Chess Game of Moves, Homestead Outfitting Continues

No new calves this week. Our late cows show themselves to be consistently so. And we are into the logistics of running a cow-calf operation, which is quite involved as to what goes where, when.

Jul 03, 2025

∙ Paid

Hi,

Thanks again for being here and opening this. For being part of this community.

(Note: this is probably too long for email, and so may cut off. In such case, there’s a link at it’s end to read all the verbosity online…)

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Farming News - Processing starts this week. Bull moving, too.
Homesteading - Outfitting continues along with building.
Writing News - Dissecting classics continues, improving - more ebooks behind the paywall for paid subscribers, along with TOC’s.
Fiction News - Now we’re moving on the next chapter of a new serial, from Book One of Hooman Saga
Expectancy Factor - A new Nightingale classic essay on writing.

Farming News

We’re still at 16 calves arrived. Here’s the ninth one.

Another cute bull. Momma is named Skully because of that face. (Might be related to the X-Files version, maybe.) Yes, that’s one of it’s first meals.

Nurse cow and her calf are up at the main house area. She’s been getting her feed from me, so it’s changing that habit to looking for some from this other cow. And figuring how to do that meanwhile.

Got the “left to arrive” momma-cow list made up. Looks like about 5 more at this point. Comparing them to last year shows that they all came in during July and August last year. I’d heard that this was the scene - whenever a heifer is born, they tend to have their calves around that time. Here’s partial proof that might be a correct estimate.

The news this week coming up is that two steers will go to processing this week. The other three will go next week. In the middle of this, the bull gets led down to the herd again (I walk him down with the gates opened in between, and while carrying a bucket with a bit feed mix in it.)

Then I’ll be reconfiguring the fences at the home place so I can move the tiny home cottage we live in - right up to the end of that trailer frame (see below).

Tiny Homesteading Progress

Fiber-optic is now installed.

Took nearly a week total from start to finish. Had a nice talk with the installer, though. And found out I could drop to the next lower bandwidth plan and save money.

Funny observation is that my gigabyte Internet, a Chromebox 6 gig RAM computer, and a 2 tera-byle hard drive will all fit in a corner of my desk - while I started some 30 years ago with a dual-floppy (640K each) machine that took most of my desktop - and a dial-up modem.

My wife continues to find bargains on Marketplace (Facebook - one of its few uses that works) and picking those up takes us all over the place. Days out picking these up then leaves me away from building the home base.

But the heat wave we experienced last week has broken - back to our more endurable mid-80’s. So working up at the new home site is more enjoyable.

I did get the frame cleared of all old wood.

I’ve counted up the collected 2x8 lumber we have and it’s enough for the joists.

Yes, you can see have have some stacks of old wood to remove. I’ve been waiting to move that bull back to the herd, but those have to be moved off the site before the cottage can come up.

And being able to move right onto the work-site will make the progress improve.

We continue to save money where we can. A freezer failed this week, but we have one up at my step-granddaugher’s that we’ll empty out and pick up tomorrow. I heard yesterday (from my pond guy) that he’s got relatives still-running the refrigerator and freezer that his own grandfather bought new - an old International-Harvester version.

The pre-owned appliances we’ve found on Marketplace are being snapped up before we can get to them. That’s no big surprise in this economy. These are going for a few hundred while the new models are a couple thousand each. Sometimes pre-owned is a tenth of the price of new. And work better/longer.

Meanwhile, and again, there are bills to this, even while my labor is one of love. It will take just under $30,000 to build this 20x48 foot tiny home - and outfitting may cost half again as much more. Which will require additional funds. It’s just under 960 square feet. All bulidng with on our retiree incomes, plus my book sales. Yes, that’s a real trick. While I’m working to improve my book marketing and sales, your donations are welcome. It’s another way to join this adventure and journey.

This “buy me a coffee” link works for probably any amount…

Writing News

[Still needing to get print proofs for that pentalogy of books (my five Writerpreneur books). I keep this sentence here to remind myself.] And I reminded myself that my income from the book distributors mostly relies on printed non-fiction paperbacks…

Dissecting L’Amour’s “Gift of Cochise’ work has reached the end - and sets us up to start working through his “Hondo” itself.

This will go chapter by chapter, in reverse order and align these lessons to our currently being released ones on Compelling Characters and Riveting Storytelling. We are building a simple three-part training program for authors. And it’s both an adventure and a journey. Right here in these newsletters (or live on the Substack app.)

All to shorten our writer-craft learning curve and increase our income from book and story sales. Yes, I’m on this same ride along with you. But you can join in - see below…

Many Irons in the Fire

Mostly complete on assembling the Tables of Contents. I have one on my fiction works that needs upgrading. Again, you can find them on my site under Table-Of-Contents. All so people can find that I produced earlier.

This makes the newsletters I write into a clearer offer. Most of my posts recently have started including ebooks for paid subscribers, as well as one-off direct sales through my Gumroad backend.

Yes, I still have to compile that book on sales I mentioned earlier. That, and the Expectancy Factor book, plus getting my paperbacks out. Again, priorities count. Vital gets done before Important. Then there’s updating Maurice G. Kains’ Five Acres and Independence. I do plan to get my collected library of books in this area on offer soon - through direct sales and for paid members.

I keep all these going by allotting time to these five newsletters. Tricky, somewhat - and it keeps me from collaborating as much as I’d like to. (But I’m opening up an idea of a private collaboration offer below…)

With all I have on-going on the farm and in my Tiny Home construction, time seems tight. Focus on the vital things is key.

And there are some Kickstarter events to run…

Time remains a fluid state of affairs.

And yet, there’s more…

I’m planning to revive this original Walter S. Campbell training. Taking a few students on personally to help them improve their craft by studying these Masters.

It’s going to be work. Lots of practice, lots of writing and publishing. Behind closed doors - just as the original 1937 work Campbell did - but with the advantage of a blazed trail and accurate hindsight from himself and his instructors.

To cover my costs in this, it will be put in the Founding Member area. (I’ll have to work out how to make a special discount to start with.) We’ll set up our group there, and everyone will be writing to practice what they’ve read about. And my own private library of references will be opened - as well as my time in reading and reviewing and editing your work. So we can bootstrap ourselves into true professionals. But I can only work with a few.

If you want to join in on this, raise your hand. Respond to this email so I can see who out there want another adventure in your life - and get that nagging book you’ve always wanted to write actually published and out on its own.

Again, it’s a “many are called, few are chosen” scene.

I’ll keep working this out in the coming weeks. Which is another reason to get your Substack app. I figure this is a year’s effort. Which is the other reason for setting it up in the Founding Member area. Even though a year’s subscription is small compared to the benefits, when you pay in advance for a course of training (much less hiring an editor-type to collaborate with you.) And when you pay for something, you tend to stick with it and get everything you can out of it.

That’s enough for now. See you next week.

Also published this week (ICYMI):