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Stepping Back in Time: An Old-Fashioned Threshing Bee
History fascinates me. When I’m not geeking out over agriculture and photography, I’m a total nerd about things that happened decades and centuries ago. Each Labor Day, there is an old-fashioned...
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Photography: How I Shoot
Photography is like picking up a clod of dirt. It gets under your fingernails, and it’s hard to get clean. Ever since I started playing with my mom’s 35mm point and shoot film camera in the 90s, I’ve...
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Putting the Western into Tree-Hugger
Had the crack team at work yesterday. The kiddos had appointments to pick up new shoes, so it was just me and my favorite old man Gus. He is an ace. Attacks the hills, super cowy and goes over and...
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The Intimacy of Manual Mode in Photography
If you want to shoot your camera in manual mode, be prepared for long walks on the beach and hours of one-on-one meetings with your resident dSLR. Manual mode photography requires intimacy. If you...
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Navigating Your Share-a-holic Life
How do you navigate in this share-a-holic society? Because that’s where we live. The advent of social media has turned a current of yearning to share into a torrential tidal wave of share-a-holics in...
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Ditch the Plan, Drive in the Direction
In the 3,200 miles I drove to Iowa and back this month, I did a lot of thinking. You’re hard-pressed to ignore those things you’ve been avoiding when it’s you, half a country of highway and no radio...
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She’s not a great cow.
If you had an employee who did nothing for a year but drink your coffee, play your computer games and shoot the breeze with coworkers, would you keep that employee on the payroll? Of course not. You...
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That Tom Horse
He was a walkin’ horse, and not of the Tennessee kind, Barn boards for legs, bony of hip and a bit cranky in the eye. That Tom horse was no real looker unless you like ‘em raw, But he moved out quicker...
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5 Lessons from the Unpopular
I just finished The Power of Unpopular: A guide to building your brand for the audience who will love you (and why no one else matters) by Erika Napoletano of Redhead Writing. At first glance, this...
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IOU: A Homemade Christmas
A cedar tree cut from the pasture. Flannel shirts. Blizzards. Overflow of food – gravy! Piling into a mid-70s Ford pick-up to tackle the backroads to grandma’s house. Reading about the birth of Jesus...
View ArticleWhen Dreams Look Like Cow Pies and Calving Season
Don’t dream your life; live your dream. When I was a girl lying in bed waiting for sleep to claim me, I daydreamed. I made up these elaborate mind movies, and they were all about one thing: cattle...
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If Cows Really Were Purple
The idea of a purple cow was made popular by Seth Godin in his book Purple Cow about marketing. As most things garnished with a Seth Godin stamp, the concept is brilliant. Here’s an excerpt from the...
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Who’s gonna fill their shoes?
They don’t make country music like they used to. That racket the new country radio stations are playing? I don’t know what it is, but it isn’t country. I’m not sure most of it is even music. I’m...
View ArticleRanch Life Realities: It’s not all romance.
I lost THE book. And the binoculars, but magnifying glasses for creepers can be replaced. I LOST the BOOK in the middle of a thousand acres of wheat stubble. Each calf’s color, gender and birth date...
View ArticleThe Fitting Room
The last thing I wrote about was calving season. Now here we are in mid-August, the summer slipping silently past into the river of no return. It’s been eight months since I started a new life. I’m...
View ArticleChatted with 5-year-old you lately?
The first cold snap has enveloped us. The last remnants of fall slipped out the window, and the chilly fingers of impending winter snaked in the door. I’m a rebellious five-year-old all over again,...
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Baxter Black on the Airplane Mini Screen
The only logical explanation is the airline is using hidden cameras to spy on me. Here’s how it went down. I get on the plane last night. I pulled the short straw with a middle seat so I got in and out...
View ArticleHere’s lookin’ at you
Well, I thought I could let this slide past. I was tempted to say nothing, and I still am. But just like a white cow in a black herd, you notice when someone who authors a blog doesn’t show up for a...
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What if I…failed?
“Oh, umm, I can’t make it out this weekend. I have other plans. Maybe next weekend?” With the dial tone ringing in my ear, I shook my head. Plans, Erica? Maybe curling up on the couch for a Grey’s...
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