<![CDATA[Singing Dog Farm - Blog]]>Sat, 17 Jun 2023 04:04:03 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[2019]]>Sat, 02 Apr 2016 07:00:00 GMThttp://singingdogfarm.com/blog/one-downI walked out and sat down with the dogs for a minute. When I came back in I looked up it was 2019. Like the expansion of the universe, I feel like my life is tearing by at an ever increasing rate. There's some magic happening there, but not the good Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny kind. The color is leaching out of everything, wrinkles are popping up, everywhere, and I have long since recognized that the concept of baldness is a myth. Nobody ever told me it was a freaking hair migration and worse than that, on the trip between my formerly luxurious head and my ears, ass, toes, back and everywhere else on my body, that the hoard of roaming hairs would propagate like crazy? When the cat crept out of the bag on that well kept secret and I took an inventory of the new crop virtually sprouting from my, ears, I couldn't help but wonder why all of the secrecy and thought that maybe a little transparency from my older friends would have blunted the shock. Then again, when I stopped to think about my grandparents for instance, I could only thank God that I was spared the details. 
2018 brought retirement in June and an apartment in the barn. That was a lot of work and really shitty pay. 2019 has so far, conjured up a a trip to West Virginia to bring home a SuperCub which is just too cool.
So, I'm obviously crappy at writing here but there is a good side to that, I've been writing elsewhere! Book one "Side Road to Nevada" is done and available in it's current e-version from amazon. Side Road turned out okay. Definitely not great but okay. A weird aspect of story telling on this scale that I had not expected, is how hard it is to gauge how your material is being received and perceived. That was surprisingly difficult. The thing is, win lose or draw, I like writing! Okay, really, I love it. To be able to create, on every level, a universe with whole people and events  and crumbs on the floor is just too cool. So, Side Road will get rewritten at some point, for now I just want to work on Cycle Seven and another short story, as yet un-named (it's about a conversation between an old farmer/pilot and Genghis Khan who has been reincarnated as a Golden retriever).
I would like to think that I learned a ton from that experience and possibly, that I've improved. I am currently on what I hope is book one of a trilogy. "Cycle Seven" is also lightly science fiction and basically introduces your new friends, the characters and sets up where the rest is going, all to shit.
 Dusty, a very bright young red head from Idaho gets recruited to a new university started by a rich philanthropist where he can pursue his science outside of the demanding world of academia. What he discovers is, a star that is the twin to ours that has an "event" which, from 1.7 million light years away, looks scary. The scary part is that our sun seems to be on a parallel path and what Dusty infers, from his programming is that, it isn't going to be good. He also discovers that Dr. Anderson, the founder of the university is a fake and cheerfully steals his students brilliant ideas...
The other thing I'm doing is rebuilding the Skywagon. The paint you see on that photo up there? It's all gone as are the radios, seats and everything else that won't make it completely dissolve when removed. It's getting a "bush" style makeover with new radios, cables and a complete inside and out corrosion removal and re-coat.
I will try and update here at more reasonable intervals, like less than a year.
​Chris Allen

]]><![CDATA[The new adventure]]>Mon, 29 Dec 2014 09:50:13 GMThttp://singingdogfarm.com/blog/the-new-adventure So, I am actually started on a life time goal of writing a manuscript. Of course, in a dream world this would be writing a book but some thoroughly disheartening research has suggested to me that claim would be very pretentious. Apparently new authors rarely get published. Ah well, I am having a wonderful time with it and if it never goes anywhere, I can deal with it. As of today, I have over 27,000 words for my projected ~175,000. The bottom line is that I am having a gas with this project and can't squeeze enough out of each day to spend on it. 
 My story is lightly sci-fi/fantasy told from a third person limited point of view. My main character is a young man from a rough background who has an unreliable moral compass and struggles to walk the good walk between selfish/self serving and selfless consideration of others. He befriends an off the charts genius hitchhiker who has dropped out of academia to quietly (away from the prying eyes of the government) pursue parallel world changing theories that would lead to free energy and a deeper understanding of the human psyche than we have ever had by factors.
 The smart guy is torn between the compulsion to follow through with his ideas for the sake of the research and his personal uncertainty about the innate goodness, or badness of the human race. He struggles daily with the moral questions of duty to the greater good and refusal to contribute to our existing gluttony and abuse of the world and really wants to drop out and play in a band. The two travel together on a journey of growth, ultimately partner up to trust each other and try to resolve their separate and common moral questions. The smart guy meets a girl who becomes a perfect point on their trio but opportunity to prove his validity leads one to take advantage of the other and leads to horrible tragedy. The betrayal is bitter and rends the remaining two, demolishing what might have remained of what they had built. Chance, or is it really, fortunately brings the two survivors back together again where they discover a reversal, of sorts, for the misfortune which had occurred. The story comes to a close with hope for the future and a hard won and heart rending reunion of the two survivors.
 The process of identifying the interactions between these characters is amazingly consuming. I find that it is like being different people and God all at various times. I honestly feel some responsibility to get their stories right. 
 So, sometime in the next year, I imagine I will spend a huge amount of time editing and rewriting and then will begin the process of gleefully bashing myself against the brick wall of the many agents who will refuse me and after which I will capitulate and self publish on Amazon in the 99 cent book category. Really though, Sammy, Trevor and Amy won't care, they, and the farting dog Rocket Man, will be alive somewhere and that's all that really counts.]]><![CDATA[Done! (ish)]]>Mon, 06 Oct 2014 04:43:30 GMThttp://singingdogfarm.com/blog/done-ishSo, after nine years of smoking hard work, our farm is (mostly) done. There is touch up stuff here and there but really all of the big stuff is over. That seems pretty weird. Will I know what to do with myself now... YES! I think I can figure that all out just fine!]]><![CDATA[Master bath]]>Sat, 14 Jun 2014 17:56:56 GMThttp://singingdogfarm.com/blog/master-bathThe master bath is, happily, done. It was a process to figure out, on the fly, how to build a walk in shower. Minus the internet and it would have been constructed with black plastic, unrolled and duct taped to the studs. Add the miracles of the millennium and a little mind meld between me and some people who actually know what they are doing and shazaam, a shower. Not perfect, not horrible, without significant blood loss or requiring large quantities of alcohol to recover from (though I am thinking about those bottles upstairs  above the quarter bath). Floor heat is in, but not on yet (waiting. 28 days after installation. No idea why besides the mortar bag said to). The toilet flushes and presumably, appropriately, sends it's contents to the septic system. I haven't actually verified that empirically. My conclusion is more by inference and, like the light bulb in the refrigerator and our acceptance that it does turn off when the door is closed, taken a little bit on faith. I flush, nothing horrible runs out on the floor, things must be good.
Picture
The vanity we, with our weird and unsuccessful planning, special ordered in about '07. It's very nice to see it used. There was only token resistance from the spiders who had been happy for the loan of the real estate in the interim.
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Picture
Looking up in the shower to the skylight. This is where the stairs used to be. That seems odd.
]]><![CDATA[The days go by]]>Sat, 19 Apr 2014 19:03:36 GMThttp://singingdogfarm.com/blog/the-days-go-byMost of the discretionary time that I have to spend on the computer, other than the get-up-and-have-coffee-and-see-what-airplanes-are-for-sale morning 20 minutes, is at work. My best access there is with my IPad and the website that I'm using to manage the Singing Dog site is NOT mobile friendly. That leaves me struggling and slogging through each and every step with my lap top linked through my IPad as a hot spot and the process is crazy making. The bottom line to all of that is, anything that happens on this site is probably going to smack of, struggle, slow and crazy making. Sorry for both of us. ]]><![CDATA[April 19th, 2014]]>Sat, 19 Apr 2014 18:57:27 GMThttp://singingdogfarm.com/blog/april-19th-20144/16

 The entry way is done, trimmed and the floor heat is on. There's a fascinating difference between the heated 75 degree section and the unheated -30 section. You'll be able to figure out where the heating mat is and what witches would feel like if we were referencing their feet...

]]><![CDATA[The Cottage]]>Wed, 02 Apr 2014 04:48:27 GMThttp://singingdogfarm.com/blog/the-cottageWorking on the entry way. Marble tile. Cutting each tile is fairly slow going so I look at them while they are moving ever so slowly through the saw. fascinating stuff marble. What went on to make the endless patterns and swirls, tides, tones and fluid looking floes in that stone. I try to imagine that, the process's the atoms have been through, from their stellar beginnings to the table of my saw and ultimately the eternal proximity of feet. ]]>