Tumbleweeds Burning a Novel

Heinrich and Anna Marie Oster are invited by the Czar to move to Russia.
Their excitement runs high when a son of their family is selected to serve in the
Czar's elite body guard, the Imperial Hussars, and life is good.

Life next to the Royals is full of thrills and color, but before long the
corruption and greed in high places are exposed, and soon bitter persecution of
the family makes their days difficult. Their children flee to America and accept
the government's offer of free homestead acres on the great prairies of the
heartland.

The free land, however, extracts a heavy price. As they wrestle their sod
house out of the stubborn buffalo grasses, they discover that their new "palace on
the prairies" is only three miles from the Native sons of the warriors who scalped
George Armstrong Custer. It leaves their days uneasy, their nights uncertain.

At every turn, Nature confronts them with immense battles, from killing
blizzards and sweeping fires, to plagues of grasshoppers. From years of deathdealing
drought where nothing grows but tumbleweeds and biting flies, to
international conflicts that drastically change their lives. Through it all they come
together in faith and turn their little spot of earth into the breadbasket of the
world.