After moving back home to her small ranch in south-central Montana, Stephanie keeps busy writing, touring, and heading up her own small label, Recluse Records. Daily ranch life provides Stephanie constant inspiration. "Each season brings distinctive chores and changes," she says. "Springtime to me means calving and branding, rejoicing at the sight of the first crocus, and listening for the distinctive trills of returning sandhill cranes. Summertime brings herding cows to new grass, haying, gardening, and putting up pickles and jellies with the neighbor ladies. With fall comes gathering, sorting and shipping calves, extra blankets on the bed at night, blazing yellow displays of quaking aspen, and flocks of southbound geese. Winter means feeding hay, chopping ice, wearing three or more layers of clothes, and some serious cribbage games at the kitchen table. One night last January while trudging to my writing cabin, I looked up to see a green curtain of northern lights rippling across the sky, accompanied by a choir of coyotes. Who wouldn’t be inspired?"
