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The Best Time to Visit the ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Filming Location

Kelsey Goeres — Sun, 11 Jun 2023 12:43:00 +0000

The story of Little House on the Prairie may take place in the Midwest United States, but the show that aired from 1974 to 1983 on NBC was filmed in Simi Valley, California. If you ever want to visit the town that the beloved show was filmed in, here’s the best time to go.

Karen Grassle as Caroline Quiner Holbrook Ingalls, Michael Landon as Charles Philip Ingalls | NBCU Photo Bank

‘Little House on the Prairie’ was filmed at the Big Sky Movie Ranch in Simi Valley, California

Though Little House on the Prairie was set in Minnesota, the show was filmed in a town called Simi Valley in California. Specifically, the Little House cast and crew filmed at Big Sky Movie Ranch.

According to the website, “Big Sky Movie Ranch is a 7,000 plus acre Ranch all within the 30 mile zone. This Southern California preeminent Movie Ranch provides a variety of backgrounds and locations easily accessible for filming. These locations include old ranch house sets, giant oak trees, ponds, grass meadows, valleys, rocky outcroppings, dirt trails, and incredible views overlooking mountains, grassy hills, and more.”

Big Sky Movie Ranch has been the filming location for several shows and films through the years, including: Gunsmoke, Highway to Heaven, Men in Black, Transformers, Wild Bill, Twin Peaks, Jericho, and Coming to America.

When to visit Simi Valley

If you’d like to visit Simi Valley, the town where Little House on the Prairie was filmed, there really isn’t a bad time to go. Simi Valley is a pretty temperate place. The summers can get hot into the 80s and the winters dip into the high 40s in the evenings and reach mid-60s during the day, according to weather.com. But the best times to go are definitely the spring and fall.

In the spring (March through May), Simi Valley boasts beautiful wildflower displays all throughout the area’s parks and nature reserves. It’s the perfect time for such outdoor activities as biking and hiking. During the day, the temperature is typically in the high 60s and low 70s. And the evenings cool off to high 40s and low 50s.

The fall (Sept. through Nov.) is another great time to visit Simi Valley. With slightly cooler temperatures, there aren’t quite as many tourists but the weather is still nice enough to enjoy the beautiful surroundings. The leaves are just beginning to change colors and there’s a crispness in the air that’s refreshing but not cold. Temperatures typically range from high 70s during the day to mid-50s at night.

The ‘Little House on the Prairie’ set was blown up and burned down

In Laura Ingalls actor Melissa Gilbert’s memoir, Prairie Tale, she writes about how Michael Landon blew up most of the Little House set after learning the show had been canceled. He wrote a plot point in the final Little House movie The Last Farewell that involved blowing up the town. He didn’t want the network to be able to reuse any of the show’s set. All that remained by the end of filming was the church.

Eventually, a replica of the homestead was built. But in 2003, it was wiped out in a fire at the Big Sky Movie Ranch.

“It is a total, devastating loss,” Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Leigh Nixon said, according to the Ventura County Star. “That is one of the things Simi was known for.”

After the 2003 fire, yet another replica was set to be built. But that was scorched in a 2019 brush fire that started with a lightning strike. So, today, there’s pretty much nothing left of the Little House on the Prairie set. Just the rolling hills that housed the cast and crew for 10 years.

How Melissa Gilbert Saved a Bird by Trapping It Under Her Nightgown

Kelsey Goeres — Sat, 10 Jun 2023 11:53:00 +0000

Melissa Gilbert had to handle her fair share of animals as Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie. But, apparently, it’s something she does in her real life as well. In her 2022 memoir, Back to the Prairie, the actor goes into her relationship with animals, including one story she shared about saving a bird from her cat with killer instincts.

Melissa Gilbert | Albert L. Ortega/WireImage

Melissa Gilbert’s cat Charlie Chaplin

Gilbert got her tuxedo cat, Charlie Chaplin, when she lived in Los Angeles. In the city of angels, Charlie was a sweet little guy. But as soon as Gilbert moved to Michigan with husband Timothy Busfield, a new side of Charlie presented itself.

“Once he was in the Midwest, he changed from Charlie Chaplin to Charlie Manson,” wrote Gilbert. “We would come home and find his prey laid out for our approval in the living room.”

Charlie’s Michigan conquests included a decapitated squirrel and a bluebird he leapt into the air to catch mid-flight after appearing asleep on the grass.

One time, Gilbert pulled a live chipmunk from Charlie’s mouth. The critter repaid her by biting down on her hand and not letting go. Not sure what to do, she took herself and the chipmunk on her hand to the nature center and asked them: “Can you get this off? Without hurting either of us?”

The time the ‘Little House’ actor saved a robin from Charlie

Gilbert saved many animals from Charlie’s jaws and paws through the years. But, one time, she saved a robin from him by putting it in her nightgown.

She was making some morning tea (still in her nightgown) when she heard some noise coming from the basement. When she went to go inspect what was the matter, she found Charlie with a robin redbreast in his mouth.

“On closer inspection, I saw the bird was still alive,” she wrote. “I also saw it was looking at me with an expression that clearly communicated it wanted me to help.”

She somehow got Charlie to let go of the bird. But as it squawked frantically around the basement, Gilbert saw Charlie readying himself to pounce again to finish the job.

“So I grabbed the bird and shoved it up under my nightgown, which was weird, to say the least,” she wrote. “I didn’t know what the hell to do. Aware that I had to do something, I ran up the stairs and out the door to the end of our front walk, where I lifted up my nightgown and watched the bird fly out and away. I could only imagine what the neighbors must have thought was going on in my crotch region. Like, Oh, my God, she has a magic vagina!”

Another animal safe thanks to Gilbert, and no thanks to Charlie Manson.

Melissa Gilbert’s love of animals

Gilbert doesn’t just try to save animals from attacking cats. She exhibits a distinct comfort around them in general. In her latest book, she describes several encounters with wild animals—the squirrels who live in the walls of the cabin she and Busfield bought in the Catskills, the mice who come in through the fireplace, the baby squirrel she found in LA that was so cute she considered keeping it for a second.

For more animal stories, read Gilbert’s 2022 book, Back to the Prairie: A Home Remade, A Life Rediscovered.

Why Melissa Gilbert Said Meeting Her ‘Scary-Looking’ Neighbor Was Like Something out of a ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Episode

Kelsey Goeres — Sun, 04 Jun 2023 11:19:00 +0000

Melissa Gilbert and husband Timothy Busfield bought a fixer-upper cabin in the Catskills in 2019. One day, as they were getting settled in and doing some work on their new home, a man they’d never seen before pulled up in a truck. It was the couple’s new neighbor, and he was not what they’d expected.

Melissa Gilbert | Albert L. Ortega/WireImage

A stranger pulled up to Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield’s new home

One December day, as Gilbert was doing some work in the kitchen, she heard a truck pull up in front of the house. She wasn’t expecting anyone so she looked out the window to inspect who it was.

“The truck was decorated with all sorts of doodads, metal figurines, and signs, including one that read IF YOU LOOT, WE SHOOT,” Gilbert wrote in her memoir, Back to the Prairie. “It also had a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer head fastened to its grille. Kind of incongruous, until I saw the driver circle around his truck.”

Who walked out was a character Gilbert had never seen before. She braced herself.

“He was built like Hulk Hogan, with long white hair pulled back in a ponytail, a Fu Manchu mustache and goatee, more beads and dangling necklaces than Jack Sparrow, moccasins, a leather vest, feather earrings, and a pearl-handled revolver in a holster on his thigh,” wrote Gilbert. “I clutched the counter and yelled for Tim.”

“Um, honey … I think this is our neighbor!” she called to him.

Gilbert and Busfield’s neighbor, Pete Traina

And that’s exactly who it was, Gilbert and Busfield’s new neighbor had come over to introduce himself. His name was Pete Traina—”actor, stuntman, bodyguard, and sweetheart,” according to Gilbert.

The Laura Ingalls actor says Traina is proof you can’t judge a book by its cover.

“He arrived bearing welcome gifts, including a freshly baked apple pie,” wrote Gilbert. “He also gave us herbs to boil to cleanse the spirit of the house, sage to smudge with, dried apples and other goodies, a book on the local history, and maps of the area.”

It was such a wholesome lesson to relearn—to not judge a book by its cover—that Gilbert couldn’t help but compare it to a Little House on the Prairie episode.

“It was like the end of the first act of a Little House episode: Scary-looking guy shows up and turns out to be an angel in disguise,” she wrote.

Why Gilbert and Busfield moved to the Catskills

Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield | Nick Hagen for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Gilbert and Busfield initially wanted a second home in the Catskills (though now the cabin is their main place of residence). They wanted a peaceful place where they could escape the hustle and bustle of New York City but still be close enough for work.

After a long renovation process, Gilbert and Busfield have found themselves quite happy in their new home.

“Real satisfaction and meaning, for me, at fifty-six years old, came from canning tomatoes and cleaning the chicken coop rather than implants and hair color and other efforts to stop time from marching across my face,” wrote Gilbert.

If the Laura Ingalls actor could sum up the past few years in one word it would be “simplification.” She’s much happier living a simpler life.

“This is what I’ve always wanted,” Gilbert told People of her new life. “I’m finally happy in my own skin. I’m so grateful and relieved and so much happier.”

Why Melissa Gilbert Purged Most of Her ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Memorabilia After Marrying Timothy Busfield

Kelsey Goeres — Wed, 24 May 2023 17:20:35 +0000

Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield got married in 2013. This was both of the actors’ third marriages. They entered the union with some baggage but excited to begin a new, healthy chapter. Part of that chapter included downsizing and getting rid of a bunch of stuff, including Little House on the Prairie memorabilia.

Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield | David Livingston/Getty Images

Melissa Gilbert moved out of Los Angeles

When Gilbert and Busfield first started dating, the Thirtysomething actor lived in Michigan. Gilbert started spending some time there and eventually moved to her new partner’s home state. From there, they moved to New York for work. Eventually, they landed in the Catskills, where they have a small cabin on many acres of land. It’s where they call home today.

“We were living in New York City and wanted a second home where we could escape into peace, quiet, and nature,” Gilbert wrote in her 2022 book Back to the Prairie. “We wanted space to think and breathe and stillness to help us slow down. We wanted to recharge and feel inspired.”

The Melissa Gilbert & Timothy Busfield Michigan Estate Auction

Moving to a smaller home meant Gilbert and Busfield had to get rid of a lot of their belongings.

“I had already said goodbye to the bonnet,” wrote Gilbert. “And the red gingham dress I wore back when I was portraying Laura Ingalls. And the black-and-white Us magazine photo of me pregnant with Dakota. And the wooden sign that said HALF-PINT. And my old Carman Allen boots. And Tim’s autographed scripts from thirtysomething. And his high school baseball jersey. Oh, and seven unopened bags of Morton salt. It was goodbye, adios, adieu to those and more than two hundred other items from our shelves, closets, and kitchen pantry.”

All of these items were up for auction as part of the Melissa Gilbert & Timothy Busfield Michigan Estate Auction. It was a huge success.

“More than fifty-eight thousand people browsed the auction website, more than four hundred people registered to bid, and when the last gavel banged, we were sold out,” she wrote.

A fresh start for Gilbert and Busfield

The auction was about more than simply freeing up space. It was a fresh start for Gilbert and Busfield.

“This was not a Kondo-inspired cleanse; it was more of a Swedish death cleaning,” wrote Gilbert. “It was a purging of the past that had to happen. We needed to let go of things that we had treasured but really didn’t need—not anymore. This was about figuring out what was essential for us and getting rid of anything that might distract from that or weigh us down with the past. Six years earlier I had felt my heart open and given myself permission to follow that into a new marriage. This was about that next essential step: building a life together.”

The couple wasn’t even present at the auction. They were working on fixing up their new home in the Catskills. And there was lots of work to be done. When they’d bought the place, it was completely filled with all the previous owner’s belongings. And none of it was in good shape. Once Gilbert and Busfield cleared their new home of all the unwanted clutter, they felt ready to enjoy their clean slate.

“We weren’t scrubbing away our pasts as much as we were prepping a canvas on which we could paint a future together,” she wrote. “This house was in need of TLC but its bones were solid and we saw the potential it offered.”

How Melissa Gilbert Got Involved in Politics—it Was as Easy as Making a Phone Call

Kelsey Goeres — Sun, 21 May 2023 09:01:00 +0000

After Melissa Gilbert moved to Michigan with her husband Timothy Busfield, she became interested in the local politics. She was particularly interested in the state’s 2014 gubernatorial campaign that had Democrat Mark Schauer running against Republican incumbent Rick Snyder. She liked Schauer and his running mate, Lisa Brown, and wanted to support them. So Gilbert and Busfield made some phone calls to get the former Little House on the Prairie star involved.

Melissa Gilbert | Nick Hagen for The Washington Post via Getty Images

How Melissa Gilbert came to help Mark Schauer’s campaign

Gilbert liked Schauer and Brown and what they stood for. She also disliked Snyder.

“The more I read, the more I felt that this guy Rick Snyder was a typical neocon, antifeminist, anti- choice, anti-immigrant, xenophobic, homophobic, creepy climate denier,” she wrote in her 2022 memoir Back to the Prairie.

It “infuriated” Gilbert to think of Michigan, a previously progressive state, turning purple. She felt called to support Schauer and Brown. So, one day at the gym with Busfield, Gilbert asked her husband what she should do.

“Let’s make some phone calls,” he said. “We’ll find them.”

And they did. They found their campaign headquarters. Busfield explained that his wife wanted to get involved and they were more than happy to accept the help.

The ‘Little House’ actor’s involvement in the campaign

Schauer and Brown’s team put Gilbert to work right away. She went door-to-door, handed out pamphlets, made appearances, and did some public speaking whenever the candidates couldn’t make an event.

When election day came, Gilbert got up early to vote and then spent the day with Schauer and Brown on their campaign bus.

“We finished at one of the large hotels in Detroit, where we decamped to a floor with all the state’s Democratic candidates and regrouped in our own big suite later that evening, watching the returns,” wrote Gilbert.

It quickly became clear that Schauer and Brown were not going to receive the results the team had hoped for.

“It was just crushing to sit there and lose,” wrote Gilbert. “I needed a few days of quiet and isolation to recover from the defeat and set aside all the work I was ready to do and the plans I was eager to launch.”

How Melissa Gilbert decided to run for Congress

Despite the devastating loss, Gilbert regarded her time working with Schauer and Brown as an overwhelmingly positive experience.

“The campaign experience left me feeling good about the way I had spent my time,” she wrote. “I liked being with people, hearing their stories, and letting them know I would try to figure out a way to help.”

So when she received a proposal from Schauer following the election, she was all ears. He called her one day to catch up and to ask her if she’d be interested in running for Congress in her district.

“It took a moment to make sense of those words,” she wrote. “I asked the obvious question: Why me? Mark said he had observed the way I listened to people tell me their problems and genuinely tried to help them. He felt I belonged in service. Service was one thing, and politics was another. I was flattered.”

She told Schauer that she needed time to think about it and talk things over with Busfield. Of course, she eventually decided to go for it. Though would end her campaign prematurely due to health concerns.

Melissa Gilbert Spent Her 50th Birthday Crying at a Spiritual Center

Kelsey Goeres — Thu, 18 May 2023 18:12:39 +0000

Melissa Gilbert recently turned 59. She had a quiet day with her family, which she said was “heaven.” As the former Little House on the Prairie star enjoys her last year in her 50s, let’s look back at how she began the decade: having a moving experience at a spiritual center.

Melissa Gilbert | Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

Melissa Gilbert wanted to do something ‘quiet and reflective’ for her 50th birthday

Gilbert couldn’t have ignored turning 50 if she’d wanted to. Publications and sites ran headlines like “Half-Pint Reaches Half a Century” for months leading up to May 8. But she didn’t want to ignore it. She also didn’t want to celebrate with a big blowout, as she’d done for milestone birthdays in the past.

“For fifty, I decided that I’d had enough crazy to last a lifetime,” she wrote in her 2022 memoir, Back to the Prairie. “I thought something quiet and reflective was most appropriate for this milestone.”

So her husband, Timothy Busfield, took her to the Meher Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It’s not somewhere Gilbert would have thought to go on her own, but she was happy for Busfield’s suggestion.

“We got there and I stared at my husband with deep admiration,” she wrote. “How did he know? Because, ladies and gentlemen, that’s Timothy Busfield.”

The Meher Spiritual Center

The Meher Spiritual Center is a celebration of Meher Baba, an Indian spiritual master. The grounds feature lakes, beaches, and forestry across five hundred acres. When Gilbert and Busfield stayed there, they stayed in a small cabin for $35 a night where they unplugged and disconnected from the outside world.

“There were no phones, TVs, newspapers, or even classes to take,” she wrote. “Just a quiet that was blanketed with Baba’s message of love.”

Gilbert and Busfield spent their days resting and lost in thought “on a deeply spiritual level.”

Melissa Gilbert’s experience in Meher Baba’s bedroom

Melissa Gilbert | Nick Hagen for The Washington Post via Getty Images

There were several places on the grounds that were preserved exactly as they were when Meher Baba roamed the center in the 1960s. One of those places was Baba’s bedroom. Visitors are permitted to visit the bedroom and rest their heads on his bed, a spiritual ritual that allows the person to connect with Baba’s spirit. Gilbert was skeptical but tried to enter the space open-mindedly.

“In addition to all my natural skepticism, I wasn’t interested in acquiring any more or any new religion in my life, but I had been enjoying my time in this outdoor temple and relishing the rejuvenating effects of being immersed in nature for days, and so I gamely followed Tim into this bedroom,” she wrote.

Her reaction to the experience surprised her.

“Then, when it was my turn to go in, I laid my forehead on the bed and my whole face started leaking tears, like I was binge-crying uncontrollable tears full of joy,” she wrote. “It was the strangest, weirdest thing, and I loved it. I sailed out of there on a carpet of bliss.”

Gilbert felt the experience was a great way to start off her 50s. We’ll have to wait and see what Half-Pint does to ring in her 60s.

Melissa Gilbert Called ‘DWTS’ ‘the Ultimate Spray-Tan-Glitter-Fake-Hair-Fake-Everything Festival of Falsity’

Kelsey Goeres — Tue, 09 May 2023 18:43:53 +0000

Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert competed on Dancing With The Stars in March 2012 as part of the Season 14 cast. Her partner was Maksim Chmerkovskiy, whom she still ‘gets along with “adores” to this day. But she has complicated feelings about the show itself. The Laura Ingalls actor was on DWTS during a time when she was on the cusp of learning who the real Melissa Gilbert is. And, as it turns out, DWTS doesn’t agree with the real Melissa Gilbert.

Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Melissa Gilbert | Adam Taylor / Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

Melissa Gilbert felt like she had to do ‘Dancing With The Stars’ to prove that her back had healed

Gilbert broke her back when she was playing Laura Ingalls’ mother in the touring musical of Little House on the Prairie back in 2009. But she didn’t learn she’d broken her back until after the musical had wrapped. So she trudged through the tour by receiving steroids and epidural nerve blocks. Once a doctor told her that she’d been walking around (and singing and dancing) with a broken back, she underwent surgery. The healing process was long a grueling (and it’s actually when the actor started questioning her second marriage to Bruce Boxleitner).

Three years and one divorce later, Gilbert was asked to be on Dancing With the Stars. At the time, she felt like she had something to prove.

“I got invited to be part of the ultimate spray-tan-glitter-fake-hair-fake-everything festival of falsity, except for the fact I was training nonstop and telling myself that I had to do this farkakte show to prove that my back was healed and I could do anything I wanted,” she wrote in her 2022 memoir Back to the Prairie.

The ‘Little House’ alum calls her ‘DWTS’ experience ‘agonizing’

No one on DWTS ever calls their time on the show easy. Gilbert says her experience was “hands-down the most agonizing, painful, physical, emotional, exhausting thing I had done in my life at that point.”

What’s more, she felt the whole philosophy of the show “skewed [her] life the wrong way.” It’s not something she would do today.

Despite the toll the show took on Gilbert’s mind and body, she really did enjoy being paired with her partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, whom she calls “a demanding, generous, warm, temperamental, funny, difficult, charming, talented, and emotional perfectionist.”

She says she still adores him to this day.

Melissa Gilbert’s ‘DWTS’ concussion

If you watched Season 14 of DWTS, surely you remember the drama of Gilbert’s concussion. It took place during week four when the couple was dancing the Paso Doble. She hit her head on her partner’s leg and was taken to the hospital that night.

“Our paso doble was one of the hardest things I had ever tried to learn,” she wrote. “It proved that I really could tackle anything that I put my mind to, and my body would follow, sometimes reluctantly, but damn it, it did as requested. On the live broadcast, our paso started with a surprisingly impressive combination of speed, precision, and Spanish flair. But as Maks and I approached the climactic drop spin, I got too close to him and catastrophe struck. His feet caught my head and neck, and suddenly the six-foot-two-inch Ukrainian went flying while I screamed in pain.”

Gilbert’s instinct was to walk it off and act like she wasn’t in pain. But she knew it wasn’t good. An ambulance took her to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a severe concussion and whiplash and sent home to rest.

Not too long after Gilbert’s time on the show, she realized she needed to make a big change. She was tired of the glitz, glam, and hyper-competitiveness of Hollywood. She wanted to take her life in a new direction.

Melissa Gilbert on the ‘Mean’ Boyfriend She Had After Divorcing Bruce Boxleitner

Kelsey Goeres — Tue, 09 May 2023 01:40:33 +0000

After Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert divorced her second husband, Bruce Boxleitner, she quickly started dating someone who, in hindsight, wasn’t good for her. He seemed to have all the bad qualities of every boyfriend she’d ever had, all wrapped up in one person.

Melissa Gilbert | Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Melissa Gilbert ‘raced into [a] new relationship’ after her divorce from Bruce Boxleitner

After Gilbert and Boxleitner divorced, the Laura Ingalls actor was eager to make up for lost time when it came to dating. At the same time, she was coming to terms with being an actress in Los Angeles in her forties. So she got the Botox, she colored her hair, she bought a convertible, and started dating a “slightly younger but wildly inappropriate French dude.”

“Feeling like I had been tamped down and muzzled for far too long, I raced into my new relationship status, trying to make up for lost time and recapture the freedom I remembered from my youth,” wrote Gilbert in her 2022 memoir Back to the Prairie. “I knew I wasn’t a kid anymore, but I wasn’t ready or willing to concede any ground. All women experience enormous pressure to look and stay young and attractive but, as I discovered, being a single woman in your forties in Los Angeles is a whole different league of pressure, and being an actress looking for work in an industry obsessed with youth ratchets that up even further.”

Melissa Gilbert’s boyfriend was ‘every lesson [she] refused to learn’

Gilbert told herself that her new French boyfriend was “fresh, fun, and proof that I was still desirable.”

But really he was bad news.

“He was all the bad behaviors of anyone with whom I had ever been involved, married or otherwise, rolled into one package,” she wrote. “He was every lesson I refused to learn.”

She saw some of her first husband, Bo Brinkman, in him. A little of her second. He even had some of ex-boyfriend Rob Lowe’s bad-boy qualities.

“He was mean. He was not generous. He was self-centered. He was vain. He was judgmental. He was chauvinistic. He was xenophobic. He was uber-conservative politically. And he was obvious about it,” she said of her then-boyfriend.

The ‘Little House on the Prairie’ star ended the relationship

Melissa Gilbert with Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Val Chmerkovskiy | Adam Taylor/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

You may be wondering: Did this guy have any redeeming qualities? Why did the Laura Ingalls actor stay with him? Gilbert writes that because he was so attractive and came from a “truly lovely family,” she “held on to the threads of possibilities.” But he kept letting her down.

They dated throughout her time on Dancing With the Stars, which she calls “the most agonizing, painful, physical, emotional, exhausting” thing she’d done in her life at that point. Her unnamed boyfriend didn’t provide sympathy or support as she progressed through the show.

After an injury unrelated to the dancing competition (though she had her fair share of DWTS-related injuries, too), Gilbert began reflecting on her life and decided she needed to make a change.

“My life clearly wasn’t working,” she wrote. “I couldn’t be with inappropriate dudes anymore. I couldn’t continue to do these things to my face and my body. I had to figure out who I was and where I was headed and what was good and healthy for me.”

So she called “the Frenchman” and told him not to come visit her anymore. And that was the end of that.

Read more about Gilbert’s life and relationships in Back to the Prairie: A Home Remade, A Life Rediscovered.

How Melissa Gilbert Spent Her 59th Birthday

Kelsey Goeres — Mon, 08 May 2023 19:48:20 +0000

Melissa Gilbert turns 59 today on Monday May 8, 2023. Best known for playing Laura Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, Gilbert’s life looks a lot different these days. She’s hung up her Hollywood heels for a pair of boots she can get dirty in the chicken coop. Her birthday this year fits in perfectly with her new life. “This is heaven,” she said of the day.

Melissa Gilbert | Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images

Melissa Gilbert moved to the Catskills with husband Timothy Busfield in 2019

Gilbert and her husband Thirtysomething actor Timothy Busfield bought a 14-acre property with a rundown cottage in the Catskills in 2019. The couple was craving open space and an escape from city living. When they bought the home, it was moldy, bug-infested, and filled with musty furniture. But that didn’t scare off Gilbert and Busfield, who became DIY pros throughout the course of fixing up their new little slice of heaven. Today, they live there full-time, with their chickens, dog, and luscious garden. The Little House on the Prairie actor says she’s never been happier.

Melissa Gilbert’s 59th birthday was spent with family

Looking at the Instagram post Gilbert posted on her birthday, it seems the actor spent her special day with family.

The photo shows Gilbert sitting down, hair up in a messy bun with glasses on, holding a sleeping toddler.

“This is 59,” she wrote. “This is heaven. Thank you all for the wonderful heartfelt birthday wishes. This Nana sends you oceans of love. Xoxo #lastbirtdayinmy50s #lovinglife #proudgrandma #nana #nanapint.”

Gilbert has two biological children — Dakota Brinkman (who she had with her first husband Bo Brinkman) and Michael Boxleitner (who she had with her second husband Bruce Boxleitner). Between herself and Busfield, the couple have several grandchildren: Ruby, Ripley, Rosemary, and Eli.

What the Little House on the Prairie alum is up to these days

Melissa Gilbert | Nick Hagen for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Besides living in her newly renovated cottage, tending to her garden and chickens, and enjoying being a grandmother, Gilbert is still keeping plenty busy with work. She has a lifestyle brand called Modern Prairie, which is “centered around modern, mature women and their needs, focusing on empowering them to regain their confidence through aging.” Gilbert and co share recipes, kitchen tools, clothing, and houseware with their audience. She also conducts interviews with “Modern Mavens, who have come from different backgrounds and life experiences.”

“At Modern Prairie, we want to […] create a space where women can share their stories, ask questions and learn from each other,” reads the website.

Additionally, Gilbert has a podcast (that is sponsored by Modern Prairie) called The Knitty Gritty podcast, which she hosts with Susie Shubert. The podcast explores “all the good things and the wisdom and freedom that come with growing older. Okay, they may touch on some of the bad… and quite possibly the down-right ugly…after all, knit happens. No matter what–aging gratefully, unapologetically, with laughter, and celebrating it together is what matters most.”

Gilbert is also close enough to New York for acting projects. Besides the theater she’s taken part in over the last few years, she’s acted in the TV movies: When We Last Spoke, Hometown Christmas, and Tenure.

Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield Bought a Moldy, Bug-Infested House Complete With Musty Furniture

Kelsey Goeres — Sun, 07 May 2023 07:36:00 +0000

When Little House on the Prairie actor Melissa Gilbert and husband Thirtysomething actor Timothy Busfield bought a small home in the Catskills, it wasn’t much to look at. From the outside it appeared dilapidated, from the inside it smelled of must. But what was interesting about the cabin was that the previous owners had seemingly up and left all of their previous belongings — from cereal in the cupboards to shampoo in the shower. Still, that didn’t scare off Gilbert and Busfield. They bought the “little house” and made it into their own special haven.

Timothy Busfield and Melissa Gilbert | Bruce Glikas/Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic

Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield’s first impression of the home

The first impression of the little cabin in the mountains was mixed. The couple’s realtor was visibly unsure.

“Huh, this is the house you like?” she asked, according to Gilbert in her 2022 book, Back to the Prairie.

The outside appeared to be falling apart. The roof looked like it needed work and the stucco was chipping off.

But the property was the showstopper. There weren’t neighbors for miles. The air was fresh, mountainous, and the surrounding woods were lush. Gilbert and Busfield wanted to move to the Catskills partially to get away from the hustle and bustle of New York City. They wanted open space. The property attached to this dilapidated little house certainly gave them that.

“I remember once reading in Thoreau’s journal that he came to the woods like ‘a hungry man to a crust of bread.’ I saw that in Tim’s eyes. I was more like a woman arriving at a restorative yoga class,” wrote Gilbert.

Gilbert and Busfield’s new home appeared abandoned

What was eerie about the inside of the home was that it seemed as though whoever lived in the cabin previously had suddenly up and left without bringing anything with them. All of the musty furniture was still there. The walls were adorned with decaying deer heads. There were dirty dishes in the sink, clothes in the bedrooms, soap in the shower.

“Whoever lived here, it’s like they were just raptured up,” Gilbert told her husband.

The Laura Ingalls actor couldn’t help but be curious about the people who had lived there before them.

“People talk about staging homes,” she wrote. “This was anti-staging. Something about the scene felt dire and sad. There was a story here, but it had been left unfinished. The last act was a blank page.”

Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield | Nick Hagen for The Washington Post via Getty Images

‘We decided to make an offer’

Despite everything — the smell, the furniture, the deer heads — Gilbert and Busfield saw the potential of the place. So they made an offer. After passing inspections, the couple got the house for ninety thousand dollars—”beer money for George Clooney,” writes Gilbert. It was a far less extravagant home purchase than other actors were making at the time, so the buy wasn’t covered in the Times or other publications. The property was simply marked as “off market” on Zillow. All the same, Gilbert and Busfield celebrated with champagne.

Read more about the transformation of Gilbert and Busfield’s mountainside home in Back to the Prairie: A Home Remade, A Life Rediscovered by Gilbert.