Chapter Six

Is now available. A couple of notes:

To assist me in getting you what you want, if you need chapters 1-5 please note that on the form with Paypal. Or, alternately, send me an email.

Chapter Six will not include all the previous chapters. I gave the chapters previous to Five as a courtesy, as they were already on the blog. If I give away all of the chapters for a dollar, it's not fair to the people who paid for the previous chapters. So, for Chapter Six, one dollar. For chapters 1-5, one dollar. For Chapter Seven, one dollar.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their donations and support. Ya'll just rock.

Also, not to sound like a money grubber, even though it does, if you like Jane, then tell your friends. More because I love the idea that my story is making people happy than anything.

No really. I enjoyed putting it on the blog, and I'll be putting up a sidebar... somewhere... with the chapters available on the blog for people to preview, if they like, before they buy. But this little drive has demonstrated that people like Jane more than even putting her story here. So thank you all, for thinking that my scribblings are worth it, for the compliment of being willing to pay for them, and for the generosity.

You all rock my socks and I'm reminded every time I see that email telling me someone else donated that there are still fantastic, sweet, caring people in the world. Thank you for that, too.

Fair Warning

Today is the last day to get Chapters 1-5 of Jane for minimal hassle.

Tomorrow Chapter 6 goes up and you'll have to put a note on your donation or email me to get the previous chapters.

Just a reminder.

Dear AT&T

My blog is not a forum for you to whore your services. If you were to approach me about putting an ad on my blog, I would consider it politely- for about five seconds, as your coverage in my area sucks, and I don't use your service.

So do me a big favor, and keep your sock puppets off my blog mmkay? Another comment and I'll be contacting... whoever I can find to contact, and pitching a fit until I'm shipped up the line to someone who can tell me exactly how much my split is for being forced to pimp your services.

To recap: All comments advertising a product or service will be deleted as soon as I see them. More than one from the same company, and I'll start dedicating some of my precious time to making someone with that company's life miserable.

(Regular readers, commenters, or if you're a real person who just popped in and you have a question, recommendation, or something to actually say about a product, and your comment is valid, you won't be deleted. Blatant whoring will not be tolerated. Sharing information and asking questions is just fine.)

Because, friends, this is my forum of expression. I decide who gets to say what on my blog, and I'll be damned if I'm going to allow some two-bit flunky getting paid by the hit to pimp a service that I won't use.

That is all.

Pictures

I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures, hopefully ya'll forgive me.

For me one of the highlights of the weekend were sights like this:


Being in the company of shooters who even attempt a five hundred yard shot with a revolver, let alone get hits called (and yes, I do believe they hit the target, even if they didn't punch holes in it... it's metal, it's a long-ass shot, and they were shooting with pistols, fer gawd's sake) is enough to humble just about everybody. Except them, of course.

I think this may have been mom's favorite view of the weekend:


Folks enjoying her food always makes her happy. I also had to include it because, well, everyone has been picking on AD and this is one of the nicer photos. He's such a good sport about photos, and frankly manages to make so many hilarious photo ops, that he makes it pretty easy to pick on him. But we love you, AD. Really we do.


Farmdad got some shooting done with guns as well as the camera, which is good, because otherwise he'd whine.

I got some shooty action too:


Love. That. Rifle. Seriously, I want to ask NFO if I can be in his will just for that rifle. Sooo sweet.

Speaking of shooty goodness, this guy has always been one of my favorite people:


Not only is he a great person, and an absolute sweetheart, but he ain't skeerd of nothin, and definitely lives life to the fullest. I wasn't a bit surprised at his ringing the gong offhand with this rifle, although he impressed several of our visitors.

It was a fantastic weekend and we're definitely looking forward to next year!

Biscuits, Biscuits, Biscuits!

Last night some of you were asking for the biscuit recipe. Well here ya go folks! Since I can't make and edible biscuit (they turn out like hockey pucks, Farmgirl used to play fetch with the dogs with my attempts. ) there will be no photos this time.

Biscuit Mix

9 cups flour
3 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups shortening ( not oil! )
Stir dry ingredients and sift 3 times
Work shortening in until mix is the consistency of corn meal
Store in a closed container at room temperature.

To make a batch of biscuits

3 cups of mix
2/3 cup of milk
add milk to mixture and stir about 25 strokes
Turn out on floured board and kneed about 15 strokes
Roll out to 1 1/2 inches thick
smear half of dough with butter and fold over other half.
Cut biscuits and place on a greased cookie sheet
turn biscuits over on greased cookie sheet
Bake at 450 degrees till golden brown

Good Luck!

General Update

Well, Farmmom's recipes seem to be a hit! The poll is hopping, and so far, Chicken Fried Steak is in the lead.

Donations for Jane are going well, thank you guys so much. Chapter six is nearly ready to go and will be available in a week. Thank you cards for last week's donations will go out today, rather than yesterday like I had said, because I didn't get home in time to get them sent off yesterday. Sorry!

The hunt for a pickup has begun, and will continue. My favorite used car guy is looking for me, and I'll know what he was able to find probably Friday, after his trip to Denver.

A pickup is a nice chunk of change (for a new-ish used pickup with the things I need to make it a viable work truck such as four wheel drive and a tow package, I'm looking at a range of ten to fifteen grand,) and I'll be batting my eyelashes and looking cute at loan officers around the start of next week.

That's probably around the same time frame that I'll be making a come-back in the waitress arena. There is a construction project going here right now that would pay better, but there are two problems with that plan:

First, it's not the company that I spent my entire road work "career" with, so I'd be low man on the totem pole again, which means stuck on an end in freezing cold weather with bad knees... worse than waiting tables, at least then I'm moving around. And inside. Brr.

Second, I refuse to work for idiots on the road, and from what I've seen, the supervisor on this job is just a short step up from a fencepost in IQ.

I've always said that any honest job is a good job, and I'll do anything up to and including digging ditches if that's what it takes. Which doesn't mean digging ditches or standing on the side of the road when it's freezing out is my first choice.

Things will work out, I'll get my pickup, and all will be well. I'm sure of it.

Open Carry

During the blog gathering there were a lot of things that folks enjoyed, as you can read on their blogs.

I think one of the things that had the biggest impact, however, was Open Carry.

Here we had a bunch of people, almost all from out of state, in a tiny town, openly carrying their firearms. A couple didn't have much choice, their states' concealed carry permits not being honored by Colorado, but for the most part, it was a choice to carry openly. And for a few, a treat.

None of them had any nefarious plans, nor acted like it, and no fuss was raised.

Because, guess what? Around here, we don't care. Well, for the most part. There was a bit of grumbling to the owner of the restaurant where we met for breakfast every morning, mostly from the little blue haired ladies. Such grumblings were met with the assurance that what those people were doing was completely legal, they were here yesterday morning too, and they're really nice folks. Now, did you want toast with that or a biscuit?

The ability to walk down the street with a gun on your hip and garner strange glances not at the piece in your holster but rather at the Texan guy in a skirt is something that I tend to take for granted. Seeing how much it was enjoyed by everyone attending was a nice reminder of what Small Town USA is like to those who don't get to live there.

Open carry versus concealed carry is not so much an argument here as a fashion choice. Do I wear a cover garment or is it too darn hot?

So the next time you're arguing the topic of "open carry" remember this: In a small Colorado town, where you turn your clock back fifty years when you cross the city limits, it's not a big deal. Our sleepy little non-metropolis takes a gun on your hip with the same even stride as a horse being ridden down Main Street, or an electricity-generating windmill going up on the outskirts of town.

And maybe, just maybe, all those argumentative folks making such a big fuss (on both sides of the issue) could learn a little something from that.