Boots Made for High Stepping
Cowboy style boots (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
At Pine Country Feed we live by a certain philosophy – there is no situation that can’t be improved by a great pair of boots, and have we ever got a great pair of boots. Several actually. Whether you are sporting jeans, a trench coat, a short skirt or even a wedding dress, a pair of cowboy boots will add the kind of style that set you apart from the crowd. Our Lane Boots bring just the right amount of cowboy to the party, taking your wardrobe from fashionable to fantastic with a chic comfortable flair. They are the kind of boots that get noticed, 
not just because they’re beautiful, but because they express the heart of the west. Stop in for your perfect fitting and make a pair of cowboy boots from Pine Country part of your great American journey.
Bright Side of the Sun
The fleetness of time seems to take us by surprise every season, and believe it or not, spring rounded the corner and is actually here. If you just finished storing your Christmas decorations, first of all, know that you are in good company, and secondly, take pride in the fact that you got them down at all. There are great sunny days ahead when time spent outdoors will be everyone’s highest priority, so don’t let the joy of the coming warmth catch you off guard. New boots, something sassy, and a wide brimmed cowboy hat are in order for the warmth that awaits us, and a high on style jean jacket will wrap everything up with some flair. Pine Country Feed Cowgirl Boutique is brimming with flirty skirts and blouses, belts, boots, hats and bags and of course jeans that will take you into the new season with the perfect “face the world” wardrobe you are craving. Get yourself out of that parka and into Pine Country. It’s time to get your cowgirl on!
Chicks Only
Spring is coming, actually later this month, and that means two things at Pine Country Feed – new clothes and chicks for sale. Besides our chicks to fill your coop coming in April, we are loaded with great choices to fill your closet – real cowgirl outfitting from Ranch Royalty, Tasha Polizzi, Petrol Next Generation, Cowgirl Tuff and True Grit to name a few, plus knock out jewelry, and bags that will make your mouth water. Step into the coming warm weather in a stunning pair of boots and a jean jacket with just the right amount of bling, and don’t forget the tight and sock combinations that are made to put your legs on the map. Spring, yes, it’s really just around the corner, and Pine Country Feed is the smartest stop on your way.
All the Way Down
Just a word about jeans – long. They are meant to be long, stretching the full length of the leg, skimming the top of a boot and staying put when seated in a chair. They don’t need tugging to get into place, they are made for long legs, or for short legs that long for length, and they are tailored to the cowgirl swagger. Pine Country Feed carries only one kind of jean, several styles by companies like Cowgirl Tuff, True Grit and Ranch Royalty, but every one sports a pair of legs that will dress your two legs without a flash of so much as an ankle, because, let’s face it. If they aren’t long enough they aren’t anything.
Bright Side of the Sun
Image via Wikipedia
The fleetness of time seems to take us by surprise every season, and believe it or not, spring is in actuality just around the corner. If you just finished storing your Christmas decorations, first of all, know that you are in good company, and secondly, be certain that you don’t let the long nights of winter lull you into thinking that the cold will never end. There are great sunny days ahead when time spent outdoors will be everyone’s highest priority. Don’t let the joy of the coming warmth catch you off guard. New boots, something sassy, and a wide brimmed cowboy hat are in order for the warmth that awaits us, and a high on style jean jacket will wrap everything up with some flair. Pine Country Feed Cowgirl Boutique is brimming with flirty skirts and blouses, belts, boots, hats and bags and of course jeans that will take you into the new season with the perfect face the world wardrobe you are craving. Get yourself out of that parka and into Pine Country. It’s time to get your cowgirl on!
My Valentine
Valentine’s Day is the time to celebrate how much you love the people around you. It is for love between sweethearts, best friends, families and even our favorite fur covered friends. It is the day for telling the people in your life that you are privileged to know them, that their affection for you makes every day better, that your love for them is bigger than the sky and twice as bright. Do something this Valentine’s Day that reminds your loved ones, and you too, that with all the busy days we live, and all the hours we work, and the many times we feel we might be in over our heads, it is the ones we love, the ones whose love we are blessed to share, who make each day worth the effort. Sharing the joy of our hearts with the people we love brings health and strength to our lives in ways that nothing else will. Loving someone is better nourishment than the finest fruit, and greater exercise than the longest run, because it gives our insides the chance to set our own cares aside and focus on the needs of another, and that is life lived best.
Shall I Pour?
You have to wonder if the Wild West might have been different if there had been access to better coffee. When you started and ended your day with a coffee made from grounds, boiled over a fire, in a sock and a tin pot of water until just the smell could cause an ulcer, you figure it had to affect your sunny disposition. Imagine if they’d had a nice French pressed cup of only the best Allegro blend, strong but not bitter, and never inky, Billy the Kid might have thought twice about shooting the barber who gave him a bad haircut. A good cup of coffee can make the difference in public reactions on many levels. Throwing someone through the picture window of the local pub doesn’t seem quite as necessary when one has been properly caffeinated and thoroughly prepared for the worst, by the ingestion of a powerful dark roast with just a hint of the outdoors. In a recent viewing of the movie True Grit, I found myself wondering what a thorough cleansing and a mug of Sumatra might have done for Jeff Bridges. Matt Damon needed some sort of assistance, but I am afraid even a well-brewed espresso wouldn’t have been enough.
Resolve to Be You
You’re due for an update, so get over to Pine Country Feed and get your cowgirl on for the New Year. You will walk into Pine Country a woman of great intelligence but lacking in the stylish grace you have become known for, and you will emerge your effervescent self, ready to change the world, or at least rise above it. Go for the cowboy boots, cowboy hat and some better than average jeans, then wrap it up with a “notice me” belt and a ruffled blouse that screams western chic. Have a good look in the mirror and you may decide you need to top everything off with a black denim duster – the kind you wear to walk down the middle of Main Street when there is someone you need to run out of town. Or, you can just wear it to coffee on a cold day when you feel like turning heads. Fulfill your first and most important New Year’s resolution by becoming a woman with which to be reckoned, tough, tender, and tenacious!
Lunchroom Chronicles
Go back to grade school and remember the dilemma of the hot lunch service. On pizza or taco day you could pretty much plan to spend an extra ten minutes in line, which when you were seven years old was like spending ten years in line. I on the other hand was not drawn by the pizza (weird cheese) or the tacos (wilted lettuce) but would have climbed Everest for the Cowboy Bread. It really wasn’t bread at all, more like cake, and the thought that cowboys ate it gave it a romantic element that was irresistible to my young heart. I have included a recipe from Leslie in Minnesota, where they know little about cowboys, but everything about baking. Enjoy!
- 2/3 C shortening
- 2 1/2 C flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 C brown sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 eggs
- 1 C buttermilk
- cinnamon as needed
- Combine Shortening, Flour, Salt and Sugar. Mix until Crumbly. Reserve 1/2 cup to sprinkle over the batter. Add other staples to remaining crumb mixture. Add buttermilk and eggs. Pour into a 9×13 pan. Sprinkle with reserved crumbs and extra cinnamon if desired. Bake @ 375 for 25-30 Minutes. Test middle to make sure it is done.
Made for Each Other
There is something about horses and kids that make for a great marriage. It is like the story of the gorilla who loved the kitten, the mammoth being, meekly deferring to the tiny one, the one that could be swept away with one aggressive snort. Yet they stand together, nose to nose, one in deference to the other, because the horse, in its four legged splendor seems to understand that this smaller than average two legged creature is precious in some way, a treasure of some kind, and their keeping is a tremendous responsibility. It is the gentle and wise heart of the horse and innocent nature of the child that makes the mixture ideal, even magical. See them together and you will feel a smile spread across your lips, a lift of happiness in your step. Their gift is the perfect combination of generosity and delight and they are meant to be together.
After the Gauchos
It’s long been understood that the best cowgirl on television was Barbara Stanwyck as Victoria Barkley in The Big Valley. She was tough and wiry and could ride a horse and rope a calf with any man and still manage to keep her hair in place and her ranch hands, as well as her grown children in line. Amazingly, she managed to do it all in those hybrid skirt pants called gauchos which showed off her eighteen inch waist but allowed her to avoid the side-saddle thing. Today, thankfully, cowgirls wear jeans. The “bring in the herd, run the corporation, have dinner in the city” jeans that today’s women require, and even more thankfully, Pine Country Feed has that figured out. The jeans they carry are made for women who live real lives and want to look great doing it. Choose from Ranch Royalty, Cowgirl Tuff and True Grit to name a few – companies famous for jeans that work because they’re working jeans -whether your work is running a ranch or running the world. And coming soon, you’ll be able to order from the Pine Country boutique at Circle H Ranch, on-line, 2am, in your jamas. It’s a wonderful world!
Pastel Sandwich Cookies
It’s cookie time at Pine Country Feed and we have some great ones. We’re starting here with something light and pretty that will make you want to eat a dozen.
Cut 1 cup cold butter (no substitutes) into 2 cups of flour until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle with 2-4 tablespoons of heavy cream and form into a ball. Add more cream if necessary 1 tablespoon at a time.
Roll your dough out to 1/8 inch thick on a lightly floured surface and cut with a 1 ¾ inch, round scalloped cookie cutter. Place cut outs on ungreased baking sheet and prick each one three times with a fork to form three parallel rows of dots. Bake for at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes, until edges are just barely toasting. Remove to rack and cool completely.
Mix 2 cups powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons softened butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1-2 tablespoons heavy cream, bringing mixture to spreading consistency. Add more cream if needed. Frost one wafer with a small amount of the frosting then add another wafer to form a sandwich. These are lovely left completely white, but if you would like to add some color, add one drop of food coloring at a time till you have a pastel hue.
Serve on a plate sprinkled lightly with powdered sugar. The wafers can be made ahead of time and frozen for up to three weeks, then thawed prior to frosting. This recipe makes forty sandwiches.
Color Me Paisley
Sometimes we just have to talk about our favorites and there is no question that Brad Paisley is one of our favorites. We are pretty fond of cowboys as a rule, but this cowboy has won a place in our hearts and it looks like it is here to stay. Some people are just meant for the hats and boots, and Brad is definitely one of them, add the guitar and you have one the best representations of what we love about the west, about country music and about America hands down. Brad Paisley is a family man, a talented singer, song writer, and an over the top, the only guy allowed to play Santana’s guitar, guitarist. When you’re listening to his music and there is an interlude that sounds like a marching band has suddenly joined the group and they’re all playing guitars, that’s Brad – just Mister Paisley having a little fun with the strings. He has made the statement that he won’t perform a song he couldn’t sing in front of his grandmother and that seems like a good guideline – at least it’s working for him. In 2010 Brad Paisley (and that is his real name) won the CMA’s Entertainer of the Year award, just adding to his career that boasts 25 breakout hits and 16 number one singles.
As Far as the Eye Can See
There is a place in your house where nearly every person who enters your home will at least see, and many of them will spend some time, and that is the bathroom. Don’t let your bathroom be an afterthought in relationship to the rest of the rooms by filling it with nothing but towels and toilet paper. Let the theme of your household décor carry over to this probably smallest, but most important of rooms. Tie in your rustic chic with a wiry beaded garland over the mirror with rusted iron stars intermingled amongst the twists and turns. Switch plates, soap dishes, towel racks and hooks for jackets or bath robes 
come in a variety of themed fashions that can dress your room in everything from wrought iron twigs to horseshoes. Why not stuff a basket with fluffy towels and a fringed leather pillow, and don’t forget the lighting. Shades trimmed out in leather laces, or embedded with malachite and jet will bring the flair to the room that you’re looking for. Tooled leather, pounded tin, rough hewn wood – all textures that can serve as art on the walls and Pine Country Feed has it all.
Rope a Winner
So it’s your turn to host the clan for the Thanksgiving extravaganza and you’re trying to decide if there is a way to get the house in presentable “haven’t seen these people in a year” shape without tearing the whole place down and starting over. The key to your success is in the details. When you clean your house remove all of the current accent pieces, the ones you have had out since you moved into the house, and start fresh. Clear the pillows from the petrified sofa and the colorless vase from the mantle and begin your adventure into tasteful, always inviting, cowgirl chic. A pillow with leather fringe and a pounded metal, bling ridden receptacle for your mums will bring new life to the old walls, without the hours of work that you should spend making your pies. Dress your house for the holiday in a way that will have them stopping and smiling and thinking how truly clever you are. Pine Country Feed will set you up in a quick morning’s stop, and send you on your way with a treasure trove of wow!
Cowboy Stampede
Out on the range, when there’s nothing to answer but the call of the wild, and the only clock you have is shining overhead, things seem to make sense. The little things start to matter more and all the other stuff kind of gets lost in the dust.
A Stitch in Time
In 1873, immigrants David Jacobs and Levi Strauss, combined their talents and resources and came up with a new phenomenon, called Waist Overhalls, more commonly known as jeans. From this first creation of denim thread and metal rivets, the single most popular clothing item in the history the world has taken shape, and variations are endless. Brilliant because of their durability and style, practical because they last forever and get the job done, jeans are synonymous with hard work and high fashion all at the same time. When women finally started wearing “trousers” in the forties and then “slacks” in the fifties, a proper pair of women’s jeans weren’t far behind. Cowgirl Tough Jeans have taken the jean world by storm, doing their well-fitting best to make women’s legs look longer, behinds firmer, and all with a sense of wild west chic. Pine Country Feed has the good sense to carry a product that goes so far in making women’s fashion about comfort, style and ease of care. Proud to carry the Cowgirl Tough brand, Pine Country is the place you’ll find a treasure around every corner.
The Joy of the Brew
Whether you prefer your coffee prepared by a sock of grounds thrown into a boiling tin pot over an open flame, or delicately encouraged to the height of flavor in a fine French press, it is an undeniable truth that coffee is the perfect blend of piping hot remedy and sheer spiritual experience. A cup of coffee, brewed to perfection with just the right amount of thick cream can serve as the only solution to a day that has run amuck, working its magic in sips of aromatic assurance, quieting even the most annoying voices in your head. Served after an enjoyable meal it will begin the evening with the grace and elegance of a string quartet, spreading its peaceful presence through body and mind like the music of a bygone era. Whatever the occasion, there is a coffee to make it richer, which is why Pine Country
Feed is looking forward to the introduction of its own private label, mountain roasted blend with great anticipation. A coffee blended with our deserving customers in mind. Just one more way we are letting you know that you matter to us and we want you to be blissfully happy.
Behold the Horse
Hollywood loves horses, in every form. They love the horse that can win a race, or the horse that stands by his man until the last shot is fired. They have given us talking horses, horses that fly, singing and dancing horses, carousel horses and horses that have broken our hearts. They are the favorite means of transportation in an entire genre of movies, and most of the favorite film stars of the forties, fifties and sixties ended up on a horse at one time or another. Horses are back in style on the silver screen with westerns making a come-back over the last fifteen years. Today’s westerns are more violent and the main characters never bathe, but one thing is consistent with the early western. The best friend of the cowboy, rancher, farmer, or settler is still the horse. The west simply wouldn’t have been settled without them. The four legged beasts are beautiful, noble, intelligent, usually gentle pictures of the soul of an era that was misbehaved, poorly planned and truly brutal. When everyone else was spitting, drinking too much, gun fighting in the streets, the horse brought a grace and sureness to America’s wild picture of the west that makes us love them. They are the spirit of what we wish we could be; strong, sleek, peaceful. And they do talk by the way – you just have to listen really carefully.
Coffee People Unite!
At Pine Country Feed we are lovers of anything that adds richness to our lives – great friends, mountain air, jeans that fit, and of course a great cup of coffee. This week we are having a coffee tasting party to choose the signature roasts that will bear the name of Pine Country Feed and we can’t wait to introduce them to you. We will be deciding the names of our roasts, and we would love your help. If you have a great idea for a coffee name, and keep in mind we are going with a cowboy/cowgirl- Wild West theme, put it on our wall. If we choose yours, you’ll receive a free pound of coffee and all of our deepest admiration. So raise your cup and put on your thinking cap. Salut!
Kick it Up
How about taking some of that Wild West ingenuity and spicing up the office – the place where the same work gets done every day and the brain begins to atrophy. We are told that the office requires professionalism and it does, but professional does not need to be synonymous with a “gee, I hope the parole board grants me an early release”. There is no place where the manifestation of your personality is more important than in your office, because remember, you weren’t hired to fill a chair, or because you were exactly like the person they just got rid of. They saw a spark in you, and you need to fan that ember into a nice warm fire that tells the people you work with that things are going to happen when you’re in the room, so they just better get ready. Hang cowboy hats on the coat rack, and wear one from time to time, put a painting of a horse in a full out run on the wall opposite your desk. It will remind you that there is life out there waiting for you. Hang spurs on the doorknob and throw an Indian blanket over the leather side chair. If someone questions whether or not you are behaving in a professional manner, explain that you absolutely are – a professional cowgirl.
Missing the Wild
So we have recently found the choices for big cinema entertainment wanting, and we have finally put our finger on the problem. The movies tend to parade leading men across the screen who obviously spend a good portion of their time in the gym, not necessarily bad. But we are bothered by the fact that only a small handful of the real leaders could manage a ride on a horse. They simply wouldn’t look right astride one of the glorious equines of the Hollywood 40s and 50s and we can’t even imagine most of them being able to get on the horse without major injury. Cowboy movies, the real westerns that put the country west of the Mississippi on the map, needed men to be rugged, not fit necessarily, but tough, and since the horse has been removed as one of Hollywood’s main characters, that element of grit, of rock solid, take no prisoners, don’t make me pull my six shooter persona has faded to black. There have been a few westerns in the past decade that have proven that there are a few of those boys left, but too few to our liking. Somehow being able to download the secrets of the defense department before the guy in the suit walks into the room just doesn’t give off the same aura as a man who can control his horse with the reigns in his teeth, riding at the speed of locomotion, while he wields both of his guns with the accuracy of a sharpshooter. Imagine.
Cowboy Forever
If you’re beside yourself trying to decide what to be for Halloween, worry no more. Be a cowboy, in a long duster and hat with boots and spurs, and it might be helpful if you could pack a six shooter. It is said that houses that have been converted from barns to houses are often haunted by cowboys of the early west. They are never mean or scary; they just kind of reside in the barn/house harmlessly watching over the place. People who lived in one such house said that they often heard spurs jangling on the hardwood floor, and there was a distinct smell of horses and hay and well worn tack in the kitchen. One woman, awake in the early hours of the morning, saw one of the duster clad apparitions walking down the hallway between her living room and dining room and as he passed he looked her way and tipped his hat then vanished through the back door. It’s good to know that true to form, the cowboy, even a ghost of a cowboy, is friendly and polite even when he is haunting a house. Have a great Halloween weekend!
A Word From Manna Pro
Last spring about zillion of you bought our baby chicks and ducks which we are assuming means you have eggs by the dozen. You can only eat so many omelets so we thought we would suggest a visit to the Manna Pro site where they are offering a free download of egg recipes from their web followers – www.mannapro.com- click on the download for the Egg Cook Booklet. While you’re there be sure to enter The Happy Homesteader promotion for a chance to win a free $5,000 Backyard Homesteader Makeover. The Manna Pro site also offers some great tips for cleaning and storing your fresh eggs, nutritional information for raising goats and pigs, and a word about raising rabbits. We thought while we were at it we would re-publish our recipe for Cast Iron Eggs just to give you one more choice.
Melt two tablespoons butter in a cast iron skillet on your stove top, add one cup of sliced mushrooms and cook until tender and dark brown. Crack eight to ten eggs on top of the melted butter and mushrooms. They will be crowded and the uncooked whites will overlap as though they are running together. Sprinkle with garlic salt and course ground pepper and allow the eggs to cook undisturbed for about four minutes. Cut two ripe tomatoes into thin slices and lay overlapping on top of the eggs. Allow the eggs to cook for three more minutes on the stove top. Finally, sprinkle with one cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Place the skillet into a 350 degree oven and let bake for six minutes. Serve by scooping out onto plates with a large spoon – no slicing.
