Farm Building Starts - Kickstarter Is Officially Ramping Up
Today, I'm moving storage to our own storage unit on our little farmlet. It's gotten warm over the past few days. And the Kickstarter countdown has begun.
Hi,
Thanks again for being here and opening this. For being part of this community.
Too long for email - just click on the link to open it up in full.
You won’t want to miss the bonus at the end…
Farming News - That trouble cow is back in the clinic - this time with the orphan, who is learning manners. We put the first building on our mini-farm.
Writing News - Kickstarter is counting down. Starts Wed, Nov 6th, ends on Saturday, Nov 23th. I have about 12 days to wrap everything up before that start.
Fiction News - First chapter of that serial was posted. Next one coming in a couple of days.
Expectancy Factor - There’s some sense to how “Beginning with the End in Mind” aligns with the Golden Rule to create your own actuality…
Farming News
There was a fabulous full moon a week or so ago:
The herd took it all in stride.
I was talking to the guy who delivered our shed (see below) and he was raised on an Ohio farm. When he asked what it would take to raise a cow as a beef animal for themselves, I had to do the math:
To fatten an animal on grass (starting with a steer), you’d need about 10 acres of the land around here (Northeast Central Missouri) because grass grows proportional to the rain. (Out further west, it can take a hundred acres per animal, while up in Minnesota it only needs a single acre.) Otherwise, feeding big round bales of hay, they’ll go through one of those every 20 days or so, meaning you’d have to supply about 18 bales, plus water and shade, perimeter fencing and shelter.
Around here, a young bull calf can be bought for about $300-500 as a yearling, then you’ll have about $900 of hay in them (at $50 each) - so you’ll pay out maybe $1400 and the time you take to raise them.
Simpler would be to raise rabbits and chickens for your meat. You’ll still have feed costs, but they reproduce several times each year and can grow to full size in a year without needing a lot of land. Meanwhile, their manure goes onto your garden.
If you want to raise beef, they produce on average 50% bulls. So have two or three cows, a bull, and about 40 acres with a strong perimeter fence and portable polywire fencing to rotate their grazing and not over-graze anything. As their manure rebuilds the soil, and you perfect your grazing skills, you can squeeze their needed acreage down to about 4 acres each, or using only about 16 acres for that project. Of course, you’d also keep some acreage out of rotation for use in dry years.
And there you have it - the very short handed version.
Of course, I wrote up most of what I know in a book, “Farm Less, Profit More” (That’s the ebook link - I have to go out and find/attach the print book links there for Amazon, WalMart, and others…)
Glad you asked: Yes, the cow and her heifer calf are doing well, and helping that orphan to improve his manners. Still need that vet appointment. They are eating a small square hay bale and a bucket of feed every other day. Plus filling up their water. The rain we got last night should have helped - we have half-barrels placed under the eaves to collect that, but also a long hose to fill them up when they get emptied.
Tiny Home News
The first building on our land is now in place:
And yesterday (my birthday, btw) we took a U-Haul up and emptied out my wife’s old storage space, transported it all down here and fit everything inside that Amish-built structure above.
It’s 8x10, and about 7 feet tall inside. Plenty of room.
Next is getting estimates for the work we need to put into the ground-work in order to be able to build our new tiny home.
We’re close to settling on a 14x40 building with a long covered deck on it’s west side (that will later be our expansion space.) Our current cottage is about 184 sq ft (including its loft) - the next building will be 560 sq ft, and will ultimately be 960 sq ft.
These, obviously, are all still tiny homes. But more than enough for a retired loving couple on a mini-farm of their own.
Writing News
ICYMI:
I wrote up the five biggests stumbling blocks for authors this week in a Substack Note:
Fear - All writers have this to some degree: Study Lester Levenson’s Releasing Technique (As described in my “Freedom Is (period.)”
Inspiration - make this always-on: Study Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande (https://livingsensical.gumroad.com/l/BAW-Coll)
Mastering Technique - Dissect the writings of leaders in magazine/book genre you wish to sell in: While my next text in the WriterpreneurOS series will cover this in detail, consider the 9th to 11th chapters of Brande’s book.
A Needful Grasp of Story Basics: You can get started with my Writerpreneur: Basic Formulas of Fiction book (beta edition available here: https://livingsensical.gumroad.com/l/BasicsOfFictionBeta)
Hint: Your “10,000 Hours” has already been ticking away. You’re nearly there.
Oh - I nearly forgot this…
Goals: Goals create your actuality. Get Earl Nightingale’s Strangest Secret transcript and study all the books he mentioned there. Priceless!
WriterpreneurOS Posts
This is another selection from that latest Basic Formulas of Fiction book - and is, again, something I’ve not seen anywhere else. This is a short version of what you need in your main character for your story-writing.
Fiction Posts
The story this week: A girl crash lands back to Earth in an escape pod. While a sentient wolf hears her screaming while watching - in his mind. Her conflict and goal are exposed in this stury. How the Earth came to be this way has yet to be discovered.
Yes, you can get the book already. Even though I’ll be fixing and tweaking things slightly through out - and so come out with a revised version later.
But don’t think you’re spoiling things by reading ahead. Book One and Book II Part 2 are still out there as well — and the mystery of why they are labelled that way… Here’s the book link to get your copy.
Expectancy Tips
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my library is now starting to have pat answers. It’s only took nearly 70 years of living and with it’s 40 years of research, out of that: 20 years of editing and publishing.
In no particular order, here’s the main books to cover all this.
The Strangest Secret Collection (and it’s series - an upcoming Kickstarter)
Freedom Is (period.)
The current WriterpreneurOS series (being released in that Kickstarter)
That compiled Becoming A Writer Collection by Brande
One thing that came to the front this week, is that the old Seneca quote (paraphrased by Covey and others into) “Begin with the end in mind” is also present in Campbell’s work - where you first decide what effect you want to produce in the reader, long before you start writing anything.
This has a lot of application in getting your own expectations to become actuality. Back it up to the Golden Rule again, and you’ll find yourself curious about what goal every person has for their lives - all those people you meet even in passing during your life. So the point is to treat them, as you’d like to be treated. Giving away a habitual honest smile is a good start.
If you have time, get intrigued about their story. Suggest helpfully, if you can. Answer their questions, otherwise.
Because creating your own actuality begins with your own vision. That creation is fueled by how you help others to actualize their own potentialities. Simpler said than done perhaps. But, again, practice makes permanent.
Kickstarter Previews
I’m asking you to visit below and review the preview.
Please visit the preview and send me a note about what you feel could be improved - or some question you have - or just give me (needed) attaboys.
Kickstarter display page here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1481356435/1548894263?ref=a5wy7u&token=315549e4 (Feel free to share that preview…)
Sign up to be notified when it goes live: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robertworstell/writerpreneur-cracking-the-cashflow-code-non-fiction-book (Sign up now. Share that link with anyone you know who it could help.
PS. I discovered late pledges have been implemented by Kickstarter - so mine will have these for all who missed the initial roll-out. Lots of great stuff. And I’ll be rolling all this out shortly…
Thanks for being there, opening this.
Sharing is caring. You’re who I do this all for. I value your input.
Leave a comment if something strikes your fancy.
I hope your life is not too interesting to be overwhelming, but sufficiently engaging to keep you amused. (Like some of us here...)
Robert
PS. Again, you can always email me about anything.
PPS. Again, do upgrade to the paid newsletter version. That helps me keep the lights on - so I can keep all this coming to you. As much or little as you want…
That preview again - sign up for the Kickstarter in a couple of weeks:
Happy Birthday! I hope you had a good one. Hope the cow and calf are doing well.