Life on the prairie for early Nebraska settlers often included living in a sod house, frequently referred to as a “soddie.”
Sod houses were employed all through the prairie states due to the fact trees were scarce except if you ended up near to a river. These imaginative settlers utilised the supplies at hand to develop a restricted house that would protect them in winter season and summertime. The earth and the wealthy prairie grass in which the buffalo had lately roamed ended up plentiful so the pioneers created sod properties.
The very first step was to clear the grass where the property would sit. This would assist keep snakes, bugs and mice out of the house. Aid, but they still created it in.
Some cedar would be required previously mentioned and under windows. The prairie sod (the top layer of the ground which provided the roots, the grass and the soil they grew in) was lower with a specific plow named a cutting plow. This sharp plow was necessary simply because the prairie sod had been undisturbed for hundreds of years and was very thick and tight. They could only cut what they would use that day due to the fact the grass and roots held it collectively and it would dry swiftly and crumble.
These sod bricks, acknowledged to several as “Nebraska Marble” would be minimize to approximately 3 ft in duration, six to 12 inches higher and two to 3 ft thick. They ended up laid a single on best of the other and staggered like bricks so they would be tighter.
The bricks have been thicker at the bottom or the soddie would crumble. The walls have been typically about eight ft tall. The thickness of the walls of a sod residence (about 3 feet) produced them cool in the summer and less complicated to heat in the winter season. The never ever-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, living in a sod home was just property. It was the only residence I experienced ever known. The place the place Father rocked me and produced up tales to tell me. The place where Mom cooked for us and read stories to me. The residence was never as essential to me as the cattle ranch that surrounded it and my horse.
There was no electric power, working h2o or telephone. We utilized kerosene lamps for gentle and all operate was done by hand. The h2o arrived from a pitcher pump or a nearby windmill. If you wished to get a information to a neighbor, you rode horseback to inform them or, if you ended up lucky sufficient to have a automobile, you could travel. City was twelve miles absent and throughout the melancholy we drove with a staff and wagon. That meant going to city and back again took all day. Dad typically couldn’t get a complete day off, so Mother and I would make the journey.
The window wells had been deep and Mother filled them with property crops. 1 working day, when I was about 4, I found a bull snake crawling out from close to the geraniums. Mice ended up a continuous fight and insects appeared to breed in the partitions. Still, a soddie was fairly awesome in the summer. Ours was heated with a wood-burning cook stove and a pot-bellied stove in the living/eating place.
Trees had been quite specific. They safeguarded the cattle in the winter and gave shade in the summertime. The early settlers have been presented double the land granted by way of the Homestead Act if they planted trees. This was named a tree claim.
“We failed to reduce them down for wooden. Alternatively, we walked out with gunny sacks and picked up cow chips. Mom and Father mentioned when they first arrived to Arthur County, they found buffalo chips. Occasionally Dad would purchase some coal and place a piece in at night time so the fire failed to go out right away. It acquired rather chilly on a wintertime evening so we took a warm flat iron to mattress and set it by our toes to preserve us warm.”
The earliest sod homes have been sod (dust) on the within as nicely as the outside the house. Frequently the roofs have been sod way too and could be a wonderful inexperienced in the spring when the rains and the solar arrived. This produced the sod house really challenging to keep clear.
The home we lived in was plastered on the inside, but was even now difficult to keep cleanse. It was a tiny square sod house with two bedrooms and a residing/eating space. A lean-to kitchen area was constructed on. It contained a wood-burning stove. Wooden was so scarce, nonetheless, that these living on the Nebraska prairie used cow chips for gas equally to prepare dinner and to warmth the residence.
These pioneers elevated massive gardens and canned most of their foodstuff. Kitchens became sweltering in the summertime heat.
Most sod homes are long gone now, but there are still a couple of in Arthur County, Nebraska like the 1 Mom lived in when she very first went to the sand hills.
It was a way of lifestyle that is long long gone never to return. Most individuals do not miss it, but there was considerably loved ones time simply because there was no Television set and a peace that can’t be identified in a metropolis. Young children had been safe to roam unless they ran into a rattle snake. It was a working day I really like remembering, but I will not believe I would want to reside that way once more. I wouldn’t get to enjoy on my computer.
Dr. Jeanne Hounshell is the creator of historic romance novels, Becoming Bestemor and This Precious Enjoy. Dr. How much does sod cost is also an Inspirational Speaker, Lifestyle and Wellness Coach, Seminar Presenter, Publisher and retired Medical professional of Chiropractic. She lived in a sod house until she was six and tells of this knowledge in This Treasured Really like.