Fall is upon us! by Paty Jager

Pumpkin from hubby's pumpkin patch

After a long, hot, dry summer, we had rain! And the temperatures have dropped drastically. Not an easy way to slide into the next season but we'll take it.

The haying went easy for me this year. ;) I was either off at a writing adventure or the neighbor offered to help drive tractor to get the bales out of the field. I only had to drive tractor one day.

Me driving the tractor pulling the trailer

We had half of our grandchildren move down the road from us this summer.It has been fun getting to hang out with them and do things together. They will be here permanently as their parents bought a ranch 7 miles from us. Now we have someone to watch the horses and dogs if we want to go somewhere during the winter.

While I was starting to panic about May when it seemed I'd never be able to accomplish my writing goals for 2018, I'm happy to say, I am now back on track!

You will see the first 3 books in the Gabriel Hawke series releasing in January, February, and March and the 12th Shandra Higheagle book will publish early January, introducing readers to the new Gabriel Hawke character.

Right now, I have book 11 in the Shandra Higheagle Series, Dangerous Dance up for pre-order and it releases on Oct. 10th. If you would like the book, go ahead and pre-order and it will drop into your ereader on the 10th. Or you can also go to your local bookstore and ask them to order the print book.

Here is the blurb and cover along with a buy link:

Jealousy… Drugs… Murder…

At the reservation to make final arrangements for her upcoming wedding, potter Shandra Higheagle gets caught up in the murder of a young woman about to turn her life around. 

Having no jurisdiction on the reservation, Detective Ryan Greer pulls in favors from friends in the FBI to make sure there is no delay in their wedding. 

However, the death occurs in a sacred place and could place the nuptials on hold. Following the clues may not only stop the wedding... But separate Shandra and Ryan for life. 

Universal Link: https://www.books2read.com/u/mKKB7d

Friday Farm Fun- Preparing the Pivot

We spent last weekend readying the irrigation pivot on our 60 acres of alfalfa for the coming season. First we finished filling the pivot tracks, or the deep grooves in the field that the tires make when going back and forth in the wet ground. To do this we use the backhoe/loader and I drive setting the loader bucket of cinders at the track and my hubby either scoops the cinders out into the track or directs me to dump into the track.  He recently purchased an old 1950's vintage dump truck that he hopes to rig up an attachment for to make it easier for one person to fill the tracks.

After the tracks were filled to his satisfaction, we then took Sami, the chopped up Sazuki Samarai we use like a 4-wheeler and loaded up the air compressor. I drove Sami to each section of the pivot and we aired up the tires.

We still need to grease the gear boxes on the axles, but hubby forgot the grease so that's a chore for next time. ;)

Once the maintenance was finished, we started up the pump and set the pivot for the speed we wanted it to travel across the field and let it go. The alfalfa turned a bright green after getting that drink of water.

The day after we returned home from Princeton two of our neighbors over there called my hubby and thanked him for starting the pivot, because it rained buckets. So now my husband is known as the rain man!

Friday Farm Fun - Summer's Spent

Growing up rural, I had a wonderfully free childhood. We lived 12 1/2 miles from the major town in our county(population 1600) and 2 1/2 miles up a gravel road from the closest town(population 200).

The county road that bisected our 200 acres had a lot of traffic. It was the entry to the Wallowa Whitman High Lakes. Vehicles with tents, campers, and horse trailers traveled up and down the road from June until September taking campers, backpackers, and horse packers to the campsites along the road and to the trail heads leading to the high lakes.

My California cousin who was five years older than me, spent many summers with us. Several summers we set up a  fruit and lemonade stand on the road. We sold plums, apples, and pears grown in our orchard and lemonade from concentrate. I don't think we made very much and it was mainly the neighbors who bought from us.

My parents both worked in the main town so we kids got up on our own, made our breakfast, did our chores and then were allowed to do what we wanted until I had to have dinner ready when my parents returned home and we did our evening chores. Chores consisted of weeding the garden, mowing the lawn, taking care of the rabbits and chickens. Also cleaning house and laundry.

After the chores we usually saddled up the horses and rode sometimes taking a lunch over to the sand bar where we swam in freshly melted snow.

My dad's barn where we stacked hay and the mountain
we rode our horses on.

During the summer we also had to help change irrigation pipes in the evenings or if we had hay down help with the haying. One of the fields we hauled hay out of had a steep incline to get to the county road which we had to take to get to the barn where we stored the hay.  My older brother was driving the tractor and my younger brother and I were on the hay as we started up the incline. The tractor died and the load pulled us backward down the hill. My brother managed to jackknife the load and keep us from rolling into the river. My dad came along with the loaded one ton truck and pulled us up the incline and got the tractor running again.

Those are just a few of the fun things we did during the summer months as kids.