Boo and I were slow to rise this morning.
We were out hunting in the night. Boo woke me twice convinced that something was trying to get into his chickens. The chickens are locked into their small Fort Knox for all the hours of darkness but maybe something was circling the walls – something evil with sharp teeth, probably another bloody possum or maybe the small one that got away the other day.
We probably distracted a few with our bumbling about.
When I let the chickens out at dawn today Boo was already out there checking the perimeter for threats.
Pumpkins
Pumpkins are the main food for my animals now. They eat very seasonally.
We collected pumpkins from the young man down the road on Saturday. Picking all the seconds out of the field. Actually out of half the field. We can go back in two weeks and take the rest out of the rest of the field. Many of them have holes from insects which is bad for Mason – that is his name – but good for me. When they finish selling the pumpkins, we are able to go down and get all the rest of their multi colored pumpkins as well. Some of them are beautiful.
Really pretty pumpkins. I don’t know what this one is. (Above). But it is really dense. Good food. It’ll make great pumpkin soup too, for the freezer.
This is not my vehicle. They called it a side-by-side. Luckily him indoors ‘forgot’ to come and help me load pumpkins or he would have wanted one. I don’t want one. I am trying to stay fit.
Go HERE for your TKG SUNDAY NEWSLETTER. And, the now, very popular Farmy Walk-About.
It takes me a while to write each newsletter so when I am finished I am so relieved (and working to a noon on Sunday deadline) that I forget to do some really important checks. I forgot to add some lovely images to my essay! Maybe I should write a check list and stick it to the computer screen.
There are lots of animal pictures though! Enjoy!
I hope for an ordinary week this week so I can get some writing done and some admin completed.
A question for you.
If I were to write a number of small bite sized ebooks; What do you think I should write about. Life is so eclectic. It is hard to narrow it down – don’t you think?
Farmhouse Food? (maybe narrow this one down to topics – Eg, all the ways to cook a pumpkin, my best bread recipes, home made soft cheese, yoghurt, etc, what else?
How to raise tasty pork?
Wheat?
The Perfect kitchens garden on your porch?
Stories from the Farm?
How to declutter your – drawers?, shelves?, kitchen or (god help me) garage.
Sustainable living with a hit of minimalism.
What else?
I am thinking each book would be small and short. Inexpensive. Maybe on Amazon. But I love book books. Can I bear to write ebooks? Do I have to stick to one theme? What about my short stories from the beach.
I would need help too with the self publishing and I know a few of you know lots about that process. And the marketing! Oh Lordy. I am already talking myself out of it again.
Anyway – that is where my thoughts are going right now.
What do you think?
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
20 responses to “Deep Night Chook Protection Squad”
Those really are the most adorable pigs and well done Nanny Boo for protecting his flock!
I think that pig farming, growing vegetables and sustainable living might be the best sellers. Ideally you could do with a DTP program like InDesign, Quark or Affinity Publisher to lay the books out and a publicist or similar. It’s not what you know, but who you know for marketing books, otherwise you are just selling to friends and family.
I think the writing might be the easy bit!
Yes, you are very good at that!
If you’re thinking Amazon, do some homework first – it’s easy enough to set up, but you’ll want to make sure your format/program works for their epub for upload when you’re ready to publish.
oh yes. Good point. So many variables
Oh my goodness! I think you know there are so many of us who say yes please to the small books. Little bite size bits of good things. No way I can or would pick just one of the things you mentioned but maybe start with what you really know- the farming for everyone concept no matter how much soil you have or don’t have. Or the food- simple fresh farm food that anyone can make… see where they go before getting ahead of yourself but all the ideas are superb. Mason certainly does have some peculiar pumpkins…I would call them unique 🙂 There’s a book right there- why unique pumpkins need not be overlooked as useless, ugly things!
Stories From the Farm with the PopPops on the cover.
Thank you! Yes. This is a good suggestion. And all I have to do is look back through the blog for ideas! And. Those PopPops!!
The image inside the barn is beautiful and a winner. I think a whole post could be focused around it….
That is quite a load of pumpkins 🎃
Please share your pumpkin soup for the freezer recipe!
The small books are a great idea. As you may remember, knitting is one of my hobbies. One of my favorite knitting websites is Modern Daily Knitting. The two women who run it had two big glossy knitting books published traditional back in the oughts. But then they switched to publishing their own, you guessed it, smaller books. They call them Field Guides and they’ve down a ton of them now. Very successful. A great model to follow. I’ve done some self-publishing and am happy to advise any way I can!
https://www.moderndailyknitting.com/
You are first on my list!! I know we have talked about talking about this before! Thank you for the link – I will follow it!
I’d love a book about decluttering. But it would definitely need to have chapters on taking on a small attic space (with a pull down stairway—-definitely a hindrance) and a large basement half of which is filled with large woodworking tools and thousands of little boxes with millions of little screws, washers, cup hooks etc. etc. You get the idea. Decluttering just those spaces is a terrible thing to contemplate at 3:00 in the morning. Actually nothing is good to contemplate at that time of the day.
Aha! That is a great thought. I have an excellent system for that too. I have one of those pull down stairways too. Does your attic have a window?
I think cookbooks would be a good idea, and the decluttering, as everyone needs to consistently do it. How to grow an herb garden on the porch or a sunny room indoors is something people would like to learn. So many good ideas!
Yes! Together we could all write a marvelous book .
yes! Where to begin?!
I would find the decluttering book very useful, also cooking and gardening. I make your spinach quiche recipe every few weeks. The slices freeze beautifully and is an easy breakfast or lunch once a week or so. Sue S
What a good idea to freeze the slices. I should do that! Now I want that quiche. Might make it tomorrow!
I’d enjoy a cookbook along the lines of Making Meals With What You Have (also known in our household as Cooking The Fridge). I’d like A Vegie Garden On The Porch, too.