This book is dedicated to my grandparents and my brother and sister.

Preview audio:

storyj.mp/ae2i67mn8vth

Desmond Frankly is in a wagon going to Wyoming from Jacksonville, Florida. He is traveling with his mom and uncle and his sister, after his dad died. It's winter, cold, he has a heavy white blanket over the wagon and they have blankets where they sleep, also.

"When are we going to be there?" asked Desmond to his mother. His uncle is driving and replies, "we're half way there." "At least it's only 3 days" says Desmond. Desmond is thinking it will be warm in Wyoming, it will not be so bad.

After 2 months in Wyoming, Desmond got two dogs. One was a German Shepherd and Desmond named it Sparkey. The other was also a German Shepherd, his sister named it Corky. Desmond trained the dogs. They played fech. It took the dogs one week to learn how to play fetch.

Desmond wakes up at 7:15am on school days and 8:30am in the summer. One summer day he wakes up to help. His uncle helps him start farming and he does the rest. He uses a shredder that spun in a circle and cut the corn and it fell in a bag. The shredder was invented when Desmond was 10 years old. It is a lot of work but he feels good to help because his uncle had leg surgery.

He also got paid $20 for 5 hours. He takes a lunch, snack and dinner break. Sometimes he gets a dessert break, but he usually is done before that. He only does this in the summer because that's when harvest season is.

On school days he starts at 8am and his sister starts at 8:30am. First he does a warm up sheet on addition, subtraction, and multiplication. He has also learned division. Next, he reads books in the library in his house, so he does not have to check them out.