Heat, Rain, Travel. Grass for Cows, and Some Homestead Outfitting - 02

Again, our last few calves are tardy arriving. Meanwhile, the bargains of our outfitting have been adventures on their own. While the building they are supposed to go into languishes in the rain...

Jul 11, 2025

∙ Paid

Hi,

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

A note - this didn’t somehow go out yesterday or this morning. Not to you readers, anyway. So here we go again..

(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…)

Too many emails? Too few? Go here to adjust your settings.

Farming News - Processing continues this week. Bull at new home.
Homesteading - Outfitting continues along with building.
Writing News - Pro Writing lessons continue. More ebooks behind the paywall for premium subscribers. TOC’s are still organizing things.
Fiction News - Our next new serial is three-fifths through.
Expectancy Factor - A new Nightingale classic essay.

Farming News

Rain continues, intermittently. Dry, wet, dry - that’s our ongoing scene, now. And humid meanwhile.

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

Another cute bull. Momma’s full name is “Black-hearted Dottie” - because on her other side is a big black heart - nothing to do with her gentle nature. She’s “Dottie” because of that black around her eyes - like makeup.

Nurse cow and her calf settled in with our two orphans at the main house area. They are now expecting their feed treats twice daily. I don’t know if I can get this calf over to feed off her. It’s a point of her habitual feeding from me and building new habits. Still, I work on this daily, interrupted by our homestead outfitting adventures (see below.)

Another work on the “left to arrive” momma-cow list is to see which ones of these are consistently late. Those go onto the “gray list” to move to market next, once we have a proven replacement in place.

We’ve kept all our heifer crop back, now for the second year, and this is working. Because you can’t tell who’s fertile and productive from the outside. It’s that second year you add that proves them one way or the other. And we need fertile from the first year.

Three last steers to go to processing as this newsletter hits your in-box.

Next after that is to sort out those we suspect as being “open” (non-pregnant) and ship those to market if so.

The bull is down with the herd again, according to the moon signs. Everyone’s contented.

Reconfiguring the fences so our few here can access the pond for water. This found us able to get blackberries. Yum.

Tiny Homesteading Progress

We’ve been outfitting - which is not the usual sequence. But we’re getting working, better-made appliances at discount prices. All for a little travel.

A washer-dryer set (not matched) were gotten for a tenth of what sells for new. Same with a large, bulky refrigerator. And we found underfloor insulation (formerly used to build settings for plays) for about 80% off. Now we have two-thirds of what we’ll need stockpiled in storage. That small investment in temporary storage just has to stay small - which means getting that floor framing done.

We found a repairman for appliances up at a nearby town - who told us that the old coil-type stoves continue to sell like hotcakes. Because they are easy to repair and so, last indefinitely. Unlike these modern ones with their bluetooth and wifi - where people can hack into your “smart” home and turn it on or off as they like.

Meanwhile, in spite of these bargains, 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 building with only 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…

Now we’ve started the lessons on “Hondo” itself. All while I continue to publish their reference lessons on character and - next - storytelling/plotting.

Again this first Hondo lesson only took up the first chapter. It has five scenes to introduce the main characters, their conflict, the situation and setting.

Next after this will be the last chapter, which gives the crisis and climax. Only then will we know the full story question this story solves.

Interesting here is that Hondo as a novelization takes us much beyond where the movie and short story ends. It’s actually a sequel, which then takes the reader into wanting the backlist.

We’ll take that second ending up as itself in the last lesson - a fortunate use of that material.

Otherwise, this study 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

Still finding more Tables of Contents to update. This then builds my earlier articles into a more explorable (and SEO-friendly) way to explore and learn.

And I can update those earlier articles as I go. As you may note, I’ve been giving away books on all my posts to premium subscribers. All in addition to allowing people to “pay what you want” through my Gumroad backend.

I've got three major books to finish compiling, editing, proofing, and publishing as POD paperbacks in addition to setting their ebooks out to the distributors. Mostly, it’s all in the couple of hours every early morning where I can do my writing/editing/publishing without interruption.

Because the rest of these hot and rainy days are spent in building my homestead and running this farm.

All while I should be running some Kickstarter events and collaborating with other authors…

Time remains a fluid state of affairs.

And yet, there’s more…

Once again: 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):