Cindy Ross has written two books that reflect her love of the outdoors.

One describes how she and her husband, Todd Gladfelter, built a log cabin using trees they felled.

The other tells the stories of troubled veterans who made remarkable recoveries by hiking.

The books are:

“The Log Cabin Years: How One Couple Built A Home From Scratch And Created A Life” (288 pp. $24.99, print, $16.99 digital, Skyhorse Publishing, 2021)

“Walking Toward Peace: Veterans Healing on America’s Trails” (224 pp, $19.95 print, $9.99 digital, Mountaineers Books, 2021)

Ross and her husband live in a log cabin they built 32 years ago at the base of Hawk Mountain in south Schuylkill County.

“I wrote the book 30 years ago. I didn’t sell it. I had many other book opportunities at the time,” says Ross.

A publisher asked the author for a book proposal and Ross submitted “Log Cabin Years.” It was revised with an up-to-date epilogue about the couple’s life.

Ross says the book is about building a log cabin and a marriage. The challenges of the building project helped the couple build their relationship.

The couple spent 10 days at the Great Lakes School of Log Building in Minnesota. Ross and Gladfelter had more motivation than financial resources.

“If we had more money we would have bought a crane and sold it. We had to use a block and tackle system, which is physically harder. But we were young and strong. Both of us were willing to work hard,” says Ross in a phone interview.

During the time that the house was being built, the couple managed a hostel along the Appalachian Trail in the vicinity of Hawk Mountain.

Ross, a frequent contributor to Pennsylvania Magazine, has given many author talks about her books.

She is director of the nonprofit River House PA. The eight-year-old nonprofit assists veterans who are in rehabilitation programs. It provides hiking, tubing, dining and sanctuary.

“Walking Toward Peace” is about veterans, many of whom served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Hiking helped them to heal,” says Ross.

Getting to know the veterans and gaining their trust was often the first and most important step towards recovery from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and-or poor life choices, says Ross, noting that isolation prevents many from using available resources. “They become apathetic and don’t trust people. They just stay home,” she says.

Through her work at River House, Ross became friends with many of the veterans and has stayed in contact with them. The book’s appendix describes success stories of many who have recovered.

Ross has not been able to celebrate the release of her two new books, her eighth and ninth. The day after Thanksgiving 2021, her husband fell from the roof of their cabin and broke three vertebrae in his neck. He cannot walk, is paralyzed on one side and partially paralyzed on the other side.

Gladfelter had a career in fine furniture-making and became a noted chainsaw wood- carver artist.

Ross has had to deal with the challenges of finding medical equipment and the despondency her husband faces. “Some things are coming back, but very slowly,” says Ross.

“The Bamba Boys,” a chapter in “Walking Towards Peace,” is about disabled veterans who use adaptive bicycles on trails.

Ross hopes that her husband, using special equipment, will be able to travel with her on the Great American Rail Trail that runs from Washington state to Washington, D.C., for their 40th wedding anniversary.

“Literary Scene” is a column about authors, books and publishing. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com