LHF Blog

February 22, 2018 “Life is made up of small pleasures. Happiness is made up of those tiny successes. The big ones come too infrequently. And if you don’t collect all these tiny successes, the big…

April 20, 2015 Cows make milk. People drink milk. It seems simple. But the complicated process of getting the milk from the cow to your morning bowl of cereal may involve more than is initially…

February 23, 2015 So many things happen at the 1900 Farm house all through the year, we sometimes have to plan a shutdown just to get some regular maintenance done. We recently shut the house…

In January of this year, I had the opportunity to attend the Practical Farmers of Iowa annual conference in Ames, Iowa. While the focus of most of the workshops was decidedly modern, one of the…

It is no secret that we have spent a lot of time during this Iowa winter digging out from the snow. Many are anxiously awaiting Spring, which is still 6 weeks away. While it is…

September 18, 2013 To continue our story of rail roads in Iowa, this post will explore the rails that took goods and passengers across Iowa. We began this series by looking at the first bridge…

August 12, 2013 Americans often dread “Blue Monday,” the start of weekday car commutes, irritating bosses, and long hours in front of a computer. Housewives in 1900 would also have dreaded “Blue Monday,” but for…

August 5, 2013 There is a dramatic change in lifestyle between the 1850 Pioneer Farm at Living History Farms and the 1900 Farm. People often comment on how dramatically life changed in just one to…

June 7, 2013 Happy Monday everyone! Kate here, with another treasure to share from the 1900 Farm collections! I discovered this week’s item, a needlepoint wall hanging, above the bed in the parents’ room. I…

June 4, 2013 Recently we noticed that the green walls of the back kitchen of the 1900 house had started to tint black due to the smoke and soot of the wood burning stove. As…