This Crazy Weather

 My wife and I took a trip to the Iowa/Missouri border last Friday, May 24th. We were headed to an Amish community near Bloomfield, Iowa. We enjoyed the day, and I'll share some pics on my Amish Horses Facebook page. However, something bigger than our day-trip held my attention.

Iowa and more of the mid-west is in a terrible way with our weather.

We had tickets to a play in the Amana Colonies that evening and got back home just in time to change clothes. Our iPhones shouted alerts at us about a funnel cloud approaching our location. When I looked out the window, this is what I saw!

    We were quite relieved when that funnel cloud passed by and we headed outside to go to the play. I looked to our East and LO there I could see that a tornado had touched the earth.

I zoomed my pic so you can see the funnel on the ground.

    We quickly started calling and texting friends and family to check on everyone. Our good friends, Church and small group buddies, and neighbors of four miles (that's close neighbors in our rural mindset) sustained severe damage to their business Frytown Trailers. Please pray for them as they lost many and it's quite a challenge to regroup, repair, and replace what was damaged.

 Tornados are awful and fearful. However, what might be more damaging than those powerful winds are tiny droplets of rain. We have had so many multiple billion droplets, and they haven't stopped falling!

Every field is a muddy mess. This gate entrance at my place is not usually a marsh!

My horses are glistening wet after another downpour.

The clouds in this first pic are awe-inspiring, but what you might not have noticed is the water laying on the land below. Farmers have been forced out of the fields, and time is ticking. The window of opportunity for spring planting is closing soon. Pray for our farmers!

Samson and Amish Delilah: Cover Reveal

 Scroll down to see the full cover!


Official release date: August 19th.



I'm more excited than I can say about this book. It is quite different from anything else I've written.

Below: the binding and back cover

A Story of clashing cultures, hearts laid bare, and the power of forgiveness.

Delilah steps out of the pages of a bestselling Amish novel and into the real world. When media giants discover that she's alive and well, the race to find her is on. A young man named Dave sets out with inside information, hoping to get to her first and cash in. He's as surprised as everybody that there's more than one Amish Delilah-- can he be sure that he's found the right girl?

Dave searches the pages of the novel to be certain he has the right Delilah. Real life begins to merge with fiction and Dave suddenly realizes that he has fallen into the story and become Samson. Worse yet, he fears he is on a collision course with the novel's wild ending.

Cultures collide as big media comes face-to-face with Amish family values. Dave and Delilah are caught in a vice between two worlds. Will they sell out for the almighty dollar?

Coming soon in paperback and eBook 

August 19th

2019

To order your copy click here: Amazon: Samson and Amish Delilah

Direct from the Publisher:CrossLink: Samson and Amish Delilah

Amish Ice Hockey

Last Monday, March 4th, I drove to Kalona, heading to the horse sale. Kalona Sale Barn has a horse sale on the first Monday of every month.

My 10-mile drive to town takes me through as many miles of Amish-farm country. I passed by several Amish schools and noted that the children were all having fun with an outdoor recess. Keep in mind, the temps were in single digits and there happen to be a cold wind.

These Amish children were blessed with a naturally formed hockey rink. Our Iowa winter has been brutal this year, with lots of freezing rain followed by extremely cold temps. When life gives you lemons... make lemonade! When winter gives you icy fields... play ice hockey!
Amish children love to sled and ice skate. The temperature doesn't seem to keep them inside. The other morning, I passed by an Amish farm on my way to work at 7:00 am and noticed some Amish boys getting in a little sledding before they had to head to school.

I'll share a picture taken at the horse sale. These teenage Amish girls seemed to be enjoying a relaxing afternoon watching horses pass through the sale-ring. Amish children only go to school through 8th grade.

Shades of Blue

How about a few winter scenes from Amish country?


This horse is enjoying the power of solar heat on a chilly morning.


Note: people often panic about how cold horses must be. Keep in mind that they, like deer, buffalo, cattle, moose and other creatures, have built-in defenses for all weather conditions.
Fortunately, horses and cattle have people providing them with food, open water, and shelter. Deer, buffalo and other wild animals have to fend for themselves.

 Snow and cold make farm life difficult. Amish people don't let it keep them from doing what must be done.

 Many hands make light work.

 Dashing through the snow.

 Winter shades of blue and gray with a hint of fire!

 Horses know how to stay out of the wind and how to use solar power.

 Sometimes you have to shovel around a gate to get the thing open!

Coming in 2019

 Scroll down

to see 

the opened 


Gift!

Coming in 2019
         A new novel by Thomas Nye
            Samson and Amish Delilah

A cover "reveal" and "back of the book" info to follow!

Amish Thanksgiving

If you know anything about the Amish, you've learned that they have their own set of holidays.

You won't find Christmas trees or colored lights flashing on an Amish farm.

Many Amish families choose to celebrate "Old Christmas" on January 6th instead of modern America's December 25th.
It's unlikely that you'd see anyone Amish at a 4th-of-July parade or trick-or-treating at Halloween. Instead, Ascension Day and Good Friday are major Amish holidays, something the rest of us Americans almost overlook.

When Celebrate Lit Publishing asked if I'd be interested in writing an Amish Thanksgiving short story for a collection, I began to wonder what Amish do on Thanksgiving.

 I asked a number of Amish and formerly Amish friends how they celebrate Thanksgiving and found that, for the most part, they take time to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal with family. It turns out, this is one American holiday the Amish share with the rest of us. Minus- the after-the-meal football and setting up of a Christmas tree.
Amish families might not spend time watching Christmas movies or football during the "Holiday Season" but they love a good sale as much as anyone! You may notice a few Amish shoppers in an aisle near you this Friday.

Here are a few lines from Love's Thankful Heart  a book with three Amish Thanksgiving stories.

On sale now. .99 cents for an eBook copy.

Thomas Nye's story: Thanksgiving Frolic

Finally, Esther called everyone to the table for the late afternoon meal. The whole family chatted and laughed as they gathered around, squeezing together closely in an effort to fit every member in. When they were finally seated, the talking hushed until the room became filled with silence. Even the smallest children sensed that it was time for prayer.

Instead of saying let's pray, as he usually did, Joe cleared his voice and began to speak. "You know, this accident of mine has proven to be one of the best things that ever happened to me." A tear rolled down his cheek as he spoke. "I lost track of what is most important in life." He took a moment to compose himself, then continued. "At first, I was actually angry with God. I thought, why would God allow me to suffer an injury that will keep me from being a good steward of the possessions He has entrusted to me? I didn't understand that I was failing to be a good steward of something more important than possessions. I was failing to be a good steward of the relationships God has given me..."

 Everyone around the table sniffled, and Esther passed around napkins for them to wipe their eyes and blow their noses. The children watched in amazement at the unusual display of emotion. 

 I

Amazon Link

click here: Love's Thankful Heart

Amish Harness Shop

 There are at least three Amish harness shops within 15 miles of my home.
I've done business with all three and enjoy stopping in at each of them as often as possible.
This picture (on the left) I snapped a few weeks ago. The harness maker is leading his horse away from a buggy. That's my hand in the foreground.
Everyone I know calls this harness maker, Davey Dutch. Mennonites and Amish are big on nicknames, partly because so many people have the same name

 Our little dog, Wesley, keeps breaking those little nylon collars we buy at Walmart, so I used an old piece of horse harness as a collar.

My wife said that my old harness part looked nasty and I should stop in at my Amish friend's shop and have him make a new one.
I took her advice.
Davey Dutch spent 15-20 minutes cutting a piece of leather, punching holes and crimping the ends. I stood and watched, listening to a crackling fire in his wood-burning stove.

When he finished his work, Davey handed me the new collar and said, "That must be a small dog you have."
The little collar did seem tiny.
He headed to the cash register and said, "I'll call that scrap leather. You can give me $2.00.

Granddaughter Lyla and Wesley

Amish harness shops are amazing!

Who wouldn't rather have a custom Amish-made leather collar than an el-cheapo nylon one that costs 4times more?