{ "item_title" : "Almost Pioneers", "item_author" : [" John Fry "], "item_description" : "In the fall of 1913, Laura and Earle Smith, a young Iowa couple, made the gutsy--some might say foolhardy--decision to homestead in Wyoming. There, they built their first house, a claim shanty half dug out of the ground, hauled every drop of their water from a spring over a half-mile away, and fought off rattlesnakes and boredom on a daily basis. Soon, other families moved to nearby homesteads, and the Smiths built a house closer to those neighbors. The growing community built its first public schoolhouse and celebrated the Fourth of July together--although the festivities were cut short because of snow. By 1917, however, the Smiths had moved back to Iowa, leasing their land to a local rancher and using the proceeds to fund Earle's study of law. The Smiths lived in Iowa for most of the rest of their lives, and sometime after the mid-1930s, Laura wrote this clear, vivid, witty, and self-deprecating memoir of their time in Wyoming, a book that captures the pioneer spirit of the era and of the building of community against daunting odds. ", "item_img_path" : "https://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/76/278/439/0762784393_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "16.95", "online_price" : "16.95", "our_price" : "16.95", "club_price" : "16.95", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "16.95" } }

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