it's kinda like Legos only not primary colors and no cute movie characters!Īnd they laid the sod GRASS SIDE DOWN. The walls were laid alternately the long way and the short way, this made the walls sturdier, the strips of sod would bind together and stand better. Okay, I'm beating that to death.Īnd now we've got a cow on the roof.

That sod was a fine substitute for central heating. Yep, I'm bettin' these were as cozy as all get out. The walls are thick enough to stop a canon ball.īut it did help with the winter wind and the blazing heat of summer. They'd lay the sod lengthwise, side by side so the walls were around 2.5 feet thick. Or maybe it's more accurate to say it was the seed from which the story grew.Ī sod house had 'bricks' about 2 to 3 feet long and a foot wide.

This picture inspired my Wild at Heart series. These are the Chrisman sisters, each claimed and proved up on her own homestead. It's really amazing and inspiring and I'm frankly ashamed of myself for being so sedentary and out of shape. Wow, they worked their HEARTS OUT to gain property, to be free, to own a home, claim some land. Have I mentioned I'm a wimp? God bless these people. It makes me want to cry a little, just thinking about it. Before that they were cutting hundreds, possibly thousands of sod bricks with a shovel. We have photographic proof here.īut what I learned about sod houses is, many of them have wooden frames, which is sort of weird because wasn't the whole point that there wasn't wood? So where'd they get a frame?Īnd they didn't invent breaking plows until mid 1880s. Why is there a team of horses on the top of this house? Why are those people in a 'room' with no front wall? Do sod houses have.open porches? I'm going with YES. Wouldn't that be interesting? Wouldn't you all just lean forward to learn every single thing I know about building a soddy?

Now I truly wish I could say here that to make everything realistic, I built a sod house out my back door and now I live in it during the summer, just so I can bring my book to life for all you lovely readers.

Her Secret Song by Mary Connealy