included) don’t want to go back to that level of complete independence and constant hard work. I love indoor plumbing and internet service, and I have no interest in doing without those things right now. I’m guessing you probably don’t either. However, learning skills to be more self-sufficient can provide enormous benefits to your family’s security, as well as your physical and emotional health.

Doing something for yourself that you previously relied on someone else for brings a powerful sense of pride and confidence. In addition, there is a real sense of achievement when you learn a new skill and successfully use that skill to make or grow something that you need.

Becoming more self-sufficient allows you to disconnect and slow down, two things that many people sorely need right now. For example, you might find that tending a container garden or baking bread from scratch helps you deal with stress or feel more connected to the world.

How to Live More Like Laura Ingalls Wilder

No matter where you are, you can live a little bit like Laura Ingalls Wilder by becoming more self-sufficient.

1. Grow Your Own Food

“For winter was coming. The days were shorter, and frost crawled up the window panes at night. Soon the snow would come. Then the log house would be almost buried in snowdrifts, and the lake and the streams would freeze. In the bitter cold weather Pa could not be sure of finding any wild game to shoot for meat…Pa might hunt alone all day in the bitter cold in the Big Woods covered with snow, and come home at night with nothing for Ma and Mary and Laura to eat. So as much food as possible must be stored away in the little house before winter came.” -Little House in the Big Woods

Food is life, and no one understood this better than the pioneers. You couldn’t survive on a homestead without a garden.

This is, of course, still true today. Food is life, and although we have grocery stores, the last year was a wake-up call for many people. We have learned that we can’t always depend on others to have the food we want and need. When a crisis occurs, those stocked shelves will be empty, and people will have to survive with what they have on-hand.

You can grow food no matter where you live. For example, you can grow fresh herbs on a sunny windowsill, containers of tomatoes on a balcony, hanging planters of cucumbers in front of a south-facing window, or have a small raised bed garden in your backyard.

You don’t have to grow a year’s worth of food to make a difference for your family. Instead, start small and do what you can where you’re at.

2. Learn to Preserve Food

“Ma and Laura picked the tomatoes. The vines were wilted down, soft and blackening, so they picked even the smallest green tomatoes. There were enough ripe tomatoes to make almost a gallon of preserves.” -The Long Winter

Homesteaders and pioneers had to preserve the food they grew in the garden or killed while out hunting. Without this knowledge, the lean winter months would have been the death of many families. Even with home preservation, food stores often ran out during long and brutal winters. Sometimes even well prepared families didn’t make it.

Preserving food is one of my favorite activities on our homestead. We make jam from blackberries we picked on our property, pickle fresh vegetables we grow in the garden and put up strawberries when they’re in season. In addition, I dehydrate fruit and vegetables in our dehydrator, ferment cabbage, prepare and freeze fruit and vegetables, and last year began experimenting with salting as a way to preserve our harvest of Japanese shiso.

When you know how to preserve food you can take advantage of a bountiful summer garden or a great deal at your local farmers market. And there are so many different ways to preserve food! It’s easy to try some of the diverse methods of food preservation and stick with those you like best.

To learn more about food preservation, pick up a copy of Leda Meredith’s book, “Preserving Everything.” Meredith goes over food preservation techniques such as canning, pickling, freezing, fermenting, dehydrating, smoking, and more. The book is also full of simple recipes for each method to help you get started.

3. Stay Home

“Laura could have looked for weeks and not seen all the things that were in that store. She had not known there were so many things in the world.” -Little House in the Big Woods

Going to town was a big deal when Laura was little. Her first trip into Pepin made her stop and stare, and she writes that she had never imagined so many houses so close together. I can’t even imagine what she’d say about walking into Walmart today.

Years ago, pioneers mainly stayed home, and trips to towns and stores were a very special affair. And although it’s sometimes fun to go out and run errands, skipping the trip and staying home more has its advantages.

First, constantly popping into a store to pick something up is exhausting and expensive. Every time you’re out you see something extra you want, and those impulse purchases add up. Instead, why not try to make do with what you have on hand? Eat out of your pantry or use a substitute instead of running into town to pick up a particular ingredient. If you’re bored, pick up a book or start a new hobby instead of going out shopping for something you don’t need.

Try treating a trip to town as a special occasion, something you only do once every week or two. You’ll have more money, and more time to spend with the people you love.

4. Create a Long-Term Food Pantry

“Now the potatoes and carrots, the beets and turnips and cabbages were gathered and stored in the cellar, for freezing nights had come. Onions were made into long ropes, braided together by their tops, and then were hung in the attic besides wreaths of red peppers strung on threads. The pumpkins and the squashes were piled in orange and yellow and green heaps in the attic’s corners. The barrels of salted fish were in the pantry, and yellow cheeses were stacked on the pantry shelves…The little house was fairly bursting with good food stored away for the long winter.” – Little House in the Big Woods

Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family always kept as much food in storage as they could. They were a days’ drive or more from a general store at certain times in their life. So, their very survival depended on them keeping plenty of food in the pantry.

Everyone should keep a minimum of two week’s supply of food on hand. And ideally, you’ll have a month or more. Keeping plenty of food in your pantry means that you don’t have to run to the grocery store all the time. It also means that you’re prepared if a natural disaster, another pandemic, or other crisis hits your area with or without warning.

Start now building a long-term food pantry. Stock up on dried beans and canned vegetables when they go on sale. Use a price-tracking website like camelcamelcamel to keep tabs on emergency freeze dried foods like Augusan Farms so you can stock up when it’s on sale. Use your freezer to take advantage of sales at the grocery store.

If you go slowly, buying a few extra items at a time, you’ll slowly pad your pantry without significantly impacting your food budget. Over time, you will build up a stockpile of food that you and your family can depend on during an emergency.

5. Establish a Routine

“Wash on Monday, Iron on Tuesday, Mend on Wednesday, Churn on Thursday, Clean on Friday, Bake on Saturday, Rest on Sunday.” – Little House in the Big Woods

Many homesteaders used routine to help organize the incredible amount of work that they had to get done. And, Ma’s routine served the same purpose.

The benefit to using a routine for chores is that you only have to focus on that one extra chore every day. Yes, you still need to do essential chores like cooking and dishwashing. However, instead of trying to get laundry done, go grocery shopping, and clean the bathroom, you only have to focus on the one extra task you need to complete for that day. You don’t have to worry about those other chores because they each have their own designated day.

Creating a household chore routine might look a bit different now than it did in 1885. However, the benefits remain the same.

6. Raise Chickens

“One evening Pa came home beaming. ‘Guess what, Caroline and girls!’ he sang out. ‘I saw Boast in town today, and he sent word from Mrs. Boast. She’s setting a hen for us!’ ‘Oh Charles!” Ma said. ‘As soon as the chicks are big enough to scratch for themselves, he’s going to bring us the whole batch,’ said Pa.” – Little Town on the Prairie

Chickens were an important part of pioneer life. Hens provided protein-packed eggs and helped control harmful insects, roosters helped protect and expand the flock, and both could be used as meat birds when needed.

Even if you have a small yard you probably have enough space for a chicken or two. And if you let them free-range, you won’t have to spend as much on feed. If you live in a neighborhood, make sure you choose a quiet chicken breed so you can keep the peace with your neighbors.

7. Let Your Kids Do Chores

“Laura was in the shanty only long enough to set down the water and snatch the milk pail. She ran out to the slope where Ellen, the cow, was cropping the sweet young grass. Quietly, Ellen stood chewing her cud while Laura milked.” – Little Town on the Prairie.

Years ago, kids had to help out on a homestead. They were a valuable part of a family’s survival, and even children as young as three could fetch water with a small pail or gather sticks for kindling.

Even as a young girl, Laura’s day was filled with chores. She helped bake bread, stack firewood, fetch water, wash clothes, make beds, sweep, tend the chickens and cows, and much more. From the time she learned to walk she built skills and learned how to be a valuable asset to her family and community.

Today, many children don’t get to experience the satisfaction of helping contribute to their family’s success and survival. However, this is something you can easily do with your children by assigning them age-appropriate chores.

Our boys are responsible for making their beds, picking up after themselves, and cleaning out the chicken coop each week. They also help with other chores such as stacking firewood, cutting hay, feeding the chickens and ducks, planting and weeding the garden, and gathering eggs.

Do they always do this work graciously? No. But they see now how much their participation helps our family as a whole, and most of the time they pitch in with good nature to help us get the work done.

Your kids will be the same. At first, you’ll invest a great deal of time and energy showing them how to do a chore correctly. You’ll probably have to deal with a lot of whining and complaining at first. We sure did. However, don’t give up. Over time I promise your efforts will pay off.

8. Learn to Forage

“They liked the long walks together in the wind and sunshine, picking violets and buttercups and eating sheep sorrel. The sheep sorrel’s lovely curled lavender blossoms, the clover-shaped leaves and the thin stems had a tangy taste.” – Little Town on the Prairie

Laura and her family relied on wild edibles to supplement what they could hunt and grow themselves. She mentions common wild edibles like sheep sorrel and ground cherries in her books. And you can bet that Laura learned how to identify these plants from an early age.

Learning how to forage for wild edibles is a fun activity that your entire family can enjoy. Just make sure you pick up a guide that outlines the wild edibles commonly found in your area. We love the Regional Foraging Guides because the pictures are clear and the descriptions accurate.

9. Spend Time With Your Kids

“Because of their importance, we must not neglect our homes in the rapid changes of the present day.  For when tests of character come in later years, strength to the good will not come from modern improvements or amusements few may have enjoyed, but from the quiet moments and the ‘still small voices’ of the old home.” – Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1923

Laura and her sisters spent all day, every day, with their family. Ma taught them how to cook, sew, and tend the fire. Pa taught Laura how to hitch the horses, stack hay, and twist hay to burn in the woodstove. Evenings were spent around the fire telling stories, reading aloud, singing, and dancing.

This time you spend with your children creates a bond and sense of security that can’t be found anywhere else. That sense of home and family can help support your children in tough times and give them the strength they need to get through life’s challenges later on. The more time you spend with your kids, the stronger these bonds will be.

Try these ideas to help your kids unplug and spend more quality time together:

• Turn out all the lights and read stories by flashlight or candlelight.
• Ask your kids to help you prepare dinner.
• Go for a walk together before bed.
• Play their favorite game.
• Camp out in the living room or backyard and make S’mores.
• Draw something together.

Last Word

I’ve learned so much from Laura Ingalls Wilder, and I wish I could go back in time to thank her for the role she’s played in my own life. I’m sure countless other men and women would like to do the same. Her books about frontier life have so much to offer, and they give us a glimpse of the hardships faced by everyday pioneering families in the late 1800s.

I still keep a stack of her books by my bedside, and constantly cycle through them with my bedtime reading. They’re so comforting, like going back to a beloved home after a long time away. And even now, as a mother and homesteader, I still learn important lessons from her stories.

No matter where you live, you too can become more self-sufficient and live a little more like Laura did in the late 1800s.

I’d love to hear from you. Did you grow up reading Laura Ingalls Wilder? Have her books inspired you to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle?