Welcome to the Circle C Ranch

This is where Andi Carter, the main character of the Circle C Adventures series for kids, shares about her family, her horse, and her adventures in the Old West of the 1880s.

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Book 4-Andrea Carter and the San Francisco Smugglers is now available. Watch the book trailer! Click the cover to order.


Aug. 4, 2008
What's Inside a Rattlesnake's Rattle?

Posted in Ask Andi
I guess that post about my rattlesnake's rattle got Bethany (Horse Girl) curious. She asked me "What's inside a rattlesnake's rattle?" You know what? I always wondered that, too. So I did some snooping around, looking for answers, and here's what I came up with. Hope it helps.

A rattlesnake baby is born with a little "pre-button" at the end of its tail. Then, when the snake sheds its skin (every few months), the old, dried-up skin gets caught on that button at the tip of its tail, and a segment stays behind. Each time the snake sheds, a new segment is added and the rattle gets longer and louder. The segments whacking against each other create the sound. You'd think you could tell how old the snake is by how many segments of old, dried-up skin are in the rattle, but sometimes they get brittle and drop off.
(Not that you'd WANT to know how old a rattlesnake is, anyway!)


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Apr. 5, 2008
Codes to embed a book trailer in your sidebar

Posted in Ask Andi
I've been asked how to get the codes to embed one or more book trailers in the sidebars of your blog. I am happy to post the necessary codes below. They are centered and reduced in size to fit nicely in any sidebar. If you do post a trailer, tell me about it and I'll come over and take a look!

(Book 1) Andrea Carter and the Long Ride Home:





(Book 2) Andrea Carter and the Dangerous Decision:




(Book 3) Andrea Carter and the Family Secret:





(Book 4) Andrea Carter and the San Francisco Smugglers:





Have fun!


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Apr. 1, 2008
Taffy's name

Posted in Ask Andi

This one's for Emilie. She asked how I came up with Taffy's name. Here's the answer.

I love taffy candy. Sometimes on rainy, cold winter evenings, our whole family makes taffy. It is such sticky fun, and the yelps from burnt fingers when pulling candy that isn't quite cooled rings through the kitchen. Taffy is made mostly from sugar, corn syrup, and butter. Mother and Luisa cook it on top of the cook stove until it boils awhile. They then pour the hot, runny candy into a flat pan, where it cools for a little bit. Then the fun begins. We all butter our hands and start pulling the taffy into long ropes. Yikes! It's hot! After we pull and pull and pull it (I usually get tired and let my brothers finish up), it's cut into pieces and wrapped in little papers to eat another time. Which is fine by me. By the time we're done, my belly is so full of warm taffy that I usually feel sick.
(This is real taffy candy)

I remember making taffy from the time I was little--before I had my own horse. Whenever we made taffy, I would tell my mother that I wanted a horse the color of this lovely, creamy candy. If I got a horse I would name her Taffy. On my sixth birthday I got my wish! A horse of my own. She was a newborn foal and the color of taffy candy, so I named her Taffy. Now she's more golden than creamy, but her mane and tail are still like taffy.
She looks just like the color of taffy candy, doesn't she?



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Mar. 20, 2008
What's in a name?

Posted in Ask Andi
Sarah asked me a question about how I got my nickname "Andi." As you probably know, my real name is Andrea Rose, but nobody but my mother (and other adults) ever, ever call me that. So...how did Andrea turn into Andi? Well...that's my sister Melinda's fault. She was five years old when I was born, and she really liked having a baby sister she could dress up and treat like a doll.

However, it didn't take long for Melinda to figure out that I didn't like playing princesses or tea party. I would rather follow my brothers around and play with the horses, and climb trees or play in the barn. One day when I was about four years old, Melinda finally got so riled up that she complained to Mother. She said, "Mother, I don't know why you ever named my sister 'Andrea.' She's acts so much like a boy that you should have named her 'Andy.'

I liked that name and it stuck. Chad, especially, thought it was perfect for me.  Even Melinda started calling me 'Andi', and before I knew it, she was joining me in climbing trees, racing our horses, and having lots of fun. (OK, I also occasionally agreed to play tea party and princess with Melinda, too). After all, that's what sisters do!

I hope that answered your question, Sarah!
Here I am with a little boy named Michael who pulled my hair at school. You can see that I'm not too happy with him.

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Mar. 3, 2008
Are Cory and I still friends?

Posted in Ask Andi
Sarah wants to know if Cory and I are still friends after the third book (Family Secret), since he was pretty mad at me for not telling him what was going on about my sister showing up at the ranch. I won't say anymore about that, in case it might spoil the story for somebody who hasn't read that adventure yet.

But the answer is...yes. Cory and I will always be friends--even though we get into arguments about the dumbest things. But really? Who else will challenge me to a horse race or go fishing with me? Most of my town friends live too far away to ride out to the ranch just to go fishing or exploring.

Cory and I have known each other since we were little. He's like having a brother just my own age, and I like that. You know what he told me the other day? He said he's got an old, outdated map the land office was throwing away. It's marked with old gold mines and diggings. He's fixing to go off looking for gold one of these days, and he asked if I want to go along. He said we'd split everything we find right down the middle--50/50. What do you think of that? Hey, that might make another good adventure to write about sometime...
Here's Cory showing me his map of the old gold mines.


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Feb. 28, 2008
My Best Adventure...?

Posted in Ask Andi
My good friend Bethany in Ireland asked me what my "best" adventure was so far. I thought I'd answer this one here in the "Sneak Peeks" for Book 4.

It's really hard to say which adventure is my best one. Sometimes it doesn't look like things are going to turn out for me, but in the end God comes through and I figure out how to make what starts out as a bad thing turn out for the best.

So far, I think the adventure that is the best one (in that other people's lives are really changed for the better!) is my new adventure, which is told in the new book, Andrea Carter and the San Francisco Smugglers (well, they might change the title), coming out next fall. The thought of staying in San Francisco for any length of time makes me all squirmy inside, but I do as my mother asked and go to the City anyway.

I meet 2 new friends--one is a little Chinese slave girl! Little did I know what kind of trouble and danger we encounter because of Lin Mei. I won't share anymore right now. But here is a picture of Lin Mei. Isn't she adorable? I had no idea there were still slaves in the United States in 1881!
Lin Mei looks a little sad, doesn't she? Well, you'd be sad too if you had to endure what she has to! I'll share more about my adventure in later posts. I hope this answers your question, Bethany.

If anybody has questions for me, just e-mail me or leave a comment with your question, and I'll try to answer them in a future post.

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Book 1- "Long Ride Home"



Book 2- "Dangerous Decision"



Book 3- "Family Secret"



Book 4- "San Francisco Smugglers"



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