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Book Review of Nothing to Do But Stay: My Pioneer Mother

Nothing to Do But Stay: My Pioneer Mother
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Helpful Score: 1


An evocative portrait of a pioneer family's world.
The year is 1904. At age 25, Minnesotan Carrine Gafkjen does what few women, or men of her time dare. She sets out to stake a homestead for herself on the windswept North dakota prairie. There she lives alone in her claim shack, subsisting on potatoes and salt and barring her door each night against the howling coyotes, until she becomes a woman of substance and eventually even doubles her holdings of fertile wheat-growing land. Only then, at 34, does carrine marry the homesteader with whom she will bear and raise six children. Excellent read.