Tag: South Dakota
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My Divine Intervention Moment
This column was originally published July 2, 2014 The day after our son’s graduation I needed to decompress stresses I’d overcome and sort out all the recent events that happened. After getting through a couple of week’s worth of anxieties, pressing to-dos, and worries I needed a long walk to quiet my mind, replenish my…
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A Chilly Day for Comforting Chili on the Kirk Ranch
This past Monday morning was a rude awakening, not just to freezing rain early in the morning that turned to sticky snow but plummeting temperatures. I had just spent a week at a writer’s retreat in Florida and thankfully, got home late Sunday night before the snow rolled in. The next morning it was…
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South Dakota Farm and Ranch Life in Poetry
Anytime I discover something that becomes a part of my favorite things list, I want to share it with others. I met farmer and cattleman Bruce Roseland of North Central South Dakota at the South Dakota Festival of Books back in September in Sioux Falls. Bruce writes free verse poetry about everyday things that pertain to…
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Atlas’ 1st Anniversary
A year ago today, winter storm Atlas began with rain, then turned to rapidly piling snow overnight. I was not at home, but rather attending the annual Women in Ag conference for our area 30 miles away along with many other farm and ranch women. My family was home and rode out the storm mildly. Our…
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Wrestle Like a Girl–Cowgirl Style
This past weekend we held our branding and after processing the whole day with my husband Art several different times, we determined that this year’s branding was probably the best we’ve ever had, or at least that we can remember having. For starters, we had excellent weather. Myles helping bring in the herd for sorting….
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Bringing People Together, Sharing a Meal, & Benefitting Ranchers Affected by Storm Atlas
A Senior Project Success: When our son Myles said he was thinking about putting on a steak feed to benefit the Rancher Relief Fund for his Senior Project (a fairly new requirement for South Dakota high school graduates), I was very proud that he came up with that particular idea all on his…
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A Perfect Afternoon for Book Reading
I caught my husband Art re-reading parts of my book this afternoon after he returned from checking on our cows up at Pringle. Just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who’s shared posts on Facebook, showed an interest in, and purchased my first book, A Ranchwife’s Slant: Cowboys, Kids, and Ranch Life….
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Let Your Home Inspire You
Sometimes it takes leaving home for me to appreciate where I live. This happened recently when I went on a week-long writer’s retreat in St. George Island, Florida. I deliberately picked a retreat in a location that was totally opposite from the environment where I live, hoping to trigger my censor and become re-inspired as a writer when…
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Photos of Our Baby Calves After A Spring Snowstorm
Earlier this week we received around 10 of snow over the course of two and a half days. Since the storm finally broke by daylight yesterday, I remembered to grab my camera and got some photos of my favorite calves. Getting the day’s forecast is an important part of our cow feeding routine. We like…
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Guest Speaking at DakotaFest’s Women’s Brunch
My blog was temporarily down, so this post is later than intended. On August 22nd, I spoke at my largest audience to date. I was the DakotaFest Women’s Brunch guest speaker at the Highlands Conference Center. The theme was Growing Up Country, and my talk was a spinoff of that called, There’s A Little…