We’re currently in the last few weeks before the official release of the third and final installment in the Amish of Apple Grove series, A Cowboy at Heart. To help celebrate, our publisher is giving away a Kindle Fire, along with copies of the books by me and Lori Copeland. Click here for details on entering.

Loving and being loved by a cowboy makes your heart a bigger and fuller. Thank you, Kelly B.

“I think the person that has been in my life that most reminds me of a cowboy would be my Grandpa. He passed away back in 1996, but he and my Grandma were my rocks. They lived on a small farm (where I now live) and over the years had cows and horses. There are so many stories that I remember of things that happened around the farm. There is a pond behind the barn and I remember him and my uncle cleaning it out one year with the tractor. My dad and another uncle had to help pull the tractor out of the pond. I guess it got hung up on some of the gunk at the bottom. What a sight! But he did not let it bother him. He got the tractor cleaned up and had the boys help him with their Jeeps to finish cleaning it out. There was also one year one of the Shetland ponies got stuck back in the swamp (the back corner of the field) and was frozen there one winter. Some friends of ours saw him. Once again the boys headed out to get him. They took the Jeeps and my uncle’s truck to get him out. The poor thing had been there for a day or so. They got him back in the barn, and my Grandpa sat in the pony’s stall with the heat lamp on to warm him. He was a Jack of all trades, but master of none (his motto). He was a whiz with numbers; he learned new things all the time. If something needed done, it got done. He worked around the farm doing different things, but his honest, hard work ethic and trusting nature is what I remember the most. I miss them very much, but cherish the great memories that I have with them.”