Writing, Mowing, And Eating

Yesterday was a good writing day for me and I managed to get about 3,000 more words done in my new Big Lake book. And as happens so many times, the characters threw me a curveball and took the story off in a whole new direction from where I thought it was going. That’s why when my friend and proofreader Roberta Jensen asked me a while back where the story was headed, I told her I wouldn’t know until the characters told me. She thought it was a joke, but it’s true more often than not. It’s beginning to look like what I thought was going to be a simple assault in the first chapter of the book may turn into a murder story. But don’t quote me on that because sometimes my characters bounce around like a ball in a pinball machine, so who knows what might happen?

Once it had started to cool off a bit late in the afternoon, Terry went out to her garden and picked some more veggies. A lot of the tomatoes got really beat up by the hail from our recent storm and she doesn’t know how many can be salvaged. But the kale, squash, and zucchini have come up in abundance.

The grass was getting high in the pasture again, and since it’s dried out a bit I got the Kubota tractor out of the barn and used the brush hog to mow the pasture. It’s really big and took me a while, and Alli ran beside me all the way as I went back and forth and up and down. I don’t know where she gets her energy, but by the time I was done she was pretty tuckered out for a change.

While I was doing that, Terry got on the Husqvarna riding mower and cut the grass in the front, back, and side yards. At one point I pulled up beside her on the tractor and asked if she wanted to race, but she didn’t seem interested.

Of course, harvesting veggies and mowing grass isn’t a complete day for Terry. We all know she’s like the Energizer Bunny and keeps going and going and going. So when we were done outside, she made a delicious dinner of black and white sesame seed tuna steaks with wasabi sauce and baked potatoes. What a great way to end a great day!

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is a copy of the new hardcover edition of the RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. After reading this, I think I’ll take the stairs.

Thought For The Day – All my dance moves look like I’m trying to signal the guy on first base to steal second.