Twists and Turns of Life
Jun 26, 2025 10:22 pm
Hey there!
This time of year is always pretty busy, and a lot of that comes down to growing and managing a set of meat chickens. For context, we only grow them for eight weeks before they get put in the freezer, but those weeks are long and very very busy. Coincidentally, we also hatch a couple batches of new egg laying chickens, so this year I've had three different sets of chickens to feed, water and move houses for. Fortunately, I have a son that can take over one of them otherwise my daily chores would be pretty wild.
We started with 50 meat chickens, but some unfortunate circumstances have lowered that to 31. We lost a few of them as baby chicks (it is what it is, that's the risk you take when you get mail-order chickens). So we have 46 for most of the time. Until a few days ago. I went out to move the cows from one pasture section to another, not realizing that on a different part of our property, a dog had broken into the meat chicken enclosure (ripping through some fencing) and was killing them. By the time I got there, the dog was gone, but 15 of the chickens were dead. This is less than two weeks shy of our processing date. It was a very expensive loss, to both time and money.
Needless to say, there were some emergency changes I had to make to save the other 31 from any return predators. One of which is that now we have a box of chickens in our landscaped backyard. Ideal? No. Gross? Kind of. But at least I can see them from our house and can protect them better. And eventually when their manure breaks down it's great for the grass. I move them twice a day so they continue to have fresh ground to pick at and lounge on.
This last week we also closed a chapter in our homestead life. We sold every one of our goats. Ever since we got a cow which produces three or four times the amount of milk of multiple goats per day, we just didn't need them anymore. It was bittersweet seeing them go to another farm to live out their lives and provide value to another family. Were grateful that they all got to go together as a herd. Will we get goats another day? Possibly. But for now, we're just going it with the cows.
My Progress This Week
As life experiences ebb and flow, the one thing I can be grateful for in my authoring is that I continue to make progress on the writing front. I'm at 54,000 words now, squarely at the half-way point of Elf Blooded (book 5). I have to say this book has evolved way differently than I expected, in a good way, mind you. The conflict had molded to something a bit unexpected but the stakes are much higher than before. That's all I will say about that.
Back to Dwarf Blooded (book 3), I'm thrilled to say that official line editing has been scheduled with my editor, which puts me on track to have the book publishable by the target date of September 24. If you got to the end of Demon Blooded, you're most likely biting your nails to know how that last chapter is about to pan out. Let me say, you won't be disappointed. For one, you get a much better glimpse into the enemy side of things.
In other exciting news, I'm adding going to add a short story per month to my Ream community. For one, I love taking breaks from novels to knock out a quick 10,000 word short story. And two, these short stories are a great opportunity to lay out my future plans for books and series. This next month, I am thrilled to share Orc Blooded, a short story prequel about Garlan, the half-orc, half-human son of the tyrant orc king we've already seen in Demon Blooded. It's a deep and heart wrenching story that you won't want to miss.
Just a note that in my Ream Community, chapters 12 & 13 of Dwarf Blooded are now available. If you join the community (for about a cup of coffee per month), you get to start reading the next story a whole six months before it comes out. What's not to like about that?! Not to mention, you automatically get a printed and signed paperback version in a book box sent to your house when the next book is published ($28 value). If you do that math, it's definitely in your best interest ;).
Some books to check out!
warm regards,
Dan
