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July 21, 2022
Joy’s Barn Wedding is book 14 in the Nurse Hal Amish Series
Chapter 1
Joy Petermeyer rushed past the barn to the pasture gate at such a speed that her red ponytail swayed back and forth across the back of her head. It was right after lunch and a great time to go for a walk to check on her sheep. Her favorite spot on her aunt and uncle’s farm was the pasture. Besides, she had just turned the buck in with the ewes a few days ago, and she wanted to see if he was behaving himself.
The plan was that when she married Eli Yutzy the sheep were going to the farm she shared with Eli which was left to them by Adalheida Wasser in her will. They planned to drive the herd down the road the three miles and try to get all of the sheep to the Wasser farm without them scattering over the countryside. John Lapp, Nurse Hal’s husband, and her Uncle Jim Lindstrom, Hal’s father, offered to help move the sheep.
All that would be left in Uncle Jim’s pasture would be his Jersey milk cow, Gloria Swanson. The cow was going to be lonesome without the sheep for company. Joy thought the cow acted like she missed her black horse, Raven. On a recent visit, Eli had tied him to the back of his buggy and took him home for the winter. Truly Joy wasn’t sure the cow missed her horse, but she knew for sure that she missed Raven. She liked to spend time currying him and loved to ride him. No doubt the horse would become too spirited and would need to be gentled down again by the time she could spend time with him in the spring.
Joy eased up on her flock of sheep and studied them as they grazed. The buck glanced up for a moment and decided she wasn’t a threat. He went back to eating.
Satisfied the sheep were doing okay, Joy decided to walk to her cemetery and see how tall the grass was. Maybe she needed to turn the sheep in one more time before the weather changed to fall. The grass would stop growing then.
What a pleasant walk. The timber on the other side of Buggy Creek had changed to fall colors. As she neared the cemetery, Joy heard a squirrel chatter a warning to other animals that a human was close.
The water in Buggy Creek was trickling over the rocky bottom with the pleasant sound running water makes. She had always sat behind the two large boulders on the edge of the creek and watched the water meander along. She’d miss doing that as often as she did now once she moved.
Joy sighed. Oh well, she’d just have to find a quiet place on the Wasser farm to sit when she wanted to get away by herself. She’d had so many changes in her short life, and she had managed to adjust to them all so far so this one was hardly anything in comparison. First, her parents were killed in a car wreck. She needed a place to live so Uncle Jim and Aunt Nora took her in. It seemed like only yesterday instead of four years ago. Now she was planning another move after she married Eli Yutzy. She didn’t expect this move to be as traumatic as the first one, but she would miss seeing her aunts and uncle every day. Oh yeah! She had to admit to herself she expected to be homesick for a while.
Aunt Tootie would say all her thoughts about marrying Eli Yutzy were just counting her chicks before the eggs hatched. It was true she thought that Eli wanted her to live in Adalheida’s house with him and share the farm they now jointly owned. He had told her so, but he hadn’t proposed to her yet. That’s why she hadn’t moved in with him. She told him she was an unmarried woman and couldn’t live on Wasser Farm with him. She remembered Eli looking disappointed, but he hadn’t brought up marriage again during all the times they had been together.
Joy opened the gate to Lindstrom Cemetery and stepped inside. She sat down in the tall grass and listened to the silence. She hoped the occupants buried there would have appreciated being laid to rest in this quiet, peaceful place if they had been able to know that was where their remains were resting.
Joy rose up and studied the grass as she dusted off her jeans. The grass was tall enough to let the sheep graze it off. She opened the gate and walked away. She trusted the sheep to find the gate open. They were good at going through an open gate and once in a while through or over the fences. It seemed it was the nature of sheep to always think the grass was greener on the other side of the fence. She could check again in a few days to see if the grass was shorter so she could shut the cemetery gate. Letting the flock graze the grass off sure was easier than pushing the lawnmower across the pasture to the cemetery.
Joy made her way back to the house, dreaming about what she would say or do when Eli finally did decide to propose to her. Sometimes, it worried her because he hadn’t already asked for her hand in marriage. She was pretty sure that is what he had in mind, but since his sister, Susanna, lived with him now, he had a built-in housekeeper and cook. It sometimes seemed like the man wasn’t in any hurry to change his life by getting married with Susanna there to help him.
She looked up and noticed the man she was just daydreaming about standing by the barnyard gate, waiting for her. She picked up her pace, happy to see he had come to visit.
“Hello, there,” she called.
“Gute afternoon.” Eli waved at her as he unlatched the wire gate and lifted the wooden post out of the way so she could come through.
Joy waited for him to hook the gate back in place. He turned and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips then blushed as he looked toward the house to see if any of her relatives had been watching them.
“What a nice surprise. I didn’t expect to see you today,” Joy said gleefully.
“I would like to say it is because I missed you and wanted to see you, but I had to tell you something.” Eli looked worried.
“What has happened now? Better yet what has your father done this time?” Joy stormed.
“It has nothing to do with my daed. At least I do not think it does,” Eli told her.
“What is it then?” Joy asked.
“I just came from checking on the cattle I bought for the pasture and Raven, your horse is with them.” Eli paused.
Joy had a sinking feeling. “So has something happened to Raven?”
“Sort of,” Eli said.
“What do you mean sort of?” Joy demanded. “Is he all right or isn’t he?”
“He is healthy enough if that is what you want to know. He has not had an accident or anything like that,” Eli related slowly.
“Good, so what is wrong with him?” Joy snapped, getting very worried.
Eli rubbed the back of his neck. “Your horse’s tail is missing.”
Joy’s mouth dropped open. She shook her head and swallowed hard. “What do you mean his tail is missing?”
“The tail is gone,” Eli said softly. “Or at least most of it.”
“How – how could that have happened?” Joy stammered, flustered.
Eli shrugged his shoulders. “I do not understand it.”
“All right, I better go check Raven out for myself. I think we should take Uncle Jim with us and let him look. He has seen more odd things with animals than I have,” Joy said over her shoulder as she rushed for the house.
Eli followed along behind her, trying to keep up.
Joy hurried up the steps and opened the porch door. She crossed the porch and opened the kitchen door. “Uncle Jim are you in here?”
“In the living room, Sunshine,” her elderly uncle called back.
“Come on, Eli,” Joy said over her shoulder as she headed to the living room.
Her uncle put his newspaper down and took off his reading glasses. “Well hello, Eli. I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Hi, Eli,” Nora greeted, looking up from the book she was reading.
Eli nodded his head. “Gute afternoon.”
What are the two of you up to now?” Jim asked, looking from one to the other of them.
“Eli just came to tell me something is wrong with Raven. You tell Uncle Jim, Eli,” Joy said as she stepped aside.
Jim let his recliner down with a bang. “How bad is he hurt?”
“That’s just it, Jim. The horse is well. It is just– well just that his tail is missing,” Eli stammered.
Aunt Nora put down the book she was reading. The couple had her attention now.
“What do you mean the horse’s tail is missing?” Jim asked.
“I went to the pasture to check on him and the cattle we brought home from the sale barn last week. The horse is missing his tail,” Eli said.
Jim rubbed his chin. “Really! I honestly don’t know how something like that could happen. Horses have a tail for a reason. It protects them from insects and flies, and now he’s got nothing.”
Eli shook his head. “It was done by a human being. Someone obviously thought about this. Whoever it was must have brought scissors and wore footwear to cover his tracks before going into the field. They slipped into the pasture in broad daylight when we could have been around, and didn’t leave tracks. I find it very strange. Not all of the tail is gone you see, Jim. Just the bottom part up to the tailbone. Someone cut the hairs off with scissors.
“I want to go see my horse and check him out for myself. Uncle Jim, will you come with me?” Joy asked.
“Sure, let me get a jacket and cap on, and we can take off. I will take my pickup and meet you two there,” Jim said.
Joy rushed Eli back out of the house, and they climbed into the buggy. Eli waited for Jim to start his pickup and take off, knowing that Jim would be able to get there faster than the buggy and horse could.
At the end of the three-mile ride, they rounded a curve and Joy eyed the large white house with a long porch across the front. Uncle Jim’s pickup was parked in front of the house.
Eli slowed the horse down to make the turn into Wasser farm driveway. Jim was standing on the porch, talking to Susanna.
Joy searched the ditch on her side and leaned forward to look around Eli to search the ditch on his side. “Where is that noisy peacock, Nabal?
Eli cocked his head sideways. “Listen, Nabal is screaming in front of the house.”
“I hear him now. Here comes Buster to meet us.” Joy pointed at a big black Lab bounding down the driveway toward them. “He is happy to see us.”
The dog woofed at them and stepped out of the driveway to let them pass then trotted along behind. When they reached the house, Nabal gave a loud screech and stopped pacing at the edge of the yard to come to the buggy.
Eli stopped at the hitch rack and hopped down to tie the horse to the rack. Joy climbed out of the buggy. Jim yelled from the porch. “You want to call that peacock watch bird off of me? He hasn’t let me off this porch since I came.”
Nabal stretched his neck and screamed to prove he could voice his opinion louder than Jim as he fanned his beautiful tail.
Eli clapped his hands at the bird and shouted sternly, “Go away now! Shoo!”
The bird wilted at the tone of Eli’s voice. His tail folded up as he lowered his head to the ground and stalked away toward the back of the house.
Jim and Susanna stepped off the porch and came to meet them by the yard gate.
“Good thing you came when you did,” Jim said. “That peacock was downright upset that I was here. I was afraid to come off the porch. You would have thought as much as I have been here he would remember me.”
“Uncle Jim, Nabal has grown old. Maybe his eyesight is getting poor.” Joy tried not to grin.
“Yeah, right,” Jim scoffed. “Now we best go see about that horse.”
They all headed toward the pasture. The quarter horses in the barnyard came to the corral fence and nickered at the people. Eli stopped long enough to go into the barn and get a halter and a lead rope for Joy’s horse.
When they were close enough for the black horse to make them out, Joy whistled to him. Raven came loping to meet her. “I would say he has missed me. I wish now I hadn’t brought him over here. He would have been home with me where he would be safe,” she said with a groan.
A hurt expression crossed Eli’s face as he looked away at the timber. Jim studied the sky, and Susanna looked at her feet. They all knew how much Joy thought of her horse so they didn’t know how to console her.
The horse stopped in front of Joy and nuzzled her shoulder. Eli reached over and secured the halter and handed Joy the lead rope. Jim walked to the back of the horse with Eli right behind him.
“Oh, my!” Jim said softly.
“I told you what the tail looked like, ain’t so?” Eli asked, frowning at the horse’s back end.
“What? What are you seeing?” Joy asked, looking from one man to the other.
Susanna took the lead rope from Joy and patted Raven’s face. “You must go look for yourself, Joy.”
Joy rushed to stand with the men. Her mouth flew open as she stared at what used to be her horse’s black tail. “Raven’s pretty bushy tail is ruined.” Tears came to her eyes.
Jim reached over and pulled up on the stub of tail that was hanging down and inspected it. He backed up and put his arm around his niece’s shoulders. “Sunshine, the horse isn’t hurt. His actual tail is still yet intact. The hair will grow back in time.”
Tears came to Joy’s eyes as she asked, “How much time?”
Jim shrugged.
Eli stared at the horse’s back end. “What do you think happened to the rest of the tail, Jim?”
“Just what you said. Someone cut the tail hairs off slicker than a whistle with a pair of scissors,” Jim said matter-of-factly.
“Who would do such a thing?” Joy declared. “Do you think this might be a sick joke Enos Yutzy is playing on me?”
“I do not know why he would want to do something like that, but, Sunshine, the hair will grow back. It might be a slow go, but hopefully, the horse has enough hair to bat at the flies come fly season next year. For right now, you better get some fly spray to use on Raven’s rump until his tail is longer,” Jim said.
“Would Daed do something so awful?” Susanna asked Eli.
Eli shrugged his shoulders. “I just do not know anymore what Daed might pull to upset us.”
Jim rubbed his chin. “Could be some sort of practical joke.”
“I wish I knew who did do this. I want the person to know I am not laughing,” Joy declared.
“Well, Raven isn’t missing his whole tail so no harm is actually done to him,” Jim told her. “He might as well go back to grazing.”
Susanna took the halter off the horse and handed it to Eli.
They all turned and walked back across the pasture as Raven romped back to stand in the middle of the cattle herd.
Once they were through the gate, Jim glanced back at the horse. “Raven seems to be liking the company of the cows. I think he is all right with them.”
“I think so, too. You do not have to worry about him,” Eli said to Joy.
“I thought that before his tail went missing. If someone is trying to upset me, what else will they do to my horse?” Joy snapped.
“You two want to go for a ride with me? Why don’t we go check this out with John Lapp? We can see what he knows about such things happening,” Jim asked.
Eli nodded. “Jah.”
Joy agreed. “Sure. Maybe we should.”
June 26, 2022
Joy’s Barn Wedding – book 14 in Nurse Hal Series
I am so excited about this book and feel blessed to have friends who help me prepare my stories for print. This next book Joy’s Barn Wedding is unique to me. First of all the cover is a painting by a friend. She is so talented, and she offered to paint a picture to use as a front cover. How great is that!
The editing is done by another friend who has a much better eye for finding the errors in the text than I do to make the interior as good as possible. So coming out soon is the next book in the Nurse Hal Among The Amish series. Number 14.
Joy’s Barn Wedding
Nurse Hal Book 14 – Joy’s Barn Wedding coming out soon
Chapter 1
Joy Petermeyer rushed passed the barn to the pasture gate at such a speed that her red ponytail swayed back and forth across the back of her head. It was right after lunch and a great time to check her sheep. This was probably the warmest time of day to go for a walk, and her favorite spot on her aunt and uncle’s farm was the pasture. Besides, she had just turned the buck in with the ewes a few days ago, and she wanted to see if he was behaving himself.
The plan was when she married Eli Yutzy the sheep were going to the farm she shared with Eli which was left to them by Adalheida Wasser in her will. They planned to drive the herd down the road the three miles and try to get all of the sheep to the Wasser farm without them scattering over the countryside. John Lapp, Nurse Hal’s husband, and her Uncle Jim Lindstrom, Hal’s father, had offered to help move the sheep.
All that would be left in Uncle Jim’s pasture would be his jersey milk cow, Gloria Swanson. She was going to be lonesome without all the sheep for company. Joy thought the cow acted like she already missed Joy’s black horse, Raven. On a recent visit, Eli had tied him to the back of his buggy and took him home so Eli could take care of the horse for the winter. True that Joy wasn’t sure the cow missed her horse, but she knew for sure she missed Raven. She liked to spend a lot of time currying him and loved to ride him. No doubt the horse would be too spirited and needed to be gentled down again by the time she got to spend more time with him in the spring.
Joy eased up on her flock of sheep and studied them as they grazed. The buck glanced up for a moment and decided she wasn’t a threat. He went back to eating.
Satisfied the sheep were doing okay, Joy decided to walk to her cemetery and see how tall the grass was. Maybe she needed to turn the sheep in one more time before the weather changed. to fall. The grass would stop growing then.
What a pleasant walk. The timber on the other side of Buggy Creek had changed to fall colors. As she neared the cemetery, Joy heard a squirrel chatter a warning to other animals that a human was close.
The water in Buggy creek was trickling over the rocky bottom with the pleasant sound running water makes. She had always sat behind the two large boulders on the edge of the creek and watched the water meander along. She’d miss doing that as often as she did now once she moved.
Joy sighed. Oh well, she’d just have to find some quiet place on the Wasser farm to sit when she wanted to get away by herself. She’d had so many changes in her short life, and she managed to adjust to them so far so this one was hardly anything in comparison. First, her parents were killed in a car wreck. She needed a place to live so Uncle Jim and Aunt Nora took her in. It seemed like only yesterday instead of four years ago. Now she was planning another move after she married Eli Yutzy. She didn’t expect this move to be as traumatic as the first one, but she would miss seeing her aunts and uncle every day. Oh yeah! She had to admit to herself she expected to be homesick for a while.
Joy shrugged her shoulders. Aunt Tootie would say all her thoughts about marrying Eli Yutzy was just counting her chicks before the eggs hatched. It was true Eli wanted her to live in Adalheida’s house with him and share the farm they now jointly owned, but he hadn’t proposed to her yet. That’s why she hadn’t moved in with him. She told him she was an unmarried woman and couldn’t live on the Wasser Farm with him. She remembered Eli looking disappointed, but he hadn’t brought up marriage again as often as they were together.
Joy opened the gate to Lindstrom cemetery and stepped inside to stand in the tall grass. She hoped the occupants buried there would have appreciated being laid to rest in this quiet, peaceful place if they had been able to know that was where their remains were resting.
The grass was tall enough to let the sheep graze it off. She opened the gate and walked away. She trusted the sheep to find the gate open. They were good at going through an open gate and once in a while through or over the fences. It seemed it was the nature of sheep to always think the grass was greener on the other side of the fence. She could check again in a few days to see if the grass was shorter so she could shut the cemetery gate. Letting the flock graze the grass off sure was easier than pushing the lawnmower across the pasture to the cemetery.
Joy made her way back across the pasture, dreaming about what she would say or do when Eli finally did decide to propose to her. Sometimes, it worried her because he hadn’t already asked for her hand in marriage. She was pretty sure that is what he had in mind, but now with his sister, Susanna, living with him, he had a built-in housekeeper and cook. It sometimes seemed like the man wasn’t in any hurry to change his life by getting married with Susanna there to help him.
She looked up and noticed the man she was just daydreaming about standing by the barnyard gate, waiting for her. She picked up her pace, happy to see he had come to visit.
“Hello, there,” she called.
“Gute afternoon,” Eli said and waved at her as he unlatched the wire gate and lifted the wooden post out of the way so she could come through.
Joy waited for him to hook the gate back in place. He turned and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips then blushed as he looked toward the house to see if any of her relatives had been watching them.
“What a nice surprise. I didn’t expect to see you today,” Joy said gleefully.
“I would like to say it is because I missed you and wanted to see you, but I had to tell you something,” Eli said, looking worried.
“What has happened now? Better yet what has your father done this time?” Joy stormed.
“It has nothing to do with my daed. At least I do not think it does,” Eli told her.
“What is it then?” Joy asked.
“I just came from checking on the cattle I bought for the pasture and Raven, your horse is with them.” Eli stopped talking.
Joy had a sinking feeling. “So has something happened to Raven?”
“Sort of,” Eli said.
“What do you mean sort of?” Joy demanded. “Is he all right or isn’t he?”
“He is healthy enough if that is what you want to know. He has not had an accident or anything like that,” Eli related slowly.
“Good, so what is wrong with him?” Joy snapped, getting very worried.
Eli rubbed the back of his neck. “Your horse’s tail is missing.”
Joy’s mouth dropped open. She shook her head. “What do you mean his tail is missing?”
“The tail is gone,” Eli said softly. “Or at least most of it.”
“How – how could that have happened?” Joy stammered, flustered.
Eli shrugged his shoulders. “I do not understand it.”
“All right, I better go check Raven out for myself. I think we should take Uncle Jim with us and let him look. He has seen more odd things with animals than I have,” Joy said over her shoulder as she rushed for the house.
Eli followed along behind her, trying to keep up.
Joy rushed up the steps and opened the porch door. She rushed across the porch and opened the kitchen door. “Uncle Jim are you in here.”
“In the living room, Sunshine,” her elderly uncle called back.
“Come on, Eli,” Joy said over her shoulder as she hurried to the living room.
Her uncle put his newspaper down and took off his reading glasses. “Well, hello, Eli. I didn’t hear you come in. What are the two of you up to now?”
“Eli just came to tell me something is wrong with Raven. You tell Uncle Jim, Eli,” Joy said as she stepped aside.
Jim let his recliner down. “How bad is he hurt?”
“That’s just it, Jim. The horse is fine. It’s just- well just that his tail is missing,” Eli stammered.
Aunt Nora put down the book she was reading. The couple had her attention now.
“What do you mean the horse’s tail is missing?” Jim asked.
“I went to the pasture to check on him and the cattle we brought home from the sale barn last week. The horse is missing his tail,” Eli said.
Jim rubbed his chin. “Really! I honestly don’t know how something like that could happen. Horses have a mane for a reason. It protects them from insects and flies, and now he’s got nothing.”
Eli shook his head. “It was done by a human being. Someone obviously thought about this. Whoever it was must have brought scissors and wore footwear for going into the field. They slipped into the pasture in broad daylight when we could have been around. I find it very strange. Not all of the tail is gone you see, Jim. Just the bottom part,” Eli explained. “Someone cut the hairs off with scissors.
“I want to go see my horse and check him out for myself. Uncle Jim, will you come with me?” Joy asked.
“Sure, let me get a jacket and cap on, and we can take off, I will take my pickup and meet you two there,” Jim said.
Joy rushed Eli back out of the house, and they climbed into the buggy. Eli waited for Jim to start his pickup and take off, knowing that he would be able to get there faster than the buggy and horse could.
When Eli pulled into the Wasser farm driveway, they saw Jim standing on the porch, talking to Susanna. Eli stopped at the house hitch rack and hopped out to tie the horse to the rack.
He and Joy met Jim and Susanna at the yard gate. They all headed toward the pasture. The quarter horses in the barnyard came to the corral fence and knickered at the people. Eli stopped long enough to go into the barn and get a halter and a lead rope for Joy’s horse.
When they were close enough for the black horse to make them out, Joy whistled to him. Raven came loping to meet her. “I would say he has missed me. I wish now I hadn’t brought him over here. He would have been home with me where he would be safe.”
A hurt expression crossed Eli’s face as he looked away at the timber. Jim studied the sky, and Susanna looked at her feet. They all knew how much Joy thought of her horse so they didn’t know how to console her.
The horse stopped in front of Joy and nuzzled her shoulder. Eli reached over and secured the halter and handed Joy the lead rope. Jim walked to the back of the horse with Eli right behind him.
“Oh, my!” Jim said softly.
“I told you what the tail looked like, ain’t so?” Eli asked, frowning at the horse’s backend.
“What? What are you seeing?” Joy asked looking from one to the other man.
Susanna took the lead rope from Joy and patted Raven’s face. “You must go look for yourself, Joy?”
Joy rushed to stand with the men. Her mouth flew open as she stared at what used to be her horse’s long bushy black tail. “Raven’s pretty bushy tail is ruined.” Tears came to her eyes.
Jim reached over and pulled up on the stub of tail that was hanging down and inspected it. He backed up and put his arm around his niece’s shoulders. “Sunshine, the horse isn’t hurt. His actual tail is still yet in tack.”
Eli stared at the horse’s back end. “What do you think happened to the rest of the tail, Jim?”
“Just what you said. Someone cut the tail hairs off slicker than a whistle with a pair of scissors,” Jim said matter of factly.
“Who would do such a thing?” Joy declared.
“I do not know, but Sunshine, the hair will grow back. It might be slow but hopefully, the horse has enough hair to bat at the flies come fly season next year. For right now, you better get some fly spray to use on Raven’s rump until his tail is longer,” Jim said.
“Who would do something so awful?” Susanna asked.
Eli shrugged his shoulders.
Jim rubbed his chin. “Could be some sort of practical joke.”
“I wish I knew who did this. I want the person to know I am not laughing,” Joy declared.
“Well, Raven isn’t missing his tail yet so no harm is actually done to him,” Jim told her. “He might as well go back to grazing.”
Susanna took the halter off the horse and handed it to Eli.
They all turned and walked back across the pasture as Raven romped back to stand in the middle of the cattle herd.
Once they were through the gate, Jim glanced back at the horse among the cows. “Raven seems to be liking the company of the cows. I think he is all right with them.”
“I think so, too. You do not have to worry about him,” Eli said to Joy.
“I thought that before someone cut off his tail. If someone is trying to upset me what else will they do to my horse?” Joy snapped.
“You two want to go for a ride with me? Why don’t we go check this out with John Lapp. See what he knows about such things happening,” Jim asked.
Eli nodded.
Joy said, “Sure. Maybe we should.”
December 10, 2021
Three Christmas Books by Fay Risner
Looking for a Christmas Holiday read that is light and humorous. I have written three books just right for the holidays sold on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and for kindle and nook and on Smashwords.com.
Christmas Traditions is the first Amish book I wrote, and I got the idea from the story by looking at a Christmas Card.
Margaret Goodman was traveling into the country to visit her nephew even though she knew her late sister’s husband was going to tell her to go home. Margaret had left the Amish community to become English and married a lawyer which she later divorced. Not the type of woman an Amish man wants to visit with his small son.
Christmas With Hover Hill
This story came about as a way to use the picture of the Cinderella Coach I took at a horse drawn vehicle auction at Kalona, Iowa. That and from a new cast I saw years ago where robots were being designed to do housework. I combined the two ideas and the heroine is a lonly teacher in Cedar Falls, Iowa who has been jilted. Her only bright moment was going to be when her brother came to have Christmas with her. Then the note came that he wasn’t going to be able to come visit her. In his place he sent a robot named Hover Hill. The robot was bossy and tried to take over her life. She was ready to send him back when she figured out the robot was wired by the ex-boyfriend and her brother to spy on her. Mad at the both of them she puts Hover Hill in her car, packs a bag and takes off for parts unknown which ends up in a fairy tale romance.
Leona’s Christmas Bucket List came about because of my effort to get a Walmart Soap Dispenser to work in the women’s rest room. A woman showed me how to wave my hand under the automatic machine and when I said I did it. She added, “Now you can take this off your bucket list.” She left in a hurry and I stood there staring at myself in the mirror wondering if I needed to make a bucket list.
Leona’s list had to be made out at Christmas time and her daughters were not exactly a help to Leona even though they were well meaning. The book is full of humor and a small mystery that is a worry to Leona and took some time for her daughters to solve because Leona wasn’t talking.
November 3, 2021
Working On My 67th Book in the NaNoWriMo
I’m on my third day of writing my next book in this National Novel Write Month contest. This will be the 67th book I’ve written. I’ve entered this writing procedure 12 times and made it over the 50,000 words mark by the end of the month ten of those times. Actually, this isn’t a contest, but a way of encouraging myself to write and finish my next book.
Out of the 12 times, I didn’t complete the challenge to write the 50,000 words twice. One of those times was the first time. I didn’t work at getting the story done in a speedy fashion and with a holiday which was a day I didn’t get any writing done I didn’t finish by the last day of November. However, I did go ahead and finish the book in December and published it. The second time was three years ago when I didn’t even have a chance to start the book before my computer was unhooked, waiting for our new living room to be built. It was in March of the next year when I was able to hook my computer back up.
Once the contest is over, I take the month of December to edit the book and by January I’m ready to put the book in Amazon and Barnes and Noble in large print as well as twelve font and into nook and kindle for the ereaders. The concentration on these books makes the winter go by faster which please me.
A tally of how many words I’ve written over the years is on my first page – 522,878. Each time I have reached the 50,000 words goal, I receive a trophy to paste in the front of my book. If you read any of my books, you will find that trophy and a statement from the website management.
This book is the next in the series of Nurse Hal Among The Amish books. The title is Joy’s Barn Wedding. More later when I’ve finished the project.
August 17, 2021
Eli Yutzy Came Home – Nurse Hal series book 13
Book 13 in the Nurse Hal series is available now at Barnes and Noble and Amazon and on nook and kindle. Below is the first chapter.
gravel road brought back familiar, but not pleasant memories
from his past. The first gravel turn off to Bender Creek Road
led to the children’s swimming hole and the rumspringa
campgrounds where he used to swim and attend beer parties.
Eli shook his head at the thought of how he had misbehaved in
those days, and the trouble that rained down on him from his
actions in his rumspringa years.
The road was a U-shaped clay trail wedged between Bender
Creek and Bender Creek timber. It ended at the highway. The
second turn off was the reason for Eli leaving the Plain
Community to cross over and become English. He kept his
eyes straight ahead of him on the road when he passed by that
turnoff. It was him that had instigated the buggy race on
Bender Creek Road between him and his friends after they had
been drinking for hours.
Jason Fisher’s buggy overturned at the intersection, rolled
into the ditch, and landed on top of Jason and his date. Jason
died at the scene. Eli felt it was all his fault. He knew he’d be in
as much trouble as the others who attended the beer party. If
the sheriff didn’t catch up to him to arrest him for being
intoxicated and getting involved in the race, his own father
Deacon Enos Yutzy would shun him before the member
council had a chance to do it. His father would think he
couldn’t let a son of his get away with this disgraceful behavior
while he was deacon. Eli felt he didn’t have a choice but to
leave fast before the sheriff’s deputies caught up to him and
arrested him.
So many memories flooded back to him when he passed
John Lapp’s farm. Some of them good when he thought about
Emma Lapp. Before he left here, he woke her up in the middle
of the night to tell her he was leaving for good. He loved her,
but not enough to make it clear he wanted her to come with
him. Afterward, when the English world seemed so lonely, he
had often regretted he left Emma Lapp behind.
Two tiny rabbits ducked off the side of the road and
burrowed under the ditch grass. They reminded Eli that his
mother always said she loved spring, because she liked to see
all the baby animals like calves and colts frolicking in the
pastures.
Wild animals attracted her attention as well. When the
family was out for a ride, Mamm always pointed out the deer
with fawns and turkeys and pheasants with their broods. Rachel
could hardly wait for spring and a church service ride. She’d
watch for all the newborns along the way. Now she was dying
in the spring. Maybe she’d think it a fitting time for her to go to
God.
As he went by Bishop Bontrager’s farm, he looked the place
over and noticed the elderly, bald-headed man sitting by the
window, reading in the waning sunlight. What would the
preacher say about him returning? Would there be forgiveness
in his heart? Enough so that he would ask Eli to repent and
return to the Plain Community? As strict as Plain people were,
Eli doubted he’d be forgiven.
At the intersection, he turned north passing by Chicken
Plucker Jonah Stolfus’s dairy farm. He thought the barn looked
new. Maybe not. He could be seeing things in the twilight.
Jason and Davie Stolfus came out of the barn. Jason was
carrying a pail of milk, and Davie limped along beside him. It
had been a while since Eli had seen the two boys. He was
surprised at how tall they were. Probably out of school by now
for sure.
Samuel Nicely’s farm looked the same. Eli wondered if
Jimmie Miller had stayed around to help his step-dad farm the
land, or had he gotten his own farm.
Jake Fisher’s place was next. A flock of sheep grazed in the
pasture alongside a black horse. A car and pickup sit in the
large, white house’s driveway. A gray muzzled black lab
walked stiff-legged to the edge of the driveway to bark at him.
Jake Fisher must have moved. Englishers live there now.
Recalling the death of Jake’s son, Jason, in the Bender Creek
Road buggy race brought back all the old guilty, sad feelings.
Eli looked straight ahead and vowed he needed to think about
other things that were easier to live with.
He kept going straight north, listening to gravel pop under
the buggy wheels and the rhythmic clop clop of his horse’s
hooves. Not the same thing as turning on the car’s radio to
listen to music, but he had spent more years listening to hoofbeats
under buggies he rode in or drove than he had to modern
music in his English car.
The sun cast a red shroud over the Mast farm on its way
below the horizon. Just passed the Mast farm, Eli crossed over
the intersection. The next mile was all farmland that belonged
to his father, and by then it was too dark to make out more than
just in front of his horse.
Finally, Eli spotted the lights of home down the road ahead
of him. Or, what he used to call his home before he left the
Plain community. When he turned into the long driveway, the
house windows cut pale yellow lamplight paths in the darkness
for him to follow.
Eli figured not much thinking had changed in the
neighborhood in the four years he had been gone, especially
the way the Amish felt about someone who left the Plain
community. That meant his father’s view of him crossing over
to become an Englisher was going to be a harsh one. After all,
his father was an unpleasant, strict man who made the laws in
the family and expected them to be obeyed. His homecoming
might not be as pleasant as his oldest sister, Susanna, had made
out. She might have just said what she did, trying to convince
him to come home before Mamm died.
As homesick as he was, Eli might never have gotten up the
nerve to come back on his own. Susanna looked him up at the
Bloomfield Lumber Yard where he worked to tell him their
mother was very ill. She begged him to come home right away.
He loved his mother. Now she was bedfast. Susanna said the
one thing their mother had wished for before she passed on was
to see Eli one more time and talk to him. Susanna said all of
the family had missed him and would welcome him back. He
wished he could believe her.
The two blue heeler stock dogs, Smokey and Blue, set up a
howl when Eli parked in front of the large barn. He could see
someone looking out the window by the front door as he
hopped from the buggy. Eli tied the lead rope to the hitch rail
and yelled at the dogs to shut up. He was surprised they
minded, but maybe the dogs remembered him. He was always
good to them.
He needed to unhitch and feed his horse, but he felt drawn to
go in and see his mother first. A matter of a few more minutes
might make the difference, and he would be too late.
Eli had his hand up to knock on the door when it opened.
Susanna put her arms around him to hug him and drew him
inside. She was thirty-seven now and stick thin. She could
almost pass for the way he remembered his mother in her
younger days. Susanna never married. Choosing instead to stay
home and help Rachel with all the work. Or at least that was
what Susanna would probably tell everyone was the reason she
never married.
Eli knew his father well enough to know he would be selfish
enough to probably make Susanna feel guilty for leaving him
and her ailing mother. He’d be sure to want an experienced
cook and housekeeper to take over when his wife took to her
bed. Susanna had become that for the family.
Eli’s brow furrowed because of his sister’s silence. “Too late,
am I?”
“Nah, just barely in time. Come with me to her bedroom.”
Susanna took his arm and led him down the long hall. If Eli
remembered right, the room had been his father’s study. He
must have given it up to make his wife a bedroom so she
wouldn’t have to climb the stairs. Eli was sure only for his wife
would Enos make such a sacrifice. The man didn’t love anyone
else in the family. They were just possessions to him.
The rest of the children and his father were sitting around the
bed with flickering from the kerosene lamps flames making
shadows across their faces. Enos was holding his wife’s hand
on the left side of the bed. He didn’t look over at Eli but rather
chose to ignore that he had arrived.
Eli’s two solemn-faced brothers, Stephen, thirty-five years
old and Thomas thirty years old, were sitting at the foot of the
bed. Stephen, short and stern-faced like their father, gave Eli a
frowning once over that reminded Eli of his father. It was clear
this brother didn’t approve of the T-shirt and jeans that Eli
wore. Eli made a mental note to ask Susanna if Mamm had
saved any of his Amish clothes. If it would help he would dress
like a Plain person again. Brother Thomas was medium built.
He nodded at Eli, and Eli noted his dark brown eyes were so
much like their mother’s.
Sister, Hannah, twenty seven years old with light brown hair,
was holding her mother’s right hand. It passed through Eli’s
mind she should have been married years ago. Enos probably
kept running off every young man who came to see Hannah
just like he did the men who took an interest in his older sister.
Susanna led Eli along the right side of the bed behind
Hannah. His sister turned loose of her mother’s limp hand,
looked up at Eli with tears in her light brown eyes, rose, and
wordlessly pointed for him to sit in the chair. He gave a quick
nod he understood. Before he could sit down Hannah put her
arms around him and kissed his cheek. He was glad to have a
sign that she had missed him. Hannah was six years older than
him. She had walked with him to school when he first started.
Eli was six at the time. He remembered being glad for the
company on the lonely country road, because he wasn’t used to
going anywhere without his whole family. It was only after he
reached his rumspringa years that Hannah couldn’t influence
him to behave.
Eli sank into the wooden chair, still warm from Rachel’s use.
He wasn’t sure what to do next. His mother’s eyes were closed.
Susanna realized his problem. “Take Mamm’s hand and
speak to her, Eli. She may not be sleeping, and she needs to
hear your voice.”
Eli wrapped his hand around the bony, cold hand of his
mother. “Mamm, it’s Eli. I came to see you. Can you hear me
Mamm?”
Rachel’s eyes fluttered and finally opened. In the dimly lit
room, she tried to focus in the direction of Eli’s voice. When
she finally saw him, she gave him a weak smile. Her voice was
barely above a whisper. “Ach, my child, I am so happy to see
you home where you belong.”
“Jah, I am here. I have missed you, Mamm. I decided to
come home when I heard you were not feeling well. I wanted
to see if I could cheer you up.”
“I see. Denki for that. The fact that I have you back in my
family and here beside me does cheer me up. I am so happy
you are home.” Rachel’s voice weakened as she spoke. Finally
she paused and frowned at him. “You do plan on staying
home?”
“Is that what you wish me to do, Mamm?” Eli asked and
glanced at his father. If possible the elderly man was made
even more grim-faced by this conversation, but he remained
silent with his focus on his ailing wife.
“Jah, that is what I want. You need to be here with your
family around you. I will rest better knowing you are home,”
Rachel said softly.
Eli raised her weak hand and kissed the back of it. “I love
you, Mamm.”
Rachel’s weak smile widened. “I am so glad to hear you say
that and to know you are with the rest of your family.” She
looked from one to the other of her children. She narrowed her
eyes as she focused on her husband. “This whole family needs
to give Eli a chance and a helping hand so he may rejoin the
family and the Plain community. I want all of you to honor my
request. Do you hear me?”
The four grown children all answered in unison, “Jah,
Mamm.”
They turned their eyes toward their up to now quiet father.
Enos nodded to signify he heard his wife. “I will do as you ask,
my fraa.”
“You promise me, Enos,” Rachel ordered.
“Jah, I promise you I will try,” Enos replied.
Rachel focused back on Eli. “I can say this now to you. Your
father was much too hard on you, son. He only meant to keep
you in line and change your ways so you could join the church.
Now that you have had time to think about what happened to
you here, maybe you could decide to come back and be part of
the Plain community. I wish you could come home to stay.
What do you say?”
“I will think about it,” Eli said only to still his mother’s
worry. The glare his father gave him made him think the strict
father he knew was just keeping still for now, because he didn’t
want to hurt his ailing wife’s feelings. He wanted her to rest
easy. After she was gone, if he guessed his father right, Enos
would be a force to deal with.
Her weakened energy spent, Rachel closed her eyes, and her
hand in Eli’s went limp.
Susannah whispered, “Mamm needs her sleep. It does not
take much to tire her out. We should let her rest in peace. For
us supper, I will fix with your help, Hannah.”
“Jah, I will come.” Hannah moved toward the open door
with Susannah behind her.
Thomas said to Stephen, “We should go tend to the chores
for Daed.”
Stephen nodded his agreement.
Eli stood. “I need to take care of my horse so I will go with
you and help.” He turned and walked out of the bedroom door,
not waiting to see if his two brothers agreed or not. He just
knew he didn’t want to be left alone with his father just yet.
The three brothers headed to the barn with the two stock
dogs trailing behind them. Eli stopped to unharness his horse
while the other two opened the large barn doors. They were
already forking loose hay into the stalls where their horses
were when Eli put his horse in an empty stall. He picked up a
pitchfork and stabbed the pile of hay. Once he had dumped the
hay in the manger in front of his horse, he shut the door to the
stall. A water bucket hung on the wall near the door. He took it
to the well and pumped it fill to pour water in the bucket in his
horse’s stall.
When he neared the barn, he heard his brothers talking.
Stephen said, “You think Eli meant it when he said he was
going to stay home now?”
“I hope so. I think he should give living here a try again,”
Thomas said sincerely.
A grunt came from Stephen. “Just so he does not think he is
going to deserve any of the land we have worked on so hard.
The farmland is mine and yours when Daed is gone.”
Eli purposely bumped the barn door with the bucket so they
knew he was back. He poured some water into the hanging
bucket in horse stall and went to the other two stalls and poured
water for his brothers’ horses.
He placed the bucket on its nail. “Is there anything else to
do?”
“Nah,” Thomas said. “We grained your horse and ours.”
“That is gute. Denki. We might as well go back in now I
reckon,” Eli suggested.
“Jah, nothing to do now but wait.” Stephen sounded dismal.
Thomas nodded. “Jah.”
Stephen stopped midway across the yard and turned to Eli.
“Thomas and I were wondering what your plans are after
Mamm is gone.”
“I quit my job at the lumber yard. It was a gute job I can tell
you. I would like to give living here another try, but I need a
job. Do either of you know of one?”
Both brothers nodded no, but Thomas said, “We will check
around and see what we can come up with.”
“Denki,” Eli replied.
“You do know coming back to stay is not going to be that
easy if you want to be a part of this Plain community,” Stephen
said. “The church members might not forgive you for crossing
over. It was bad that you left so quickly after Jason Fisher’s
wreck. There might be problems with the law yet that will
make your becoming a member impossible.”
“I understand,” Eli said contritely. He could see neither of
his brothers was going to stick up for him until the whole
church community had forgiven him his sins. “Now let’s go sit
with Mamm.”
June 30, 2021
Sheep On The Right Goats On The Left
And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Matthew25:33
The sequel to My Memories Of Animals Large and Small is now on the market. The title of the paperback book is Sheep On The Right Goats On The Left.
In this book is more stories about the animals I took care of from the 1990s until recently. Some are humorous. Others were cause for worry like when for months something was making a banging noise in the barn. Still others are sad like when my favorite sheepdog, a Border Collie named Brandy, died.
Here is an example of what is in this book.
Chapter 13
Hogs
In those days when we wanted to buy livestock, we liked going to the salebarns in Belle Plaine and Tama. On one of those visits to a salebarn, Harold decided to buy two sows which were going to farrow soon. That was my first time taking care of sows. They were in the middle room of the barn. Harold put a wooden gate in the opening and opened the roll door so they had fresh air. He decided to put a shelf on the wall and set a radio on the shelf so the sows had music to keep them calm. I wasn’t sure why he did that until later. We found a radio works to keep female rabbits calm, too. The radio is a distraction from other noises.
One of the sows had her pigs just fine. I climbed over the gate and put another wooden gate up to make a small wedge-shaped pen for a space for the sow who was soon to have her pigs so I could keep them apart. In a day or two, I was doing chores and found the sow had delivered a good size litter of pigs, but she didn’t like them. When they wanted to nurse, the sow barked roughly at them to leave her alone and moved away from them. I thought maybe she was hungry and was waiting for me to feed her. Maybe she’d settle down after she ate. I climbed up the gate and started to climb down the other side with the feed. The sow bark loudly and gave an angry squeal. I looked over my shoulder. Oh yeah, that was an angry squeal all right. She was coming at me. Her slobbering mouth gaped open with large teeth bared as she raced at me like she meant to do me in. I didn’t hesitate to scramble back over the gate and set the pail down. When I wheeled around, the sow was biting at the wooden gate, taking out on it her regret that she didn’t get there quickly enough to nail me. I tried to go back to breathing normally as I backed up, thinking that gate wasn’t strong enough to stand her abusive bites. I might have to make a fast getaway out of the barnyard.
We moved the sows to the east side of the barn with their pigs where they had more room.
It was clear something was wrong with the sow, and her pigs weren’t going to live long if she didn’t settle down. The pigs already had the long narrow look from being hungry. They were squealing loudly since their mother ran at me. The sow might take out her irritation on her noisy little pigs next while they pestered her, wanting to nurse.
This was the problem that brought on my first call to a vet. Usually, I considered calling a vet Harold’s job but he was at work. Turned out this was one of those tasks that stopped being fifty-fifty when animals were sick, and I was the only one home.
The local vet was well known and had practiced around the community for years. In this area at the time, cattle and pigs were the main livestock. So I found myself beside the tall, broad-shouldered vet looking in at the upset sow, still growling at her pigs. I explained the problem. He listened quietly. I took it this vet was a man of few words, or he just didn’t have many women customers.
The vet asked me how long we’d had the sows. I told him not long at all. He said sometimes moving the sows just before they were going to farrow upsets them. This sow had a psychological problem from being moved to a strange place.
I wasn’t too convinced the sow had a mental problem. I wanted to ask the vet if I needed a psychiatrist for the sow, but he didn’t look like he had a sense of humor. I had to take into consideration that he had been treating animals for years. He diffidently knew more than I ever would about animal health. I did point out that Harold had turned the radio on for the sows to help calm them.
Later as I thought back about the vet’s assessment, I recalled how upset Duffy, our first goat, was at being moved from her former home and all her friends when she was so close to giving birth.
At the moment, I really didn’t have time to give anything much thought except that sow was going to take me out if I tried to feed her, and she’d starve her pigs or harm them if something couldn’t be done to help her soon.
The vet eased close enough to the sow to give her a shot, but he didn’t say what the medicine was, and I didn’t have the nerve to ask what he gave the sow. He said she’d probably quiet down shortly from the shot which did sound encouraging to me.
In an hour, I stayed hidden along the barn wall when I slipped up to check the sow. She finally had laid down and her pigs were nursing as the sow grunted to them. I was so relieved. Not only for the sow and pigs, but this meant I didn’t have to worry about getting in her pen to feed her.
My memory on many facts is rather vague sometimes, but I can tell you exactly what day I had the vet come to care for the sow. It was August 16, 1977, the day Elvis Presley died. I know this because the radio announcer broke in on the music with the bulletin while the vet and I were talking.
I did some computer research on farrowing sows and found symptoms like this sow had does sometimes happened. I told Harold before the sows farrowed again I wanted somewhere to put some farrowing crates to get the two sows we had contained so I could give shots safely, and the sow couldn’t get at the pigs or me if she was in a bad frame of mind. Maybe next time, the vet would tell me what I needed to give the sows if I asked for the medicine to give the shots myself.
I learned long ago I should be careful what I ask Harold for. That was all the incentive he needed to have a hog house built and brought in. Once the building was in place Harold put in fourteen farrowing crates he bought from someone.
“This is an awful big hog house. We only have two sows,” I reminded him.
Harold had a fix for that problem. He bought twelve more sows and a boar. Soon I found myself in charge of a fourteen sow farrowing house. How did that happen so fast I wondered.
Anyway, everything worked well at birthing time just like I thought it would with the sows crated. The sows went in easily enough for the feed in the front of the crates. Once they were safely contained, I kept a close watch on them, because I just when they should give birth.
By farrowing time, I had talked to the vet. He sold me bottles of medicines to keep on hand for the sows which made me happy. I gave shots to the sows which kept them from getting feverish and injections to let down their milk. Plus, I had goat milk to feed the extra pigs or pigs that needed to be fed before their mothers had milk.
I did need the goat milk. I kept count of the number in the litter as the pigs were born, and when the sows had more pigs than they could feed, I made sure the runt pigs over the sow’s dinner plate limit had their colostrum and took them in the house. In fact, I always liked the idea that the sows had a big litter. It wasn’t any harder work saving newborn pigs than it was any other newborn animal.
I got a high-sided cardboard box to put the pigs in. At first, when the two or three pigs squealed in the middle of the night that they were hungry I got up and fed them. I was using a couple of Duane’s baby juice bottles. Those bottles got a lot of use over the years for other animals. Eventually waking up for feeding times grew as tiresome as making the trips to the barn during lambing.
I soon decided I had to come up with a better method for feeding the pigs so I didn’t have to get up in the night. I took some denim strips from old blue jean legs and tied them around the bottles and tied the bottles onto the handle of the cookstove’s oven door so the bottles hung down in the box.
In the night, I’d wake up just enough to hear the pigs grunt and squeal that they were hungry, and then came the sucking noises. Pigs are smart. They caught on right away to where the bottles were.
Except for one night when I had three pigs instead of two in the box and only two baby bottles. I found out pigs don’t like to take turns drinking. They all want their share at the same time. The racket was loud as two of the pigs squealed and scuffled over the same bottle. By the time they swung the bottle back and forth a number of times taking it away from each other, the bottle dripped dry, and they didn’t get to drink the milk.
The pigs kept squealing that they were hungry. I didn’t get up to see about them, thinking they would live until morning. Surely soon they would give up and go to sleep.
Remember I said pigs are smart. One of the little fellows decided he had enough of me ignoring him. He was hungry, and he intended to do something about it. He scaled the box side, fell over the top, and came through the kitchen, the living room, and into the bedroom squealing all the way as he trailed me like an experience bloodhound. He circled the bed, keeping up his war-hoops. I was pretty sure he’d soon be scaling up the covers after me if I didn’t get up.
Harold mumbled, “Someone is paging you.”
I figured I had no choice but to get out of bed and take the pig back to his box. Since the other pig had emptied the remaining bottle, I warm enough milk for my little bloodhound, and the other hungry pig each their own bottle.
It wasn’t long after that I determined those three pigs were old enough to wait until morning to nurse. Besides, it was a warm time of year. The pigs could survive in the barn. I put the pigs in a lambing pen way way way out in the barn where I didn’t have to listen to their complaints in the night. I figured the pig who hurled over the box wouldn’t be able to scale the lambing pen wall.
By then the older vet had retired, and another vet was in the office. I went to the vet’s office for medicine. While he was getting what I asked for, I told him about how smart the pig was to find me in the middle of the night for his bottle. He had his back to me, mixing up the medicine for me. He turned to me and said seriously, “Maybe you should have knocked that pig in the head.”
I gave him a hard, no way would I do that look. He grinned. He’d been joking to get a reaction from me, but I’m sure that sort of thing happened in farrowing houses when the sows had more pigs than they could feed. It just didn’t happen in our farrowing house. This vet reminded me of what the retired vet had said to me one day. I wondered if my reaction to treating my animals had been passed from the one vet to the other.
One time the older vet was still in the office when I went in to get medicine for a ewe. I explained the ewe was sick. He asked me all the right questions. How old was she? How long had she been ailing, and what were her symptoms?
I told him she had pneumonia and tried to sound confident. Of course, I was new at diagnosing animals, but I’d looked in the book I bought and that seemed to be the diagnoses that went along with the symptoms.
The vet took my word for it and gave me a bottle with three doses of antibiotic in it and instructed me about how to use the medicine. He gave me his classic serious look as he said, “You know some people say a sick sheep is a dead sheep.”
I wondered if that was the reason he took my word for the diagnosis and felt a little irked at him. If I was wrong about what was ailing the ewe, according to sheep health lore, she was a goner anyway. I didn’t want to hear the old wives’ tale some people said. I curtly informed the vet not one of my sheep were going to die if I could help it.
I saved the ewe, and now I had the name of the antibiotic on the bottle so I could order next time from a mail-order catalog. Some time back I started ordering from the computer. That is what I’ve been doing ever since. If I do come across an ailment I don’t know, I call a vet. The vet comes, diagnoses for me, and gives me the medicine I need. From then on, I recognize the ailment symptoms and keep the medicine on hand to use for that ailment. The bottom shelf in my refrigerator door has always been the place to store animal meds.
Of course, I did have a vet curious when he told me the medicine he’d try on a lamb. I said I had already tried that and it didn’t work. He asked me where I got my medicine so I said from a mail-order catalog. Maybe he thought he wasn’t the first vet I’d called about the lamb.
I named all the different medicines I had tried on this particular lamb and nothing seemed to work. The vet grinned at me. He said I used a cure or kill method. He might have been right, but usually, I succeeded with a cure for the patient even if I wasn’t sure which medicine worked.
This vet was the one who told me I should throw away my mail-order catalog. I was losing him money by not coming to him. He smiled as he said that, but he was right.
While I was promoting for the sheep industry, the literary group in town decided to have me show them how to spin wool. The meeting just happened to be at the house of the elderly vet. He wasn’t home that night. He was probably waiting for all the women to leave his house before he came back home. The women at the meeting seemed interested and asked questions about spinning and caring for sheep.
The vet’s wife smiled at me and said, “Before Doc left, he said to tell you he still thinks a sick sheep is a dead sheep.”
I smiled. Doc had remembered our conversation from several years before. I must have made an impression on him. My reply to his wife was, “Tell him I still disagree with him when I’m the one taking care of my sheep.”
I was wrong about one thing. Doc did have a sense of humor. He got in one last zinger through his wife. He didn’t want to be there to face me himself.
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