More Calves - We Begin Summer

It's been so dry our heavy ground has been like concrete. And yet the small rains we had - or threat of them - have produced new calves. Then, yesterday, 3 inches rain overnight. Summer begins.

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 - Calving season continues. With this last rain, they started again.

• Writing News - Dissecting classics continues, improving - and still dropping ebooks dropped behind the paywall for paid subscribers.

• 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

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Farming News

We’re now at 13 calves arrived. Here’s the fifth one.

Had an opportunity to sort the bull calves and steers out. The steers were let go to be back with the main herd for now, since I still don’t trust them to stay with the bull up at the house.

I was late getting these bull calves out of circulation, which put us at risk of having January calves (9 months later.) At about a year (some sooner) those calves become able, and we don’t want them getting with their own mother. So I generally get those bull calves out before the first new calves drop.

The bull calves were taken to the vet and “cut” (neutered) except for two, which will go to auction next week. That gives us six to raise until next year. And a little cash flow from those two.

The five steers we have will be processed soon. I have to set a date for them and notify my neighbors and relatives that their beef cuts will be ready a couple of weeks after that for pickup.

In the middle of our construction progress (below) they delivered our hay as well. Because they do both.

Each of those bales represents one day of feed during winter. We took their hay from last year, as they were left with too much, and needed to put this year’s new bales into that storage. Obviously, you can’t leave the bales out in the field, as they would decay out there and also keep the grass beneath them from re-growing. In general, you can get two and even three cuttings of hay from a field during a growing season.

Tiny Home Progress

Septic system installed and site pad built up. Then we got the old mobile home frame delivered. We got two more hydrants installed, as an investment.

You’ll see more pix as the progress continues. Next is removing all that old wood, salvaging what we can.

Of course, the bills come in for all that machinery and labor. After the sticker shock, we see that what we didn’t’/won’t have to pay is a lot more. Building the frame out to hold that house instead of a concrete base is about ten thousand in savings. Sometimes, you just have to swallow hard and keep going, knowing that you’re doing the best with what you have.

Still, I can see that I need to increase my sales to afford this new home. So expect me to find you some great offers in the near future. (Plus, I can always take donations, as well as upgrading your subscriptions to paid…)

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.]

Dissecting L’Amour’s “Gift of Cochise’ work is moving along. We covered the 13th scene of his short story this week, aligning it to the third lesson in the “Keep ‘Em Reading” section of the Forgotten Bestseller Secrets book.

Here we can see how L’Amour applied the Hey-You-See-So structure within each scene as well as through the overall short story. There is a lot of mileage in that structure for non-fiction as well.

Aligning the practical application of those lessons enables more rapid and certain learning. So each dissection will help you internalize that lesson. This then required me to go back and revise last week’s dissection to align to the second lesson in that course.

We’ll be continuing through the Hondo book, chapter by chapter, and aligning these lessons I’m now releasing (on Compelling Characters and Riveting Storytelling) to them. By its end, there will be a nice little course and study program that will bring us all up to speed.

Again, it’s as much my education as yours in this area. Repetitive review assists retention and application. And it fun to do all the purposeful deconstruction to see how the Masters accomplished what they did. This work also gives us practice in adopting a professional approach to all our reading. Which in turn shortens our learning curve and increases our income from book and story sales.

Newsletter News

Still organizing as I can in any amount of spare time. Tables of Contents for any series make the paid subscriptions more valuable and enticing.

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 I’m still learning about marketing - how much it is part of a balanced approach to life. You’ll see it called “building community” and “networking”, among other things. The point is offering help and accepting contributions in return.

New Book on Sales

Along this line, I’m pulling a few books into a new collection - about salesmanship. Because advertising is salesmanship in print, so studying these texts then help any writerpreneur to expand their craft and earn more income.

Sure, doing these things by newsletter seems odd - but actually the evergreen principles are the same. Newsletters are closer to direct mail than you suspect.

No title or cover on that book yet - just the repurposed content waiting around for building. You’ll hear it here first…

Otherwise, still working to crack the paid newsletter scene and make it sustainable.

All my expenses are just another opportunity.

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Also published this week (ICYMI):

Writerpreneur Lessons

[Writerpreneur] Compelling Characters 02

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Fiction Posts

Hooman Saga Book One - Mind Timing Chapter 4 & 5

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Expectancy Post

Following The Followers — Earl Nightingale

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Pro Writing Lessons

[Pro Writer] Hondo by Louis L'Amour - Dissection, Part 4

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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. And you can always buy me a coffee…

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Bonus:

Here’s the nearly-final version of a book-in-progress the beta Expectancy Factor.

• 2 1/2 decades of research compiled into one massive book and a supplement.

• Currently available as ebook (epub and pdf).

• Audio lessons available soon.

• As it’s updated, you’ll be able to download the most recent version, as well as the course lessons for no extra cost. (I have to set it at a $1 minimum so Gumroad will host the audio files. As usual, it’s pay what you want, so you can come back to contribute more at any time.)

• And a bonus supplement: the Magic of Believing Field Guide (isn’t pictured - yet.)

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

All while paid subscribers have instant access to this beta ebook below: