Bøger af Fay Risner

Join the fun. You are invited to the wedding of John Lapp and Nurse Hal. Family and friends have gathered to cook, clean and plan. Men have put up a tent for the guests, so put on your bonnet or felt hat, hitch up your buggy and take a ride by scenic pastures and rolling hills to Wickenburg, Iowa. Take a seat on a bench next to Hal's folks. They will be glad to explain the ceremony, because they came armed with Aunt Tootie's book on Amish customs. You will find a few surprises when little Daniel Lapp interrupts the bishop when he asks if anyone objects to the couple's marriage. Oh and Stella Strutt has some sort of fit. It will be the most talked about Amish wedding for years to come. Hal's married life is downhill from there. She refuses to give up her car and cell phone. Getting caught by Stella Strutt at the Old Thrasher Reunion on a "joy ride" doesn't help her avoid punishment. Is Hal going to get sent away before she gets settled in? Stick around after the wedding and find out, why don't you?

Emma Lapp is marrying Adam Keim. Excitement prevails as Emma and her step-mother, Hallie, discuss details for the wedding. Soon Emma's excitement turns to dread. Nothing is going right. She planned on the former teacher to substitute teach for a month. She didn't plan on Ellen Miller being eight months pregnant with twins. Who else could Emma trust to teach her students? The Weber sisters are in a family upheaval over their cooking and garden methods. She wants them to bake her wedding cake. What if they get so upset with each other the cake doesn't get made? Emma would like to discuss her worries with Adam, but he hasn't been to see her for days. She is consumed by worries about the missing husband-to-be. What if he wants to back out of marrying her? She asks everyone what is Adam doing? The answer is always, he is very busy. When Emma found out Adam hired pretty, man magnet, Priscilla Tefertiller to clerk in his furniture store, she suspects Adam has developed a fondness for Priscilla. Is he going to wait until the last minute to tell Emma he changed his mind about marrying her? A talk with Bishop Bontrager didn't help. He sided with Adam, telling Emma she should trust the man she's going to marry with blind faith. She said she couldn't do that. The bishop told Emma if she couldn't trust Adam now, she might never trust him. Perhaps, they shouldn't get married. The bishop called Emma a Doubting Thomas. Will her worries get so bad she'll call off the wedding before the wedding is published at the worship service? If she does she fears she will forever be a maidel who is know by others as a Doubting Thomas.

Nurse Hal invites her parents to visit the Lapp farm near Wickenburg, Iowa to get acquainted with their two little granddaughters. She is in total turmoil when she hears she's going to get more company than she bargained for. Jim and Nora Lindstrom are bringing Nora's sister, Tootie, with them. Nurse Hal is sure her family is going to be shunned when scatterbrained Aunt Tootie does or says the wrong thing around their Amish friends. With all the scenarios that Hal imagined, she didn't come close to dreaming up the things this a little plumb off center aunt could do to get them in trouble with the Amish community.John Lapp invites Jim to go to the salebarn with him and his sons. He wonders if that was a wise thing to do when Jim buys a courting buggy and horse. The man is as excited about his purchase as he'd been about his first jalopy. However, Jim has doubts about the horse on the first ride home. Mike has traffic fright so he stops when traffic goes by him. Jim has to hide that fact from Nora. She made up her mind right away that she didn't like the courting buggy and doesn't want anything to do with it. She would be even more upset if she knew the horse had a problem.An elderly neighbor, Peter Rogies, has Alzheimer's disease. Before Nurse Hal can educate his family about how to care for the man, Aunt Tootie takes a liking to Peter. They go for a walk and end up on Lover's Lane in Jim's courting buggy. The next time the couple go for a walk they get lost in a timber in the dark. It would be just a matter of time before they succumb to the elements if the search party doesn't find them. What else will Aunt Tootie do to complicate Nurse Hal's Amish way of life? Lots of things and not all of them in The Courting Buggy.

Welcome to the Lapp farm near Wickenburg in southern Iowa. Come to visit and bring your sense of humor. Dependable Emma Lapp dreams about the same fate that happens to all teenage Amish girls. Eventually, she will fall in love, marry and have a large family, but she's been offered the teacher's job for a term. That means working away from home and leaving Nurse Hal to take care of the household while she's still trying to perfect her cooking skills. That worries Emma. She doesn't think Nurse Hal is ready to take on the responsibilities of homemaker and continue her nursing duties at the same time. However, Emma wants to take her place in the grownup world and teaching school will be an exciting challenge.Emma turned seventeen and is considered a good catch by several eligible bachelors. As Emma puts it, every single man in the community is sizing her up for his wife. The men make it obvious they want to be her special friend. She spent her childhood growing up with Levi Yoder. Now he thinks he has first claim on her. Emma's not so sure about that when she finds herself tempted by Eli Yetzy, the deacon's son. He's wildly into rumspringa so he imitates English teens and does things that are against Emma's beliefs. She wants to turn away from him but finds him appealing. Emma is really confused when a school board member, widower Amos Coblentz, takes a liking to her. At the same time, Bobby Keim tries to get her attention. Emma becomes so troubled about which man she wants to spend her life with that her nights are riddled with unsettling dreams that tangle together in her mind. Filmy male faces move about like strong transparent gauze in a gentle breeze, competing for her attention while she tries to sleep. In the dark of night, these dreams seem very real while the break of day leaves even more room for doubt and confusion as Emma's Gossamer Dreams keep her in turmoil.

If spring is a season of rebirth and love, Hallie Lapp's farm, at first glance, seems to be the place to be. What she didn't see coming after the birth of her daughter, Redbird, was an abandoned baby dropped off in her buggy as part of the Safe Haven law. She couldn't imagine a runaway girl, Annie Hosteller, showing up on her doorstep, either. Once Nurse Hal is forced to meet the scary men from the Hosteller compound life isn't the same for the Amish community for months to come. In the middle of the night, Joseph Hosteller sends his sons to search for his daughter and her newborn infant. They beat up Amish farmers, cut off their beard and their wives hair. More violence is threatened if Joseph Hosteller's daughter and baby aren't returned to him. Bishop Bontrager warns everyone to stay home and protect themselves from home invasions in the middle of the night. Nurse Hal fears what will happen when the Hostellers find Joseph's daughter, Annie, and her baby are at the Lapp farm. What harm will come to Nurse Hal and her family when the Hostellers invade their home?

Join the fun! You are invited to the wedding of John Lapp and Nurse Hal. Family and friends have gathered to cook, clean and plan. Men put up a tent for the guests. So put on your bonnet or felt hat, hitch up the buggy and take a ride by scenic pastures and rolling cornfields to Wickenburg, Iowa. Take a seat in the tent on a bench next to Hal's parents. They will be glad to explain the ceremony because they came armed with Aunt Tootie's book on Amish customs. You will find a few surprises at the wedding. Little Daniel Lapp interrupts the bishop when he asks if any object. Oh and Stella Strutt has some sort of fit. It will be the most talked about Amish wedding for years to come. Hal's life goes downhill from there. She refuses to give away her car and cell phone. Getting caught by Stella Strutt at the Old Thrashers Reunion on a "joy ride" doesn't help her avoid punishment. Is Hal going to be sent away beofre she gets settled in? Stick around after the wedding and find out why don't you.

Fay Risner, in Book Two of her Amish series, links the modern world to the timeless Amish way of life when Nurse Hallie Lindstrom falls in love with Amish widower John Lapp. This is a fascinating look at two differing cultures set in an intricate and richly detailed tapestry of a traditional Amish setting in Southern Iowa. The Amish simple way of life based on faith, convictions and honesty is entwined in this love story between an English woman and an Amish man. Hallie Lindstrom, Home Health Nurse, has copper-red hair, a fondness for jeans and owns a copper sedan which inhibits the Amish community's acceptance of her. Struggling with her decision to convert to Amish, Hallie realizes if she is allowed to marry John Lapp the worldly possessions she values have to go.Amish widower, John Lapp's patience with Hallie wears thin when she stays upset over his helping a pretty Amish widow, Roseanna Miller, on her farm. John points out her total shunning of English ways and complete obedience to him is the only way he'll marry her. He fears his love for her isn't enough to keep her in the Amish faith if she can't go along with his ways.Stella Strutt, an opinionated, Old Order Amish woman, is determined to get rid of Hallie by turning the community against her. Hallie has to decide if she is strong enough to give up her way of life to be forever Amish, make a life in the community by running a medical clinic on the Lapp farm and put up with Stella Strutt bad mouthing her and the clinic for eternity.

Gracie Evans and the other elderly residents living at Moser Mansion Rest Home for Women in Locked Rock, Iowa aren't happy with the school board's pick for the new schoolmarm. The young woman has been seen dating Locked Rock's eligible young bachelors. Lois Harwood said Cecee Morgan claimed she caught the new teacher flirting with her husband. They live next door to the teacher. Lois Harwood drove past a buggy rocking back and forth late one evening in the country and recognized Hubert Hadden and the schoolmarm acting unseemly so she said. Lois spread the news, and from what she heard from others, she says the schoolmarm had been ridden more often than all the horses in the town's livery. The town's respectable ladies are up in arms enough to go to the school board members and complain before school starts. The board needs to fire Connie Greene and hire another teacher. Too late! The Moser Mansion women go for an evening walk and find the schoolmarm's body in a marsh outside of town. Now if that young woman was getting along so well with the men in Locked Rock, Who Killed The Schoolmarm?

Home Health Nurse Hal Lindstrom is assigned Amish widower John Lapp. She offers to stay with his children while he is in the hospital. Fifteen year old Emma takes care of the household. Her two younger brothers are handling the dairy operation. Hal soon realizes that Emma suffers from depression. Noah is withdrawn, and Daniel is so troubled he sleepwalks outside, looking for his dead mother. Drawn to this needy family, Hal discovers they have a family secret swept under their proverbial Amish rag rug. The more she tries to help them the deeper she is sucked into the family's problem. Finally, Emma makes Hal promise to stop trying to unravel the family's tragic secret before it's too late. Hal agrees. When her future happiness with John Lapp is at stake, she wishes she hadn't agreed but a promise is a promise.

Katrina Sibowski has inherited a gift from her grandmother she doesn't want or understand. Gift is what her grandmother, Libby Sibowski, calls the women in the Sibowski family's ability to have second sight. This revelation catches Katrina by complete surprise. Her mother, Vencil, is uneasy around her mother-in-law because of her powers. She knew there was a fifty-fifty chance Katrina might inherit second sight, but she didn't warn her daughter. Katrina's grandmother is the granny woman healer for the neighborhood. The closest thing to a doctor. She doesn't talk about her gift and very few people have witnessed her have visions. They see that as a witch's curse. When Libby Sibowski realizes thirteen-year-old Katrina now has dream visions, Libby wants to train Katrina to become the next healer to take her place, but Libby warns Katrina to be careful not to talk about her second sight so no one outside of the family knows about Katrina's Gift.

An American version of Miss Marple, Gracie Evans is homesick and tired of retirement. She's bored with living in the Moser Mansion Rest Home For Women in Locked Rock, Iowa. Spring brings back pleasant memories so she prays to God to give her a chance to go back to her farm for a little while. No one is more surprised than Gracie when her prayer comes true. The renter asks her to stay at her farm for a month while he goes on vacation. Soon she decides she should be more careful what she prays for. Her thrill at finding wild strawberries to pick dulls when she sees an Indian swimming naked in her pond. After he leaves, she finds a missing neighbor's clothes on her pond bank. Gracie goes for a walk through her timber to mushroom hunt and gets shot at. That's just the beginning of bad luck for her while she's at Three Oaks to farm sit. Once the widower neighbor and Gracie's former beau finds out her problem, he keeps coming over to check on her. At least that's his excuse for showing up unexpectedly. What he really wants is to take back up with Gracie where they left off years ago. None of this farm sitting experience was what Gracie meant when she asked God for The Chance Of A Sparrow.

Fall was normally a routine season in Amish Country with harvest taking up much of the Plain farmers time. They put in long hours of hard work, shucking corn and making the last crop of hay. But one fall near Wickenburg, Iowa wasn't normal at all. When Jacob Stolfus's barn burnt down, he saw a rider on horseback leave his cornfield. After Sheriff Dawson investigated, he said the fire was arson. The news spread through the Amish Community, leaving Plain people stunned and in fear. As quickly as they could, the Amish farmers organized a barn raising so life on the Stolfus Dairy farm could get back to normal. What the Amish Community didn't realize was that life wasn't going to be normal for weeks. Next Rudy Briskey's corn field burnt, and after that Nurse Hal was attacked in her barn. While she laid unconscious on the barn floor, the arsonist set a hay bale on fire, hoping to kill Hal and destroy the Lapp barn at the same time. When the arsonist hurt Nurse Hal, a valued member of the Amish community, that really tested the faith of the devout Amish pacifists. This inferno of destruction caused a great deal of lost income and worry for the safety of Amish families and neighbors. Why was this happening to the Amish, and what building would go up in flames next? Would the next fire take someone's life with this insane Amish Country Arson?

Early spring is once again turning the snow melted hills of southern Iowa into green, lush pastures filled with livestock and their capering newborns. Amish farmers are in the fields, tilling and planting corn. In the Amish community, usually it isn't mentioned outside of the family and close friends when new babies are expected. This particular spring all that changes in Nurse Hal's community. At least for the Lapp family. Hal's expecting a baby very soon and not feeling well with so much work to do for her family. That's why she's pleasantly surprised and grateful when she receives a letter from her parents. They're moving lock, stock, barrel and Aunt Tootie to Wickenburg to be near Hal and her family. Hal's looking forward to the much appreciated help from her mother and even Aunt Tootie. Emma Keim is anxiously waiting the arrival of her baby only to have Nurse Hal tell her she's having twins. If that wasn't enough of a shock, the news Dr. Burns gives Adam and Emma about the babies is heartbreaking. That starts the largest prayer circle ever heard of in the Amish community and back home in Titonka, Iowa. There's still more for Emma to endure and put fright in the heart of every young Amish woman. Emma realizes she's being stalked by an English man in a red sports car. While she manages to avoid the man, Adam's store clerk isn't so lucky. Priscilla Tefertiller soon find Bobby Keim is no longer willing to marry her, and she's the Amish community's main topic with people labeling her

1895 was the year life as a grownup began for Lilly Baker Elliot when she took notice of Tom Elliot, a handsome bachelor farmer. He began to spend time in her parents general store, not knowing what he wanted to buy. It became very clear to Lilly that he just wanted to spend time with her. Lilly was a bright fifteen year old, and Tom was twenty three. For Lilly's mother, Bernice, this was a match she had been working toward for years by showering Lilly with fashionable clothes to catch the eye of all the Ford Crossing, Iowa's single men. Tom Elliot was not just single, he owned a farm and a good home. He knew how to make his farm pay and give Bernice's daughter a good home. For a few years after the town's most lavish wedding, life for the Elliots was ideal. Tom and Lilly were deeply in love. They had three children and one on the way. But then tragedy struck. Circumstances changed for Lilly to make her life unbearable.

The Moser Mansion residents are summoned to the county seat to testify against Mavis Jordan at her murder trial. The county seat turns out to be a dangerous place for Gracie Evans. A man stalks her with the intention of killing her, but that's not all. She starts to wish she'd never visited the big city and actually misses Locked Rock, Iowa. She fears she will be the next victim of The County Seat Killer.

A stranger shows up for Molly Moser's wedding. He claimes to be Melinda Applegate's nephew. An American version of Miss Marple, Gracie doesn't believe him. She's determined to prove he's up to no good. Gracie tries to warn the others, but they think she's jealous because Melinda's not having anything to do with her now. At the same time, all sorts of upheaval takes place at the mansion while Molly's gone on her month long honeymoon.

Locked Rock, Iowa is lively again with Gracie Evans and her friends antics. Enjoy this story about Moser Mansion Rest Home for women residents when they attempt to make conditions better for women in 1905. What do you know! Gracie Evans, Moser Mansion resident, has turned into a women's activist which is going to get her in plenty of trouble. Locked Rock's newspaper is full of news from back east and the women in town read all about it. Suffragettes are burning their corsets to draw attention to the fact they want the same right to vote as the men which due to their efforts gave women the right to vote in August, 1920. Women are trying to bring on prohibition with the help of Carrie A. Nation, Temperance Movement leader, by smashing saloons with hatchets. Gracie enlists the women's bible study group to organize a Temperance march. She means well, but before she knows it, she's turned the men in town against the women. The march gets Gracie and two others arrested. Her community service punishment as the town's telephone operator puts her in the hot seat right where the men in town want her so they can threaten her. However, someone does more than threaten the town's Temperance leader Ida Frank. A killer hacks Ida and her family to death with the Moser Mansion hatchet. Rafe Johnson's blood hounds trail a scent to Moser Mansion. All of Locked Rock's citizens are on edge and looking for someone to blame the murders on. Gracie Evans is the men's prime suspect.

Les parents de Hallie Lapp, Jim et Nora Lindstrom, décident de se déraciner du nord de l'Iowa après leur retraite. Ils se déplacent dans le sud de l'Iowa pour vivre près de leur fille, et de sa famille Amish. La tante Tootie vient et déménage dans la maison de grand-père sur la propriété. Alors que les Lindstrom s'adaptent à vivre dans une communauté Amish, ils ont des nouvelles que le neveu de Nora et Tootie et sa femme ont été tués dans un accident de voiture. Survivre à eux est une fille de quatorze ans qui seront mis en famille d'accueil si ils ne la prennent pas po Tootie est contre avoir un adolescent sous les pieds, mais les Lindstroms pensent que c'est leur devoir d'élever leur grande-nièce. Ils la trouvent être un enthousiaste, un faisceau d'énergie nommé Joy. Les Lindstroms prennent à elle instantanément, mais la joie affronte Tootie, une femme réglée dans ses manières. Pour commencer, Joy a amené ses parents avec elle dans une urne. Tootie pense que c'est de mauvais goût et exige Nora dire à la fille d'enterrer l'urne. Le beau-fils de Hallie Lapp, Daniel Lapp, devient bon ami de Joy et l'aide à nettoyer un petit cimetière qu'ils ont découvert à l'arrière de la propriété, Tootie se plaint de Joy a trop de liberté et a besoin d'activités plus constructives. Elle avertit Nora que Daniel et Joy sont de plus en plus amis, mais la Nora ne veut pas écouter. Comme disaient les Amish, elle n'avait pas encore vu une grève de match entre Daniel et Joy. Ils sont tous d'accord Joy maintient la vie intéressante d'apporter à la maison une mouffette bébé à la cueillette des fleurs sauvages et des herbes à poux comme un cadeau pour Tootie qui lui donne une réaction allergique dangereuse. Rejoignez la famille Lindstrom et en savoir plus. Je vous ai seulement dit une partie de ce qui se passe dans la sagesse joyeuse.

Bag lady Cowboy Girl Annie knew life to be tough. She had adjusted to all her bad breaks years ago, because she always figured life was similar to a game of poker. She called what happened to her the luck of the draw and endured whatever bad luck came her way. It could be something as simple as the squeaky wheel on her shopping cart locking up before she'd made her rounds of the dumpsters. On the other hand, it might be something as deadly as getting the town's meanest gangster, Big Ed, mad enough at her to kill her. When she found out there was a bounty on her head, Cowboy Girl Annie tried to remain calm about her predicament. She acted like she could handle her problem with Big Ed even when her special friend, Skinny Jake, blustered to Big Ed about how Annie and him were watching each other's backs. Of course, Skinny Jake said that to Big Ed just before he suggested to Annie that they run as fast as they could in the opposite direction and find a place to hide.

Früher Frühling dreht sich wieder einmal der Schnee geschmolzen Hügeln der südlichen Iowa in der grünen, üppigen Weiden gefüllt mit Vieh und ihre Herumtollen Neugeborenen. Amish Bauern auf den Feldern, Pflügen und das Einpflanzen Mais. In der Amish-Gemeinschaft, in der Regel ist es nicht außerhalb der Familie und engen Freunden erwähnt, wenn neue Babys zu erwarten sind. Diese besondere Frühjahr alle, die Krankenschwester Hal Gemeinschaft ändert in. Zumindest für die Familie Lapp. Hal ist ein Kind erwartet sehr bald und fühlt sich nicht gut mit so viel Arbeit für ihre Familie zu tun. Aus diesem Grund ist sie angenehm überrascht, als sie einen Brief von ihren Eltern erhält. Sie bewegen sich Schloss, Lager, Lauf Frühling wieder im südlichen Iowa findet grünen Weiden gefüllt mit Vieh und ihre Herumtollen Neugeborenen. In der Amish-Gemeinschaft ist nicht die Rede von erwarteten Babys außerhalb der Familie und enge Freunde gemacht. Diese besondere Feder alles, was ändert. Krankenschwester Hal ein Kind erwartet. Sie ist angenehm überrascht, als sie einen Brief von ihren Eltern erhält, sagen, dass sie sich bewegen Schloss, Lager, Zylinder und Tante Tootie in der Nähe von Hal und ihrer Familie zu sein. Emma Keim wartet gespannt auf die Ankunft ihres Babys nur Krankenschwester Hal zu haben, ihr zu sagen, sie ist mit Zwillingen. Die Nachricht, Dr. Burns-gibt Adam und Emma über die Babys ist erschütternd. Noch gibt es mehr für Emma zu ertragen, wenn sie erkennt, dass sie durch einen seriellen Angreifer stolzierte Wesen, ein Englisher in einem roten Sportwagen. Sie schafft es, den Mann zu vermeiden. Adams Verkäuferin ist nicht so glücklich. Priscilla Tefertiller findet sie nicht mehr die Ehe Material und ist das Hauptthema der Amish-Gemeinschaft mit dem Label Zweite Hand-Waren.

Anna Winters buys the cottage of her dreams. The yard is full of blooming roses which lends color and fragrance to the place. When her elderly mother, Joyce Winters's dementia worsens, Anna takes her in. From the start, Joyce says the house has bad vibes and doesn't like living there. When she finds a china teapot covered with roses at the back of her closet, she is adamant a woman named Emily wants the teapot placed on the fireplace mantle. One night behind Joyce's closed bedroom door, Anna overhears her mother in a conversation about the teapot with the imaginary Emily. She worries about her mother's failing mental health. To prove her mother is imagining Emily, Anna investigates the house's previous owners. She finds thirty years before a woman named Emily Carson owned the house. One old newspaper in the library's archive has the front page headline Emily Carson Murdered In Her Home. Town's First Murder In A Decade. Does the teapot have the power to present its deceased owner, Emily, to Anna's mother? Is there really a Haunted Teapot On Whistler Street?

Los padres de Hallie Lapp, Jim y Nora Lindstrom, deciden arrancarse del norte de Iowa después de retirarse. Se trasladan al sur de Iowa para vivir cerca de su hija, y su familia Amish. La tía Tootie viene y se muda a la casa del abuelo en la propiedad. Mientras los Lindstrom se adaptan a vivir en una comunidad Amish, reciben noticias de que el sobrino de Nora y Tootie y su esposa han muerto en un accidente automovilístico. Sobrevivir a ellos es una hija de catorce años que se pondrá en cuidado de crianza temporal si no la toman pulg Tootie está en contra de tener un adolescente bajo el pie, pero los Lindstroms piensan que es su deber de criar a su sobrina. Ellos la encuentran para ser un entusiasta, un paquete de energía llamada Joy. El Lindstroms tomar a ella al instante, pero la alegría choca con Tootie, una mujer en sus caminos. Para empezar, Joy trajo a sus padres con ella en una urna. Tootie piensa que es de mal gusto y exige que Nora le diga a la niña que entierre la urna. El hijastro de Hallie Lapp, Daniel Lapp, se convierte en buenos amigos de Joy y la ayuda a limpiar un pequeño cementerio que descubrieron en la parte trasera de la propiedad, Tootie se queja de que Joy tiene demasiada libertad y necesita actividades más constructivas. Ella advierte a Nora que Daniel y Joy se están volviendo más que amigos, pero la Nora no quiere escuchar. Como dirían los Amish, ella no había visto una huelga de partido entre Daniel y Alegría todavía. Todos están de acuerdo Joy mantiene la vida interesante de traer a casa un bebé skunk para recoger flores silvestres y ragweeds como un regalo para Tootie que le da una reacción alérgica peligrosa. Únete a la familia Lindstrom y descubre más. Sólo te he dicho parte de lo que sucede en Sabiduría Alegre

Life wasn't so bad for Bat Kayhill these days. Two years before, he'd moved from his Bar BK Ranch to live with his daughters in Dead Horse, Oklahoma after his wife died. Now he was tired of living in town. He missed ranch life and was ready to move back home, but he dreaded living in the house alone. The place was full of memories and the spirit of his wife, Hannah. It would be an awful lonely house without a wife. His sister, Billie, said there were plenty of single women in town. She suggested Bat start wife hunting. Bat took her up on the idea, but he wasn't finding a woman that compared to his late wife. The idea came to him he should be prepared with a gift when he did find the right woman to ask to be his wife. He asked Miss Leta Mays at the Seamstress shop to make him a bonnet. The wife search was a slow process, but he had the help of Billie, lending her advice and cleaning up his ranch house. Miss Leta conferred with him over lunch, a supper and a picnic about how the bonnet should look. Since Bat didn't know about such things as women's bonnets he came to rely on Miss Leta's help. Though, he couldn't tell her or anyone else he had this crazy notion to buy a bonnet before he found the woman to be his wife. He really appreciated Miss Leta taking an interest in him and sewing The Blue Bonnet.

Tales about a woman's fight with wolves, an Indian attack, an Indian visitor that refuses to leave, homesteading woes and a tall tale.

During the Great Depression, Rachel felt lucky to be teaching school in Oklahoma. She was eager to start her second year as soon as summer ended. She tried to think positive. She was one of the lucky few to have a job even though she was sadden by the circumstances everyone in the United States faced. Travelers were on the road going from place to place, looking for work. Migrants were hopping on and off trains and camping in a grove of trees near Rachel's house. She felt nervous when they knocked on her door asking for a handout. The bright moment that summer was when her friend, Mary, came to visit for two weeks. The confusing times were when the good-looking sheriff showed up, using the excuse he wanted to keep Rachel safe or ask her out on a date. The sad times were how life ended violently for discouraged people that were Rachel's neighbors. What worried Rachel most was how to cope with the appearance of UNINVITED VISITORS.

The Moser Mansion Rest Home For Women residents are summoned to appear at thecounty seat to testify against Mavis Jordan at her murder trial. The county seat turnsout to be a deadly place for Gracie Evans. A mysterious man stalks her with theintention of killing her. She starts to wish she'd never visited the big city and actuallymisses Locked Rock, Iowa. She fears she will be the next victim of The County Seat Killer.

Moser Mansion has become spooky. Libby sees ghosts in the middle of the night roaming around the house with her. Gracie's sure the hauntings is a plot of a crooked contractor who wants to buy the mansion and turn it into a hotel. Seems the only one wo has the answers to what's going on is Moxie's pet, talking parrot Turkeyneck.

Book 1-The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary -Sheriff Stringbean Hooper's job description for sheriff is relaxing while he watches the town out his office window. He leans back in his chair with his feet on his desk and takes it easy. All that changes when the town doctor, Doc Strummer, reports his wife has disappeared. Hooper finds himself in the middle of a crime and a family feud between cattle baron, Mac Sullivan, and the cattle baron's son-in-law, Dr. Strummer. Hooper's only backups are a nervous pig farmer that works as his part time deputy, and a gun toting woman rancher who has her sights set on marrying him. Having them for backup doesn't stop someone from ambushing Stringbean after an evening at the woman rancher's house. The only woman he can trust is the laundry woman on the edge of Sully Town, Montana. She will take the bullet out of him and get him back on his feet. Hooper finds himself fighting for his life and his bachelorhood while he solves the mysterious disappearance of Mary Alice Strummer.Book 2 Small Feet's Many Moon Journey-Stringbean Hooper and his wife, Theo, think a journey across country will be their honeymoon. They have no idea what they are getting themselves into. Stringbean gets them lost in Indian territory and upsets the Indians. The couple escape a flood, a mad bear, spend the night in a run down cabin with a woman crazy with prairie fever and more. Through it all, Stringbean meets the challenges with his usual sense of humor, but he notices as the journey drags on that Theo is getting crankier by the minute. He sure hopes she lightens up by the time they get to her brother's wedding in San Jose. It didn't help him any to have warning advice freely handed out to Theo, known as Small Feet, by the Indian shaman, Matilda Vinci. The old woman warned Theo to be careful while traveling with Stringbean who the Sioux named Walking Dead. Matilda said he might get Theo killed.

Hallie Lapp's parents, Jim and Nora Lindstrom, decide to uproot themselves from northern Iowa after they retire. They move to southern Iowa to live near their daughter and her Amish family. Aunt Tootie comes along and move into the grandfather house on the property. While the Lindstroms adjust to living in an Amish community, they get news that Nora and Tootie's nephew and his wife have been killed in a car crash. Surviving them is a fourteen-year-old daughter that will be put in foster care if they don't take her in. Tootie is against having a teenager underfoot, but the Lindstroms think it's their duty to raise their great-niece. They find her to be an enthusiastic bundle of energy named Joy. The Lindstroms take to her instantly, but Joy clashes with Tootie, a woman set in her ways. To start with, Joy brought her parents with her in an urn. Tootie thinks that is in poor taste and demands Nora tell the girl to bury the urn. Hallie Lapp's stepson, Daniel Lapp, becomes good friends with Joy and helps her clear off a small cemetery they discovered at the back of the property. Tootie complains Joy has too much freedom and needs more constructive activities. She warns Nora that Daniel and Joy are becoming more than friends, but the Nora doesn't want to listen. As the Amish would say, she hadn't seen a match strike between Daniel and Joy yet. They all agree Joy keeps life interesting, from bringing home a baby skunk to picking wild flowers and ragweeds as a gift for Tootie that gives her a dangerous allergic reaction. Join the Lindstrom family and find out more. I've only told you part of what happens in Joyful Wisdom.

"Life ain't fair. You have to be stronger than it is to take what you can get." That was just one of the life lessons Lizzy Cobb was fond of repeating to her ten children when life wasn't going to suit her. She had many more sayings, but to her children, when they became adults, their mother's remembered sayings sounded more like Lizzy's excuses to do whatever she wanted. The family made a sudden move to Iowa to keep Lizzy Cobb's husband, Logan, from being arrested by the law in Virginia. A few years later, the family moved again to hide in the Missouri Ozarks. This time it was to protect Lizzy from the law in Iowa. After Lizzy's husband, Logan became terminally ill, she said, "The Lord taketh and so will I." When Lizzy needed money to take care of her family, the children soon found out what she meant. Each time Logan or Lizzy was in trouble with the law, Lizzy made her children promise to keep their mouths shut forever. It was only after her death that the tales slipped out from Lizzy's children to her grandchildren. Lizzy's children preferred to call their mother colorful for her way of living life as she pleased which spanned just before the Civil War when she was born until she died during World War Two. The daughters that lived near Lizzy were mortified when they heard the talk behind her back by the town gossips. In their dirt digger zeal, they discussed with enthusiasm Lizzy's marriages each time she acquired a new husband through a lovelorn column. The town gossips called Lizzy Cobb, Westerman, Gordon, Simmers The Cavorter.