External deadlines make me nervous, so I try to avoid them at all costs.  When I was in college, I was the one who wrote my paper the weekend before even though it wasn't due until Friday, and I now weed and topdress new garden beds the week before they're supposed to be planted so that the seasonal deadline doesn't creep up on me.

But sometimes you can't avoid deadlines, and this weekend is one of those times.  My editor emailed me the final draft of The Weekend Homesteader for corrections, due Monday.  Sure, I could have argued that I wrote into my contract that I had a month for this stage (mostly because I thought they'd mail proofs and I was afraid a flood might slow things down).  But I'd rather have the manuscript zip over to China ASAP so the presses will start rolling.

So I've broken one of our farm's cardinal rules and am working during the weekend.  (Watering the forest garden by hand too, to give me a break between chapters.)  Now that I'm 75% of the way done, the stress of an external deadline is finally lifting off my shoulders, but I don't think I'll have any extra deep thought to spare once I get the book off my plate.

Which is all a long way of saying --- we're taking a week's vacation from Walden.  I hope you don't mind the extension.  Go enjoy your garden instead!

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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