My latest Amish romance is available!

My latest Amish romance, "An Amish Marriage Agreement," is now available.

Here's the back cover blurb:

An unexpected family might be what they need to heal.

Amish basket-maker Olivia Bontrager moves to Montana looking for a fresh start…and finds instead her sister’s abandoned baby on her doorstep. Determined to give her niece a stable life, she accepts help from handyman Andrew Eicher, who offers a shocking proposal: a marriage of convenience. Now, after long resigning herself to spinsterhood, Olivia suddenly has the home and family she’s always yearned for, and Andrew’s betrayed heart slowly begins to open up again. But when Olivia’s sister reappears and jeopardizes the happiness they’ve found, will they be brave enough to fight for the future they both want?

It's funny – sometimes my Amish books generate a lot of reader emails, and sometimes they generate none. This one, for whatever reason, seems to have struck a chord. I've received several reader emails already, and the book has barely been available. Go figure.

At any rate, the book can be purchased either through Harlequin or Amazon:

• Harlequin

• Amazon

Enjoy!

Cow in the freezer and milking woes

Early in the morning on August 18, a mobile butcher came in and dispatched Filet, our eight-year-old Angus cow.

Filet had been earmarked for the freezer since we got her. She was a former range cow and was still, even after having her for 18 months, extremely stand-offish. Not aggressive, just not friendly. As an older animal, we knew she wouldn't be worth much more than ground beef (and tenderloin!).

For the actual dispatching, we had her corralled in this "chute" on the south side of the barn.

The animals are very familiar with this chute – it's usually open – so Filet experienced no stress or anxiety when we shooed her in around 5:45 am Monday morning. I didn't milk Maggie that morning, either, but just left Stormy (Maggie's calf) out of her pen for the night. Don and I shooed the rest of the herd into another pasture (including her six-month-old calf Romeo) until the deed was done.

Who was stressed and anxious in the days leading up to the slaughter was ME. I don't like killing things anyway, but there was also a LOT of residual stress left over from our last home, where we had a bunch of cobbled-together and often ineffective methods of confining animals before the butchers arrived, and several times animals escaped. Ug, I hate burchering days.

This is the first time we've had an animal butchered here in our new home, using the services of a new (to us) butcher. The actual dispatching is done by one party (an independent mobile dispatcher) and the hanging and cutting is done by a butchering business in a nearby town.

Since the mobile dispatcher lives just a short distance away, we asked him to drop by in advance so he could look over our setup and make sure everything was satisfactory.

You never met a nicer fellow than this dispatcher – knowledgeable and professional. He assured us the setup was fine. The plan was to drop Filet, bleed her out, then take the carcass to the butcher shop, where it will hang for 10 or 12 days before being cut up.

To say it went smooth as silk is to only hint at how easy it was. This morning Don and I hit the corral about 20 minutes before the butcher was due to show up (which he did promptly at 6 am), shooed Filet into the chute and shooed the rest of the livestock into the sacrifice pasture. It took five minutes and no one was the slightest bit alarmed.

The mobile dispatcher did the job with one bullet. Don (who was out with him) said Filet dropped like a rock and never knew what hit her. In other words, extremely fast and humane.

Naturally this leaves Romeo (and Mignon, her yearling calf) bereft of their mama, so there's that. Romeo is six months old, so plenty old enough to wean, but we wondered how he would react.

The first day, he didn't even appear to notice she was missing. Here's Romeo and Mignon, just hanging around in the sacrifice pasture below the barn.

In fact, except for a few bellows here and there, Romeo has done absolutely fine. It's been over a week now, and he doesn't appear to miss his mama at all.

Interestingly, the whole dynamic of the barn has changed now. Filet was unquestionably the alpha cow. To be honest, she was something of a bully to the other animals, including our Jersey Maggie. Now Maggie, as senior animal, has stepped into the role of alpha, and she's much nicer. In short, things are a lot calmer at the feed box.

However (and on a homestead, there's always a "however"), Romeo has found a major way to be obnoxious. He's discovered Maggie has milk. And since almost all Jerseys are what we call "universal donors" (meaning, very generous with their milk), he's been diving for the udder the moment I release Maggie from the milking stall each morning.

Here Stormy (Maggie's calf) is on the left, and Romeo is on the right.

This morning, I overslept a bit and didn't make it out to the barn until about 6:10 am. Stormy, of course, was locked away in the calf pen, but Romeo was avidly slurping away on Maggie. I got Maggie into the milking stall (forcibly locking Romeo out – he wanted to follow!) and settled down to milk Maggie.

I shouldn't have wasted my time. Poor Maggie had been drained dry. I barely got two ounces and just gave up. I released Maggie from the milking stall, then released Stormy from the calf pen. Both calves immediately dove for Maggie's udder, but Romeo had taken everything. Even Stormy didn't get her breakfast.

Okay, new plan: We're going to have to keep Romeo away from Maggie at night. We can't lock him in the calf pen with Stormy because there simply isn't enough room. (Remember, we had to shoehorn the calf pen and milking stall into a very tight corner of the barn.)

A fall project Don wants to accomplish before winter is to build an awning on the backside of the barn to give the animals extra space and shelter over the winter. We've decided to build a holding pen for Romeo into this awning space.

But that won't help for the immediate time being when it comes to milking Maggie. Filet has been gone over a week now, and this is the first time Romeo beat me to the milk, so to speak, probably because I overslept. I guess in the immediate, I just need to get out to the barn earlier and beat him to the faucet.

It's always something, y'know?

The tick theory

Many years ago, when we lived in southwest Oregon, we had loads and loads of ticks. It was revolting, but it was life. We learned to keep a can of soapy water next to the sink during tick season so we could drop ticks we found on the dogs (or on us) into the water. The soap broke up the surface tension of the water, and the ticks would sink to the bottom.

When we moved to Idaho in 2003, we had fewer ticks. Some years were worse than others, but overall it was a lot better than Oregon.

Here in our current location, we have almost zero ticks. Maybe – maybe – once a summer, we'll find a tick or two on Mr. Darcy, but overall it's almost a tick-free environment.

We didn't give much thought to this phenomenon until a man at our church put forth what I'm calling "The Tick Theory." We don't have ticks because we have turkeys. Loads and loads of turkeys.

As I'm mentioned before, turkeys are nature's Roombas. All year long, flocks of these gigantic prehistoric-looking birds roam around, pecking at anything they find that's vaguely edible. At certain times of the year, it's not unusual to see flocks numbering in the dozens. Get one of these flocks sweeping slowly across fields and woodlands, and yeah – no ticks. Makes sense.

I'd far rather have turkeys than ticks.

Product Review Monday

Today's recommended book is entitled "A Country Year: Living the Questions" by Sue Hubbell.

Here's the Amazon description: "Alone on a small Missouri farm after a thirty-year marriage, Sue Hubbell found a new love – of the winged, buzzing variety. Left with little but the commercial beekeeping and honey-producing business she started with her husband, Hubbell found solace in the natural world. Then she began to write, challenging herself to tell the absolute truth about her life and the things she cared about."

To be honest, this description doesn't even begin to capture the charm of this book. It was first published in 1986. I was working as a legal secretary at a law firm in downtown Sacramento at the time, and the book absolutely enchanted me. I bought ten copies as Christmas presents for friends. It's that good.

Hubbell's writing style is warm, clear, humorous, humble, and in all ways magnificent. If you're interested in the life of a solitary beekeeper in the Ozarks in the 1980s, you can't go wrong with "A Country Year."

________________________

With winter on our minds, Don's product recommendation is the STABILicers Maxx 2 Heavy-Duty Traction Cleats.

We've tried cleats before. Many years ago in our old house, I purchased a relatively inexpensive pair, strapped them on, and tried walking to our mailbox and back (a three-mile round trip). Within half a mile, the cleat straps broke. So much for that pair.

These are far and away the very best we've found. The individual cleats are even replaceable if they ever wear out. I can't even begin to express how much safer it is to walk during snowy or icy conditions while wearing these – the difference is night and day.

We've had these cleats for six years now, and in winter we just keep them strapped to our boots by default. These boot cleats are worth their weight in gold for anyone walking in icy conditions. Highly recommended.

(Obligatory disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, if you purchase through those links, we earn a small commission.)

(Don't forget: A complete list of all our book and product recommendations are linked here and at the upper-right column of the blog.)

Some days, it's just not worth getting out of bed

Let me tell you about my morning in the barn. Keep in mind you can't really visualize the layout of everything I mention, but that's okay. Just soak up the chaos.

With sunrise getting later, I've been going out to the barn to milk Maggie around 5:45 am. This morning, when I tried to open the gate into the livestock side of the barn, I couldn't get it open because Romeo was lying down in front of it.

(This is what the gate looks like. This photo was taken before the milking stall and calf pen were built in the space to the left.)

My hands were full with the milking buckets in one hand and a scoop of grain in the other. I poked and prodded at Romeo through the space at the bottom of the gate, but he wouldn't move.

So I put down the buckets and the grain, and got more serious about poking and prodding him ("Come on, Romeo, move!"), but nothing doing. He was quite comfortable, thank you, and didn't see a reason to get up.

So I had to go outside the barn and go through two side gates to get into the corral, which got the other cows all excited. ("Are we going out that gate today? Yippee!") But Romeo hadn't moved. He was still comfortably bedded down in front of the gate.

So I shooed him up, slipped through the gate to grab the grain and milk buckets I'd left on the other side, only to turn around and be confronted by Maggie who wanted her grain right now. I managed to dart into the outer milking pen and slam the gate in Maggie's face before she could get in. I put down the grain and milking buckets and managed to get Stormy, the calf, back into the inner pan (Stormy has access to both pens overnight).

(This is the current setup, with the milking stall to the left, the inner calf pen in center-back, and the outer pen in center-front. The gate Romeo was blocking is to the right.)

Then I put the grain in Maggie's grain bucket on the other side of the head gate, opened the milking stall door, and let her in. She settled into her grain, I got the milking stool and leg tie from the shelf where I keep them, tied up Maggie's back let, and started milking.

Everything was going fine. Maggie was eating her grain. The rest of the animals were patiently waiting for breakfast (we've been feeding hay mornings and evenings since the pastures are pretty much eaten down). Stormy was quiet and patient, waiting for me to finish milking before she got her own breakfast.

Maggie finished her grain and, as she always does, took a step back in the milking stall. This is the point where I readjust her leg-tie and keep milking.

But wait, Maggie didn't stop. She kept backing out of the milking stall. Whaaaat? How is this even happening? What are you doing? Keep in mind Maggie's back leg was still tied. I yanked the end of the slip knot so she wouldn't trip and panic, and she continued backing all the way out of the stall.

It took me a moment to realize, in the chaotic moments before I started milking, I didn't lock Maggie's neck into the head gate of the milking stall.

(You can see the head gate in the closed position at the end of the milking stall below. Her grain bucket is on the other side.)

Well, there was nothing else to do but release Stormy (who got an exceptionally rich breakfast as a result) and fetch the tie off Maggie's leg. I fed the animals and came back into the house, sporting a nearly empty milk bucket.

The annoying thing is, I still had to clean and sanitize everything as if I'd gotten a full day's milking, rather than the pathetic one pint I managed to get.

Some days, it's just not worth getting out of bed.

Sales are booming!

Sales of "Rachel's Folly" are booming!

We won't get official sales numbers for another week or so, but I've been taking screenshots of the book's ranking on Amazon. Early yesterday morning, here's where it stood:

As of this morning, take a gander at the difference!

This is all due to YOU, dear readers. Thank you for your support!

It's Book Bomb Day for "Rachel's Folly" !!

Finally, after weeks of waiting (and a glitch in the publishing matrix!), we're pleased to announce the availability of my sweet indy romance, "Rachel's Folly"!!

If you're interested in purchasing it, both the Kindle and print version can be found here.

Now here's the thing: If you purchase the book today – Wednesday, August 20 – it forms what's called a "book bomb" and helps ratchet up the ratings on Amazon. Consequently this makes it more likely that anyone searching for the "tags" attached to my book on Amazon (such as sweet romance, contemporary romance, etc.) will see my book higher up on the list of possible purchase choices. Ahem. Hint hint.

Once you've read the book, please post a review! The more reviews the book receives, the more likely Amazon will place it on "recommended" lists.

Additionally, we would like to ask a sincere favor: To please post its availability on any social media you may have. Remember, this story is clean enough for your Grandma to read without blushing.

(Please note, the above links to Rachel's Folly use our affiliate account, which is permitted. This means we earn a small commission with each purchase.)

Thank you all for your support! Woot!

A glitch in the (publishing) matrix

Due to a series of unfortunate events, the official launching of "Rachel's Folly" – which was supposed to happen today – is being delayed for a little while longer.

Honestly, KDP (Kindle Direct Print) is a pain in the patookus. Don went in last night to check something. He didn't touch anything, but apparently his mere presence was enough to reset the book to "draft," which means an automatic delay of 72 hours before it's available in print. Grrr.

Sorry about this. We're still groping around and feeling our way through this whole self-publishing venture. I'll announce the official release when things settle down. Once again ... stand by!

Product Review Monday

This week's book review is entitled "It Takes a Village Idiot" by Jim Mullen.

I'm a sucker for urban-to-rural migration stories. Bonus points if they're funny. Mullen's book is both.

Per the Amazon description:

Millions of people dream of abandoning the city routine for a simple country life. Jim Mullen was not one of them. He loved his Manhattan existence: parties, openings, movie screenings. He could walk to hundreds of restaurants, waste entire afternoons at the Film Forum, people-watch from his window. Then, one day, calamity.

His wife quits smoking and buys a weekend house in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York – in a tiny town diametrically opposed to Manhattan in every way. Slowly, however, the man who once boasted, "Life is just a cab away," begins to warm to the place – manure and compost and strangers who wave and all – and to embrace the kind of life that once gave him the shakes.

From the sneering contempt he once felt for rural life to the gradual change it took to wholeheartedly embrace it, Mullen's book is refreshingly sarcastic and great fun. Highly recommended.

_____________________

This week's product recommendation is a follow-up to last week's yogurt-making items: A yogurt strainer.

Once the yogurt is made in the incubator, it's often too liquidy for my taste. A few hours in  this strainer does wonders to thicken it up. This is before:

And this is after:

Here's how much liquid came out:

I used to do the whole suspend-from-a-pillowcase routine, and this is vastly easier (and more sanitary).

The only codicil is the mesh inside the strainer is very delicate, so it must be carefully hand-washed (and never put in a dishwasher). Beyond that, it works beautifully.

(Obligatory disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, if you purchase through those links, we earn a small commission.)

(Don't forget: A complete list of all our book and product recommendations are linked here and at the upper-right column of the blog.)

The Organic Prepper

For many years, I've followed The Organic Prepper's website. Daisy Luther has been a rock of excellent information in the preparedness world for a long time. I've quoted her material endless times over the life of this blog.

But she's hit a rough patch, up to and including a medical situation that has left her permanently disabled and in great pain. It's been hard watching her condition deteriorate. Despite it all, however, she continues her active writing schedule, providing superbly researched information for her readers.

Today I (as a subscriber) received the following email:

We are days away from closing The Organic Prepper website.

I honestly can't believe I'm writing this letter to you all. As promised earlier, I wanted to send you a longer message to explain our situation.

This website began tiny, back in 2012. I had about 30 views per article and that was on a good day. I got lucky – people liked the content on The OP and we grew, and grew, and grew. We became a voice to be reckoned with, bringing you both sides of the story and being staunchly libertarian in our views. We had so much influence that it scared the establishment, and starting in 2020, we began suffering hit after hit.

First, we were defunded without any warning from our former ad network, AdThrive. We'd been working with them for years and never had a single complaint. Then they hired a "disinformation" group to audit our website and poof - the money we depended on was gone. (At this point, it cost $55,000 a year to run the websites, and that was without one thin dime coming to me or my family.) With ad network support, we could do it. Without, it's been a constant scramble since 2021 when we received our last payment.

Soon after "NewsGuard" decided to audit us. They ranked us rock-bottom for reliability and honesty, after trying to get us to change our narrative to match the official one. When we insisted on providing both sides of the story, we were called a disinformation outlet. Interestingly, all the things we disagreed on regarding the origins of Covid-19, the mRNA vaccines, and Dr. Anthony Fauci have been proven to be true. That doesn't matter, though – they still have us ranked as big fat liars. Other ad networks see this ranking and won't do business with us.

We've been almost completely reader-supported ever since. But times are tough, for you guys as well as me. That support has dwindled away, too. My health doesn't allow me to have the same level of "hustle" that I used to have, creating brand new products or courses every two weeks.

It truly pains me and embarrasses me to tell you that within the week, we may have to close the website. I'm holding this fundraiser as a last-ditch effort to keep paying for our server and other expenses (which I've cut back to the bare minimum).

As a fundraiser, I'm offering a really awesome anthology bundle, with four complete PDF books from The Organic Prepper, starting as low as $5. Every single penny helps us more than I can express. We're getting closer to our goal but we can't get there without help. You can set your own price for this product.

LINK: https://selfrelianceandsurvival.com/product/4-complete-organic-prepper-anthologies/

If you want to provide ongoing support, please check out my Patreon, which offers ad-free content from The OP.

LINK: https://www.patreon.com/theorganicprepper

Asking for help is really difficult for me. I've always managed to save myself. This time, I can't do it without a hand up.

I sincerely appreciate any purchase you are able to make. I hope desperately to keep The OP going.

Stay safe.
Be happy.

Love,
Daisy

I'm reposting her request here in case anyone else would like to help support her. Her material is excellent and the bundles she offers are well worth it. Please consider making some purchases to help her out.

Thank you.

Checking sheep

A friend was describing her activities with their flock of sheep, including milking them. For some reason, her email sparked a memory which, for years, I ranked among my most embarrassing moments.

Let's go back to 1983. I spent an extraordinary summer working at Wolf Park outside of West Lafayette, Indiana. In addition to wolf research and breeding, the facility was something of a farm as well, with bison, sheep, horses, etc.

I was an ignorant little suburban-bred college student trying my best to learn rural ways, and the whole summer at Wolf Park was absolutely stinkin' wonderful.

One day one of the senior volunteer administrators asked me to go check on a flock of (hornless) sheep that were close to lambing. I asked what I had to do. She said to lift the tails of a few of the ewes and note if the vulva was swollen or not. If it was, lambing was close.

So I took myself off to the sheep pen, looked for the animals with udders, lifted their tails, and didn't see anything unusual. I reported back to the administrator that nope, it didn't look like they were anywhere close to lambing.

The next day lambs were popping out everywhere. Somewhat exasperated, the administrator asked me what happened. "I don't know," I protested. "I looked for all the animals with udders and lifted their tails, and didn't see anything unusual."

Enlightenment dawned on the administrator's face. She asked me to describe the udders I was looking at. When I did, she burst out laughing. And I mean she howled with laughter, clutching her side with mirth.

Finally she gasped out, "Those weren't ewes. You were lifting the tails of the rams."

After a few baffled moments, it dawned on innocent 20-year-old me just what part of the sheep's anatomy I had assumed was an udder. Cue the embarrassment.

The administrator's eyes twinkled. "Why do you think rams have such big egos?" she asked.

It took me the rest of the summer to live that one down.

Insane canning advice...?

The other day I was reading a sensible and well-written piece by Daisy Luther ("The Organic Prepper") about the dangers of using pressure cookers for canning.

She also emphasized the need to use a pressure canner when preserving low-acid foods. She wrote: "Pressure canning exceeds the temperature of water bath canning, getting your product into the safety zone.  The temperature must reach 240 degrees Fahrenheit, which can only be achieved through steam under pressure. All vegetables (except for tomatoes which are botanically a fruit), meats, seafood, and poultry, must be preserved in a pressure canner."

All truthful and factual information. No argument from me.

But then I read something in the comments that absolutely floored me. Someone named "William C" wrote: "There are other ways to get water to 240 degrees without using pressure. Antifreeze added to the water, and checked with a radiator hydrometer, will raise the boiling temp to as much as 270 degrees. Also, you can skip the water bath and use cooking oils. They can get to over 400 degrees if you want."

I'm sorry, is he suggesting we submerge our green beans or chicken breasts in a water-bath mixed with antifreeze? Deadly poisonous antifreeze that routinely kills pets?

Or, just as crazy, that we "skip the water bath" and submerge the jars of food in boiling-hot cooking oils?

With all due respect to William C., this has to be some of the most lunatic and insane canning advice I've ever heard, even worse than those who claim it's safe to water-bath can green beans "because Granny always did it that way."

I read William C's recommendations out loud to Don and we hashed out the insanity of the man's advice. Don summed it up succinctly: "Or you can just get a d*** pressure canner, for Pete's sake."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

What to do with strawberries

Our strawberries have gotten their "second wind" after taking a break mid-summer.

Now I'm getting a nice bowl-full every other day or so.

Older Daughter has taken to making an absolutely yummy treat with these beauties: Chocolate-covered strawberries.

She starts by melting some chocolate chips (with a little olive oil added) in a metal bowl over a pot of boiling water, double-boiler style.

She hulls the strawberries, then carefully dries them. Chocolate apparently doesn't stick to wet strawberries.

Then she drops the strawberries, one at a time, into the chocolate and kinda rolls them around. After that she lays them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

She puts these, still on the cookie sheet, in the freezer for about 15 minutes, then they go in the fridge. It's a nice treat for a hot day, and a great way to use up an abundance of strawberries.

One week to launch day!

A week from today – August 19 – is Book Bomb Day for "Rachel's Folly." We're stoked!

When the book becomes available, we will ask a sincere favor of everyone: To please post its availability on any social media you may have. We're hoping to show strong sales numbers on its launch day (publishers watch these things). Thank you in advance!

The countdown continues.............

Product Review Monday

This week's product review is for something I've owned for at least 20 years: A Yogotherm yogurt incubator. It's been in storage for the last few years since we didn't have a milk cow. Now that I'm milking Maggie, I'm using it weekly once more. [NOTE: A reader pointed out that this product is no longer available on Amazon. I checked and she's right. I've updated the link to direct people to Lehman's. We won't make any commission from this link, but it's a good product regardless.]

There are endless yogurt incubators on the market, but most are all fancy and electric, which means they're more likely to break down. Yogotherm is, literally, a Styrofoam sleeve with a bucket inside. That's it.

To make yogurt, I heat the milk to 180F, let it cool to 110F, add the yogurt culture, mix well, and slip the bucket into the foam insulator and let it sit for 10 or 12 hours. That's it. Nothing to break, nothing to plug in. Easy peasey.

I use a Bulgarian yogurt culture because it can be recultivated indefinitely. 

When the yogurt is finished, I scoop a bit into a jar and keep it in the fridge. That becomes the starter culture for the next batch. Great stuff.

(Obligatory disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, if you purchase through those links, we earn a small commission.)

(Don't forget: A complete list of all our book and product recommendations are linked here and at the upper-right column of the blog.)