Seasoning the Beef and Other Farm Tales

It was a fairly decent day weather-wise yesterday, so I was outside several times hanging out with Doug and Jacob.  Doug is scraping and repainting the garage yellow to match the house.  Yay!  It looks awesome.

I'm not sure what came over me, but I heard my voice asking Doug, "Can cows eat pears?"

"Oh, they love them!" says my hubby.  "Just think of it as seasoning the beef!"

So I proceeded to start chucking pears at the cows.  (We have 2 mature pear trees on our property that came with the house...Neither Doug nor I like pears, so most of them drop from the tree and the critters get them.)  The cows actually started chasing them!  I don't think they have the greatest vision however, because Brown Cow (I know, I know..his "real" name is Hangar...as in Hangar Steak, but we just call him Brown Cow.  We are simple folk it would seem.)

Anyway, I digress... Brown Cow would jump and kick up his heels; practically frolic, and chase after the pear.  But then he would lose sight of it, and couldn't find it.  Blackberry Steve (Jacob named her...yes, it's a her) on the other hand, would snatch them right up.  They would even butt heads trying to get them.

Who knew a few unripened pears and half rotten apples could turn bovines into entitled urchins?!?  They kept mooing at Jacob and I wanting more.  I can't believe I'm even writing this post.  It's almost an out-of-body experience for me living here, because it is SO not "me".  I'm still no farm girl, but it's a tad frightening at how the "redneck" kind of creeps up on you.  {Shudder.}

The hillbilly across the street, a.k.a "Bubba", who burned his house down several years ago, still does not live there, nor has anyone cleaned up the wreckage.  I tell ya, if you live out in the sticks you better pray you don't ever have a fire you don't WANT to have... It took forever for the water to get here.  The volunteers arrived, the truck with the POOL arrived; yes, I said pool.  They set up this circus-ring kind of pool, maybe 2 feet deep, and had to wait for the water tanker to come.

Jaw Drop.

I'm like, is this 1950 or.... It was rather crazy.  And frightening.  And reason number 78 to move closer to civilization.

Oh, and then there was the cricket on steroids chirping SO loudly last night that I could hear it over the noise of 3 fans, and oxygen concentrator, and a compressor with a nebulizer on it.  It was like a flipping alarm going off.  A dang CRICKET. 

Doug slept right through it, of course....I was up for probably 45 minutes to an hour searching for the stupid thing.  Yeah, 4:30 in the morning, I'd had about 3 hours of sleep (one of those insomnia nights) and I'm stalking a supersonic cricket.

Sigh.  I love my life I love my life I love my life.....

Book Review: Shadow Stalker by Barbara Ann Derksen

I received a free copy of this book to review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations. I am part of The CWA Review Crew.


Melissa Rompart experienced a horror no child should see.  She was a witness to the brutal murder of her parents.  Because the killer saw her, she changed her identity to Christine Finder. As an adult, she created and operated an agency to find lost children.  Her K-9 companion, Chief, partners her.

I was so excited to review this book.  It sounded like a real page turner.  When I read the prologue to this book, I was sucked right in.  It grabbed me by the throat and made me catch my breath. It seemed that my expectations were spot on.

Unfortunately, that's where the thrill ended.  The story line of this book is really, really good.  However, the author could have benefited from more editing.  I am a harsh critic when comes to misspellings, grammatical errors and repeated text in published books.  This book contains many typographical errors that are impossible to overlook.  

There was a large section of text that was printed in the wrong spot, and then reprinted again in the correct spot.  To me, in a published book, that is inexcusable.

I found the text laborious.  It was quite wordy; for example, the author seemed to choose 20 words when 5 would have been sufficient.  The excitement of the story got lost in the verbosity of the text.

As I said, the story line was really good.  I liked the characters and the plot.  However, I couldn't get past the errors and the redundancy of the writing.

Barbara Ann Derksen

Learn more about Barbara at: http://www.barbaraannderksen.com

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Book Review: Woman Of Courage by Wanda E. Brunstetter

                                                         Photo courtesy of amazon.com

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, Woman of Courage, by Wanda E. Brunstetter.  I had not read a book by her before, even though I know she is a very popular Christian author.  I have seen her books around, just never picked one up.  I'm glad I read this book and chose to review it.

Amanda Pearson is a woman of determination.  After her fiance tells her he can't marry her because he doesn't love her anymore, she sets off to become a missionary to the Nez Perce Indians 3000 miles away.  Her journey is nothing like she expected it to be.

What I really enjoyed about this book is that it is very "readable."  It flows very nicely.  The characters are believable, and I really liked "getting to know" them. 

If I had to say one slightly negative thing about Woman of Courage, it would be that it was a touch predictable.  There were some big surprises, but the overall storyline was a bit expected.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a good, clean romance with a few unexpected twists.  I think you would enjoy it.

About the Author: (from the back cover of the book)
"Wanda E. Brunstetter and her husband live in Washington State, but take every opportunity to visit friends in Amish settlements throughout the States."

*dislaimer:  I was sent this book at no cost in return for my fair and honest review.