Remember Me? An Update

 Do you remember me? Bob Nailor. That author dude from NW Ohio.

Life has tossed me several curves in the last almost four years since my last blog. First was that nasty COVID virus. I was able to avoid it when it first appeared, but then, it got me. I was rushed to ER in Bryan, then transported to Ft Wayne where they didn't think I would make it through the night.

Ha. Ha. Showed them. Two weeks later I was transported back to Bryan to a nursing home where I spent another two weeks habilitating to join society. Talk about therapy!! I had to learn to walk, go up/down steps, etc. Yeah, even throw a ball.

That was Spring. During the Summer I seemed to be doing fine and things were going along; well, almost too well. In September my doctor decided I was retaining too much water and put me on a diet and double Lasix pills. No exercise, per se, but walking (aka running) to the toilet helped to lose weight. I lost 70 pounds.

Then the falling kicked in. Between December 1 and April 15 of the next year (2022) I fell 21 (TWENTY-ONE) times. It took them that long to figure out why I was falling. Seems I had what is called "Diabetic Amyotrophy" which attacks the muscles of the legs to a point of uselessness. That's right; I couldn't support myself and I never knew when the legs would give out. People told me to use a walker for support. When my legs gave out, it was a drop, like a crumbled cookie. I had a walker, but I was down before I could even get my arms to support me.  We had to let the disease run its course.

Yup, back to therapy again. I was almost to the point where I could walk on my own, my heart decided to go into a-fib. So, a pacemaker was 'installed' to give me a bionic aspect. Things seemed to be back on track. YAY! WRONG. I kept going into a-fib and the doctor couldn't 'shock' me out of it. Back to Fort Wayne and an oblation on the heart in an attempt to fix the a-fib. That did the trick, but I needed to again get more therapy. Almost back to walking on my own when my nephrologist realized my weight gain was due to water retention and any attempt to pressure the kidneys to work harder would ruin them even more. 

I was put on dialysis. A port was put into my upper chest (opposite side of my pacemaker) and now I attend dialysis treatments 3X per week for 3.5 hours per session. It would have been nice to be able to do it in my own community, but there is a 2+ year waiting list to get in there; so I go to Defiance which is about a 35-40 minute drive from my home; each way. Talk about a shot day.

All during this time I have attempted to write, my Amish fan base is screaming for the next book. I wrote "The Secret Voice" as a stand-alone book. Wrong. Fans wanted to know what happened next. I wrote "The New York Voice" in hopes of satisfying my fans and calling it quits. Nope. Hence book 3, "The Amish Voice" came into existence. I had my wife read the final copy before publishing. What was her first words when she finished the book? What Happens Next? That's right, I'm now working on book 4, "The Vietnam Voice" and have outlined/wrote a little on the LAST two books: "The Family Voice" and "The Englische Voice" which definitely ends "The Amish Singer Series" - at least, in my mind. If my fans are wanting more, I will need to consider a new series.

I also wrote two Barry Hargove detective/mystery books: "The Case of Eternal Blood" and "The Babbling Sphinx" Yes, I'm working on book 3; "Dragon Feast" which I hope will be a fun read for those who like mystery/detective stories.

And, I'm also working on book 2 of my "Shiyula" series - "The Topaz" which is coming close to being done, IF I ever finish "The Vietnam Voice." LOL. Yes, I have outlines for another few books in this series, too. "The Ruby," "The Sapphire," "The Pearl," and "The Diamond." My heroine, Jewyl, will have her hands full as she attempts to regain her grandfather's kingdom.

Rumor has it I'm also working on a book of Christian meditation... AND a sequel to my best-seller on AMazon "52 Weeks of Writing Tips" entitled "Another 52 Weeks of Writing Tips." I know, so original!

Notice in the above line I said best-seller on Amazon. My big, BIG seller is my Amish series, but it's via me at fairs, book clubs, craft shows and other events.

Which brings me to a moment of realization. With dialysis happening 3X per week, I did an event in southern Indiana - The Covered Bridge - which lasted 10 days. I won't be able to do that anymore. I even question my ability to do the 4 day Pemberville Free Fair event which I really enjoy.

Yes, my life has/is changing. I can travel but I must set up dialysis sessions along the way. I was told I could even go on a 10 days cruise. Hm? I can get a cruise for $800/person, but the dialysis (5 or 6 times) at about $1K per session... WOW! For 2 people, the cruise will be less than $2K, but the dialysis for me during that time, like $6K. And guess what!? I have to pay. Insurance won't cover it because if you can afford a cruise, you can afford your dialysis.

Okay, if you stuck with me this far; thanks. I hope to return to blogging.

Until next I ramble on...

Trying Something New

I've been writing this blog for several years, always trying to "capture" an essence of what I wanted to say, but always failing in the completion.  Okay, not a total failure, but I've always felt my blogs were somewhat lackluster. Yes, occasionally I would have one that stood out, glistening in the sunlight, but more often than not, most of the posts were either drab, boring updates or some rant. Again, maybe more rants than updates.

Today I want to try something different. In addition to my usual mundane update and/or rant, I want to add personal items about me.

Why, you ask? Because I want you to know me, the guy who puts this all together. Sure, everyone knows I write and I cook and I have a wife, kids and grandkids. But... do you really know me?

First, my updates. I've been busy the last few weeks doing edits for my writing clients. I really enjoy doing them because I get to be on the cutting edge of what is new coming out. Plus, I feel I am giving back to the writing community, teaching others how to improve their skills as writers.

If all goes well, once more I'll be teaching a class at Terra State Community College in Fremont, OH. This one will be a shorter class, about three weeks. It is about using dialog for characterization. I'm hoping the students find it useful and helpful.

My garden is coming to harvest.  I have nine (9) tomato plants with a couple of plants of several different varieties. I tried something different this year rather than the same old types as I have grown in the past.  The most unusual one was the Jersey Devil, a 'Roma-type' tomato. Here's a picture of them growing and another with my hand around one still growing to ripeness.

Notice their length? And inside is basically all meat with just a few seeds.  Great for salsa, stewed tomatoes and purees.

This is my wife's first batch of salsa for 2017. There wasn't quite enough to make 8 pints so Yours Truly got to do a little QC that night.  And I wiped out what was left of the tortilla chips.  My wife went to the store and bought two big bags so I won't run out. She has since canned 6 qts of stewed tomatoes, another 11 pts of salsa and 8 pts of tomato juice. She looked at the garden and made the following comment. "[heavy sigh] And this is only the start of the season."

I should mention she also canned 9 qts of dill pickles, 8 pts of banana peppers and I have a couple heads of cabbage - to which I will make a lot of egg rolls for the freezer. There is a bevy of green peppers and I'll be making my infamous freezer green pepper casseroles for the winter.

In addition to all this canning, we're also camping. I finally got the RV toilet repaired. It became a fiasco with always something to stymie me as I attempted the project. Let's just say, after several months (this started the fall of 2016) we were finally able to go camping, and camping we did. Almost a month of camping. A week with friends, a week alone, a week with granddaughters and another week alone. Sure, it was only for a few days each week... being honest, the first week was five nights, the week alone was four nights, the one with the granddaughters was three nights since we had other activities planned and the last week was another four nighter.  We prefer to camp during the week to avoid the weekend chaos and cramped camping.  With school just around the corner, camping is going to be mostly seniors until the nights get too cold. Me? I enjoy those brisk nights, sitting around the campfire, enjoying the fall in all its glorious colors. Having been involved with Scouting since I was 10 yrs old, I have no issue camping when the snow flies and have done it several times - in a tent, no less!

Oh, before I forget. I actually got back to writing my own stuff again. Last night I was able to put just a hair over 1000 words to my followup Amish novel - The New York Voice.  It will still need some heavy-handed editing, but I'm thrilled to be writing, again.

Now, for the new stuff.  Here goes...

My favorite color ever since I was a little kid, let's say at least a half century ago... plus a tad more, was red. I love red. But, I've matured a lot since I was a grade school kid and my colors have changed. Not really. I still love red but it is so brash. I've learned I also love green, especially the deep forest greens. And I enjoy a good shade of blue. My wife has taught me to embrace shades of purple, more so the violet shades she enjoys.

One of my granddaughters wanted to make me something special for my birthday and asked my favorite color. I tried to explain my hesitancy to blurt out the color red, instead telling her I liked all the colors of the rainbow.  She made me key chain fob. It was very colorful with red being the main color, but she did a great job blending in all the other colors and not make it look like a rainbow but have almost every color of the rainbow in it.

As with my choice in colors, my music choices are even more eclectic. One cannot point at me and say 'There goes a rock and roll man' or 'He's really into classical music.' Me? I roll with the waves of the ocean and my music is about as varied as the waves of the seas. To get you started, here's one of my favorite music groups, Brulé performing 'Spirit Horses.'

No, I am not Native American, but, even as a young lad playing "Cowboy and Indians" - yes, I'm THAT old - my younger brother always had to be the cowboy with the guns which left me the Indian. As I got older I was drawn to the American Indian mystique and enjoyed doing beading and recreating Indian headdresses. I even learned, at the "ripe" age of 15 some words of the Indians who lived in the NW Ohio area - the Delaware aka the Lenni Lenape or just plain, Lenape. 

Anyway, to give you a little more insight to me, here's another piece of music I enjoy.

Now, so you totally understand what I mean by the words "I enjoy" or "love" this music. I have these songs on my computer and have had them on my computer for decades for some of them. I listen to them repeatedly - and I do mean repeatedly. I may play a song over and over - as many as a dozen or more times - before moving on to the next song. Some of my music has transferred across as many as ten different computers and laptops over time. Probably more. I kept my music list on all - and I mean ALL - my computers... even at work. My play list is now about four (4) hours long and I keep adding to it as new songs come along or I find a digital copy of an old song I just have to have.

If you have a favorite piece of music, share it with me. Maybe we'll find a common ground.

In future blogs we'll discuss my favorite foods, share some recipes, more music, what I enjoy reading and whatever I feel is necessary for you to know me, Bob Nailor - the guy, the husband, the father, the grandfather and great-grandfather, the writer, the traveler, the gardener, and more.

Until next I ramble on...

A Writing Dilemma

Now exactly what could be so horrific to cause a writer to panic?

I'm 70+ years old and have several novels published, both traditionally and self-published. Not to mention several articles and posts that have offered internationally. Still, I, like so many other authors, remain unknown.

I'm considering not to continue my supposed writing career. At my age, I should be rocking away on the front porch, enjoying life as it passes by.

REALLY?

Enjoy life as it PASSES BY?  NO!  NO!  NO!

I had a few days this week when I actually considered dropping from the authorial world and just enjoy life, playing with the grandkids and great-grandkids, gardening, reading, and traveling. I almost had myself convinced to just sit back.

Then I decided I would step back from writing and just finish up those few novels I'd written and either never finished or needed to clean up to publish.  That sounded like a better idea. It could be something I do while we are traveling and camping... or sitting on the front porch. LOL.

I figured a one-year sabbatical - two years at the most - would be sufficient.

So, I made a list of those novels I needed to work on... uh, all 26 (the count so far) of them. That's correct!  I have 26 novels in different stages of completion. I actually may have more if I scrounge around on my laptop and backup files. This number does not include the myriad of short stories I have written.

Needless to say, I don't want to peek into the sub-directory named "Future Plots" or the other one named "Ideas" for fear of what I may find there.

Therefore, with the idea of not writing anymore now entrenched in my mind, I have decided that perhaps I should reconsider another avenue.

I won't write any more NEW books until I have the ones already on my laptop finished.

Exactly what does this mean?

It means I won't be participating in any future NaNoWriMos (that is National Novel Writing Month which happens in November) or seeing a wild-flung idea/plot from some obscure news article or tidbit discovered while surfing the internet.  Also, I might have to control my imagination when watching certain TV shows - like Aliens on the History channel or of that ilk. National Geographic and History channel can be great idea generators.  I can't give up Giorgio Tsoukalos, Erich von Daniken, David Childress, Peter Fiebag, Robert Bauval and Luc Burgin. Nor can I give up the SyFy channel.  I'll just have to control (aka lock down) my imagination.

I figure if I can finish, edit and publish at least two (2) books a year - it will take me a mere thirteen (13) years to finish all those I have lurking (aka languishing) on my laptop.  Even IF I were to be able to push myself to 3 books a year; it would still take over 8 years to finish them all. Exactly WHERE did I think one or two years would be sufficient?

Can I control my imagination to not... repeat, NOT want to write something new for the next ten years?

At the current time, I am open to any and all suggestions of how to complete the task at hand.

Uh, so you have a "basic" understanding of what I've got stuffed in my laptop --

5 Amish novels, one is a horror, the rest Christian and sort of a series
5 vampire novels (a series)
4 fantasy novels (a series)
2 action adventure novels (1 is a sequel to a published book)
3 epic fantasy novels
1 Native American werewolf vampire detective story
1 Native American fantasy
1 mainstream fiction
1 historical fiction
1 military fantasy
1 SF novel
1 fairy fantasy

As you can see, a very eclectic selection of stories. Oh, and the short stories are a collage of SF, horror, and fantasy... and we have NO count on those.

Is this the time I should mention, I have one "screenplay" I also have in the works and not part of the counts above?

HELP ME!

Until next I ramble on...

Multi-Tasking

I started teaching this week.  What am I teaching?  Writing, of course.  I'm doing a 7 week course I created called "Sailing The Seven Cs" which is based on my segment of a how-to writing book.

I arrived at the college early so I could discuss another project with the department head and make sure I had enough time for lunch before my 1pm class.

Okay, I arrived early and she was in another class.  As I sat in the lounge, I was able to watch other students.  That's when I say the latest (at least for me) in multi-tasking.

The young man had a small electronic notepad, Kindle or iPad and was watching the news on it. At the same time, he had another smaller electronic device he was playing a game on. He also had a set of earbuds and I thought he was listening to the game.  I was wrong.  I heard a cellphone ring and he pulled it out of his pocket which had the cord to the earbuds. He yanked the earbuds out of his ears and I heard music - either rap or something with a heavy beat.  In my ignorance, I listen to rock and roll - basically 50s, 60s, 70s, and some 80s stuff, new age, classical, show tunes and country. I'm eclectic but just haven't gotten into rap or heavy metal and/or grunge.  Anyway, he started talking to somebody, grabbed the news playing unit and the screen changed to what appeared to be another news channel.  Just as quickly, he picked up an earbud, stuck it in his ear and immediately placed the other one on the speaker of his cellphone. "Listen to this!"  Again, it was music but I couldn't really make it out.

From what I could tell, the conversation between him and his friend revolved around the music he was listening to and the news.  AND, all during this time, he also continued to play the game while at the same time, involving another student who was sitting a nearby table into the news aspect.

Sorry, but this old guy's mind was blown.  How does one multi-task so many different things at once?

I was visiting my #4 son's house a while back and his 6 and 7 year old daughters were watching some show on TV.  I, for some reason, thought it to be an animated movie, like Veggie Tales or whatnot.

Again, WRONG!

It was Shopkins.  The segments are about 60 seconds, some shorter, some longer, and then it is over and a new segment comes on.

We say our children don't stay focused on one thing for any length of time. As an adult (parent) have you watched what they watch?  Just because it is a "children's" station or show, doesn't mean that it is automatically the best thing to watch.

Years ago, I was home sick and was helping my wife watch the first our grandchildren. They wanted to watch their TV shows.  My wife put them on.  I was amazed at the shortness of the scenes and the variance of each scene. I just sat there shaking my head in disbelief.

On the way to work the next day, the passenger riding next to me got up to leave and asked if I'd like to read the magazine, otherwise she would toss it.  I agreed to read it.  Inside was an article that explained how children's TV shows today are designed to keep their interest and to keep them from wandering away from the TV.

HUH?

Short scenes, voice changes, lighting variances - everything plays to the child to keep his mind occupied.  In order to do that, everything is a short burst. The child won't leave the TV for fear of missing something.

Think about that!!

You go to the theater and during the movie, you want popcorn or a drink - you get up, hurry to get whatever and race back to your seat. You might miss something but more than likely, not too much and can quickly pick up the flow.

Not so with a children's TV show. By the time they've toddled to the other side of the room, they could have missed a whole episode - hence they stay put.

Is this part of the multi-tasking that I saw at college last week?  Are the young children growing up in a world where everything must happen in 30 seconds, no more than 60 seconds or lose their interest?

When I was a child, I'd sit under a big tree and listen to the wind blow through the leaves or watch the wind play atop the fields of golden wheat - mesmerized for great lengths of time.  Today when I attempt to show this to my grandchildren, it is a quick glance followed by "That's nice" and they move on.  I could read a phrase in a book and get lost in the reverie as I pondered its meaning and how it made me feel. It could be a couple of minutes, even five or ten minutes, maybe longer.

I consider myself multi-tasking when I write, listen to music, stare out the window from time to time and sometimes chew gum.  But, watching the news, playing a game, listening to music and talking to a friend on the phone and the guy at the next table?  That is taking multi-tasking to a whole new height.

Until next I ramble on...

Last Chance - In More Ways Than One

For those who don't know it ... I'm running an edit special.  I'm taking "appointments" for editing of short stories and novels.  Assigning them 'down the road' so to speak.  If you know you will need an editor, say mid-Feb, I'm willing to lock you into a time so when the time comes, you'll have my services available... and at a reasonable price.  Yes, rather than my standard $1.50/page (which by the way will be changing later on) — I'm only charging $1.00 per page.  You save 30% on my editing services.

Okay, that was last chance #1 — this offer will be expiring soon. Remember two things, prices are going up and this offer won't last forever, although you can lock it in now.

Now, about last chance #2.  Sort of off-the-wall.  I bought me a new knit hat.  Yeah, big whoop, but this one has LED lights.  Again, big whoop.  Let me explain.  I got an LED thinsulate knit hat for the "men's" Christmas exchange this year for our family get together.  My granddaughter's boyfriend got it in the 'drawing of the numbers" as we call it.  He was thrilled and personally, I found a lot of uses for it around my house. I wanted one.  I found this one on Amazon, costing a lot less and not quite as delicate to remove to wash the hat.  This one has dual lights.  I mean, it has 4 white lights just like the one I gave, but this one also has 2 red and 2 blue lights which flash red, then blue, then red and blue together and finally repeat the pattern over.  I think they said it was supposedly for emergency aid.  Not sure about that.  I found the white lights work great when I'm away during the day and have to go collect chicken eggs in the dark.  The coop doesn't have electric, per se.  It has an electric cord run to it that keeps the watering dish heated, but otherwise, it gets dark, it IS dark — no lights.  The chickens didn't mind the white LED light when I collected the eggs.  I reached up to turn it off and the next option (red/blue) kicked in.  I thought my chickens were going to start dancing.  Suddenly I felt like I was in a disco.  The chickens got quite vocal about the red/blue flashing lights.  Now, my son came up with a better use for the red/blue lights.  He says when I'm driving the roads at night, with limited traffic, as I come up to a slow poke, hit the red/blue and they will probably move to the side thinking a state trooper is behind them.  Hmm?  Just not too sure I want to give that option a try — my luck, I'd do it to a law officer off duty.  I don't need slammer time, especially at my age.

My next last chance —  I can't believe I'm actually saying this.  Food.  I weighed myself and was not happy with the way the scale numbers spun on the dial.  I've gained weight. SO, last chance was today.  I am now on a rigorous diet and exercise program.  Okay, not really... well, sort of.  I am watching my intake of carbs and portion sizes.  Last Friday was my last all-you-can-eat fish fry... or, at least, limiting them to maybe once a month. I might be able to skip them if I do baked fish on Fridays.  Again, it won't be all-you-can-eat, but it should sooth the crave.  I love fish.  Of course, I can basically eat all the shrimp, crab, lobster and scallops I want.  Scallops are hard to get here in this locale. Lobster is too expensive to gorge on.  So, crab and shrimp it is... and I love shrimp grilled or baked and who can pass on steamed crabs?  Not me!  Again, they are proteins so they don't have a lot of effect on my blood sugar, but I'm sure glutting on them will have an effect on my weight, so once again, it will be portion control.  I'm going back to my breakfast of kale smoothies.  I love them. My wife?  She'll pass on the green mixture.  I'm giving you my secret recipe...

1 cup almond milk

1/4 cup frozen pineapple chunks

1/4 cup frozen mango chunks

1/2 cup chopped kale (I usually just put in a leaf of kale, including the stem)

2 T chia seeds

1 T honey

1 t cinnamon

1 t turmeric

juice of 1/2 a fresh lemon

some chopped ice - maybe 1/4 cup?

Blend it all together until a nice pure green silky drink.  I say YUM. If you try it, let me know what you think of my special breakfast go-get'em.

Of course, my cooking habits will have to change, too. No more all these gourmet meals of decadent yummies laden with butter.  I will need to streamline my cooking habits to a healthier ideal.  I know it can be done.  Goodbye double-stuffed twice baked potatoes. Goodbye cheesy-garlicky biscuits.  Goodbye thick soups. Hello brothy soups.  Hello zesty, spicy foods baked or broiled.  Goodby weight.

Another last chance? I have just a few more days to order my seeds to start growing them inside before Spring arrives.  This is January. If you calculate 3 weeks for a turn-around on delivery of my order(s) — that gets me into February.  If it takes 12 weeks to grow the seed to put out by May 1st, uh, I'm pushing it.  Twelve weeks is the equivalent of 3 months — Feb, Mar, Apr... which pushes me into May.  I will be ordering my seeds tomorrow. The bigger the tomato plant going in the garden, the sooner luscious tomatoes can be harvested. The same holds true for flowers  I want blooms in late May, early June — not the middle of July.

My last last chance to place here. I will be attending a 'get-together' soiree at Terra State Community College on Thursday, January 19th to discuss with others about my class I am teaching.  Yes, I am teaching a class in writing.  It will be a 6-week course and be an intense explanation about writing and handling the aspects as an author in today's publishing world.  I have been working on my classes and I think I know what I want to handout at the soiree, but I need to put that together. I got a couple of days.  I will be busy.

A final last chance?  There is never a final last chance. They just keep coming and coming.

Until next I ramble on...

Happy New Year! Some Tips to Share

As most of you know, I fight continuously on the battle of the bulge. My stomach just doesn't want to be reduced. Now, stepping back and evaluating this information, I've come to realize some of it is my fault and some of it is caused by medications.

First, let me explain the really easy part. My fault.  I love to eat, plain and simple. I love food. I love to cook and seriously get excited with flavor combinations. I'm always on the lookout for a new recipe that will test my culinary skills and tickle my palate when I eat it. Hence, gluttony will get me every time. Plus, right now, holidays are a killer. Everyone is bringing something for me to taste and well, taste I must. LOL.  The second aspect of my fault is my lack of exercise. When I was exercising, I was losing weight.  Uh, I fell off the wagon.  No exercise means extra weight. Plain and simple.  The tip here: Exercise and watch what you're eating.

Now, let me explain about my medications. I'm diabetic, stage 2. Last year, this time, my A1C was over 10 and my doctor was totally ticked. He wanted me on insulin. I fought that battle and got my A1C down to like 7.4 and I went on a strict, rigid diet, cutting my carbs and meal intakes. My doctor had me take a "diabetes learning class" and things went awry. My instructor was appalled I had cut out almost all carbs. She was adamant, I had to have carb intake. She put me on a diet that consisted of 60 carbs per meal (3X daily) and 30 carbs per snack (3X daily) and if you do quick math, that is 270 carbs a day.  I tried it.  My weight skyrocketed. And my sugar increased, too.  So, after a couple of months of seeing this drastic change, I went back to my diet with minimal carbs. I love rice and potatoes and I wasn't about to cut that from my diet. I just drastically cut back the amount and how often. No more heaping piles of rice - a polite amount, one half cut. I got my rice hit. Same held true for the potatoes. A small serving or a very small baked potato. No longer do I search the tater pile for the biggest ones I can find.  Even French fries are being limited. My tip about this is simple: You are what you eat - or if you're talking about medications - what you take - try to keep control.

But, I digress. My medications, many of them, have side effects and usually that includes, of all things, weight gain. I spoke with my doctor about that and he had a solution. I figured another pill. Wrong! He pulled a fast one on me. I take a Victoza shot every day. It helps me maintain my sugar and also dampens my appetite - somewhat.

Now, as I said, I gave up my exercise. I'm paying for that action now. I've regained about 10 pounds of what I've lost.  I'm still under 250, down from the original 268 at the beginning of the year, so I consider that a good thing. I think I've maintained a 20 pound loss over the year. Yay!!  My tip at this point? Keep focus and don't lose heart. It is too easy to give in.

As stated, I stopped my exercise and to say I became more fixture-like is an understatement. That has not done my heart any good. For the last few days I've been watching my #4 son's dog - a pitbull puppy and she is solid muscle. Lugging her to her bedtime crate for the night leaves me slightly wasted in my recliner. I'm not gasping for air but I can tell it wears on my heart. Having had a quadruple bypass eleven years ago - I notice my heart more, now.  Tip to this? Be aware.

Other topics. My writing has languished of late. I did complete NaNoWriMo but the story is nothing like I planned so it will basically be a rewrite. I want it to be more literary than fantasy. Yes, I know I'm a fantasy writer but I wanted this story to NOT have a lot of fantastical aspects, and be more fictional. I guess that is what rewrites are all about. So my tip here: Sit your butt in the char and write!

So, with the beginning of a new year, like everyone else, I will once again attempt some new year resolutions... and like I've said in the past: Make the realistic and attainable with a definitive goal.

I'm going to lose weight. That is undefined. I'm going to lose 50 pounds. That is probably unattainable.  I want to lose another 15 pounds this year. Now, THAT is a possibility. Why such a small amount? Simple. I lost 20 and struggled to keep it off. Trying to lose another 15 is going to be tough. Did you read the above? My meds make it difficult. Of course, the more I lose, maybe I can reduce some of those medications. It was a slow spiral down to this point, it will be a slow go to reach back up to the top. But I will -- WILL -- get there.

I'm going to write more this. A nice ambiguous goal.  I'm going to publish 4 books. Another unobtainable goal, more than likely. I'm not saying it can't be done, but the reality to do so would involve total commitment and determination.  I'd like to publish 2 books this year. I figure it will be a fight with everything else I think I may be involved with this year, but, I've set a goal... and it is one I feel I could reach.

So my final tip: Make your goals for 2017 obtainable. No reason of going into the new year with goals that you know you can't reach.  It is better to save $50 during the year than attempt to put $1000 in the bank when you know you live from paycheck to paycheck.  A dollar stuffed in a jar each week won't be missed, but $20 a week could mean the difference of a nice meal and no meal.

Did you set your New Year's Resolutions?  Will you keep them?  Share your goals.

Until next I ramble on...

Determination

There is a Bible verse about faith and the mustard seed. I'm not going assault you with religious beliefs or spout Biblical verses... only enough to say, sometimes it takes determination, too.

Why and how does determination fall into the same category as faith?  Glad you asked.

I live in NW Ohio and see the miracle of the mustard seed.  I really don't believe there are that many farmers in this particular area who are raising mustard as a cash crop, so to see those fields of yellow when the mustard plant is in bloom ... all the way to the road, I might add ... is a beautiful thing to behold, even if it is weed.

But I wanted to talk about determination.

Ever planted morning glories?  I did.  Oh, about six years ago.  My wife and I thought it would be amazing to see blossoms spiraling up the trellis on each side of our front porch entrance. It would allow some shade and look gorgeous. We talked it to death and finally decided to do multi-colored rather than "discuss" (btw, that's also known as argue) which color, sky blue or purple, would be better.

So, the spring of 2009 I purchased a packet of seeds and spread a few of them on each side of the steps leading up to the porch, in front of the trellis entrance.

I'll admit, they were stunning. Beautiful parasols of sky blue, shades of lavender and purple, whites and creams, pinks, reds and even stripes or ribbons of mixed colors. They bloomed all day long and filled the trellis... and then some.

Good soil means good roots and good roots means strong plants and strong plants means vigorous growth.  Yup! Those morning glories filled the trellis and I had to string fishing line along the front of the porch for the vines to continue growing.  Otherwise it would have appeared I was attempting to grow Jack's Bean Stalk.

My front porch is twenty-four feet across the front with the four-foot wide steps in the middle. Hence, ten foot on each side.  Those morning glories grew from the raised flower beds in front of the porch, twining around the trellis and finally almost to the very ends of the porch on the mangle and tangle of fish lines I'd created.

Being retired, we tend to sit on the front porch and enjoy the cool breezes, listen to the birds fly and chirp and laugh at the antics of the hummingbirds.  The vines had seeds and I gathered as many as I coiuld, trying to make sure I got the red and blue ones.

But, all is not well nor content.  The overgrowth of morning glories - a two-foot wide trellis which now encroached to almost four-foot wide... and all the dangling vines across the top.  The view of the front yard, traffic, neighbors walking walking the country road, etc... was almost non-existent!!

"We won't be planting morning glories on these trellis next year!!"

"HUH?" I almost dropped my plastic bag of about 3 bazillion seeds.  Maybe I exaggerate a little, it was only like about two pounds of seeds.

"If you want morning glories, plant them at the end of the wall. I can't see out and I want to see."

Hm? I have an eight-foot retaining wall. Morning glories on that could be quite attractive. "Okay."

"In fact, you could tear them out now - it won't hurt my feelings at all."

Two weeks later, about the last week of September, found me ripping out the roots of the morning glory plants and trying to get the tangle of vines out of the trellis.  Needless to say, seeds were popping out of their pods and going everywhere.  I got the "most" of it out and threw the vines over the edge of the retaining wall.  The seeds could grow there next year.

Leap forward in time to Spring/Summer of 2010.

Dear Diary: Today  ripped another 200+ morning glory plants out of the raised beds. I think that makes it over 1000 plants I've weeded so far this year.

Leap forward in time to Spring/Summer of 2011.

Dear Diary: I can't believe I'm still pulling out morning glory plants from in front of the trellis.

Leap forward in time to Spring/Summer of 2012.

Dear Diary: Still pulling some morning glory plants out of of the raised beds. Found some blooming ones on the ground by the retaining wall.

BIG leap forward in time to Summer of 2016.

Yeah, I'm still pulling morning glory plants out of the raised bed.  So far this year, about 8 plants.  Last year, in desperation, I used RoundUp and put down three inches of mulch.  I can't believe the persistence of these seeds.  I also did RoundUp at the retaining wall and from what I can tell, those no longer grow.  Of course, this could be a "psych" year for them and they'll be back next year with a fervor to put out even more seed.

Now, the interesting thing is this.  I don't have any mustard plants in my yard, but if you are interested in a morning glory plant - I bet I might be able to find you one come next year if you decide to stop by. Just let me know you'll be coming so I don't tear it out before you get here.

Oh, and why did I want to discuss persistence?  I almost forgot.  November is coming which means National Novel Writing Month will happen.  It's also known as NaNoWriMo.  Anyway, you must write fifty thousand words in thirty days.  Now, there is persistence!  You need to write 1667 words each day as an average.  I have learned over the years - yes, I've done this for FOURTEEN years now, almost from its original inception, you must focus and have persistence... like a morning glory. Sure, you can have faith like a mustard seed, but it will take the persistence to keep you on track.  So, now is the time for you to outline your story, do your research and develop your characters.  Come November 1, you can plow into the frenzy and enjoy a month of writing a novel.

Remember, have the persistence of a morning glory.

Until next I ramble on...

Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo

Once more, as we speed around the sun, National Novel Writing Month AKA NaNoWriMo approaches. Yes, November is coming and coming fast. Are you ready?

Of late I have repeatedly said, I'm not going to do it this year.  And, of course, each year I plunge into extravaganza event, thrashing about, ignoring sociability and family in my pursuit to write 50K in 30 days.

Seems this year will be no different except I've decided early on to engage in wild abandon.

How many years have I entered into this pursuit?  I can proudly say I started participating in 2000. That was the 2nd year of its existence.  I'll be honest, I attempted to do a cookbook. Let me tell you a little about that - DON'T ever try to write a cookbook for this event.

The following year my father passed away in October and I considered attempting it but realized I had too many obligations to ignore... so I didn't participate.

Okay, first year I failed to complete the 50K words, but I did get 35K written.  Good attempt. The following year I skipped out for personal reasons.

Since 2002 I have participated and completed the challenge.  That's right, folks.  I have 13 novels written.  And, yes, some of them have been published... not only self-published, but also via other publishing companies.

Now for the sordid truth. Some of those novels are so bad. In fact, once of them I went back and deleted almost 35K words. There are those who would claim that the effort was an obvious waste of time if I deleted all that text. Not really. I got the story down. I know what I want it to be. I deleted what I don't want and now need to rewrite what I do want.

Call it editing. I have several of those novels that have some text deleted that I wrote just to get my 50K words in. They were finished stories. They weren't the best stories. BUT they are being edited to make them better stories. Four of them have been published. So that leaves me with 9 novels to be edited. Let's just say they are in various stages of completion at the current time.

So, how to prepare for this event?

1. Get your research out of the way. Do it now. Get it all saved, printed, stored, whatever - so you can access it quickly and not waste a lot of time. Make copious notes.

2. Prepare you mind. Going in with the proper mindset is critical. You have to know you can do this. Thinking you can will work against you. If you want to win, you have to see the finish line and that means you have to know you will do it.

3. Realize that each day you will need to write a minimum of 1667 words. I set my goal at 1700 words each day with a final word count of 51K.  That allows for some gravy on the word counting app to verify your winning at the end.  I made myself a little word counter printout that I'm willing to share, if you're interested. It is 1700 word per day. Simple to use. Know today's date? See the number of words you should have written to be on target. Get It Here! Print it out and give copies to your friends. I've had mine taped to my desk hutch upright for about 8 years now.

4. If you fall behind, apply yourself and catch up.

5. If you're having a good day writing and can actually write more than the required word count, by all means, do so. I've had days where I was able to write 5, 8, even 10 thousand words. Now, if you do have a great day like that, don't sit back on your laurels because you're ahead - stay ahead. The next day, write the required words.

6. Remember that Thanksgiving Day (that's for all U.S. residents) is during the month. The family will expect you to come out of the cave and socialize. Be sure to shower and cleanup before doing so and enjoy the day.  Of course, there is a two-fold blessing to the holiday. If you work, you most likely will have off that day and maybe the Friday, too.  Use them to your advantage - WRITE.

7. Now this is the one that really is hard. Don't edit. Don't go back and fix. Don't . Don't. Don't. I mean it. The object is to get the story down - bad or worse... uh, er, I mean, good or bad. If you need to correct something - make it a note and continue on. I changed my main character's name about half way through - I typed: (RSN-NAME CHANGE - Mark is now Daniel, go back and fix) and continued writing.

8. When stumbling for a name of a character or place that you can't remember - do as I do. Type your initials and what you want.  For me that would RSNFirstName, RSNName or RSNCity and continue on.  When it is time to edit, the first thing I look for is "RSN" and see what I need to fix.  Did you note the RSN in my #7 rule?  Whenever I need to make a note, I toss my initials out there, that way they're easy to find later on.

9. Some writers will suggest that you lock yourself in your room or designate a certain amount of time at a certain time of day. That doesn't work for me. My life is hectic and varied. I write when I have the free time and free time means sitting at the doctor's office, riding to work or home on a bus, late in the evening, early in the morning, during lunch. You'll be amazed how much writing can be accomplished in 15 or 20 minutes. When I worked in the big cities and would get caught in rush hour traffic or an accident snarl, I would dictate into a small cassette recorder. (I know, giving away my age here.) Use your cellphone and when you get home, type it into your laptop.  Of course, if you have your laptop with you, depending on the situation, you 'could' attempt to enter it direct, but I'm not really suggesting that. Much easier, safer and conscientious to dictate.  Oh, I don't recommend dictating while driving. You want 50K words, not 50K words of spoken eulogy.

10. Enjoy yourself. If you don't succeed in the event, don't beat yourself up. Remember, if you only have 18K words when November 30th arrives, that is 18K more words than you had one month earlier. If you do succeed, congratulations, you now have a novel that needs an immense amount of editing, re-editing and maybe another set of eyes to review before you edit yet again.

Now, I need to get busy on my research. I have a great story to write this year. Getting excited. In fact, I think this novel will easily reach 80K without any trouble - maybe even bigger!  I won't give all the details right now but I'll tease you - it will be somewhat historical and is based on a segment of "Aliens" I watched on the History Channel. Giorgio Tsoukalos and that gang can get my imagination jumping and then, can I write fast enough to get it all down?

Until next I ramble on...

False Hope

Just returned from an author's event.  You know the type - somebody organizes the event by getting a bunch of author's together to hawk their book(s) and allows them to meet/greet the public. It's just like a book signing, except in a larger scale.

There is a lot of work getting prepared for one of these. It isn't just a matter of slapping the book on the table, sitting back and raking in the do-re-mi as buyer after buyer throws cash in your face.

Okay, I do stand corrected. There was one gentleman who came to the affair, had a whole table to himself - an eight-foot-long table.  He had ONE book title, three copies spread out in a small arc in the middle of the table.  He sat back in his chair, feet up on the table, and rested for the remainder of the event. At the end, he picked up his 3 books, put them in a satchel and left. Done.

Others, like me, put up a display with books tastefully displayed, colorful announcements, handy business cards, and 'gimmicks' to draw the attendees to the table.  I normally use candy but am thinking of something else... maybe I'll discuss that further on.

Here's a picture of one of my events just a few weeks ago at the Findlay Author's Fair.

You can't see them, but there are about 100 small LED lights under the white cloth.  I used battery operated ones, not knowing if there would be an electrical outlet handy.  Do you see the white-on-white conduit against the wall?  Yes, I would have been the only one with electricity in the room.  Since then, I take along the electric LED lights that can change to any color of my choice, and/or rotate colors and/or flash, too.  No electricity most of the time, but they don't weigh that much.

As stated, the Findlay event was almost a month ago and there have been two other events since. 

The attendees come through, browse the books, talk and talk and really seem intrigued and very interested in the books.  You'd be amazed how many "gush" about how they just love a good Amish story to read.  Uh, but no purchases.  No, but they do ask if it is available online. They want to purchase the electronic version.

Of course, it is online!  Well, DOH!!  No, I don't say it that way to their faces but smile and give them the link(s) to the book(s) for them to check out at a later date.

Okay, not a book purchase at the show, but a potential purchase via Amazon or elsewhere online. It doesn't matter, it's called royalty and it all counts.  I'll take electronic purchases.

I keep checking my online stats for my books - both those I published and those of my publishers. I'm a hybrid author, having some books via several different publishers and some books I have self-published on Kindle/Create Space and at Smashwords.

Need I say?  Yes, the numbers continue to plummet into the abyss.  No online purchases.

Ah-ha!!  Call it the lightbulb going on above my head... OR getting hit by lightning.

It is a ruse by the potential customer.  By stating they want it online, they're not caught in the dilemma of telling me no to my face.  They can give me false hope of a sale and continue on their merry way without feeling terrible.  Maybe they will buy a copy online, but more likely, they won't.

I'm open to suggestions of how to get an event attendee to commit to a purchase.  I've offered beautiful metal bookmarks,  I even had some crocheted bookmarks.  I've offered buy one, get another one at half price. And, I attempted to lure them with candy. Oh, yeah, and I smile a lot.

About the candy.  Someone suggested gum cigars, similar to those the proud dads buy at the birth of a new baby.  They can be purchased, specialized with events or other words to denote, let's say, a book.  Of course, one could buy specially marked M & M candies.  

What else could be given away?  My friend offered a free book drawing. She would give away a copy of her latest book to one of the attendees.  She got four people to sign up.  Not what would I call a real good return on the investment since she didn't sell any copies, either.

Short of knocking the attendee to the floor, ripping the purse open or pulling the wallet from the hip pocket and digging out the money for the book ... any suggestions to help with sales?

My Amazon ratings continue to plummet.

False hope sucks.

Until next I ramble on...

Eggs! And More...

To paraphrase Scotty from Star Trek IV The Voyage Home:  Admiral, there be eggs here!

Finally, after several months of watching my chicks grow and mature, I proceeded to the chicken coop to feed and water - my daily routine - and was surprised to discover an egg scurried in the corner on the floor.

Uh, that was about 2 to 3 weeks earlier than I'd been told to expect eggs.  Almost everyone had told me not to expect any eggs until sometime in July. Well...

WRONG!!

It was the cutest little egg.  All brown and smooth.  But, oh, so small.  About 1/2 the size of a normal egg.  Still, one of my 18 chickens decided to give me an egg.  I proudly carried it into the house and presented it to my wife.  She was ecstatic.

Now, one must remember, she was the one who wanted to have chickens.  I wanted to raise about 25 for butchering and stocking the freezer.  She wanted eggs.  I have been the one who goes out every day to feed and water the hens.  Uh, not her.  Also, I don't eat eggs because they make me sulfuric and you don't want me like that - trust me, but that's another story.

Since the first egg's discovery, my wife is more involved with the chickens.  Well, sort of. Okay, she only goes out (about 2 or 3 times a day) to check for more eggs.  I'm the guy who still has to feed and water the chickens... oh, and clean out the coop, etc.

With the egg discovery, my #1 son made us 4 nesting boxes.  I've put some straw in them.  The hens use the boxes for roosting at night, throw out the straw, and continue to lay their eggs on the floor AND NOW, even outside on the ground.  I am going to paint some plastic eggs tan and put them in the boxes to see if that helps.  If not, I will lock them in the coop temporarily in an attempt to get them to lay the eggs inside, at least. Hopefully, at some point, they'll realize they have nests.

It looks so lonely, all by itself on the counter for the picture.

This is what it appears in size against a regular-sized egg.

Also, so you know it, there have been more eggs laid since the first one appeared.  We have a total of nine eggs now.  My wife, in her modest brainstorm, has been saving all the used egg cartons for this adventure - much to my surprise.  In fact, I think she has all the kids saving them, too.  She has a huge stack of empty egg cartons.  But, here is what the eggs in a carton look like...

The darker ones are from the Red Cross hens, the two lighter ones are from the ISA Brown hens. As the hens mature and continue laying eggs, they will get larger. I'm told all the lighter eggs will get darker with time and size.

There are 18 hens.  Egg production should increase with time, as well as size.  Right now, we're getting about 1 or 2 eggs per day.  As stated, I don't eat eggs but do look forward to a lot more angel food cakes to munch on.

In other news, my garden is coming along well.  The peas have really done well and the vines are loaded with pea pods.  My wife figures she will have to consider ambling out to harvest them.  I can't believe we only have about 2 cups of frozen peas left from last year.  I'll probably use them in the next week or two.  By that time, I would say the new peas should be coming in.  Mmm.  Fresh peas in a cream sauce over new baby potatoes.  YUM!

My tomato plants are doing well, growing strong in their wire cages.  Can't wait to make this year's salsa.  I only have 1 qt of salsa left.  My garlic and onions are coming along.  Two days ago I put up the lines for the pole beans to grow on.  Amazing how fast they latched onto the lines and started growing up them.  I'm sort of excited to see how the fish line trellis works this year.  I've always used the tee pee pole method and my loving wife wanted something a little easier to deal with.  We'll see.

The flowers I started are coming along beautifully.  The orange petunias aren't quite the exciting, electric shade as shown in the magazine.  Still, they are pretty, but not so much orange right now, as more coral-colored.  They look good against the white petunias, purple sweet alyssum and lime-green sweet potato vines.

Has anyone ever attempted to grow that large foliage plant, Elephant Ears? See picture.

I've got 3 bulbs that I've planted. It has been 3 weeks now and so far, nada.  Last year I bought a package of 5, planted them in a moist, but not soggy, area, with shade and sun.  My granddaughters, 4 of them, helped and there was one for each of them, plus mine.  None of them grew.  I figured it was something I'd done wrong... or the ground wasn't good.  This time I bought another 5, gave 2 away, and planted the 3 in huge pots, hoping for a fabulous tropical look.  So far, I'm disappointed.  I planted them as shown on the instructions - uh, all the dirt basically washed away in the first rain, leaving the tops exposed.  I figured that was what it was supposed to do.  I'm probably wrong. HELP!

To finish up, a little health update.  My dietitian has me on an 1800 calorie diet with 40-60 carbs per meal and 15-30 carbs per snack.  I gained weight.  NOT GOOD.  She wanted me to have an intake, at minimum, 165 carbs, preferably closer to the high end at 270.  Yeah, I gained weight.  Went to the doctor and explained the circumstances and he agreed, I should go back to my diet, lose the weight and see if we can get me off a lot of these diabetic medicines.  So, I'm now eating small meals, about 4 a day, cutting out carbs but not completely, and, of course, exercising.  I've cut out the biggie carb monsters: rice and potatoes; plus I've given up pop.  Okay, I cheat. I have ONE diet pop at night along with a bowl of popcorn.  Sorry, but I was born in Iowa, the corn state, and I love my corn, especially popcorn.  I use a dribble of oil in a microwave popcorn popper just so the small amount of salt I put on - stays on. LOL.  Of course, I'm consuming more veggies, fresh and raw veggies, not from cans.  Plus, now that fruit is once again in season, I'm checking those out.  My sugar was up a tad when I went to the doctor, but with the new meds (got rid of Januvia, now on Victoza) and new diet, I'm seeing the numbers come back down and that's what I want to see. Yes, I know. Victoza is an injection and I fought to avoid this, but it is NOT insulin. The doctor assured me if I can get my weight down, more than likely the sugar will also come down and I can stop Victoza. It better!

Finally, I'm writing again.  Back to my sequel for "The Secret Voice."  I now have Daniel Yoder, my Amish character, in New York City.  He is following a dream, testing Rumshpringe.  I can't believe the trouble he has found himself in, plus I know a few little secrets that should keep him off-balance and the reader turning pages.  More about "The New York Voice" as time passes.

Until next I ramble on...

Ignorance Of The Law

First, Happy Memorial Day as we honor those who died for our right to a free American life. As you picnic and celebrate, remember to give thanks to those who are no longer with us, allowing us the liberty we have.

How often have you heard that line?  Now, for the salt in the wound - I retired from the federal court system.  You have NO idea how many times I heard that cliche phrase: Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

As a "happy" farmer and proud owner of 18 chickens and a brand new chicken coop, you'd think all is well.  Unfortunately, to quote Professor Hill of "The Music Man" - You got trouble right here in River City. (BTW, if you click on the link, you can hear the song from musical.)

Yup!  I ran into trouble - not so much with the city as the township.  Seems I crossed the line with the building of my chicken coop.  I was told by several friends, family, and other people that if you put up a temporary building, you don't need a permit or approval.

Ah, yeah. About that. Seems I was being ignorant of the law.  MY township has rules and codes and one of them is a simple thing.  ANY structure needs a permit.

Seems simple enough.  Take my hand slap, buy a permit, and apologize for my ignorance, promising not to do it again.

Oops!  Seems the building is "in front" of my house slightly and not off the property line by a minimum of 5 feet.  Oh, also, it needs to be 15 feet from the house.

Since it is a 'temporary' structure, it can be moved.  Supposedly, the contractor built my home 35 feet from the property line.  That's plenty of space to move the coop back a foot, keep it 15 feet from the house and still remain over 5 feet from the property line.

Hm?  Seems the online satellite image of my property shows the house a mere 25 feet from the property line. Doing some quick math - 15 house offset + 5 foot property line offset gives me a whopping 5 feet to work with.  Uh, the coop is 8x12 with 6 inch overhangs for a size of 9x13. Anyone with a feeble knowledge of math can quickly realize this isn't going to work.

So, my sons are bringing over a laser sight to show the property line and we'll work from that information.  If the line is 35 feet from the house, we will move the shed.  If the distance is truly 25 feet - the only place available to maintain the chickens will be the floodplain and that is not a feasibility since it is also close to the woods - which will tempt all the woodland critters who enjoy chicken dinners as well as I do... and snakes that enjoy eggs.  Not a good working environment.

Again, ignorance of the law is not an excuse.  I have a beautiful 8x12 structure that may soon be nothing more than smoke and ash if I can't resolve this.

Don't even consider the word variance.  When I bought my permit and we discussed placement of the structure, I uttered the word variance.  The guy was nice enough but assured me the trustees have a simple way of handling all variance requests - deny.  I guess they haven't approved a variance in years.  I know the night (over 10 years ago) we got approval to change our property from farmland to residential, they denied a variance request unanimously.

Uh, that might be another issue.  I'm considered residential.  Chickens might be frowned upon.  I figure I will cross that bridge this week when I know the guy who approves permits comes out to check on the property lines since there seems to be a 10 foot difference.

On a brighter note - my tomatoes are planted outside, my garlic is coming along quite well - so far and I finally got my onion sets planted.  I also planted 2 green pepper plants.  I went in search of a couple flowers to plant to accent my orange petunias.  I decided white would do it.  My wife thought yellow would be pretty - so I got some yellow ones, too.  Then she found a deep purple with small yellow throat petunia.  She no longer cared about my orange petunias and wanted the yellow to surround the purple one.  So she won that battle and it is now growing in the large planter on front steps.  I put the orange petunias with the white petunias, a light and dark purple sweet alyssum and lime green sweet potato vines on the ends.  So far, they look pretty and the orange petunias should start blooming in the next week or two.

I still have the green beans and beets to plant in the raised garden bed.  I decided to casually throw the sweet corn in the old backyard garden, along with cucumbers, pumpkins, and squash.  I know that sounds silly but raccoons don't line vines so maybe they will leave my sweet corn alone.  I don't plan to weed the patch.  It may work - it may not work.  Hopefully, I'll get something out of the patch since the ground is uneven and my lawn service (#1 son) doesn't like to mow it with his rider - which I understand.  So much experimental gardening this year.

On the writing front, I decided to make a major change to my next Amish novel.  By doing so, I'm now psyched to get writing on it again. In fact, the idea energized me so much, I want to write and write but realize I have other obligations to address - like an edit job for another client.

Until next I ramble on...

The Proud Farmer

This was an exciting week. I didn't plan to transplant my seedlings and hoped to just move them into the final spots in their dinky little 2-inch peat pots.

WRONG!!

I noticed roots spreading along the sides of one of the pots, took another look and noticed that several had roots showing.  Not a good sign... well, yes, a good sign of healthy plants, but for growing, it is like discovering your pants are two inches too short, or the sleeve not reaching the wrist... or worse yet, buttons being stretched to the full bulge limit.

My baby plants needed bigger homes and needed them sooner than I wanted to admit.  We're still having nights that get a little brisk and tender seedlings like tomatoes just wouldn't make it and since I'm not an early riser - uh, 9am is early for me - having them covered and protected from the harsh night would mean under covers that would overheat them in the bright morning sunlight.

So, like a good parent, I transplanted my seedlings into bigger pots.  The tomatoes all went into 5-inch peat pots where I know they can grow sufficiently for the next week or two with no repercussions. The geraniums, petunias, and impatiens moved into 3-inch peat pots.  So far, everybody seems happy in their new homes.  Take a look:

Most of the seedlings in their new homes - tomatoes (Roma, Rutgers, Beefsteak and Mortgage Lifter) along with mixed geraniums, impatiens, and petunias

A couple of the 10 geraniums, don't know the colors - yet.

My two impatiens, colors unknown. Notice the size difference, same day planting. Hm?

Two of the 4 petunias - African Sunset, a true orange petunia. To see the color,Click This Link

And, I promised pictures of the finished chicken coop and as promised, here they are. The coop is basically an 8x12 building and the fenced chicken run is 10x16 and about 5 ft high at the peak. The run has fence on 3 sides, along the base of the coop and, of course, over the top.  There is a door on the side of the coop nearest the RV and another one to access the chicken run.  The run door is originally a display sign at a local hardware chain store where we purchased the windows you see in the pictures, two on the front and a larger side window.  My son cut a small section from the base to make it fit and with the 4x4 base to help secure it, the door is great.  All the fencing is secured with tie-strips about every 4-6 inches to keep it 'critter' proof.  I still need to add the fencing for the base to completely enclose it, but I need to find somebody to help bring in a truckload of pea gravel to pour over the fence when I put it in.  I want about 2 inches of gravel so the chickens don't have to walk on the wire - plus the gravel might invite some "live" chicken food.

Some of my chickies - two types: Red Cross (bigger ones in brown) and ISA which are light brown and white and about 4 or 5 weeks younger.  But everybody gets along - for the most part.

Another angle of the chicken run

The door I described, and to the left, the white-ish chicken is "Snow" as my one granddaughter named it.

We had a lot of rain and I had some rubber mats out and worms and other bugs collected under them for protection.  That was short-lived.  My sons, while finishing up the coop decided to have some fun. As the #2 son worked on the coop chicken door inside the fenced area, #1 and #3 decided to pick up the mat and grabbed several worms and bugs to throw into the chicken run.  The chickens had a field day with the delicacies. #2 happened to see it and yelled "Sure, go ahead, teach them to be carnivores while I'm still in here! Just what we need, Killer Chickens." They all got into a fit of laughter until I told them, due to the height of the roof of the run, I was going to have my youngest grandchildren and then the great-grandkids go in when needed.  Suddenly it wasn't so funny to them. "No way, dad!" they exclaimed. "Not in the pen with the Raptors! Have a heart!  They'll be pecked alive!"

Needless to say, farming can be fun.

And, on that note, so can writing... and editing.  Right now I'm editing a story for a client. The story is really exciting and I get reading and forget to edit until I read a really blatant mistake.  Edits are going slower than anticipated but I love the storyline.

Hoping all the mothers, young and old, had a great Mother's Day.  We have four sons - they all checked in for the day.  In fact, one brought over t-bone steaks to grill. My darling wife had a great day and I topped it off by taking her out to Burger King, using a coupon to get us 2 Whopper Jr burgers, 2 small fries and a big cup of icy cold water to drink. Okay, I also got her an order of onion rings that she so loves.  I'm such a romantic and expense was no issue, obviously. LOL.  We ate our meal as I drove around on some back roads enjoying the scenery, even going almost 20 miles to the church where we got married and it all started.  It was just an enjoyable evening.

Until next I ramble on...

Writing Spree

First, let me make a little announcement.

For a short time, I am offering my editing services at a discounted price of $.75/page which should be double-spaced, 12 pt Times Roman, and have 1 inch margins.  If you have any other questions, please check out my editing page: http://www.bobnailor.com/editing.php

Now, with that out of the way - I can't explain what happened last week.  Call it "Miss Muse" came to visit.  Call it "enlightenment."  Call it 'creativity.'  Call it whatever you want.  It was a writing fury.

Yes, I was in a writing frenzy.  For some reason, a novel I worked on for NaNoWriMo back in 2013 caught my attention and I decided to do a complete rewrite of the story, changing, of course, the main plot line quite a bit. The original plot was:

Jolene works at Pop's Burger Joint with Henry who constantly asks her to marry him. The restaurant is owned by Ben Masters who once prospected for gold and invested in the restaurant. Now Ben is old and is considering retirement. He has contacted his only next of kin, Ben Jr., his estranged son, who finally shows to find out why the cryptic letter was sent. Ben Jr's wife has already made plans for the restaurant. Ben has set the stage and all the players must perform their part. The one who performs in the manner which Ben has established in his will gets to inherit the restaurant and the treasure within. But what exactly is this treasure... within?

Now I have changed things up a tad.  Sure Henry is still asking Jolene to marry him, but Ben, the owner, has discovered he has only months to live. He has pancreatic cancer. He has contacted his estranged son who has responded to the cryptic message and brought his wife and son back to his hometown. But we now discover Ben has another child who is eligible to inherit. Things only get more interesting. But the bottom line is ... exactly what is this treasure... within?

Last week  (Saturday) I was at 8,000 words but realized I needed to add a couple of new characters and change some of the plot lines. The week had been a frenzy of writing, indeed.  Right now I have a total of almost 14,000 words written on the new story.

In addition to everything else I've done this week, by the end of Friday, I had written another almost 6,000 words in five (5) days.

This weekend was a total loss for writing.  My sons came to visit and work on projects around the house, mainly, the chicken coop, so I was busy helping my wife fix meals for the 'crew.' LOL.  Good news!  The chicken coop now has a working 'slide' door for protecting the chickens at night. In the morning, I pull a rope and the door slides up.  At night, I can release it and the door slides shut. I no longer need to bend over to walk in the chicken run to open the door in the morning and close the door at night.  YAY!!  Plus, the shingle roof was put on.  Now I just need to stain it for the summer and then get the siding and inside paneling this fall so I can insulate the building for the winter.

My new neighbor from the down the road came over to introduce himself. He bought the property next to me last Friday.  He was impressed with the chicken run.

On a different topic - health - I decided to go back on my old diet this week and I already am noticing my weight dropping.  It appears I've lost a couple of pounds.  I won't know for sure until I go in later this week, but I'm feeling better... okay, somewhat.

Let me explain.  I've been having sharp pains on my right side, directly underneath the lower rib cage. I thought I might have pinched myself when trying to catch the chickens when I was leaning over the walls of the brooder area in the basement.  My granddaughter, a medical type, thinks it could be gall bladder issues since she just had her's removed.  My wife tends to agree with my granddaughter.  The pain let up somewhat yesterday and hasn't been as intense today.  I noticed I sat hunched over, pushing my rib cage down into my protruding tummy ... which may have caused the pain, so I've been sitting upright with a straight back the last few days.  So the family can rest assured I'm okay, I've agreed to see a doctor this week... or so I said.  I'll see how I feel over the next couple of days.

As mentioned above, I was so involved in writing, I almost didn't notice that my garden plants I had growing inside the house were getting thirsty.  I almost lost the tomato plants - they wanted water.  I watered them and prayed they'd survive.  Whew!  They drank the water and pretty soon were standing back up again.  Almost time to plant them outside - I don't want to lose them now.  In fact, this week I'll be re-potting them into larger pots before they go outside in about 2 more weeks.  Yes, they are getting THAT big.  I have to move them into 5 inch pots.

Until next I ramble on...

The Bobs Update

And now for some updates from Bob - The Farmer, The Cook, The Writer, The Grandpa, The Traveler and The One Who Wants to be Healthy...

The chicken coop is complete and the chickens have been transferred to the new enclosure. Of course, they weren't too happy with the idea of being moved but now, with the chicken run available, I think they're getting acclimated to the new home.

Yes, the younger ones are still terrified and intimated by the larger hens but when the 8 brown hens go out into the yard, the little brown and white ones run wild in the coop, eating and drinking.

Sure, go ahead and think I'm crazy. Every time the little ones attempt or think of coming out of the coop, one of the crazy (what my sons call her) hens goes flying up in their face, pushing them back into the coop.  At least it has been that way for the last two day.

Tonight! Tonight was a day of liberation for the little ones. One of them (I think it is the one my granddaughter named "Snow") strolled out onto the ramp. The crazy hen came fluttering up and it just jumped down into the yard. Shortly thereafter, two more joined the first one.  So, in the end, there was five little ones out in the yard with the eight bigger hens.  That means that there were still five more little hens inside plus two very BIG meat chickens.  Those two are so huge they can barely walk and - sorry, folks, but they will be butchered this week.

The remaining eighteen hens will be allowed to mature to lay eggs... which should start maybe in late June or mid-July.  When all eighteen start laying, the possibility of eighteen eggs a day is a fact, BUT, more than likely, it will be more like about twelve to fifteen eggs a day.  Still, seven to ten dozen eggs per week is more than I can use.  Notice I didn't say eat.  Plain eggs or heavy egg items and I don't get along. Fried eggs, hard/soft boiled eggs, eggnog, even eggs in potato salad - I become sulfuric - and trust me, you don't want to be around.

So, as my neighbor stated, get that sign-up and out there when eggs are available and he'll be over to get farm-fresh eggs.  He said I'll have a thriving egg business in no time.  He was checking out my coop and said I may want to enlarge the chicken area and cut back my shed share of the building.  He thinks I should up the ante to about thirty hens. Hm? Maybe he likes eggs?

Also, as Farmer Bob, my plants I started inside are coming along fantastically. My tomato plants are growing even larger and I will probably need to transplant them to five-inch pots this coming week. The geraniums are getting big, as are the petunias and impatiens... but I think I may be able to keep the last two in the current pots, the geraniums might need bigger pots.

Yesterday I planted two rows of peas out in the garden. Hopefully, they will do better this year than they did last year, but still, last year was really nice.  I mean, a full gallon of peas to freeze. I don't know how many of you are familiar with "Tater Tot Casserole" but those fresh frozen peas tasted absolutely wonderful in the casseroles during the winter. Here's a quick recipe from Cooking Bob:

1 lb ground beef, 1 can cream of mushroom soup (or celery or chicken), 2 cups frozen peas, cheese slices (cheddar or Colby) and a bag of frozen tater tots.  We do NOT cook the beef prior.

Set oven to temperature for tater tots - usually about 400.
1) Spread the beef thinly on bottom of 9x12 pan.
2) Spread soup across the beef (do NOT add water)
3) Spread frozen peas on top of soup
4) Put slices of cheese to cover entire pan
5) Place tater tots in a layer. (my sons line them up for easy cutting, but...)
6) Bake as directed for tater tots, about 30-35 mins.
7) Cut and serve.
NOTE: Use a clear glass dish the first time so you can see if the meat has cooked properly. Some people prefer to crumble and fry the beef with diced onions prior to layering - your option.

Now, as Writer Bob, it has been very good the last couple of weeks. My latest book, "At Death's Doors" has done well on Amazon. Sales skyrocketed at its initial release sending my book into Amazon's top 100.  Writer Bob has really been busy this past week working on an old novel, rewriting "The Treasure Within" which is more of a literary work than my usual fantasy or horror genre. I've been making myself accountable to another author friend for word counts. LOL. And she has been making herself accountable to me for her word counts.  Great incentive, eh?

And Grandpa Bob had a fabulous time last weekend celebrating three birthdays: one granddaughter, Keeley, turned 6 while her sibling twins, Jaxson and Mikayla, turned one. It was a fun party because, as Grandpa, I got to see ALL my grandkids and a lot of their friends. Party! Party! Party!

Now, for Health Bob - not so good. I can't seem to lose any weight. And my sugar has been all over the place.  I'm trying to get it all under control.  Maybe I just need to toss out what the doctor and dietitian want me to eat and go back to my diet I was on back in December which dropped my A1C from 10.3 to 7.2 and my weight from 268 to 240.  The diet they have me on, I now weight 251  HUH?  What part of losing weight and blood sugar control don't they understand?

Trying something new - I was told to be interactive with my audience. So, now I will ask you a simple question.  Not everyone is a writer, nor a farmer, nor grandparent, or a health expert. So exactly what kind of question can I ask that everyone can participate with?

You're going on a simple trip, call it a day trip. Where would you go? What would you see? Why would it be fun? And how much would it cost?

Does that sound like a silly question?  Not really.  My wife and I like to travel and sometimes we miss those little "secret" places that only the locals know about.  We've stumbled onto a few of them, especially one in Iowa, one in New York on Long Island, a few up in Michigan, a couple over in Indiana, and some in Ohio. Well, actually I wish I could remember the one in California and the other in -- I think -- Arizona? It can be a campground, a scenic view, a landmark, whatever.

So, tell Bob The Traveler about your favorite hideaway.

Until next I ramble on...