Monthly Archives: June 2010

Romancing The Rust

Her husband looked at her like she had three heads and he asked, “What are you going to do with all that junk??”
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Screen Queen

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]

The best feature of my new rental house is one that didn’t even appear on my list of search requirements. (That would be the list that consisted of exactly three items, none of them aesthetic: enough bedrooms, in current school district, and affordable.) The bonus feature I now can’t live without?

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Weeds, Weeds and More Weeds

[Previous Rural Farmgirl, June 2010 – January 2012]
Weeds. We’ve all got ’em. Around the farm, the month of June is spent dealing with them – either pulling and tossing them into the compost pile, pulling them and letting them lie where they fall for mulch or, for the especially ugly ones, throwing them away. But wait – there’s one more option – and I’m willing to bet you can find it in your very own yard. Oh – and did I mention that they can be found indoors, too?

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Decision, Decision, Decision

UPDATE: I received a total of 117 votes on roof color. THANKS Y’ALL!

The comment/email selected was number 40. I used random.org:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

40

Timestamp: 2010-06-29 20:51:36 UTC

That’s you, Laura Lea Laws, so email me with your address for your goody! Use the link over on the right!

I’m actually usually a pretty good decision maker. With personal decisions, I mean. I’m usually pretty good; not great, but good. (Now professionally, I’m a very strong decision maker. Split second, never look back. For some reason, that’s easier for me.)

It’s true. It sometimes takes me a while to mull things over. To think about it. Consider all the angles. But usually not this long. I don’t usually be-labor it the way I have be-labored this one. Why am I so stuck on this? I have no idea. You’d think it was a huge decision. It’s really not such a big deal.

Yes, this decision has gotten the best of me. I have spent months obsessing about it. And just now my hubby announced:
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The Transfer Of Stewardship

What does a future rancher look like? You’re lookin’ at it.
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Cozy Clutter or a Place for Everything?

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]

What’s your decorating style (besides, I bet for most of us here, country chic)? Mine, historically, has been lackadaisical. Or as my mom liked to say, “lived in.” Having lived for 23 years with someone who had stronger stylistic preferences, these tended to influence the overall look. Now I’ve moved into my own rental house — just this past week and yes, I can still hear the rrrrrripping of packing tape on cardboard box in my sleep — I’ve had to figure out what goes where “all by self.”

It’s been fun. (Excepting the complete exhaustion…funny aside here about the effects of my sleep deprivation!)

As I’ve positioned furniture and filled shelves and drawers, it strikes me that that there are two camps of housemakers:


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Howdy, There!

[Previous Rural Farmgirl, June 2010 – January 2012]
Hi, there, old farmgirl friends and new! Since this is my first blog post, I thought I’d introduce you to a few of the fixtures on the farm – the things that I love and see daily (at least!). There will be more as we go, of course, but here’s a little introduction to who I am, and where and how I live…

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What? Me? Contrary?

The other day someone asked me a question that “flew all over me.” It was this: “Why in the world do you bother with a garden?”
Bother? I did not like that choice of word. I just don’t understand it. What kind of question is that? What in the world should we all be “bothering” with, if not a garden?

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When Summer Is A Young Girl

Springtime … early summer on the High Plains will have one of two effects on you. Wyoming’s bountiful beauty may inspire words of admiration or you’ll feel quietly awed and perfectly content to remain in that state … completely surrounded by the renewal of life in every direction you look. (Above: Newborn Pronghorn Antelope)
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Holly Hobbie, Corny But True

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]

Anybody remember Holly Hobbie? Not the annoying biker-capped cartoon reintroduced a few years ago that your daughters or granddaughters of 2010 might know. I mean the original, blue-bonneted American Greetings version, who was created in the 1970s by an artist actually named Holly Hobbie.

While my friends were grooving to eight-tracks of Andy Gibb, crushing on David Cassidy, and borrowing their big sisters’ Lauren-Hutton-style Qiana shirts, one of my favorite pop-culture icons was a girl in a patchwork apron. Yes, that would place me a few bean rows beyond squareness. Call me a late bloomer. Decoupaged Holly Hobbie pictures (gifts made by my friend Jinny — there’s a HHish name) hung on apple green walls of my bedroom, next to cornflower blue gingham curtains. There may have even been dried flowers in a jelly jar on my nightstand, where Tiger Beat or Seventeen should have been. I may not have been a hipster, but I was a farmgirl before my time!


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