Don't get scared, get to work
I am not going to write a sob story about the state of the farm, but to summarize: the place has never been better, and sales have never been harder. I'm reaching a maturity and discipline I never had before, and that's what is keeping me under this roof despite inflation, lack of audience, and my own stubbornness to not give up.
All week people email about pork, soap, or logos, and then about 80% change their mind or decline during our correspondence, because we are all dealing with uncertainty and hardship. Most of my friends out here are struggling, and the ones that aren't, I feel like I'm losing to class differences. It just happens. It's nobody's fault, but it's a real buzzkill talking about your third vacation of the year to someone who can't afford heat. I get it.
This isn't what you come here to read about, but it's my reality, and I can't write about this farm with any lightness, or joy, with this hanging cloud of stress over me when that's all I can feel. The happy posts will have to wait until I can breathe a little easier.
Today, I need to focus on finishing some art I am making to sell (I will be posting things later today) and promoting my design work, so this will be short:
Support what you want to see succeed. If you can't support it monetarily (I understand that) then please, share a post I wrote on your social media that you feel someone else would enjoy. The bottom of every post here has links to share on Twitter, FB, email, etc. I'm building back a readership from scratch. And that's something I am happy to do, but any help you can offer in the form of sharing my writing is so appreciated!
So I am making a plan, a minimum daily income goal, and just going to keep my head down and not leave the farm unless I absolutely have to for the post office or soap supplies. This is how much of winter was when I wasn't writing. And I know writing here helps, even if it's a single dollar, but I need to switch to survival mode today and focus on something that makes hundreds, not $6. Even if I don't make any sales, shifting my mind to problem solving always seems to help!
Discounts and farm goods I am offering now:
If you are a regular pork customer and want to purchase a share for next season (2024) you can do that. I already have sold a pig's worth of shares and only have 4 more left. If you find that you have moved or don't want the pork at that time, I can always help you sell that share to another customer and refund you.
If you are a regular soap customers, bulk boxes of 20 random bars are $100 and I will even include free shipping (Which costs me $18) if it encourages you to buy.
Pet portraits are on sale, $50 instead of $85 for color. I can draw 2 animals in the same picture if you like. Free shipping anywhere in the world.
Logos are $50 off. Instead of a flat rate of $200 for endless revisions and possibly tens of hours of work (depending on the client), it's $150 flat.
And again, no one has to spend anything to read this diary, but you might have to wait till someone spends something for content to switch away from survival mode, because all I want to write about right now is this craze of anti LGBT laws and feelings in America, and I can tell you this much, people from the midwest looking for backyard chicken tips do not want to hear my thoughts on gender, politics, and sexuality. And I've lost 60 or so followers on IG for speaking up during this Pride Month alone. So things feel, not great...
So patience, please, while I get back to better footing.
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If you appreciate what you read, I encourage you to contribute towards my writing with a tip. To be clear; no one has to pay anything. I will still write here and it's always available for free. But if anyone wants to volunteer to venmo/paypal at least one dollar, it means I will write a post the next day. If no one does, then I'll update when I feel like it. Might be the next day, might be in a month.
Please understand, that I do not mean a dollar for every post or from every reader! I mean, quite literally, if a single person anywhere in the world sends a single US dollar, and that's all the money I earn that day, I'll write tomorrow.
Venmo: jennawog (preferred)
Paypal: dogsinourparks@gmail.com