Remembering the Ranch

Is there a statute of limitations on blog posts?

Especially ones you have been promising for about 4 1/2 years?

Heh.  This one is for all you patient readers who have been waiting for me to post this one for that long…  so grab caffeine, or chosen substance, and settle in.

It may be late, but it is also looooonnggg!

(It involves lots of pics, which are giving me itchy feet to travel to Oklahoma again!).

*******

Recognise this road?  Anyone seen ‘August: Osage County‘?

Filmed on this very road, I believe.

Yes that sign says ‘Bacon Rind Creek’… made me giggle.  Country mailboxes must be similar the world over…

Mustangs…

Made me smile.  Mustangs will forever and always remind me of The Pioneer Woman.

So will this place…

It’s the Lodge!  If you’ve been a bush blog reader for a while  you will know this place.  It is the building that my blogging heroine, Ree Drummond, and her hubby (Ladd) lived in as newlyweds, and which they renovated in 2008.  Almost the entire renovation was blogged, with readers helping out with design ideas.  It was mesmerising to watch from afar.

Even more exciting up close and personal!

Ree had invited us to come and stopover at the Lodge, when we were first making plans to travel to the USA (a 4-week visit taking us around America).  I was a bit gobsmacked at the offer back then, and kept expecting her to change her mind!  Our timing was all out – Ree was promoting a book at the time we could get there – but wanted us to visit anyway.  With the help of my friend Julie (of Another Chance Ranch) who is good mates with Ree, we managed to swing it so our stay overlapped a time they could BOTH be there at the Drummond Ranch.

I was a bit like a kid in a candystore (to use an American phrase!) as we arrived, after staying the previous night at Tulsa.  The quiet and openness was a sharp contrast to New York, Dallas, San Antonio and yes, even Tulsa.

That was our trusty little hire car that saw us lap Texas and Ohlahoma with ease… remember these pics were taken in 2011 – before the ‘smart phone’ and the ‘selfie’ took over our lives! This was my version of a selfie…

The Nikon Face Filter – can’t beat it!

Our view as we walked inside – the ‘pantry’ in foreground and one corner of the Hola Enormous Kitchen (now famous with Ree’s regular television cooking shows) in background.

You know how people talk about ‘Southern Hospitality’?  Well this is it – personified (bootified?).  Lots and lots of boots for visitors to choose from should they not have ‘proper ranch footwear’.

Made me smile..

Those boots on the left could tell a story, no? I wonder if they are still there?

Then, as we brought our suitcases into this surprisingly large house, I spotted this…

One of my all-time favourite Ree pics – mustangs!  I think that is the Ranch Rodeo Cup (possibly?) beside it.  This will all only make sense if you read The Pioneer Woman.  Heh.

Violet was nearly as excited as me.

Can we all pause for a second to see how teeny and cute she was, back in 2011. She is still cute, and not particularly large, but MY how she has grown up in those four years…

THIS was the kids’ bedroom…

OH MY GOODNESS. HUGE beds, underfloor heating and breath-taking views. Dash went into ‘boy mode’ and immediately discarded his socks.  Just to make me feel at home…

I was in raptures at every single detail of this place (despite the odd dirty sock helpfully left around by our son)…

The heavy iron fittings on each door…

 

The sliding ‘stable doors’ on the bathrooms…

Bathrooms? I hear you say. Yes.  Actually, there were four ensuites…

This was one of them… *sigh*

Loo to the left and shower to the right.

Our room… that is one MASSIVE king size bed.  This room was BIG.  And toasty.  It was February outside – and February in Oklahoma is CHILLY.

We all had the most enormous smiles on our faces as we wandered, slightly stunned, through this place.

We couldn’t quite believe that we had it all to ourselves, for three whole days.

Every detail was warm and welcoming…

Love how my hubs made himself RIGHT at home, and declared that wanted something JUST LIKE THIS at home.

What a lovely dream that would be!

And last on the house tour, but certainly not least…

THE KITCHEN PROPER…

You can *SIGH* right along with me…

I remember when Ree wrote about pouring the concrete for this kitchen top. I had never even heard of concrete kitchen benches before then.

This is my husband examining the American beer he had chosen for the stay, featuring the yellow gerberas I had bought for Ree from Pawhuska (the local town).

The view was pure Oklahoma …

Like a northern Aussie winter, dry. But those open prairies… mind-boggling.

Dusk was pretty amazing too…

The next day we went for a walk… for some reason I actually did a previous post on this particular stroll, posted here… three years ago!

I will never forget how icy that wind was (those jackets from Macy’s in NYC came into their own – and the kids actually still wear them!).  That’s George the Lab with Dash… he adopted us for the duration of the stay.  Charlie did honour us with his presence too – read about that encounter here.

I just couldn’t get enough of that SKY… incredible.

Speaking of whom… Mr Incredible, keen to see some livestock.  (You can take a farmer to a different country, but…)

Violet soon decided to enlist the Daddy Taxi.

Nice work Violet…

George was wishing he could too!

Some of the lovely Angus cows who were very curious about these wandering humans…

So curious they followed Dash for some time!

We had some quality time with Cowboy Josh’s horses on the way back to the Lodge…

 

That coat from Macy’s obviously smelled pretty good.

Those boots of Violets – were passed down to cousins a couple of years ago! (This photo is making me all nostalgic!)

One of my absolutely FAVOURITE pics from our visit… the Corral.

We don’t really have corrals in Australia – we have yards, and races and crushes and branding cradles.

But check out that sky… almost religious, wouldn’t you say?

The incline back up to the Lodge was, shall we say, challenging. I needed to stop.

Ostensibly to take this photo.

Really I just wanted to do what George was doing…

We chilled…

We refreshed…

Again, soooo cute. Those dimples…

And I cooked…

I cooked for the Pioneer Woman. Herself.

Here is what I SHOULD have cooked: Sausage Rolls.  Uniquely Australian, no? I can do those suckers in my sleep.

What did I cook? Lasagne. Because… I have no idea.  I wanted to be Italian? I had brain freeze.

A slightly dry lasagne it was too…

And I whipped up these…

Soooo beautifully presented and photographed.

Under cling wrap. *sigh*

Pikelets.

This was Ree, on arrival to The Lodge, that afternoon…

 

She likes the Nikon Face Filter too!

Ha!

Actually she was shooting my hubby…

Who was slighly bemused at being photographed, being photographed.

I am not sure what he THOUGHT was going to happen with me and Ree in the same room. Nikons at five paces!

He got his own back though…

I was a proper Fan Girl at this point, trying desperately to remain calm…

I call this photo: ‘PROOF”!!!

I have horns growing out of my head, and I don’t even care.  Ree had a terrible flu – and still managed to look amazing.

I am trying to remember what we talked about … cameras, husbands-being-patient-with-blogging-wives, accents…

She kept calling me ‘Booooshh Baaaabe‘.  It was funny.  The fan girl part of me was in heaven!

I cannot forget this fabulous woman too… who arrived a little later for dinner – the beautiful Julie (who lets me call her Jools).

This photo was taken into the evening somewhat… I think Ree took it.

Apparently there was a hoop earring theme that night, Jools?

Four-and-a-half years… so much water under the bridge since then.

Ree is a household name now (and bringing out her own cookware range soon), while Julie and I have both beaten off breast cancer (among other achievements).  I credit Jools (and my other online mate Debby) with helping me face my treatment with confidence.

None of us knew any of that was ahead of us back then…

This is a shocking photo of ‘the boys’: McD (Jools’ hubby), Mr Incredible (trying to ignore me) and Cowboy Josh…

(Ree’s Ladd was off at ‘The Farm’).

This is slightly more in focus: Josh, just before he cleaned up the last of the pikelets, husband, sick of having photos taken.

It was over all too soon, but we savoured EVERY darned second of that visit.

An Oklahoma sunrise saw us on our way… to the Houston Livestock Show!

Hope you enjoyed this (much belated) visit to The Ranch.

🙂

P.S. Just doing this post has brought back so many wonderful memories… I think I might be a bit Lodge-sick.  I wonder if they do flat-packs?