Meanwhile back at the Ranch

Be Impressive

I felt a trickle of salty anxiety slip down my shoulder blades as Logan eased our home into a ten-minute parking space. I’d either get this done or I wouldn’t, no point in drawing it out, so I leaped from the truck repeating the directions in my head the whole way. Alone in an electronicsContinue reading “Be Impressive”

Rhondie

Everything in my immediate vicinity was perfectly normal: sunshine, dogs barking, children squealing, Pearl digging to China in the sandbox. But my voice felt foreign and clumsy as I spoke because a few hundred miles away, at the other end of the phone line, everything was not normal. I followed the effortlessly positive lead ofContinue reading “Rhondie”

The Sweetest Thing

Approximately three days and 17 searches: the amount of nail-biting time and hysterical googling it took for this lady to swear off all prenatal reading material. Should you ever feel the odd desire for slick palms, heart palpitations, and dizzying anxiety just google “first trimester back pain.” At 18 weeks, each day is a surpriseContinue reading “The Sweetest Thing”

What Would Ryan Gosling Do?

We came across this cow while checking the herd for pregnancies. The horn you see here was embedded nearly one inch into the skull of this mother-to-be. Removing the horns of cattle is a popular subject these days thanks to a recent celeberty PR stunt. Perhaps we should we be faxing in a dehorning permit to the Screen ActorsContinue reading “What Would Ryan Gosling Do?”

Dust to Dust

There is no better way to determine your material value than packing your life into boxes and moving them. Some thing I so desperately wanted months ago hardly holds value today. Even the coveted electronics we use daily will be obsolete dumpster food in a few short years. In the last few years we’ve streamlined this process, to theContinue reading “Dust to Dust”

Quiet & Easy

The satisfactions of manifesting oneself concretely in the world through manual competence have been known to make a man quiet and easy. They seem to relieve him of the felt need to offer chattering interpretations of himself to vindicate his worth. He can simply point: the building stands, the car now runs, the lights areContinue reading “Quiet & Easy”

It’s a Hot One

At 4Pm the temperature levels off at 103 degrees. As we bump along the pasture, the brittle grass crunches beneath the tires of Logan’s Ford. We speak of the dangers accompanying this heat wave as we ride out to the herd. Drought is not an uncommon occurrence here in semi-arid West Nebraska. This year we are atContinue reading “It’s a Hot One”

Consider the End

On the outskirts of the herd we came upon a cow fretfully pacing the perimeter of her motionless calf. Born only days ago, the life of this helpless creature was a short one. The mother’s wide, panicked eyes stay with me even weeks later, her growing anxiety piercing the otherwise silent prairie. As humans we tend toContinue reading “Consider the End”

Here We Are

This is the magic hour in Western Nebraska. A warm haze blankets the land. The late sun caresses every surface causing the countryside to blush a gentle amber glow. Just a few months ago we lived every minute of the day side by side. Now our time is made up of stolen moments like these.Continue reading “Here We Are”

Home Base

We are Brianna and Logan, also known as Mr. & Mrs. PanAmNotes. After completing a 15 month 22,000 mile journey to the end of the world we have temporarily settled here in Western Nebraska. Between now and our next big idea, we’ll use this space to focus our creative energy on our passions, future exploits,Continue reading “Home Base”