It’s been quite a week.

Hurricane Otto gave us a bunch of rain but no real trouble, my wife left for the states for a week, I wrote thousands of words for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), my paintings are getting better and I managed to post multiple new videos despite the rain.

Here’s the break-down on what’s happening, plus some good news.

The Sad Case of the Busted Car

Our new vehicle is dead at the moment and getting a mechanic to work on it proved to be more difficult than expected.

It looks great… but looks can be deceiving!

One fellow told me he’d come by and check it out and that we could tow it to his place, then was too tied up to help… so it sat for more than a week… and then my pastor called on Friday and said “Has that guy gotten to your car yet? If not, I have a mechanic and a tow truck guy that will get it done quickly!”

That sounded good to me, so I let the first guy go and it will be taken to the shop sometime today. We are praying it isn’t the whole engine that’s messed up, as that would be expensive.

We shall see.

My Missing Wife

Rachel had to go back to the states unexpectedly for the funeral of her grandmother. Her grandmother was quite a woman and Rachel was close to her, so this wasn’t easy for her or her family.

I am quite glad she got to go, and that we had lots of green bananas on the homestead we could eat. There are about seven stalks in the house right now – it’s ridiculous. The heavy rain has cause multiple trees to fall over before the fruit was fully ripe.

So far I’ve fried them, boiled them and put them into soup.

I even painted some of them.

When life gives you green bananas, paint their portraits.

Bat Attractant

I was written by Charles, the representative of a company that has developed a bat attractant to get bats moving into bat houses. He writes:

“Have you also checked out our new, field-tested bat house attractant, Hello Bat? We collaborated with bat experts and designed it to promote bat conservation efforts. In particular, we’re hoping it competitively displaces the toxic ammonia lures and guano lures that spread bat diseases, such as white-nose syndrome. Unlike other attractants, Hello Bat is research-based and utilizes the primary roost odors (including 2′-Aminoacetophenone) of major North American bat species. It is field-tested and effective.

You should check it out. I think your readers would love it. If you like it, please feel free to link to it.  It’s available on our website, Blue Moon Bell, which is located at https://bluemoonbell.com/products/bathouse-lure, and also sold on Amazon at this link.

So far, we’ve received positive feedback, including from Amazon, which labeled it the #1 new release in bat supplies with 5-star ratings across the board.”

If this works as advertised, it’s a great idea and much needed.

Last week, incidentally, I painted a picture of the abandoned building turned bat house a short walk from our house.

That’s the place where I filmed this:

Giving Thanks

We have a lot to be thankful for this year.

We made the move overseas and have been learning the culture, the children are healthy, my Dad had successful knee surgery and is back on his feet after a long stretch of difficulty walking, my gardening books keep selling, and though some of you may disagree, I’m also glad there will not be a Bush or a Clinton taking control of the US in 2017.

Another cool thing – my YouTube channel blew through 11,000 subscribers last week. That’s pretty cool. I’m hoping we’ll hit 15k by year-end but I don’t know. It’s close!

Your Christmas Shopping Can Help Fund This Site

I got a really nice email from a reader who read in my newsletter that the car was dead. She asked if she could send a donation our way – I was quite touched. Though I turned down the offer, as there are many other people with needs much greater than my own, there is a way you can help us out.

Just shop by clicking through any one of my Amazon links when you do your Christmas shopping and a percentage of all your purchases will head our way.

The Amazon Associates program pays my electric bill most months and I’m quite glad for it.

And Last But Not Least

Don’t miss signing up for Justin Rhodes’ free two-day online viewing of his film Permaculture Chickens. Click that link to get in on seeing it for free. It’s a an excellent film with great ideas.

Thank you all for reading – I’ll be back soon with more gardening inspiration.

-David The Good