I remember traveling through Nebraska occasionally when my parents were driving back and forth to the West Coast. I loved the solitude, but it does take special kind of person to live it. I lived for awhile in Kansas, a state right under Nebraska, when my first husband was an engineer for a pipeline. It was just a short jaunt for us to go across the Oklahoma panhandle into Texas, so where we lived had more of a S.W. taste than Nebraska, and lacked those beautiful hills. Coming from an area with hilly terrain, and then being transplanted for many more years as a young adult in equally hilly terrains of the Ozarks, I felt desperately out of place in the sandy flatlands. What strikes me most about the interior prairies of this country are the extremes. You are either freezing to death, burning up, wishing for rain, or dodging tornadoes. But, the creatures who live there, and the miles and miles of openness are haunting and beautiful.

@donka wow, thanks for thinking outside the box. I was trying to make the island big enough to be functional and seat two BUT small enough to also have a dining table. What an ingenious idea to just make the island the table!!! By the way, is my math correct? Is your kitchen approximately 19ft x 12ft? Id love to see pictures of it once your camera is fixed. My house is small too, about 1200sq ft, and the current dining room is, in my opinion, over-sized & under-used. It was built in 1920 and Ive been told that dining rooms were a big deal back then. Oh well, "one mans treasure" I guess. @lisa_a I agree, the two foot skinny table does seem makeshift (good word). I definitely like donkas suggestion and am going to play around with it on paper. What Im really trying to go for is the "feeling" that there is still a dining room in the house, not just a living room & a kitchen (know what I mean)? Thanks a million for all the inspiration pics!!! Some of them are darn near spot on (youre good). That last one really caught my eye with those doors in the upper cornertheyre orientation is identical to my layout. Thanks again. By the way, what is a boxerpup? @cheri127 After looking at the inspiration pics from lisa_a, I really like the "attached" lowered table idea. Ive always preferred counter height seating but Im about 6ft tall. However, I recently had a baby so now I have to re-think everything (like maybe its not a good idea to feed the baby at counter height, LOL). Funny how that happens. For instance, "only" two bedrooms were fine with me when I bought the house but whod a thunk Id be a mother at nearly 40. Shes only 5months old right now but in about 13yrs or so, I predict I will really need that third bedroom. @lisa_a I may have misrepresented my motivation. I want a new kitchen and a third bedroom, but Ive wanted the kitchen first. When I purchased this house, I did so with plans to renovate the horribly outdated, under-functional, cluster-fudge of a kitchen (see pics below). While interviewing construction contractors for the project, I was constantly reminded that "a third bedroom would increase resale value". This sales pitch was lost on me because I didnt need a third bedroom (I was planning to transition from young-single to empty-nester in this home) and was not thinking of selling, ever! But, flash forward five years to present day and my demographic has changed from young-single to single-mother. Still dont have that new kitchen and that third bedroom just got bumped up the priority list (not right now, but in 10-15 yrs maybe). I have no desire to sell my house but one should never say never, right? Besides, renovating the kitchen in its current location is really expensive because its soooo outdated, has galvenized pipes & knob-tube wiring. Plus, moving it only raises the cost by 3-5% so I figure might as well kill two birds with one stone (just in case I have to sell or miracle baby #2 shows up). The family room is just a "while m dreaming" wish. As for the dishwasher, I wont be putting one in my kitchen because Im not reselling but if in 10yrs the need arises, is it really that difficult to replace a base cabinet with a dishwasher? THE OUTDATED KITCHEN (these understate the issue, will upload more pics soon)

Originally, I was told I'd be moving in for the holidays, and I don't mean the upcoming St. Patrick's day -- I knew this wouldn't happen, and there's been a lot of Waiting for Permits / Waiting for Inspections -- which in a small town with a population less than 600 means the town offices have severely limited hours. My broken ankle didn't help matters much either -- during the 3.5 - 4 months of severe down time at my end, I got up there a total of once. However, I've now been there twice in two weeks, yay team. I'd picked out a lot of stuff for the kitchen last summer. Had to jump through hoops to get the kitchen wood-look tile I really really wanted... after ordering about 15 samples of other stuff that when you see it in person, just didn't work out. When I ordered it last December it seemed to have been discontinued, but a call placed to South Cypress found that it had simply been moved to a different "line". I have it, now. I also picked out two quartz countertops from Consentino last summer. They still have the Eco Luna, which I love. However, the Silestone Olive Green is no longer in production. I'm ordering a sample of Silestone Tea Leaf, to see if this works for me. This is it: https://shop.cosentino.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/slide_16.jpg The other counter top: http://www.silestoneusa.com/colors/color/luna/ You fine folks here convinced me to go with silgranit sinks. I'm ordering the main sink and the prep sink both in biscotti -- here's the main one: http://www.efaucets.com/detail.asp?product_id=441595 and the prep one: http://www.efaucets.com/detail.asp?Product_Id=441219. (AND you guys convinced me to put in a prep sink....) I do believe my GC is going for the best quality possible. It's just taking forever. This is quality pine backing for my lower kitchen cabinet/drawers, being custom built by GC. GC doesn't understand the whole "drawer" ambiance, but thanks to you folks, I'm pushing for them. Fridge will go to the opening in the left. Counters will be 38" tall, because I'm 6'1". Ceiling vents, not required by code, but helpfully useful none the less.

Thank you Pat, I appriciate that! The pictures dont do a lot just sitting on my computer, they aren't worth taking if I can't share them! I'm grateful to be able to share what I can with you all! I used to hunt geese and ducks, and still hunt rabbits. Mostly to keep them out of my garden, but I have a rule about only killing things you intend to eat so they end up on the menu at our house. I don't have any issue with legal and ethical hunting and I know there are quite a few people who hunt cranes. They say it is the filet mignon of the sky. I would probably try it if somone served it to me but some animals I really just can't imagine killing myself. I would never shoot a crane, even if I did intend to eat it. Rabbit suits me just fine. 40,000 is a LOT of cranes! Hiw very awesome to have seen that many! We get flocks of just a few to may up to 30-40 here at our house in north-central Colorado. The really big flocks are, like I said, further east in Nebraska and southwest in the mountain valleys and out on the western side of the State. Every few years, if our wetlands are full, the cranes land at work and spend a few days, usually on their southward fall migration. I think whooping cranes have been reported in the Nebraska flocks, but they are hard to find with their habit of migrating as small family groups and their much smaller population size (I think they are up to around 350 indeviduals now. Considering they were down to just a handful, thats a pretty amazing success though!). At one time they attempted to integrate whooper chicks with the sandhill flocks to help with recovery. But they found that once they matured, they thought they were sandhills and wouldn't mate with the other whoopers! Beautiful shot, Catherine! It reminds me of what Aldo Leopold once wrote: "one swallow does not make a summer. But a skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw is the spring."