Behind the Scenes
Sky Ranch is a riveting memoir of your life, and shows the stark contrast between city and rural life. Why was this an important book for you to write?
All my books are memoirs. SKY RANCH is about the time I lived on a ranch in Idaho. The first book, BEHIND THE SMILE DURING THE GLAMOUR YEARS OF AVIATION, is about the six years I was an international flight attendant, flying into Vietnam during the height of the war, telling about what goes on behind the scenes of an airline crew, and being captured in Cairo during the 6-day war. BLACK EMPRESS is about the 4 months I lived in Iran and rescued a black Labrador puppy and brought her back to the States. My next book, DARIEN WATERS, is about growing up in Darien, Connecticut (the good and bad of living in an upscale town near New York City). My last book will be about hitchhiking around the world twice. First for 4 months by myself. The second time for 18 months was with my former husband. We fly fished and hiked from New Zealand, to South Africa, to Scandinavia, and the British Isles. I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, carrying my own pack with eleven other hikers (from Canada, Germany, and Australia. We were the only Americans). Only 6 made it to the top (my husband did not).
I appreciated the candor with which you told your story. Was there anything that was difficult for you to share?
I wasn’t sure I should have put the section in about making love to my husband while he was driving a combine through a grain field. I’m still not sure.
What is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself before you moved to Idaho?
No advice. I loved Idaho. What a beautiful state and such wonderful inhabitants. I’d go back in a minute but all my relatives live in the East. As we age, I want to be close to them.
The memoir ends around 1996. What have you been doing since then?
After I sold the Angler’s business in 1995, I ran a successful clothing store in Buhl, Idaho. Married a high school boyfriend, sold the business but kept the building (which is now leased to Edward Jones Financial Company) and moved to Tennessee. I have started a new life as an author. Never a dull moment.
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Once Bobbi Phelps married an Idaho rancher, she discovered what it was like to live in rural America. The contrast between her suburban background and her farming life created challenging yet rewarding differences.
Sky Ranch tells of Bobbi Phelps’s Idaho ranch experiences between 1980 and 1996, the adventures in a past time before camera phones, GPS technology, and social media. Throughout this memoir, she shares frightening tales of:
Dangerous white-outs during Rocky Mountain blizzards.
A terrifying flooded road crossing in pitch blackness.
A near drowning while fishing Henry’s Lake.
Losing her young son among huge harvesting machines.
Sky Ranch is a memoir about a naïve suburban woman who struggled to navigate an industrial farm and its commercial cattle enterprise. Her life on the ranch meant grocery shopping once every two weeks, driving through harsh winter storms and swollen streams, and rescuing her horse in a full-blown blizzard. Living in the Rocky Mountains allowed her to fish, hunt, and camp on a regular basis. She also discovered different aspects of the Mormon religion, coyotes hunting her dog, industrial farming, and environmental conservation.
Sky Ranch will appeal to readers interested in Western culture, cattle and row-crop farmers, hunters, anglers, and those who only dream of living on a ranch. It takes the reader on an exciting ride of terror, drama, and humor, giving us a look at what goes on behind the scenes at a rural ranch, many miles from civilization.
Posted on August 30, 2020, in Interviews and tagged author, author interview, biography, Bobbi Phelps, book, book review, bookblogger, ebook, goodreads, kindle, kobo, literature, memoir, nook, novel, read, reader, reading, romance, Sky Ranch, story, western, womens literature, writer, writing. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.
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