Temps close to 40 or 50 degrees, more brown grass with a tinge of green showing in the lawn, sparrows quarreling and crows cawing. A sign that it’s really spring is when I see a robin. Six flew into the hayfield this last week. Another sign is when the two doe deers come back to the wooded area by the creek to have their fawns. They’ve migrated back two years in a row. Hopefully, they get to come again this year if they didn’t become the target of a hunter. The hens are laying eggs and enjoying being loose to scratch in the cold, damp ground. I’ve started going to the barn to check our sheep and goats. We had two lambs born Monday and already I’m bottle feeding them. My garden is under a mountain of snow that grows smaller each day. That didn’t stop me from planting tomato and pepper seeds in a container. The tomatoes are up. In April, last year I set out five tomato plants under gallon milk jugs. I’m going to try that again. You might say I have spring fever. Happens every year about this time. That’s why I could write a story about Gracie Evans having spring fever. I know just how she’d feel.
In The Chance Of A Sparrow, Gracie Evans wants to leave town life for awhile to spend some time on her farm. She’s making herself sick just thinking about missing spring in the country. Her wish comes true. The man who rents her farm asks her to farm set while he takes his wife and daughter to visit his mother-in-law. Everything that could go wrong on the farm does.
A missing neighbor’s clothes are found on Gracie’s pond dam. Her land borders the missing neighbor who has been feuding with another farmer. She’s walking in the timber when someone shoots at her. A cow takes a dislike to Gracie after she calves. Gracie gets locked in the outhouse for hours. An old boyfriend keeps showing up to help her out and stays for supper as his payment. Gracie is uncomfortable with striking up a friendship with him again. All that and I’ve just touched the tip of Gracie’s problems at Tree Oaks farm. Things get so bad Gracie is vowing to be careful what she wishes for from now on if she’s going to be unlucky enough to get her wish.
Next week, my blog will be an excerpt from The Chance Of A Sparrow ISBN 1438248725.
Update on my entry in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. I didn’t make the first cut. In a way that’s all right. I was anxious to see my manuscript in book form. As soon as I found out I was free to publish I did and now the book is for sale on amazon, ebay and my bookstore www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com. The Rainbow’s End – Nurse Hal Among The Amish Series-book 2 – ISBN 0982459521