I was busy doing a happy dance

Have you missed me? Wanna know what I was up to?

Yeah. I was selling my first book. As in a story that I wrote. That will be published. By a publisher who read it and liked it (after extensive rewrites.) With my name on it.

I sold a freakin' book, ya'll!

It's a novella called Keeper and I sold it to Pink Petal Books. It'll be available in October as a stand alone eBook, and then sometime later as part of a print anthology.

Here's the blurb I wrote about it:

When Jude Felini, a cat-shifter, learns that the woman he’s loved all his life, a bird-shifter named Avery Dove, carries a hormone that has addicted a non-shifter to her, he has only one chance to save her from being quarantined in an isolated sanitarium. He must resurrect a long-dead shifter ritual, the Triad Sacrament, in order to bind Avery’s pheromones to his and convince the Coalition of Shape Shifters that she can’t addict anyone else.

I'm headed to the Romance Writers of America national conference in two weeks. It's in San Francisco which is close enough to me to make it feasible. And I get to wear a little "I sold my first book" ribbon! And you know I will. Probably after I get home, too.

My Garden Friends

Ruby found a lady bug in the garden today. I love lady bugs. They're so kick ass, eating all those nasty aphids up.








In other news, my lettuce, cantaloupe, and watermelon have sprouted. I planted some garlic and nasturtiums. My zucchini and broccoli are hanging in there, but look a little worse for the wear. I put the birdhouse gourds that Ruby and I planted outside yesterday and they're doing fine. The transplanted eggplant and peppers are doing fine. The tomatoes, not so much. Two of them are looking okay, but the rest are worse for the wear for sure. My strawberries are still iffy. I did notice some new growth on a couple of them today, so that's encouraging. I have a feeling that they're going come back next year and not do too much for me this year.

I finished the short story I've been working on. I'd love to have a couple of beta readers if anyone is interested. Just comment, or send me a note to shauntagrimes at gmail dot com. It's a little on the spicy side, so be forewarned.

Um...Holy Crap!

This was in my email today:


Dear Ms. Alburger

Thank you so much for submitting DEVIL YOU DON'T. Both I, and another editor, have read it, and we would love to read the full manuscript. Please send it by email at your earliest convenience.

Thank you for thinking of Pink Petal Books!

XXX

Can you hear me squeeing? Can you?

Radish babies AND a request for my full manuscript, all within 24 hours? How much can one heart take?

Independance Days Update

1. Plant something: I planted out my inside-started seedlings today (well, most of them.) I planted tomatoes where I had some peas that never germinated. Also some Walla Walla onions, broccoli, zucchini, bell peppers, eggplant, and watermelon (where the pumpkins died.) I planted some sprouted Kentucky Wonder green beans in the other pumpkin hole. Ruby and I started them last week in little paper cups. I also did some container planting of peas, radishes, spinach, lavender, and Valerian.

My radishes have sprouted! Woo :)

2. Harvest something: Not yet.

3. Preserve something: Not yet.

4. Prep something: I bought two good, heavy Pyrex casseroles with lids at the thrift store. When I get a solar oven going, they'll be good for that.

5. Cook something: I made two meals worth of pulled pork in the crock pot. I want to start doubling up on one meal a week, to start building up a store of pre-made meals.


6. Manage your reserves: Nothing really here.

7. Work on local food systems: I continued to talk to my neighbors about gardening.

8. Health: Nothing much here. Sadly.

The Hoo-Hoo Bird Lives Outside My Window

A couple of weeks ago, I was going out to my car and was nearly dive-bombed by a hummingbird. The little flash of green dashed back and forth from the elm tree in our front yard to a corner of my house three times in thirty seconds.

So I went to see what she was up to. And low and behold, I found this nest:





It's hard to tell in the picture, but that little thing is about the size of half a chicken egg shell. The white stuff is, I kid you not, spider webs. What better use could there possibly be for a the wire going to our satellite dish? That smart little bird built her nest around the wire. Amazing.

So at first she was hardly ever there. Ruby was obsessed with checking. She's stand in the window and watch, and watch, until the little flash of green bird flew by. She's scream at me that the hoo-hoo bird was in it's nest. Man the stations! Anyway. Ruby loves this little hoo-hoo bird.

So yesterday, my husband braved the step-ladder to see if the reason why our hoo-hoo bird was hanging around more was because she had some eggs in her nest:



For the first time, I cursed the large size of my camera. I couldn't get a picture of the inside of the nest and neither of us is tall enough to see inside from the ladder. So Kevin whipped out his Cherry Chocolate and snapped a picture of the two most perfect miniature eggs you've ever seen.

This is the best I could do with my big ol' Nikon. If you look carefully you can see one of the eggs.



So, how cool is that?

Independance Days Update

Late again. Sorry!

1. Plant something: Kevin built me a raised beds, and I filled five discarded tires with soil. I've planted cabbage, carrots, brussels sprouts, jalapenos, broccoli, two kids of radishes, beets, two kids of lettuce, and a bunch of culinary and medicinal herbs. Also cantaloupe and watermelon in the tires. My next door neighbor has offered me a dozen strawberry plants which will go in the other three tires. Woo!

2. Harvest something: Not yet.

3. Preserve something: Not yet.

4. Prep something: I bought a huge box of plant pots from the local thrift store for a dollar. I cleaned out the winter clothes from the closets and dressers. I'm determined that summer is here, no matter what the weather does!

5. Cook something: We didn't eat out this week at all. Big deal around here. I've started a list of the baked goods I want to make for the farmer's market in August.


6. Manage your reserves: Nothing really here. I thought about starting a compost pile, does that count? That's my goal for this week.

7. Work on local food systems: I talked to two neighbors about my garden, and offered left over seeds to one.

8. Health: I bought a new scale this week, as the old one went wonky. Lost two pounds. Got all of the kids out helping me in the garden, and Kevin, too.

Wooo...Garden!

I am coming out of my skin with excitement. For real. Yes, it doesn't take much to excite me. But--

Kevin went and bought the supplies to build me a raised bed. See? Exciting!

The bed is made of cinder block and filled with good, rich soil. I filled in all the holes of the cinder blocks, as well as five tires I've collected to use as planters.

The pumpkins I planted out last week are completely dead. That made me want to cry. But all the other seedlings I've started finally have a home. That's several tomato plants, four sweet peppers, four eggplants, three green beans (I'm not convinced these will transplant. We'll see!), four zucchini, four broccoli, four watermelon, and eight cabbage.

I have a bunch of seeds to plant out as well. A lot of medicinal herbs, radishes, carrots, beets, cantaloupe, brussels sprouts, green onions, lettuces, winter squash, and peas.

I want to build another raised bed if we can get the money together, so that I can have a three sisters garden. I have the corn, bean, and squash seeds, just need the space to put them.

I would love to have a salsa garden as well.

Last week, at the thrift store, I picked up a big box of pots for a buck. I got six big pots at a thrift in Las Vegas last time I was there for a quarter each. I'm going to plant those as well. I know I want to put the cherry tomatoes in pots. And herbs.

Right this minute, I have an empty canvas out there--just waiting for my green thumb. Oh, yeah. And the sun. It's supposed to be 29 degrees overnight on Wednesday. *sigh*

I'm going to get the cold weather seeds in anyway. Hold off on transplanting until after I come home from Las Vegas at the end of the month. The seedlings will hold two more weeks.

New Blog

I've started a writing blog. Check it out. Please? Because I'm feeling all lonely over there.

First Swim of the Season

There is one public pool in White Pine County. It's a little man-made lake that for a hundred years the county has maintained. There are slides and diving boards, and a little concrete island called the Cat Walk that kids jump off of.

Yesterday was the season opener party. It's funny to me how temperature feels different up here. The high yesterday was 67 degrees. I was cold enough to wear a jacket when the wind kicked up, but warm enough to wear shorts and a tank top under it. The pool is fed by a warm springs, so there were eleventy billion kids in there. But in Las Vegas 67 degrees is cold enough that you wouldn't consider swimming. It certainly doesn't feel like summer.

Anywho...some pics!

My girls:



Ruby chomping down on a dog before she realized I have in deed turned into my mother and wasn't going to let her go back into the water for twenty minutes.



Nick coming out of the bottom of a slide.



The real Sandy Cheeks:



What I saw when I lay on my back:

Tingles

I spent last night watching CNN.

I can not remember a time, ever, when I was as exhilarated by the political process as I am right now. I am so excited that Barrack Obama has become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

I don't know if it will make a difference. I don't know if things will be different with a different president. Will I have affordable health insurance? Will teachers really be paid a living wage under his direction? Will No Child Left Behind be funded? Will I be able to stop worrying about my brothers being drafted? Will the war end? Will Obama really institute an Energy program that might actually have an affect?

Oh the questions. I'm excited to learn the answers.

Obama '08

Food and Gas

I've decided that I'm going to shop a different way.

I'm going to shop a'la Tightwad Gazette. Remember that book? It's one of my favorites. I have the big compilation book and look at it often. In it, the author talks about how her husband shops (shopped?) for them and their six kids by the stock-up method. They only buy what they need to refill their stock and they buy according to loss leaders at the stores.

Here's my take on it:

I'm going to look at the flyer each week and only buy the things that are on a good discount. And then look at things in the clearance areas of our local store. Every morning the butcher marks meat that needs to be sold that day down to half and there is usually some produce marked down that much on a rack in the produce section. There's also a bakery discount rack and a giant box (think of those huge-mungus boxes that watermelons and pumpkins are sold out of) of marked down grocery items.

I went to the market today armed with my list from the flyer. Here's what I got:

8 1-pound things of ground turkey
10 pounds of fresh broccoli
10 pounds of apples
6 pounds of oranges
1 pound of cherries (because I love them, and they were on sale!)
4 cantaloupes
2 big bags of frozen raspberries
1 package hot dogs and 1 of buns from the bakery discount (the dogs were on sale, too)
about $5 worth of stuff from a grocery cart full of seeds and seed starting stuff marked for clearance
5 bags of honey mustard pretzels from the big box of marked down stuff
A half-gallon of orange juice (on sale)
A gallon of skim milk (regular price, but what are you going to do?)
and a raincheck for 4 whole chickens that were sold out

I spent $70, not including the chickens. Shocking, but if I'd paid full price for everything it would have been $110.

I'm going to freeze the broccoli today. I might have to go back and buy more of that, it was a really good sale.

I am constantly shocked at how much we spend on food. It's outrageous really. Six years ago, when I was a single mom with two school-aged kids, I fed all three of us on about $300 a month. I would say we're easily spending $200 a WEEK on food right now. Unreasonable. But, damn. Food is so crazy expensive. And there are five of us, two adults, two teenagers and a toddler. But milk used to be like $1.80 a gallon. Now it's almost $4. Eggs were about a dollar a dozen, now they're $2.50.

Gas is $4.21 a gallon this week. I'm so glad that school is out next week. That will free up a whooping $100 a month just because I don't have to drive Adrienne to school everyday. If we let our vehicle run to empty, it would cost about $110 to fill it up.

Scary shit.

And Bush is talking about how this is a 'slow down' and not a recession. I guess it's easy to say when you're a millionaire who doesn't have to worry about how he's going to feed his children or get them to school.

So we're spending quite a lot more on food and gasoline, but our family income has remained largely the same for the last five years.

This freaks me out some

We have several gas stations in the little town nearest to us.

Most are chains, like Shell. One is a family run full-service gas station where you pull up and someone runs out and gases you up and washes your windows.

That station has big signs on their pumps right now.

They ran out of gas.

Yikes.

My Garden in Waiting

I thought I'd share some pics of my seedlings. I'm so proud of them!

Here's what I have:

broccoli (3)
sweet peppers (4)
eggplant (4)
Watermelon (4)
Cabbage (8)
Zuccini (4)
Onions (4)
Brandywine tomatoes (6)
Cherry tomatoes (6)
Pumpkins (4--did you see those monsters?)
Birdhouse gourds (2--more monsters!)

The orange pot has dill, chives, chamomile, and lemon balm.

I'm going out this afternoon when Ruby goes down for her nap to plant some peas, radishes, beets, spinach, and lettuce outside. It's finally warmed up enough for those, I think. I'll be ready with a tarp or something if it gets cold one more time.

Next week Kevin is going to help me build some cinder block raised beds for my warm weather veggies. I ordered some seeds and they should be here today (whoop!)

Independance Days Update

Man, I'm a really terrible blogger. I'm sorry I've been missing in action for so long. No wonder only a dozen people read this thing! lol

I am anxiously awaiting warmth. We had one freak weekend (not this weekend, last) that included three days of 80 to 90 degree weather. I got all excited. I dug up a bed for my peas, and set up my outdoor furniture. The day after the last day of 90 degree weather it snowed. Yes, it snowed and was 29 degrees for an overnight low. That's a 60 degree difference. Unbelievable. And it's been cold ever since. So my peas didn't make it to their new home.

It's supposed to warm up some today, and it's been raining, so the ground is sort of loosened up. I'm going to try to get out and dig up some more today.

Plant Something: Like I said, I dug up a bed for my peas. It's still too unpredictable to plant out until mid-June. It snowed on the last day of school last year! I also planned out my raised beds, which I hope to put in next week. I ordered my warm-weather seeds from a company that specializes in high desert gardens.

Harvested: Nothing.

Preserved: Since I harvested nothing, I had nothing to preserve. I want to start watching my grocery store for the produce that they mark down sometimes, keeping an eye out for anything I can preserve. I am also WAY TOO excited about hearing that there will be a farmer's market here from August to October. I'm planning on participating. And also buying up the goodies to preserve.

Stored: Sadly, nothing. I have these huge plans, but they aren't panning out as well as I'd like them to.

Managed: We started a new program for paying off our debt, which basically is just putting an extra $50 a week toward our card with the lowest principal. When that one is paid off (in July) we'll roll over that $50 a week, plus the monthly payment to that card over to the next card. And so on and so on. In this way, we should be completely out of debt, including out car, in about two years. I hope that the economy holds out that long. I'm not optimistic.

Prepped: See the planted section. I also made a batch of laundry detergent. I bought some things so that I can start really learning how to sew. I am writing a short story, in the hopes of having it published.

Cooked Something New: I made a pork roast in my crock pot. Okay, that's not really a big deal, but I'd never made one before and it was AMAZING. We made pulled pork barbeque sandwiches out of it with coleslaw. Holy cow.

Advocate for Local Food Systems: I've been spreading the word about the Farmer's Market. And planning for it. I want to have some information to hand out to people who come to my booth. I need to start planning what I'm going to offer. We can have what we grow, plus seedlings, seeds, and food. I might order some bulk seeds from Seed Savers and offer them for use next year. I also plan on offering herb seedlings that can be grown indoors until next summer. And bread. I've also been talking up my plan to have chickens.

Reduced Waste: We are still saving our recycling, but not as diligently as I'd like. Need to step that one up.

Learned a Skill: I learned how to line a crocheted wallet. Go me!

I've decided to add a new category that is important to me. Building health. Not just for me, but for my family. I think that it's going to be very important in the coming years to be as mentally, physically and emotionally healthy as possible. So:

Building Health: I lost four pounds this week. Nice, eh? Yeah. I bought some multi-vitamins that were on sale at the local grocery store half off. Adrienne has been having leg cramps and has also been really tired lately. It finally occurred to me that she might be anemic, like me. So vitamins for her, and for everyone for good measure. I ordered some medicinal herb seeds. I also reread SuperFoods, which is fascinating to me.

We really do live in one of the most amazing places in the country. Rural Northeastern Nevada has to be one of the few really unblemished areas in America. Here are some pictures I took while I was on a drive on the Success Loop, about ten miles from my house.

Warm Soil and a Bright Sun

I have made a goal for myself. I am going to do something in my yard every day. It's warm enough that I need to be watering. I wish I had some sort of ground cover other than grass, but I don't want to let the grass completely die and then the soil get all dried out and icky. Plus we rent, and the grass was there to start with. I have no problems planting something else there instead, but until I get there I'm going to take care of the grass to some extent.

Today's plan is to prepare a bed for peas and lettuce and cabbage. This week I'd also like to get one 4X4 plot ready. Top soil is on sale at the variety store (yes, that's what they call it out here in the sticks. Like a mini-non-big-box Walmart with a bit of everything in it.) I bought two bags and a bag of manure to amend my pea/lettuce/cabbage garden.

My allergies are killing me. I've had to sneeze for three hours and it won't come. I feel like I'm losing my mind. I can take allergy medicine now, but I want to research more natural remedies, because the time may come when I need to work outdoors without the aide of medication.

I'm quite happy with my Independence Days experiment. Can't wait until Friday when I'll write a nice long post about the progress.

I am quite unhappy with some changes at Etsy, where my vintage clothing store is. They changed the search function so that it's default is to block all vintage and supplies from showing up when a buyer is looking for something to buy. They can opt-in to vintage, but it's difficult to find and clearly few are finding it. My views have gone from about 200 to about 20 an hour. Sucks. I am in the process of trying to think of ways to over come that. Wish me luck.

Independence Days

Sharon Astyk has a really fantastic challenge going on at her blog.

The goal, the independence she speaks of, is to free yourself as much as possible from agribusiness. This really hits home for me, because pretty much everything my family eats is trucked in from at least 250 miles away. If someone decided that diesel had just gotten too expensive to continue delivery groceries to our rinky dink little town--we'd be seriously sunk.

Because I live in such a tiny community with very little access to local food, I'm going to have to do my best to put things up and grow stuff myself.

So here are some of my plans for the next week:

1. Prepare a bed for cold weather direct seed veggies like peas and lettuce so that I can plant them in a couple of weeks.

2. Make a list of the rest of the seeds/transplants/trees/equipment I need to buy this season so that I can pick them up when I go to Las Vegas on the 15th.


3. Start some extra seedlings for my neighbor and for Candice and Roger.

4. Get some books together to donate to the library sale.

5. I have a goal to not eat out this week. I can do it. I know I can.

6. If there is anything on sale, or on the clearance produce table, at my grocery store this week that I can buy in bulk and process, then do that.

7. Write everyday. I know this might not seem like a prep thing, but in a round about way, it is. There are online publishers that have stables of writers, which would be a good, steady post-peak income if I can find the work.

So that should do it for this weeks goals. I'll update next Friday and have a new list!

Inspiration

I feel inspired today. I don't really know why. I just feel today like anything is possible. It's a good place to be.

I've been feeling very guilty about taking a monthly trip to Las Vegas to shop for my Etsy store after my class is done. In my current state of inspiration, I came up with something that I think will offset the environmental damage of that 500 mile round trip. We have no recycling up here in the mountains. That sounds so backward, like saying we have no indoor toilets or that we bathe in the crick. There are recycling centers in Las Vegas that will take household recycling and actually pay you for it.

So I am collecting our recyclables and I'll be trucking them down with us every month. Is that extreme? I think maybe a little. I'm hoping that it doesn't stink, because once we're about halfway there the heat kicks in. They'll pay me 60 cents a pound for cans, 10 cents a pound for plastic and 4 cents a pound for paper and cardboard. I forgot to ask about glass.

Kevin and I had a big old talk the other night that was instigated by my announcement that I was going to start saving our trash and load it up in our van once a month. He pointed out that nothing we do is without impact. My answer is that it isn't supposed to be. We're supposed to make an impact, otherwise why are we here? For whatever reason, humans developed with the ability to think and invent and we are definitely supposed to use that ability, IMO. But we are also supposed to be responsible and try to make our impact as positive as possible. Maybe we'll be the only recyclers in White Pine County. That's okay. Maybe we'll be an inspiration to someone else to follow our lead.

I've been writing, too. I think that's a direct contributor to my feeling very inspired right now. I'm working on a short story that I want to submit to Ellora's Cave tonight. Yes, I am outing myself as a writer of spicy stories. Spicy Spice, that's me. I have another idea in my head fully formed, which is the best way for ideas to come. I have a hard time writing when I only have the beginning and I'm just wondering around trying to figure out the end. Have I ever mentioned that I read the end of books first? Yeah. I do. I'm a spicy-story-writing-end-of-the-book-reader. I'm not scared to admit it.

My seedlings are doing so well. I'm really excited about my garden. We can't plant out here until mid-June for things that can't handle a frost. I think I can put in peas and cabbage outside the first of June. I'm heading to the nursery when I go to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks. I want some berries and apple trees.

Slow and Easy

I'm taking a slow-and-easy approach to life lately. At least I'm trying. It doesn't come naturally to me.

What I want to do is make elaborate plans to lose 100 pounds, pay off $10,000 in credit card debt, and write the Great American Novel by my birthday. I do this to myself every. single. year. And guess what? Nothing gets done. Worse, a little gets done, but when I burn out it gets undone and then some. So I have more than 100 pounds to lose, and I've used my credit cards because I sent too much of my cash to pay off debt so I'm $11,000 in debt by my birthday. Oh yeah, and I have three pages of 92 different novels stored in my hard drive.

Slow and easy. That's my motto. Kevin and I figured out the other day that if we just pay the minimums on our credit cards, plus $50 a week as a booster, and roll over the paid-off cards amount to the next card, we can be totally out of debt (including our car and doctors bills) in four years. Easy. It isn't some spectacular plan, but it is workable. We easily spend $50 on fast food a week (nice way to pick away at those 100 pounds, huh? Send the McDonald's money to the Visa card.) It won't hurt. It won't make anyone anxious or induce spending binges. Just...Kevin deposits his tokes on Saturday night, comes home and pays the Target bill $50. Easy peasy.

We're supposed to get our stimulus check on Monday, right? Kevin has a low last two digits of his social security. Our plan is to catch up on some bills, put a little in savings, and stock up on groceries.

I'm way freaked out by the world food situation. It's so easy not to see it when you're doing it day after day after day. But I went to Las Vegas last weekend and went to Sunflower Market. A year ago I could buy organic unbleached flour there for 69 cents a pound. Last weekend it was 1.49 a pound. A year ago I could buy Couscous for 89 cents a pound. Last weekend it was 2.49 a pound. Holy shit. The price of Couscous has more than doubled? Yikes.

I've been trying to think of what we could have stored that would make a real food crisis more easily handled. Here's what I've come up with:

Rice
Flour
Potatoes (They'll last a good long time in my unheated laundry room)
Apples (see above)
Beans
Sugar
Canned shortening (yuck...but it doesn't spoil)
Salt
Honey
Dried fruits
Canned vegetables and beans
Powdered milk
Canned meats
Baking mix
Pancake mix (just add water)
Pasta and pasta sauce (the cheap stuff)
Macaroni and cheese (the cheap stuff, again)
Peanut butter
Oatmeal
Canned and powdered soups

So some of our stimulus money is going to stock up on these things that we can rotate into our everyday meals, but that will last a while and will make me feel less like we're on the brink of disaster.

The Final Stretch

I had a meeting at the high school today, with the goal of setting up a transition plan for Nick.


First, can I say that there is nothing worse that remember you have a meeting when you see the teacher walking into the school whilst you are dropping your daughter off for her ungodly-early Jazz Band class and are wearing the same clothes you wore to work the day before, flip flops, and a pony tail. Yeah. I went the "pretend there is nothing wrong with the way you look" route and decided I didn't give a damn anyway.

My main goal for Nick going into the ninth grade is for him to have some success. For school not to be a torture chamber for him anymore. For teachers and students to get him and be willing to support him. For him to graduate and go to college and have a fantastic life.

He'll be taking regular classes, all the core classes (English, pre-algebra, computers, and biology.) Plus art and Spanish. Please send some good vibes to my Nick. He's been shoved down the cracks of public school for nine years. He deserves this last stretch to be a different experience.

The principal is going to let me put something together to present to the teacher's Nick will have next year, to help them be more aware of and understanding of Autism. That's a good thing, if you look past the fact that no one at the school has had any previous Autism training. I'm looking past that, to the future. What choice do I have?

P.S. George Bush just came on my TV and said that we aren't in a recession, we're in a SLOWDOWN. Unbelievable. Really. Look at his face when he says it.