It’s been a fun month, but I bought too many books.  Is there such a thing as too many books? Not really.  I visited some friends on the west side of the State over the last month.  I bought some books and was given some books.  I bought some books from a woman selling at a festival, because I was curious how the selling was going, and if I might want to do something like that in the future.  After querying her in great detail, I thought I should buy a book, then she gave me another. I hope her books are good; I haven’t cracked them yet.  Most recently, I bought even more books at Spokane’s Get Lit festival, a celebration of writers and readers. 

My “To Be Read” (TBR) pile is large now.  It is larger than my bedside table.  This doesn’t even include the books already in my collection that I haven’t gotten to yet.  I’m going to need a whole TBR shelf in my library.  If I’m not careful, I might need to buy a whole new bookshelf.  Possibly a bigger house with a larger library. Because you can never have too many books.

I’ve been reading more non-fiction lately.  But one always needs a murder mystery on standby.  And I attended readings of several local writers at Get Lit, and one should always support local writers by buying their books.  Sometimes I want to read some poetry, and I found some amazing new poets (that even my non-poetry-loving friends might like, especially Ada Limon, the U.S. Poet Laureate; and Laura Read, a local Spokane poet.  Ha, I just noticed “Read” is her last name.  I must read some Read!).  I didn’t actually buy a book from every author I listened to at Get Lit, there is only so much room in my shopping bag.  But I definitely tested the weight limits of my cloth bag. 

Of course, I tend to read several books at a time.  Especially non-fiction and poetry, I pick those up, read a bit, and put them back down.  For fiction, especially good fiction, I will read for hours at a stretch.  But then what happens to my books after they’re read, since my house is small and my library is smaller?  Some I share and want back so I can admire them on my bookshelf, or, more rarely, so I can read them again.  Some I share and ask folks to pass them on to the next person.  Some end up in our Little Library in front of my mom’s house.  Eventually, when the Little Library gets stagnant, they may go on to a new life in someone else’s Little Library, or in a thrift store. 

I now must keep a list of books I’ve read and books I want to read, because my brain is full (not because I’m old and forgetful, mind you, it’s just full of knowledge). I have learned that if I keep my book list on google docs, I can access it from my computer, and also from my phone.  This is super handy in a bookstore!  Especially since there are so many other potential good books to tempt me—much like a bakery, or a candy store, but the temptations aren’t so sugary.  They are, however, more expensive.  

Because I like books, a few of my friends will ask me for book recommendations.  This can get awkward because I can never remember author names or book titles.  I have to be standing in front of my bookshelves to jog my memory.  Other friends give me recommendations on their favorite books; some might be fantasy, not my usual genre.  But I will try them just in case my tastes have changed.  Books are like friends; we need all kinds.  And friends are like librarians. 

I am making progress with the distribution and selling of my self-published book “Riding Lessons, Things I Learned While Horsing Around”.

I will have a book signing event at Spokane Tack Trunk on April 30, 2023, from noon until 2 pm.  Morgan Shank will also be signing her children’s horse book at the event. Drop by to shop for tack or fun horse-themed accessories, buy a book or two, and have the books signed by the authors.  This should be fun! Please come visit, because if Morgan and I are left unattended in a tack store for too long, we might buy saddles. We do not need new saddles. And also there is a chocolate store next door. That could be trouble.

I now have my book in six retail locations, with the most recent being the Well-Read Moose, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.  In addition to that location, my book is carried at Orca books in Olympia, and at three Spokane area bookstores (Wishing Tree, Second Look Books, and Aunties).  And of course, the book is carried at Spokane Tack Trunk. 

All of the retailers have been super-friendly, helpful, and supportive.  I’m still surprised at how much time and effort it takes to market a self-published book.  It’s fun, and it’s work.  However, I get to buy books when I visit bookstores… this may explain why my profit to loss margin is not in the black yet…

I have received very positive reviews on Amazon, and in person.  Even non-horsey readers love the humor in my book.  My next book will be a collection of poetry and essays.  I think.  I’ll let you know as that progresses.  Per normal, it seemed like it would be easy to pull together a lot of my old pieces into a new book, but it’s not.  It’s work.  

If you have already bought my book, I hope you enjoyed it!  If you aren’t really one for buying books, ask at your local library and get them to buy it.  Hmmm… I should visit my local libraries.  More work. More fun. The good news is that my home-town library in Blaine, Washington, does have my book.  That makes me smile!

I look forward to more fun, more work, more selling, and more writing. Also shopping, as I visit new places that might want to carry my book.

After my “Farewell to the Red Boots” blog, my friends came through with some great advice.  They advised me on other good boots to buy, where to find red boots, and how to find them cheap (look on ebay!).  My kind of friends!  But more importantly, they described how to fix the leaky boots.  I am always trying to eke out one more week, one more season, or one more year to save money.  Notably, this also saves resources. 

My friends suggested patching my boots with E6000, a very strong glue.  Or Gorilla Clear Grip Waterproof Adhesive to apply a patch, or to use on its own.  I love having fix-it supplies around the house.  We may already have some E6000, and I’ll be shopping for the special Gorilla glue.  This will add to my ever-present availability of duct tape and baling twine.  With all of the above, I should be able to fix most everything around here, except car and truck engines.  There you need tougher stuff.  Like hose clamps. And a hammer.  And a big bank account for the real mechanic.

But for other things, baling twine is very useful.  I use it to fix fence, tying the mesh to the posts.  My older son hates blue baling twine.  When I used it on his pheasant pens, he gradually cut it off and replaced it with wire.  He’s right in that it looks funny, and it doesn’t last more than a couple years.  But its free!  And I have an unending supply! He needs to come visit, and replace the twine on our recent fence repairs.  It will make our place look so clean and finished.  Ha!  We still have the crooked and saggy fence lines and mismatched materials to deal with.  This hobby farm will never look like a manicured and formal Thoroughbred breeding farm in Kentucky.  We just don’t have it in us.

Duct tape remains useful all around the house and farm.  I’ve used it to protect the water trough heater wires from horse nibbling.  I’ve used it to hang electric fence insulators on the mesh fence between the posts.  I’ve used it for shoe and boot repair.  My younger son even used it once to create a duct tape rose.  All things can be accomplished with duct tape.  Although out in the weather it really is a temporary kind of fix, it falls apart over time.  But temporary can last for years around here, until that duct tape project works its way to the top of the to-do list.  Our to-do list is very long.

One time at my office we had some server issues.  Servers are the big computer thingy’s on trays that connect all the computers in an office.  They hide them in secure computer rooms. When they malfunction, the office computers don’t work.  And when you work in a small sub-office, the strangest people end up working on those things.  Like me.  With in-person, and remote help from our IT staff, we ended up stringing cables from one server to another server 10 feet away.  It was a mess of wires strung across the room.  It made me laugh, it looked so rinky-dink.  I especially was laughing because they had me helping.  I am not techy.  Nonetheless, we got a temporarily functioning system, with a web of wires that we had to duck under.  And when we finally got it finished, I added some baling twine and duct tape.  Just because.

Then there’s my barn roof.  It’s a small hobby-farm barn, just one story tall.  We’ve had some fierce winds over the years, and several aged shingles have blown off.  We tried some quick and dirty nailed on repairs, that again blew off.  Last year I considered re-roofing the barn. Then I learned how much professional repairs or re-roofing costs.  Surely I could get another year or two out of the current shingles.  So I you-tubed how to properly (sort of) replace missing shingles.  Oh… one must pull the nails out of the previous row, then tuck the new patch shingles underneath, and re-nail everything.  Got it.  The other key ingredient was roof tar.  We’re not talking a couple calking tubes of tar, we’re talking a gallon can of the nasty black goo, and a thick putty knife.  And of course my husband and son claim to be scared of heights, so guess who got to do this job?  Yup.  Me.  Add roofing contractor to my resume, right after computer hard-ware technician.

Weirdly, I enjoyed being on the roof, prying up nails, re-placing shingles, and spreading black goo all over.  With my mom’s help as the ground crew, we got it done.  It is not beautiful, and the new shingles don’t match the old shingles, but it’s on the back side of the barn; no one will ever see it.  I must admit, that after tarring the heck out of the roof, I had a craving for chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting.  Roof repair and frosting a cake are more similar than one would think. Especially the way I frost cakes!

So there we have the list of items to fix almost everything:  E6000 glue, various Gorilla glues, Duct Tape, Baling Twine, and Roof Tar.  Let’s be clear that you can’t find lengths of baling twine in any old hardware store, but I’m happy to send you some.  Free.  Please. Take some baling twine.

[photo credit Margaret Eames]