Sunday Update - 2026 Week 23

Well, here we are at the start of another week, which means wrapping up the week before.  Lemme warn ya, though, it wasn't that exciting of a week...

I did write.  I got out 3025 words over 3 days.  Then I fell into the lazy pit.  I think I have a title for the book now, though - Song of Dream and Dragon.  Although, that doesn't feel quite right.  The dream part feels right, but the dragon part... not so much yet.  And the song part?  Meh.  Dream of Dread and Dragon, perhaps?  We'll see.

Marketing went rather crappily this week as FB twisted the rack on me.  When I switched marketing images to one without the word 'dead' in it, things went easier, but for pitysakes, how does one talk about FB's forbidden subjects without using any of the forbidden words?  Nope, still don't have the funds to pay for marketing, so there ya go.

Not much reading this week.

In baking news, I made Irish Soda Bread, which is so insanely easy I wonder why I never tried it before.  Oh, yeah, buttermilk.  I never have buttermilk in the house and I thought making my own would be a PITA.  Turns out, it's not, so there ya go.  I made chicken stew to go with the bread.  Mmmm.  And yesterday, I made pizza.  Yum.

On the activity front, I was pretty much a toad last week.  We did get one walk in and I did some stuff in the greenhouse, but other than that, nope.  Weight:? - don't ask.

The inside of the greenhouse looks like a rainforest.  Still only two tomatoes, but plenty of flowers on all three plants.  I planted the three peppers from the rescue I did at the feed store.  They're doing okay, but they came with issues, so I'm not holding out too much hope.  I thinned the carrots again.  Then I watered everything and fed the food plants (with store-bought food this time... the weed tea stinks so bad I'm giving that idea up.)  I'm thinking about taking more of my potted trees and transplanting them back into the wild - to free up space in there and to give them all a better chance at thriving.  As long as the deer don't eat them, that is.

Speaking of deer... The deer are pretty much all post-pregnant and they're starting to bring their babies to the yard.  Yay.  In Boo news, several of the deer have developed a taste for my irises.  When I see them eating my irises, I go out and chastise them, but they don't care.  One of the does looked up at me with an iris leaf hanging out of her mouth and then proceeded to munch it whilst I was scolding her.  On the upside, they haven't bothered my second redbud tree - Rudy - yet.

Not much else going on around here.  I'm hoping for a better writing week and to up my activity.  Tune in next Sunday to see how that goes.  Anyway, thanks for stopping by.  Feel free to chat about your accomplishments in comments.  Peace out.

Saturday Trail Cam Snaps

 Here we are again at Saturday, so it's time for some Trail Cam Snaps.  Let's get to it...

I call this one "Racoon Butt":

And here's a better shot of said raccoon:

Incoming squirrel!

Attempted Murder...

Deer Standoff:

We'll see what next week brings.  I'm hoping to catch some fawns.  Fingers crossed.

Thursday This n That

FB sucks.

X is pretty okay, but I haven't figured out how to use it for marketing.  (Not free marketing, that is.)

We have fawns!  Yay!

Chex Mix Bold is addictive.  Unfortunately, my intestines do not enjoy it as much as my tastebuds do, so I stay away from it.  Additionally unfortunate, Wallyworld had a big ol' bag of it on sale and right there by the checkout.  Thus, I couldn't stop myself from buying it.  Also thus, I am paying for it.  But it's soooo damn good.  Especially when you add a handful of mixed nuts to a bowl of it.  Yummers.

Getting old blows.  I used to be able to eat whatever whenever and never worry about it.  Now?  I look at wheat the wrong way and I get into issues.  Stupid.

The inside of my greenhouse looks like a jungle.  It's scary in there.  And hot.  When the tomatoes finally fruit and are ready for picking, I'm not sure how I'll get back there to pick them.  The potatoes are taking over.  I expect them to reach sentience any day now.  Oh, and I picked up three new bell pepper plants, because they were free, so now they're in there, too.  If I disappear, it's entirely possible I got lost in the jungle.  Send help.

It seems like everyone I know is neurodivergent, which begs the question 'if everyone is neurodivergent, is it really divergent?'  Think about that for a minute.

I made Irish Soda Bread for the first time, and it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.  It's a super simple bread to make, too.  Messy, but easy.

For a woman who enjoys making bread, I have a weird quirk.  I can't stand having dough on my hands and I have to get it all off or I feel like I'm wasting food.  This is not a problem when I'm making a stiff dough bread product, like pizza crust, but for a wet dough... GAH!

Also, enjoying making bread and having issues with digesting wheat definitely do not go together.  Good thing Hubs enjoys eating bread, so there's less for me.

Okay, that's probably enough out of me.  Have a great day and feel free to drop some of your own observations about the world.  Peace out.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 22

Here we are again at another Sunday.  It's the last day of May, which is my favorite month, but all good things must come to an end, eh?

Writing went well this week.  I wrote every day Monday-Friday and added 4758 words to my manuscript.  I think I'm finally in a place where I can tell you what I'm working on... :drumroll: The next book in the Shroudlands series.  It's up to 32240 words now, so yay.  I'm not laying out a whole shit-ton of words each day, but it's enough.  No clue when it'll be finished.  The point here is that I am writing again.  And once I get comfortable with being a writer again, I might finally get back to editing Duke Noble #3.  

Marketing occurred.  Not a lot of it, but it happened.  I moved 29 copies of Early Grave and someone bought a copy of Fertile Ground, so yay me.  May wasn't the best month this year, but it was better than nothing.

Reading... don't ask.  Despite my reading slump, I bought 8 new-to-me books last week, because I am a book-buying addict.  I picked up some NF books we didn't have and a Ken Follett I haven't read before.  Woot.

On the activity front, I wasn't too awfully active, but I did get some stuff done.  I vacuumed and dusted the whole house - 1700 sq ft worth - so go me.  I also did some gardening stuff.  And yesterday, we took a walk.  Weight: 178.6 - which isn't as low as I'd like, but better than I feared it would be when I stepped on the scale.

As for gardening, we planted two of my redbud trees in the ground - Randy and Rudy.  By the next morning, Randy was gone.  I haven't checked Rudy today but I am not holding out hope for his continued survival.  (Yes, I could surround him with wire, but if a critter REALLY wants to eat him, they'll get to him no matter what I do.)  Inside the greenhouse, everything seems to be thriving.  I need to repot some green peppers, now that I have two vacant bigger pots.  I still only have two tomatoes, but there's hope.  The potatoes have taken over.  

In exciting news, we've seen the first fawns of the year!  Brand new, still wet off the factory floor, baby deer.  New deer are so tiny!  (Of course.  They have a small door to go through when they first enter the world, so that have to be tiny.)  They grow fast, though, so we've already seen one that's less tiny.  Some of the deer were still pregnant as of last night, so there's more to come.  

I think that's it for me today.  Other things happened, but nothing of note.  Have a great day out there and a wonderful week.  :hugs:

Saturday Trail Cam Snaps

 First off, I did not have the trail cam out when something ate one of the redbud trees we planted yesterday.  It also wasn't out when the mama deer brought her brand new, teeny-tiny baby past the house this morning.  I swear, I'd need like 5-6 different cameras to catch everything.  

Anyway...

Here's another version of "Is that a camera?":

And here's a shot that's a bit blurry, but it gives an excellent view of a doe's pregnant belly:

This is Mr. Possum:

And Rocky Raccoon:

And a turkey:

Finally, here's the money shot I've been waiting for - a little fox!

Tune in next week to see if I catch any fawns on the Trail Cam!

Thursday This n That - Late Again

I blame Monday's government holiday for making me forget about yesterday's post.  I even had it started and everything.  Derp.  Anyway...

I think I might've figured out FB and their damn bots.  It's all about those banned words I've mentioned before.  If I use the words 'killed/kill' or 'murder/murderer', it's more likely to slap me with a content warning and tell me I'm a spammer.  Fuckers.  I'm talking about a MURDER mystery where people get KILLED and there's a KILLER on the loose.  I've already told FB their bots are insane, but since it's only bots reading the complaints, I doubt it'll get anywhere.  I'm not going to hide those words, but I may have to reword some stuff for future marketing.  Turds.

It's been raining here for about 24 hours.  Okay, Mother Nature, that's enough.  Thank you.  Go drip for a while at Mom's house.  Her plants need watering and if you do it, it means my sis doesn't have to.  

Copied from my FB post yesterday: "Hubs and I were out on the sun porch having a smoke, when we heard a fawn bleating. Actually, the dang thing sounded like it was shouting "MOM! MO-OM!" at full volume. Within seconds, a doe comes charging up the hill hell-bent for leather and ready to fight, with another doe close behind her. She stops just inside the neighbor's backyard and a fawn runs up. He (it had to be a buck fawn making that much of a fuss) immediately starts nursing like nothing much was going on. She allowed it for a couple minutes and then wandering off down the hill again, with him trailing along behind her."

I hate when FB changes my font and I can't figure out how to make it stop, other than inserting new paragraphs and moving the changed text up so unweirded paragraphs drop below it.  Frankly, it's a pain.  On the other hand, the font adds interest.  

The trail camera is awesome, but all those pics are filling my harddrive.  I mean, one night I got like 350 pics.  The next, it was like 650 pics.  At 1-3 megs each, those things fill my 'puter up fast.  Yesterday, I went through deleting, which, if you know me, you know I can't stand deleting pics even when they're blurry.  Anyway, I did it, and I'll have to continue to do it or face the very real reality of running out of space.  

Running out of space on a computer harddrive... I'm one of the old souls who maxed her computer out regularly, so I had to go through on a regular basis and delete shit.  It was either wipe it out of existence or move it to floppies.  And since my deletion anxiety stems from back then, you can imagine I had a LOT of floppies.  (3.5s aren't really floppy.  I remember the real floppies.)

Anyway, I have a lot of pics and some of them are pretty cool, so tune in tomorrow for that.  If I remember...

Peace out.

Monday Marketing on a Tuesday

Because yesterday was a solemn holiday and I didn't do any marketing, here's my Monday Marketing post on a Tuesday.  Tada!  

This week, Early Grave is up for grabs.  We'll see if FB allows me to do much of anything this week or whether I'm going to need to rethink my marketing strategy.  Anyway...

Now through Friday, EARLY GRAVE is free! (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.) Grab your copy of this twisty suspense today. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CGYBSST