Cutie 

Hello Sweet Readers!

I’m so excited to announce that my amazing friend, Alexa Verde, has just released the first book in a NEW Cowboy Crossing series!

And it’s only $.99!

Check it out below, then scroll down, because I have more news. : )

A New Cowboy Crossing Series!

Small-town romance with faith, humor, and more than a dash of danger!

A woman in jeopardy, a cowboy turned small-town cop grieving his fiancée, and a relationship too real to be fake… Escape to Cowboy Crossing, where people care about each other, romances are sweet and swoony, and six cowboy brothers with hot Irish blood fall in love when they least expect it.

When her foster siblings are in danger, former policewoman Jessie Ashford makes sure their temporary home in a small town far from their home place is fortress strong. After her ex shot at her, her heart is just as tough and secure. But when a local cop helps investigate suspicious incidents that threaten her friends’ safety, her defenses start to crumble. Yet, abandoned so many times, can she open her heart again before it’s too late?

While Jessie wears a chip on her shoulder, Ronan O’Neill wears his heart on his uniform sleeve. He’s already lost one woman he loved to a dangerous profession and is still reeling. But Ronan can’t let something happen to the mysterious newcomer. Will she take his heart when she leaves? Because she’ll do anything to protect the secret that spans many years—or die trying.

Escape to Cowboy Crossing
Women scarred by their painful pasts, bonded like sisters by the secrets they share. Cowboys able to see the hurting hearts behind the tough facades. And someone willing to kill to get what they want…
Book 1: No Fake Dating for a Cowboy
Book 2: No Mistaken Identity for a Cowboy

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Jessie again!

Okay, and now for my favorite part of the newsletter – Jay has a new release on Say with Jay!

This one really makes me smile, because it is the last book we needed to put up in order to have the Heartland series complete on YouTube – ALL the books in the series are free to listen to. You can start with book 1, let Jay create a beautiful world around you with just his voice and binge the entire series. Man, that makes my heart happy. : )

I loved this series and the town of Prairie Rose and Jay makes it so vivid and real. (Also, I love the thumbnail he made – so beautiful!)

Listen to the incredible Jay Dyess perform Heartland Giving for FREE on Say with Jay!

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“Oh my, this isn’t the first book by Jessie Gussman that I have read. But it is the best.” – Kitty  

“A cowboy, a movie star, and three unwanted boys are the ingredients in a recipe for romance directed by God and plotted by the scheming elderly ladies of the Sweet Water Piece Makers quilting guild. Jessie Gussman has delivered another premium clean cowboy romance that had my heart fluttering.” – J Young

“Another great story from Jessie Gussman. Her writing and inspiration are just awesome. Bellamy really needs to believe in herself and her capabilities. Calhoun is larger than life, seriously who would take on three boys that are not his. His belief that God provides what we need when we need it really is so inspirational. I absolutely loved this one. Well worth your reading time.” – Lucia

“I absolutely loved this book! I loved Calhoun. He’s such a great guy with such a great character. He takes in three children and gains custody of them, no questions asked. Amazing! I also loved Bellamy. She’s not as tough as she seems to be. I really liked them as a couple. Of course I love the quilters and their role in this book… What a great premise and as is always found in a Jessie Gussman book – what a great time!” – Janet

“Jessie doesn’t disappoint her readers with this one! This book has to be the best book that I’ve ever read from Jessie so far! A very powerful message for everyone to think about and consider before getting married. God’s timing is perfect. Of course a little help from the Piece Makers can’t hurt! LOL” – Janna

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Enter to win a $25 Amazon egift card by submitting a recipe for July!

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Hey! Jessie again! I have a farm story from last year, and I’ll warn you now, it’s not finished today – I’ll have more in on Tuesday. : )

First, let me tell you about our cow, Cutie. She’s a sweet little Hereford—orange with a white face and white legs and brisket. She’s not very big, but she has a gentle personality and is one of our “special” cows.

This summer, she hadn’t been doing very well—after a cow has raised a calf for seven or eight months, they’re usually pretty run down, but once the calf is weaned, usually the cow fills out, looks a lot better, and is doing pretty good by the time she drops her next calf.

But Cutie never really recovered after last year’s baby was weaned. She was just real skinny and never put weight back on.

I suggested to Watson that we should probably sell her, because if she looked that bad before she had her calf, she would only go downhill once it was born.

Well, Watson is a big softie and he loves his girls and Cutie stayed.

She had an adorable black calf with a sweet little white face—a bull. He was small but healthy.

That was a month ago.

Cutie did okay for a couple of weeks, and I thought I might have been wrong, but two weeks ago, she started declining pretty rapidly. This past Monday and Tuesday, she didn’t eat, so Wednesday morning, Watson went out to the field to carry her calf in so we could bottle-feed him, since when a cow doesn’t eat, she doesn’t produce milk and the little guy would starve to death.

When he had the guy across the four-wheeler in front of him, bringing him in, Watson got peed on.

I need to pause here for a minute and back up six weeks.

We had a cow, 54, who freshened before she was supposed to—about six weeks early. I’m not sure at what age a calf is viable, but this guy was tiny—our little premie—but he was able to get up and suck. I’m not sure what the issue with 54 was—why she had him so early—but whatever it was, she just didn’t have much milk.

So, four times a day, I mixed up two cups of milk replacer and drove down to the bottom pasture and fed her calf. He never wanted to suck from the bottle—so it was basically me force-feeding this little guy while his mother ate the grain I took down.

Eventually, we moved them to the pasture beside the house and gave 54 some extra feed, hoping to stimulate her milk production. I stopped bottle-feeding him, and while he wasn’t thriving, he was doing okay.

It’s been dry here, so not quite two weeks ago, we moved 54 to a pasture by herself where she would have plenty to eat. I think they were there maybe four days before my little premie boy fell off a small three-foot-high shelf of ground, caught his front foot in a root, and hung there all night before the girls found him there on their early morning horse ride.

His leg wasn’t broken, and it didn’t really seem like his shoulder was dislocated, but he couldn’t walk on it, couldn’t bend what we would call his knee or ankle, and couldn’t get up from a lying-down position.

So, the same day Watson brought Cutie’s calf up to be bottle-fed, he went out to the other pasture and brought in my premie boy and 54.

While Watson had my premie on the four-wheeler, he got peed on again. : )

When a calf can’t get up, there’s not much chance that he’s going to make it, but we were really hoping that the swelling would go down in his leg and he’d start using it again.

In the meantime, we’d get him up to feed him. He couldn’t walk, but he could stand.

Wednesday of this week, Watson and the little girls went to PA. Julia and I were at the farm in VA, and we had those two calves to take care of, plus Cutie was fading.

Thursday, it was 97 degrees at the farm in Virginia.

I was sitting by the window, working on Magical Twilights (the ARC went out Friday), and I happened to look up just in time to see my little premie get up and walk. I almost got up and jumped around—I was SO super excited that this little guy who’d had such a hard time of it was getting better.

I’ll just admit that Thursday morning when I fed him, he seemed worse to me and I had thought he was going to die. Instead, there he was, walking. : )

It was probably two hours later when I took a quarter bottle out to feed him.

He was dead.

Sometimes, right before an animal dies, they get this surge of energy or something and it looks like they’ve made a miraculous recovery.

I guess that’s what happened to my premie.

That was tough, because I’d fought pretty hard for him.

I still had two orphans to feed, and Julia fed Cutie’s calf and took care of the horse that’s been sick (a story for another time), and then we went to check on the cows.

Cutie couldn’t take the heat, and we found her down by the creek. Dead.

Alright, Jules and I were alone on the farm and we had to do something with Cutie. I’ll tell you about it next week. : )

Thanks so much for spending time with me today!

Hugs and love,

~Jessie❤️