Montana Sons Go to War

It is now 1937 and Charlie Davis is enjoying a good farming year on his Montana ranch. Charlie and his wife Jeannie have three children, Chuck is four, and twins, Jennifer and James will be two later this year. Joe Goodman is his partner on the ranch. Joe and his wife, Kate, have four children, Andrew is nine, Julie is four, and their twins, Mark and Susannah, were born two days before Charlie's twins. Kate is expecting her fifth child as the story opens. Jim and Sarah Robertson live in the original ranch house and fit in well with the Goodmans and Davis's. They lost their ranch to the dust bowl of the prairies and stopped at Charlie's place looking for work. Joe and Charlie invited them to stay, and they have stayed on to help make the ranch very successful. They have four children ranging in ages from thirteen to seven, David, Timothy, Sandra, and Susie. Jeannie and Kate work on two books on Jeannie's family. There are mysteries to solve and challenges of boxes of information to sort through and organize chronologically. Journals provide lots of information on daily life at the time and are valuable for setting scenes and bringing the story alive. Joe and Charlie spend the winter months looking after their children. Sarah gives a helping hand by typing the story after Kate completes writing each chapter. Kate was ready to start writing her first novel. She was excited to reach out in a different direction with her writing. In the foothills at the edge of the grasslands, there stands an abandoned house, a place that was a home for a family who had so many wonderful hopes and dreams. Where are they now? What has become of them? First the baby died, the future of Jonathan and Kathleen, their son who would share and carry on their dreams. He was two years old, got sick and died in a very short time... The first day, Kate wrote feverishly as the thoughts tumbled out of her mind through her pencil and onto the paper. Joe loved to watch her when she was totally engrossed in her writing. Nothing disturbed her when she was so deep into a story. War in Europe continues to escalate and Joe and Kate follow the news as it becomes available. Charlie, Joe and Jim make plans for when the United States will enter the war. They decide to teach the women how to drive the tractors, plough, disk, and plant the crops, and how to care for the animals. Jim teaches them how to prepare seedlings for the vegetable crops. On December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attack the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. Twenty American naval vessels, including eight large battleships and more than three hundred airplanes are destroyed. Our Montana Sons are now going to war. How will Kate, Jeannie and Sarah make out on the ranch? Will they be able to do all the chores on their own? Will they get any unexpected help? Visit Barbara's website to view all of her books http: //barbararaue.ca