Monday, September 27, 2010

"She's not just a cover model... she can ride, too!"



This is a reprint from April, posted on the Smith Fork Ranch blog:

Here at Smith Fork Ranch, we've got a wide variety of "characters" on staff-- one of us used to be a farm wife, driving big rigs during the harvest; one of us has built multi-million dollar log homes; one of us spent a season in Antarctica; one of us is now a cover model!

Joanne Kennedy's new book, Cowboy Trouble, might feature a familiar face for some of you: our very own Head Wrangler, Ciara Pares! Ciara has been a wrangler for seven years, but in a past life, often modeled for fashion designers, corporate marketing, events and conventions.

Ciara said the photo on the cover of the book was taken about three years ago, when she was working on a ranch in Montana and sidelining as a model for a photographer and videographer in Bozeman. "I knew there was a possibility of my photos showing up anywhere-- advertising, promotional materials, magazines. But a romance novel? I never expected that!"

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Harvest, or My Eternal Quest to Become a Pioneer






The harvest season has been industrious this year, which has coincided delightfully with my increased workload at the ranch. With new management duties comes 80-hour work weeks. Alternatively, with plenty of rain comes innumerable bounty! Ten pounds of chantrelle, porcini and puffball mushrooms dried, acres of apricot fruit leather dehydrating on the porch (and gallons more cored and waiting to be jellied), chokecherry and serviceberry jams lining the pantry shelves... and now a huge bull elk to butcher! With the salsa garden just beginning to truly ripen, you'll find me in the kitchen with a sharp knife in my hand and a big 'ol canner boiling until sometime next January, thank you very much.