Blame it on Laura Ingalls Wilder: Deep down, I always wanted to be a pioneer. I wasn’t raised on a farm, and when and if we did have a yard depending on where we moved, it was always pretty small. I remember reading one of the Little House books, perched by my window, where Laura and her sister Mary harvested potatoes and turnips to be stored for the winter. I looked out the window of where we lived then, a townhouse my parents were renting, just to see a long row of sidewalk and the window of the replica townhouse across the way. We didn’t have a yard then, but I fantasized about planting potatoes and turnips in the flower boxes down below.