Shannon here: Caryl McAdoo shares her inspiration for her latest Historical Romance, Mail-Order Shepherd, plus a chance to win an e-book copy of Ruth from her Prairie Roses Collection. Comment or answer the question in this post to enter the drawing. Deadline: March 22nd, 11:59 pm central. Here’s Caryl:
Goats, Good Laughs, and Guard Dogs!
When I first heard of the “Mail-Order Husbands” MAP (multi-author project) I thought that sounded like so much fun. For the titles of the books, the MAP organizer wanted an occupation. Since I have been milking my Nubian dairy goats and Ron and I have been drinking it and making cheese, I thought it would be a great topic!
So, there are three groups: honorable husbands, healing husbands, and hopeful husbands. My MAIL-ORDER SHEPHERD is the third book in the second group, so book number thirteen in the collection. It debuts March 13th, too, and is available now to pre-order!
So, my first goat, way back in 2002 was a registered
pregnant dwarf Nigerian goat given to me by my firstborn son on Mothers’ Day. Very shortly, she delivered triplets, and I was forever hooked. My herd grew to eighty while still living in the Metroplex. We leased a hundred thirteen acres in the Trinity River Bottoms near our home. We moved to the country in 2008 to Red River County, a community named Lydia, into a sweet farmhouse on eleven acres.
My goats flourished five years there, but then we built a new house—our first from scratch—about 20 miles from Lydia to the county seat, Clarksville, Texas. We’re actually a couple of miles east and five more south from the downtown square. I call our twenty acres in the woods The Peaceable, but the new place had no fences, and dwarf Nigerians are known to be escape artists! Ron hated that about them.
SO, he propositioned me . . . He said, “Caryl, if you will agree to sell your goats, you can get a smart phone.” Oh! I really, really wanted a phone with a computer in it so bad! I agreed.
Flash forward ten years.
My sweetheart asked me a different question. “Hey, Caryl, what do you want for your birthday?” I’d always told him years back that anytime he wanted a gold star for gift-giving, just bring me something breathing! He took me at my word and over the years, he bought me horses, dogs, hedgehogs, pot belly pigs—and goats!
I thought and thought and weighed several options . . . maybe a red-leafed Japanese maple or several fruit trees . . . I perused nurseries with my friend. Then I thought of it! (Mostly because my friend had just bought four goaties herself.) A goat! But everyone knows goats are social animals and if you have one, she needs a friend. I told Ron I’d have to get two, but that I wanted Nubians this time. They’re much larger and give a lot more milk AND weren’t escape artists!
I went and picked out two beautiful doelings (girls) and while I was there, I bought Ron a buckling for his EARLY birthday present in November . . . it was almost May 😊 My babies grew up and had kids, and I bought more goats. We learned a lot about making cheese and made a lot of it! I still want to learn to make goat soaps.
So! All that to give you the story behind the story. That’s why my mail-order husband is a shepherd.
There are also livestock guardian dogs in my story, and of course, Ron and I needed some! So last year, we got Ruthie and Boaz first, then added Priscilla! Ron calls them his puppies, but they’re soon to be over a hundred pounds each, and I was saying he shouldn’t call them puppies anymore.
Ron and I are living our dream here at The Peaceable Farm and Bookery. When you drive to the place (driveway about four football fields long), turn the corner, and dip into the woods, everyone can feel it. I believe God’s presence is palpable here. I always told Him I wanted to live in His presence.
And with our goats and chickens and dogs and cats, we absolutely love our life together. This year in June will be fifty-seven years married, fifty-nine as best friends. We are so grateful to God for favoring us with this life we live, writing books together, building fences together, loving each other, caring for our animals, and enjoying family visiting!
I hope y’all enjoy MAIL-ORDER SHEPHERD, especially knowing the story behind the story! And there’s quite the surprise in it for you! LOL I hope you’ll like it!
Visitors love to try their hand at milking when they visit The Peaceable. Maybe you can come by one day! I’d love to have you!
BLESSINGS!
Question for Readers: I’d like to gift an eBook copy of another book where a goat played
an important role. It’s a wagon train story from the Prairie Roses Collection titled RUTH to one commenter who has an answer for this! Ron and I much prefer goat milk to store bought. Have you ever had raw milk? Goat or cow? Have you ever hand-milked either? Did you love it?
If anyone can guess the surprise in the story, I’ll throw in another gift—an eBook, choice of all my titles (except VOW UNBROKEN that Simon & Schuster owns)
About Caryl: Best-selling author Caryl McAdoo, praying her story gives God glory, loves God, husband Ron, their children, and twenty-eight grandsugars, and writing books—nearing eighty published! Her historical family sagas are loved around the world. The McAdoos live in Clarksville, Texas—waiting expectantly for God to open the next door.
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About the book – Mail-Order Shepherd:
God will supply all our needs, according to His riches in glory.
It is not completely false advertising. Emma needs a shepherd for a fact. After a lion attack, she finds herself in a predicament she never asked for or wanted. With her father killed and herself injured, how she can ever care for the goats and keep the farm going preys on her mind. Her married cousin can’t stay forever to help and begs her to advertise for a husband in the newspaper. Men do it all the time when they needed a wife, she argues. In the end though, too embarrassed, Emma takes out the marrying part and advertises for help only. Callan responds, thinking a goat farm will be a good place to winter, and sheep and goats can’t be too different. He plans on heading south to Texas and signing on with the Rangers when spring arrives. Little does he know his new boss wants to wed! But God . . .
Want to preorder Mail-Order Shepherd? Interested in Caryl’s other titles?
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Mail-Order Shepherd Caryl’s Books
Come back March 14th for Shannon’s Book Bargains Roundup!
My grandmother and steps grandfather were small dairy farmers. As a child, every summer my patents, siblings and I would spend a week on the farm. Dad would take us into the Chequamegon National Forest to pick wild strawberries or blueberries, whichever was in season. The next morning, my step-grandfather would bring in a bucket of raw milk. Grandma would put it through the cream separator and chill it down a bit. Then we would have fresh berries and cream for breakfast. Best thing in the world!
Oh, that does sound delicious!! We used to have lots of wild berries but those goats have eaten EVERYTHING!! 🙂 we’ve been building a cedar fence around the house to keep the munchers at bay! I plan to plant berries!! 🙂
My husband once ran for a local political office. We went to all kinds of chili suppers, auctions, and pie auctions. But the most memorable was a county fair. All the candidates were challenged to milk a goat. My husband had never even milked a cow. Of course, he got the difficult goat that kept kicking at him. I’ve rarely laughed so hard and got some great pictures.
Friends with goats call me the goat whisperer because they behave so well on the stanchion so quickly for me!! I bet that was hilarious!!