Robin's Outdoors

I’m still here. I haven’t packed up and moved on, I promise. Being an introvert thrown into the big world with lots of people quite often lately, the little bit of time I’m home alone is spent decompressing and getting some work done. I need to submit the piece I’ll have workshopped at Black Fly Writing Retreat by 5 pm this Friday. It isn’t quite ready so I’m working on it.

I’ll be teaching a campfire cooking class for Washington County Community College, probably in June.

I’ve been back and forth to Bangor a lot lately, Augusta more often than usual, and Boston. The Jeep gained 900 miles on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday. It’s good to be home the rest of the week. I’m starting to get back in the groove after not having time, and honestly, lacking desire, to write much. A couple of things have been said lately that made me realize how much I open myself up to when I write about things few people experience, and do so as openly and honestly as I do.

This article, Misreading Introverts, describes me almost perfectly. Myth #3, Introverts are rude, is one of the often misunderstood aspects of my personality. Sugar coating something with fake emotions is ridiculous. Be real and just say it. It’s not a big deal. I will assume you mean the best when you say something, and I will most definitely take you at your word rather than what you meant to say; please do the same for me.

I’m very content being alone 70 hours a week while Steve is at work. It’s not that I don’t want him home, it’s that I’m just fine being alone. Taylor can be home on break and not leave her room much during the day. Her door is probably open, and I can see her from where I sit on the loveseat, but we don’t need to interact just for the sake of interacting. Presence is enough.

Myth #5, I don’t like to go out in public. As much as I love it out here in the woods, sometimes I need to go out in the public and interact with people. I don’t go shopping unless I need something, then I prefer to go alone or with someone who also doesn’t like shopping. Get in, get what I need, get out. No browsing. Shopping doesn’t entertain me. If there’s a good reason to go out, like a concert (we saw 15ish bands in 2012), a class, a day of hiking or lunch with friends, I’m all for going out. And I’m all for coming home to the woods.

A couple of people have commented in the last two weeks about me never leaving home because I’m antisocial. I work from home so I don’t leave five mornings a week. I don’t need or want for much of anything, ever. We’re fairly self sufficient and grocery shop about once a month. If we run out of something and can’t wait til the next shopping trip, Steve picks it up on his way home.

Myth #7 – ding ding ding! That’s me! I don’t follow the crowd and sometimes prefer playing devil’s advocate because I usually see things from the other side of common.

Myth #9  Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. That’s definitely not me. I’m considering skydiving for my 50th birthday next year. I hunted black bear on the ground behind a piece of camo burlap for a blind, and I was alone. Nobody for miles. Yes I was nervous at first but it was exhilarating. Having a loaded rifle helped…  The too much talking and noise can get on my nerves after a while if it’s idle chit chat. I want conversations with depth, not small talk. Add perfume or cologne (why people smell up a public place is beyond me) to the talking and noise and I probably won’t be able to stay long. I love whitewater rafting and can’t wait to zipline this summer.

Being an introvert probably makes it easier to spend seven or eight hours sitting in a tree stand without moving than it is for an extrovert. I can get so far inside my own head, thinking, watching, making mental notes, observing the tiny flying bugs that show up one at a time until there are thousands of them in a flying swarm at sunset that I don’t notice how much time has passed. I’ve always been able to entertain myself. It’s probably why I find “I’m bored” so damned annoying…I don’t understand boredom.

I think I’m ready to start writing again, probably as openly and honestly as before. I guess I needed a break.

I’m starting a new project today. If you need me, I’ll be here. Music by a George Winston channel on Pandora, hot coffee and cappuccino, beef stew for lunch. I’ll bring warm molasses water to the poultry an extra time today to help them with this cold spell. Today’s high is 8*.  It’s currently -9*. It’s a good day to huddle in, feed the woodstove, bake bread and write write write.

Neat now but that won’t last.

Hey bloggers! Are you using WordPress software and hosting your site? Most bloggers use Word Press but not as many are self-hosting. If this describes you so far, keep reading. Did you ever wish you had a program like Pandora for your blog? No, neither did I. I got a message on Fb from Khristopher Lalemand this morning. He found me on my Bangor Daily News blog, Robin’s Outdoors. He told me about MiFilter, his new website.

I’m going to have three blogs registered at MiFilter. What’s that? Three, you ask? This blog, the BDN blog and…what’s the third? Well, you’ll just have to wait til January 1, 2013. Or do some snooping. A hint: It’s outdoors related. And for women. That’s two hints. I’m feeling generous today.

Check out MiFilter. It’s a good way to promote your blog, make yourself known to new readers and increase readership.

When I left city life behind to become a homesteader in 1990, I did it with romantic notions of cute baby animals, weed free gardens, beautiful perennial gardens that didn’t need a lot of care, chickens that never pooped (or at least pooped a LOT less), rainbows and butterflies. Turns out the cute baby animals pick the moment you’ve snuggled them in against your hip to carry them to the house as the moment to have explosive diarrhea. Raccoons rip off chickens’ heads, livestock dies sometimes horrible, accidental deaths, and blight wipes out the tomatoes and potatoes.

I went into full time writing with a clear idea of how this works. Here’s my morning.

• remove dead mouse from trap, apply peanut butter and returned trap to drawer.
• catch three flies for pet painted turtle
• go out with a flashlight well before sunrise when it is 29* to look for the duck that flew out of the pen and into the woods last night, hoping it squeezed in through the partially open door
• hear English shepherd bark, hope it’s not a skunk and hear missing duck quack in the woods
• call barking English shepherd back so she doesn’t herd duck further into the woods in the dark
• have coffee. note how far down on my list my first cuppa appears
• put wood in wood stove
• do the social network thing that publishers like you to do. note that this is the first writing-related thing I’ve done so far.
• remember that it is trash pickup day. pry gelatinous turkey remains out of roasting pan and take to the side of the road
• shower, don’t dry hair or put on eyeliner and mascara because nobody but Steve will see me today
• warm up coffee
• dress in favorite holey jeans unsuitable for wearing in public, favorite shirt, pull hair up in ponytail
• sit down to write; accomplish 20 consecutive minutes of writing
• tell the dogs to go lay down two times
• let dogs out after the school bus goes by
• sit down to write more of newspaper column
• realize 10 minutes later that dogs are barking like maniacs
• step off back porch to see what the dogs are trying to kill
• guess that they have a raccoon cornered some where, get shotgun and three shells, load gun
• hope that whatever it is they have pinned under the rabbitry end of the barn isn’t a skunk. sniff air, breath sigh of relief that a skunk has not sprayed
• call dogs back, look under barn and of course, see nothing because it hid from the maniacal dogs 15 minutes ago
• check every nook and cranny in the barn to make sure raccoon isn’t hiding in there while waiting to get a duck for breakfast
• head back to house, get food and water for poultry, feed poultry
• hear epileptic dog that has stress-induced seizures howling because she’s gotten her head stuck while trying to get to whatever is under the barn, and is panicking
• calm dog down enough to get her unstuck, spend five minutes reassuring her the world is not ending and she is ok
• back to the house. warm up coffee.  give upset dog valium (no kidding), sit down to write.
• distracted, so do the social networking thing again
• check websites’ stats. smile at one, wonder if friends realize I know they “like” things on facebook without ever reading them.
• do the dishes
• wish for an office away from the house
• sit down to write
• dogs sprawl out around my chair to sleep in the sun
• trip over dogs on way to get more coffee
• think about newspaper column
• write this

My day started with a dead mouse. That should have been my first clue to my morning. I’m pretty sure this afternoon involves a glass of wine. This is the life of a writer who lives and works in an 100+ year old farm house with three dogs, two cats, a pet turtle that has a pet fish, and sometimes resorts to drinking cold coffee.

Inspired by Hope Clark’s Tweet, here are my 10 More Than 10 Commandments for Writing.

Writer at Work. 10 Commandments for Writers.

1. How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. ~Henry David Thoreau  Get out there and live life. There is no better way to create scenes, dialog and emotion than personal experience.
2. You don’t have to write like anyone else. You have your own voice; develop that voice. You have a style; develop your style.
3. Consider writing for something other than a paycheck if it pays in other ways. Don’t let anyone demand more from you than you get in return when you don’t get a paycheck.
4. Details. Enough, not too many.
5. Writer’s Block is no excuse. Get some endorphin-inducing exercise to get your mind and body going. Write something else. Write crap to edit or throw away later. You’ll learn something even if what you write is terrible. You’ll at least learn that you can write when you think you can’t. Scribble notes or some other simple project. Just do it.
6. Read. Good readers, good writers.
7. Write what you like. Someone else will like it, too.
8. Do the business work of writing.
9. Don’t be afraid to write controversial scenes if you know the controversy well enough to portray it accurately. We don’t have to agree with everyone on everything.
10. Writing is work. Treat it as work.
11. If you fall behind, get caught up as soon as possible.
12. If you hate what you’re writing, make changes. Love what you do. Or at least like it a lot. It makes the work easier and joyful.

I often think about what I’m “supposed” to write in this blog. I started out blogging about market farming. I seldom strayed from the topic. Eventually, as I’m prone to, I got bored. I can write about compost, crop rotation and pest control only so many times before I’d like to compost the blog. I added family activities but when you’re a market farmer with two 600 pound pigs, 16 goats, three head of cattle, two ponies and a horse, 50 turkeys, 25 chickens, two dozen ducks, three dogs (ya, I’m a little crazy), three cats and the schedules for two kids who are nine years apart in age and attend two schools, there’s not a lot of time to go out to do family things. Mucking stalls is not considered a Family Fun Day.

A robin nested and raised her brood on the edge of the cabin.

I thought it would be nice to break into the garden writing world. Turns out that’s not an easy thing to do if you’re a vegetable gardener. Veg gardeners are just now pulling themselves out of the compost pile of garden writers and not being looked down on as often. I didn’t fit in. I definitely wasn’t accepted.

How about hunting? I hunt a lot. And fish. Wild harvest, camp, hike, write, bitch and whine occasionally, love the outdoors, and push myself so far out of my comfort zone that I think I can do most anything these days (…like a 4 year old who doesn’t know she should be afraid of some things). I don’t just garden. I’m not just a hunter or angler. I’m more than one thing.

You’ll notice a wider variety of topics here. When I teach a workshop called Outdoors Blogging & Writing at BOW Intro Skills Weekend next month I’m going to talk about finding your niche. My niche is diversity.

Who do you talk to when there’s nobody to talk to? Weird question, huh? Writers occasionally need to put themselves in the scene or the mood they’re writing. I’ve come across more people in the past year who talk to nobody, or have nobody to talk to, when they have a problem or feel lonely.

The weather is gray, wet and windy this morning. It’s a good day to put my female main character (FMC) in a setting by herself and tackle this question.

NaBloPoMo