Country Lifestyles
When a City Girl Goes Country
By Annette Bridges
My mamma used to tell absolutely everyone who learned I was getting married and moving to my husband’s cattle ranch that she didn’t send me to college to get my hands dirty. At the time I had no idea what she was worried about. I wasn’t planning on getting any part of me dirty. I was simply going to live with my husband on his family’s ranch. Yes, I guess I was going to be a rancher’s wife, but I had my own career dreams that didn’t include working cattle. Did I say I wasn’t planning to get my hands or any other part of me dirty?
I was a city girl in love with a country boy. It was quite romantic to me. I adored his simple charm with his impeccable good manners and sincere chivalry. I loved his farmer’s tan and sexy cowboy hats. He wasn’t a man of many words, but his love was felt and expressed in his unconditional actions.
There was no doubt he loved me as much as I loved him. Ours was a love at first sight story that I wholeheartedly believed was written in the stars. We met in line for a ride at Six Flags Over Texas. There was instant chemistry and connection. He left with my phone number and I went home and called my mom to proclaim that I had met the man I was going to marry, and that is exactly what happened seven months later.
To read more pick up a copy of the February 2019 NTFR issue. To subscribe call 940-872-5922.
By Lacey Vilhauer
Ingredients:
1 whole lemon, seeded and roughly chopped
2 cups sugar
2 pounds strawberries, hulled
Juice of 1 to 2 lemons
¼ cup water
Directions:
Place the chopped lemon and sugar in a food processor and pulse until combined. Transfer to a large bowl. Puree the strawberries in a food processor and add to the lemon mixture along with juice of one lemon and water. Taste and add more juice as desired.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Nicholas Waters
As winter plods along – come Spring and gopher mounds – homeowners and farmers find themselves playing a familiar song – fiddling while Rome is burning.
Let’s make a mountain out of a molehill. Those mounds on your lawn and pasture could be moles, but they’re more than likely gophers; Plains Pocket Gophers to be pragmatic – Geomys bursarius to be scientific.
These rodents dig and chew, and the damage they can do goes beyond the mounds we mow over. Iowa State University cited a study in Nebraska showing a 35 percent loss in irrigated alfalfa fields due to the presence of pocket gophers; the number jumped to 46 percent in decreased production of non-irrigated alfalfa fields.
The internet is replete with academic research from coast-to-coast on how to curtail gopher populations, or at least control them. Kansas State University – then called Kansas State Agricultural College – also published a book [Bulletin 152] in February 1908 focused exclusively on the pocket gopher.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Annette Bridges
Everyone needs a room with a view that makes their heart happy. My honest favorite panorama would be either the mountains or the ocean. I have yet to convince my hubby to make permanent moves to either, although he does enjoy the visits as much as I do.
The location of our house on our ranch does not provide the expansive field of vision of our land that I would enjoy. So, I have created a room decorated and furnished in a way that gives me smiles, giggles, and a wonderful peace-filled feeling when I am hanging out in it. I am in that place right now writing this column. I am in a lounging position with my computer in my lap on the chaise that was once my sweet mama’s. I had it reupholstered this year to give it a fresh look.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
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