Wilder on the Prairie

Join us this week as we discuss the harvest moon, the world's largest pumpkin, how big a hogshead is, the physics of potatoes exploding, and what a poultice is.

Farmer Boy Chapter 19 "Early Harvest"

Join us this week as we talk about timothy grass, swath(e), the difference between eastern and western meadlowlarks, egg nog, windrows, foreshadowing The Long Winter, a bucolic lifestyle and thrift, cutting oats with cradles, shocking oats, mauls, $250 in 1866 dollars, and bombazine.

Episode 31

Farmer Boy Chapter 18, "Keeping House"

Join us this week as we discuss Uncle Andrew Day, lap robes, how to pick a ripe melon, wabbling, watermlon rind preserves, what pigs should eat, hydrangeas, pound cakes, parlors, horsehair cloth, and what nots.

Farmer Boy Chapter 17 "Summer Time"

Join us this week as we discuss growing big pumpkins, pig prices, why you fish when it rains, speckled trout, Lake Chateaugay, black bears in New York State, and jelly vs. jam vs. preserves.

Episode 29

Chapter 16 "Independence Day"

Join us this week as we discuss French calico, the song "Yankee Doodle", downtown Malone, the "Star-Spangled Banner", how many stars on the Flag in 1866, pink lemonade, the word "lief", the value of a half dollar in 1866, sucking pigs, and the Great American Desert.

Episode 28

Farmer Boy Chapter 15 "Cold Snap"

This week we will dicuss carding wool, dyeing wool, planting pumpkins in May, planting corn and pumpkins together, how big an acre really is, 1866 crop yields, and saving freezing corn.

Ch. 14 "Sheep Sheering"

Join us this week as we talk about shearing sheep, sheep swimming, sheep butting, how long it takes to shear by hand, how often to shear, merino wool, and fleece weight.

Join us for a discussion of Chapter 13 of Farmer Boy, "The Strange Dog".

Topics for this episode include Morgan horses, horses' teeth, $200 in 2022 dollars, how much a Morgan horse is, setting the sponge for baking, and woodlots.

Farmer Boy Chapter 12 "The Tin Peddler"

This week we talk about rubbing down horses with clean cloths, Saranac New York, working exclusively with tin, trading rags, and a peddlars cart.

Farmer Boy Chapter 11 "Springtime"

Today we will discuss door sills, horse traces, furrows, the St. Lawrence River, pumphouses, lizards in New York (five-lined skinks), whistling girls, and Canada peas.