Sales of "Rachel's Folly" are booming!
We won't get official sales numbers for another week or so, but I've been taking screenshots of the book's ranking on Amazon. Early yesterday morning, here's where it stood:
As of this morning, take a gander at the difference!
This is all due to YOU, dear readers. Thank you for your support!
Finally, after weeks of waiting (and a glitch in the publishing matrix!), we're pleased to announce the availability of my sweet indy romance, "Rachel's Folly"!!
If you're interested in purchasing it, both the Kindle and print version can be found here.
Now here's the thing: If you purchase the book today – Wednesday, August 20 – it forms what's called a "book bomb" and helps ratchet up the ratings on Amazon. Consequently this makes it more likely that anyone searching for the "tags" attached to my book on Amazon (such as sweet romance, contemporary romance, etc.) will see my book higher up on the list of possible purchase choices. Ahem. Hint hint.
Once you've read the book, please post a review! The more reviews the book receives, the more likely Amazon will place it on "recommended" lists.
Additionally, we would like to ask a sincere favor: To please post its availability on any social media you may have. Remember, this story is clean enough for your Grandma to read without blushing.
(Please note, the above links to Rachel's Folly use our affiliate account, which is permitted. This means we earn a small commission with each purchase.)
Thank you all for your support! Woot!
Due to a series of unfortunate events, the official launching of "Rachel's Folly" – which was supposed to happen today – is being delayed for a little while longer.
Honestly, KDP (Kindle Direct Print) is a pain in the patookus. Don went in last night to check something. He didn't touch anything, but apparently his mere presence was enough to reset the book to "draft," which means an automatic delay of 72 hours before it's available in print. Grrr.
Sorry about this. We're still groping around and feeling our way through this whole self-publishing venture. I'll announce the official release when things settle down. Once again ... stand by!
This week's book review is entitled "It Takes a Village Idiot" by Jim Mullen.
I'm a sucker for urban-to-rural migration stories. Bonus points if they're funny. Mullen's book is both.
Per the Amazon description:
Millions of people dream of abandoning the city routine for a simple country life. Jim Mullen was not one of them. He loved his Manhattan existence: parties, openings, movie screenings. He could walk to hundreds of restaurants, waste entire afternoons at the Film Forum, people-watch from his window. Then, one day, calamity.
His wife quits smoking and buys a weekend house in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York – in a tiny town diametrically opposed to Manhattan in every way. Slowly, however, the man who once boasted, "Life is just a cab away," begins to warm to the place – manure and compost and strangers who wave and all – and to embrace the kind of life that once gave him the shakes.
From the sneering contempt he once felt for rural life to the gradual change it took to wholeheartedly embrace it, Mullen's book is refreshingly sarcastic and great fun. Highly recommended.
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This week's product recommendation is a follow-up to last week's yogurt-making items: A yogurt strainer.
Once the yogurt is made in the incubator, it's often too liquidy for my taste. A few hours in this strainer does wonders to thicken it up. This is before:
And this is after:
Here's how much liquid came out:
I used to do the whole suspend-from-a-pillowcase routine, and this is vastly easier (and more sanitary).
The only codicil is the mesh inside the strainer is very delicate, so it must be carefully hand-washed (and never put in a dishwasher). Beyond that, it works beautifully.
(Obligatory disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, if you purchase through those links, we earn a small commission.)
(Don't forget: A complete list of all our book and product recommendations are linked here and at the upper-right column of the blog.)
For many years, I've followed The Organic Prepper's website. Daisy Luther has been a rock of excellent information in the preparedness world for a long time. I've quoted her material endless times over the life of this blog.
But she's hit a rough patch, up to and including a medical situation that has left her permanently disabled and in great pain. It's been hard watching her condition deteriorate. Despite it all, however, she continues her active writing schedule, providing superbly researched information for her readers.
Today I (as a subscriber) received the following email:
We are days away from closing The Organic Prepper website.
I honestly can't believe I'm writing this letter to you all. As promised earlier, I wanted to send you a longer message to explain our situation.
This website began tiny, back in 2012. I had about 30 views per article and that was on a good day. I got lucky – people liked the content on The OP and we grew, and grew, and grew. We became a voice to be reckoned with, bringing you both sides of the story and being staunchly libertarian in our views. We had so much influence that it scared the establishment, and starting in 2020, we began suffering hit after hit.
First, we were defunded without any warning from our former ad network, AdThrive. We'd been working with them for years and never had a single complaint. Then they hired a "disinformation" group to audit our website and poof - the money we depended on was gone. (At this point, it cost $55,000 a year to run the websites, and that was without one thin dime coming to me or my family.) With ad network support, we could do it. Without, it's been a constant scramble since 2021 when we received our last payment.
Soon after "NewsGuard" decided to audit us. They ranked us rock-bottom for reliability and honesty, after trying to get us to change our narrative to match the official one. When we insisted on providing both sides of the story, we were called a disinformation outlet. Interestingly, all the things we disagreed on regarding the origins of Covid-19, the mRNA vaccines, and Dr. Anthony Fauci have been proven to be true. That doesn't matter, though – they still have us ranked as big fat liars. Other ad networks see this ranking and won't do business with us.
We've been almost completely reader-supported ever since. But times are tough, for you guys as well as me. That support has dwindled away, too. My health doesn't allow me to have the same level of "hustle" that I used to have, creating brand new products or courses every two weeks.
It truly pains me and embarrasses me to tell you that within the week, we may have to close the website. I'm holding this fundraiser as a last-ditch effort to keep paying for our server and other expenses (which I've cut back to the bare minimum).
As a fundraiser, I'm offering a really awesome anthology bundle, with four complete PDF books from The Organic Prepper, starting as low as $5. Every single penny helps us more than I can express. We're getting closer to our goal but we can't get there without help. You can set your own price for this product.
LINK: https://selfrelianceandsurvival.com/product/4-complete-organic-prepper-anthologies/
If you want to provide ongoing support, please check out my Patreon, which offers ad-free content from The OP.
LINK: https://www.patreon.com/theorganicprepper
Asking for help is really difficult for me. I've always managed to save myself. This time, I can't do it without a hand up.
I sincerely appreciate any purchase you are able to make. I hope desperately to keep The OP going.
Stay safe.
Be happy.
Love,
Daisy
I'm reposting her request here in case anyone else would like to help support her. Her material is excellent and the bundles she offers are well worth it. Please consider making some purchases to help her out.
Thank you.
A friend was describing her activities with their flock of sheep, including milking them. For some reason, her email sparked a memory which, for years, I ranked among my most embarrassing moments.
Let's go back to 1983. I spent an extraordinary summer working at Wolf Park outside of West Lafayette, Indiana. In addition to wolf research and breeding, the facility was something of a farm as well, with bison, sheep, horses, etc.
I was an ignorant little suburban-bred college student trying my best to learn rural ways, and the whole summer at Wolf Park was absolutely stinkin' wonderful.
One day one of the senior volunteer administrators asked me to go check on a flock of (hornless) sheep that were close to lambing. I asked what I had to do. She said to lift the tails of a few of the ewes and note if the vulva was swollen or not. If it was, lambing was close.
So I took myself off to the sheep pen, looked for the animals with udders, lifted their tails, and didn't see anything unusual. I reported back to the administrator that nope, it didn't look like they were anywhere close to lambing.
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The next day lambs were popping out everywhere. Somewhat exasperated, the administrator asked me what happened. "I don't know," I protested. "I looked for all the animals with udders and lifted their tails, and didn't see anything unusual."
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Enlightenment dawned on the administrator's face. She asked me to describe the udders I was looking at. When I did, she burst out laughing. And I mean she howled with laughter, clutching her side with mirth.
Finally she gasped out, "Those weren't ewes. You were lifting the tails of the rams."
After a few baffled moments, it dawned on innocent 20-year-old me just what part of the sheep's anatomy I had assumed was an udder. Cue the embarrassment.
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The administrator's eyes twinkled. "Why do you think rams have such big egos?" she asked.
It took me the rest of the summer to live that one down.
The other day I was reading a sensible and well-written piece by Daisy Luther ("The Organic Prepper") about the dangers of using pressure cookers for canning.
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She also emphasized the need to use a pressure canner when preserving low-acid foods. She wrote: "Pressure canning exceeds the temperature of water bath canning, getting your product into the safety zone. The temperature must reach 240 degrees Fahrenheit, which can only be achieved through steam under pressure. All vegetables (except for tomatoes which are botanically a fruit), meats, seafood, and poultry, must be preserved in a pressure canner."
All truthful and factual information. No argument from me.
But then I read something in the comments that absolutely floored me. Someone named "William C" wrote: "There are other ways to get water to 240 degrees without using pressure. Antifreeze added to the water, and checked with a radiator hydrometer, will raise the boiling temp to as much as 270 degrees. Also, you can skip the water bath and use cooking oils. They can get to over 400 degrees if you want."
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I'm sorry, is he suggesting we submerge our green beans or chicken breasts in a water-bath mixed with antifreeze? Deadly poisonous antifreeze that routinely kills pets?
Or, just as crazy, that we "skip the water bath" and submerge the jars of food in boiling-hot cooking oils?
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With all due respect to William C., this has to be some of the most lunatic and insane canning advice I've ever heard, even worse than those who claim it's safe to water-bath can green beans "because Granny always did it that way."
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I read William C's recommendations out loud to Don and we hashed out the insanity of the man's advice. Don summed it up succinctly: "Or you can just get a d*** pressure canner, for Pete's sake."
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Our strawberries have gotten their "second wind" after taking a break mid-summer.
Now I'm getting a nice bowl-full every other day or so.
Older Daughter has taken to making an absolutely yummy treat with these beauties: Chocolate-covered strawberries.
She starts by melting some chocolate chips (with a little olive oil added) in a metal bowl over a pot of boiling water, double-boiler style.
She hulls the strawberries, then carefully dries them. Chocolate apparently doesn't stick to wet strawberries.
Then she drops the strawberries, one at a time, into the chocolate and kinda rolls them around. After that she lays them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
She puts these, still on the cookie sheet, in the freezer for about 15 minutes, then they go in the fridge. It's a nice treat for a hot day, and a great way to use up an abundance of strawberries.
A week from today – August 19 – is Book Bomb Day for "Rachel's Folly." We're stoked!
When the book becomes available, we will ask a sincere favor of everyone: To please post its availability on any social media you may have. We're hoping to show strong sales numbers on its launch day (publishers watch these things). Thank you in advance!
The countdown continues.............
This week's product review is for something I've owned for at least 20 years: A Yogotherm yogurt incubator. It's been in storage for the last few years since we didn't have a milk cow. Now that I'm milking Maggie, I'm using it weekly once more. [NOTE: A reader pointed out that this product is no longer available on Amazon. I checked and she's right. I've updated the link to direct people to Lehman's. We won't make any commission from this link, but it's a good product regardless.]
There are endless yogurt incubators on the market, but most are all fancy and electric, which means they're more likely to break down. Yogotherm is, literally, a Styrofoam sleeve with a bucket inside. That's it.
To make yogurt, I heat the milk to 180F, let it cool to 110F, add the yogurt culture, mix well, and slip the bucket into the foam insulator and let it sit for 10 or 12 hours. That's it. Nothing to break, nothing to plug in. Easy peasey.
I use a Bulgarian yogurt culture because it can be recultivated indefinitely.
When the yogurt is finished, I scoop a bit into a jar and keep it in the fridge. That becomes the starter culture for the next batch. Great stuff.
(Obligatory disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, if you purchase through those links, we earn a small commission.)
(Don't forget: A complete list of all our book and product recommendations are linked here and at the upper-right column of the blog.)
Two reviews from Advanced Readers have been published on Goodreads so far for my sweet indy romance "Rachel's Folly."
Here's one:
This book was hands down very funny and sometimes serious. I simply couldn't put this book down. Fast paced and fun at the same time lol.
Wonderful characters that I fell in love with and connected with along the way. I felt like I was there right along with Rachel as she learned the ways of pioneer life.
Lewis has done a fantastic job of bringing them to life. I loved every minute of this book. This story sort of reminds me of Big Brother 😅 😂
So very good that I hated to see it end. Lewis has shown us that she can write anything and it will be wonderful! I love it when God puts these characters in their places at the right time and moment! I just don't like it when He does it to me lol. So I can relate to Rachel.
Hands down 5 stars for an awesome adventure that I thoroughly enjoyed!
And the other:
Chapter 1 - I'm hooked, and so will you be. This sweet romance written by a talented author is a page turner, an absolute must read! It included a clever plot twist and I didn't want the story to end; I wanted more. This story is compelling and it will capture your heart too. Such a delight! Can't wait for what's next.
The book is being released on Tuesday, August 19. The countdown continues!
We had a day of rain predicted today (Thursday), so yesterday Don and I did a lot of battening down. But it wasn't just battening down for rain; it was the precursor of battening down for winter. In fact, winter has been more on our minds lately after Don "called fall" this week.
Keep in mind we were far more rural in Idaho than we were in Oregon. With two small children (five and seven at the time), we knew we didn't want to risk their health or safety by not being ready for what, conceivably, could be a hard winter.
So we made a decision: By October, we would be prepared to be snowed in for three months. This meant we would have enough people food, pet food, and livestock food so we wouldn't have to go to the store for three months, and enough firewood to stay warm. Could we do it?
Yes we could, and we did. And boy, did it pay off.
The first couple of winters were fine. We got snow, sure; but it wasn't much and it wasn't bad. Were we overreacting by our "snowed in for three months" rule?
And then the winters of 2005/6 and 2006/7 hit like a ton of bricks. During the former, we had tons of snow. During the latter we had tons of snow and high winds. Combined, they left something of a psychic scar that made us never underestimate the power of winter. Ever.
The winter of 2006/7, we probably got five feet of snow (in areas north of us, apparently it was upwards of 12 feet). While this may sound like no big deal for battle-hardened Minnesotans, the two-mile dirt road we lived on at the time was not county-maintained, so it was up to the neighbors to keep it open. The combined efforts of everyone's mishmash of tractors, pickup truck plow blades, and (at times) snow shovels worked – kinda – but it was constant and brutal work and wasn't always effective.
While we weren't snowed in for three months, we got close. That second harsh winter – when heavy snowfall combined with high winds meant our road was closed under incredibly deep drifts – our remote neighborhood fell into a pattern: Storms came at about weekly intervals that, for whatever reason, always came in on weekends. It took about six days to clear the road (no exaggeration). If a storm came in over the weekend, then we were able to get the road opened by about Friday. Everyone would pour out of their homes, dash into town for mail, groceries, and errands, and make it home just in time for another blizzard to close the road.
This happened over and over and over and OVER. Those who worked away from home had to make endless excuses to their bosses. Many had no option except to work remotely. One person who normally commuted to a city job an hour away had to stay with a coworker for a few weeks because otherwise she would miss too much work. One family whose kids attended the public schools simply couldn't make it out.
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For these reasons, we've never relaxed our "snowed in for three months" rule when it comes to approaching winter. In Idaho, you just never know.
Anyway, this is a long explanation of why we're starting to think about getting ready. Will it be an abnormally harsh winter? Don has never "called fall" this early before.
Don read something interesting a couple weeks ago about how global weather patterns are being impacted by one of the greatest natural disasters no one has ever heard of: The Hunga Tonga underwater volcanic explosion that occurred in January of 2022.
This event was spectacularly enormous, "bigger than any other modern volcanic eruption, even bigger than Mount Pinatubo and possibly Krakatoa," according to this article. "The erupting lava instantly vaporized fantastic, unimaginable amounts of sea water, which billowed into the atmosphere, changing the water composition of Earth’s atmosphere and heating it up for years. In just a few days, the superheated water from the Hunga Tonga eruption blanketed the entire globe, pole to pole, East to West. ... Current estimates [for the amount of water blasted into the stratosphere] are three times higher than initially thought: scientists now believe it was closer to 150,000 metric tons, or approximately 40 trillion gallons of superheated water instantly injected into the atmosphere." Scientists expect the effects to persist globally for a long, long time.
So yeah, a hard winter is not outside the realm of possibility.
Therefore yesterday was a day of miscellaneous battening-down chores. It started with a long-overdue repair of a couple of flat tires. Not even flat; utterly destroyed. One tire was on a small trailer we haven't been able to use for some time; and the other, crucially, was on our log splitter.
We have a bunch of wood to split...
...including rounds far too large to use our manual splitter.
Don was able to get the new tire installed. Now the splitter can be moved to where we need it to go.
Time's a-wastin'. We have to get the winter's firewood put up.
Other miscellaneous chores included re-stacking and re-tarping a pile of lumber...
...scrubbing out and refilling the cow's water tank...
...and moving the last of the older round bales into the barn. (The newer hay bales are stacked and tarped in the front driveway; we'll be moving them to the back, nearer the barn, before the snow flies.)
We still have lots to do before winter, including (hopefully) building an awning on the back of the barn to offer more shelter for the livestock this winter.
If it will be a hard winter, we want to be ready for it.
