Dreadlock Girl
24Apr/095

Heart Z Ranch, Crawfordsville Oregon.

Last weekend we went to Crawfordsville, there is so much to see on the way! I was happy to not be driving so I could hang my camera out the window for some shots off of Peoria Road. It is so pretty.


Lazy M Ranch is Brad's Grandparents ranch. His uncle John does most of the ranch stuff now though. It is really fun to go out there with the boys.




Why does food always taste better in the country? Well I think it is because you work for it!

After a good lunch we went to 'help' Uncle John load some cattle at Heart Z Ranch. He bought some little Holsteins for a friend. They are about 6 months old here.











I learned some things when we went to the ranch. Holsteins are not the kind of cows a rancher wants to buy, they are cheap and dairy cows...but are only good for hamburger meat. I didn't know that, maybe you did. Brad's uncle bought them for the lady who is on the fence in the pictures. She wants them to train stock dogs, which are dogs who herd cattle.

Info bit number two is that not all bulls have horns, and some cows have horns!Yea, Mr. Heart Z Rancher thought I was joking when I was astounded that that "black cow" in with the babes was a bull."Well, hey! I grew up in Spain, man where no bull would be caught dead without horns!" I told him, he laughed and said that many Mexican cattle have horns too, but that most American ranchers opt to breed it out, or dehorn babies- since horns can be pretty dangerous to people and to the other cattle. Every time I go I learn more, I love the whole thing.

Thanks Uncle John, it is always fun to 'hang out' and learn from you! Oh, and he gave us some Tenderloin S
teaks- yes, we are vegetarians but, only fair weather veggies as we are always willing to make exceptions. Especially for tenderloin from Knee Deep Cattle Company it is Free Range Beef, Born and raised on Oregon's lush green pastures. No added Antibiotics or Hormones. (a company based out of Eugene, Oregon!) He also gave us jerky from Knee Deep Cattle Company- the owner of the company is in the pictures above in the blue hat on the fence. She warned us, " make sure you refrigerate the jerky after opening it, as we don't use any preservatives!" I just had to laugh. " You know this will be gone before we get home, right?" I asked. "Well good!" she answered smiling.

We all worked hard, and the boys were certainly ready for some good rest at the end of the busy day.

I would love to live in the country. And I love jerky. I love Oregon.

6Jan/0915

My Antonia

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My Antonia
by Willa Cather
250 pages
Fiction

Told through the voice of her childhood friend Jim Burden, Antonia becomes a beloved character for what she endures, what she gives out and mostly how she inspires. Antonia is an immigrant girl who moves with her family to the plains of Nebraska. There is so much in this book, people learning to accept immigrants and their customs, people getting along, childhood memories, and yet My Antonia is mostly about a woman, her choices, her value and the endurance of love.

This book has been sitting on my shelf for about a year or so. I needed a change of pace and picked it up, I could smack myself for not doing so sooner. I loved My Antonia. It is hard for me to explain all the reasons, but I know that the most significant was the value of unending love and friendship. Jim holds his love for Antonia for years and years, if not in his day to day life in his memory. The unyielding life that the main characters show and just the nitty-gritty of growing up as pioneers is extremely enchanting.

Technically I read this this year (2009) but I can still say that it is in my top 5 books ever. I tried and failed to find even one imperfection with My Antonia, I am stunned by Willa Cather's ability, she did win the Pulitzer prize and know for sure I will have to grab another of her books soon. My Antonia was simple, beautiful and I enjoyed reading every word.

My Antonia easily earned a Stellar Five Chicken Book Award from me!

9Dec/087

Wife in the North


Title: Wife In The North

Author: Judith o' Reilly

Pages:352

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Genre: memoir

Yearly Count b:92

So many times we mothers are faced with the decision of being honest about our daily struggles or pretending that we have it all together so that our friends will think better of us. haha, all my friends know I am the freak mom that has chickens in her backyard and lets her kids get really (REALLY) dirty, life is too short! In Wife in the North, her fears, her doubts and her temper tantrums are all laid bare as a release. Judith began documenting her struggles in the form of a daily diary on her blog, Wife in the North and soon it took off, took off into a book contract for the book named by her blog title, Wife in the North.

Judith is a mother, a wife and a city girl who will have to adapt to living in the country for a set period of time. At least she has that, that after the alloted time period the family will make the choice to stay in the northern far-and-away town with no good shopping, or they will embrace the chaos and business of city life by moving back to London. Judith in this memoir is not into sugar coating anything, she hates it. She lives daily in loathing of where she is at and wishing that her husband would come home from his business trips and stay with them for a while. Judith speaks of loneliness, loss and the desire to fit in and at the same time not fit in because that would alter her London city girl image.

I enjoyed this read, I did find it a tad bit negative, but really if I had my inner thoughts written on paper they would be slightly to extremely negative depending on what was being asked of me. More than anything I eat up honesty and Wife in the North is filled with it. I could feel her grief, her loss, her loneliness and feelings of not belonging, not fitting, and that her kids were driving her crazy. It was extremely personable. If you enjoy memoirs, read this one and tell me what you think!

I will soon have an author interview and a giveaway for your own copy of Wife In the North, so stay tuned :) In the mean time, answer me this: What kind of mom or dad are you? Do you let your kids practice the 10 second rule (in our house it is more like the minute rule!)? Do you scrub everything bare with disinfectant and essential oils? What does your day look like as a parent?

Here is her blog, it is really funny, take a look: Wife In The North

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