We’ve had a couple beautiful days at the ranch lately. Things are starting to blossom up around here, making way for the butterflies and bees and bugs. The birds have found their way home and so have the pair of geese that live in the dam outside our new house. I’ve been spending my evenings strolling [...]
Archive for the ‘Musings’ Category
If I could be a season…
Posted in Musings, Photos, tagged Home, life, musings, Nature, North Dakota, outdoors, pets, photography, photos, ranch life, seasons, spring, Veeder Ranch, weather, Wildflowers, writing on May 22, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Love letters from me
Posted in Family, Musings, Ranch Life, tagged childhood, family, Home, life, Love, Marriage, musings, nostalgia, writing on May 17, 2012 | 10 Comments »
Last week in the middle of a life that sent me down to the scary basement of this old house to search for things to throw away, I found something I didn’t know I had. And that something might have turned into one of the most important pieces of my life. See, among our snowshoes, [...]
A good day to be a horse
Posted in Musings, Ranch Life, tagged animals, Home, horses, life, musing, Nature, North Dakota, outdoors, photography, ranch life, Veeder Ranch, weather, writing on May 3, 2012 | 9 Comments »
I like it when the clouds do this. It makes me feel like I am not so small after all, like I could reach up and pluck one out of the sky, put it on an ice cream cone and go walking through the pastures, taking licks and bites of the sweet fluff as I [...]
To live with passion.
Posted in Musings, Ranch Life, tagged family, Home, lessons, life, Love, North Dakota, ranch, ranch life, Veeder Ranch, work, writing on April 25, 2012 | 11 Comments »
Last night husband came home to the little ranch house in the buttes to find a woman hunched over, knees to her chest, pointing and clicking and squinting behind a giant computer screen. He thought he heard her mumbling, so he said hello back, in case she might be attempting to greet him. She wasn’t. [...]
Flannel shirts and wild plum blossoms
Posted in Musings, Photos, Ranch Life, tagged family, Home, horses, life, Love, memories, Nature, North Dakota, nostalgia, outdoors, photography, ranch life, seasons, spring, Veeder Ranch, writing on April 23, 2012 | 9 Comments »
When I grow up I want to be the kind of woman who lets her hair grow long and wild and silver. When I’m grown I hope I remember to keep my flannel shirts draped over chairs, hanging in the entryway and sitting on the seat of the pickup where they are ready and waiting [...]
Inside Old Houses
Posted in Community, Musings, tagged change, community, Home, life, musings, North Dakota, old houses, photography, ranch life, writing on April 16, 2012 | 19 Comments »
We live on gravel roads that stretch like ribbons along pasture land dotted with black cattle and a patchwork quilt of grasses and crops. As we kick up dust beneath our pickup tires heading out to a chore or to meet up with a neighbor, we take for granted how these roads were built. Why [...]
If I weren’t these things…
Posted in Family, Music, Musings, tagged family, Home, Jessie Veeder, life, Love, music, musings, North Dakota, ranch, Veeder Ranch, writing on April 12, 2012 | 4 Comments »
I sit on the love seat in the back room of my parent’s house. It’s 9:30 on a Wednesday evening. I’ve finished my slice of pizza. My mother brought it home from town. I’ve had my glass of wine and we’ve had our visit about the weather and the traffic and the pizza and the [...]
The boy on the hill…
Posted in Family, Musings, Ranch Life, tagged adventure, childhood, family, father, Home, life, Love, memories, musings, North Dakota, ranch, Veeder Ranch, writing on March 26, 2012 | 14 Comments »
Most Sundays we get together with mom and pops for dinner. After a week of work and crazy schedules followed by a weekend of chores and projects or travel, one of us decides that someone should cook a decent meal, pour some wine in a glass and make us all sit down. I admit, with [...]
From the top of the hill…
Posted in Musings, Photos, Ranch Life, tagged childhood, family, Home, horses, life, memories, musings, Nature, North Dakota, photography, ranch life, Veeder Ranch, writing on March 19, 2012 | 13 Comments »
Sometimes, when the day is coming to a slow close and my head is spinning with worry and lists, schedules and a pile of things that must wait until tomorrow and the dishes from a dinner of meat and potatoes sits waiting to be taken care of on the table, I slip on my boots [...]
A winter breath in Theodore Roosevelt National Park…
Posted in Community, Musings, tagged adventure, animals, bison, hiking, Home, landscape, life, mule deer, musings, National Park, Nature, North Dakota, photography, photos, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, wilderness, wildlife, winter, writing on February 29, 2012 | 16 Comments »
I took a moment on a regular weekday morning, a morning when much of the state was preparing for one of our first winter storms of the season, to find some magic in the winter. I knew just where to go to find it. A place that was set aside just for us when we [...]






