Stepping Out

Hi All,

I'm stepping out, being courageous, bold and confident!!!

I'm planning a writers' Advance (not retreat) at my place with maybe 6 -10 people attending. Members of our Christian Writers group set themselves a challenge to have certain goals achieved by this Advance weekend, and a few are well on their way.
During the weekend we will share knowledge we have about different aspects of writing from beginner editing to publishing a book, including e-books and how to make use of social media.

I have been doing the Ten-Week Writing Challenge set by Marg of Writing for Success (www.writing 4success.com) . This has sent me into many useful websites and given me confidence to 'attack' this social media issue, as well as prompted me to unearth some old stories which need tweaking before I publish them. It happens that the end of this challenge falls at the same time as our weekend, so I have NO excuses.

Before that we have six Japanese teenage boys coming for a two-night/one-day farmstay. We pack into their visit as many farm activities as we can muster (pun intended); shearing goats and/or sheep, feeding out silage to the heifers, mustering, drafting, drenching, and posssum shooting (I'd like to include the 3 families of rabbits, which dig up my lawns, here!). We have a mountain to climb and gorgeous waterfalls to visit if there's time, but it IS almost our shortest day so that may not be possible.

Mt Otanewainuku in the mist

Possum shooters

Whataroa falls

 In early August, about the time our goats start kidding, we have 19 Japanese students arriving for a two-hour, action-packed, farm experience stop-over. Busy!

Up close

 In the meantime...
We need to shear our 250 goats, and I must keep writing, keep up with the grandies, do something about my garden and remember to watch the birds enjoy the winter.