Field Notes 6/27/25

Hey friends! We’re back with another weekly roundup. It’s been really busy here lately, although I can’t really pinpoint with what. I guess it’s just that time of year where it’s lighter out longer so I am able to fit more into one day. I also think I am going to change our field notes day to Friday, so we’re starting this week. I’ll highlight everything I’ve accomplished from the week before (Monday-Sunday, release date the following Friday). That gives me just a little bit of wiggle room that I need. Okay. With that said, let’s catch up with what’s been happening lately. And I think we’ll keep with no categories for right now. I like just talking and chatting, no restrictions. We’ll see what happens as we move forward.

First, this isn’t from this past week, but I keep meaning to tell y’all about the rodeo I went to back in April. I have every only been to one rodeo before (and it was the PBR at Thompson Boling Arena) and while I’m not necessarily a fan of the rodeo, I still wanted to go. I mean, it was a small town rodeo up in the next county over and it was inside. And I could dress cute. So there’s that too. I ended up wearing my lobster sun dress and cowboy boots. I think this is what set off my current cowgirl era. Anyway. I went to the Red Gate Rodeo in Maynardville and it was a lot of fun. I went with my brother, his family, and their church group. It was to good, old fashioned kind of fun. Hay on the floor. Old wooden bleachers for seats. An MC and a clown. Bull riding. Barrel races. Food trucks. Vendors. It was small but it was a good afternoon spent watching the rodeo. I took a lot of pictures. I think my favorite is the one with the bull rider on the bull, but the bull is standing still. He came out of the gate and bucked about 2 times and then just stopped. Like ‘nah. I’m good’.

One thing I’ve thought about since taking these photos is that I am still really shy about getting up and walking around to take better pictures. I don’t know why. I think I still think of myself as an amateur and that I don’t know what I’m doing. Or someone will ask me a question and I won’t be able to answer it. None of this is true, of course. It’s all made up in my head. I wish I’d had more confidence and gotten up closer so you wouldn’t see the fence in all the photos. I will work on this as I start to take more photos. Sometimes I sit in my van and snap a photo out the window and that’s okay. Mostly I am on a road and don’t have room, or time, to pull over. I literally have about one minute to snap a photo and hope I got the shot. But when I do have time, such as when I’m at the rodeo, I really need to be more confident with stepping up and just taking the photo.

I had a fright one night last week! My house cameras alerted me that something was setting one off. Normally it’s just bugs flying against the window where I still have a light on. But it was 10:30 at night and I was in bed reading without any lights on. When I looked at the camera there was someone walking around my yard!! I tried to turn the camera on but it was delayed so I called my brother (who lives behind me) and told him to quick get up here! But, me being me, I turned all the outside lights on and opened my sliding door to the back. I could see a truck in my driveway and was literally yelling ‘who’s there!”. Turns out the local utility company was in my back yard walking around. I told my brother I would call him back and proceeded to find out why they were walking around. Clearly I had power since the lights were on. They told me they had a call (from my neighbor) and they were trying to figure out which house it was. Umm. Did you try GPS? I was literally in my nightgown, which I realized after I opened the back door. So I grabbed my robe and told them off. I mean, seriously. Don’t you knock on doors before you go running around someone’s yard?

In other weird news, I’ve had a lot of people running into my ditch. I live on a slight curve just outside a school zone and the amount of people who end up missing the curve is beyond me. The speed limit on my road is 30. But people easily go double that, I am sure. We’ve always had people running off the road and through our yard. At one point we had a really big tree that blocked the direct line of the house from the curve. I’m not sure what happened to it, but it’s not there anymore. Anyway. I easily find pieces of cars in my yard or in my ditch, but last week I had TWO cars run off the road. One I didn’t see. I just noticed the tire tracks through my yard. It was bad. You can still see where they went off the road, somehow managed to go through the ditch, through my yard, jump the railroad ties along the road, and make it back onto the road. My brother and I even put out reflectors to indicate there was a ditch there. This particular car took out 2 of the 3 reflectors in their ditch digging. Then, the next day I got a call saying there was a truck in my ditch. I was on my way home anyway. When I got there, a wrecker had already pulled the truck out. The truck was apparently buried on the passenger side in my ditch. How in the world. The guy claims he was only doing 25 and that someone ran him off the road and he overcorrected and ended up in the ditch. Umm. Then where were you when the police were there? And did you file a police report? I don’t think so. Not according to the person who called me since they were talking to the police when I was on the phone, and you were nowhere to be found. And if someone ran you off the road, wouldn’t you be made as hell and calling the police yourself. And friends, this truck was buried. Not a 25 mile an hour run off the road either. None of it makes sense to me. At any rate, I am really tired of people going really fast on my road. I had two cars pass me, on a double yellow line in front of the school one day because I was doing 30!!

Enough of that crazy talk! I have had a lot going on in the background here. First I am having my 50th birthday party here at the house in a couple of weeks so I have been busy painting and sprucing everything up! That has taken the majority of my time lately. Between earning money, setting up meetings for fun things, and working on the future farmstead, I haven’t had a lot of down time. I’ve also had meetings about potential future projects. That’s exciting too. And I’ve been interviewing for jobs. I can’t reveal any details on any of these, yet. But I will keep you posted as I know more. There are lots of exciting things happening lately.

Last Sunday I went to my friend’s house (where I lived last summer) and hung out for a few hours. I took Anna Lee with me, since it was her previous home too. My friend has a get together with a bunch of her friends, some of whom I knew already. We cooked out, hung in the pool, and had a good time. Well, Anna Lee didn’t get to hang in the pool. LOL. The humans did though. I have some very funky tan lines from all my outside work this year and wearing tank tops and sports bras. I was trying to even though lines out. I think I succeeded a little bit. I’ve been taking to wearing a swim suit when I mow or powerwash the house. Anything to get rid of these funky tan lines! Anyway. Anna and I enjoyed getting away from a couple of hours and being able to relax and enjoy some good food and good company.

I’ve been helping my friend (and cousin) out at her kennels. She lives just around the corner from me and I don’t mind helping out when needed. It’s pretty easy overall-feed and water, let dogs out for play groups, take care of any incidentals (like poop in the kennel). All of the dogs are super friendly and most want to just sit in your lap, even the larger dogs. HAHA! I’ve gotten to connect with some of my family and neighbors because of helping out there. It’s funny because I keep saying that Knoxville is too big! I miss living in a rural area and building community is easier in small towns. But, the longer I am here the more I see how small of a ‘town’ I actually live in. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I live on the last few acres where my dad grew up. And I see how small of a community this is when I am at the kennels and my neighbor is picking up his dog from daycare and I started talking to people and realize that we are either related or that the person knows my mom or dad or both! It gives me a sense of peace and community and I am grateful for that. I even have people say ‘you look a lot like Sara (the owner of the kennels) and I just laugh and say ‘yep. that’s my cousin!”. LOL.

One other fun detail that I’m excited to share with you-I opened the shop back up! It’s mostly digital downloads for right now and everything is on sale. I need to update the workbooks but until I have time, I’ll list them at a discount. So, if you’ve wanted to grab a copy, now is your chance. And I don’t have a way to discount them all at once, as in “but I want a copy of each one but don’t want to spend X amount of money doing so”. If you fall into that category, send me a note and I will make a listing so you can get your copies for a steeply discounted price!! I’m also offering my styling services, because why not! I can shop for a particular piece and then help you style it. Or just shop for a piece and deliver it. We can chat about your needs and go from there. I have plans on adding things to the shop as we go, but for now, this is a great place to start!

And finally, as I mentioned above, the birthday party plans are starting to come together. I want to do a big grazing table for food and then have a fire in my outdoor fire pit. I might put together some fun games to play or a game station. Or we’ll just sit under the awning and chit chat. I am literally inviting everyone I know! LOL. I want to celebrate the past 50 years. They’ve not been easy ones, but I know I am on the right path now and want to celebrate with all the people who have meant a lot to me over these past few years. I hope you’ll join me!

We’ll wrap up here for the week. I can’t wait to tell you all about all the things in next week’s session.

‘til next time
-k
xoxo