Hey there, everyone. How’s it poppin’?

I admit that I’ve been slacking on providing these weekly updates lately. Part of that is due to laziness, part to sickness, and part to exhaustion. Heck, I’m rather tired at this moment because of yesterday’s work and have gotten some sunburn on my arms and neck, despite my physical work being minimal. So, I’ll do my best to explain what’s been going on.

A couple of weeks ago, my dad, sister, and I attended a homestead expo to learn how to live off the land. We attended a variety of talks that taught us, from how to grow food best and preserve it, to maintaining livestock like cows or rabbits, to even how to kill and prepare a pig. Yes, a guy brought a pig to be killed so we could learn how to prepare it for food. Honestly, it was not seeing the animal getting killed that was not disturbing, but seeing its death throes for a couple of minutes after getting shot.

It was an interesting expo all around. I admit that I couldn’t do my favorite thing for the expo and cons, which was to wander around and even pick up an odd item from the sellers. It was always nice to hang out with those guys, but my dad and sister came to learn from them. I didn’t blame them, though, since that was the entire point of coming to Arkansas: to live out on the land. I just wish we could use the time between shows to check out the shops.

Oh, well.

Speaking of living out on the land, we finally made some progress on building a house here. After several months of delay in building the concrete base, we finally completed it. With that part out of the way, yesterday my dad and I moved the metal house kit from a fellow who allowed us to set it on his land to our own. He was kind enough even to use a couple of trucks with flatbeds to take them there.

Of course, there were some issues, which were natural given that they had been sitting in place for a few years. For starters, the wide OSB box held together by chunks of lumber and iron bands was falling apart. We had to use several steel chains, all covered in rust, to ensure they stay together long enough. It was a lot of work, let me tell you. It also did not help that, while driving the roof and siding up to the property, the roofing part almost slid off the truck, thanks to part of the flat bed’s lumber buckling. It remained thanks to the thick straps keeping the load in place.

It took most of the day to get everything on the property, which meant that we could not send the forklift rental truck back in time (the place closed at noon). At least the guy who let us set the steel house kit in his place allowed the truck to remain there until Monday (the place is also closed on Sunday). Still, we were exhausted, and we still needed to assemble it.

Honestly, I wish I could do more to help out financially. The problem is that my work is still part-time, with no clear opportunity for a full-time position with the same responsibilities. As a result, my pay rate is inconsistent and thus not as reliable. I also don’t really get many donations or even patrons (heck, I LOSE more money than I GAIN from Patreon). The only time I earned a significant amount of money was through the writing drives. It’s always tough being a writer.

Speaking of writing, I’ve FINALLY begun work on The Pokémon Prometheus 3. It took around a year after I finished the outlines for this story, during which I wrote short stories and longer stories, such as Behemoth – The Beginning of the World, and so on. It also had a delay on the week when I planned to start it, thanks to a nasty cold, an inconvenient meeting at work, and not wanting to push myself. It was also the week when I attended the expo, so I only had one day out of six writing days to write it.

It was not a good week on the writing side.

That’s all I got for today. I’m tired, and I want to get back to playing Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition. I do have an extra copy of the game, though. What should I do with it?

Either way, I hope you all have a good day!