Oh Deer! and Thanks Ree!

We joined Big Buckaroo this past weekend for the end of his 8 day hunting trip to our land. Although I do not like being at home with the kids for that long without him (no nervous breakdown, but a lot of bubble baths after they went to bed), I sure do love the time we enjoy after being apart.

FYI for wives out there: Send your husbands to the woods for a week, pack one or two hot meals and then the ingredients for other meals. Now, grab a book, holiday magazines, a couple of chic flicks and enjoy being at home where it is warm, dry, you have running water and a refrigerator.

By the time you join your hunting hubby (who has not shaved since he left and is smelling a bit like a gym locker), the sparkle is in his eye's and he remembers how life was without you. Now, after he showers and shaves, enjoy the following week of goo-goo eyes and romance (between all of the loads of clothes you are washing of course). Ahhh, the appreciation of a hunter's wife, well, at least this hunter's wife.


Oh, and another thing I appreciate from my hunter? (well, aside of the nasty preparation) - deer meat, yes, a bounty of venison! Sorry Bambi, but you are looking good in my freezer.

Another note of thankfulness, my go-to-blog-friend has helped a sistah out AGAIN!

Yes, Ree has listed me on her post about her book signing in Little Rock (which brought many new blog friends around), then sent me some of her cool PW t-shirts for me to giveaway on my blog, and now she is helping me out with a giveaway for our first Arkansas Women Bloggers meetup in Little Rock!

She has always responded to my requests (and I am sure she gets MANY). I have seen her being berated on others blogs lately. There is enough judgment and hate in this world, if you don't like a blog, just click off of it and find something that is of interest to you.

My first-hand experience is that Ree is an extraordinarily gracious and giving woman and I am thankful for all the kindness she has shown me.

Make a list of all you are grateful for today,

The Park Wife

Cinnamon and Spice and It Taste Oh So Nice

One of my favorite things about Fall is the smell of cinnamon in the air. I love The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon roll recipe and make them at least three times during the holidays. But, there are some days that you are swamped with life (yes, the laundry pile is higher than the dog, um, we have a big dog) and just don't have the time to make those delicious wonders.

So, I am going to share a way to get that delicious aroma permeating throughout your house while filling your belly and not spending more than half an hour doing it.



Look at this:

Oh merrrrcy!

Here is what you need:
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 Tbsp. corn syrup
1 tsp. ground cinnamon (divided)
1 (8-oz) refrigerated crescent rolls (I prefer Pillsbury, there are just some things you have to splurge on and the cheaper brand does not hold up as well)
1 1/2 tsp granulated sugar

Step 1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake pecans and butter in lightly greased 8 inch round cake pan for 2 minutes. Swirl around and cook another 2 minutes. Remove from oven and stir in brown sugar, corn syrup, and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Oh yea, could eat that with a spoon, but don't it gets even better.

Step 2. Unroll crescent dough and separate into 4 rectangles, press the perforated seal. Now stir together sugar and remaining cinnamon; sprinkle over rectangles. Roll up each rectangle tightly starting at one of the long sides. Cut each log into 5 slices and put in prepared pan.

Step 3. Put in 350 degree oven for 14 to 16 minutes or until center rolls are a beautiful golden brown and done.

Remove from oven, immediately invert pan onto a serving plate. Spoon any topping in pan over rolls. Pour a cup of coffee and enjoy these miniature pecan sticky buns. Then, go walk a mile to make yourself feel better because you will make them again tomorrow.

Enjoying crisp Fall mornings,
The Park Wife

Hunter Education for Wives

Here is a post from last year, we all need a hunter education for wives refresher course!

Fall hunting season opens this weekend and Big Buckaroo has loaded up the trailer and 4-Runner and hit the road with his dad. They are going to our land to "put the metal roof on the cabin" ~ man speak for going to work on the roof around hunting.

Although Big Buckaroo hunted some growing up, it was not until we bought our land last year that he started going hunting in his adult years. The past few months, there have been numerous hunting magazines and catalogs around and I am amazed at the amount of time he and his dad can sit and talk about a pair of binoculars. It rivals all the health care bill talk.

Even though I am from Mississippi and have 5 brothers, I did not grow up around hunters. We were a little more citified. So this is all new to me. I have no desire to go sit in the cold on a deer stand, but I am supporting my husband in this because he needs something to get him outside (aside of building a cabin himself, hmmm) and get his mind off work.


When Big Buckaroo starts talking about hunting, I really try and pay attention but sometimes my mind wanders off to more important things like I need to paint my toenails, polish my silver, plan dinner, dust the ceiling fans, you know those important things that do not involve the quest for venison.

I am having a really hard time remembering some of the hunting terms. I really try to use the appropriate word but it just doesn’t happen. In one ear and out the other, that’s me.

So, in an effort to help other women in the same duck boat as me, I have compiled a few important terms you need to know to communicate with your hunter man and sound like you know what you are talking about. It will endear (pun intended) him to you.

The Park Wife term: Bambi ---Hunting term: doe (just think of do-re-mi)
The Park Wife term: Baby Bambi ---------- Hunting term: Button Buck
The Park Wife term: Caught a deer ---------- Hunting term: Doe down
The Park Wife term: Grunt thingymajigger ----Hunting term: Grunt call
The Park Wife term: Rattler thingymajigger ------Hunting term: Rattling horns
The Park Wife term: Williams-Sonoma -----Hunting Term: Hot Spot
The Park Wife term: Gifted or endowed ----Hunting term: Big Rack
The Park Wife term: Woman with a gun--Hunting term: Huntress or Not The Park Wife

Now that you have learned hunt speak, you must lay down some ground rules. Here are mine:

1. You must call each night and check on your family (if we don't answer, we are eating out so I don't have to do dishes).
2. He must strip all his clothes off in the mudroom when he arrives home (don't get any ideas, he has been in the woods for a few days).
3.Go straight to the shower and shave off that beard and lather up good. Dress in clean clothes that are not camouflaged.
4. Come in the living room and kiss your wife and hug the Buckaroo's.

Then, as he goes to clean all his weapons and take care of all the meat he has brought home to feed his family, slip out the back door and go shopping or to a movie. All the clean-up takes a while.

Happy Hunting,
The Park Wife

Blogger Meet Up

I am beginning to work on a women blogger meetup in my state! I have wanted to do this for a long time, but it just had not hit the top of my to do list, for some reason people like to be fed and have clean underwear around here. Well, I do live in a house of males, so the clean underwear thing probably is not true.

I get completely overwhelmed at times and that is when my blog suffers. I have thought at times that maybe I should just put blogging off for a couple of months and then KAPOW! things happen in my blog world that don't let that happen. Such as, Pioneer Woman, yes Ree, listed my blog on her site, yea that created some traffic and then Kim Severson, a culinary writer for The New York Times, talks about me and listed my blog in an article, big surprise since I use the smoke detector to know the bread is done.

So, just as my blogging was slowing down, I get a call that kicks me into gear, again. I was talking to a fabulous marketing gal about writing a guest post for her museums blog and it turned into us planning a blog meetup to be held at the museum. I am ecstatic.

Now, here is where you guys come in. Have you been to a blog meetup? If so, what did you like about it? What did you not like? What ideas do you have?

Remember, this is the first one, we really just want to provide a place for everyone to meet, so formal in depth blogging topics will wait until we plan other meetups or a conference. Did I say a conference? I see the laundry pile rising.

Help a sistah out!
The Park Wife

Old Becomes New, Well, Cherished

Did you think that The Park Wife took the road less traveled and got lost? It could happen, I do not own a GPS.

In actuality, the weather is beautiful here and cabin progress, the Fall/Winter garden, kids soccer, homeschooling, oh, the list goes on has kept us hopping.

Here is a cabin update.

As many of you know, we call our property Rockwell, a name that evokes images of small towns inhabited by friendly, hard-working men and women whose lives revolve around family, friends, and church. Fortunately, that is our life and also, the fact that as you come upon our cabin there is an old rock well, it was the perfect name for our mountain escape. So, we have been integrating some things into the cabin (along with the fact that my husband and his dad are building the entire thing themselves) as it is being built that will add to the story of our Rockwell.


We have a couple in our town that are kind, supportive and thoughtful. They own the local hardware store and help out at our park regularly. They were taking an old house down near theirs and we acquired some of the doors. We stripped and repainted them. Now, I know the picture is of Big Buckaroo putting on a coat of paint but seriously I did help strip it and put a coat of paint on it too.


And, it has been installed. O.K. that part was all Big Bucakroo.



When we first started working on the cabin a bazillion months ago, Big Buckaroo bought some windows from a couple that has a beautiful old farmhouse. We completely stripped, took out the window panes (oh yes, they were a pain), re-caulked and painted them. They are all in. But, that is not the best part of the story. We became good friends with the couple that owns the farmhouse. Our boys were in their daughters wedding, they helped me start the farmers' market and we count them as family.

There is a lot of hard work and love being put into building the cabin at Rockwell. And, also a lot of memories from those who have become part of our family history and now, Rockwells.

Blessed beyond words,
The Park Wife