I grew up in an area that until the 1980's depended on logging. So it was natural that one of my Halsey brothers would have an eye at the huge pines on their mountain.
Researching for
Logger in Petticoats was fun and nostalgic. While the only connection my family had to logging were several years my dad worked in a lumber mill, our property ran up the side of a mountain and I loved riding my horse through the pine, fir, and tamarack on the mountain. The trees were tall, straight and some so wide at the base you needed several people to lock hands and reach around them. They were giant sentinels in the forest. The birds tweeting from the high branches, the wind rustling the needles and creaking the trees sounded loud in the muffled quiet of the forest floor. The scents of the forest; decaying leaves and needles, the tang of the pine and softer nuances of fir filled your nostrils and triggered a feeling of being one with the earth. Each type of tree had it's own distinguishing scent, bark, and needles.
I used my awe of the timber and infused it in the hero Hank Halsey. Then since the whole Halsey brother series had strong willed heroines, I came up with Kelda Nielsen. The only daughter of a Norwegian logger with three sons. They are all large, Kelda included. She's grown up learning the logging trade and excels. She loves being outside but as her mother has aged, Kelda must help out in the kitchen.
While Hank has sisters-in-law who have/had male occupations, he believes no woman should be in the woods and so the battle begins between the two as their attraction for one another also grows.
Here is the blurb for Logger in Petticoats the
fifth book of the Halsey brother series.
Hank Halsey believes
he’s found the perfect logging crew—complete with cooks—until he discovers
Kelda Neilson would rather swing an axe than flip eggs. As he sets out to prove
women belong in the kitchen, he’s the one in danger of getting burned.
Strong and stubborn,
Kelda Nielsen grew up falling trees and resents any man who believes she’s not
capable, until Hank. He treats her like a lady and has her questioning what
that means.
As Kelda and Hank’s
attraction builds, she hires a cook so she can sneak out and work in the woods.
But will her deceit ruin her chance at love or will hardheaded Hank realize
it’s more than his love that puts a sparkle in Kelda’s eye?
Excerpt:
Kelda stood by
the door, a man’s black wool coat buttoned up to her neck and a wool scarf
wrapped around her head. Her flushed cheeks shone in the lantern light. Her
gaze met his solid and unflappable.
To appease Karl,
Hank said as he pulled on his coat, “If Kelda isn’t back in here in fifteen
minutes you can come looking for us.”
The door hadn’t
fully closed when Dag’s voice cleared the threshold, “I don’t know what you’re
worrying about. No man is going to think of Kelda in the way you’re talking.”
Kelda’s
shoulders drooped proving she’d heard her brother’s comment. She walked around
the corner of the cookhouse to a fallen log at the backside of the building.
Hank wanted to catch up to her and wrap an arm around her shoulders. She was a
fine woman. Any man would be dang lucky
to have her for a wife. He stood in front of her as she sat on the log, her
face pointed toward the men’s logging boots on her feet.
Hank crouched in
front of Kelda, tipping her face up to read her emotions. “Your brother sees
you only as his sister. You’re a woman any man would be lucky to marry.”
Tears glistened
in her eyes. “I’m the size and body of a man. Men want a small delicate
woman.” She wiped at the tears and her
hands clutched his. “Don’t make Far keep me out of the woods. It’s all I have to make me happy.”
Pleading in her
eyes and voice sucker punched Hank. “Why would you want to work alongside men
in the woods? Women belong in the home.”
“I don’t care to
work inside. I love the outdoors and the labor of logging. Don’t keep me out of
the woods. It’s the one thing I can do well.”
The strong grip
of her fingers on his proved her strength. He had no doubt she was a skilled
woodsman…woman. He pried her fingers
from his hands and held them between his palms. “I’m sorry, but I can’t allow
you in the woods. It isn’t proper for a woman to work like that. And what if
you prove too weak to handle a job and someone else gets hurt?”
“Ooooo!” Her
hands ripped from his grasp and rammed him in the chest. He started tipping
backwards and grabbed the first thing in reach—Kelda’s arms.
He fell back
into the snow dragging Kelda on top of him.
The surprise in
her eyes quickly turned to interest as she gazed down into his face. Her body
sprawled across Hank, pressing him into the snow. Even with the heavy clothing, her curves were
evident as her relaxed body molded over his.
Hank pushed the
scarf back from her face and stared into amazing eyes that glistened from the
moonlight bouncing off the snow. Her gaze searched his.
The rise and
fall of her chest quickened.
She licked her
lips…
He held her head
in his hands. Inch by inch, Hank drew her lips closer, wondering if the heat
and passion he’d witnessed in her eyes would be in her kiss.
“Kelda!”
The male voice
broke through the insanity of his actions. Hank rolled, rose to his feet, and
pulled Kelda up with him.
This book will be available at all ebook outlets after the 15th.
I belong to the Historical Society and once a year spend an afternoon in one of the two museums in our small community. My favorite of the two buildings is a small log cabin filled with artifacts used by lumberjacks and farmers. The rich forests here provide the many sawmills in the area with timber. What I've found remarkable are tools they used all those years ago for the logging business and farming. 
The water here is pure and the ground rich for growing fields of vegetables and food for livestock. 
Most major cities in central and northern Wisconsin were built around or over rivers. These waterways provided an opportune way to transport pine logs from rich forests to the mills. Forests adjacent to the Wisconsin River were the first to fall from a lumberjack's ax. 
Multiple rivers provided a convenient mode of transport for the pine logs to travel from the forests to the mills. These sawmills used the swift-moving rivers to power waterwheels and the huge saws they used to first to cut the logs into boards and then the logs into boards. 
White settlers moved into the Northwoods and began to develop the lumber industry. Even though their settlements were established far distances from obtaining supplies and enjoying the convenience of markets, a limited form of transportation, and unimproved roads and waterways, the lumber industry grew steadily and formed the backbone of the state's economy by the middle of the nineteenth century.
Stevens Point and Wausau are two towns that can thank the mills for expanding. They provided general stores, banks, grocers, and other businesses to support the growing population of loggers and mill workers.
