A writer and an artist walk into the woods…
…and come out with a dozen sheep, a passel of dogs, eight laying hens, some rabbits, and a thriving and growing offering of Kindle titles. You can also check out our book cover design services, and subscribe for more updates from our farm and publishing adventures.
O Lucky One
Our life here revolves on three axes, roughly: transcription, which is our main source of income; “house & farm,” which is a huge category encompassing everything from daily chores to care for sheep, chickens, and a rabbit, to significant construction projects in the unfinished and ongoing renovation of the cottage; and finally, “creative,” whi…
Coronavirus Update
The farm is alive and kicking. It’s been about 21 days since my first journal entry on the pandemic, more than two weeks since our last grocery shop, and more than 12 days since I was last off the property (except for a couple of walks up the road to stretch our legs). We do need to go to town on Friday (in 2 days) to pick up a farm share box we or…
The “Sum of Love” Cover Design
I thought some people would be interested in seeing the evolution of our ideas for the cover of our recently released novel, Olivia Lark’s The Sum of Love. This is a sampling only — I developed many more variations of each of these, with different stock photography, different titles, and different typography. By way of background, I’ve been …
Towels
We’ve talked many, many times about using cloth towels and rags in place of paper towels, and despite sounding like a smart idea, it has never taken hold (with me). This time we (Marsh) bought like a 50-pack of towels, bar-mop style towels. When they arrived, they seemed smaller and flimsier than we’d been picturing, but I think that worked to o…
LAY-ZEE
The aracaunas, pretending it’s time for a spring dustbath, even though they haven’t resumed laying yet. None of the chickens have, and they’re about a month delayed. Casting about for ways to kickstart them, though my inclination is ‘they’ll lay when they lay.’ We’re hoping there isn’t an underlying problem. They certainly seem healthy in every oth…
Potatoes
In 2018 we had a lovely potato harvest (Kennebec), about 50 lbs. I let them cure 2-3 days, then stowed them in our basement, which keeps at 55% humidity and about 55 degrees F. Unfortunately, the basement is not completely dark, though I sealed them from the light as well as I could. But the real problem became that the basement is somewh…