The Pioneer Woman, Pioneering.

Here’s something people who live on the coasts love to say to people who live on the plains:

“Oh you’re from Texas? I’m sorry.”

This is such a habit for coastal urban dwellers, I think they don’t realize how totally offensive it is. The fact is, people who live on the plains often live there because they like it, not because they can’t figure out how to get to LA. 

I think it’s an education issue. One that Ree Drummond also known as The Pioneer Woman is handily addressing.

Drummond lives somewhere in Oklahoma. She moved there from LA after marrying the blue-eyed cattleman she calls Marlboro Man. Lots of people know Drummond now because in 2009 The Pioneer Woman was named blog of the year and sees up to 22 million page visits monthly. 

People send me links to Ree’s blog about once a week because some say my life bears a resemblance to hers, minus the homeschooling and the articles in Forbes. 

I think part of the reason for Drummond’s success is not just that her blog is engaging and fun, but its origin was so authentic. 

Drummond started doing something she loved - writing about her life on the ranch and photographing it - and she kept going. A few years down the road, Pioneer Woman mushroomed and now she’s a doggone brand. I’m sure she couldn’t have imagined that happening when she first moved to Oklahoma.

I watched her show for the first time this morning. As a ranching resident of the Great Plains, I can tell you it's legit. You can tell it is crafted by her and not someone in LA with a goofy, patronizing vision of “country folk.”

On this morning’s episode, Ree’s mother in law, who they call Grammy, took Ree’s four kids and their cousins camping by the river on their ranch. A few dads and uncles showed up ahead of time to set up the canvas wall tent and capably used chainsaws to cut firewood. Most of them were dressed in Carhartt jackets, which clearly were not costumes because they had cow poo on them.  

The kids helped out gathering firewood, and didn’t look like clueless, little weebles stumbling around trying to figure out how to pick up sticks. They also wore little wrangler jeans with mud on the knees and they were pretty good at climbing trees.  

If this makes you nostalgic, it should. 

This is at least one reason some people still choose to live in rural, uncool places doing quaint and uncool things. Some people, even kids, still think it's cool to sit by a campfire with Grammy and make peppermint patty s'mores. 

Shift Happens

Last fall, Ranch Boss grew tired of the pummeling we'd received from the historic Texas drought and the endless US recession; so he took matters in his own hands.

In November, Kirk Ranch Consulting accepted a new management position in East Texas - a place that looks an awful lot like Louisiana, because it has swamps and trees. As such, the geography of Kirk Ranch Organics has changed again.

The beautiful thing is, we do what we do no matter where we are. So we've got people working on Gorman, while we are firing up Kirk Ranch East.

As of February 10th, the lavender, basil, tomato and pepper starts are germinating and the spring garden is ready to plow. Our fabulous new neighbor Bobby, a retired Amtrak conductor, got into the blueberry business a few years ago and then quickly got out. He and his wife are swamped with more blueberries than two humans can eat. So Ranch Boss and I plan to help out - expect jars of Texas blueberry jam in your stockings next Christmas. Bobby is a big gardener and has offered to plow me a plot when when the rain stops. Yep, it rains here.

It didn't over the summer of course, but it is now and the lakes on our new project property are refilling. Tanks in Gorman are full now too, as the picture on the right attests. The one on the left was taken last August on the 40th day over 100 with no rain. Looking at it makes me hot.

One of the exciting surprises of our new venture was learning that the house we were to move into had, for numerous reasons, fallen into disrepair. So, we are remodeling it. If you are keeping track, this is the third house, Ranch Boss and I have remodeled together in five years.

So here we are starting afresh in Mineola, Texas, home to former Texas governor Jim Hogg, who, and I am not making this up, had a daughter named Ima.

Stay Tuned.