Dashing Through The Snow – By Donna Schlachter – with giveaway

Sleigh Ride Wikipedia

Welcome back to my final post of this calendar year. I thought it would be fun to look at some of the history behind how we dash through the snow, since so much of the music of Christmas seems to be about wintertime activities. 

Travois design Wikipedia

Horse-drawn travois Wikipedia

One of the earliest forms of transportation is the travois (properly pronounced trav-wa). The Canadian French name applies to an A-frame construction to carry goods and or people, and is dragged along the ground on its narrowest point. Native women built and maintained the travois, including training the dogs used to pull them. Aspen and cottonwood were the main wood types used, both because they were easily available and sturdy. 

Dogs pulling travois Wikipedia

Lewis and Clark both adopted the travois to carry their supplies on their westward exploration. The main difference was they used horses to pull, allowing larger travois with heavier loads. Ruts can still be seen as their paths were heavily used.

So why not use wheels? First, travois were developed before the invention of the wheel in many cultures, and secondly, the terrain was often not favorable to wheel transport. Plus, dogs could be used in areas where wheels would have caught in brush or broken on rocks. This was roughing it before there were established roadways. Travois adapted well to use on dry or snowy terrain, and needed little adaptation for the seasons.

Traveling by sleigh Wikipedia

 

Sleds, or sleighs, on the other hand, were obviously a snow or ice mode of transport. Some designs included runners that could be removed and replaced with axles and wheels, but most were a winter-season transport only. The word sled comes from a Middle English word sledde which means sliding or slider.

Depending on the size and style, they were also known as a skid or a sledge. Any type of sled can be used to transport passengers or cargo across relatively level ground. Some styles are made to go downhill for recreation. Toboggans fall into this category.

Sledges were often roughly hewn lumber that was pulled by one or two horses into the woods, and hewn trees were loaded onto it. This could be for firewood or building materials.

The origins of sledges is thought to be in Egypt and were used to construct public buildings, as these vehicles worked well on hard-packed sand. Sometimes, they rolled the sledge over a rustic conveyor-belt consisting of de-limbed trees.

Sleds and sledges were also found in the Oseberg “Viking” ship excavation. Unlike wheeled vehicles, they were exempt from tolls. 

Russian Troika Wikipedia

As expected, sleds were important in the perpetual winter of Russia and Siberia, but their use was limited to royalty and bishops. A local design called the troika uses three horses, and is attributed as being the world’s only harness combination with different gaits of the horses. The center horse trots, while the outside horses canter. Originally developed in the 17th century, troikas were used for speedy mail delivery before coming into common usage for passenger and cargo.

Dog sled Wikipedia

British explorations to the Arctic and Antarctic used human-pulled sledges, while other nations preferred dog sleds.

Kangga in Philippines Wikipedia

Many sleds can be used in mud, marshes, and even hard ground, particularly if the runners are greased. Even the Philippines, which has no snow, has its own design, a kangga, which is used in rough terrain and steep hills.

In my recent release, Sleigh Ride for Ruby, a young woman inherits her father’s sleigh business. She soon realizes that somebody in town is determined to put her out of business. But who can she trust? The Pinkerton agent who shows up on the scene? But is he really who he says he is? Check out the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Sleigh-Ride-Ruby-ebook/dp/B0D2LVRSPZ



Leave a comment to enter a random drawing for a free ebook copy of Sleigh Ride for Ruby.

 

 

About the book:

After Ruby Wakefield inherits her father's touring business, she soon learns that not everybody thinks it right or proper that a woman should run a business normally operated by a man. However, she has no choice—she cannot give up on her father’s dream. But somebody in town is unhappy, and Ruby's business falls prey to mishaps such as broken traces, injured horses, and avalanches.

Clarke Everly, a Pinkerton operative, falls into Ruby's life when he hires her sleigh to take his fiancee for a ride in the winter wonderland of Snowflake, Colorado. But when Ruby won't convey them across a frozen lake, his fiancée kicks up a fuss and leaves him cold.

Can Ruby and Clarke figure out who is trying to ruin her business? And will working together show them the warmth of love and the kindness of their Heavenly Father?

About Donna:

A hybrid author, Donna writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published more than 60 times in books; is a member of several writers' groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both, and is an avid oil painter. 

 

 

She is taking all the information she’s learned along the way about the writing and publishing process, and is coaching committed writers. Learn more at https://www.donnaschlachter.com/the-purpose-full-writer-coaching-programs Check out her coaching group on FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/604220861766651

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Resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troika_(driving)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse-drawn_vehicle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sled

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travois

Alaska Nellie – Martha Stewart of the Frozen Wilderness

 

By Suzanne Norquist

When I think of hostessing, the name Martha Stewart comes to mind. A carefully decorated space. Matching placemats and napkins. The perfect Crème Brûlée. However, none of those things would have survived the Alaskan wilderness in the early 1900s.

Nellie Neal Lawing, also known as Alaska Nellie, served as a larger-than-life hostess along the railroad between Seward and Anchorage. She ran a dog sled team, shot wild game, fished, and gardened to provide food for the various roadhouses she ran.

In July 1923, President Harding and his entourage stayed at her establishment as they traveled to an Alaskan Golden Spike-driving ceremony. In her warm kitchen, she served him pancakes just like everyone else.

A transplant to Alaska, Nellie Trosper was born in Missouri on July 25, 1873, the eldest of ten surviving children. There she learned to hunt, trap, and survive in the woods. She helped care for the large family alongside her mother and codntinued after her mother died. Her father remarried when she was twenty-seven years old, and she set off on her own adventure.

Although she dreamed of Alaska, she didn’t go there immediately. For a time, she ran a boarding house in the mining town of Cripple Creek, Colorado. Probably not much different than taking care of her large family. There, she married Wesley Neal, a mine assayer. Unfortunately, “that demon, rum,” destroyed the marriage, and she left, making her way to Alaska.

Once there, she cooked and drove freight for a mining crew. When they stopped work for the winter, she pulled a sled thirty miles into the wilderness (by herself, wearing snowshoes) and set up housekeeping at an abandoned miner’s cabin. She fell in love with the beauty of the rugged wilderness and experienced the glow of the northern lights.

The following spring, she learned of the railroad’s plans to build and applied to run an eating house at Mile 45. She was the first woman to be awarded that kind of contract. She called the place Grandview and made a sign from blue letters cut from an old coat sewn onto white canvas.

A space above the dining room held thirteen bunks, used as sleeping quarters for the men. Nellie slept in a small room above the kitchen. Cold water flowed from the mountain and was piped into the building.

As an expert hunter, tracker, and musher, Nellie’s exploits became legendary. She was known as the female "Davy Crockett" of Alaska. When the mail carrier didn’t arrive, she took her dog team out and rescued him. While he warmed at her place, she delivered the mail herself. Another time, the train got stuck two miles away, so she cooked up a hearty meal and delivered it to the digging crew.

After her contract ended, she ran a larger boarding house at Dead Horse Hill, a key location in constructing the Alaskan Railroad. There she employed staff and could seat 125 workers. This is the one where President Harding stayed. After the railroad was complete, she moved to a railroad stop on Kenai Lake and opened another boarding house. She also built a museum to hold all of her hunting trophies.

While contracted with the railroad, she became engaged to Kenneth Holden, one of the workers. Unfortunately, he died in an accident before they could marry. Sometime later, she married his cousin, Billie Lawing. He joined her at the new boarding house, and it was renamed Lawing. She referred to Billie as the love of her life and enjoyed thirteen years with him before he passed away.

For many years, she greeted visitors to the area with a tour of her museum and stories of her adventures in the wilderness. She died in 1956 at age 82.

She spent most of her life as the larger-than-life hostess of the Alaskan wilderness, feeding and caring for travelers. I don’t think even Martha Stewart could argue that she should have done it differently.

 

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”Mending Sarah’s Heart” in the Thimbles and Threads Collection

Four historical romances celebrating the arts of sewing and quilting.

Mending Sarah’s Heart by Suzanne Norquist

Rockledge, Colorado, 1884

Sarah seeks a quiet life as a seamstress. She doesn’t need anyone, especially her dead husband’s partner. If only the Emporium of Fashion would stop stealing her customers, and the local hoodlums would leave her sons alone. When she rejects her husband’s share of the mine, his partner Jack seeks to serve her through other means. But will his efforts only push her further away?

For a Free Preview, click here: http://a.co/1ZtSRkK

 

Suzanne Norquist is the author of two novellas, “A Song for Rose” in A Bouquet of Brides Collection and “Mending Sarah’s Heart” in the Thimbles and Threads Collection. Everything fascinates her. She has worked as a chemist, professor, financial analyst, and even earned a doctorate in economics. Research feeds her curiosity, and she shares the adventure with her readers. She lives in New Mexico with her mining engineer husband and has two grown children. When not writing, she explores the mountains, hikes, and attends kickboxing class.

She authors a blog entitled, Ponderings of a BBQ Ph.D.