What a Way to End the Year!

Well, I wanted to get my writing back on track, and here it is. As of right now, my first published book in over two years is being processed by Amazon. I'm not sure if I'm going to count it as 2022 (since I finished writing and submitting it prior to the New Year) or 2023 (since it won't be approved and ready for sale until then). I'll probably wait to make that decision until I see how well I'm maintaining my yearly goals. Is that cheating? Only if I get caught.

So, what exactly is the book? It's the first book in an ongoing fantasy series. The series is 'The Shadowmage Saga'. The first book is titled, 'Apprentice'. Here's the cover:

It's not the snazziest cover, I know. But it is an excellent representation of the Forbidden Lands, a locale in the book (obviously). Since I have to rely on stock images for the moment until I can afford to pay a decent cover artist (shout-out to greyghost at Fiverr!), this will have to do.

The book is, at the moment, only going to be available as an ebook. I'm going to hold out on the paperback until I can hopefully get a proper cover done up.

So, what's it about? Well, there are a couple of hints on the cover. It involves saving the world, and saving children. Saving them from what? Bad things. Very, very bad things. But don't worry, this is a fantasy aimed at intelligent young adult readers. No sex, no bad language, reasonable levels of violence (and no gory stuff). As you know, I want to write stuff my kids and grandkids can read without needing parental advisory warnings.

The basic idea is this: Jandar, an apprentice to the Shadowmage, is sent on a mission of great importance to rescue some tribal humans from their magic-wielding oppressors. Why him and not the Shadowmage? Because master wizards are always too busy for that sort of thing, that's why. Jandar gets the short-end of the straw and gets to go save everyone while putting his own life in terrible peril. Because if he didn't, then the book would be really boring.

It's not a Harry Potter style book. It's a bit different from my Meterra books as well, although it's very much of a pulp style, with the action being pretty continuous throughout the book. I had the idea for this book years and years ago, and now it's a reality. I'm excited, and I hope you will be as well. I will post the link to the book as soon as it gets approved by Amazon. The book will be available for the very reasonable ebook price of $4.99 US, and it will be available in all Amazon markets around the world.

So, there it is. What a way to end 2022. I feel good about 2023, I really do. It's going to be a great year. Happy New Year, everyone!

Goals for 2023

I know, it's a bit presumptuous to set writing goals when I haven't been doing much writing for the past couple of years, but I need something to get my creative juices flowing at pulp speed. It's good to be sitting at the keyboard again and putting words to paper, but goals are important. So, let's see what we can do.

First, I'm going to set a reasonable goal of one published book per month in 2023. That's twelve books, whether they be novels or short story collections (more likely the former). Genre doesn't really matter, although I expect there will be a fairly even mix of fantasy and mystery. Maybe four of each. I would like to get another Meterra book done, as well as (of course) more Cameron Vail. I don't know about sci-fi; it's not my go-to genre. But we'll see.

I also want to keep my blog more consistent; daily writing is important, and forcing myself to post daily will help keep me on track for the rest of my writing.

If I'm going to write a book a month, I'm going to need to be consistently writing a minimum of a thousand words per day. Two thousand would be better, but one thousand has to be the floor. Thirty thousand words is a decent book; my mysteries have clocked in at roughly those numbers so far. But forty-five thousand or so should be a reasonable expectation.

So far, these goals seem reasonable and achievable, which is important. But there are other things going on in life besides writing. I do, after all, live on a farm. So, I'm going to set some farming goals as well.

The most important goal is to increase our income from the farm so I can move to a full-time at-home situation instead of driving to town every day to work. That isn't going to happen this year, but it's time to show some significant improvement in the farm income.

Our income from the farm this year came from three main sources: eggs, chicken, and pork. We didn't sell any vegetables from the garden; we just didn't grow enough. But next year, the gardens will be bigger, and I think I learned a lot in 2021 and 2022. So, we might see some actual income from the gardens in 2023.

As for the meat, we're planning to sell lots of meat chickens and raise three pigs instead of just two. For the chickens, the Cornish Cross breed is a quick-growing breed; eight to ten weeks from hatching to butchering. If we can grow a bunch of them (fifty or so) in the spring and sell them, we can do the same in the summer and fall as well. Two or even three sets of meat birds will be an excellent source of income. We're also looking at learning how to butcher them ourselves, which will save a lot of money; it costs quite a bit to butcher a chicken.

We also have laying hens, although we're going to be streamlining the flock to focus on one particular breed of chicken. We'll have to look over our egg production to see if selling them as a consistent product is a viable option. We had some issues with eggs this year; we need to make sure we do better for 2023.

As for pork, we did okay with raising the pigs this year, considering we had no clue what we were doing and we started late in the year. Our pigs weighed over 280 pounds each after slaughter, and we got a LOT of meat from them. Forty pounds of bacon alone. We actually sold enough pork that we made a profit and still had plenty of meat left over (including the bacon). So, we're going to look at picking up three bacon seeds this spring and raising them for the meat. We had enough takers for our pork packages this year that I have no doubt we'll do even better next year.

Finally, the big question: Should we get a couple of cows? I'm inclined to say 'no' right now, although I won't rule it out for later in the year. The main reason is because we're still new at this, and we don't have anywhere to put the cows for now. Which is ironic, since this used to be a dairy farm. But we've repurposed the barns, so bringing cows in would be a major undertaking.

Now, I can see the pros to raising a couple of cows. First, milk. Dairy products are getting insanely expensive here on the Island. Having a milking cow would mean we'd have a steady supply of milk, cream and butter that didn't cost us anything beyond the feed. But it would require me to get up every damn morning and milk the cow. The second cow would be a beef steer; raising a beef cow would mean we would be set for the year with whatever meat we wanted. But it's not going to be cheap.

So, it's something to think about for the upcoming year. In the meantime, though, writing has to happen. I'm going to get to that now.

Back to Formula...?

 

Yes, back to formula. Specifically, the writing formula. The one that has been successful for hundreds if not thousands of professional writers. And what is that formula? It depends on who you ask.

No, it's not that the formula is different. Not exactly, at least. The variations are there, but they are slight, often just in wording the same idea in different ways.

Now, bear in mind, there are two schools of thought on writing. The first one, and the one that most people think is the only acceptable one, is the one that involves outlining books, rewriting and polishing a manuscript, and sending it off to a publisher or an agent in the hopes of being signed to the next Stephen King contract.

The second one, and the one that works better for me (and many, many other writers, even if they don't publicly admit it) is where you just write. Finish the book, spell-check it, give it to a reader to do another spelling and grammar check, then publish the thing on Amazon or some other online self-publishing outlet. No re-writing after it's done.

My mentor in this...actually, I've had a few, but the most immediate one is Dean Wesley Smith, who has written and published a few hundred books over the years, as well as run his own publishing house. He's the one who introduced me, through his blog, to Heinlein's Rules, as well as my first awakening to the possibilities of writing, Pulp Speed. It was that post that made me sit up and realize that all my beliefs about writing were wrong. I didn't have to sit and rewrite constantly; I didn't have to spend weeks worldbuilding and outlining. Just sit down and write. That's how the professionals did it back in the days of the Pulps, and that's how many of them still do it today.

It's a simple formula; just write. And it's one I've neglected for quite a while as we got the farm established. But it's time to get back to formula and make the magic happen once again. 2023 will be a great year.

Back at the Keyboard...

...And it's about time. This won't be about farming, nosiree. There's writing to be done!

I've completed another fantasy book. It's not Meterra; it's an idea I've been toying with for quite a few years. I laid down the foundation of the book a couple of years ago, but only now is it ready to be read and published. I've sent it to my first reader (Hi, Mom!).

I think one of the things that's held me back from getting more stuff published is the dearth of usable cover art. If I had even a modicum of artistic talent, I'd look into doing them myself, but I gave up on art when I failed stick people in second grade. And with the economy in the current state, paying someone else to do it is not a viable option, unfortunately.

But, let's face it: It's the writing itself that matters. And I have finally sat my butt down in front of the keyboard and knocked this one out. It went so well that I've already started on the sequel and gotten the first chapter of that book done as well.

I'll find something I can slap on as a cover, just to get the book out. I haven't published anything since 2020, and it's time that changed. 2023 will see more accomplished, even with the increased workload on the farm. Because writing matters to me, and it's time I gave it the attention it deserves.

So, what's this one about? It's about a wizard. An apprentice wizard, to be more precise. His name is Jandar, and he's apprenticed to a very famous and powerful wizard, the kind that makes Gandalf and Dumbledore look like the Wizard of Oz. But this is Jandar's story, and the famous and powerful wizard doesn't take up a lot of screen time. Jandar gets sent to a faraway place on a mission to serve his master, and finds himself embroiled in a very serious mess, one that he has to fix in order to save humanity from eternal slavery. And why does Jandar have to do it, instead of the all-powerful super-wizard? You'll have to read it to find out. Suffice to say, Jandar's actually the only one who can do it.

This isn't an epic fantasy in the Tolkien vein; it's a pulp-action adventure. Lots of action, lots of fun stuff going on, not a lot of deep thought and philosophical musings. Hopefully, it will also be defined as 'fun'. Because if it's not fun, what's the point of writing in the first place?

Here's a brief excerpt of the book. Jandar has been magically transported to where he is meant to be, but he's been spotted by some unsavory goblins.

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       Jandar quickly gauged his distance from the copse. If he hurried, he should be able to beat them there, so he let his cloak billow about him as he ran. The cloak made a tempting target for archers, but the goblins didn’t seem to be using them. Grateful, he outdistanced them and ducked into the copse before they could run him down.

      Once he was out of sight of the road, he called to mind one of his favorite spells, the spell of Camouflage. Though he would not actually be invisible, he would blend into the surrounding terrain well enough that only the closest scrutiny would notice him, assuming he could remain perfectly still. He stood by a thick maple tree, the only one wide enough to provide him with suitable cover.

      Closing his eyes, he focused on the words of power. He could hear the goblins approaching, but he forced them out of his mind and concentrated. With the scale of a chameleon in hand, he spoke the words in a soft voice so as not to draw further attention to himself. He felt the scale disappear as it absorbed the magic of the whispered words, and after a moment of silence he opened his eyes.

      He watched the goblins tramp into the forest, their beady eyes looking everywhere for their prey. Jandar stood absolutely still, not daring to breathe too deeply. Two of the goblins ran right past him, oblivious to his presence.

      “Where did he go?” demanded one of them.

      “He must have slipped through to the other side.”

      “We should have brought the dogs,” said the first one. “They could sniff him out.”

      Not likely, thought Jandar. The spell of Camouflage also masked the caster’s scent, making it match the surrounding smells as well as the visual terrain. But he wasn’t about to explain that to the goblins.

      Out of the corner of his eye, Jandar saw a larger goblinoid approach. Unlike the majority, who were at least a foot shorter than the apprentice, this one stood more than six feet tall, his leathery skin and hide armor nearly blending together in a form of camouflage of his own. Regally, the tall goblinoid looked around, watching his minions continue their futile search. Behind him, six other goblins guarded three human children.

      “Azrak!” he shouted, and one of the searching goblins turned back.

      “I hear and obey, Master!” he simpered with an obsequious bow. “What do you wish of poor Arzak?”

      “This human that we saw appears to be some sort of crafty woodsman. Probably from the Panther tribe.” He sniffed the air and laughed raucously. “Or what’s left of them, anyhow. If you put your nose to it, you’ll smell him out.”

      “The Panthers are crafty indeed, Master!” agreed Azrak. “But they are not crafty enough to elude the Eyes of Jenkra!”

      “Not usually, no,” admitted Jenkra with a scowl. “Why has this one eluded my Eyes?”

      Azrak shrank back, almost whimpering. “It is not known, Master Jenkra! The human must have used the copse to distract us and ran out the other side.”

      “Then why aren’t my Eyes through the copse as well?” demanded Jenkra, glaring at his cowardly minion. “Send ten, now! I want that human found before he warns his village of our approach!”

      “Of course, Master!” replied Azrak with alacrity. He grabbed the nearest two goblins and chastised them on behalf of Jenkra, ordering them to grab four other goblins each and scatter to the other side of the copse to find the errant human.

      “What troubles you, Master?” asked Azrak in a tense voice.

      “I don’t like his appearance,” answered the tall goblinoid. “It is too convenient. The other tribes may have learned what happened to the Panthers, and intend to ambush us before we return to the Temple.”

      “The humans are fools,” hissed Azrak. “They cannot stand up to your mighty magic, Master!”

      “No, they can’t.” Jenkra looked around, and his eyes narrowed. “Cease, Azrak. I must concentrate.”

********************

Will Jenkra discover the hidden apprentice? Will the goblins triumph? Will the other tribes suffer the same fate as the mysterious Panthers? How will Jandar overcome the odds and save the day?

You'll have to read it to find out.

In the meantime, I have other fantasy books published, including The Devil's Playground, an anthology of stories from the world of Meterra. Check it out on Amazon, and enjoy!

Our First Hurricane

Well, that was certainly exciting. We got to experience a rare weather event here on the island, an event rare enough that even few Islanders have experienced it before. Apparently, Fiona was the most intense storm PEI has seen in a long, long time. By the grace of God, we came through it very well, especially compared to some other places on the island.

We spent three days getting ready; we moved all the chickens and bunnies into the barn, closed off the pig pen to the outside, gave them all lots of food and water to last them at least a full day. We moved every loose item we could find indoors, using an old, rusted freezer and a bunch of logs to keep the back door of the garage closed against the 192-km/hr wind gusts that hit us Friday night and Saturday morning. We harvested as much as we could from the garden, including tomatoes, squash, celery, and more. The potatoes weren't a concern; they're underground anyway. The corn, sadly, is no more; the winds flattened the entire crop, so that's two years in a row that we get no corn from the garden. Better luck next year.

So, Friday night was a hunkering-down time. The animals were checked once more, and as I was coming in for the last time I saw a rainbow off to the northeast, where the storm was coming from. I felt an incredible peace at the sight; that was God, assuring us that He's got this in hand, and we would be safe. I went in to grab my phone to take a picture, but by the time I got back outside, the sun had dipped below the horizon just enough, and the rainbow was gone.

So, the doors were locked and the praying began. The winds picked up here around nine o'clock, and by midnight it was like nothing we've ever experienced before. The rain pounded on the back of the house, but I checked the basement several times, as well as the attic, and there were no leaks, thankfully. We stayed nice and dry. The power went out around one or two in the morning; I was asleep then; Honeybunny had woken up and was downstairs. She came up as the house was shaking from the force of the winds, and woke us all up and said we should all be down in the living room for safety.

It wasn't comfortable, but it was for the best. We all stayed there and tried to sleep; some more successfully than others. By the time morning came, the winds were still pounding, but the dim daylight made things seem much better.

That's when we saw what the storm had done to our farm. The trees in the front were practically denuded of their lighter branches (and some bigger ones); the yard, which we had just cleaned up the day before, was full of sticks again. The worst was the barn; the doors, which we had finally repaired and closed in anticipation of the storm, were broken; one of them was hanging with just a single panel remaining, the others having snapped off. There was a piece of translucent plastic on the roof to let light in that had torn and partly broken off as well. A few trees in the back came down, and as I mentioned, the corn was flattened.

Amazingly, though, that was all the damage we suffered. The barn door is the biggest headache; we need that fixed before winter sets in. But other than that, there wasn't much else to worry about. I rebuilt the outdoor coop today for the meat birds, who are ready to go to slaughter this week, and the boys did some tree-cutting behind the barn to clean up the few trees that came down.

One thing that did come through nicely was our pumpkin patch. The leaves didn't do so well, but the pumpkins themselves? Beautiful. Here's Tanner with the first pumpkin picked from the garden.

  

In behind him, you'll see a tree at the front of the house. That tree has come down; it was leaning over the house and threatening the second floor, so we took it down today as well. Still, all in all we came through this ordeal very, very fortunate.

And, as a bonus, the power (and internet) are back on earlier than expected, so I get to post this blog tonight. Yay!

That's it for now; the tomato plants came through the storm very well, so we're still going to get to harvest more of those before the season is over. And, as I mentioned, the pumpkins are turning orange and beautiful. I can't wait to see how many we end up with by Halloween.

And the Beet Goes On

Another busy weekend of pulling stuff out of the ground. More tomatoes were plucked and turned into sauce, more potatoes came out, and the onions, both red and white, are drying on the porch. And the big one is the beets. I don't even like beets that much, but it was a very satisfying feeling to pull these out of the ground.

That's a full tub of beets out of an eight-foot patch of garden space. We don't eat a lot of beets, so these will last us quite a while.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the process, Honeybunny has been doing an incredible amount of prepping and storing vegetables. We've got bags and bags of frozen carrots, beans, and other assorted goodies down in the freezers. Not all of it came from our garden; we're getting stuff from a nearby greenhouse as well. They provide us with the produce, she preps it and stores it, and we keep half for ourselves while bringing the rest back to the greenhouse people. We've gotten cucumbers, basil, more carrots, and a bunch of other veggies as well. We'll be eating decently for quite a while now.

I really need to get back to writing about writing, but the farm is taking up a lot of time right now; even on days off, it's work, work, work. And strangely enough, it's very, very satisfying.

Harvest Season Begins

I swear, I do stuff besides working on the farm. Honest.

But, as I've said before, there is something truly incredible about reaching into the ground and pulling out something that you planted months ago as a tiny seed. We've harvested tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, peppers, zucchini, summer squash, garlic, lettuce, onions, potatoes...and it just keeps going.

Today, I went for a full harvest of one particular crop: carrots. Behold my handiwork:

The box ended up being a little over half full. Not bad for a first-timer. Honey Bunny is diligently washing them and getting them ready to store; they'll last us a few months, hopefully, or less if we start focusing more on eating what we grow instead of buying it all.

I planted the seeds close together in the spring; that's how I got that many in a small, eight-foot bed. They were cramped, and it showed; some grew around each other, making it difficult to pull them out. And some of them were just massive. Two inches or more across at the top in one case. And they are all very, very tasty.

So, it's a short post today, but it's a good feeling. Food on the table is always a good thing. And my Honey Bunny can do amazing things with food. I can't wait to see what she can do with stuff this good.

The Andorian Incident: Enterprise Retrospective

Ah, here we go... This is one of my favorite episodes of the entire series. I absolutely love Shran and the Andorians. For old-school Trek fans, the Andorians made an appearance in the original series episode "Journey to Babel," as a founding member of the Federation. However, they almost never appeared afterwards, except for the occasional Andorian makeup as a background character. Now, they'll finally get their due.

The episode starts in a Vulcan monastery. The monks are doing Vulcan monk things, which looks like it involves standing around in contemplative poses. Then the door bursts open, and four blue-skinned aliens with wriggling antennae barge in. Cut to the opening theme (which I still like).

On the Enterprise, Captain Archer suggests to T'Pol that the ship could visit an ancient Vulcan monastery on the planet P'Jem. T'Pol agrees, but explains that there are plenty of protocols to follow, including a respectful silence, and the monks might not be welcoming visitors at all depending on the time of month. No, not that time of month; the Vulcans are all male.

The Enterprise arrives, and Archer beams down along with T'Pol and Trip as they continue to establish the Starfleet protocol of sending the most valuable and senior officers down into unknown terrain. Sure, they know it's a Vulcan monastery, which should be as safe as a nest of kittens, but still. It's the principle of the thing. Anyway, the Vulcan elder seems agitated, according to T'Pol, and tells her that the Enterprise crew can't stay. Archer and Trip spot an armed intruder reflected in a vase, and the fight is on. They overpower the blue-skinned antagonist, but the other three show up and disarm them.

It turns out that these Andorians, as identified by T'Pol, are long-standing antagonists of the Vulcans, on a par technologically but with a much more aggressive and suspicious nature. This particular group has been here before, believing the monastery is hiding a deep-space lookout post that is spying on the Andorians. Of course, the monks and T'Pol say that it's nonsense; it's a monastery, not a spy center.

The lead Andorian, Commander Shran, interrogates Archer, suspecting that the Enterprise was delivering supplies and/or weapons to the outpost. When Reed calls down from the ship, Shran informs him that Archer and the others are prisoners and warns him not to interfere in the Andorians' mission. Reed, being a good tactical officer, isn't going to take that from a comm voice, and starts prepping for a rescue operation. Meanwhile, the monks bring Trip to an ancient communicator in the catacombs, which he is able to repair. He gets in touch with Reed, telling him to hold off with the rescue to give Archer a chance to come up with a plan.

Archer does so, and the plan involves allowing the Andorians to beat the snot out of him so he can learn that the catacombs do in fact climb up to the main floor, behind a carved stone face. Since the Andorians don't have transporter technology yet, they aren't aware that the Enterprise can send a rescue team down without a shuttlepod. They do, however, detect the unusual energy signatures, charging in to find out what's going on. Fortunately, Reed's team is already in the catacombs, undetected by the Andorians. Reed gets to blow something up, and the fight is on.

The fight goes into the catacombs as Shran and his first lieutenant descend to avoid the now-greater numbers. In the confusion, an old curtain is torn away, revealing a very modern door with a computer-controlled lock. Archer is able to open the door, and reveals that the Andorians were right; there is a listening post that is spying on the Andorian homeworld. He orders T'Pol to scan the outpost and give the scans to Shran. He then calls the Enterprise and tells them to let the Andorians leave. Before leaving, Shran tells Archer that he is in the captain's debt.

Okay, so there's a lot in this episode. It's got some good action, great characterization, and one hell of a plot twist that probably pissed off a lot of old-school Trek fans. After all, the Vulcans are noble, logical, honorable and honest. Spying on another world? Using a monastery to cover it up? That's about as un-Vulcan as you can imagine. But here, it works. Of course, it makes sense that the Vulcans would indeed be spying on an antagonistic race whom they have been in conflict with before. There are disputed worlds between the two star nations, and long-standing grudges on both sides. Naturally, the Vulcans are keeping an eye on the Andorians. And what better to use as a cover than an ancient, non-technological monastery?

Now, the characterizations. T'Pol is in great form; her calm assertion that the Vulcan elder is 'agitated' draws a wide-eyed response from Trip, who still hasn't learned how to read Vulcan emotional states. She and Archer have a bit of a tiff when he quietly confronts her about her possibly divided loyalties if and when the fighting starts. Her response is the most human thing she's done in the show so far: She almost glowers at him and reminds him that she has never failed to obey his orders, then steals the blanket they were sharing. I really think the showrunners were planning for a potential Archer-T'Pol romance, or at least hinting at the possibility. Of course, it didn't work out that way. But that's for later.

Archer, on the other hand, does some pretty dumb things. He didn't need to get the crap beat out of him to find out about the secret tunnel behind the stone face; he could have sent Trip to look through the stone face's eyes to confirm it. But he does get some funny lines when he's giving the Andorians some 'intelligence.' And his own suspicions of the Vulcans and their intentions are fully validated by the end, when he discovers the outpost. He never trusted them in the first place, which of course would make him and Shran natural allies. But not yet...

Overall, this is easily the best episode so far, just as good as the pilot episode. And it qualifies as the first tiny step in the direction of the Federation. I'm giving it a 10 out of 10.

Chicken Math and a Neglected Garden

I swear, this blog wasn't intended to be a farming blog. But here we are.

Today was another crazy, busy day on the Sprigg farm. Since it was my 'day off', Honey Bunny and myself decided to do something nice for the chickens who have been stuck in cages and chicken tractors for so long. So, we built them a couple of fenced-in areas where they could wander around and chew up the grass. Two of them; one for the meat birds, one for the layers and dual-purpose birds. Oh, and the bunnies, too.

These are the Orpingtons and Bovins that we've been raising. Notice the two roosters in the middle (the brown ones with white tops and tails). There's a third rooster, who is only partly visible by the chicken tracotr and the plywood pretending to be a door. The bunnies are in the back, near their hutch.

And these are the meat birds (plus our sole remaining pure layer, Pecky Lynch). As you can see, the birds are voluntarily racial segregating themselves; the white birds are all at the far end, except for one rebel who's hanging out near the water, and the others near the front. The black ones (and Pecky) live in the tractor at the back, while the white ones are in their temporary cages that we put in the enclosure at bed time. Sure, it's not the most comfortable quarters, but they're only going to be with us for a few weeks before they take a trip to the freezer.

Meanwhile, I have a garden, too. And thanks to all the livestock issues for the past few days, I haven't spent much time with it except one evening of watering the plants. I de-tasseled the corn today, for which the pigs were grateful. They'll eat anything. Except green beans, for some reason. How am I supposed to get my kids to eat green beans when even the pigs won't eat them?

Anyway, I decided to apologize to the veggies for neglecting them for half a week. Little did I know what I would find...

For the uninitiated, that is a zucchini being held by a nine-year-old. And yes, it's that big. No trick photography. I found a few of them like that. And I was worried that the soil they were growing in wasn't going to give us top-quality stuff. Holy crap, was I wrong.

I also got a bunch of summer squash that just kept growing and growing and growing. Eighteen of them, all oversized and massive. The piggies are going to eat very well here. Beets, Swiss chard, carrots, onions, corn, tomatoes...and pumpkins. Lots and lots and lots of pumpkins. Even the bean plant is growing now.

It's quite a miracle, really. And yet, it's so commonplace. It's such an amazing feeling to go out and see all the things that are happening out there. And I still can't believe that I'm the one doing this.

Going Whole Hog on the Farm

It's official: We are farmers. What in the hell was I thinking?

Chickens, and bunnies, and pigs. Oh, my.

We bought them tonight from a family who are leaving the Island and moving back to Ontario. My sincerest condolences to them.

So, the pigs are Peppa (the one with the darker splotch on her neck) and George. Two sows, five months old. The question we have now is, do we butcher them both and sell one of them, or butcher one for our own freezer and keep the other one to breed. After all, we spent the whole day making that pen, and we're going to spend the weekend making the outdoor half for them. I don't want to just have them for a few months after all the work we're doing.

Besides, growing our own bacon seeds from scratch could be fun. And Garrett loves the pigs. I'm sure we'll get pictures of him playing in the pigpen before long.

The electric fence should be interesting; we'll have that up by the weekend, I hope. But we'll need to run some power to the barn to get it to work. Either that, or get a really humungous extension cord. Do they come in thousand-foot rolls?

Garrett experimented with the electric fence when we went to pick up the pigs. He found it to be a shocking experience. You may commence the eye-rolling. I'm old; I make dumb jokes.

So, now that we've got our newest farm additions settling in, it's time to do something more relaxing and head back to work in the morning. It's much more peaceful. And a lot less digging in dirt.