Ouch. I may be going through some changes in the next few months. The shit-shoveling gig may be ending.
For a paranoid recluse, staying away from towns has its charms. The little town nearest where I live, a dying place, may not have any part-time jobs open to a smelly old beardo anyway. And my everyday expenses are too low to even rate a regular job – I eat very basically, raise most of my own meat, cut my own firewood, burn maybe three gallons of gasoline a week on average, far less propane than that. I earn $30 a week and can live on that when nothing goes wrong requiring bigger expenditures. It’s a bit harder in winter because I do indulge in propane heat sometimes, but if things got really bad I’d stop. All in all, the shit-shoveling thing is valuable to me.
But it looks like J may be moving out of state, and of course H and the horses would go along. He says he wants to keep the property and if he does there’ll be some caretaking work but my confidence in that is not rock-solid.
I know I’ll work it out. How hard can it be to come up with another income stream that small? But – I suspect like most hermits, I’m a bit of a control freak. I don’t mind the kind of day-to-day disasters that come with life in the boonies, because I know I can deal with those. But this is the sort of systemic change that, if it happens, will re-shuffle everything. And I don’t like those.
A small start might be to move the listing of your books up to the top of the screen. And would the hermit and coyote stories make a book? You have a real writing talent that should be able to bring in a little something. Maybe even a nominal subscription fee here at TUAK or an annual fundraiser like a lot of the forums do.
Just trying to be encouraging and Pollyanna(although I apologize because I know that irritates you) but I have no doubt that you’ll come thru like you always do.
Coloradohermit is right on all points – add the chicken and rat trap stories, and you’ve got something that would be a heck of a winter read. For many of us, winter will be here in about 80 days, and last for 9 months. Good stories are welcome and we’d pay for them. I would suggest a cookbook, but it might be a lilttle thin.
You’d get at least one sale on a cookbook. Simple, cheap, and sized for one cooking might not be a huge market but there’s not a ton of competition. And after reading your “How not to kill yourself or damage your chainsaw” book, I know you can deliver something useful and understandable.
Damn, they sounded like good neighbors. Have you talked with Ian about how his subscription model is working out? Seems to be the way the web is going since advertising isn’t making money.
Thanks for the reminder about his books CH, I was lamenting not having anything to read the other night.