I just got back from three weeks in Idaho where we are building a house. This is our plan to escape NY. It’s costing us a fortune since Bidenflation (Lets go Biden) has raised the cost and increased the unavailability of workers and materials. For example, who would expect to pay $150+ per hour for manual laborers? Imagine the cost of renting a large excavator or bulldozer for days, or the cost of concrete, insulation and other building materials. It’s just my luck to build during the most unstable time in America, and raging inflation. When it is finished, I will have a nice new office to write my books from and a view over a land where people still value independence and freedom. I will be able to walk outside with my Colt Python on my hip and not be afraid some liberal or overzealous LEO is going to wrestle me to the ground and cuff me. I won’t have to pay outrageous village, town, county and state taxes on my house either.
But anyway, while I was in Idaho I had very little time to review my second book with my daughter. The primary reason for the visit was to officiate at the service where she and her husband renewed their wedding vows. It was a wonderful time and there were over 50 guests who came to share the event. All like-minded people. Basically, Gwynne is strapped for time with the new son and her more than full time job, plus helping with the work on our house and taking care of horses and chickens and other pets. Did I mention she is busy? The book will get done but just not quickly. I have taken it back over to work on the editing and leaving any graphics work to her. I have minimized how much of that needs to be done from what I learned on our first book. I don’t have any fancy software. Everything is done in Publisher and then filed as a pdf. I have learned it is helpful to have the document open in publisher and the pdf at the same time. It is easier to check for mistakes and flow in pdf format and when I find a mistake, I switch screens to publisher and fix it right then. I used to do it the painful way of manually writing down corrections and then going back through the document. That way was too clumsy and often I’d miss a correction. Just yesterday I discovered about six page on India-made knives that was in the wrong sequence. That’s something that I pretty much have to take care of, not Gwynne. It has been good to be away from it for a few months and look at it with fresh eyes. But now I just want to get it done!
But anyway, while I was in Idaho I had very little time to review my second book with my daughter. The primary reason for the visit was to officiate at the service where she and her husband renewed their wedding vows. It was a wonderful time and there were over 50 guests who came to share the event. All like-minded people. Basically, Gwynne is strapped for time with the new son and her more than full time job, plus helping with the work on our house and taking care of horses and chickens and other pets. Did I mention she is busy? The book will get done but just not quickly. I have taken it back over to work on the editing and leaving any graphics work to her. I have minimized how much of that needs to be done from what I learned on our first book. I don’t have any fancy software. Everything is done in Publisher and then filed as a pdf. I have learned it is helpful to have the document open in publisher and the pdf at the same time. It is easier to check for mistakes and flow in pdf format and when I find a mistake, I switch screens to publisher and fix it right then. I used to do it the painful way of manually writing down corrections and then going back through the document. That way was too clumsy and often I’d miss a correction. Just yesterday I discovered about six page on India-made knives that was in the wrong sequence. That’s something that I pretty much have to take care of, not Gwynne. It has been good to be away from it for a few months and look at it with fresh eyes. But now I just want to get it done!
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