Honey Without Bees

Before my husband cut the hay field I collected the ingredients to a 200 year old recipe - Honey Without Bees. Since I'm in to everything Amish I wonder if the Amish people have this recipe. I do know it might come in handy for folks who like to use honey since honey bees are dying for an unknown reason. That is a serious problem. All plants and trees need pollination if we are going to have an abundance of food to eat.
Recipe - Bees Without Honey
45 red clover blossoms - 45 white clover blossoms - 25 wild rose blossoms - 1 tsp of powdered alum and 10 cups of sugar. Bring all to a boil in a large pan and boil three minutes. Not longer or the honey is too thick. Strain through cloth or cheesecloth and you have two quarts of honey.
Just make sure to pick the flowers from plants that haven't been sprayed with pesticide. I knew my hayfield was safe and I happen to have large wild rose bushes in a flower bed by the house. Wild roses are just that wild flowers along side the roads in Iowa and in pastures. In fact that is the state flower.
Just starting to advertise my new Amish book - A Promise Is A Promise.
Here is the back cover
Fay Risner takes readers on an emotional journey into a tender, original story set int he rolling hills of southern Iowa. a story that is heartwarming, romantic and a mystery. Home Health Nurse Hal Linstrom is assigned Amish widower John Lapp. She offers to stay with his children while he is in the hospital. Fifteen year old Emma takes care of the household. Her two younger brothers are handling the dairy operation. Hal soon realizes that Emma suffers from depression. Noah is withdrawn, and Daniel is so troubled he sleepwalks outside, looking for his dead mother. Drawn to this needy family, Hal discovers they have a secret swept under their proverbial Amish rag rug. The more she tries to help them the deeper she is sucked into the family's problem. Finally, Emma makes Hal promise to stop trying to unravel the family's tragic secret before it's too late. Hal agrees. When her future happiness is at stake, she wishes she hadn't, but a promise is a promise.
Tip for the day
Ebay isn't such a bad place to advertise a book on the budget plan. For 15 cents a week, my books are looked at by many and I even sell a few. There is a place to start.
Gotta Go
Booksbyfay
Fay Risner
www.booksbyfay.tripod.com
www.twitter/booksbyfay
booksbyfay@yahoo.com for information or if you would like to buy one of my books which by the way are on my bookshelf by my blog thanks to shelfari

Make Hay While The Sun Shine

Literally that's what my husband and I did yesterday. We made hay. Usually it is very hot with the sun beating down on us and our hay making equipment, but with our usually cool summer, yesterday was a pleasant day. I did put on plenty of sun screen and didn't burn at all. Driving the tractor with a chugging baler behind me is not my favorite thing to do. So many things can go wrong like shearing a pen or not watching when too close to the fence. I stay nervous until we're done. While I'm trying to keep the tractor and bale on the windrows of hay, my husband is hooking the bales from the baler and stacking them on the hay rack. Once we have the hay bales picked up the hard part comes. We have to put the bales into the barn. I unload the hay bales on to a conveyor that sends them up to my husband in the loft. He stacks them neatly so there's room for the third crop. First thing he said this morning was the barn smelled so sweet with the fresh clover hay in the loft.
Now today I'm stiff and sore, but feeling good about a good day's work making hay when the sun shines that will be feed for our sheep and goats when the snow flies.
Still working on my business website. Hope to have it up and running soon so I can sell my books on line.
Gotta Go,
Booksbyfay
Fay Risner
www.booksbyfay.tripod.com
booksbyfay@yahoo to buy my books
www.MyEntre.net to check out my book business

Memories Are Important

Memories are important. Without memories, I couldn't write my historical fiction books. Some of the interesting details I use are from stories told to me by older people. Those tales stuck with me and now I use them in my books. I'm thankful that the older folks I visited with had good memories. Next Saturday night, I will find out if my generation has as good a memory. My 45th High School reunion is coming up that night. A night of visiting, recalling and sharing a good meal together in Keystone, Iowa (the town we started in). To be on the safe side, the committee for this event has left no stone unturned as far as memory goes. I was asked to write and format a picture book complete with bios to be given to everyone so they will have no excuse a few days from Saturday as far as remembering who lives where, how many offspring they have and what they did for a living when they worked. The book comes with a class and teacher picture for every year they were in high school. We can look at those pictures and see how everyone has changed. Come to think about it at my age that may not be so thrilling to watch us age in a few pages. The book was fun to put to gather and add small pictures or school newspaper headlines of each of our accomplishments along with the bios. I was only in that class for the last three years of high school so I was able to go back in time and see what I missed. I'll let you know the response to the book and if it works.
Right now I am busy telling the internet world about my new Amish book A Promise Is A Promise so if you're interested buy a copy and help me spread the word.
Gotta go. Am working on my new online bookstore. Tell you about that next time.
booksbyfay
Fay Risner
www.booksbyfay.tripod.com
twitter/booksbyfay
booksybyfay@yahoo to buy my books. Take a look at my bookshelf connected to this blog

Honey Without Bees

As I switch between putting out the word about my latest book A Promise Is A Promise and work at the every day tasks I've been thinking about how much like the Amish my world is in some ways. Work wise that is. I don't profess to be as devout as they are in their faith.
Yesterday I studied the tall clover in our hayfield and remembered a 150 year old recipe I hadn't dusted off in years. Honey without Bees. We hear much about honey bees dying and no one knows why. That not only means a loss of honey but pollination for all our crops. I have no idea of knowing why the recipe for honey I have was devised by pioneers. I do know that my honey tastes very similar to the real thing the bees make. You have to collect clover and wild roses from a place that hasn't been sprayed with poison. Collect 45 red clover blossoms, 45 white clover blossoms and 25 rose flowers. Wash them and put in a large pan with a teaspoon of powdered alum and 10 cups of sugar and add 2 cups of water. Stir up and heat until the mixture comes to a rolling boil for 3 minutes. Strain the honey through a cloth. Makes 2 quarts. Wonder if Amish people know about my recipe.
Today I put 10 quarts of sweet corn in the freezer. On a hot day canning is no fun, but our Iowa weather has been very pleasant all summer. I've always enjoyed preserving what we raise. I like it even better to partake of my labors in winter months. We are blessed to have good food all year around.
I'm working on a new website now to be my bookstore for all my books. My bookstore is at www.booksbyfay.esmartbiz.com. I hope to have it up and running soon.
Gotta go
booksbyfay
Fay Risner
www.booksbyfay.tripod.com
booksbyfay@yahoo to order my books or
Amazon

I'm excited!

The proof for my latest book came last night and I'm excited and relieved. This has been the most difficult book to get published that I've done so far and the one that I'm the proudest of. For one thing, the content gets better with each time I write a book. That was a snap compared to how long it to me to struggle over the cover. I spent hours working on that cover and felt like giving up but I didn't. This was the first cover that I used a photograph that I took instead of clip art so the book is all my creation. I got up early this morning and looked at the book laying on the dining room table. It almost seems unreal that the book is finally here after months of worrying over getting it created. I thank Lightning Source Publishing client representative Joan Williams and Brent who gave me such good advice to get that cover workable. I'd still be struggling if I hadn't call them. One thing I've found to be great about Lightning Source Publishing is that I had someone to help me through the creation process for the cover. So I just put in my first order for "A Promise Is A Promise" at 6 a.m. this morning and now I can hardly wait for the shipment to come. Right now it feels like my birthday and Christmas all rolled up into one. Next thing you know I'll be ready to start another book.
Gotta Go
Booksbyfay
www.booksbyfay.tripod.com
www.twitter/booksbyfay
www.blogger/booksbyfay
booksbyfay@yahoo if you want to order "A Promise Is A Promise" or any of my other books

One After Another

Getting very close to finishing up my latest Amish book "A Promise Is A Promise" with Lightning Source Publishing and am already working on a booklet but this time it will be a very fast production. This book is a memory book for my 45th High School reunion. It's filled with bios, memories of school and favorite teachers. A look at the past and a glimpse at former classmates now. It's been fun reading about everyone as I type in what they send and look at the pictures they choose to put in with their bios. The book has to be done by the end of the week so a former classmate can take it to the printer the following week and on August 8 we will all be able to connect with our reminisce book in our hands.
Gotta go write,
Booksbyfay
Fay Risner
www.booksbyfay.tripod.com
booksbyfay@yahoo to buy any of my 16 books
sold by Amazon
My two Alzheimer's books are sold by me and at Lemstone Christian Bookstore, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Daylight

Back again. Maybe I am about to come out from under the workload I created for myself and see daylight. Finally after two and a half months I have submitted a cover for my latest book. Won't know until my proof come whether I will like the book's look or not but feel better that I have that out of the way. Now I'm working on a high school reunion book for my classmates to be done by Aug. 8th. That means I have to hustle to get all the bios and pictures typed into the book and get it ready for a classmate to take to the printer. Once that is done the pressure should be off. Between now and the Aug. 8 reunion I just have a birthday party to attend in State Center for a great niece and nephew. I think I see taking the boat out for a day of fishing. Iowa is having the coolest July on record and lots of rain. One of those cool days has to be a fishing day.
Just put a press release in www.tour.com and www.biblioscribe.com for a three day event in Belle Plaine Iowa in Franklin Park. It's a Civil War Days reenactment. Sounds like a good place to sell my Civil War book "Ella Mayfield's Pawpaw Militia" along with all the other books I've written. The reenactors come from all over so that might mean more sales if they take a few of my books home.
I'm all prepared to play the part of a Civil War era woman. I have a pioneer dress and bonnet to wear. Even bought a folding chair with a canopy so if I can't find a shade tree I will be shaded from the sun. Hopefully by then I luck out and have three days of sun instead of rain every other day like we have had for months. The first day of the event is for the school students. That should be fun to entertain them with my Civil War tales since the battles and escapades of Ella are true.
My goal for awhile is to keep you informed which sites I use to advertise my new book that should be out soon now that it has a cover so keep watching for "A Promise Is A Promise" ISBN 0982459505 and printed by Lightning Source Publishing.
The back cover says
Home Health Nurse Hal Lindstrom is assigned Amish widower John Lapp. She offers to stay with his children while he is in the hospital. Fifteen year old Emma takes care of the house. Her two small brothers are handling the dairy operation alone. Emma suffers from depression, Noah is withdrawn and Daniel sleepwalks outside, looking for his dead mother. Drawn in by this needy family, Hal soon realizes this family has a mystery they've swept under the proverbial Amish rag rug. The more she tries to help the deeper she gets sucked into the family's problem. Finally, Emma makes Hal promise to stop trying to unravel the tragic secret. When Hal's happiness is at stake she wishes she hadn't agreed, but a promise is a promise.
Gotta go,
Fay Risner
booksbyfay
www.booksbyfay.tripod.com
www.booksbyfay.twitter.com
booksbyfay@yahoo to buy my books or for information about them