Jay performs a kiss scene!

Hello Sweet Readers!

Thank you all so much for your sweet comments on Sunday – I really appreciated them. It’s amazing to me how God can take my words and use them to be an encouragement and help. I so appreciate everyone who wrote and said it was a blessing.

I have a farm story and I’m pretty excited about something, but first, I wanted to be sure to tell everyone that my sweet friend, Alexa Verde, has had three of her books chosen by Amazon to be featured there at a special, low price.

Check them out:

Reviews for Show Me the Boss
★★★★★ “Liberty is a great character, she’s independent, feels good in her own skin and totally isn’t upset that she’s a ‘big’ girl.” = Rheacty1
★★★★★ “This is the third book of hers that I have read and each one is better than the one I read before. No, that’s not correct. They’re all great.” – J. B. MCKEE
★★★★★ “This series gets better and better!” – Louise
★★★★★ “This was a very enjoyable, moving, and captivating story. I couldn’t put it down till I finished read it.” – Shadowell
★★★★★ “This book makes me ‘tears-of-joy’ happy with those little heart pings. I’m so glad that Liberty got her love story, and I loved getting the back story and three-dimensional picture of the strong, vulnerable, resilient woman. Ten fingers up!” – fsloverly

Reviews for Show Me a Mistaken Identity
★★★★★ “Oh, my… From the very 1st page, I’m transported right there with Cat and Roberto, and all of the family. And then I was totally lost in their mystery, watching them fall in love while trying to avoid romance-and we all know how THAT is going to go! It took the book ending for me to realize that my bath water is cold! Of course, the epilogue had me laughing so hard, I hardly care! Once again, I’m dying for the next book!” Sarah Sarber
★★★★★ “This was a poignant story which touched my heart.” Nanc VINE VOICE
★★★★★ “Alexa Verde’s tense themes of rejection or abuse are countered with a touch of humor, so they put JOY in YOUR HEART.” Deutsche OMA
★★★★★ “I love love love this Cowboy Crossing Series. Alexa Verde has such a knack for stories you just can’t get enough of. I have become a diehard fan. How can you not? Roberto and Cat’s story is filled with mystery, humor, faith and family. Oh and the cutest little matchmaking crew ever.” Judi Duncan
★★★★★ “An excellent romance with down-to-earth characters and an intriguing storyline that pulls you in from the very beginning.” Sheila L VINE VOICE

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Jessie here again!

Today we have a Live Preview up on Say with Jay – my favorite kind. It’s actually an extra-special Live Preview, because it’s a kiss scene – the best kind for us romance readers, right?

I just love watching Jay perform, and I know you all do, too. I couldn’t wait until this morning, and I took a little peek at this preview last night, and I have to say, it’s mesmerizing. As many times as I’ve watched him, I’ll never understand how he can bring out an entire slew of emotions, with what looks like complete ease. You’re gonna love it.

Don’t forget to check out his shirt. : )

Please, leave a comment, give him a thumbs up, and if you haven’t subscribed, please do!

(And, I just have to mention this thumbnail – we’ve messed around with different designs for a lot of them, but Jay made this one sent this one to me and it was love at first sight for me! So beautiful!)

Jay adds so much to them, he has an incredible talent for narrating, my favorite one 🙂 – Denice (on YouTube)

Jay’s narration can’t be beat! – Sandra (on YouTube)

Jay did an excellent job of reading it. Love the different voices. Such Talent. – Nan (on YouTube)

Jay is remarkable as ever. – Dalila (on YouTube)

(I) appreciated the voice of Jay Deyess and his talent with the narration. I will continue to listen to other books narrated by him. – Elda (on YouTube)

Listening to Jay perform is a special treat. – Joanne (on YouTube)

Jay is an awesome narrator! – Julie (on YouTube)

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Hey! It’s Jessie again. On Sunday, I promised a story about #16. This one is from last July:

Sunday, we had to vaccinate our fall herd and treat a few cows.

We did that last fall, and I talked about it a little. I was chasing cows, got knocked around a bit, and at one point, I was pinned against the fence and ended up pretty sore with a lot of shades of blue on my body.

Sunday, our oldest son came down and took the beating for me. : )

We started before dawn, because we wanted to get finished before it got super hot out.

He helped finish up the garage work in PA around 11 pm and rolled into our place in Virginia around 3:30 am on Sunday morning.

He was sleeping on our couch when I came downstairs around 5ish.

He just turned 25, so he’s not a kid anymore, but I still admire that kind of work ethic. He’s done a lot of work on farms out west, and he has a great pride and respect for the salt-of-the-earth people and the work it takes to grow and produce the food that feeds our nation.

I’m a little tempted to go off on a tangent there, but I’ll try not to.

Anyway, he helped me chase the cows and gave me all the easy jobs—meaning I stood on the fence while he got the bull out. : )

We separated the cows from the calves—we weren’t weaning, but the chute is long and narrow, and if you try to run calves through with the cows, the calves will get crushed.

We’re not really set up for the calves very well and don’t really have any place to hold them.

Our son ended up getting in the chute with the calves and pinning them against the side of the chute while we gave them their vaccinations and wormer. Some of the calves were topping three hundred pounds, and he definitely had his work cut out for him.

If you can imagine being in a small, enclosed space with a terrified, young, and strong animal that is desperate to escape and find his mama and that weighs twice as much as you do, and if you can imagine trying to wrestle that animal into submission…forty-four times…that’s what our son did.

Our son was in a motorcycle accident earlier this spring, and I have a feeling that wrestling the calves wasn’t quite as bad as the accident, but he definitely earned his bumper sticker.

We started early, but it was still hot and humid. We’d gotten some much needed rain the day before, and so it was muddy too. We weren’t complaining, because we were so thankful for the rain. But we were all pretty filthy.

There was one noteworthy thing with the cows.

Maybe some of you remember the story I told a while ago where a cow was supposed to be running behind me while I stood with my back to her at the fence, but she charged me and rammed me into the fence instead. I was dazed and hurting, but I still turned to follow her out, because, you know, you do your job. It took me a second or two to realize that she’d stopped, turned around, and was coming back for me. (At this point, I always think that if I hadn’t lived this, I would never believe anyone who told me that a cow charged her—twice—for no reason.) Anyway, I might have been dazed, but I made it to the top of the fence pretty quick.

That cow was #16.

We can get about eight cows in the chute, but they’re pretty squished. About the fourth group we had in, we had a cow who just wouldn’t move forward and was keeping us from being able to shut the gate. No matter how we pushed and prodded her, she wouldn’t budge.

Her ear tag was in the opposite ear, but I finally got a look at it and realized it was 16. Ha.

Anyway, we just made do, got that group their shots, and opened the gate to let them out.

They started moving out of the chute and into the funnel to the pasture. I was working on getting more vaccine mixed and ready for the next batch, and Julia was beyond me with her notebook, when one of the cows, rather than going straight, made a U-turn and came charging down the narrow aisle where we do our work beside the chute and where I was standing with Julia further down.

Someone yelled. I glanced up, and it only took a half a second for me to see which cow it was.

“It’s sixteen!” I yelled, and I dropped the needle and vaccine I was working with and leaped for the fence. I hit it about the third rung up and was on the top before the word “sixteen” was out of my mouth.

I can be taught.

I think Jules made it to the top of the fence before I did.

We hung there until 16 got herself turned around and our son poked her from the other side of the chute and chased her out.

My knees may or may not have been shaking as I jumped down.

Watson was laughing, of course, and he pointed his finger at me. “She wants YOU,” he said, like I didn’t already know it. LOL.

I really don’t know why she has a thing against me, but I seriously do keep an eye on her when I’m in the pasture. She chased me around the Gator once (that was a couple weeks after she’d slammed me into the fence) and now this. I’ve offended her somehow, I guess, but I’ll be dipped if I know what I did.

I’m not sure why we’re keeping her. (Watson says she has nice calves, but I don’t care. I think she’d make nicer hamburgers.)

All right, we finished up in good time, and just in case there were any lingering feelings of suppressed annoyance toward our cows, we told our son we’d treat him to a steak dinner. He certainly earned it.

But we all had to get showers.

I let the girls go first because it takes them longer to get ready.

Watson and I rode to check the other herd while the girls and our son showered. By the time we were done, we were both stiff from sitting. It’s funny how your body stiffens up, and the walk to the house was painful. LOL. We’re getting old.

We were done well before noon, but honestly, it’s hard work and we were all exhausted.

Now, I don’t want to gross anyone out, but my feet and jeans were covered in cow manure up to my knees, and I had it up both arms and on my face. My shirt was soaked with sweat, and my hair was wet with it, too. I definitely needed a shower.

But there were no clean towels.

I’d put a load of laundry in the washer before we’d gone out that included the two towels Watson and I use. We’ve had guests at our cabin who walked off with towels, and we’ve kept replacing them with towels from our house. I have one extra towel, and I’d given that to Julia.

Not taking a shower wasn’t an option, so, don’t tell my mom, but I got a roll of paper towels out and decided I was going to dry off with them. (If you absolutely have to tell my mother, please make sure that you mention that I wrung them out and reused them repeatedly.)

Anyway, I have my paper towels, and I’m all ready to get in the shower, except, when I turn it on, there’s not enough water pressure left to push the water up through the showerhead. Just a little stream of water coming out the faucet.

The plug in our tub doesn’t work.

Still, this chick needed a shower. So, I’m kneeling, my tired, sore body scrunched down in the tub, using the little trickle of water and twisting and straining to get my whole head under it to wet my hair. I reach back for the shampoo. The bottle is empty.

I admit I leaned my forehead on the tub and tried not to criggle. (Which is a half cry, half laugh.)

Ha. So, yeah, I used soap to wash my hair, paper towels to dry off on, and at least I was conserving water by only using a trickle, right?

Just an endnote—at dinner, the kids laughed at how 16 has a thing for me. During the meal, they came up with a new name for her that even has an acronym: AKEM. Her name is a bit unwieldy: Attack, Kill, and Eat Mom.

sigh

All right, that’s enough of that.

Don’t forget to check out Jay’s Live Preview and leave a comment!

Thanks so much for spending time with me today.

Hugs and love,

Jessie ❤️