[Living Sensical] A Welcome Relief - Shirt-sleeve weather in January
Yes, and we have a few days of this to enjoy. Like the old saying - "Don't like the weather? Wait a minute and it will change..."
Hi,
Now we’re back up to “average” winter weather, which now means balmy 60’s during the day, and mostly not freezing at night. While it lasts…
If you’re getting too many or two few newsletters, adjust your subscriptions here:
Subjects this week:
Farm News - lack of snow, tiny home birdwatching, making butter and cheese
Writing News - book progress, newsletters, request for beta readers
Farm News
Yesterday, I saw a parade of the herd visiting a pasture they haven’t seen for at least a month - but the last time was with a couple inches of snow.
I set out new bales for them back where they came from, but they insisted on gleaning off the short grass and enjoying a day of full sun and no mud.
The herd wasn’t as efficient with their hay in the last month. (You can recall they broke down the inner fences during that bitter cold.) Instead of about a bail per day, they went through 30+ bales in a little over three weeks. So I’m looking to be pulling out some more bales come March in order to get them through to green grass.
And even then, I’ll have to keep some hay available, since if I allow them to eat off all the tender shoots, there won’t be much tall grass very soon, if ever. It has to grow, obviously, so I have to give the grass that chance.
Tiny Home Tales
Tiny homes have been described as having the outdoors as another room. And that was evident yesterday.
We’ve added a suet feeder into the apple tree close by the cottage, so we both enjoy seeing various birds come to get their feed. And we’re setting up regular feeder a bit down that branch (but still visible out that small window) so we can see different birds (suet tends to attract more woodpeckers than others.)
We were sitting on the porch yesterday, enjoying the warmish weather - with that young cat purring between us on the bench - and watched a big red-breasted woodpecker suddenly swoop down from another tree up by the main house and go right over the cottage. Only a few feet over our heads.
And then we tried to figure out which bird call was his.
We both appreciate being so intimately close to Nature out here.
Butter and Cheese making
In this cooler weather (not routinely 70F+ in the big house kitchen) the farm cheese hasn’t really developed a rind in hanging.
Here’s the scene: Hanging from the overhead cabinet door is clabbered milk dripping whey through a “wheat sacking” cloth. To the right is what milk looks like when it’s separated enough to hang.
The little bag was the cream, which I’ve pulled out to make some very tangy cream cheese. But more likely, it will all be about that consistency. Just not warm enough to dry out well. That second jar is now hanging in it’s own bag, and we have a full half-gallon of whey for animal feed.
We do want to take this all off soon and refrigerate it. Because that slows down the clabbering process - and it will just continue to get “tangier” otherwise.
But my Thursdays are auction days, and a trip to town to pick up supplies, so if I can fit it in along with other fair-weather repairs, I will.
Writing News
At last the course is over. And you have already seen the button above where I can let you all adjust your subscriptions to drop or add more newsletters to your email inputs. Again, sorry it took so long before I could get that figured out.
The full list of newsetters is here:
As a note, you’ll be getting a probably new-to-you fiction of mine this week, as we start on the Ghost Hunter Primer anthology. One story per week - some of them a bit lengthy.
And there is also a new project, where I start updating M. G. Kains' “Five Acres and Independence” as we are about to get our own five acres and set up a farmhouse, garden, and chickens on it in this coming year. (And that one is scheduled for Thursday as well, but may move to another day. This day is always busy…) This one is exciting as it’s really where I can devote to talking just about farming in all its details. But you’ll have to select for it.
New Book Progress
Still proofing that big Writerpreneur OS book. Just have to keep at it, despite other reasons not to.
And I’m learning a bit more about editing meanwhile. Like the fact that every scene in fiction (and subsection in non-fiction) has it’s own little story arc and purpose. A note on that here: (Click to see full note.)
And that book with all those notes on social media audience building will probably sit for awhile, as I’m finding more data about how social media should work. (As well, the Twitter-X platform is continuing to evolve, which changes all the “best practices” I’ve found almost daily.
None of the socials are worth my time, though. At least compared to Substack. And yet, I still keep an eye out for articles there where people dissect their own success on the platform.
Organising my work on new books into newsletter sections has helped me to keep some slow progress on several other books. That copywriting book for one, and the “Expectancy Factor” which comes out on Sundays. As usual, I’m sitting on a gold mine of data from the couple of decades I’ve been publishing, so there’s a lot to bring out.
Note: if you have favorite areas like those two, check regularly in the newsletter, since I can drop material into those and not have to send it out to everyone - like the old blogger days. That will allow me to write up and post material when I get on a roll. And so build the books as I can.
Request for Beta Readers
Yes, if you would like to go through the book and look for errors and as well giving me attaboy reviews, I’ll send you a copy of the 248-page book as it sits. Both epub and PDF. Just reply to this or send me a separate email.
If you’re reading this on Substack, comment below, and I’ll post a download link in reply. (Unless I figure some other way.)
Thanks again for opening this. And reading these books.
And leaving a rating on the Living Sensical site for the stuff you buy there.
And also leaving comments on my Substack site.
As well as leaving recommendations on Bookbub in addition to reviews anywhere else.
You know, that "paying it forward" kinda thing.
Do keep sharing these books and this newsletter with your friends, too.
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. 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…