Sunday Update - 2025 Week 45

Well, here we are again at another week.  I looked up what the week # was this time, so yeah, it's right.  7 weeks left of the year.  Let's see if we can make it a good 7 weeks, eh?

No writing this week.  No editing either.  And almost no marketing, except I got a wild hair yesterday and set a bunch of stuff up to be free.  If you missed yesterday's post, Blink of an I is free right now.  Starting tomorrow, Accidental Death will be free for 5 days and then UNEQUAL will be free for the weekend.  For the record, I moved 2 copies of BOAI yesterday.  Weekends really do suck for moving books.  :shrug:  Then again, it could be the book.  People aren't as excited for dystopian novels as they could be.  Oh, well.  

I'm still reading The Martian by Andy Weir.  It's pretty good.  I'm just not not reading as often as I should these days.

In baking news, I made oatmeal raisin bread.  The recipe was posted this past Wednesday.  I meant to make chocolate bread yesterday, but then I got busy cleaning and by the time I was done, I was too arm-tired to make bread.  I did do a batch of Salsa Chicken, though.  Yum.  I might make banana bread today.  We'll see.

On the activity front, I did some work in the woods on Sunday, but then it got too hot to go into the woods.  I tried walking one day, but after about an eighth of a mile, I got a hitch in my giddy-up (i.e. my hip was sticking), so I turned around and came home.  I also did some tree repotting, I swept the leaves off the deck, and I cleaned both bathroom sinks.  Weight: Unchanged at 174.2

As for the gardening, I picked most of my green tomatoes earlier in the week because it was supposed to get cold.  And it did get cold, but when I went out on the deck yesterday, the tomatoes I left are getting bigger and the plants still have flowers.  Derp.  Also, I had moved a couple of the largest green pepper plants into the garage and they each have one tiny ball which may or may not grow into an actual edible pepper.  Mostly what I worked on, though, was repotting some of the trees to overwinter in the garage.  (All the trees are inside now.)  I got a great deal on some tall pots at the thrift store ($2 each), so I put a dogwood in one and a redbud in the other.  Fingers crossed they thrive and I see growth come spring.  Right now, I have 3 dogwoods, 5 redbuds, 4 cedars, 2 hickories, 1 oak, and 2 unknown that may or may not be shrubs.  It's possible one of them is a black cherry because its leaves are turning color and the color is a pale peachy-pink like the cherries do.  We'll see.  The other one might be a buckthorn.  I can't wait for Spring.

Since it's not Spring and it's getting colder instead of warmer, fun in the woods is right around the corner.  Which is good because we've got a lot of work to do on the new property, as well as plenty to do on the old property.  Loads of deadfall to clean up.  We're looking at chainsaws and woodstoves again.  

The deer are in rut.  Which means we're seeing bucks in the yard again.  We have 4 identifiably different ones.  They're chasing the girls all over the place, trying to get some bow-chicka-bowbow action.  

Oh, and like I said, I went to the thrift store.  The big item there, in addition to the pots and some used garden fencing, was an awesome wooden trunk.  It looks great in my living room and the cats have claimed it as a new bed.  Only $35.  Woot.

And I think that's it for me today.  Loads going on in life.  I just wish there was more writing news to relay.  Maybe next weekend, I'll have something to report.  Anyway, have a great day and a productive week, wherever you are!

Peace out.

Sunday Update - 2025 Week Dunno

Well, here we are at the Sunday morning after the fall time change.  I have no clue what time it is, so don't ask me what week it is.  It's a week.

I did some small amount of writing this week.  Just over a thousand words over two days.  Frankly, I was at a point where I had painted myself into a corner and couldn't find a window to crawl out of.  Then I had an idea while sitting on the toilet before bed.  I wrote the idea down when I was finished and then went back to brush my teeth.  Then I laid in bed thinking about how to write the idea.  I really should've gotten up and just written the scene because it was way harder to write the next day, lemme tell ya.  Ya gotta strike while the iron is hot, even if you're sleepy.  Anyway, I think I have it, but we'll see what happens tonight.

Marketing... Well, I did WIOH and very little came of it.  Which is weird because WIOH is one of my best movers when it comes to freebie week.  And it usually results in page reads, too.  :shrug:  Poor returns on marketing make it really hard to get the motor going for writing more books.  Like I need another reason to not write.  Blerg.

I'm in the middle of reading The Martian by Andy Weir.  It's pretty good so far.

In baking news... there isn't any.  I thought about baking bread, but it never happened.

On the activity front, it was cool enough for me to go into the woods, so there was a lot of that.  The active part was mostly cutting vines and dead limbs, and piling those things up, plus moving deadfall.  We also did some wandering in the woods, to survey what needs to be done.  Man, there are a lot of fallen limbs and trees since the last time I was down in there.  I did walk the road once, too.  Weight: 174.2

It got down to freezing last night, so yesterday afternoon, I moved all my baby trees into the garage.  And I picked all the big tomatoes.  They're still mostly green, but they should ripen.  I've got them in a container in the spare room, where they can still get some sun.  Fingers crossed.  The little tomatoes are still out there on the plants.  We'll see what last night's temps did to them.  This coming week, I'll trash the plants and reuse the pots for some of my trees who need bigger pots to thrive.  Hubs and I are in talks about where in the yard to place new trees.  I really need to pick up some fencing before I plant, so they have at least a small chance of surviving the deer.

I think that's it for me this morning.  If I missed anything, sorry.  What went on in your lives?

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 36

Welcome to the Sunday Update.  I think it's Week 36.  These days, who knows? LOL  Anyway, sorry last week was a dud, but let's see what I can do to amuse you today.

I did some writing this week.  Not nearly enough, but something anyway.  I managed 1709 out of two days.  :sad trombone:  This week ain't lookin' great either, but we'll see.  

Marketing was accomplished.  Unfortunately, still being hamstrung by FB, I moved only 29 copies of IDW.  I did sell a copy each of the other books in the series, though, so I've got that going for me.

Nothing got finished on the reading front, so no post yesterday.  I'm in the middle of reading a collection of inter-related short stories by Arthur C. Clarke.  They're okay.  Nothing really exciting, but fun.

In baking news, I made oatmeal raisin bread with a cinnamon swirl.  What can I say... I was inspired by watching The Great British Baking Show.  Plus, I got a new to me cookbook with this recipe in it.  It's pretty yummy, but the swirl part was a bust.  It's falling apart at the swirl line.  :shrug:  Better luck next time, I guess.  Except it took all day to make, so there might not be a next time.  We'll see.

On the activity front, I was more active this week.  Yay for cooler weather, eh?  I did two walks, two days of cleaning/yard work, and a big grocery trip.  I'm up to 53.7 miles walked for the year.  Weight: 171.4

Thanks also to the cooler weather, I guess, my tomatoes are bearing more fruits and more flowers, too.  I have like 5 more tomatoes.  Yay.  I also found this show on gardening.  It's out of Ireland, but plants are plants and dirt is dirt.  I just need to adjust their advice to Missouri climate.  The episode on growing tomatoes was very informative.  I found out I'm not feeding nearly often enough and that I should've pinched off the excessive shoots.  :shrug:  Next year's garden should be way better. Live and learn.

This morning, I heard a strange sound coming out of the woods.  When I did some research, I discovered it was the sound of an Eastern Screech Owl.  Yay.  In other nature news, the fawns are getting big and their spots are fading fast.  We named Sissy's fawn Scout and it's a big fawn.  It's probably a buck fawn, but I haven't seen any antler nubs yet, so the jury's still out.

Yesterday, I wandered the yard with stakes, plotting out where we're going to be transplanting some of the deck trees.  Hubs checked out my placement and agrees, so we'll proceed with that in a month or so.  I'm trying to put them in the ground when they have a better chance of surviving the deer (i.e. when the trees are leafless and less likely to attract attention.)  I hope it works.  Otherwise, there's always next year.  

Okay, I think that's probably enough out of me.  Have a great day and a lovely week.  

Sunday Update - Week 32

Here we are at Week 32 and I don't really have much to show for it.

I did not write this week, despite every encouragement and a little poking in the ass.  Let's see if we can change that this week.  It goes without saying that AuGoWriMo is a bust for me so far.  I can salvage it if I get off my ass starting today.  START TODAY!  Part of the problem is the last words I wrote were such dreck, I'm having a crisis of confidence.  Derp.

Marketing was done.  It wasn't exactly productive.  I only moved 40 copies of WIOH, which is usually my best mover.  :shrug:  Not much I can do about it without paying for advertising.  I don't have a problem paying, but usually by the time I think about doing a freebie or a sale, it's too late to put an ad anywhere.  I need to plan ahead, which I am HORRIBLE at.

I did read this week, but I ended up DNFing most of it.

Cinnamon rolls were made.  They aren't the best rolls I ever made, but they're edible.  I halved the recipe, but while I was putting everything together, I used the whole measurement for the oil.  I tried to salvage it by adding more flour.  The result is a little weird.  We'll eat them and I'll try not to make the same mistake in the future.

On the activity front, I started out the week really well.  I walked three times for 3.5 miles.  Then it got hot again and I stayed inside.  Those miles put me at 50 miles even for the year, so far.  We won't talk about weight.  Heat makes me blow up like a water balloon, so even if I had weighed myself, it wouldn't really count.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The fawns are getting bigger and their spots are getting less defined.  I saw an opossum.  We also had several baby nuthatches in the redbud tree.  Yay.

Speaking of trees, my baby redbuds are doing well.  I still only have two tomatoes.  Those are getting closer to ripe, so yay.  Everything else is holding steady and not too big, but not dead.  Dang heat.

I think that's it for me.  How are things with you?

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 31

This is my 3200th post on this blog, by the way.  Not important, just sayin'.

It's Sunday again and I don't have much to tell you.  I was supposed to start the AuGoWriMo thing on Friday.  I failed.  I did write this morning, though, so that's a step in the right direction.  (Or the write direction... lol.)  Duke Noble 3 is at 16242 words as of a minute ago.  Woot.  I have greats hopes to get the first draft finished by the end of the month.

I did some marketing this week.  Unequal was free and I moved 41 copies. :sad trombone:  Eh, I wasn't expecting it to go gangbusters, but still.  This coming week, Wish in One Hand will be free.  Maybe that'll generate some sales.  

Not much reading this week.  I forgot to post yesterday, so anything I read this week will be on next week's post.

No baking.  It was too hot.

On the activity front, I was a busy lady.  Three days cleaning, one day I did some dancing, I took one walk, and I went grocery shopping.  I meant to walk yesterday, but I needed to run a couple errands and then I got lazy.  Weight: 171.6

In gardening, my tomato plants have loads of flowers and still only 2 tomatoes.  Bummer.  And one of my dogwood trees died.  I think it was heatstroke.  The redbud trees are growing right along.  The hickories are doing well, too.  The one unknown tree I planted is doing really well.  The green peppers are pathetic, but that was a fool's gamble anyway.  I planted too late.  I just pushed seeds into dirt to see what would happen.  Maybe I'll try again next year and start earlier.  This is all a learning curve.  Maybe year three will net me a good harvest of edible produce.  

Other than that, not much to talk about.  I watched way too much TV, but I'm having a lot of fun with the Roku thing.  Amusing myself to death, I believe is the phrase.  I told you Roku would be dangerous for me.  I need to find a way to balance the entertainment with the serious business of actually living.  To that end, I need to write.  And to exercise.  In between all the fun shows.  Umm... yeah.

Anyway, have a great day wherever you are.  And drop a note about what you're up to before ya leave, eh?

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 21

 I missed last week, which messed me all up, but I'm pretty sure last week was week 21.  Anyway, here goes...

I did some writing.  Not much, so don't get yourself too excited.  Still, it was better than nothing.  I also did some marketing.  Woot.  

Loads of reading, but not many books finished to show for it.  Hey, I did remember to do a Reading Wrap-up yesterday, so go look at that.  I finished a book yesterday, but that'll be on this week's wrap-up.

Last Sunday, I made pizza.  Yesterday, I made pulled BBQ pork.  Woot.  Other than that, nothing exciting to speak of in the baking/cooking category.  I really need to get off my butt and make cookies for Hubs.  He's earned them.

On the activity front, I walked three times for 3.2 miles worth (20.10 YTD), I gardened some, and did a bit of cleaning.  Weight: 172.4, down 1.2 from last week, so whatever I'm doing is working.  Increase activity, decrease food intake.

Gardening... Well, I've been working on cleaning up the rock path in front of the front flower bed.  That's slow going.  Lots of shoveling to turn the rocks over and then bending to pick out the weeds, then smoothing it down and tamping it down.  Patch by patch, so it's still walkable between exertions.  (I can't do the whole path at once anymore.)  Week before last, I repotted a bunch of the little trees into bigger pots.  They seem happy.  My tomatoes are getting big.  I'm seeing some new growth on most of the little trees.  And yesterday, I planted green peppers seeds from the green peppers I used to make deconstructed stuff peppers.  If they grow, they grow.  If not, not much time or money wasted.  

Yesterday, we saw our first fawn of the year.  It was Lumpy's!  Yay!  Then later, when I went for my evening walk, I heard a fawn beeping and looked for it, and there it was with what had to be Sissy.  (She's so tame, it had to be her.)  Double yay.  They had to have been born within the last couple of days.  Aww.  Unfortunately, it's been raining.  And raining.  And raining.  I'm a little worried about those little babies.  They're so tiny. 

Also, we had a HUGE raccoon on our porch the other night.  That hasn't happened in a while.  And we had bobcats tussling in the backyard one night.  Spooky, but cool. 

Okay, I think that's it for me.  I'm sure other stuff happened.  (Like I turned 55 in there somewhere and we had an anniversary.  Oh, and I got TTW's print version approved and up for sale.)  I'll try to be better about posting this week.  I hope you have a happy rest of the weekend and a nice Memorial Day.  :hugs:

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 18

 Sorry... I overslept.  Now that we're here, though, let's jump right into the weekly update.

I didn't write or edit anything.  Big surprise there, eh?  I did do some marketing for UWC and moved 117 copies of that and a few copies of WIOH.  Not sure what I'll be marketing this week.

I did some reading.  See yesterday's post.

No baking either.  Wait, I take that back.  I made pizza on Sunday.  It was my best pizza yet, so I'm not sure how I could've forgotten it, however briefly.  I'm trying to cut back on baked goods, though, so don't expect to see much about baking for a while.

On the activity front, I've been pretty busy.  I did some cleaning, took a couple walks (for a total of 1.6 miles), reorganized my desk area, got groceries, and did some yard work.  Weight: 173.6

The yard's starting to get back to looking like I give a shit about it.  Things are growing where I want them to grow and things are ceasing to grow where I don't want them.  I spent a chunk of yesterday pulling weeds and making things tidy.  Hubs is helping by mowing the lawn.  It looks nice, if I do say so myself.  

My baby trees are doing well.  Fingers crossed.

Hubs just told me the phone's out again.  It was out last week for a day or so, too.  This is an ongoing battle and I'm this close > < to telling Brightspeed to pound sand and just use my cellphone from here on out.  But I hate talking on my cell phone.  My hand falls asleep and I drop the phone, plus the reception sucks and Mom has a tough time hearing me.  On the upside, every time I call BS, I tell them to take days off my bill.  Pretty soon, they'll owe me.  :snort:

The deer are getting fat pregnant.  Soon, we'll have fawns.  Lumpy is chugging along, but her lump must've burst at some point and she's got nasty stuff hanging off her jaw.  Poor dear.  I don't have great hopes for her or her unborn baby this year.  =o(

I can't think of anything else that happened this week... not anything worth mentioning, anyway... so I'll let you go on about your life.  Have a great day!

Sunday Update - Week 17

Hello!  It's Sunday morning and I'm running late again.  On the upside, I feel like a got a good night's sleep for a change, so let's go...

I did some writing this week!  Yay!  It was only one day and only about 1300 words, but it's a start.  No editing.  No marketing.  I did start a freebie thing for UP WISH CREEK yesterday, but I haven't marketed for it yet.  Still, I've moved a few copies even without marketing, which tells me my other marketing efforts are doing something out there.  Yay.

I did some reading, as you can see from yesterday's post.

I also did some baking.  I made a chocolate oil cake with strawberry jelly and vanilla frosting.  Except I didn't have enough powdered sugar for the frosting.  I tried 'making' powdered sugar using my little food processor.  It wasn't nearly as fine as I hoped it would be and the frosting is gritty.  Oh, well.  Live and learn.  I also ended up doing stuff chicken breast for Easter, which turned out super yummy.  

On the activity front, I did something 5 out of 7 days.  I took 3 walks for 2.4 miles.  I weeded and did other garden stuff for 2.5 hours.  Unfortunately, I just stepped on the scale and bleh.  Weight: 176 even.  :shrug:  I feel good, so that's really the point, isn't it?

In the gardening realm, all the beds have been weeded.  (A couple already need to be weeded again, but that's how weeding goes.)  I planted all the seeds in the cedar bed - 3 packages of mixed wildflower seeds and one package of marigolds.  I think I'm already seeing some of those come up.  I also planted an old seed packet of basil that I found when I cleaned out my junk drawer.  We'll see if those even bother to come up.  Additionally, I planted some volunteer trees.  It's been a green time here at Sanderson Acres, lemme tell ya.

Speaking of cleaning the junk drawer, I did that.  I threw out some stuff and organized the rest.  Considering I've been meaning to do that for months now, I'm calling it a win.  Now, I really need to reorganize the storage cupboard.  Maybe today.  Maybe not.

On a cooler morning, I went into the woods along the road and attacked some vines that had escaped my snippers.  Those are dying nicely now, tyvm.  That will probably be my last venture into the woods until fall.  The ticks are out.  I had three on me already this month.  None of them bit me, but just seeing them is enough to warn me away.

Speaking of ticks, Hubs sprayed the lawn.  Die evil bastard bugs.  

Okay, I think that's about it.  Have a great day wherever you are and here's to a productive week for us all.  :waves:

Thursday This n That

 Mmm, coffee.

I started writing again yesterday.  A new book.  I know I know I know.... I have scads of unfinished manuscripts weeping from the neglect they've suffered, but when an idea strikes, it's best to just run with it.  Okay, maybe not best, but it's certainly easier.  I'm all about easy.  Anyway, I got about 1300 words down, so I've got that going for me.  We'll see what today brings.  And who knows, maybe I can cobble something I've already written into this.  That'd be good.

My baby tree project is going well.  Out of the scads of seeds I harvested last fall and planted either then or recently, I have 4 dogwoods.  Nothing else came up.  Live and learn for next fall.  On the other hand, I rescued a bunch of volunteer seedlings from around the outside - 4 cedars, 3 redbuds, and 2 oaks.  They're in pots now.  We'll see how they do.  I also have a boatload of volunteer elms that will either have to be dug up and replanted or pulled and thrown out.  They're not in optimal places to have a tree.  

Did you hear the news about the toddler who wandered away from his home in AZ only to be found by a dog 7 miles away?  Yay for the dog.  My suspicious mind wonders, though, how a 2 year old made it seven miles on foot.  Was he snatched and let go?  Was he dumped like a unwanted dog?  Sure, he could've just been a tot on a mission, but like I said, I'm suspicious.

Today, my bird-a-day calendar has a tern feeding its baby a tasty fish.

Earlier I heard a single yip out there in the darkness.  I'm guessing fox.  Coyotes have a tendency to move in a group and when one goes, they all go.  Foxes are more solitary.  On the other hand, neither of them are generally one yip kind of critters.  Since all I have is that one yip to go on, all I can do is guess.

They came and fixed my phone again.  This time, the tech called afterward and it was one I've worked with before.  He said to call him directly next time, and bypass the whole mess that is BS customer support.  And there will be a next time because they can't be bothered to replace what is constantly failing with stuff that actually works.  (He didn't say most of that - only to call him.  I don't want to get him in trouble.)  Anyway, he also said that part of the problem is because someone has been cutting their fiber optic cables.  Most likely they're looking for copper to steal and sell.  Morons.

I'm back to walking more regularly again.  The other night, I saw two rabbits chasing each other around and around.  Bunnies!  So cute.  I mean, they were adults, but still... BUNNIES!  And adult rabbits generally produce even cuter bunnies.  Yay.

No wonder bunnies are associated with Easter.  Spring = Easter. Spring = Rabbits.  Therefore, Easter = Rabbits.  It's simple math.  ;o)

Okay, that's it for me.  I need more coffee and I should probably think about doing something constructive.  Have a great day!

Monday Update - Week 16

 Since yesterday was a holiday, here's a Monday Update...

No writing or editing.  Yes, I have been thinking about writing, but that's usually only when I'm trying to get some sleep.  I did some marketing for SLEEPING UGLY, which was free last week, but I didn't move as many as I would've liked.  :shrug:  I forgot to set anything up for this week.  We'll see if that changes.

I did some reading, but I forgot to post my Saturday Reading Wrap-up.  I'll do a two-weeker this Saturday.

No baking this week.  Yeah, I meant to make a cake for Easter, but that didn't get done.  I did make some awesome stuffed chicken breasts for dinner yesterday, which went into the oven, I maybe that counts. Or maybe that just counts for next Sunday's update.  Derp.

On the activity front, I started the week gangbusters, but then dropped to nada.  So, yeah, 4 days of activity - mostly weeding gardens and stuff like that.  I did one hard target walk, which brings my total mileage for the year to 6.55 miles.  That's kinda pathetic, but I'm not whipping myself over it.  I'm doing other active things.  And my gardens are starting to look good, so yay.

Speaking of gardens, I got the shade bed and the cedar bed weeded.  (Okay, Hubs did most of the cedar bed, but it's weed-free now.)  Then I planted the seeds I had intended for the cedar bed.  I also bought some more seeds to go in there, which I'll try and get to today.  If the rain is actually finished.  

Speaking of plants, I have 4 viable dogwood trees in pots.  They're only about 3 inches tall, but they've each got two leaves beyond the seed leaves and one of them is working on a second set of leaves.  Also the two cedar trees - Cecile and Clyde - are doing well, with plenty of new growth.  

And the rain... Oh holy crap did it rain.  Sploosherama big time.  The dogwoods and the cedars are currently hanging out in the sunroom.  I didn't want them to drown, poor things.  

Okay, I think that's it for the news of last week.  I need to get motivated this morning, but my gumption won't turn over.  It sputters and dies every time I try it.  ;o)

Have a great day and if you're motivated, feel free to drop a comment.  

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 12

Well, howdy there.  It's Sunday and I'm feeling pretty good, so let's get started with the week...

I did no writing, editing, or marketing.  Yep, I had a week off of all things writerly.  Woot.  There's not much for me to do with editing until I get my notes back from the beta readers.  And I don't really write while I'm in the throes of getting a book ready to publish.  (I could, I guess, but I don't.)

This coming week, Accidental Death will be free and Natural Causes will be 99c.  Look for marketing here tomorrow on those and throughout the week on social media.

I read some stuff.  See yesterday's post.  Yep, I actually did a Reading Wrap-up.  

This past week, I made carrot cake... which is almost gone, so I need to think about the next bake... and I made chocolate oatmeal cookies.  Yum.

The big deal this week has to do with activity.  You see, Hubs and I have started working on our land to the south.  It's about an acre of forest we haven't had a chance to touch yet.  So we're touching it.  Mostly moving deadfall and cutting vines.  Gah, so many vines.  Oh, and cutting dead limbs off the freakin' cedars.  So many dead limbs. It feels like every time I turned around in there, I was at risk for putting an eye out or getting skewered.  That will change.  Unfortunately, it's getting a little late in the season to spend too many more hours in the woods.  Ticks and snakes... :shudder:  On the upside, we found a redbud tree we didn't even know was there.  Yay.  Weight: 174.8

Speaking of trees, my little dogwoods are doing okay.  Some are doing better than others, but if I get 3-4 trees out of this experiment, life is good.  Nothing else is showing any signs of growing yet.  Except for the cedars.  They're awesome.  Cecil has new growth and Clyde is starting to green up now that he's in a pot instead of dirt under the deck.  I might take today and do some more potting.  I have a few more dogwoods to get in dirt.  All of the buckthorns need potting.  And I have a few more volunteer cedars that can be transferred to their unwanted spots into pots.  

I think that's it for me for the week.  What have you been up to lately?

Tree Seeds Update

 Okay, so back in late October, I gathered a bunch of seeds to try my hand at germinating and growing native trees and shrubs.  Here's where we are right now...

The dogwood seeds that have been in the fridge after being soaked in boiling water are germinating.  Yesterday, I started putting them in pots.  I didn't count how many I planted, but I ran out of small pots and gumption, so there are at least 3 more in the bag, which I put back in the fridge.

The redbud seeds that I put directly into pots after soaking have spent the winter in the garage.  I may have forgotten to water them regularly and of course, Woodstock the Garage Wren may have been playing in their dirt.  I watered them all yesterday and left them outside on the deck.  Fingers crossed some of them live.

The spicebush seeds spent the winter in pots on the deck.  Those also didn't see much watering. We'll see.

The buckthorn seeds are still in the fridge in a bag.  I didn't notice any germination yet.  As soon as I acquire more little pots, I'll try planting them and see what happens.

Like the spicebush seeds, the acorns I planted spent the winter outside in a pot.  If they don't germinate, I'll give that up and find some volunteer seedlings.  We're always getting at least one or two acorns growing in our flower beds.  I wanted to grow them from acorns so I knew what variety I was planting.  Getting a seedlings out of the garden is a crap shoot.

Speaking of volunteers, I dug up and potted another cedar tree.  I named this one Clyde.  He's kinda funky and didn't start his life out straight, but he's about 6" tall.  We'll see if I got enough of his root base to keep him alive.  He couldn't stay where he was, growing under the deck, so he would've died anyway.  This way at least he gets a chance.  We have several other volunteer cedars I may try to grow.  The problem with cedars is they are slow growing.  Cecil is about 4 years old, I think, and he's only about 2' tall.  Of course, he's been growing in a pot.  Maybe he'd be taller if I put him in the ground.  

Anyway, the idea here is put all of these in the ground at some point.  Hubs will build cages around them to keep the deer from doing what they did to poor Elmer (i.e. munching them to the ground).  That's a long way off, though.  Fingers crossed we get at least a few of each of the varieties to grow large enough to have to worry about it.  If we get more than a few, I may need to find homes for them.  We'll see.

Next fall, I may try germinating persimmons.  We have a big persimmon tree that drops loads of fruit.  I just have to snag some fruits before the critters get to them.  

What about you?  Have you ever tried growing trees?  

Sunday Update 10/27/24

 :blink blink: I just woke up, so bear with me.

Still not writing.  In editing news, I finished the first round of edit notes on Friday - 21 pages worth of single spaced notes on college ruled paper.  Not the most notes I've ever made on a book, but still, that's lots.  Yesterday, I sat down and started inputting those notes. Then I had to refer back to Rumor Has It about something and I discovered, to my dismay, that I wrote the entirety of TTW in the wrong person.  Should've written in first person.  Wrote it in third.  Derp.  Much swearing occurred and then much laughing because really, how silly can one gal get?  Sooo... I need to fix that, too.  I did manage to get one page of edit notes entered and five pages edited for notes and POV.  

I almost forgot... SLEEPING UGLY is free starting tomorrow.  Kind of a Halloween thing.  

I read a book this week.  Unfortunately, it doesn't count toward my goal because it was a book I volunteered to proofread for the author.  It's now out for sale, and I bought a copy, so I'll read it again and then count it.  The book?  Oh, it's Silver James' Moonstruck Mafia: Boston.  It's wicked awesome.  Pick up your copy today.

This week in cooking, I made a vat of chicken soup, a crockpot worth of pulled pork, and applesauce bars.  Oh, and I used leftover pulled pork to make Cuban sandwiches, which is no small effort.  (I mean, if I had a panini press, it wouldn't be hard, but I don't, so it is.)

On the activity front, well... you see... Falling on my ass in the woods and twisting my knee kinda put the kybosh on that.  I did get into the woods once and I went for one walk, which wasn't far and I had to turn back for home because my knee was being a whiny little bitch.  Sitting on my butt and eating copious amounts is not helping my overall physical well-being.  Weight: 175.2

The reason I went into the woods is to start putting my 'grow your own trees' scheme into motion. I've been researching what needs to be done to grow these trees from seeds, so I'm working on that.  I gathered seeds from the redbud in our front yard, a couple of spicebushes along the side, the buckthorn up front, and then went down into the woods to gather dogwoods seeds.  Yesterday, I separated all the redbud seeds from their pods, put them in a coffee mug, and doused them with boiling water.  They need to sit in that for 24 hours and then I can hit the next step, which if memory serves is to put them in dirt.  The other seeds all require different magic, so I could be remembering wrong.  Dogwood seeds need to be cleaned and scarified (i.e. the process of artfully damaging the seed hull to allow for germination), then they need to live in the fridge for 3-4 months.  Same with the buckthorn seeds.  The spicebush seeds just need to be cleaned, I think, and then chilled.  As I do this, I'll make sure to apply the right method for each seed.  Should be fun.

I'm also thinking about doing wood carving in my spare time.  Right now, I'm researching the tools and trying to see which ones to buy.  We'll see if I keep at it or get bored before I even start.

Oh, we went fishing this week.  It was only for a couple hours and I only caught one fish, but it was good to get out again.  And now I have nightcrawlers, so I can go whenever and not have to worry about waiting for my bait shop to open up.  

While we were driving to the fishing hole, we saw two bald eagles flying low and dancing in the air around each other.  It was AWESOME.  We also saw yellow-bellied sapsuckers this week, so yay!  I love fall migration.

Okay, that was a lot of read, so thank you for getting all the way down here.  Have a great week!  And feel free to drop a comment to let me know how your week went.

Sunday Update

 Well, hello there.  Thanks for coming back for another Sunday Update.  I was a particularly lazy toad this past week, so not really too much excitement to report.  

No writing this week.  I did about 10% worth of editing on TTW.  And I spent a goodly portion of last Sunday working on paperback issues.  The only paperbacks I haven't addressed are the OUAD novels.  I'll get to those eventually.  I also did my usual morning marketing 9/14-9/18.

Speaking of which, the numbers...  I moved 91 copies of Natural Causes during the freebie.  I also moved 4.44 copies of Accidental Death for a whopping $2.25.  Which is better than a sharp stick in the ass, but not really anything to blow your skirt up.  Woot.  We'll see in the coming days whether anyone starts reading those books in KU.  I did see where Natural Causes made it to #7 in free crime noir, so I have that going for me.

Update 8:22a:  FYI... BLINK OF AN I will be free starting tomorrow.  We'll see how that goes.

No reading this week.  I really need to get back to that, especially if I'm not going to sit my ass down and write.  Derp.

Not much baking this week.  I got a wild hair yesterday and made brownies.  It was a necessity.  Why? Well...

Hubs and I spent yesterday morning planting mums.  Six big ones and five small ones in a lovely arrangement in the front bed.  The big one are two each of yellow, orange, and purple.  The small ones are all white.  I'm hoping they all come back next year.  Afterwards, I was craving brownies, so I made them.

And the above is pretty much all my activity for the week.  Unless you count the two trips to Wallyworld and the day I moved a couple chairs.  Weight: ?

Last night, Mother Nature got a bug up her ass and gave us a thorough waterboarding.  It lasted less than an hour, but man, was that rain ever coming down.  Sploosh.  The freakin' yard looked like an abstract water sculpture done by a madman.  The drainage trench was full to overflowing, the downspouts from the gutters were shooting out water like they were fire hoses, and our front flower bed with all the new mums was a small lake.  I'm guessing between two and three inches in under an hour.  

Oh, and another thing that happened this week was the tree butchering by the electric company.  They did do a better job than when the road crew 'trims' and hacks everything to pieces, but it's still quite shocking.  They were supposed to leave us the trunks of the three trees they cut down.  They left us two 6-8 foot lengths and carted off the rest - including Max's scratching tree which I had planned to make into a staff.  Turds.  Anyway, it looks semi-apocalyptic around here right now.  Trees all over the neighborhood are gone or halved where they cut limbs away from the power lines.  It's sad.  Yeah, it was necessary.  Yeah, I shouldn't expect the same quality of tree-trimming that a landscaper would accomplish, but man... =o\

I think that's it.  Today, I need to go out into the yard and clean up from the storm.  We also need to move those trunks away from the road before some numbnuts decides they're free wood and carts them off.  (A neighbor said the electric company was telling people they could do that.  I hope they also suggested that these people ASK the property owner first, but I doubt it.)

Anyway... Have a great day wherever you are.  And feel free to leave a comment if the urge strikes you.  I may not reply to comments very often, but I read them and so do other people who wander through.  =o)

Sunday Update - Week 22

Howdy there buckaroos.  (Not sure why I went there this morning...)  

Not a great week for writing progress.  I worked on the book 4 out of 7 days, but I only added 1539 words.  That was mostly a new scene at the beginning and the rest was reworking what I'd already written to make sure it flowed with the new stuff.  

I did some reading.  Finished two and DNF'd a third.  Yesterday, I picked out one of my old Zane Grey's and started reading that.

In baking, I did a plain ol' yellow cake from a mix on Monday.  We ate most of it with strawberries and the rest plain.  Thursday, I made granola bars and then a loaf of applesauce bread for Hubs.  He does like his granola bars and breads for breakfast.

On the activity front, I managed to get out 3 days where I did something other than sit on my ever-widening ass.  I got some more weeding done.  Then I planted vegetable seeds in the front flower bed and planted my elm tree.  Yesterday, Hubs and I went for a walk.  I need to get back to walking more, that's for sure.  Weight 182.4.

Speaking of my elm tree, that I raised from a seed I planted in a pot about 14 months ago... the deer have already munched almost all the leaves off of it.  Took them two days.  Poor Elmer.  I never did take a picture of him.  He was beautiful.  Now he's a stick with leaf bits.  I still have Cedric and Cecil, the two baby cedars, but now I'm afraid to put them in the ground.  They have to go out there sooner or later, though.  They can't thrive in pots.  Cross your fingers for my vegetable garden.  Between the deer and the bunnies, it's hard to grow things here without a 6 ft fence.

On our walk, we saw three bunnies.  One in the yard, one at the curve, and an itty-bitty baby bunny over by the well house.  OMG, that last one was so cute.  Fingers crossed he does better than Elmer out there in the mean world.  Nature is a bitch sometimes.

As far as we can tell, the deer are still pregnant.  No sign of fawns yet.  

7:13 a.m. update - Lumpy is post-pregnant!  Here's hoping she manages to get this fawn (these fawns - she usually has twins) to adulthood.  Last year, she never showed up with new fawns. Yes, I am excited.

Lumpy is the lighter deer.  I believe the darker deer is her daughter, Sissy.  Sissy's the only deer Lumpy will bother to groom.

Last Saturday, we had a male Prothonotary warbler checking out our bird house and laying a nice bed of moss in it.  Then he brought his lady by to check it out.  She started building a nest and he started defending it.  We had high hopes they were going to raise a brood there.  Then they stopped.  Not sure if that place is too active with other birds or what.  :shrug:

In poker news, the site I use has this round of 5 single table tournaments.  I made it a goal to win them all and I did it.  Yay for me.

Yep, I lead an exciting life.  What's up in your exciting life?

Sunday Update - Week ???

Not sure what week it was.  Hey, I'm lucky I remembered it was Sunday.  Needless to say, my gumption has flat dried up, along with my will.  I really need to pull myself up by my own bootstraps and get over it.

I got about 1400 words out on the 4th SCIU book, so that's something.  It's a scene out of order, but a writer's gotta do what a writer's gotta do. 

In reading news, I finished 3 books and DNF'd another.  

On the baking front, I made granola bars, pizza, and super-fudgy brownies (recipe below).  

As for activity, I did some weeding and yard work, but nothing much.  Weight is, of course, back up a little at 182.0  You can't eat brownies and sit on your ass all day and expect to lose weight.  Jus' sayin'.  

It's April in the Ozarks, so that means wind and rain.  As such, we brought little Elmer the elm into the sun porch.  He's getting so big (for varying definitions of big) and he now has little branches with lots of leaves, but his root base isn't very deep or sturdy, so wind is not his friend right now.  Cecil and Cedric (the twin cedars) are short enough to weather all this, so they're still on the deck.  Not sure when we'll go ahead and try putting all of them in the ground.  I worry the deer will eat them, but at some point, I have to stop being a helicopter gardener and let them go.  

Yesterday, in the shower, I got water in my ear and now I can't hear good on my right side.  Unfortunately, Hubs sits to my right, so there's a lot of 'huh?' going on this morning.  

Oops, got distracted and never posted this... Sorry...  How was your week?

 

Spring is Here

 Here's a Spring-y picture for you.  (Taken with my cellphone while out on one of my walks.)

There's nothing quite like a redbud tree to announce Spring.  So pretty.

Sunday Update - Week 14

Hello again.  We're 14 weeks into this bad devil called 2022.  Things are exponentially worse than they were on 1/1/20 and the crap seems to be picking up speed as we roll merrily along toward the dark and fiery pits.  Yippee and weeee.  Keep your hands inside the ride at all times.  

Okay, so writing last week was pathetic.  I mean, I wrote, which is better than some weeks, but only 663 words and the result was not good.  And now I'm in a slump.  

No editing or marketing either.  

I read two books and most of a third.  I also made some small progress on The Three Musketeers.  Long book, but I'm determined.

Not much happened in the baking sphere either.  Cake cookies and then scalloped potatoes with cheese and ham.  

On the activity front, I did one walk.  And yesterday, I deep cleaned my bathroom.  Well, most of my bathroom.  I lost gumption before I did the floor, and the light bar over my bathroom counter still needs to be washed.  But man, my shower sparkles.  By the way, if you've never used Invisible Glass, it really took the gunk off my old bathroom tiles.  (I'm pretty sure what I used it for was 'off label', but hey, it worked and no harm done.)  Oh, and since I have been unable to find Soft Scrub in any variety but Bleach, which I can't use because it eats my hands, I picked up a container of my old-old standby Barkeeper's Friend.  Awesome stuff.  It just requires more elbow grease than Soft Scrub.  Needless to say, I am a bit worn out today.

Has anyone seen Spic and Span in the dry form anywhere lately?  I used to love that stuff.  But I digress...

I started out last week by doing our taxes.  That is sure to drain the life right out of you.  So maybe that's why my week was so unproductive.  Did the taxes, sent them in, and by the end of the week, the state refund was in.  Wow.  Go, Missouri.  

I've been cutting Hubs hair.  I mean, I've done my own for years, so why not?  I did that on Monday after I got back from grocery shopping.  This time looks pretty good.  (Last time, was passable, but he had like a divot on the side there until it grew out.)  Thank goodness for the clippers I bought years ago to use on Max the cat.  Anyway, there's 18 bucks we're not spending every 6 weeks.  Yay.

Elmer the elm tree has lots of leaves and is getting baby branches.  So are Cecil and Cedric the cedars.  

And that's about all there is for me.  I lead such an exciting life.  Even more so now that gas prices are too high to warrant going anywhere.  How was your week?

Thursday This n That

Yesterday, I was getting ready to copy a snippet of SSS to share on someone's blog and noticed a typo.  It's okay.  I fixed it in all iterations of the book and uploaded them all.  But seriously.... After all the times I went through this manuscript... :pulls out Harakiri knife:  

Is it still called Harakiri or is it Seppuku now?  Asking for a friend.

We voted on Tuesday.  Two different 'raise your taxes to pay for things we don't need' issues.  We, of course, voted no.  And both of them, of course, passed.  One raised the sales tax.  The other raised the property tax.  yay.  With most everything outside our control getting more expensive, I can't fathom why people would actively vote for a increase in expenditures we can control.  Derp.  There was also a school board member thing.  We didn't vote for anyone because we didn't think any of them had a clue.  The incumbents lost, so that says something about people around here recognizing something is wrong, but from what we read about the two who got in, it'll be more of the same.  I hope I'm wrong.

A 93c head of lettuce is now $1.78.

In happier news, my peonies are coming up.  Unfortunately, they seem to be the only plants that survived being out of the ground for an extended period of time.  Mums... columbine... lariopes... all appear to be dead.  :shrug:

Wait, I was supposed to be doing 'happier news' there.  Umm...  Elmer the elm tree is starting to make branches, so he's not just a stick with leaves anymore.  And the baby cedars - Cecil and Cedric - are coming along nicely.  

The deer are starting to show their pregnancies.  Yay, fawns!  

I've been following a wildlife rescue in Oklahoma - Wild Heart Ranch.  (If you don't do FB, here's their website.)  They're pretty awesome.  And they're fighting the good fight.  Helping animals that can't help themselves - hurt animals, orphaned animals - and then releasing them back into the wild.  They got a baby beaver in the other day.  It's black.  =oO  Definitely not your normal beaver color.  And they have this crow they raised and then released who is amazing.  She's a free crow, but she doesn't want to leave, and she even helps out around the place.  (When she's not stealing things and leaving them on the roof. LOL)

I actually did some writing last night.  It pretty much sucks, but I have permission to do that.  It'll all work out in the end.

And before I start down the unhappier road again, I'll let you go.  What's on your this n that radar today?

Thursday This n That

Since the weather is nice, I went out into the garage to move my baby trees out onto the deck.  Elmer, the elm tree I planted from a seed last year, has loads of little leaves.  He's just a stick with green popping out all over it right now, but it looks like he might be trying to make branches in a few spots, too.  Yay.  I was inordinately happy to see Elmer had lived.  Also, the twins - the two tiny cedar transplants - are alive, too.  They have new growth, too!  Yay.  I will move them back in if the weather turns nasty.  

I've been trying to write AND edit on the same days.  Two different books, of course, but yah, it ain't easy.  I think I just need to get into the swing of it again.  I only edited yesterday.  Well, actually proofreading, but I'm still making notes and tweaking things.  My beta readers did most excellent jobs, but I'm finding things we all missed.  This tells me that the book was gripping engaging enough to pull readers past missed words here and there, so it's all good.

After seeing damn near everyone using gripping in their title info, I'm beginning to hate the word.  Not everything is gripping, damn it.

We have a red-shouldered hawk that's been hanging out in our woods.  Here's a photo of it.

I believe I shall call him Rufus.  No, I don't know for sure it's a dude hawk.  Not sure how to differentiate gender on that species.

Hey.  Wanna see a picture of my naked buns?

I call it my gratuitous bun pic.  :gigglesnort:  I need to make more of those.  They're pretty tasty.  I'm also thinking I can take that dough and use half for buns and the other half for cinnamon rolls.  We'll see.

I need to get a fishing license for this year.

Someone came walking up the hill yesterday.  He went straight up my across-the-road neighbor's driveway, up onto their porch, and stood there.  I never saw him knock.  Then he left.  Not sure what was going on there.  I think I might know who he was - his property butts up to that neighbor's on one side - but I'm not 100% sure.  I've only seen the dude with his wife and alone he doesn't quite look the same.

Isn't it weird how sometimes you can see someone out of their usual context and you don't recognize them?  Or it that just me?  In Colorado, I used to hit the thrift store regularly and I got chatty with the owner.  Once day a gal comes up to me in the store and starts talking to me like she knows me, and I had no idea who she was.  Basically, I made small talk with her for like ten minutes without knowing how she knew me.  After she walked away, Owl whispered in my ear that she was the owner of the thrift store.  ROFL

If I ever ran into any of you, I would be totally clueless - mainly because I've only seen pictures and have never met any of you in real life.  

And on that note, I'll let you go.  Feel free to drop your this-n-thats in the comments.  The more the merrier.