Ree, the Pioneer Woman

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Now on to today's post.

It's dedicated to Ree, the Pioneer Woman.

She's amazing.
Her photography, her cooking, her life on a working cattle ranch...
it's fascinating and hilarious seen through her eyes.
Her self-deprecating humor has me laughing out loud.

Today is her birthday.


Happy Birthday, Ree!

She recently consented to an interview through email.
I really appreciated her taking time from her busy schedule to play along with me,
especially since she was deep into the production of her cookbook.

Here is our interview:




I'm such a huge fan, and I love learning more about the working cattle ranch. Now, we all know you are the essential go-to-gal for everything that gets done out there, and all the cowboys come to you for advice (hehe), but you started out a city gal. What has been the most suprising part of ranching that you have learned along the way?

Probably how idyllic AND how backbreakingly grueling it is at the same time. It's beautiful, romantic, and incredibly fulfilling...but there's never any let-up, there's always fence to fix, barns to clean out, pens to paint, water gaps to fix, animals to feed, animals to count, cattle to work, horses to shoe, fires to put out...

Plus, it's a profession that's very much subject to the markets, weather patterns, and other impossible-to-predict factors. I think that's why farmers and ranchers tend to be God-fearing people: they learned early on that after a certain point, it's out of their hands.






Your blog has taken on a life of its own. And had children...and grandchildren. It's huge. Your contests draw thousands. Do you have time to read other blogs at all? Would you share some of your favorites?

I don't think of my blog as huge---it's not a huge website in the grand scheme of websites. But I would agree that's it's taken on a whole life of its own---that's what makes it fun for me. I do read other websites when I can, though my internet time is largely eaten up with churning out recipes, stories, etc. for PW. I love www.countrydoctorswife.com, www.derfwadmanor.blogspot.com, www.smittenkitchen.com, www.thisisreverb.com, and gosh...I could go on and on. I don't have a regular reading pattern or list; I just go where my clicks take me.

You do so much; home school four children, cook, blog, hold awesome contests and various other projects. You have to get overwhelmed or worn down at times, right? I think the mothers in the blogosphere would love to know, what do you do to recharge?

I get a lot done...but I also DON'T get a lot done. I get no more done than anyone else. It's just that I only show the things I do get done...or not done...wait, what?
To recharge, I am involved in absolutely no social activities whatsoever. I stay home, I don't drive all over the place, and I'm not afraid to send the kids outside, plop down on my bed, and stare at the ceiling for ten minutes. I'm not afraid to be idle.






A few months ago I did a post on the very varied and copious amount of reading material in my bathroom...and my lack of privacy from the children. Do you have bathroom reading material? Do you have privacy in the bathroom?

There's no good way to answer this question.






I grew up on a small ranch in the Texas hill country. We were a good 20 miles or so from town, so when I rolled off the couch while wrestling with my little sister and cut my head open on our glass coffee table, my mom had to drive me to the ER rather than wait for an EMS. Have you had to make any ER trips with your kids? How far are you from the nearest ER?

Several ER trips, and I hate them. The nearest ER is 25 minutes away, and I think we've made ten trips there for everything from stitches in the eyebrow (a jump rope accident) to high fevers on the weekends. The next city over (where I had my babies) is an hour away, and I've had to take the kids there twice: one when my baby picked up a hot branding iron and burned his head; the other when my oldest daughter sustained a pretty severe concussion. (It happened in the CHURCH NURSERY, of all places.)

I hate ER trips. Aside from being very scary, they're just so darned inconvenient.

I know your current big project is your cookbook, which I would buy in a heartbeat and give to all my friends and family. Is this a fun project? Or Stressful?

The cookbook was very fun, but in the last two months it was very, very grueling, stressful, and difficult. It proved to be a little too much in the last two weeks and I cussed once or twice. It would've been fine had I not also had my website to maintain, but I just wasn't willing to let the website "go"---it's what I enjoy doing the most.
The cookbook, overall, was a very fun, challenging, and fattening project. I gained seven pounds.






You know I really want some photographs of old boots. Is there anything you've really been wanting to photograph but haven't for some reason?

I always wanted to take photos of my girls wearing colorful tulle skirts and prancing around a tallgrass meadow...but I kept putting it off and now they're way too tall.






What's your favorite book? Or song? Or movie?

Favorite Book: Sophie's Choice, Gone With the Wind, Where the Red Fern Grows, The Giving Tree.

Favorite Song: How Can I Tell You by Cat Stevens
Favorite Movie: Muriel's Wedding, Gone With the Wind, The Godfather, The Graduate, Little Women, The Crucible, Chapter Two, Sophie's Choice

We all know dogs can be trained to find drugs or missing children. My 11 yr old son told me recently that bumble bees have been trained to find explosives. Do you think cattle could be trained to do anything like that?

Cattle aren't smart. They're cute, but they're not smart.





I have one question for Marlboro Man: What three words (or more if he needs em) would you use to describe Ree?

He's out of the country right now, so let me answer for him! Let's see...hmmm....





Finally, your blog is addictive. Your sense of humor is priceless, and your photographs make me laugh, cry or just sigh with delight. Why do you think you have had such incredible success in the blogging world?

Or wait, did I already answer my own question?!


Thanks, Ree.
You're the best.




Check out her blog, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman.



Here are some of my favorite posts:

Want to see handsome cowboys and understand chaps? Here's the true story.

Curious how pregnant cows feel? You've gotta see this.

Charles, the basset hound/cow dog.