Hello everyone! I know it has been over six months since I posted last. This year I decided to put most of my writing time into actually writing books, rather than blog posts every week. The decision has paid off. I'm currently working on a series of vintage-inspired booklets to help housewives save money in a dignified way. When the series is finished, there will be a book for each month with tips, hints and fun projects to try. Currently I have four booklets published, and I'm working on the fifth as I write this. I'm also working on a book about how to grow strawberries for profit, which will be out sometime this summer. In addition to my non-fiction projects, I'm also in the process of doing research for, and learning how to write a historical novel. There are an incredible amount of moving parts involved that make the process complicated. You need a setting, characters, and a plot. The setting is the easiest, but requires a lot of research. Then your characters need a personality, back story, goals, and a character arc; preferably two arcs—an outward one and an inward one. Now I'm working on plot, which is a completely different beast. One of my research projects this spring was to visit a local mansion built in the 1870s. You can see from the pictures that it still has a lot of the original tile, and also some unique antiques. It was such a fun visit, and a place I can't wait to put into one of my novels someday. Apart from writing, I've been trying to keep up with my garden and spend the blistering summer afternoons reading books. Or cleaning the house, but mostly just reading. I made my first substantial harvest of lavender this year, as you can see in the first picture. We just finished up strawberry season, and I made a net profit of about $400.00 to fund my hobby farm with over the next year. While there are still some kinks to work out, overall I was happy with my fourth year of strawberry sales. The patch is a manageable size, but I was still able to earn a good amount with very little outside help. This year I also planted a crop of potatoes, field corn, tomatoes, gourds and peppers in between the strawberry rows. The corn, potatoes and tomatoes are doing marvelous. I will keep the potatoes, peppers and corn for our family, but there are so many tomatoes that I might try selling them out by the road, just like our strawberries. If they don't sell, I can bring them in and can them. Then, of course, there is the kitchen garden. Something with our manure this year was off, so germination was slow. I sowed green beans twice and still have empty spots. I sowed sweet corn twice, and it still came up patchy. And my butternut squash are growing, but failing to thrive compared to last year. That being said, the summer squash, chard, peas, garlic and chamomile have all done well this year and I'm thankful for that. I will be consolidating my perennial flowers to the front porch and surrounding areas so they are easier to keep track of. I have a copious amount of lilies and delphiniums that need to be transplanted, which I will probably do in the fall. I bought two David Austen roses this year. They are done blooming for now, but were beautiful for the few weeks that they lasted. That being said, we have three other varieties of rose on the homestead that are also beautiful and did not cost an arm and a leg. So I'm on the fence as to if David Austen roses are worth all the money. Well, that's about all for now folks! As I stated before, I am happy and busy and hope to keep publishing more books for you as the months fly by. If you'd like more frequent (albeit less wordy) updates, please follow me on Instagram. Until next time, ~Prudence
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About PrudenceI am a Christian homemaker who lives in the Midwest. I enjoy sewing, gardening, reading and thrifting. Archives
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