(CMT Offstage keeps a 24/7 watch on everything that's happening with country music artists behind the scenes and out of the spotlight.)

Ladies' Home Journal takes a turn for the feisty with their Miranda Lambert issue that hits newsstands Tuesday (Feb. 8). In it, Lambert definitely does dish on her favorite everyday things, like her tour bus with patchwork quilt-style curtains and a Murphy bed where she sleeps with her three rescue dogs. Or her penchant for everything from chick lit to meatloaf and mac-and-cheese. So in other words, normal girl stuff. But then there's the other stuff. Like the guns. Not just the two tattooed on her left arm, but the Colt .45 revolver she keeps on her bus. (She is licensed to carry a concealed weapon, so she's on the right side of the law.) And she also talks about her new hobby. "I try to think of new things so I won't get stale. Three years ago I bought a horse, and I did my first barrel race in May. You go real fast around barrels in a rodeo," Lambert explains. "I'm not real good, but I'm working on it!" And then Lambert opens up about what she's been doing to pay her family back for all their love and encouragement. She is putting her brother Luke through college at the University of Texas in Austin, and she splurged on a new Ford Expedition for her parents a couple of years ago. But she adds, "We live within our means. I don't have a big mansion. But I have 700 acres that no one can take away from me. It's amazing to walk around my land and think, 'That's my tree that I bought with my hard-earned money.' That's something that my dad wanted to do, and he couldn't," she says. "I feel like I'm doing this for my family now."