Latest Obsession

I blame Erin Coleman - completely and totally - for my latest obsession.

She pointed me in The Pioneer Woman's direction, and before I knew it I was reading "Black Heels and Tractor Wheels" instead of watching TV. Yes, seriously. Its the tale of Ree Drummond's whirlwind romance to her husband, full of the drama you'd expect from a novel but not real life. I felt like a fly on the wall of her life, experiencing the emotional upheavals she openly presented to those who cared to read.

She posts about the ups and downs of living on an Oklahoma Cattle Ranch, including photos of the adorable cows and rugged cowboys that make a gal's heart sing. Her basset hound Charlie is simply adorable - I'm sure Sumatra would have a field day (ha ha) with him! The stories are well-written and openly describe the ups, downs, and somewhat cringe factor side of ranching. Her photos breathe life with their images of sweeping plains, ice coated grasses and the remodel projects of site buildings.

Reading her stories remind me of a childhood obsession with all things farm life. I read the Little House novels many times, even got to visit Laura Ingalls Wilder's home in the middle of Kansas. The Young Riders - remember that one? - was filled with all the horses, cowboys and prairie dust a young girl could want. How could I have forgotten that love for huge open skies, wild winds, and a life free of paved roads and emergency sirens?

Don't get me wrong - city life has the joys of cafe's (where would I be without Benetti's) and stores merely minutes away. I can't help thinking, though, that trading those things in for a house in the middle of nowhere wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Who knows - it could happen, right? I'll keep thinking and dreaming about this one.

Happy Town

I'm all about a good Gothic show, so when I saw the ads for ABC's Happy Town I was intrigued. Set in Haplin, Minnesota, the pilot episode does what a good pilot episode does: explain the basic premise of the show and introduce key characters. I was happy to see Amy Acker - I've enjoyed her work on Angel, Alias, and Dollhouse. This time around she plays the wife of the sheriff's son and mother to their young daughter.

While some of the story didn't seem very original - when a mysterious young woman moves to small town you sort of expect all the single men to be interested and that she'll prove to be a key character. There are several characters you'd expect to see in a small town - odd lady that runs a boarding house, rich couple that basically runs the town, overly friendly business people that fill in the new person (and thus the audience) on who's who and what's what.

That said, I love that the show is working to fill a niche that's difficult on network television. Killing off a character in the first five minutes is pretty rare - and they basically gave us a glimpse of The Magic Man (aka The Bad Guy) at the same time. There were a few things that happened that were somewhat unexpected and I'll be interested to see where the story goes next week. There are some fairly well recognized actors on the show - wonder how long they'll survive!?!?

Given the buzz about last year's Harper's Island (which I adored!), I wasn't surprised to see a similar style show pop up on another network - here's hoping Happy Town lasts more than one season.

Garden Update

After the rains last weekend flooded my garden patch, I was anxious to get back to it! The last few evenings have seen me hurrying home from work so I could take advantage of every daylight hour possible to dig out weeds and get things planted. One of these days I'll replace the light fixture over my back door so I can stay out even longer - but that's a project for another time.

After diligently checking the forecast over the past few days, tonight seemed like the ideal time to get my tomato and pepper plants into the soil. The temperature's been a bit low the past few nights, and my trusty Farmer's Almanac says ideally these should be planted when its no lower than 50 degrees. I love this book - its filled with so much common sense that I can't believe I haven't gotten one before this.

Anyway, back to the garden. Last weekend I picked up heirloom tomatoes, peppers, and herbs from my local Ace Hardward. I only started shopping there recently, but its quickly become my go-to home project store - and not just because its closer than Lowe's. Their dedication to customer service is awesome - the workers ask me if I need help instead of turning and walking away. Yes, that's happened to me!The plants are gorgeous and my photos don't do them justice - should have taken them after they'd been watered.

I have one more large bed to fill - likely with squash - and I plan to build 2 more small ones (3 x3) to go under the arches. To me the garden already looks lovely, and I can't wait to see how my plants do as the season progresses.

Raiding the Library

My local Mid-Continent Library branch was closed for a couple weeks to do some updating and rearranging. I didn't realize how dependent I'd grown until it was taken away - serious withdrawal from new books and old TV series on DVD.

Its a good thing I have a library in my home, huh?

I love a good fantasy series, and a few years ago I ran across George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series while browsing at Half-Price Books. I read through the first book in a couple days, thanks to warm summer weather and a backyard hammock. I picked them up again this weekend and remembered why I'd run through the series (4 novels thus far) so quickly.

The chapter titles are the name of the character on which it focuses, so as I became interested in the characters it was hard to put down the book. Jon Snow, bastard son of Eddard Stark, intrigued me. Rather than feeling sorry for himself and lack of status, he chose the path of his life and set to it with the integrity of a true-born. Arya Stark preferred learning sword-play to lady-like behavior, and the circumstances that came across the Stark household made that seem a good choice.

Daenarys is perhaps my favorite character. The last princess of the old king, she found herself married to a foreign price at the age of 13. Having a mad older brother taught her the intrigue and self-reliance - she found her footing in her new society quickly, though her pet dragons definitely help sway people.

The deeper I got into the series the more characters intrigued, Tyrion and Jaime Lannister, Bran Stark; seemingly minor characters that soon drew chapter titles of their own. Seemingly minor decisions proved to have incredible impact, and I'm finding in my re-read that many of them were introduced in the opening chapters of the first book.

Book 5 is a LOOOOOOONG time coming in the US - wish I'd remembered to pick it up when I was in Europe last fall, but I was much more obsessed with picking up the new Wheel of Time novel at that point. Ah well. I love re-reading novels since I pick up new things each time. Guess that will have to do me in this series for a bit.

Baking exploits

Somewhere along the lines I became a bit obsessed with baking my own breads. Was the discovery that kneading dough is a great way to release stress, the amazing aroma of fresh baked bread filling my home, or the taste of preservative free loveliness? Most likely a combination of all - with a heavy dose of the latter. Yes, it takes time, but I've found if I coordinate my day appropriately, it's not that hard. It's pretty easy to knock out a loaf or two after work during the week - but I especially love spending an entire Saturday baking.

That's what happened today - and I tried out a new recipe. Several years back my lovely family gifted me several Williams-Sonoma cookbooks, including one dedicated to Bread. MMM. If you follow my sister's blog, you've seen the challah I baked earlier this year for Easter. Well, the bagel recipe (a 2-pager!) has been calling to me for a while, and I finally tried it out. Don't let yeast scare you, people - try baking bread!

After you've baked a few loaves, you'll begin to see that bread recipes are basically the same. The differences come down to the amount of sugar, oil, whether milk is used in the dough, and its shape. Bagels also add a step of boiling the circles of dough prior to baking, which is what gives them their lovely texture. For a first time out, these turned out fairly well - though I must remember that waxed paper and parchment paper are NOT the same thing (fire alarms were my hint, sigh). The recipe made a dozen, which is more than enough for a single gal like me, and they taste simply amazing. I topped four with poppy seeds, four with kosher salt, and left four plain. I have some leftover mascarpone cheese, and it tastes lovely mixed with fresh strawberries and spread on a plain bagel.

What about Lost?

Ah faithful readers and fellow TV viewers. If you know me at all, you're probably wondering - why in the world isn't she writing about Lost? Its the final season, the finale is just a month away (cue tears), and questions are being answered on a weekly basis. There's much to discuss, so let's chat about it already.

The sad truth is, well, I'm in denial.

I've loved watching Jack, Kate, Sawyer (mmm), Hugo, Sayid, Desmond (double mmm), Claire, Charlie (oh dear, cue more tears), Jin and Sun evolve over the past six season. Characters that drove me absolutely crazy in the beginning have now woven themselves into my consciousness and taken up residence. I faithfully purchase the DVD sets as soon as they are available, setting aside whole days to marathon through and relive scenes, catching previously missed clues and nuances. Before each new season began I did a marathon of the previous season(s) to make sure I remembered key story lines.

It's a momentous thing to wrap up a TV-realm-changing series is a meaningful (aka non-cheesy) way. I have no doubt the lovely writers/actors/crew have done a great job - and while I have my theories about the ending, my fingers are crossed that I'll be dumbstruck once again at the final episode of the season.

Family Yard Work Day

While I love owning my own home, there are times when I find it a bit overwhelming. This is especially true in the springtime - I tend to forget how large my yard is until I begin clearing out brush and prepping my garden patches. Its difficult for me to ask for help with things, but God's blessed me with an amazingly handy brother in law who's ready and willing to help out if I ask.

So yesterday my lovely sis, her handy husband, and my adorable niece and nephew arrived with tools (and food!) in hand to help me complete a long list of projects. Rach is always telling me I need to take photos of the work I've done in the yard - photo taking isn't something I'm drawn to - and she's right. I can barely remember how horridly overgrown the 'back 40' was when I purchased my home 3.5 years ago - I do, however, remember getting poison ivy every weekend that first year.

The barn was in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint, and it looks so beautiful in its bright white! Jesse also installed guttering and a rain barrel (fantastic way to save money and water thirsty plants!). The compost bin behind the barn served to fill six 6x3 raised beds and the bases of two cattle panels. There's a second bin on the other side of the barn that's already working so I'll have material for next year. The logs stacked near the barn are from some tree trimming my brother was able to complete for me.

Here's the cattle panels - I find these fascinating. The Bowman's use them in their yard for vine vegetables, and Rach also suggested growing lettuces and greens below the arch (since they'll get a bit of shade). I'm planning to use these for green beans, peas, and cucumbers this year - should keep the pup from snacking too! The raised beds will house tomatoes, peppers, squash, onions, cabbages, and who knows what else.

I've used the overabundance of leaves from my 10+ trees to surround the raised beds - hopefully that will minimize the weeding and help retain some moisture in the soil through the heat of summer. Miss Sumatra was sorry to see them leave their former residence on the far side of the barn - she'd created a bit of an obstacle course and loved to leap over the bags - but rolling in them brings her just as much joy.

Rach kindly provided lunch, snacks and drinks - such a blessing! Miss Ella and Mr. Roone enjoyed playing with the pup, chillin' with a movie, and some book reading over the 8-hour work day. I'm so grateful for the help my family was able to provide and thrilled to be well prepared for spring planting!