On being made of water.

The Missouri River Bridge in Pierre, late summer and mid-winter, taken from the same location. (click through to see larger)

I am a dedicated dilettante of rivers, if such a thing can exist: I don't want to swim or fish in them, ski or drive speedboats on them, sail or row on them (though as a schoolboy I rowed in a four, the most arduous exercise I have ever taken); I don't want to track them to their source or study their ecology. I simply want to lean on a railing and look at them. The water acts as a narcotic, allowing the mind to drift with the current, or float on a seemingly motionless surface, or rise like mist in the morning light. I'm not asking the water to wash away my sins, but rather to float my anxieties away. I can only speak for myself, but streams, no matter how brilliant or exhilarating, do not fulfill this therapeutic function; it takes a large river, a mighty body of water, to induce this moment of release. - pg 56-57, Infinite West: Travels in South Dakota by Fraser Harrison.

You know how sometimes I find a quote that describes you perfectly? This is me. I didn't inherit many of my dad's habits or personality traits, but I could look at a river all day.  I've mentioned before that my family spent a lot of time on the Tennessee River. We lived a short block and a half from the boat launch, and went out in the boat more days than we didn't. I spent much of every summer on the river until my mid-teens. We named our cat after the boat launch. We'd haul our stuff out and camp for two weeks at a time, on a island. We'd load up and eat dinner on the river after school. (It will surprise no one that I often took two books with me on these short trips. What if I finished one??) Even now, I can't go back home without at least a short drive-by. Yep, there's the river, still there. My youngest brother is much the same way.

The Bug and I, in a not entirely flattering picture, hanging out in the Tennessee River, 2009.

One of the reasons we are so looking forward to moving (should we ever actually move!) is that the house we are moving into is a block from the Missouri River. We can walk to Gryffindor Griffin park and swim (and read).

The Princess, Griffin Park, 2012

We can hop on the bike path and ride all the way to the bridge, if we wanted to. I can take Scout for an evening jog. When the kids are making us insane, we can slip out and stare at the water.

The Princess, overlooking the Missouri River, Griffin Park, 2012. (One of my favorite pictures ever!)

The Princess and the Bug, Griffin Park, 2012.

Sometimes, you find that an author seems to be talking directly to you, as Harrison is here. I feel the water in my soul (too weird for you?)  I feel like the Tennessee River, the Gulf of Mexico (I went to high school in Mobile, the ocean works for me as well as a river), and now the Missouri River are vital parts of me. When choosing a vacation spot, I will nearly always choose the beach. Any beach. I could literally sit and watch the water for hours.  Mike and I dream of renting a houseboat and floating down the Mississippi River. (Probably sans kids, nothing would kill the peace like trying to keep your children from drowning.) I could be completely happy floating in silence. Or watching in silence. The river doesn't need conversation.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to dream about my next vacation.

While this post is very much about Pierre, the point of the post is the water. I'm tagging it with this so I can find it later!

Picturing Pierre: The Long Winter

A friend of mine emailed me yesterday to ask if I were planning to attend last night's meeting of the local History Book Club. I wasn't, I didn't even know about the meeting, but they were talking about The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and between that and some other details, I decided I would attend. The meetings are held at the Cultural Heritage Center, which is the location of the above photo of the Pirate.  I was the first car to arrive and the museum looked dark, so I waited in my car for a while until a few others arrived. (And let me tell you, those 10 minutes alone in my warm, dark, QUIET car? Best 10 minutes of my day.)

The speaker for the evening was Nancy Tsytad Koupal, the director of Research and Publishing for the South Dakota State Historical Society.  The SDSHS Press is hard at work on publishing Laura Ingalls Wilder's autobiography, Prairie Girl.  They have a website devoted to the project that includes such things as videos of Laura's house, the desk where she wrote, and Pa's fiddle. The autobiography itself is a handwritten document that they are carefully transcribing into an electronic form. Previous typed copies included edits by Laura's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, and the SDSHS Press would like to use the original document. (Interesting side note: back when I lived in Alabama and worked at Burritt on the Mountain, one of my jobs was to transcribe the handwritten diary of Dr. Burritt's first wife, Pearl Budd Johnson, from 1892. It took me a very long time before I could even decipher part of the text- her handwriting was incredibly hard to read. It was not completed before I left.)

Ms Koupal gave a very interesting talk about Laura Ingalls Wilder in general, and then we all talked a bit about The Long Winter in specific. For many of the people at the meeting, The Long Winter is their favorite Laura Ingalls Wilder book. In many cases, this was because they would relate to the blizzard and it was fascinating to them to see how the pioneers made out in a storm. Despite not having read any of them in nearly 30 years, The Long Winter is also the most memorable for me. Since I am from Alabama, had little experience with snow, and NO experience with blizzards, the entire book seemed like pure fantasy. So much snow you'd get lost on the way to the barn? Impossible! The entire conversation makes me compelled to read the book again as an adult, and as a South Dakota resident, and see if I find it plausible now. (Spoiler: it is.)

A couple weekends ago Mike and I took the kids to the Children's Museum in Brookings, SD. On our way there we drove through DeSmet, SD, which is where Laura grew up, and the setting for both The Long Winter and By the Shores of Silver Lake . Several of the buildings and homes from her life have been preserved and there is a formal tour for visiting and touring the site. Unfortunately, they are closed on the weekend, so the best I could do was take pictures from the curb. We have plans to go back in the summer and check it out in better detail. (The snow in the pictures is pure coincidence, but I think it adds to the authenticity of this post, no?)

For more information you can visit the SDSHS Press, the Prairie Girl Project,  the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society, or the Ingalls Homestead site.

I'll let you know when I re-read The Long Winter, and how it stands up to time.

Edited to add: The Little House on the Prairie Read-a-Long is taking place! Go here for details.

Cabin Creek Coffee in the Pierre Mall (#wwread)

I was really looking forward to this month's entry in Where in the World Are You Reading?, the monthly meme hosted by Trish, Kailana, and myself. This month's theme is "coffee shop or cafe" and I just really couldn't wait to take myself to a coffee shop alone and spend an hour in quiet reading bliss. Pierre only has two coffee shops. We don't have a Starbucks or a Caribou Coffee or even a Dunkin' Donuts.  There's Pier 347 downtown, and it's sister store Cabin Creek Coffee in the Pierre Mall.

The mall location is fairly new, it didn't open until last winter, after the big Christmas rush. It's not a very busy store, in fact I've only ever seen one other customer there. They have a display case of cheesecake and muffins and all the typical coffee selections.  There are only a handful of tables and the boys chose this one by the fireplace. I've only ever met one employee here, a nice friendly older woman (by which I mean, not a hip young 20 something like the other coffee shop). As a bonus, after 5 of the same type of drink, you get one free!

Sadly, for my reading plans, I ended up putting it off until the last minute and then taking the boys with me to the coffee shop. Not a scenario for quiet reading bliss. We headed up after school on Thursday without the Princess and I treated us all to coffee and we split a muffin. (The boys had flavored steamed milk.) Since it seemed unlikely that I was going to get any reading done, I let the Pirate demonstrate the readability of the coffee shop for me.




He was thrilled to read on the Nook and managed to get in all his reading time while the Bug ran in circles around us.

Have you posted about your local cafe or coffee shop? There are already quite a few places I'd love to go visit. Be sure to link yours up over at Love, Laughter, and Insanity.

Picturing Pierre: Rawlins Public Library (#wwread)

The prompt this month for Where in the World Are You Reading, the new monthly meme created by Trish, Kelly and I is Library. This month's link ups over at The Written World.

When we first moved to Pierre I was very worried about my tiny little library. I'd gotten used to the large one in Rapid City, and was sure that this tiny place couldn't possibly keep up. Little did I know just how happy I'd be with the new library as well. The library is small, and quite outdated compared to Rapid City, but their book selection is terrific and they are completely willing to get Inter Library Loans for me. The staff is mostly friendly and helpful with only a few grumpy exceptions, and the staff on my preferred days (Wednesday and Sunday) are all terrific.

As you enter the building the first thing you see is the service desk. I managed to be there are the perfect time, so not only do you get to see the desk, you get to see my two favorite librarians- Jo Ann and Ken!  They greet me by name. There's a stack of tote bags there, in case you forget your own, as opposed to the plastic bags with logos at the old library. You return books to a little wooden bin, no self check in (or check out!) as at the Rapid City Library. Each book is checked out by a librarian and there's nothing automated about it.

If you turn to the left as you enter, you'll be in the children's section. I'll tell you here, I don't spend a ton of time in the children's section. I typically go to the library alone, as a treat to myself, but when I do take the kids, they absolutely love it.

There are a couple of computers loaded with kid games.

There are puzzles for them to play with.

The Caldecott and Newbery books are in their own section, along with books about Lewis and Clark.

The library doesn't have a huge section of new releases, and I often find that they are RE-releases, but they do seem to keep on top of the new titles. This is the fiction and mystery new release section.

Non-fiction new releases are on display in these end caps. The full shelves are the regular stacks.

I managed to not get any pictures of the middle of the room, but there are public computers and tables for studying and movies and magazines to check out in the middle. There are also kid's backpacks with a theme, as the Princess is demonstrating here.

This is the young adult books section at the library, which is pretty small but seems comprehensive to me.

Have you shared your library? We'll be doing a wrap up post on the last Thursday, so be sure to head over and link up your post before then!

Picturing Pierre: Prairie Pages (Where in the World are you Reading?)

This week is my turn to post my local bookstore in the Where in the World are you Reading? meme hosted by Trish, Kailana, and myself. I live in a very small town in the middle-of-nowhere, Pierre, SD. (Yes, it's the state capital, but it's very small and no where near an interstate or big city.) In Pierre, we have one bookstore- Prairie Pages.



Prairie Pages is located in Historic Downtown Pierre, in a small, narrow space. Their front windows are papered with posters for local events and new books, and in the back room they have local authors and items.

As you enter the store there is a small table with new releases and best sellers, and there are small nooks for non-fiction like cookbooks and travel.


After you pass the service counter you reach the fiction section, which is roughly 6 sections of shelving wide- this is it, plus two more angled sections.


Then you're on to the kids sections, with picture books.



and baby books and gifts.


You walk up a couple little steps into a comfy living room style room for teen and young adults. I love the little beaded curtain that sets it off from the rest. I think the kids and young adult sections are the best parts of this little store.


Turning around on the step up to YA, this is the entire store (minus YA), from back to front. I admit, I don't spend a lot of money there, but it's more because I don't buy books than because of the quality of the bookstore. It's a charming little store, full of gifts and nice books.

What is your local bookstore like? Have you linked up with us yet? (Go here to do so!)

Picturing Pierre, SD: Camping at Farm Island Recreation Center

This weekend we chose to go camping with the kids at Farm Island Recreation Area (a SD State Park). Farm Island is just outside Pierre, about a ten minute drive from our house.  There is a fairly large campground at Farm Island and our site was near the entrance end of the main campground. We were just across the road from the swim beach, which stretches the length of the entire campground (if you were on the other side of the loop you'd have to circle around some trees to see the water, it could be a hike with little kids.)  The beach is fairly shallow and very easy for little kids to enjoy, even ones that aren't terrific swimmers. They can play quite a bit without accidently getting in deep and even the Princess could be trusted at the water's edge without my having to be right with her. As you can see in the picture with the Princess, the water flows to the right, which pushes them into the end of a little cove, not out to open water. I was able to sit on the beach and just let them play. It's not super sandy once you get in the water, but it's not overly rocky either. There is a good bit of squishy mud in the water, but the kids don't seem to mind. Farm Island has full comfort stations with showers and electricity, as well as scattered vault toliets (nice clean ones, with motion sensative lights). All sites have electricity hookups, picnic tables, and fire pits.  You can rent bikes, paddleboat, and fishing poles. Last year during the flood the campground was completely under about 3 feet of water, so we were worried if there would be a beach or any grass, but I am happy to report that it seems completely recovered.

I ended up taking the kids up around one, before Mike got off work, which meant I had to park the camper all by myself. Granted, we only have a small popup, but I've never backed it up by myself. I've taken it alone to pull through camp sites, but the ones at Farm Island are not pull through slots. Amazingly, I was able to back it in myself, and promptly took pictures and texted them to half the people on my phone. It was nice and straight and everything!   By the time Mike got off at 5 and stopped by the house for hamburgers, I had the camper set up and ready to go.  Our particular site didn't have a lot of shade, just one tree near the road, but we set everything up and it turned out fine.

We planned it at the last minute and I didn't take time to really think about packing, I just threw everything in a bag and ran out the door. We keep a few things in the camper anyway- the bedding, bug spray, paper plates, some toys- so it was just a matter of food, clothes and swim gear. Plus we were ten minutes from home if we needed to fun back.  Mike stopped at the house and got the dog and some burgers and chips and met us out there. We made dinner and swam a bit, then had a campfire (OMG BOYS AND FIRE! So cliche, so true.) and then tried to get everyone settled around 10.  (By the way, the next picture was taken around 9:30 pm. It's not dark at ALL.) Mike and I were exhausted and the Pirate was willing to sleep, but the other two were just insane. We finally gave up around 10:45 and came home to sleep in our own beds.

The next morning we went out to break the camper down and took turns letting the kids swim while the other parent took it down. I am incredibly proud of myself for being able to do it all start to finish now. If I were completely INSANE I could go camping without another adult.

One last cool thing, when we were swimming at dusk we happened to notice turtles sunning themselves a short way down the beach. We tried to sneak up on them, but of course turtles aren't stupid, and they swam away before we got a good look. We both noticed that they weren't the more common hardshell turtles, and after googling have decided that they were Spiny Softshell turtles as seen at that link.

There's a flood coming to Pierre, South Dakota.

You probably haven't heard, since it doesn't seem to be making the national news, but South Dakota is preparing for a flood. Heavy rain and snowfall this winter and spring in the mountains of Montana (they're flooding too, maybe you heard?) is sending record amounts of water down the Missouri River, through North Dakota and into South Dakota.  The capitol of SD, Pierre,  is right on the banks of the river. The Oahe Dam, just north of Pierre, is holding back all this extra water, for now. Eventually it'll continue downriver and flood areas of Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.  I'm sure you've all seen these pictures of the flooding in Mississippi- people were building sandwalls around their homes in an effort to save them. We're doing that here in Pierre, South Dakota. We have until Thursday.

On Thursday, the US Army Corps of Engineers will be upping the amount of water released through the spillways to unprecedented amounts.  All of this extra water will flood into the towns of Pierre and Ft. Pierre.  It WILL happen, there is too much water to prevent it. They are holding off until Thursday while the SD National Guard, and every available body in Pierre, turns out to build a series of levees along the river in both towns. Every size, shape, model and vintage of dump truck is on the road hauling sand. The levees are expected to hold back water reaching a height of 1436. These numbers were determined on Saturday. Last night there were 5 more inches of snow in the Black Hills. Billings, Montana got more snow. It is raining. Once it floods the water is expected to stay in place well into July.

There are maps posted showing where the water will go when it gets here. There are a lot of houses that will be underwater. Like this one.  There are neighborhoods that won't get any assistance because of the short amount of time. Most people in those neighborhoods don't have flood insurance, since the flooding is exceeding the 100 year flood plain.  They are left to build their own sandwalls and to empty their homes of anything they might want to keep dry. It will flood all the riverside parks, playgrounds, the baseball fields, many of the walking paths, and all of the campgrounds.  Boats won't be able to get into or out of the water. Fishing is unlikely. Hopefully downtown Pierre will stay dry, but the homes between downtown and the river may not be so lucky.

Mike has sold out of every bit of flood preparation possible at his store, and then found more. He's made special trips to Rapid City to get more sump pumps and sewer plugs and miles of poly sheeting from the other stores (or had employees make special runs.)  His cell phone number is posted on the front door of the store for anyone who needs supplies off hours and he's stayed open hours past the official closing time, as well as gone in early to load more plywood and sheeting to other people.  So many of them sound so hopeless, even as they do their best to prepare. One man told him that if he hadn't put such a large downpayment down on the home he bought just three years ago, that he would walk away. He doesn't have flood insurance and he is expecting 6 feet of water in his home. Good thing he has all that equity, right?

It is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. It's a slow motion disaster, but people are really pulling together and helping each other out. Volunteers are filling sandbags by the tens of thousands.  People are spreading the word on Twitter with the hashtag #oaheflood, even if the national outlets aren't talking.   Roads are closed, people are asked to stay home if they can't help (like me, it's really hard to go fill sandbags with three small children!)  It is horrifying to watch, and at the same time you can't help but be a little optimistic that the sandbags and the levees will do their job and the town will be saved.  And be heartbroken for the people that didn't get a levee.

For us, we're on the north side of town, well out of any danger. However- one of the houses we looked at in December already has water at it's door. One of the houses we considered in March, the one we really thought we'd get, is in the floodplain.  It is only luck that we're not joining the hundreds of people who are leaving their homes for the summer.  It is amazing to me because if it snows hard I have friends from other states call or email to ask if we're ok, because it makes the news. Snow is nothing. We had feet and feet of snow and not one snow day. But not one person has asked if we're going to flood.  I don't think this is because they don't care, I think this is because it's not news. Yet. It will be.

(If you're here because you googled flood information, you can find a lot more specific info and levees and sandbagging and specific info about Pierre, Ft. Pierre, and the rest of the state of South Dakota at the Disaster Recovery page and the Capitol Journal homepage.)
I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks. All content copyright Books. Lists. Life. at http://bookslistslife.blogspot.com. If you're reading this post anywhere other than there, you are reading stolen content.

Welcome to Rawlins Municipal Library in Pierre, SD!

One of the biggest changes for us (ok, ME) in this move is the move from a large automated library with a huge selection to the tiny little library in Pierre.  This library is largely charming. There is no automation, the librarian checks your books in and out manually and stamps each one with a date stamp. There is a website and you can search for books and check your account online, but you can't check them out yourself.  There is no coffee shop as in the Rapid City Library, but there is a little coffee cart with free coffee and hot water for tea. Instead of plastic bags with the library's logo, the Pierre library has a nice stack of (donated?) canvas bags for you to use, should you forget yours. (They also have some grocery store bags so kids can have their own bag.) You actually have to talk to the library to check out a book! Fees are forgiven if you check your books in on Sunday or Wednesday. Overall, it's very charming and I think we'll find it perfectly acceptable (especially since we can get ILL from Rapid City.)

Let's take a little tour, shall we? See this picture? This is the ENTIRE library. This is standing at the front wall, looking all the way to the back. The middle 1/4 of the library (at least, maybe even 1/3) is public computers and magazines, just over that low shelf there behind those kids.

Looking to the left from here is the kid's section:

What you can't see in that picture are these little boxes for each popular author or series, like this:

No expense spared on those boxes!

They also have sections for all the Newbery winners and Caldecott winners, so you don't have to search them out. It inspires me to read through them all, but I need to find a nice list.

This is the children's librarian's desk. Note: not office, desk.

At the very far back, right corner of that first picture is the young adult section, which looks like this:

About half that back wall is young adult fiction, along with the side you can't see of that freestanding shelf. The front of that freestanding shelf is young adult non-fiction. The rest of that part is the Large print books.

I haven't had much of a chance to check out the adult section, but it's divided up with sections for Westerns and Mysteries that are as big as the section for general fiction. The movie section has more VHS tapes than DVDs.

I've been keeping track of everything we check out, in part so that I can remember what Mike has read while I'm there, but also as a little experiment for myself. I'm marking each book with an R when I return it read, a DNF if I return it unread and don't want it again, and am contemplating what to use for "returned unread, but check it out again." Suggestions?  Right now it's in a moleskin, but if I ever get a smart phone I plan to make a spreadsheet. It should help later when trying to think of good blog posts as well.

What is you library like? Do you have more than one branch? How do you remeber what you've checked out? What you want to get again? Am I the only one still using paper? What  is the best feature of your library?

I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks. All content copyright Books. Lists. Life. at http://bookslistslife.blogspot.com. If you're reading this post anywhere other than there, you are reading stolen content.