Summary:  A plea for help turns into an urgent ride home, and a situation no one foresaw.

Rating:  K (1,615 words)

Summary: When fifteen-year-old Joe tries to impress a new friend on the Ponderosa, it leads to dangerous repercussions for both Joe and Adam.

Rating: T (22, 275 words)

Summary: A companion story for Tears of Growing Up.  Two years have passed since Ben and Joe stood outside the corrals watching Adam and their wranglers tame wild horses. Now, it’s finally Joe’s turn.

Rating:  K+  (2,305 words)

Tears of Growing Up Series, links to stories within the series are included.

Summary: Ben and Hoss have a heart to heart about lost loves.

Rating: K (tissue warning)   Word Count: 1,499

Summary: Ezra Grady, is dead; but that doesn’t mean the Cartwrights’ troubles are over. Ezra Grady’s silent partner-in-crime has yet another scheme in mind.  (Warning:  Referenced mistreatment of a child.)

Rating:   T  (22,190 words)

In Absentia Series, links to stories within the series are included.

Summary: Joe should have remembered his older brother’s advice, when he learns a lesson on how easy it is for women to be his downfall. 

Rating:  K  (950 words)

Summary:  A young Adam has to come to terms with a second stepmother.  

Rating: teen  and up   Warning: contains corporal punishment  as part of family discipline   Word count: 45,173

Summary: A surprise assault on the Ponderosa tests twelve-year-old Little Joe’s mettle, and proves he truly is his father’s son.

Word count: 4,470. Rating: T

Summary:  Headlines ripped from the daily newspaper in this modern era tale of the Cartwrights.

Rating:  K+  (775 word)

A Modern Cartwright Story Series, links to stories within the series are included.

Summary: A prequel that is an alternate reality in which Adam was taken by Indians in the attack that cost Inger her life and eventually is reunited with his family, but the reunion is rocky.

Rating = T   WC = 54,773

Summary: This first story of a series called It’s Just a Year didn’t come through from the old library. This episode tells of how Adam received and education that allowed him to enter a prestigious Eastern university while living in the wilds of the west where there wasn’t a school or people with a formal college education. Adam has studied hard with a Harvard professor he found on the Ponderosa and is ready to leave for Boston when Ben asks him to remain home another year. Marie’s death has left him reeling and in need of his son’s help while he finds men to work the growing ranch.

Rating: K   Word Count: 10,321

It’s Only a Year Series, links to stories within the series are included.

Summary:  A series of stories about Adam after college from ages twenty-three to twenty-right and then from thirty-five to forty with troubles within the family as well as against outsiders who want something from the Cartwrights.  The chapters follow one another but each one could stand on its own as a complete story.  

WC = 218,113  Rating = T

Summary: Marie and Ben’s attendance at a funeral in town leaves Adam at the Ponderosa to watch six-year-old Hoss, and seven-month-old Little Joe. The day of babysitting gets started with only minor difficulties, but takes a frightening turn as a late-season thunder storm hits the area, trapping the parents in town overnight, and making the boys rely on all that they’ve learned to get by alone.

Rating: K   Word Count: 12,862

Summary: An intruder takes advantage of an innocent little boy in order to rob the Ponderosa.

Rated K+

WC=2328

Summary:  The death of Marie and what led to it trigger years of difficulties for Adam Cartwright and his family building the Ponderosa but with trouble holding the family together. The truth can let them move forward but it takes a long time before Ben admits it.

WC = 61660  rating = T

Truth Series, links to stories within the series are included.