Wednesday, November 02, 2011

You're kidding-- It's November already?

I can scarcely believe how fast time seems to be going. For a reason, for which I don't have the answer, I am enjoying this fall. That just doesn't generally happen for me. I usually look at this as the beginning of the end with shorter days and colder air. It means winter is coming fast and something to get through to make it back to summer. This fall has been different and maybe some is where I moved my computer giving me more light and a view of the oak leaves as they are turning and falling.

As usual where it comes to planning my workday (as in forget my own plans), this week I looked outside and saw sheep in the main pasture which is not where sheep are supposed to be. Because I could see how they got out and who was responsible, I called the appropriate party at work and told him I was not happy; then went out and tried to get them back by myself.

Now the sheep know when they see me that they are not supposed to be out there, but they also know there is more fresh grass and clover out there. Some persuading is needed. The sheep and possibly even neighbors got to hear my mean voice.

As I got them in, I realized one of the cows was going berserk, running back and forth and bellowing. She's a relatively young mother and she clearly had a problem that her calf was not where she wanted him to be. Unfortunately I could also hear him calling to her and knew that meant he was on the wrong side of a fence. (Is there anything in astrology making this a time conducive to animal breakouts?)

So after I had gotten most of the sheep back inside, I decided to see what I could do about the calf issue. He was lying on the other side of the fence, seemed not at all upset with where he was but also calling to his mama now and then enough to upset her. She watched as I went into the wooded area where he was and seemed to feel she was leaving it up to me to fix the problem-- probably assumed it was either my fault or some humans.

Fortunately he was a pretty mild mannered calf and walked his way down the fence-line, past a back gate and then when I got the gate open, he went through it. I was at this point, having seen how mama had been nearly hysterical acting, feeling I deserved to see how they met. I was expecting a Gone with the Wind moment of deep emotion (might have been reading too many romances).

He meandered across the field to a mother who had turned her back on him and seemed oblivious now that she ever had a problem. When he finally reached her, the closest description I can come to her reaction was-- oh, it's you. There were no apologies, no thanks, no drama. Cows, who can explain them. Not me and I've had many years to get some idea. Farm Boss got some of the drama from me (which he also didn't take nearly seriously enough) when he made a hurried trip home and fixed the fences where each errant critter had gone through.

Otherwise, I am blowing leaves about every other day. With seven huge oaks around this house, it's a full-time task for about a month. When I look up right now, it appears all the leaves are still up there.

This makes about six months since I got started editing on the manuscripts. The ten contemporary romances are as done as I can make them. I have also done two of the historic romances but do not plan to put them online to start. The business of actually putting the contemporaries onto Kindle and Nook will be Farm Boss's problem and he's learning. There is a lot to it; so I haven't been pushing him on his end. He's had a busy farm season with barn cleaning lately and selling wool last week. I want us to get it right when we do it.

The big thing I am asking myself is-- when these are done and that's not far off now with one historical left to do, what will I do with myself? It's been a lot of my life recently-- living with these characters and their problems. I do though have an idea for a new story; so maybe that will come next.

I might add I am loving the Kindle and actually like it more than the Nook to this point. I especially like how Amazon has so many reviews online to help make a decision on whether to buy a book. The only drawback to it so far is that it's nearly addictive and way too easy to buy more than I should. Amazon is tricky with sending out offers sometimes with 100 books at reduced rates. Definitely a potential addiction!

4 comments:

  1. My life is pretty dull compared to yours, Rain, although it looks so gorgeous there with the leaves changing color. The mom and calf story was very interesting. Don't know about cows, but it sounds like something humans would do.

    I hear you about what your next project will be once you get your books online since they have obviously been a labor of love for months. I love having large, over-arching projects, but as I've grown older, my existence is more day to day. Nothing really big to become totally immersed in right now--although I do enjoy working part-time and all the "little" stuff I do.

    Though I have an iPad, I still prefer reading tangible books in my hand, but I'm so close to two really state-of-the-art libraries, I rarely buy books except at the used book stores. The exception are the books about mixed media art and art journals.

    With your art and writing skills you'd make an awesome art journaler.

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  2. Anonymous8:07 AM

    I always have the same dilemma in fall: Should I rake daily, or should I wait until there's a massive pile up? Sometimes I wait a few days to see how much is going to come down. It almost seems it takes the same amount of effort whether I wait a few days or not.

    I always love your farm animal stories!

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  3. I've never tried the Nook but Amazon does make it very easy to download books to the Kindle and it is far easier than it was with my Sony eReaders. But, I've pretty much decided that it will be rare if I buy new books from well known authors. The price is too high, even for a Kindle book, when you really can't sell, trade or even give it away (I know that you can loan many of them ONCE) so I'll just wait for those I want to read to come out in a paperback edition and buy them at Costco or Walmart. But I've found that there are a lot of good reads that are priced at $0.99 to $2.99 and most of them that I've bought have been well worth the money.

    I find that many unknown authors will introduce a book or two at the .99 cent level, then others a couple of dollars higher. It is a good way to try out a new author.

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  4. You just about wrote the blog I have set to go tomorrow, Dick, about the kindle. I will say more about it then :)

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