this western town can be yours!

Seriously....this guy in Hoyt, Kansas built a little western town street in his back yard and he's ready to sell it (no more room and he wants to build new stuff!). Those buildings are fully functional and even an adult can go inside them -- the bank alone has an 11 foot tall facade and is 7' 6" x 6' 2"x 7' tall inside. The barn is wired for electricity and is being used as a chicken coop at the moment. And the saloon is actually a covered porch with balcony that will hold people (although how they get up there I cannot guess).

I love this! And it can be yours if you act fast (and you have $20,000 and can pick the whole thing up from them). What a cool idea for backyard structures. Listing here .

Happy Valentine's Day!

Things are looking up! 2011 is over and gone, and we're slowly getting back up to speed. Hope to be back in the saddle soon! Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Holidays!

Music On Monday: Monster's Holiday

Dang! It has been a rough month, coming off a super-rough summer. Glad (hope) that's all over. Here's a Halloween hit to ring out the month -- Buck Owens' "Monster's Holiday":

Happy Halloween!

Little Cowgirl Book Club: Cindy Ellen, A Wild Western Cinderella

Written by Susan Lowell and illustrating by Jane Manning, this is a really clever retelling of Cinderella -- I often find fairy tale interpretations too gimmicky, but this one read wonderfully. And the art is fantastic! The Little Cowgirl still enjoys picture books and she said she liked this one a lot. I did too. Cindy Ellen is the best cowgirl in the area, but her nasty stepmother and stepsisters don't let her do anything but the dirtiest chores around their ranch. It takes her fairy godmother to give her some gumption -- and then she doesn't just go to a square dance/ ball, she actually competes in a rodeo! (Pretty sure that was my kid's favorite part.) Good enough that I'd be interested in Lowell's other western fairy tale retellings -- although those books unfortunately are not illustrated by Jane Manning. I think the art is at least half the charm of this book, so I don't know if we'd like the others nearly so much.
 
Check it out on Amazon; or find it at your local library!

Little Cowgirl Book Club: Holding the Reins

The Little Cowgirl was especially interested in this book -- it follows the lives of 4 modern-day teenaged cowgirls throughout the year: KaDee of Utah & Colorado in summer; Sarah of Montana in fall; Katy of Wyoming in winter and Leslie of new Mexico in Spring. I found it a really fascinating book -- you can find plenty of books and blogs about real-life adults on ranches, but not too much on the younger set. Unfortunately, while it's marked as suitable for elementary school, it ended up being a bit too graphic for a 6-year-old. I think she was also a bit bored with the mundane details of high-school life. Definitely better for older kids, but an interesting read for anyone.

Check it out on Amazon; or find it at your local library!

Little Cowgirl Book Club: Yippee-Yay!

Okay, first off, I just have to get something off my chest here.

Dear World, can we please call for a moratorium on the use of Giddyup? I grant you, it's a pretty cute font, and when it came out almost ten years ago there weren't a lot of choices. But now it is everywhere. Everywhere. Seriously, it's like the comic sans of western fonts. Just. Stop. Thank you.

Okay, I feel better now. This is a pretty nicely done non-fiction picture book, mostly covering the history of the Old West. Lots of information on gear, clothing, cattle drives and so on, presented in a cartoony fashion. The Little Cowgirl didn't like it much though, because while it claims to be a book about cowboys and cowgirls, actually, the first page tells you that there were very few women on the frontier and only a handful of cowgirls, and then we get zero cowgirls until the last two pages of the book, which is the brief "modern times" section. I would still recommend it to any kid interested in the subject -- just as long as they're not a persnickety little cowgirl!

Check it out on Amazon; or find it at your local library!