Spring Brings Short Grass - While I Paint my Writers Cabin
Their winter bales are done. Now my cows crop the short new grass of Spring, while I furiously work to get my writing cabin readied. All until I can get them fed on longer stuff...
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Thanks again for being here and opening this. For being part of this community.
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Farming News - Bales are fed out, the cows are on pasture. Wrapped up the bulk of the tiny writing cabin painting.
Writing News - Putting together a Substack How-To - as an appendix…
Fiction News - The Hooman Saga serial continues. Sue is now staring her long-awaited “probe” this week.
Expectancy Factor - Another Nightingale essay for you as I continue compiling this book in my “copious” spare time.
And - a book bonus down below….
Farming News
Now, spring comes early. T-shirt weather. Warm enough for painting.
And so, as promised, I started in on my writer cabin in earnest.
Some touch-up details needed, still, but the literal broad strokes are done.
A comparative: Henry David Thoreau build his own on the shore of Walden pond.
Thoreau built his cabin from recycled and hand cut materials for $28.12. It was 10 feet by 15 feet and he described the interior in his book "Walden" as having a fireplace, table, desk, bed and 3 chairs.
“I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.”-Thoreau
I snapped this camping trailer up when I found it for sale on Craigslist. It’s about 8’ by 16” inside. Someone had taken a ‘65 “Holiday Trav’ler” and revamped it into a hunting cabin years ago. He gutted all the inside except some cabinets. Put in new floor, insulation, wall paneling. Then he painted the outside white with camouflage accents. That paint job was ugly, and starting to flake off when I’d gotten it. And I’d recieved several untoward comments about it (but at the same time received a couple of offers to buy it.) I always held firm that this was somehow to be my 2nd tiny home, one just for writing. During the winter, I decided as soon as the weather warmed up enough to apply and dry paint, I was going for it.
I received a suggestion to paint it the same color scheme as my first cottage - which would make it disappear into the background of the farm. In the midst of paineing it, all the aluminum and chrome trim became accents. And those two commenters were now completely enamoured with it.
At this point, there is the back wall to finish, which will be after I replace that wide back window. There is also cleaning all the over-sprayed trim from the earlier job - but that my be some time down the road, as it’s fidget-work and time-consuming. And I believe those wheels need to be green, but they are so rusty (and mismatched) that they also need a first coat of rust-brown primer. The spare will mount on that front tongue once it’s painted.
Somewhere along the line, I’ll have to get some green curtains for it, I imagine.
But next is to clean out the stuff stored inside it that has nothing to do with getting it renovated, moving those to yet another storage shed, and fixing anything else that has to be done before I can move my writer office in there.
On the farm, here’s a current shot of little Orphan Andy:
He’s growing nicely, and I’ll soon have to turn him out to be with the rest of the herd. Even though I’ve gotten him spoiled on receiving his pound of feed mix twice daily. He’s ready to be with his own kind, and big enough to not get pushed around too much.
I’ve gotten him through the winter and now it’s time to get him out on the green grass that’s coming up. All the herd’s hay is gone and I’ve rolled up the fencing:
You can see how they’ve eaten all they can and stomped the rest into the soil around where the bales used to be, along with their manure. In another couple of months, it will be sprouting tall weeds to become forage in turn. “To every season…”
Tiny Homesteading News
On other news, we have a couple of ponds that are going to have their dams fixed. My pond guy called yesterday to say he’d be up in a couple of weeks. One of those ponds is right next to our future homestead, and will be both picturesque and also a possible water source for our garden. It had a problem with muskrats earlier, and one of their homes punched a hole right through, where erosion did the rest.
There’s a big willow tree grown up in the wet bottom, so that will need removed. And a couple of others that are too close to the water line - again, grown up in the last 50 years or so. Short work, though.
We’re still watching Homestead Rescue in the evenings, and getting a lot of ideas for gardening.
And our hay guy should be around to see if the ground is dry enough to get leveled and packed for the new tiny barn we’re building. He’ll also put in the coarse rock for a driveway.
That sets us up to have the Amish come and build that barn before summer hits. After that, the electrical can arrive. Then move the three trailers up there. (Our cottage, writing cabin, and small storage trailer.)
Progress.
Writing News
While I didn’t push getting my proof copies of that pentalogy (five book series) - I did work on a shorter article that sums up all the advice I’ve gathered about the necessary basics (care and feeding) of a Substack newsletter.
And this is filling in my marketing basics. Yes, I’ll publish this for everyone’s use. Marketing is a necessary skill-set every author needs. And I’m finding has it’s own research, as well as the typical 97% crud rate of bad advice mixed in.
The trick in studying anything is to distill out the evergreen principles form the modern mechanics.
All this has shown me that I have now written everything needful about writing and marketing itself. This new article will be added into the appendix of that second book, Writerpreneur: Copywriting for Authors.
I’ll be running a Kickstarter to launch this set officially. So you’ll probably start getting emails about this, sooner or later.
Meanwhile, see way below for your advance beta-edition of my most current book of this series and its courses. It’s pay-what-you-want while its in beta.
Also published this week (ICYMI):
Writerpreneur Lessons
REVAMPING NEW FROM OLD. Transmogrifying others’ work to update and repackage these — and so meet modern market needs.
Fiction Posts
The Hooman Saga - XX - Serial Fiction
The wolves had selected an old hooman foundation for the probe site.
So far: The hunters have gone off to push the ferals back against the hooman settlement. Sue learns more about this "probe" that she faces. The Chief faces his last days. Now the probe has begun in earnest.
Expectancy Tips
Providing you with these earlier posts also helps me research this upcoming book. Nightingale is a core contributor. Here’s another of his great essays:
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…
Bonus:
Here’s the beta version of the book-in-progress above.
Three mini-courses with audio. I could use your feedback. (And I have to charge a buck minimum in order to host all that audio on Gumroad.)
I like the color of your writer's retreat. So jealous!