to be an author?

Well I have been incredibly slack and life has again stopped me from blogging or that is the excuse. It has taken me most of the week but finally I am writing or intending to but have already scived off to get round to the emails I promised to send. Besides the rushing round after my Dad who is now coming home - more later on that!, I have decided it was sensible and time efficient to make what I need now for the next event rather than the usual last minute panic so have made the bath bombs needed for Lincoln Vegan fair which is on 12th! Maybe I am getting back into the routine. I used to be very good at this you know and lost it with the onset of the recession since stopped needing new stock. I can now tho guess just about what will sell and how much of it is needed depending on size of event. That means everything is pretty freshly made so no older stock hanging around and ofcourse it is all better when fresh too so better for customers to have newly made stuff. I have to buy some new tupperwares since have altered the way I am storing and transporting stuff. I used to store and transport in boxes. The trouble is the different scents seem to transfer to each other. The product is fine when unwrapped but the wrapper on soap etc gets to smell of all the others around it which inhibits the smelling of the diffrent varieties I do and puts people off. If I store say 6 bars in one sealed tupperware the scent is very strong and they know just what they are getting. It works loads better and sales have increased. I do not have enough tupperwares tho for everything so off to Ikea tomorrow to buy 18 packs of tupperwares!. Then off to my Ma`s cos my dad is coming home. He has still got 2 legs but has to now wait until they get round to operating since the infection is under control. Basically he is now on a waiting list. horrible. All the time as well he is in extreme pain and they still intend to take off the leg. Hopefully before xmas and not during it. He is home tomorrow sometime. By ambulance since cannot get leg plus caliper which holds the bones together into a car! So who know when he will actually get home. In the meantime he is already driving my Ma mad cos he wants to install a gym in the lounge of their flat which is quite a small flat and will ruin the lounge for the future. He has some idea of using a cycling device but since he can only move one leg its all just crazy. And very expensive but my dad as usual is completely impractical. I can see arguements as soon as he is settled so am off round there to mediate!

Sally became ill with an infection of the liver just after my last blog. First she got sour crop, then violent diahorea and followed by jaundice around her eyes if you turned her upside down the skin round her rear was yellow. I took her to the vet after her weight had dropped to 1.2kg. Vet reckoned she had a 50:50 chance and was probably over the worst and if she lived the next two days could be ok. That was the middle of September. Now its November and she is still here. Its been about 7 weeks since she came in and amazingly she has recovered from a liver infection which sent her skin and eye lids bright yellow. She also went down to 900g and is now back to 1800g so doing ok. Still not the 3kg she should be but given a week to integrate she should I reckon be able to stand up to the rest of the flock and move back into the hen house. None of them have so far reached the 3kg mark anyway despite me trying to get weight on them. All are around 2.5kg. She is still in the house in a rabbit cage and ventures into the garden regularly. Between eating tons of food,she keeps moaning at me to let her out and then when she has had enough she sits on the kitchen door step waiting for me to let her in just like a cat or dog. None of the others have done this when they have been ill. She seems to have no desire to return to the flock and avoids the aviary. I am going to seperate the run temporarily so she can be with them but not let them attack her. Brilliant tho cos I get my kitchen space back again at last. At least till another one gets ill. I will have to ring the vet and let her know she has got this far since most vets would have just put her down but I asked them to give her a chance (since the liver does heal) and it looks like it was worth the hassle it has been.
Now I am going to spend the next 6 days ( weekdays that is) writing my book. Then I will have another event as small animal sanctuary xmas thing on 20th and then Viva on 26th and that is it till xmas is done. Terrible year this one for me/my business and no events in December other than the usual small kings heath animal free xmas fair which is on 17th december so if like last year we may end up getting snowed in! hey it was a good one tho. Hopefully by January next year the book will finally be finished and then I can start to aproach publishers and hopefully get it into print and I can be a real author at last and get my book out there where it is possibly the only one of its kind so I will not write too much here about it.


WALTER PIGEON UPDATE
Well for ages I had thought Walter our free flying pigeon had gone since she was not around then 15th September she turned up with her mate and two baby pigeons. They were feeding the babies on our fence. Sadly I was not fast enough with teh camera being amazed at the sight before me but I did take some photos a few days later when the parents were trying to get them weaned:





We finally took the abestos off the out-house roof and let the council know we needed to dispose of it. My permit has come from the waste transfer site at last so I can get rid it. Trouble is have spent the £50 we need to pay them. Still I will work something out. Wonder if they take credit cards? I will have to ring and ask and if yes get rid of the nasty stuff once and for all. We had on disposable suits and masks etc when we removed it and one lot of neighbours sensibly shut the windows and went inside but the other side sat out in the garden drinking tea and watched us. Well I know its the least dangerous sort of asbestos but how silly are they really! I always knew they are nosey but that is just stupid. They have exposed themselves to asbestos dust! I bought spanish slate tiles which my lovely Mick will put on eventually on the new roof. Trouble is he has again had loads of back pain so who knows when we will be warm this winter. If it comes to it I will have to try and do it myself but I am really not at all sure what I am doing when tiling roofs. Not quite like tiling a wall methinks! One day the house will be finished and not too long in the future I reckon. I have even started to wallpaper the bedroom. I found some paper for £2.50 a roll reduced in B&Q and its really quite nice. Juniper berries and greenery and makes a good bedroom wallpaper. Except I have possibly bought double what we needed since never having papered that room before had to estimate and have trashed only one bit so far. Since half the room is done with 3 rolls and still have 9 rolls left have somewhat of an excess. I could take it back since you have 90 days to do so but am considering doing teh spare room in teh same paper. After all we are not moving anytime soon and will change the main bedroom in probably about 5 years anyway so it would be a cheap way to finish the house and does it really matter if you have 2 bedrooms with the same paper?

new orders

Well got an order today for bath bombs. Been ages and was feeling like giving up. Business is dire to say the least. When will the recession-depression end? One bit of good news tho is SMEG decided to give us a new dishwasher since it is still breaking down. Thats good. I do wonder if its cos I told them I had blogged it and considering I had many many more hits for that one blog than for all the rest put together ( they probably also checked it out and found my review) then at teh least I have damaged their trade and told the world about the shoddiness of the disher we had. Have yet to find out if this one is any better, The last one broke after 3 days. This one arrived on 5th so I am poised to see if it breaks tomorrow or if not how soon after. Of course it could just be we had a dodgy one in the first place and this one is ok. I will let you know in due course dear readers.Since I last blogged much has changed - besides my rubbish lack of trade that is. Wlater has been and gone and been again and we are only able to Identify him or her now by the fact he or she is not scared to stay on the bird table and the rest of the pigeons all fly off if we are around. The huge brown preadtor bird is possibly an eagle which is shocking but we have yet to find out what sort. It must be an escapee I think. It lives up the road next to the M1. We have seen it whilst walking the dogs. Gwennytoo is dead and so is Gwyneth. Gwyneth was yet another case of cancer so very sad. They died within a week of each other. Now I am left with Lily, Sally from the first 3 we had and Maisey and Helen from the second 3 hens. There is no real Hierachy which is strange and they all seem to bully or be bullied and stick up for them selves if being bullied. They are very nice "average" middle of the road chickens and there is finally peace in the aviary and the flock. They shout like crazy to come out if I am in the garden.Needless to say they are out and about quite a lot and cause disaster oin the garden wherever they go! The crops are very varied. The squashes all succummbed to mildew when I did not water the roots for 2 days and we lost all the pumpkins but the one we had picked to make the others get bigger. They are all ended now. The allotment tho is filling up with winter veg and looks good but I should have taken one double the size while I could cos its not big enough. Never mind. I have asked to have another should any come up. The garden is also looking good and the rose walk/ wood henge I was given but M for my birthday is getting built slowly. I have 9 climbing roses and 3 jasmines to come and I may also have some clematis - cant remember now. I told EGG I will not accept their rate increase so have given up 2 credit cards with them which is good - tho still have to repay them - but does mean I have nothing to fall back on now should we have a crisis. Hopefully we wont. No idea yet how to raise the money to vaccinate the dogs thpo and they are due next month! Still every time I need money it arrives. I never have extra but just what I need it seems. Hopefully it will carry on this way. My book is slowly happening but I didnt make my deadline and its about 1/4 written really. Onwards to that then.

Another death

We had another chicken die. She went to the vets on 30th May really just as a precautionary measure since I knew she had previously had egg peritonitus and may again need anti biotics. She was not ill but I just had a feeling so booked her in and took her. Vet was very happy with her but confirmed she was probably in need since by the time we got the appointment she had diahorea. I was given anti biotics and came home. She had done well since in 2 months had put on 750g in weight which is loads. She was almost 3kg. I gave her some anti biotics and put her back in the run with her mates. About an hour later I went down the garden and Gwenny2 was sitting down and sleeping so I picked her up and put her in a nest of hay in the hen house and assumed she was exhausted from going to the vets. Its about 25 miles to the nearest one who will treat chickens and they never travel well so this was not really unusual. At dusk I got everyone in from the garden and they went to bed. next day we were poff to do Wessex folk festival in Weymouth so the girls were being looked after by a chicken sitter. Anyway at about 5am I went to let them out and opened the pop hole and no one came out which is very weird. Normally they all just troop out in a line and scrabble at me for food until I put out all their numerous dishes - they have lots to prevent squabbles. Anyway I opened the side door and looked inside and they were all upset by Gwenny2 who was dead and stiff in teh hay where I had put her the previous day. So sad. Her little body must have just given up. I loved her and I miss her. She used to jump up at the food bucket when I was feeding them and fly at me if I had lettuce. She was veryd estructive in the garden and it seems very weird without her. I had become very attached. We went to weymouth for a week which was anice break but when we returned Gwyneth is ill. I suppose no one would notice but I know her. Her comb has flopped thru malnutrition since I assume she has been bullied and not eaten proerly. She has been on antibiotics for diahorea and I have been trying to feed her up since last wednesday when we got home. The chicken sitter didnt realise or my oarents who had popped in to water my veg. Poor little girlie. I have managed to get her to eat at last using a mix of porridge oats and chicken food and yesterday she tried to steal out of the food bucket I use to carry food around the garden to their pen. I think she will make it but it has been touch and go and her comb is still flat and droopy. I rexckon a week or so more and she may be healthy and strong enough to go back in. WE had to force feed her the first day cos she would not eat at all but once she had something in her she seems to have got strong enough to feed herself- or maybe the horror of force feeeding made her eat! Anyway I went onholiday to a death and an ill bird on return. Maybe I shouldnt go away as long again while I have the chickens.

broad beans in flower

My broad beans are flowering already thanks to my dad for building me loads of cold frames and cloches. Normally they wouldnt do it for possibly another month so I am happy cos we may even avoid the black fly. I have had to plant spuds in the middle garden where I was intending to plant the meadow cos the allotment is impossible to dig and get ready in time. They need to be in the ground this month When I rented the power digger last week to dig the allotment it hardely even touched the grass and we took the grass of with a spade but even then it didnt dig. Complete waste of £50! Still we did dig the meadow to be but now I am doing the best thing that never expected to have patience for and growing spuds there to clear the ground. Mainly cos there is no where else to plant them! They do say tho if you have time and patience you will get a better meadsow if you grow spuds on the land first. Fate has taken a hand here cos I am now growing them and will plant the meadow in the autumn. Its also the best time to plant really cos the frost makes more of the unusual flowers germinate so all in all we should get a better meadow and still have spuds this year. One of my lovely girls died. She had cancer. MURIEL my beauty. She died on 23rd of March. The vet was vile because she is an ex-batt. It was like racial hatred. I will not go to him again if I can avoid it. He didnt like ex-batts and kept on and on which is not what you need when they are putting you bird down. I loved Mureil. I know you are not meant to have favourites but she was mine. I meant to blog it but then had a crisis with another hen and she has had egg peritonitus. She started off with diahorea- vet gave anti biotics, then got sour crop- vet gave nystatin, then she passed an egg like mucus and when I explained to vet he realised she had egg peritonitus. Apparently normal or at least common for an ex-batt so I must expect with the rest of my girls. Gwennytoo is now doing fine and has put most of the weight she lost back on. All she ate the first week was yoghurt I forced down her through with a syringe and the second week we managed to get chick crums soaked in water down her the same way as with Walter when she was a baby pigeon. I will put her in with the rest tonight so she has time to fit in before I am away at Rushden Steam fair. She may need antibiotics every couple of months and probably will not lay again but I will keep her alinve as long as possible. The vet seemed surprised I wanted to keep her when she is unlikely to lay now. I tried to explain we do not eat the eggs anyway and had her to give her a life. We are all vegan so who cares about her eggs anyway. She is a pet not livestock. Also since I last blogged Gwynedd now lives with the rest of the flock. Muriels death has allowed her to integrate tho it is still tricky. Muriel was a very big bully to Gwynedd and to everyone else. We are now going to join together the two old houses to give extra rooms so she can get away from the rest should they start to bully her. Once Gwennytoo returns she will need the extra room. Gwennytoo has not been in the run with the flock since Gwynedd integrated with them. Time will tell if this works ok.Hopefuly Gwyneddd will survive. I would hate them to kill her when we are at Rushden and am wondering if she should come out again then but really I prefer for her to live with the rest. Pet sitter Nicky is brilliant but I cannot expect her to let my girls out at dawn which is what I do so they will have to be inside for longer and I worry if the others will take it out on Gwynedd when they are locked in. The always lose a few feathers( due to feather plucking each other) when they are left as it is due to the frustration of being inside longer in the mornings.
My car had to have new tyres and has something wrong since they are wearing very unevenly but the tracking was not far off so I have to pay out and get this sorted! Not good. Its all pay pay pay isnt it.
Mice- we have mice outside the back door which is very freaky. I think they are living under my shed. I am sure they can use the humane traps cos they continue to steal the bait and not get caught. Very frustrating and really I do not want to kill them but we are going to have to do something very soon one way or another before we are inundated and get them inside the house.
And now Walter, I saw her sevral times at the end of March. She is now very much a wild bird and not at all tame which is what we aimed for so that is success. Infact that could be why I have not seen her for at least 3-4 weeks cos you cannot get close. Or maybe she has gone or is dead. I really do not know. Last time I saw her she was a fully grown pigeon and if not for her leg ring I wouldnt have known her. I have not caught a glimpse tho for so long I am worried. I still put the food out and the peas and lots of pigeons come to eat - hence have to use protection on all my small veg I grow else they will decimate it! But I have not seen her. Some pigeon does come every day for the food but they also come at the top end of the garden next to the house so it could be I have just not seen Walter. I will keep looking for her- after all wood pigeons get to around 17 years. But I am getting less hopeful every day that goes. Maybe she has been squashed on the road. People in cars do aim at woodies when they warm themselves in the morning sun on the roads. Or has she just lost her leg ring in which case I will never see her again. Its a spiral so if it got caught in something it should come off rather than get her leg broken so this is possible. I do hope not tho cos then I will never know her again. It is a terrible thing not knowing if your bird is still alive. I know she is wild but she will always be my birdie. And really that makes it all better. I have had cockateils and budgies, canaries and zebra finches, dogs, rats, hamsters, rabbits but never have any of thenm been able to be free and Walter is. I do want her to survive. Ofcourse there is also a possibility she could be sitting on eggs. In which case eventually she will turn up. Still maybe I will see her today?

EVIL?

I felt very sorry for the japanese familly who have lost many of 4 generations of their familly. All are fishermen and lived together
Then it just hit me!

KARMA!

These people have been murdering and killing the whales for years. This is justice. This is nature and nature always fights back.

This is a very sad event and I truly feel for the japanese people but there is no doubt in my mind. THIS IS KARMA!

Am I evil to think like this? Maybe but I just cannot help it!

THANK YOU SANDY MAINE

Well I was getting very stressed cos I had had loads of articles published and worked hard for little returns over the last few month knowing there would be very little coming in from my real business cos in winter it is pretty dead. Anyway they didnt pay me. I got help from Business Link and was quite prepared to go to court costs about £60 but you can need a solicitor tho I probably would have gone without since the evidence is there in print! Alternatives were to sell the debt which I did consider etc etc. Anyway I sent a 7 days notice letter and would next have sent ( under Business links guidance) a letter to claim interest as well which was an unexpected bonus. It was all depressing tho having to go to these lengths but I was going to do whaever even if the whole money went in costs since as far I am conscerned it already had gone! Well the 7 day final demand worked cos I got paid today. Shame it was not in time to pay for my web design course on Tuesday( brilliant by the way but later about that) and that has been added to the now scary credit card debt. I could of course pay that back today but I can instead pay for most of this year events so have to decide what to do now. I just cannot help but remember Sandy Maine tho when she said in her book that every small problem will teach and help you and make you stronger. Today I feel like a "proper" business woman and thats a first! Well then now I mean business I had better make this pay and start to make a living even if that does mean I have to start to sell something else and maybe thats the real way to go. I really love my business but loving something and being able to pay the bills, eat etc are 2 totally different things and I need to do both but most of all the living and paying the bills bit! Hey ho!

Well going to make soap today. 7 bars in total so about 84 individual soaps once they are cut. But first my poor chickens need me since they are filthy and I didnt take em on to make em live in filth. Cleaning time.

This whole incident does prove one thing tho - if at first you do not get paid become a complete nuisance. Do not give up and give in. Stand strong stand proud and keep hasslin` em. Maybe after all I did learn something from my days in technical sales...........

My course: Tuesday 6-9 I am now doing web design level 3 which means when I finish I could infact become a professional web designer. Considering I started just to get my own business up on the internet thats a bit shocking even for me. I could have stopped where I am I suppose but I want Brackencraft to be ranked as number 1 when they search for soap! And it will be. In my first lessson I found out loads I didnt know including the fact my website as it currently stands breaks all the rules or guidelines given by the W3 somebodies who I do not know about. I feel very stupid on my course. There are loads of people - like what seems to be the whole class! who know loads of stuff I have never even heard of. I need to spend an evening googling it. "frames"???? some kind of web format that is currently unfashionable I think. Sounds abit like CSS but older. But I am guessing. W3??????, and so it goes on. And I didnt like to ask cos it seems everyone else knew all about it! Still I did not go there for a history lesson but to learn to build and I am. I managed to build a working 3 page website using just html. How cool! well it has inspired me. Next week when I have the time I will have another go on my own. Probably on monday when M is on nights. Well one good thing about using PCs when you work at home with a shift worker is the pc is virtually silent whereas everything normally is not so I can do this on the nights week. Well off to my chickens now and then to make soap. I should follow Tatty`s old advice now and think of a question I suppose to end on!

Heres one.........

Will the publisher pay me on time next month or will I again need to send threatening notices?

I am not mad! Honest!

Well you will think me insane. Until last night I was doubting myself with this one and even for me this is crazy. I put my chickens to be at dusk as you do and every day there is a pigeon. Nice to believe its Walter but too far away to really be sure. Yesterday there were no pigeons when I put them to bed so I asked "are you there Walter?" and she came and sat on the tree. Well she does know me but still shes a wild animal and this is just amazing.....She is NOT tame. Not at all. I disturbed her eating from the feeding table yesterday morning and just like any wild bird she flew away. She will not sit on me or come to me and is not hand tame at all like pet. She does tho know I am refering to her when I speak and call her Walter and she definitely turns up each evening to say hello to me and this is far more than I would ever have believed possible and I never expected this. Its brilliant.

The dishwasher has yet again gone wrong. Fixed again - I wish I could believe it was the last time................ Anyway had to wash up all weekend and finally now its working. Never will I buy anything Smeg ever again!

Bath is finally in place so we will eventually have an upstairs bathroom. This bath we bought in 2007 and it has coloured lights and jets of air and water - supposed to be good for backs and your health etc. I think everything is far more eco nowadays so its very out of date. Took us this long to get round to putting the thing in. We have an ikea sink to go with it and toilet-to-go from Wickes! Still its all white!

Hopefully soon we can rip out the old bathroom which is going to be my dedicated work room and i need this now. I am also about to start a part time temp job - suspect very boring but never mind. Only 25hrs a week and only for a couple of months but since income is down by 2k from last year I have to do it. Could do with working indefinitely but probably will not manage that one. The summer will start soon anyway so hopefuly it will get busy again. I am also considering doing the very expensive but probably worth it Brum xmas market so have to try and pay for that soon. And starting part 3 of webdesign tomorrow evening at Leamington college. Right now do not know where Leamington college is so am off to investigate in a minute so I am not late getting there. I would rather have done this course in January and more locally but it didnt run due to lask of students so I had best do it while I can. Tho price of it has doubled which is really bad. Its now nearly £400 for the whole course but you pay in 2 halves so hopefully I will start earning soon.

Publisher has again lowered the rate of articles so I am not writing any more for them but am trying to write a book instead. Well aim high etc. They owe me nearly £700 ( currently £400 and £180 in 2 weeks time) but so far are 2 weeks late paying. Hopefully they will eventually pay me. If not I am being advised to go to small claims court by the accountant so will probably have to do that cos its not very expensive when you are owed so much to do this. I will leave for a couple of weeks though cos you have to be seen to have been reasonable. Also best to do everything at once rather than 2 seperate claims since its cheaper. Technically they only owe me £400 right now but wil owe the rest in 2 weeks so if I have to go to court it will be cheaper to do one claim for everything rather than 2 smaller ones.

Why is everything so complicated in life. I mean why do they not just pay me? I really need this money too to pay for the events for the rest of the year and can do without this hassle. I am actually glad they decided to lower the rates of pay. Originally it was £90 per page ( so £270 for some articles0 then this publisher bought the mag and they lowered it to £90 per article and now they want to pay just £60! Considering some articles take a week to write, several sometimes expensive experiments and can use lots of supplies up to get the formulation right, and by the time you have invented the product and tested it etc this is just ridiculous to only pay £60 per article and makes it not worth doing anymore. Besides having to take photos of the whole process send them by endless emails and even send them your products so it costs. You do not even get to keep you wonderful new invention. Tho I admit to having made extra most times so I could. It was lovely to get published though. Having said all this though it will be wonderful not to have to chase them every month for payment! It really is getting very wearing ringing up day after day and being fobbed off each time. Last time I ended up borrowing a phone so they didnt know who called and ringing over and over until I got to speak to the woman in charge. She was not happy. But neither am I and I need to be paid. They have published the work so now pay me. Are all publishers this much hassle I wonder?