Our Soddy

With the last heavy rains, our dugout house has been damaged and we need to build a more reliable roof over our family's head.

The sod house will be drier and more comfortable than our dugout. The sod house will become a classic style for the plains, and even continue long after lumber is shipped in for settlers.

One good thing is that the materials for our sod house are abundant everywhere here on the prairie - buffalo grasses are growing everywhere. Even though we can use our cast iron plow to plow this buffalo grass, there is a new plow of tempered steel that would be less heavy and make the plowing quicker and easier. This new device cuts off roots and grass to a width of 12 to 18 inches and a depth of 3 inches. We will gently roll this sod over in an unbroken strip. The sod-cutting plow we will use is called a "grasshopper".

This grasshopper plow rips through the earth and makes a sound like the tearing of a heavy piece of fabric. We use our oxen to pull it because unlike mules or horses, the oxen move in almost a straight line which produces a uniform strip of soil.

Once we have our strips pulled over, then we cut these strips into 2-3 foot lengths with our broadax or sharp spade. We plowed and cut the soil after this week's rain which made our job much easier! Our sod is heavy with moisture and is loaded on the wagon and taken to the building site. No easy task for us!

Part 2 next time...