More Homestead Progress: Dogs, Cows, Home. New Classic Analysis Begins

The weather has cooperated again. But did lose most of a day due to rain. Still the project progresses. Dogs meet cows and protect cottage. Taking up a new serial to dissect and learn new craft...

Hi,

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

You are the reason I keep going with these. Yes, you are. You.

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• Farming News - Weaner have quieted. Guard dogs now staying at home without leashes.

• Homesteading - Progress on smaller joists, Electrical coming in today.

• Writing News - New dissection series begins!

• Fiction News - New Short story re-published here.

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Farming News

Annie’s settled in with the herd. All quiet now, weaning’s completed.

The escapees found others to bring with them, and at last I just let the whole herd in for now. In a few days, I’ll coax them back into the earlier pasture to work that over for a few weeks until I need to sort them again in November.

You can see how I’m working along on this foundation with them as company. Some even came over to inspect the joists, walking in between them.

But the guard dogs have now been “re-homed” to the cottage area and so are laying about and to rest here, getting up occasionally to warn they cattle they’re too close. Otherwise, I’m out there most of the days, which the cows find too active to haunt. As well, there’s nothing to eat on that gravel bed.

However, they have found some places that are comfortable for their ruminating - like the shade behind my writing cabin:

And while I’d like to be done already, I’m making progress every day and we’ll be ordering our subfloor soon.

The electrical is scheduled for today, which means another trench. We’re running the power underground and they want to get it all done before the next rain (tomorrow).

This is now the final week of October, and I’ll be putting hay out in a couple of weeks, as well as sorting our cows in a few weeks for that post-Thanksgiving Day sale. Days are shorter, so I’m working less into the evenings.

And it’s cooling off more. Our first frost warning was last night, but nothing came of that by the time I got up to write this.

Tiny Homesteading Progress

You see in the top photo above, that I spent some time getting spacers into place for those long joists. This is partially because some of them are a bit warped. I also found out that being out in the rain has tended to enable them to warp. So, these were all custom fit to ensure the edge of each board lined up straight across.

Tying them into the steel frame is exacting, detailed work. I’ve used joist hangers, and a rough calculation last week says that by the time I’ve put them all in, the total will be around 222 joist hangers or “hurricane straps” installed.

Just as I’ve worked from one corner down and one side across, when I reach to the other end and other side, they also have to be exactly where they are supposed to be. So it took a day of just measuring and cutting exactly to get key short joists in place to hold that last edge joist into its final position.

Plus, I’ve had to take trips for more materials infrequently - like joist hangers. So that tends to slow things as well.

We want to order the subflooring material once the joists, plumbing drains, and final leveling tweaks are complete. Once we order those, we’ll also tell the Amish company that they can put us on their schedule for a construction crew to build our home proper.

Yes, that gets exciting.

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Guard Dogs Now At Home.

Occasionally, i found my pair of guard dogs lazing around my neighbors, and this means fetching them back on a leash, then chaining the female up for the day. Because her brother stays near her. They’ve accepted this arrangement. And the fact that they get loved on and fed with treats also helps.

Once the sub-flooring is in above, I plan to build them an insulated dog house big enough for the two of them. And we have some heated dog pads that may show up there as well. Straw is the common bedding.

Lots of work to do as Fall turns toward winter.

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Once the house is “dried in”, we’ll start on its inside during this upcoming winter. We’ll empty out our storage and move everything inside the house shell, to save those monthly fees.

Then we’ll start in with the insulation first, wiring electrical circuits we need as we go, and minimal plumbing.) That bathroom has to be the first made operational as far as building interior walls.

I originally wanted to budget (and borrow) for the whole house. With the required lagoon and septic system, this took a chunk out of the budget. So the rest of this we’ll have to piece together out of my wife’s retirement and my own book sales.

The basic plan is to make the house livable with bathroom and bedroom, plus a working kitchen area. Also to bring our appliances now in storage right into the house proper and not quit paying that storage fee monthly. That will also require a load of gravel so we have somewhere to back the trailer up for unloading. And our car port.

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Donations More Than Welcome

Meanwhile, there are some steep bills we’re looking as, even while my labor is one of love. It will take just under $30,000 to build this 20x48 foot tiny home.

If I don’t have enough wood stockpiled on the property, I’ll need to buy more. And we have some $3,000 worth of just subflooring materials that have to be installed over the joists. Plus foam underfloor insulation. Then we’ll be ready for the Amish to show up and do their magic. Their installation will be about $13,000

After it’s “dried-in”, we’ll start the insulation, and all the plumbing and electrical, as well as sheathing the interior walls and other necessities may cost another five figures more than what we’ve already pinched and saved.

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 any amount… Feel free to contribute.

I imagine I need to set up some sort of “Give Send Go” page and promote it more. But meanwhile, I hope the upcoming Kickstarter release may produce some extra income… If you and others can help, it would be appreciated.

Writing News

New short story came in, since I couldn’t just quit. I do plan to get a new original serial going along, but for now, I’m digging into archives for the smaller works that were mostly standalone.

This week also showed a new Dissection happening - Max Brand’s “Dan Barry’s Daughter”, which was originally a serialized work. This also shows that the scene-sequel planning is ages old. One textbook has this model starting much earlier — that Dickens used this format. And this dissection shows that’s true.

Walter S. Campbell found that a contemporary of his, John Gallishaw, had laid out the scene-sequel structure. During his own training course, they expanded the sequel, finding the emotional impact was found here. Distilling books is turning out to be great training for authors, and starts developing their observation skills while reading.

Again, all these perennial-selling books have left clues in their finished texts that we can use to improve our own writing. And so I train alongside my students, and leave a back-trail to follow.

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I’m still intending to set up some sort of intensive training in my Substack Founding Member area, as rewards for patronage sort of thing. Where I can help people directly and afford to do so. Whether this is called a workshop, or other, it will be a continuing area. These distilled lessons then will have three levels of access - broad for free readers and subscribers, books and materials for paid subscribers, and direct access and assistance and in-depth materials to Founding Members/patrons.

So, feel free to upgrade to paid or Founding status as these benefits will continue showing up. For people who want to get serious about improving their craft and appreciate other’s writing. And want to join in on this journey.

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Follow and subscribe to my work on the Substack app to get more than I can fit into a single newsletter each week.

(PS. I’ve included the Forgotten Bestseller Secrets for paid members below.)

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Also published this week (ICYMI):

Fiction Posts

Pro Writing Lessons

Writerpreneur Lessons

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Thanks for being there, opening this.

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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. And you can always buy me a coffee…

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Bonus:

Again this week, the beta Forgotten Bestseller Secrets is available at author-direct discount - of Pay What You Want bundle.

These six books total over 1700 pages, 10 mini-courses:

Available for limited time as pay-what-you-want…

Paid subscribers have instant access to this ebook - see below: