The Flint Hills are America's last tallgrass prairie, a green enclave set in the midst of the farmland of eastern Kansas. Known as the home of the Big Beef Steer, these rugged hills have produced exemplary cowboys—both the ranch and rodeo varieties—whose hard work has given them plenty of material for equally good stories. Jim Hoy grew up in the Flint Hills on a ranch at Cassoday that's been in his family for five generations and boasts roots "as deep as those of bluestem grass in black-soil bottomland." He now draws on this area's rich cowboy lore—as well as on his own experience working cattle, breaking horses, and rodeoing—to write a folk history of the Flint Hills spanning a century and a half. Hoy blends history, folklore, and memoir to conjure for readers the tallgrass prairies of his boyhood in a book that richly recalls the ranching life and the people who lived it. Here are cowboys and outlaws, rodeo stars and runaway horses, ordinary folks and the stuff of legends. Hoy introduces readers to the likes of Lou Hart, a top hand with the Crocker Brothers from 1906 to1910, whose poetic paean to ranch life circulated orally for fifty years before seeing print. And he tracks down the legend of Bud Gillette, considered by his neighbors the world's fastest man until he fell in with an unscrupulous promoter. He even unravels the mystery of a lone grave supposed to be that of the first cowboy in the Flint Hills. Hoy also explains why a good horse makes up for having to work with exasperating cattle—and why not all horses are created (or trained) equal. And he traces Flint Hills cattle culture from the days of the trail drive through the railroad years to today's trucking era, with most railroad stockyards torn down and only one section house left standing. Writes Hoy, "I feed on the stories of the Hills and the characters who tell them as the cattle feed on the grasses." His love of the land shines throughout a book so real that readers will swear they hear the click of horseshoes on flint rock with every turn of the page.

A collection of essays and tales about cowboy life, emphasizing the role of Kansas in the development of the cowboy legend, and drawing from personal experience, folklore, and history to relate the details of a cowhand's daily work.

Will an Alpha cowboy find true love in the kitchen in this sexy, small town western? A captivating contemporary western romance series that will appeal to fans of Vivian Arend’s Six Pack Ranch, Cora Seton’s Chance Creek, and Maisey Yates’ Copper Ridge. Out of the Frying Pan Brodie Sinclaire, the youngest and wildest of the Sinclaire brothers, has just been given an ultimatum. Settle down and run the hunting lodge his brothers have built, or find a new job- on another ranch. His first order of business is to find a cook who will last more than a week. He gets more than he bargained for when the cook he hires turns out to be his sister-in-law’s best friend, fiery redhead and Cordon Bleu trained chef, Jamey O’Neill. And Into the fire In the span of a week Jamey O’Neill has lost everything. Her boyfriend, her restaurant, and her career- thanks to a devastating health diagnosis. Broke, and desperate to make a fresh start, she agrees to help the Sinclaires get their hunting lodge off the ground. The last thing she needs is a deliciously handsome cowboy getting under her skin and bossing her in the kitchen. Can They Handle the Heat? They can’t deny their chemistry is explosive, and Brodie sets out to prove himself to the feisty chef. But can they handle the heat when Brodie is forced to face his past and Jamey wrestles with her future?

Between the Nebraska border and Osage County, Oklahoma, are the Flint Hills of Kansas, and growing on those hills the last of the tallgrass prairie that once ranged from Canada to Texas, and on those fields of bluestem, cattle graze—and tending the cattle, someone like Jim Hoy, whose people have ranched there from, well, not quite time immemorial, but pretty darn close. Hoy has always called the Flint Hills home and over the decades he has made a study of them—their tough terrain and quiet beauty, their distinctive folk life and cattle culture—and marshaled his observations to bring the Flint Hills home to readers in a singular way. These essays are Hoy’s Flint Hills, combining family lore and anecdotes of ranching life with reflections on the region’s rich history and nature. Whether it’s weaning calves or shoeing horses, checking in on a local legend or a night of high school basketball in nearby Cassoday, encountering a coyote or a badger or surveying what’s happened to the tallgrass prairie over time, summoning cowboy traditions or parsing the place’s plant life or rock formations, he has something to say—and you can bet it’s well worth hearing. With his keen eye, understated wit, and store of knowledge, Hoy makes his Flint Hills come alive, and in the telling, live on.

The Kansas Flint Hills stretch across a dozen counties in the eastern half of the Sunflower State. The region boasts rolling hills covered in native grasses, including the tallgrass varieties unique to the area. Dubbed the "Great American Desert" by pioneers facing the prairie's vastness, the rich grassland became home to settlers pursuing ranching and farming enterprises. Images of America: Flint Hills presents over 200 historic images from a half-dozen counties in the region. Included are vintage photographs from the Native Stone Scenic Byway and the Flint Hills Scenic Byway that transverse the district. Also included are views of Council Grove, the last place that travelers could purchase supplies before leaving on the Santa Fe Trail. The Davis Ranch, which encompassed all of what is now the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, is seen in historic images never published before. The volume concludes with photographs of Flint Hills cowboys at work and at play.

A smoking hot second chance enemies to lovers homecoming romp with dirty limericks, meddling families, and a surprise ending that will have you laughing and crying all the way to the HEA. Enemies since law school, Jarrod O’Neill and Lexi Grace have fought in and out of the courtroom for years. That’s not about to stop when they run into each other at her sister’s wedding – in Prairie. Until a war of wits and whisky leads to high stake shenanigans in the bedroom. But arrogant alphas never change their spots – especially when they’ve never even ridden a horse. A lesson Lexi learns again when she discovers corporate interests threatening her hometown - and Jarrod representing them. While their battle escalates in public, Lexi and Jarrod can’t seem to keep their hands off each other in private. But when someone threatens Lexi, will Jarrod be able to mend fences in time to protect the enemy he’s fallen for? Enemies to Lovers, Workplace, Politics