Cold Weather, Chicken Prep, and Industrious Children
Oct 03, 2024 4:09 pm
Hey there!
The weather has taken a dip here in South East Idaho! We had a bit of a stomach-dropping moment a couple days ago when we woke up to find that there had been a frost in our garden. The forecast didn't show a frost, nor did the current temperature feel like it, but some of our plants died with their produce still on. It's always unfortunate when this happens, but we managed to save some things. We'll been eating quite a bit of frost bitten squash over the next few weeks. (good thing most of our kids love squash, maybe they won't after this week XD)
Our kids recently have learned the power of work. We've always given them the option of doing odd jobs for money around the homestead, but I don't think it clicked until our oldest son was looking at a Lego catalogue, found one he liked, and asked how much it cost. We showed him and indicated he could do a little work to earn some money. He went at it with a little bit of a humdrum attitude, but worked hard for a couple days, enough to buy the set. Boy when he opened that set did it make waves. Now all the kids are chomping at the bit to do work so they can buy things. Don't worry, they are learning about how to save a good portion of their earnings, which they do willingly. Now I just have to get organized so I am not scrambling when their work ethic comes knocking (which is already has).
This week is preparation for butchering time! Here you can see our cute little chicken nuggies out in their house, getting nice and chunky so they can fill our freezers.
The plan is to finish growing them out for the next week and a half before processing them next weekend. It's going to be wild this year, as we have more chickens than ever before. Not only do we work with the meat birds, but also some of the older egg laying flock. Once they reach a certain age they don't lay as well as they used to, so they get to become broth and soup. Fortunately, our kids are pretty cool with the whole prospect of butchering and there's been no trauma from it.
My Progress This Week
Dwarfblooded, book three of the Hidden Heritage Series, is so close to being finished that I'm itching to write those lovely words 'the end'. I've made it to just under 108K words, which is part for the course for one of these books. I anticipate I have one ish chapter left, then it's time to take a breather for a week or so. Most likely many of those words will be cut out at the editing phase, so I don't worry too much about how messy the first draft is. Still, I'm planning to get this book out to you exactly a year from when Dragonblooded came out (Sept. 24, 2025).
In other great news, I'm in the throng of editing Demondblooded (book 2)! I have to say, it's a refreshing change to hear the continuation of this story in different point of views. This book is from Krista's mind, and she's a whole lot different than David. If you don't follow me on social media (I don't blame you, I'm a bit awkward there) then you'll have missed the cover reveal for Demonblooded.
Without further ado----drumroll please----
TADA
This story is now ready for me to start posting on my Ream community! I'll start putting up a chapter per week leading up to the publish date later in March 2025. If you want to read the story before it releases, head on over there and sign up at https://reamstories.com/dankenner.
New Episodes of The Casual Author!
In this episode, I dive into the troubles of training a calf to a halter as well as rationing feed for and raising meat chickens. I talk about the release of my next book Dragon Blooded, and the plan to publish the rest of the series a little more quickly than I have in the past, including some unexpected planning.
With Zachary, we discuss the importance of setting up characters and making sure the writing is authentic from the place of their specific personality. Zachary shares how co-authoring has helped both him and his co-author stay within the bounds they set for each character and how authenticity makes the story ring true regardless of genre or reader.
OR
In this episode, I talk about our new flock of chickens and how we are starting to get eggs from them in a very timely fashion. I explain more about buying a lot of hay in advance and taking the time to organize and stack it. I also walk through my new publishing schedule, how I've planned it out (against my normal process) so I can puslish a book every six months consistently.
With Caitee, we go into the history of her authoring and life journey and how she's had to learn and implement coping skills for burnout amidst the troubles and chaos of life. We go over different strategies and considerations for winning against burnout before it can even become a problem for you.
OR
And Now for the Free Books!
Another Interesting Book to Check Out!
warm regards,
Dan
