Congratulations, Susan P! You won a copy of my new release, TRAINING THE K-9 COMPANION! Please email jill(at)jillkemerer.com with your name and address, and I’ll send you the book!
Thank you to everyone who entered!
Have a blessed weekend!
Jill Kemerer
New Release! Training the K-9 Companion {Giveaway!}
The third book in my Wyoming Legacies series is in stores now! TRAINING THE K-9 COMPANION follows Cade Moulten, a rancher opening a high-end horse-boarding operation, and Mackenzie Howard, the new veterinarian in town, as they train little Tulip to be a therapy dog for his grandmother. This Love Inspired book takes place during the summer in fictional Jewel River, Wyoming.
I enjoyed learning how rural vets utilize mobile trailers to treat cattle and horses on ranches. I also love writing books with dogs in them. Talk about a win-win! Mackenzie’s trying to convince local ranchers to trust her with their cattle, but she’s terrified she’ll make a mistake and lose an animal. And Cade needs high-paying clients to offset the reduced rates he plans on charging the locals to board horses at his new stables. On top of that, Cade’s mother insists on training a therapy dog to comfort his beloved grandmother, who has Alzheimer’s. Poor Cade never knows what to expect when he visits Nana.
Dementia and Alzheimer’s are terrible diseases. My father suffered from Parkinson’s and dementia, and I spent a lot of time at the nursing home with him before he passed away. I’m blessed with a supportive family who loves Jesus, and this story reflects it.
Don’t worry–the book isn’t all gloom and sadness! Cade’s mom is an unrelenting matchmaker. Add the warm, rowdy members of the Jewel River Legacy Club, and you won’t want to put the book down.
Man’s best friend…
Could be the key to a second chance.
When rancher Cade Moulten decides to get a therapy dog for his ailing grandmother, he doesn’t expect a fluffy Pomeranian—or a pretty veterinarian trainer. But Cade will do anything to prove he’s a changed man, even train the small K-9 alongside Mackenzie Howard. Soon the weekly sessions with Mackenzie have Cade wishing for more. But will he risk revealing his shameful past for a chance at acceptance?
Purchase Training the K-9 Companion
***
Read an excerpt!
As usual, the restlessness snuck up on him, and, too late, Cade Moulten realized his mistake. Offering to help his mother train a therapy dog was just another attempt to atone for his past.
He couldn’t back out now. He wouldn’t if he could. Cade had other reasons—good ones—for being here.
“It’s not much to look at, is it?” His mother, Christy Moulten, sat in the passenger seat of his truck and stared at the small industrial building with faded gray aluminum siding. Next to it, a matching structure roughly three times its size shared the parking lot. The early June sunshine began to fade as the day wound down.
Cade cut the engine, and his mom bent to pick up her purse. A few months shy of turning sixty-four, his mother hadn’t slowed a bit. Her stylish blond bob, subtle makeup and smile lines gave her the appearance of someone who enjoyed life, but she also had a stubborn streak wider than a country mile.
At thirty-five, he’d mellowed to the point of not minding driving her around town whenever her driver’s license was suspended—and that was often—nor did he mind living with her in the big house on the ranch. Kept her out of trouble.
Maybe they kept each other out of trouble.
He pocketed his keys. “What’s it supposed to look like? It’s a vet clinic, not a spa, Ma.”
Cade had personally taken a loss on this property by selling it to the new veterinarian and her father for pennies on the dollar. Anything to convince a vet to take a chance on moving to Jewel River. When Dr. Bill Banks, the only veterinarian within two hours of here, retired last fall, it had affected every rancher and pet owner in this swath of Wyoming.
Jewel River needed a veterinarian ASAP.
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Want to read more? Purchase Training the K-9 Companion!
You can find Training the K-9 Companion in Walmart and all stores that carry Love Inspired books!
To celebrate, I’m giving away one copy of Training the K-9 Companion (US winner will receive a signed paperback, International winner will receive an ebook, void where prohibited by law.). Simply leave a comment below, and I’ll select a winner via random number generator. Giveaway ends on July 3, 2024 at noon EST, and winner will be announced in the comments of this post and in a separate post!
Do you love books with dogs and cowboys? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Thank you for celebrating my new release with me!
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Gardening, Canning, and Country Pursuits
It’s that time of year–time to watch things grow! Winters linger where I live. I wait until the end of May or early June to plant flowers, and I’ve been planting herbs in pots on our deck for several years, too.
We used to have a garden. I’m lazy about keeping up with it after the first month, so we decided to let it go. Since we’re blessed with numerous local farmstands and U-pick farms nearby, I don’t miss my garden much. When I do, I browse online sites like Fine Gardening and soak in the pretty flowers of A Wyoming Garden to get my fix!
Next week I plan on spending a few hours in the strawberry patch a few miles away. My goal? Bring home a flat of bright red berries. I make lower-sugar freezer jam each year with pectin specifically made for low or no-sugar recipes. You can find the Sure-Jell brand at Walmart or other grocery stores. I also make blueberry jam. It’s delicious!
Last year I bought a few dozen ears of corn. Blanching them didn’t take long. Quart-sized freezer bags stack nicely in our chest freezer. I wished I’d frozen more. This year I will.
Canning or freezing produce doesn’t require a huge time commitment if I focus on one thing at a time. And it certainly makes my family happy in November when we’re still enjoying peak flavor from the food I’ve preserved.
Other country pursuits I enjoy (even though I’m in the suburbs!) during the summer:
- Filling a glass pitcher with water and letting tea bags steep in it all day on my deck for sun tea
- The farmers market! Local honey has so much flavor.
- Sitting out back, watching the birds fly from tree to tree and the clouds drift through the sky
- Baking summer treats, like peach cobbler or blueberry breakfast cake (recipe is linked)
- Walking around ponds at rural parks
- Reading a book on our back deck
I could go on and on. Each season brings its own joys!
I’d love to hear your thoughts on gardening, canning, and other country pursuits. What do you enjoy about the summer?
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The Delights of Cottagecore
As usual, I’m late to the party when it comes to trends. Are you familiar with the term Cottagecore?
According to “What is Cottagecore? A Simple Guide” by Kristin Hohenadel via The Spruce, “Cottagecore is a social media hashtag and internet-based lifestyle trend inspired by a quaint vision of country life. Based on an idealized back-to-nature concept of simpler times, its romanticized aesthetics center on natural materials, wholesome pastimes, handmade crafts, homemade baked goods, gardening, and other hallmarks of bucolic domesticity.”
I stumbled across it last year while scrolling through Instagram Reels. Every so often, I’d see a video of a cute country kitchen. There would be a lit candle on a butcher block counter. Cozy instrumental music would be playing. A loaf of homemade bread might be on the counter along with a bouquet of wildflowers.
Watching a Cottagecore video provided the same relaxation as sipping a hot cup of tea. I was hooked.
I need more beauty in my life. And if they center on homemaking, all the better. I’ve always enjoyed simple pleasures like baking, crafts, lighting candles, and reading.
The Delights of Cottagecore (in no particular order)
- Vintage linens and curtains
- A kitchen that reminds you of visiting your grandma
- Candles with flames dancing
- Mellow, happy instrumental music
- A teapot steaming on a stove
- Fresh bread on the counter
- A jar of homemade jam next to it
- Birds singing outside
- Handpicked flowers in a rustic vase or mason jar
- A wooden table that looks like it’s been used for generations
- Crafts! Sewing, knitting, flower arranging, baking…
- Cozy, cozy, cozy
I could go on and on. I’m enamored. I hope you are, too!
Below is a link to a video with a Cottagecore playlist if you’d like to get in the mood.
A Cottagecore Playlist to Feel Like You’re in Nature
Have you heard of Cottagecore? What about it appeals to you the most?
Enjoy your day!
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Favorite Things: End of April
The end of April brings oodles of my favorite things! Today is my mom’s birthday (Happy birthday, Mom!)–a favorite thing, for sure.
Winter always seems to last forever here (I live in NW Ohio), and by the end of April, we’re almost finished with the cold weather. There still might be a day or two where I’ll need a winter coat, but for the most part, I can pack away the cold-weather clothing. That’s another of my favorite things–replacing my winter clothes with my summer wardrobe.
We’re big football fans in my house, and while the end of April doesn’t seem like it would be related to football, it is. My husband, son and I went to the University of Michigan spring football game on April 20 to check out the new team. It was COLD! Snowflakes came down twice–not cool, Michigan. We still had a great time! (See pics below)
The end of April also brings the NFL Draft, and I watched it last Thursday and Friday night. I loved seeing where all my favorite players landed. This year the draft was held in Detroit. It looked like a good time!
What else? Since I’m a nature gal, flowers, blooming trees, birds and bunnies and squirrels all make my list. The view outside my windows shouts spring, and I couldn’t be happier about it! In another month, I’ll be hitting up the local farmer’s markets, the botanical gardens, and all the summer fun I’ve been missing. Until then, I’ll enjoy the moment.
Do you have any favorite things for the end of April?
Enjoy your day!
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What Birds Are In Your Backyard?
I’ve always enjoyed watching birds. When I was ten or eleven, I was a Lutheran Girl Pioneer–similar to a Girl Scout–and we built birdfeeders. My father mounted the feeder near the edge of the forest in our backyard and bought food. How I loved getting out the binoculars to see what birds were stopping by! I even bought a pocket book about the birds of North America, and I wore that book out.
Fast forward to about five years ago…
My husband bought me a bird feeder for Christmas. I was so excited! It took about three weeks for the birds to arrive. I watched for them every day, and when they finally did? Oh boy! I couldn’t get enough.
My backyard has robins, house finches, goldfinches, purple finches, several types of sparrows, cardinals, mourning doves, blue jays, grackles and juncos. Now and then Cedar waxwings will stop by. Beautiful birds.
Below is a cardinal sitting on a fence in our backyard. Grackles are on the ground at at both feeders, and a mourning dove sits at the pole base.
Where I live in Northwest Ohio, I’m able to experience some of the best spring bird migration in the United States. The Biggest Week in American Birding attracts thousands of bird enthusiasts to our area. Lake Erie, especially, has fantastic parks and marshes for bird viewing. Not far from where I live, there’s a park where I see a variety of warblers every spring.
We have amazing diversity with waterfowl here, too. Bald eagles, snowy egrets, great blue herons, Canadian geese, mallards, mersangers, different swans, and occasionally buffleheads can be seen near rivers, marshes and nearby Lake Erie.
All of this “birding” got me wondering about the backyard birds in other parts of the country. I was happy to learn that the characters in my Wyoming books would see the same birds as I do. “Common Birds in Wyoming” features birds I see either in my backyard or on walks nearby.
I’d love to hear the types of birds you see in your area. Please let me know in the comments!
Enjoy your day!
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Two Fun Afternoons
Two weeks ago, I finally did it. I left the house to do something other than buying groceries or picking up books from the library. Yeehaw!
The first fun afternoon happened to be on my release day. My new book, UNITED BY THE TWINS, released on February 20, 2024, and I always take the day off to celebrate. This time I decided to drive out to the country to visit a cute boutique/tea shop that had been on my list of places to check out for over a year. It didn’t disappoint.
The little boutique resides in an outbuilding on a farm miles away from the nearest town. I loved driving past the fallow farm fields to get there. Winter can be dreary, for sure, but I find beauty in the season, too. When I arrived, I entered a warm, cozy, well-lit space. Upbeat music from the 40s played through the speakers, and every step revealed a different display of super cute items. Here’s a snapshot of the interior.
As you can see, the shop had an assortment of lovely items. From purses and decor, to honey and tea, it had all the cute things I tend to adore. I ended up purchasing a precious little lamp with three birds on the base. My husband and I have several bird feeders in our backyard, and I enjoy watching them.
The second fun afternoon was in a vastly different area than the first. My husband and I went downtown Toledo to browse a reclaimed home furnishings store. Basically, a large, old building had been converted into a secondhand store for home items such as old knobs, doors, hinges, chandeliers, even colored toilets/sinks/tubs from decades ago.
We were amazed at how intricate many of the items were. Engraved hinges, wooden bureaus with inlaid designs, elegant lighting. It made us both appreciate the craftsmanship of yesteryear.
Below is just one of the massive sections.
We had a great time wandering through the space, and we even met a friend–the kitty, Amy. I would have gladly taken that little cutie home!
The photos don’t do either place justice. The first shop felt like walking into a warm hug. Very cozy and contained. The second was more like strolling into an adventure–you weren’t sure where the sprawling space would take you.
I’m thankful to have visited both. And now, back to my usual outings. Kroger and the library, here I come!
Have you visited a new place recently? What did you think of it?
Have a wonderful day!
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Winner of United by the Twins!
We have a winner of United by the Twins from Friday’s giveaway!
Ginny Selby, you won a signed copy of Jill Kemerer’s UNITED BY THE TWINS! Congratulations!
Ginny, please email jill at jill@jillkemerer.com with your address!
Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway!
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United by the Twins + Giveaway!
Happy Friday! I hope you’ve had an amazing week. It’s been great for me. Why? My new book, UNITED BY THE TWINS, released on Tuesday! Woohoo! And to celebrate, I’m giving away a copy (paperback for US readers, ebook for International readers) to one commenter.
This is the second book in my Wyoming Legacies series with Love Inspired. It features Reagan Mayer and Marc Young and is set in the fictional town of Jewel River, Wyoming. Reagan recently inherited a beautiful building in the small town and plans on opening a chocolate shop in it. Marc wants the building for his mother, who’s always dreamed of expanding her bakery there.
Needless to say, these two don’t see eye-to-eye. When Marc’s sister has a stroke, Reagan generously offers to babysit the woman’s three-month-old identical twins. Since the twins live on the ranch with Marc, Reagan finds herself spending more time with him…and they grow close. But the building symbolizes more to each of them than they realize, and they have to give their plans to God before they can have a future together.
They can’t agree on anything…
Except how to care for his twin nieces
After inheriting a building from her great-aunt, Reagan Mayer moves to Wyoming to open the small-town shop she’s always dreamed of. There’s just one problem: rancher Marc Young wants the storefront for his mother. But when a family emergency puts a pause on their dispute, leaving them to care for his twin nieces, can Reagan and Marc find a way to communicate, to trust…and to love?
Jill Kemerer’s Website: JillKemerer.com
Purchase from Amazon: United by the Twins
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What is your favorite candy? (Mine is chocolate-covered caramels! Yum-yum!)
Please leave a comment (with an email address where I can reach you) to be entered in the giveaway. I’ll select a winner via random number generator and announce it on Sunday, February 25!
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The Last Wyoming Mountain Man
Howdy, everyone! I’m thrilled to be writing my very first post in Petticoats & Pistols! A little intro: I write contemporary Christian romance novels through Harlequin Love Inspired. My first five books were set in a fictional town called Lake Endwell, Michigan, and every book since has been set in fictional towns in Wyoming. Oh, and they feature cowboys. Lots and lots of cowboys!
I like cowboys.
Just saying.
Okay, enough about me! Let’s talk about the last Wyoming mountain man. I read this article by Jake Nichols last week, “Spaghetti Westerner Gap Pucci, 88, is the Last Wyoming Mountain Man of His Time,” via Cowboy State Daily. The article is linked, and it’s worth popping over to read the full article and see all the pictures. His life is fascinating.
Here’s a brief round-up.
Gap Pucci’s family emigrated to the U.S. from Sicily in the early 1900’s, and he spent his youth in Pennsylvania working in a quarry with his father. Later, he became a farrier, got into body-building, and joined the Army. He ended up being stationed in Alaska for a few years, which gave him a thirst for wide-open spaces and untamed land.
He moved to Utah and worked for a sheepherding operation, and later discovered Jackson, Wyoming. He and his bride, Peggy, lived in Wyoming from then on. Gap opened an outfitting business, and he and Peggy raised two daughters in a rustic cabin he still lives in today.
This quote from the article struck me:
“Nowadays what makes this 88-year-old special is the fact that he still lives like he does — straight-up cowboy. No phone, no internet, no modern amenities. Not even a fancy hay fork with the composite handle.”
No phone.
No internet.
No modern amenities.
I have to admit, there are days when I think, yeah, it would be great to have no phone, no internet. But I NEVER think I don’t want modern amenities.
Yes, the phone and internet claim my attention too often. But I love my hot showers, microwave, coffee maker, washer and dryer, furnace, and even my garage door opener. Modern amenities and I are besties.
So, Gap Pucci, I salute you! You lived an amazing, hard, fulfilling life.
As for me? I’ll stick to writing about cowboys. And I’m going to go give my coffee maker a hug. I take that beautiful machine for granted.
How do you feel about no phone, no internet, no modern amenities?
Thank you for stopping by!
