The blessing of local fruit

I walked into the grocery store recently and turned to go into the produce section. There I was confronted by crates of peaches, 22 lbs. for $39.88, or $1.81/lb.

And not just peaches. Blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, apples, plums ... the selection was impressive ... AND expensive.

Various types of apples were on sale, $2.99 for 3 lbs. ($1/lb.).

Plums were $1.99/lb.

Six ounces of blackberries were $3.49, equivalent to $9.31/lb.

Same price for blueberries.

Regrettably, I did not get a photo of their strawberries, so I checked on the store's website and saw they were selling strawberries for $4.59/lb.

Meanwhile, back at the farm...

Peaches.

Apples.

Plums.

Plums.

Blackberries.

Blueberries.

And of course, strawberries.

The blessing of local fruit.

Did you see the lunar eclipse?

There was a lunar eclipse last night. Did you see it?

Articles kept saying it would happen just after midnight. Since I'm an early-to-bed kinda gal, I figured I'd miss it. However when the moon rose at our place around 9 pm, the eclipse was already in progress (that "midnight" timeline was apparently Eastern Time).

So I stood in our side yard, balancing the camera as best I could on the top wire of the pasture fence, and photographed the progress.

Comically what I didn't realize was there were some deer in the pasture who were becoming more and more alarmed at my quiet presence. I was just about to press the camera shutter when one of them snorted nearby (an alarm signal), and I was so startled that this was the result.

At any rate, I followed the progress until at last the moon showed the merest sliver.

And there it stayed. And stayed. And stayed. I don't know if we weren't predicted to have a total eclipse or I just ran out of patience (it was my bedtime), but I never did see the total eclipse.

Early this morning, the moon was full and bright, setting on the western horizon.

I watched it until it set.

Did anyone else see the eclipse?

What it takes to live "comfortably"

A staggeringly unrealistic article recently came out entitled "This Is The Income A Family Needs To Live Comfortably In Every U.S. State."

As expected, certain high cost-of-living states dominated the list, such as California, Massachusetts, Hawaii, etc. In these states, the income necessary for a "comfortable" lifestyle can top $300,000. 

So of course, the first thing I looked up is the income necessary for a comfortable lifestyle in Idaho. And do you know what income allegedly is? $226,000!!!!!

My outraged comment to Don was, "On what planet?" 

Seriously, I know no one – literally no one – whose income even remotely approaches that ballpark, yet the vast majority of us are able to live "comfortably" (though unquestionably a little more income for most people would be welcome).

These stats are based on two working adults with two children. According to the article, the numbers are "based on the familiar 50/30/20 budget: 50% for necessities, 30% for discretionary spending, and 20% for savings or other goals. These aren’t bare-minimum survival numbers – they’re what it takes to live pretty well while still putting money aside."

That's fine and dandy, but I guess what isn't clear is how they define "comfortable." Perhaps it's the economic point where people don't have to think about or worry about money? The trouble with this definition is it doesn't account for lifestyle creep: Those whose earnings approach the "comfortable" level often opt for more expensive cars, homes, goods, services, etc., and then complain they can't "afford" everything they want.

Within reason – I'm not talking about those living in poverty or mired in medical debt – it seems to me it's far better to be grateful that we can afford the daily comforts we take for granted.

By that definition, the vast majority of people are already "comfortable."

Rest in peace, Dolly Parton

I was saddened today to learn that Dolly Parton has passed away.

I've always admired Dolly for her humor, her wit, and her generous heart. She never forgot her roots, and strove to improve the lives and economic opportunities of her home region by opening Dollywood, among much else.

Since her husband of sixty years passed away less than 18 months ago, I suspect Dolly just lost the heart to go on.

Rest in peace, Ms. Parton.

Getting into freelance writing

In response to my recent post "What a Way to Make a Living," a reader left a comment as follows: "Maybe you've done this already, but how does one go about getting into freelance writing? I'm more of a non-fiction type of guy but I guess I could fictionalize some of my old police cases that might be interesting to some people."

This is a complex subject to tackle, but I'll give it my best shot. The following advice and information is solely based on Don's and my experience over the years.

Nonfiction (Short) Writing

• Build a platform. Whether it's fiction or nonfiction, both agents and editors like it when you already have a following of sorts. That's why this blog has become more and more valuable over the years; it acts not just as a sounding board for our lifestyle, but as a marketing tool for our writing. (Along those lines, I can't tell you how much we appreciate you all!)

• If you're new to the nonfiction industry, start by writing what you know rather than tackling subjects that require investigation. Whether it's an opinion piece, or an experience, or a project you've completed, it's best to come from a position of authority.

• Make sure you know the subject. Writing from ignorance, even an opinion piece, can harm your writing career.

• Meet deadlines. This cannot be emphasized strongly enough. Meet deadlines.

• The editor is always right. If s/he suggests changes, don't argue. Make the changes. If you can't or won't make those changes, it's better to withdraw the piece.

• Submit clean content, meaning syntax, punctuation, spelling, and grammar are all as correct as you can make them. If accepted, your piece will go through additional copy-editing by various editors, but you're far more likely to get rejected if your original piece is poorly written. Believe me, I've been on the editorial side of things a fair bit, and it's astounding how much bad content gets submitted. I remember having to edit one woman's weekly submissions (she was, let's just say, extremely high up in the journalism world) and her pieces were virtually illiterate. I am not exaggerating or using that term lightly. It was some of the worst writing, bar none, I have ever seen. Many times, I had to email her to get clarity on what she meant by this or that point. Often I had to rewrite her entire submission to make it readable. I am genuinely bewildered how she achieved the professional credentials she did. Don't be that person.

• Never ever ever EVER ever ever ever EVER submit something written by AI. There's no faster way to get both round-filed and blacklisted by editors.

• If submitting to magazines, know in advance the publication's focus (it won't do any good to send instructions for knitting lace doilies to a backpacking magazine), writing style (first person POV? third person?), and word count. Word count is especially important. Fortunately, most magazines print writing guidelines for the type and length of content they accept.

• Some magazines are far more open to submissions from unknown writers than others, such as our beloved Backwoods Home Magazine (and its sister publication, Self-Reliance). Other publications are way too massive to pay attention to the Little Guy and your submissions are likely to end up in the slush pile unless the subject matter is especially unique. (In other words, you're unlikely to be accepted to "Better Homes & Gardens" or "National Geographic" until you're far more established.)

• Sometimes – and it pains me to say this – you might have to give some of your writing away for free to begin developing credentials. It took a while for me to build up enough writing credits that I could expect decent compensation for my work.

Nonfiction Books

• Whether you're submitting through an agent or directly to a publisher, a nonfiction book requires a proposal. This consists of a Hook, a Summary, the Theme, the Audience, a Marketing Plan, Manuscript Status (hopefully completed!), a list of Other Books you've written, and then of course the Synopsis and first Three Chapters for the work you're submitting. A proposal is a hassle to write, but usually it's only required once per publisher. Keep in mind the agent or publisher doesn't know you from Adam, so your job is to convince them you're worth the risk and a suitable long-term investment (as opposed to a one-hit wonder).

• Again, having a built-in platform is invaluable to get yourself noticed.

• Write about your passion(s). Years ago, I remember the moment I decided to write "The Simplicity Primer." I was deeply into the subject and wasn't able to find any books that reflected my personal angle on the matter. I was taking a walk when it suddenly came over me like a thunderclap that I was just as qualified to write about simple living as anyone else. The rest is history.

Fiction Novels

• Hone your craft. Fiction is a different animal than nonfiction. You need to be able to write convincing dialog in a way that doesn't jerk the reader out of the story. You need to understand points of view and the balance between dialog and narration. You need to understand how to show, not tell. You need to understand goals, motivation, and conflict. I have many writing reference books in our library, and two of the best are "The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes" by Jack M. Bickham, and the appropriately named "Goal, Motivation & Conflict" by Debra Dixon.

 • Build a platform. I'm sounding like a broken record, right? Yep, once again anyone (agents and/or publishers) who is taking a chance on your fiction novel wants to see that you already have a connection with readers through some sort of social media presence. Welcome to the modern world. I explained some of my platform travails from the beginning of my fiction career in this blog post. Trust me when I say an agent is far, far more likely to accept you as a client if you have a pre-built social media platform to bring to the table. An excellent reference on this subject is the appropriately named book "Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World" by Michael Hyatt, keeping in mind it's a bit out of date with regards to social media.

• Be patient. It took an entire year for my first Harlequin submission (sent through my agent) to filter up through the various slush piles and catch an editor's eye. (I remember the moment: I was standing at my computer desk when I saw the email my agent sent. I remember saying out loud to Don, in a voice of wonder and disbelief, "I sold a book.") During that period of waiting, (a) don't nag, though a polite inquiry every few months is fine; and (b) write some other stuff. During that year of waiting, I kept writing and had two more rough manuscripts ready to polish and submit by the time the first one was accepted. Editors far prefer steady, dependable writers over one-hit wonders.

• Beware of anyone, whether agent or editor or publisher, who requests money to get your work in print. Remember this mantra: Money should flow to the writer. There are TONS of scam artists out there who are clever at parting writers from their cash in exchange for grandiose promises to get your work published and marketed. You might as well send your money to that Nigerian prince. That said, there are self-publishing options (discussed below) that may require an initial outlay of funds to get the work in print; and of course, there are legitimate marketing services which can vastly increase your exposure, though they're way too expensive for our budget.

• The editor is always right. If s/he suggests changes, don't argue. Make the changes. This applies just as much in the fiction realm as the nonfiction. That's why I had to re-do my latest Harlequin proposal. And you know what? The result is inevitably a better story. 

• Along those lines, get your ego out of the way. Ego-driven writers refuse to alter what they see as the Perfect Novel. Editors hate working with writers like that. While some novice writers explode onto the scene and make history with their international best-seller, those are few and far between. Don't be hard to work with. If you feel strongly that your work is Perfect as it is and your editor disagrees, it might be better to publish it yourself.

• Get used to rejection. And I mean, really used to it. Don't let it get you down or discourage you from continuing the pursuit. I've wanted to be a writer for literally decades, and it's only in the last ten years or so that things have really come to fruition. Don't give up. (This applies to both fiction and nonfiction writing.)

Self Publishing

Most of you know we dipped our toes into the self-publishing world last year when we published "Rachel's Folly." Despite the success of the book, our experience in this realm is limited.

• Self publishing (or indie publishing) has advantages for newbies in that it allows some enormously talented but unknown writers to get their works available to the public. The downside is, despite all efforts, very few readers – much less agents or publishers – are likely to notice the book without a vast amount of marketing efforts on your part. Those who are clever and skilled in this area can do quite well, and sometimes are even picked up by traditional publishers, thus launching a writing career. The talented James Wesley Rawles, founder of SurvivalBlog, falls into this category with his book "Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse."

• The mantra "Money should flow to the writer" still applies to indie publishing, within reason. Sometimes you have to outlay some funds for certain marketing opportunities, but less than you might think. Generally if someone contacts you out of the blue to offer their services, it's usually (but not always) an elaborate scam. Be discerning.

This only scratches the surface of the vast world of freelance writing, but I hope it's helpful to the reader quoted above.

Bringing in (some of) the hay

It's that time of year when we need to start considering winter. This means, among much else, bringing in the hay.

Last year, somewhat out of desperation, we purchased a moderate amount of oat hay to tide us over the winter when we ran low on feed. Not oat straw; but oat hay, with the seeds intact. There was nothing else available for sale. It made for immensely heavy bales, but the seller assured us his cows loved it.

Yowza, he wasn't kidding. Our cows positively stinkin' adore this oat hay. So, since the seller's prices are comparable to regular grass hay, we let him know early in the spring that we were committing to purchasing eight tons when he harvested his fields.

Before we could take delivery, however, we needed to figure out how to stack and store the hay. This took several weeks of strategic planning. The reason is because neither Don nor I are willing (or even able) to lift 100-lb bales, much less 160 of them (eight tons), at our age. We needed to let the tractor do the heavy lifting. To do that, we needed specialized implements. And so the planning began.

We already have heavy-duty spikes that attach to the tractor bucket that can be used to support heavy things, such as hay bales. But when Don tried to stab a bale with these spikes to lift it, the spikes were too thick and didn't penetrate the bale. They merely push it. Last year we got by with these spikes because I pushed every bale on top of the spikes, but it was brutally hard work and awkward to place the bales where we wanted.

So this year, Don wanted spikes that actually penetrated the bales. To this end, he worked with a neighbor who does welding and metal work. Don ordered a couple of stainless steel rods capable of supporting 200 lbs. each and brought them to the neighbor. This fellow sharpened the tips of the rods into a dull point, and then welded the rods to a base that could attach to the tractor bucket. This way, Don could stab a bale to move it. As it turned out, these steel rods worked extremely well.

We ordered a delivery of 20 pallets from a nearby hardware store. We have pallets all over the place, but by this point most of them are so rotten and broken that they're not worth much more than scrap wood. This hardware store sells newer pallets for $4/each (delivered). We'd have gone to pick them up ourselves, but we're without a truck at the moment so delivery worked better.

The next thing Don did was to order fork-lift attachments that fit on the front of the tractor bucket. The idea is we could stack the bales on a pallet, lift the loaded pallet with this fork-life attachment, and transport the pallets into the barn and/or into an outdoor location to be tarped for the winter (we knew in advance we didn't have room in the barn for all eight tons).

Next, of course, we cleaned the barn and made as much space as possible.

The issue of stacking the bales was compounded by a lack of room. The driveway area in front of the barn is V-shaped and bisected by an enormous plum tree, as well as being sloped. The barn itself is limited in space since it has both the wood shop and the tool shop bracketing the center aisle, so maneuverability with the tractor is limited.

This is the reality of what we have to deal with. Our job was to make it work.

The seller made arrangements to deliver the first two tons, which come in two-strand 100-lb. bales. Here, Don is directing the farmer who is backing his trailer up our lower driveway.

Forty bales. That's our first load. It would be an opportunity to test our equipment and techniques to see what works and what doesn't.

These are the steel tines. They worked beautifully as long as we positioned them lower in the bale. If they were higher, they just slid out the top and snagged the baling twine, which was too unsteady (the bales were more likely to explode).

You can see the tips of the tines poking out.

By this technique, we managed to get first four, then six bales neatly stacked on a few pallets. My job during this process was not just guiding Don on the finer points of positioning, but then to push and shove the bales into cross-wise positions (since there was no room for the tractor to come in from different directions).

Incidentally, we stacked the pallets under the plum tree in the driveway, which proceeded to rain overripe squishy plums on top.

As we worked, we squashed plums underfoot and against the pallets. Honestly, it looked like we were working in a crime scene, with blood smeared everywhere.

After we got a few pallets stacked, it was time to remove the steel tine attachments and switch over to the fork lift attachments to move the pallets into the barn.

As it turned out, Don got the wrong-sized attachments. He thought the 43-inch attachments would suffice, rather than the 60-inch attachments. What he didn't realize was those measurements didn't apply simply to the length of the tines, but to the overall length of the attachments (including the portion that affixes to the tractor bucket). As a result, the tines didn't extend or support the entire width of a pallet, which meant transporting a pallet of hay bales was tippy to the point of dangerous.

The first pallet he tried to pick up tipped, tumbling all the bales off and exploding one of them. Grunt.

This was due, in part, to the limitations of the tractor as well. The weight of the bales plus the pallet, cantilevered out from the front of the bucket, was too much for the hydraulics on the tractor. He could lift the pallet, but the hydraulics would not let him tip it inward to compensate for the angle of lift, so everything fell off. Ironically, if he had the means to attach the fork-life tines to the back of the tractor, he could have lifted all six bales with ease – but we didn't have that. In other words, we had to figure things out as we went.

In the end, we restacked the pallets with four bales instead of six, and that worked well enough that he could carefully creep and transport a few pallets in the barn. Frustratingly, there wasn't enough space in the barn to maneuver the tractor to stack the pallets in a tidy rectangular arrangement. Instead, we had to put them in a diagonal formation. We tried stacking ten bales high, with me standing on a stepstool to position the bales while directing Don on the tractor. It. Took. Hours.

By this point we had some weather moving in (thunderstorm), so we hastily transported the contents of the exploded bale inside. We just dumped the hay on the floor, to be used first.

Then we tarped the remaining stacked pallets until conditions cleared. (We moved them into the barn a couple days later.)

Processing these forty bales took, I kid you not, about eight hours of work – and we still have another 120 bales coming in! At least now we have a better idea of what works and what doesn't. We estimate we can fit about half the total number of bales in the barn, and the rest will have to be stacked and stoutly tarped outside. It will actually be easier to stack them outside since at least there's a little more maneuvering room than in the barn.

I guess all this exercise is keeping us healthy at our age....