Most Recent: You Can’t Keep an Old Lawman Down – posted 12/24/2025 see summary below.
A Cartwright’s Word is a Binding Oath – by Patina
Summary: An old friend requests the Cartwrights’ help when vengeance comes calling
Rating: T Word Count: 4748
Summary: Written for the 2016 Bonanza Brand Advent Calendar
Rating: K 420 words
A Glimpse Into the Future – by patina
Summary: After telling four year old Little Joe about the balls held during Mardi Gras, Marie dreams of a dance held in the future. How has life turned out for the Cartwrights? Did Adam, Hoss, and Joe turn out to be the men we know?
Rating: K+ Word Count=4115
Summary: A WHN for the episode No Less A Man. Roy resigns as sheriff when he believes the Virginia City Town Council thinks he can’t do his job. Now Adam is the only lawman and he has to prepare for the possible arrival of the Wagner Gang.
Rating: T Word Count=10,784
A Little Excitement Goes A Long Way – by Patina
Summary: There’s never a dull moment with Little Joe around. Written for the 2018 Ponderosa Paddlewheel Poker Tournament.
Rated: K+ 2,700 words
A Man Named Missouri – by patina
Summary: Ben has hired a new hand to help with the branding. Is there more to him than meets the eye?
Rating: K Word Count=2672
A Mouthful of Regret – by patina
Summary: It’s roundup time for the Cartwrights. Heated words are exchanged between Adam and Joe as they search for steers. A bear attack, though, changes everything.
Rating: T Word Count=6472
A New Year, A New Resolution – by patina
Summary: Joe makes a resolution to stay out of trouble. Hoss and Adam are determined to help him break it. How long can Joe last?
Rating: K Word Count=4509
A Place to Call Home – by patina
Summary: WHN for Return to Honor. Will Cartwright adjusts to life on the Ponderosa. Written for Round 3 of the Ponderosa Poker Tournament. My words were: round up, soap making, scissors, chopping wood, and branding.
Rating: K+ Word Count=5568
Summary: Danger lurks in a single wound.
Rated: T Word Count: 3925
A Spoonful of Medicine – by patina
Summary: Marie Cartwright is sick with a chest cold. Three year old Little Joe discovers her cough syrup.
Rating: K Word Count=4253
Summary: Two men plan are entrusted with a plan to kidnap one of Ben’s sons and hold him for ransom.
Rating: K Word Count=5950
Summary: A What Happened Instead story for The Lady From Baltimore. Deborah Banning’s scheme to marry her daughter to a Cartwright had come to fruition when Joe proposed to Melinda. But Melinda was in love with Adam. What if Melinda decided to have Adam, no matter the cost?
Word Count=10,632 Rating: T
A Voice in the Night – by Patina
Summary: On this of all nights, an unexpected voice offers comfort to an weary traveler.
Written for the 2017 Advent Calendar
Rating: G (1,460 words)
A Woman Cloaked in Scandal – by patina
Summary: WHIB for She Walks in Beauty. After Regan Miller’s kiss, Adam realizes he has a decision to make since Hoss plans to marry her. As he ponders his course of action, his thoughts turn to another scandalous woman–his step-mother, Marie.
Rating: K+ Word Count=2195
As Good as the Best Day He Ever Saw – by patina
Summary: A man’s self-image doesn’t always match his reflection in the mirror. Ben sets out to prove he’s not yet ready for porch-sitting. Word Count=3794 Rating: K
Back to the Beginning – by patina
Summary: An important letter arrives for Adam. The letter contains news that will change his life.
Rating: K Word Count=2472
Battle of Wills (The) – # 1 – Begins – by patina
Summary: Ben brings his new wife, Marie, home to the Ponderosa. Hoss is overjoyed to have a new mother but Adam is not happy.
Rating: K Word Count=4433
Battle of Wills (The) – # 2 – Education is More than 3R’s – by patina
Summary: During a family picnic at the lake, Adam gets in trouble adding poison ivy to Hoss’ bouquet of wildflowers for Marie. After an argument with his father, Adam decides to leave home. A neighbor and old friend, Abe Garvey, shows Marie that there’s more to education than reading, writing, and arithmetic while leading the search for Adam.
Rating: K Word Count=6007
Battle of Wills (The) – # 3 – The Shadow of Jean deMarigny – by patina
Summary: Men break into the house while Marie is home alone with Adam and Hoss. After observing his step-mother’s actions when faced with the robbers, Adam calls Marie a name he once heard Jean de Marigny use. This incident leads to an argument between Ben and Marie about Adam’s upbringing. And Adam finally realizes that Marie had been Jean’s wife.
Rating: K+ Word Count=5268
Battle of Wills (The) – # 4 – A Gift Horse – by patina
Summary: Ben announces at supper that he is going to buy a horse for Marie. Adam becomes unhappy because Ben had promised to buy him a horse before leaving for New Orleans. Will this situation cause another rift between Marie and Adam?
Rated K Word Count=3059
Battle of Wills (The) – # 5 – New Expectations – by patina
Summary: Marie and Adam race their new horses. Luckily, Paul Martin has arrived in Virginia City to practice medicine. Ben has invited Paul out to the Ponderosa for supper. After examining both Marie and Adam, Paul has to relate Marie’s and Adam’s conditions to Ben.
Rating: K WC=4470
Battle of Wills (The) – # 6 – Remembering Childhoods – by patina
Summary: It’s the morning after the events in New Expectations. Ben’s thoughts of the coming baby make him remember Adam’s childhood and Hoss’ early years.
Rating: K+ Word Count=3240
Battle of Wills (The) – # 7 – A Room Full of Memories – by patina
Summary: It’s time to clean out the spare room so it can be turned into a nursery for the coming baby. As Ben, Adam, and Hoss go through the room’s contents, they remember the past.
Rating: K+ Word Count=3622
Battle of Wills (The) – # 8 – A New Pattern – by patina
Summary: The Cartwrights go into town so Marie can order baby furniture and Adam can get a haircut. Hoss goes shopping with Marie and, while in the store, he overhears her conversation with two elderly ladies about food cravings and whether the baby will be a boy or a girl. Which of course leads to questions.
Rated K+ Word Count=4384
Battle of Wills (The) – # 9 – Naming the Newest Cartwright – by patina
Summary: The Cartwrights try to decide on a name for the coming baby.
Rating: K+ Word Count=2542
Battle of Wills (The) – #10 – Presents from the Heart – by patina
Summary: The Cartwrights celebrate Adam’s 12th birthday.
Rating: K Word Count=5313
Battle of Wills (The) – #11 – Love’s Labor – by patina
Summary: The birth of Joseph Cartwright.
Rating: T Word Count=6306
Battle of Wills (The) – #12 – Big Brother Lessons – by patina
Summary: Hoss wants to learn how to be a good older brother to his new sibling.
Rating: K Word Count=2598
Battle of Wills (the) – #13 – No Regrets – by patina
Summary: Marie writes a letter to her favorite aunt in New Orleans, describing her life on the Ponderosa.
Rating: K Word Count=2265
Battle of Wills (The) – #14 – Baby’s Breath – by patina
Summary: Hoss finds a kitten in the barn and decides to bring it in the house. Marie is not happy because of the old wives’ tales of cats stealing the breath from babies. Will this kitten change her mind?
Rating: K Word Count=3937
Battle of Wills (The) – #15 – Ennui – by patina
Summary: Hoss fears that he’s sick and dying while Pa and Adam are out of town.
Rating: K Word Count=3791
Summary: Adam, away at college, is celebrating his first birthday away from his father and brothers.
Rating: K Word Count=2002
Summary: WHN for Woman of Fire. Hoss learns to play the guitar.
Rating: K Word Count=1896
Christmas Traditions – by patina
Summary: Sometimes traditions bring back memories and sometimes memories are created with new traditions.
Rating: K+ Word Count=7920
Curse of the Blue Dress (The) – by patina
Summary: One little dress, so much trouble.
Rated: K+ Word Count: 4802
Summary: After seeking refuge during an Indian attack, Joe finds himself in a high-stakes poker game where everything, including his life, is on the line.
Rating: K+ Word Count=3113
Summary: WHI for Death at Dawn
Rating: T WC 6100
Summary: People have pegged Hoss as different his whole life. Is he really that different from his father and brothers?
1824 words Rating K
Dimming World #1 – Hope in a Dimming World – Patina
Summary: Roy Coffee, faced with losing a job he loves, must learn to prepare for the future with Joe Cartwright’s help. References to the episodes “The Stillness Within” and “No Less a Man.”
Rating: G 2,970 words
Written for the 2024 Bonanza Brand Advent Calendar
Dimming World #2 – Life in a Dimming World – PSW
Summary: A continuation of Patina’s Hope in a Dimming World story written by PSW.
Rating: 1,375 words
Summary: Two year old Hoss comes across some hatching ducklings. Will Pa let him keep his new friends?
Rating: K Word Count=2177
Echo of a Heartbeat (The) – by patina
Summary: While watching her sons playing down by the lake, Marie wonders about the child she lost.
Rating: K Word Count=1523
Summary: WHI for The First Born and WHN for The Last Viking. Can Hoss protect his younger brother when Clay Stafford reveals he’s Marie’s first born?
Rating: K Word Count: 8114
Summary: WHI for The Savage. Was Ruth Halverson real? Did Adam propose marriage to her? This story attempts to explain some of the events in this episode.
Rating: T Word Count=4960
Summary: What’s the Fourth of July without fireworks?
Rating: PG / Word Count: 3,609
Summary: Joe rescues a mysterious girl from the river. Dark Star for Dodo Challenge.
Rating: K+ Word Count=4993
Summary: Gold and greed are a volatile mix.
Rating: T Word Count=4843
Summary: WHIB for The First Born. On a moonlit night, Clay reflects on the lies and deceptions that ruined his mother’s life in New Orleans but led her to happiness in Nevada.
Rating: K Word Count=1799
Summary: Adam, Hoss, and Joe are getting the line shacks ready for winter. Everything goes horribly wrong after Adam goes to the pond to take a break. It’s up to Hoss and Joe to get their brother back.
Rating: T Word Count=9190
Good Will Toward Men – by Patina
Summary: Tis the season for generosity.
Rating: G Words 1,000
Written for the 2022 Bonanza Brand Advent Calendar
Summary: Ben pays for the night before, much of which he can’t remember.
Written for day 24 of the 2021 Advent Calendar.
Rating: G Word Count: 1400
Summary: The brothers toil over a gift the Widow Hawkins intends to give the local orphanage.
Rating: G 2,365 words
Note: This story was written for the Bonanza Brand 2020 Advent Calendar, originated in the Forums.
Hens and Chickens or Wrench aka Three French Hens – by Patina
Summary: It’s not exactly the twelve days of Christmas, but this present was the best of all.
Written for the 2018 Advent Calendar
Rating: G 1,180 words
History Essay (The) – by patina
Summary: Little Joe has to write an essay on George Washington. His first draft is so bad that Adam makes him rewrite it. Ben can’t believe the second version got turned in. Read the final version and see if Little Joe finally got the facts right.
Rating: K Word Count=3554
Summary: The best laid plan often doesn’t play out as we’d imagined. WHN for Any Friend of Walter’s.
Rating: K Word Count=1893
Summary: Where we love is home. A short WHIB for Forever.
Rating: K Word Count=1701
Summary: Far from home, a special person helps ease the ache.
Rating: G 1,840 words
Note: This story was written for the Bonanza Brand 2020 Advent Calendar, posted in the Forums.
How Adam Saved Christmas – by Patina
Summary: Adam tells no ordinary bedtime story on Christmas Eve
Rating: G Words: 2,380
Written for the Bonanza Brand 2023 Advent Calendar
I Won’t Be Spoiled No More – by patina
Summary: Adam is injured when he and Joe are working on fence repairs. It’s up to Joe to get the doctor while Hoss takes Adam home.
Rating: K+ Word Count=8753
Summary: Virginia City’s Annual Independence Day Festival, as reported by Sam Clemens. Written for Round 1 of the Ponderosa Paddlewheel Poker Tournament. My words were: Roy Coffee, Dr. Martin, politician, engagement, and ledger.
Rating: K Word Count=2049
Middle Child Syndrome – by patina
Summary: At six years old, Hoss finds himself to be the middle child instead of the baby. Not quite old enough to be responsible but not quite young enough to be thought of as a baby anymore.
Rating: K Word Count=2666
Summary: WHN for Desert Justice. Adam and Hoss accompanied Dave Walker to Los Angeles to make sure their friend arrived alive for trial. When Walker escapes from jail, Marshal Emmett Dowd enlists the Cartwrights’ help to track Walker down.
Word Count: 5437 Rating: T
Summary: A short What Happened in Between for The Dowry. Joe, a beautiful woman, and moonlight should have been the perfect recipe for romance.
Rating: K Word Count=1696
Negotiation Strategies – by patina
Summary: Originally published in the 2009 Convention Anthology. Sometimes a game of chess requires more than concentration on the game itself.
Rating: K+ Word Count=2370
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished – by patina
Summary: The Widow Jenkins got more than she bargained for when Ben sent his sons out to help with a few chores. Written in response to a writing challenge to use “They all took several steps forward, stunned by what they done” as the first sentence and “His lips moved as if he was chewing the words he was holding back” as the last sentence.
Rating: K Word Count=2175
Summary: WHIB for The Crucible. When Adam realizes he’s in the act of killing Peter Kane, he’s horrified that he’s finally lost control and proved his tormentor right. As he makes his escape, he’s reminded that two men left him in the desert to die, too. Just who is the better man?
Rating: T Word Count=3617
Summary: A WHN for The Hayburner. Hoss tells what Adam did to him after the race.
Rating: K Word Count=1461
Not Til We Find Him – by Patina
Summary:. A missing son, a father’s search. A WHIB and WHI for The Crucible.
Rating: T Word Count: 5,353
Passing Time and Popping Corn – by patina
Summary: After a long day of fence repairs, Adam, Hoss, and Joe decide to camp by the lake. What could be better on a chilly night than some hot popcorn?
Rating: K Word Count=1792
Summary: Written for an SJS/JPM lover’s birthday. Going to town to get the buggy fixed and to get the mail was easy. Getting home was far more difficult.
Rating: K+ Word Count=4189
Ponderosa Pachyderm – by patina
Summary: A What Happened Next for Old Sheba.
Rating: K Word Count=4287
Practice Makes Perfect – by patina
Summary: Marie is entering the final weeks of her pregnancy with the newest Cartwright. Will the baby’s birth go according to plan?
Rating: K Word Count=3699
Summary: Some men stand by their principles, even when there may be a high price to pay for it. A WHIB for Death at Dawn.
Rating: T Word Count-1243
Quest for the Mine of Lost Souls; or, The Treasure of the Unitas Mountains – by patina
Summary: Gold, a curse, and the legend of a lost mine spark a quest for riches. Camp in the Pines Dime Novel challenge.
Rating: T Word Count=9731
Recipe for Disaster – by patina
Summary: Joe finds a mysterious apple pie recipe with directions that must be followed.
Rating: K+ Word Count=6396
Reflections on a Gentle Soul – by patina
Summary: Three short WHIB scenes for Vengeance written for the November fanfic challenge.
Rating: K WC 2500
Summary: A What-Happened-In-Between for the Julia Bulette Story. Some wounds never heal.
Rating: T 935 words
Summary: Respect–young men want it but have to earn it.
Rating: K+ Word Count: 1,518
Saints Preserve Us – by patina
Summary: WHN for The Auld Sod. How did Nellie Lynch get Hoss out of the well?
Rating: K Word Count=1851
Summary: An intruder takes advantage of an innocent little boy in order to rob the Ponderosa.
Rated K+ WC=2328
Summary: WHN for The Lawmaker. Asa Moran was riding high as acting sheriff after killing those two would-be robbers at the Express Office. When Adam investigates, Moran is determined to bring the high-and-mighty Cartwrights down. This story includes several scenes that were “missing” from the episode.
Rating: T Word Count=6537
Snake in the Grass – by Patina
Summary: Paradise is almost gained for one Cartwright. Written for a Halloween challenge. My words were: Paul Martin, chains, snake.
Rating: T. Word count 761
Swedish Grizzly (The) – by patina
Summary: An in-between story for Old Sheba. Hoss and Joe have signed a contract to perform with Angus Tweedy’s circus for 2 weeks. This story is about their first day and night with the circus.
Rating: K Word Count=2526
Sweet Smell of Success (The) – by patina
Summary: Ben has an important guest coming for supper. Can Ben babysit Little Joe and prepare for his guest?
Rating: K Word Count=3398
Terror Stalks the Night – by patina
Summary: As day ends the fight to survive the night begins.
Rating: T Word Count=2738
Summary: Marie will soon be celebrating her first Christmas as a Cartwright. But first, the family has to make it through the annual Virginia City Christmas pageant. Will the Cartwrights or the pageant ever be the same?
Rating: K Word Count=5596
Tipping Point (The) – by Patina
Summary: It’s looking more and more like lumps of coal are likely gifts this year.
Written for the 2019 Advent Calendar
Rating: G Word Count: 3,070
To Wake a Sleeping Beauty – by patina
Summary: When 16-year old Adam falls asleep at the supper table after a hard week’s work, Little Joe is convinced his brother has been put under a spell by a witch. He convinces Hoss to help him try to wake Adam up using every device they can think of from the fairy tales they know.
Rating: K Word Count=5902
Troll the Ancient Yuletide Carol – by patina
Summary: Sam Clemens recounts Christmas Eve activities in Virginia City for the readers of the Territorial Enterprise.
Rating: K Word Count=2546
Summary: When help is desperately needed, Cochise provides it.
Rating: T Word Count: 4,208
Under Mesmer’s Spell – by patina
Summary: A traveling magic show visits Virginia City and hypnosis is part of the show. The Cartwrights enjoy the show and become involved in a murder. Does hypnosis hold the key?
Rating: K+ Word Count=7095
Unto Us a Child is Given – by Patina
Summary: It’s love that makes a family.
Written for day 14 of the 2021 Advent Calendar.
Rating: G Word Count: 2217
Upholding the Family Pride – by patina
Summary: WHN for The Ride
Rating: T Word Count=3617
When the Dawn Seemed Forever Lost – by patina
Summary: In the wake of Marie’s death, the Cartwrights cope with the loss of the woman who was like spring year-round. Adam is 15, Hoss is 11, and Little Joe is 4.
Rating: K+ Word Count=26,509
Why I’m Thankful for my Brother – by patina
Summary: Joe is out of school for Thanksgiving vacation. Of course Joe can’t stay out of trouble and causes headaches for Adam. As punishment, Ben makes both sons write essays concerning why they are thankful for the other. Read their essays and see if they truly are thankful for each other.
Rating: K Word Count=3541
Wisdom Comes with Age – by patina
Summary: All Adam wanted was a quiet evening at home to mark his birthday. Was that too much to ask?
Rating: K+ Word Count=5209
Summary: The Cartwrights attend a wedding.
Rating: K Word Count=1301
You Can’t Keep an Old Lawman Down – by Patina
Summary: Is it too much to ask for the law to experience a Silent Night at Christmastime?
Rating: G (2,795 words)