Surprise Snow, Mud Rain, Blood Moon - and Renovating my Writer Cabin

I don't have pictures of these short-term weather phenomena. But they are interesting to watch. My new writing cabin is making progress - while I find and fix what the earlier owner avoided fixing...

Hi,

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

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• Farming News - Freak weather passes quickly. Our orphan calf now back with herd. Writing cabin renovations finds more fixes needed.

• Writing News - Still digesting Substack tips, polishing my Writerpreneur pentalogy while eyeing my next Kickstarter…

• Fiction News - The Hooman Saga serial continues. Sue has started her probe, but the story this week is about the hunting party.

• Expectancy Factor - Another Nightingale essay for you as I continue the long-haul of compiling this book in my “copious” spare time.

• And - a book bonus down below….

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Farming News

Weather has its freak occurrences. Like the side show at a county fair - freaks and seeming impossibilities.

My wife pointed out one morning that the windows of her car were spotted with mud. And she researched to find that the dust storms of Texas and Oklahoma were whipped up by 60 mph winds high into the atmosphere - and the precipitation washed this down as mud rains. Another one is expected soon, with the huge dust storms ripping north from Texas this week

Blood Moon - about what we saw.

The blood moon was a lunar eclipse. Happened for us in the wee hours of the morning. My wife set an alarm so we could get up as see it. It turns a ruddy hue because of the ambient light going through the atmosphere back to us. Same arrangement that makes sunsets, mostly.

Yesterday, we woke up to a white layer of surprise snow, maybe a half inch. Even though it was above freezing when we went to bed. And after t-shirt weather the day before. Because to our north, they caught a blizzard and shared a little bit with us. It got back above freezing and was mostly gone by noon.

Almost sorry I didn’t get a picture for you - but we’ve had quite enough snow (and mud) this year, thank you.

Herds and Grazing

I opened up a pasture for the cows, led them into it, and then found them the next day right back on the one they were grazing the day before.

I didn’t want to shut that gate, as there were some stragglers. I saw a pair of bull calves come skipping through, way after the rest, so that was a little signal to leave them be so the herd could all get back together.

This time of year, grazing is supposed to be wide and fast - spread them out wide and turn them into a new paddock quickly.

But I have other work to do, and still too little time for moving their grazing daily right now. Even this newsletter is being written in scraps of time on a Tuesday, just in case I get interrupted and can’t get back to it.

Over the last two days, they’ve been going back and forth. I’ll shut them into that other pasture soon. Some have found a way into yet a third pasture, which is them telling me I have some fencing repairs needed. (Sigh.)

Andy Rejoins the Herd

Leaving the gates open, and shutting him off his hay bale, made him find grass to eat - and his nearest kin.

He’s now going along with them, which keeps him safe. A smaller calf could seem prey for coyotes, but since they mostly go after rabbits and small animals, his being with the herd is better for keeping his humans’ worries away - as well as his social needs.

There’s a line between pet and livestock. Yes, they need to be gentle. But they also need to listen to you and not try to be dominant. Sure, this little bull calf is cute now, but when he’s 1500 pounds, I don’t want him pushing me around. I could still sneak him treats, but that creates other problems. (Like the extreme ability of these cows to scent any feed I bring would have several of them crowding him out, quickly. Dangerous for both of us.) He needs to learn to be a herd cow.

For now, I’ll keep looking him up daily, and work to allow me to scratch where he wants it - which usually doesn’t come in until they are one or two years old.

Tiny Homesteading News

My continuing saga is in devoting time to this tiny writing cabin project while I have some time. (I’ve got pictures to show you soon, but they make these email posts too long.)

I noticed some rot on both sides of the back window. One of the louver glasses had been broken out and a combination of clear plastic inside and a measured fiberboard had been screwed into place to cover that hole. They were to keep wind out, but not perfect against rain. Meanwhile, a vent cover had a 1-foot square piece of 3/4 inch plywood screwed to the outside. Both of these were ominous portends of what I found when I dug into that scene.

In each end, when I got the trailer, there was a platform built for sleeping. One mattress was there, apparently new. Since I knew there was rot to replace in the back, I took that platform out first.

And found rot in the wall and floor on one side beneath it. Beneath that vent cover. So I spent an afternoon of digging out all the mixed rot and decomposed insulation that had accumulated there. Apparently, the earlier owner had done a quick fix by putting in a piece of aluminum siding down to cover that floor, a layer of insulation, and then simply screwed a piece of 1/4 inch laminate over the whole floor. This was touted as “installing a new floor”. The side walls all got new paneling, since he probably had to rip off all the old stuff and supposedly re-insulated it. Looked nice, still does.

That meant his idea of building a platform that covered up the other problems with it. The good news is that he used a proper flooring pressboard on that, which can now become a proper floor - once I get some replacement joists patched in there. I plan to lay in some insulation, but also some expanding foam to add additional non-rotting support. Then the flooring pressboard will hold any amount of weight.

So that’s done well enough now. Just the big stuff. Finish carpentry and painting comes last.

Next, I moved everything off the sleeping deck in front and organized it in the back.

And, as suspected, found some weak spots in that front floor. That sleeping deck was again build with flooring pressboard, covered by a full piece of wall paneling, so I have all the material I need to fix it. Which is today’s agenda.

There’s then a rotted ceiling part. There was an open vent left. Just covered over to collect the moisture. I saved the old ceiling piece to use as a template.

This takes me now very close to wrapping it up. I’m taking pictures, so you’ll get a before and after show when I’m close to complete.

I will probably install a duct for a portable A/C unit left over from my tiny home cottage. Its vent can go into an earlier hole from before (that I just patched) and where the rot had seeped in. Not my first importance, but I’m glad the thought came to me the other morning. Those louver windows wouldn’t allow for a window A/C vent. So, this timely inspired solution - before I get everything buttoned up. Nice how things work that way.

Finally, I’ll move all the tools and leftover building supplies to other farm storage one fine day, do the finish carpentry, and repaint the interior (including the hideous camouflage paint job on the cabinets.) Hopefully, I can work this all in between rotating cattle. I’m only allotting a few more days to wrap all this up.

I’m working to make this a permanently livable space, instead of a temporary vacation-on-wheels vehicle. The idea is to get this cabin-trailer set up to last another decade or more, and to re-sell it at a later date. Living in it for a few years should help me find and cure any other needed fixes.

For now, this is all up-cycling what I the earlier owner left, so I can have another tiny space as part of my lifestyle.

A visiting relative got a look at the new exterior paint job and loved it. That’s another vote of confidence from those who have seen the before and after.

Other Farm News

We’re still waiting for the pond guy to arrive. He says that he’d call a couple of days before. But it’s a race to get this writer cabin finished before then, as I have a fence to dissemble and get out of his way.

We’re still watching Homestead Rescue in the evenings, and getting a lot of ideas for gardening. We have some old grain bins on the properly. I think that if these were cut in half and put on their side, I’d be able to have a wall filled with miscellaneous saved windows (some louvered) and point that to the south. Then raised beds in pots (rotating for the sunlight) while also collecting rain run-off somehow.

Of course the rain/snow we had this week has now dampened the ground enough to push leveling it off for a bit. But our financing for that barn will come in April/May, so that eventual timing should still be fine.

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 by inches.

Writing News

Still needing to get proofs for that pentalogy of books (my five Writerpreneur books). I write and work on my business for about two hours every morning before breakfast. The rest of the morning is spent on farm chores, and my projects like that tiny home above.

Seasonally, when it’s just way too hot or cold to stay outside, I invest in bigger writing projects.

That write-up on Substack is now down to a single page - a sort of checklist. And since it’s changing constantly, it won’t be part of my books. I work to keep those focused on evergreen principles that will work a half-century or more from now.

This Writerpreneur series is turning out to be a very final work for this area. These five books cover the core and evergreen principles I’ve winnowed out over the last few decades of writing-as-a-business. And now I’ve created the reference set I wanted when I started out.

I’ll be running a Kickstarter to launch this set officially. So you’ll probably start getting emails about this, sooner or later. I’ll take more time with this Kickstarter, since it’s an amazing set of material, a true masterpiece (IMHO.)

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.

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Also published this week (ICYMI):

Writerpreneur Lessons

YOUR WRITING YARDSTICK. How do you measure your progress? Learning is a solitary thing. You want to know how good your techniques are before you hit "publish". So, these tips…

Fiction Posts

Sue has started her Probe, while the hunting party is off chasing the ferals back toward the hooman settlement, away from their valley.

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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:

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Thanks for being there, opening this.

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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 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.)

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