​Part 1 – Last Year’s Frontier – Last year on April 26 of 2020 I wrote this . . . finding content on my Pinterest board is like a treasure hunt. You have to look; then hope you find it. My next big business project. . . adding in SEO words. I hope to make it easier for you to find the things you need.
​

​ 
This diagram shows exactly how I feel about them. When I started this post, I thought I understood Search Engine Optimization Words.

​​I used them with my debut book, NEIL ARMSTRONG’S WIND TUNNEL DREAM. Amazon does too. Here are a few of their SEO words. You can use them to search my reviews:

Wind tunnel                                                             Neil Armstrong                 
Moon landing                                                          Must read                                                      Rinda Beach                                                           Anniversary of the moon

​I thought SEO Words for Pinterest would be the same. Sort of yes. Sort of no. I discovered that I can put something SEO-ish in before posting my blogs on Weebly, but I want to know exactly what that looks like.

I also discovered that I can put SEO words directly into Pinterest, but I don’t know where. I feel like I’m in the deep end of the pool, but I forgot how to swim. I found a friend who’s going to explain a little more to me tomorrow. Fingers crossed! I’ll let you know in a couple of weeks if I learned the SEO stroke.

                                                  Link for April of 2020: Rinda Beach - Blog - Rinda Beach
​        Tomorrow – what I learned about SEO words from launching ZOE’S SCAVENGER HUNT FUN.

Part 3 – Me and Meeting That 10,000-Hour Rule - I started writing in 2007, and I read Malcolm’s book in 2008/ 2009. Here’s my writing timeline. I never counted hours, but it took about 10 years before I started seeing signs of success.

​2007 – 2009 . . . I wrote my first story. I edited it as far as I could with my teacher friends. 

​2009 . . .  I took that story to Chautauqua for a week of classes and critiques. My story was good, but needed lots of work. Of course!

​2009 – 2010 . . . I read. I looked for my top 10 picture/ chapter books. They became my teachers. I wrote my 2nd bat story. I started reading new books and recording my thoughts in a reading journal. 

​2011 . . . I took my 2nd bat story to an SCBWI conference (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators). I did classes and a critique. I was only ‘flat.’  I found my 1st critique group, started my ant story, and took it SCBWI again. This time I got fine-tune/finish.

​2012 – 2015 . . . I worked on my ant story and kept reading and taking classes. I lost my critique group, but found a new mentor. I wrote a new dog story, but only wrote on weekends and vacations. I retired from teaching in May 2015. I became a full-time writer.

​ ​ 2016 – 2017 . . . I took two classes with Michelle Houts. I worked on my dog story in the 1st one. I wrote a new story on safety for the 2nd. I continued working on the dog story ​​and going to classes.  I also joined 12x12 and Kidlit 411. I took the safety story to Highlights for a critique/class with Darcy Pattison. I thought my words weren’t strong enough. Turns out they were too strong, too scary for my young audience.

​ April/May 2018 . . . I took a class with Mira Reisberg and the Children’s Book Academy to work on the Safety and Dog stories. That’s when I came up with the idea of writing a book about Neil Armstrong and his wind tunnel.

​Summer 2018 . . . I started researching and writing about Neil. I got my FIRST R&R from an agent for my safety story. R&R stands for Revise and Resubmit. I’d done it! That was the 1st sign of success. The 1st sign I was close to meeting that 10,000-Hour Rule.    

​Fall 2018/Winter 2019 . . . I started working with Callie Metler and her Writing Magic classes to critique Neil and Safety. I wrote a new one about the ducks at the dock. I continued reading and taking classes. 

​May 2019 . . . PUBLISHED! I published my 1st book NEIL ARMSTRONG’S WIND TUNNEL DREAM in time for the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing. The book did phenomenally well!

​ June 2019 . . . I started working on LAKE FUN FOR YOU AND ME. I got a no from the publisher on the safety story, but a maybe for later. I kept working at my craft, and on these three manuscripts. 

​May 2020 . . . Published! I published LAKE FUN FOR YOU AND ME. I also received word that the publisher is still interested in my safety book.

​Summer 2020 . . . I spent most of the summer on the ants, editing and revising through chapter 27. I started a new Nativity story, hoping to self-publish it in my hometown and beyond.

​September 2020 . . .  I was hard at work on 2 stories, the Nativity story and a new one about the zoo.  BiblioKid and I were working on a contract to write a new lake book, a chapter book. 

​ October 2020 . . . The agent said she was interested! But first – I’d have to polish 4 manuscripts by Feb. 2020. Meanwhile I was editing Zoe and working on the zoo book. 

​November/December 2020 . . .  I finished editing the text for Zoe. We started/finished the illustrations. I worked on all 4 stories for the agent challenge, but focused on safety and ducks. I also started research for a new book about the zoo. My plan – to take Zoe and her family to the zoo.

January thru April 2021 . . .  The zoo book got pushed to the back burner after I wrote my 1st chapter. It’s stored in my computer for later. PUBLISHED! I published ZOE’S SCAVENGER HUNT FUN in March of 2021. The ducks, dog, and Nativity stories are still in progress, but safety is polished! I pulled the ants out for another round of editing. I’m on chapter 5, only 25 more to go. It’s a good thing I love revision!

It took me 2-1/2 nights to finish this blog, but I made 2 discoveries. In 2007 I worked on 1 book at a time. Now I can juggle 6.  I’ve come a long way, but I have so much farther to go. I finally finished this post tonight, and I made another discovery . . . screenshots are easier to add to Weebly than lots of tiny images. LIVE and LEARN!   

​
1. The Beatles – This picture is from 1964. Start on the top left and go clockwise: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison.
 
Here’s how they hit 10, 000 hours . . . They performed live in Hamburg, Germany over 1200 times from 1960 to 1964. Practice makes perfect, and they performed 2 or 3 sets a night onstage to live audiences. When the Beatles arrived in Hamburg, they had talent, but all those hours helped them perfect their sound. They returned to England with their own unique style. They took off! If you look at old videos from 1964, you’ll see girls screaming, sobbing, and going crazy over them. The Beatles became The Fab Four, international superstars.

​2. Bill Gates – Meet Bill back in 1970. He’s on the right, looking up. The 2nd picture is from 2018. 

 Bill started work on his 10,000 hours at age 13. That was in 1968, at Lakeside Prep School. He also wrote his first computer program that year. I read somewhere, that he used to sneak into the school computer lab at night to write programs. Bill graduated in 1973 and moved onto Harvard the next fall. He dropped out 2 years later in 1975 to start Microsoft. The rest is history! Bill became the head of the Microsoft empire.
 
​

​​3. Hockey Players in Canada – Would you believe that most players are born in January, February, and March? I didn’t!

The cut-off date to play is January 1st, and kids with those winter birthdays are at an advantage in age, experience, and size. I couldn’t believe a kid born in April would be out of luck, let alone later in the year! This winter advantage is also true in other countries with similar deadlines like the Czech Republic. Kids born later in the year get overlooked. Wow, that doesn’t seem possible, but it is.

​

​​4. Summer Vacation – I’d forgotten this one, but my Outliers research found a paragraph that said learning lost each summer was the same for low-, middle-, and upper-class kids in elementary school. So why do some kids have an advantage over others, come September?

Upper- and middle-class parents tend to keep their kids busy with lessons and classes all summer. Their kids have opportunities for summer camps or vacation experiences the others don’t get. The kids who don’t get those opportunities forget, and those losses add up summer after summer.
​
Teachers know this – Year after year I could tell which students read over the summer. They had a head start on the school year. The kids who hadn’t, it took a couple weeks to a month to regain their learning mojo. 
​

​Information Sources:
Outliers (book) - Wikipedia
The Beatles - Wikipedia
Bill Gates - Wikipedia
 
Tomorrow – Me and those 10,000 hours.

​Meet Malcolm Gladwell. He wrote a book that repeatedly mentions the “10,000-Hour Rule.” Which title is it?

The Tipping Point                                    David and Goliath                
Blink                                                                Outliers
​
Here are a few more clues. The book debuted on the bestseller list for both The New York Times and The Globe and Mail (from Canada). It was #1 for 11 consecutive weeks on the New York Times. It was published by Little, Brown and Company on November 18, 2008. It’s all about the factors that lead to BIG successes.
And the answer is . . .

​I read this book in 2008 or 2009. That was almost 13 years ago, and I still remember the “10,000-Hour Rule. I was impressed by how it applied to so many famous people. It makes sense. The theory is that to acquire any skill with expertise involves practice. It’s true – ‘Practice makes perfect.’

I was surprised to discover that the authors of the original study that Malcom based the book on, disputed the way he wrote it. I was a newbie at writing back then. It made sense that I needed to invest time in writing, and taking classes about writing, if I wanted to be successful.
​
More Info: en.wikipedia.org
I’m sorry I don’t have the source. Somehow I forgot to copy it, but it was either quizclub.com or traveltrivia.com. I love their questions. I tried to look it up, but couldn’t find it. Shucks!

​

​​
1. The Beatles – This picture is from 1964. Start on the top left and go clockwise: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison.
 
Here’s how they hit 10, 000 hours . . . They performed live in Hamburg, Germany over 1200 times from 1960 to 1964. Practice makes perfect, and they performed 2 or 3 sets a night onstage to live audiences. When the Beatles arrived in Hamburg, they had talent, but all those hours helped them perfect their sound. They returned to England with their own unique style. They took off! If you look at old videos from 1964, you’ll see girls screaming, sobbing, and going crazy over them. The Beatles became The Fab Four, international superstars.

​

​2. Bill Gates – Meet Bill back in 1970. He’s on the right, looking up. The 2nd picture is from 2018. 

 Bill started work on his 10,000 hours at age 13. That was in 1968, at Lakeside Prep School. He also wrote his first computer program that year. I read somewhere, that he used to sneak into the school computer lab at night to write programs. Bill graduated in 1973 and moved onto Harvard the next fall. He dropped out 2 years later in 1975 to start Microsoft. The rest is history! Bill became the head of the Microsoft empire.
 
​

​​​3. Hockey Players in Canada – Would you believe that most players are born in January, February, and March? I didn’t!

​The cut-off date to play is January 1st, and kids with those winter birthdays are at an advantage in age, experience, and size. I couldn’t believe a kid born in April would be out of luck, let alone later in the year! This winter advantage is also true in other countries with similar deadlines like the Czech Republic. Kids born later in the year get overlooked. Wow, that doesn’t seem possible, but it is.

​

​​4. Summer Vacation – I’d forgotten this one, but my Outliers research found a paragraph that said learning lost each summer was the same for low-, middle-, and upper-class kids in elementary school. So why do some kids have an advantage over others, come September?

Upper- and middle-class parents tend to keep their kids busy with lessons and classes all summer. Their kids have opportunities for summer camps or vacation experiences the others don’t get. The kids who don’t get those opportunities forget, and those losses add up summer after summer.
​
Teachers know this – Year after year I could tell which students read over the summer. They had a head start on the school year. The kids who hadn’t, it took a couple weeks to a month to regain their learning mojo. 
​​

​
​Information Sources:
Outliers (book) - Wikipedia
The Beatles - Wikipedia
Bill Gates - Wikipedia
 

​Part 3 – Me and Meeting That 10,000-Hour Rule - I started writing in 2007, and I read Malcolm’s book in 2008/ 2009. Here’s my writing timeline. I never counted hours, but it took about 10 years before I started seeing signs of success.
​

​​2007 – 2009 . . . I wrote my first story. I edited it as far as I could with my teacher friends. 

​2009 . . .  I took that story to Chautauqua for a week of classes and critiques. My story was good, but needed lots of work. Of course!

​2009 – 2010 . . . I read. I looked for my top 10 picture/ chapter books. They became my teachers. I wrote my 2nd bat story. I started reading new books and recording my thoughts in a reading journal. ​

​2011 . . . I took my 2nd bat story to an SCBWI conference (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators). I did classes and a critique. I was only ‘flat.’  I found my 1st critique group, started my ant story, and took it SCBWI again. This time I got fine-tune/finish.

​2012 – 2015 . . . I worked on my ant story and kept reading and taking classes. I lost my critique group, but found a new mentor. I wrote a new dog story, but only wrote on weekends and vacations. I retired from teaching in May 2015. I became a full-time writer.

​ 2016 – 2017 . . . I took two classes with Michelle Houts. I worked on my dog story in the 1st one. I wrote a new story on safety for the 2nd. I continued working on the dog story  and going to classes.  I also joined 12x12 and Kidlit411. I took the safety story to Highlights for a critique/class with Darcy Pattison. I thought my words weren’t strong enough. Turns out they were too strong, too scary for my young audience.​

​ April/May 2018 . . . I took a class with Mira Reisberg and the Children’s Book Academy to work on the Safety and Dog stories. That’s when I came up with the idea of writing a book about Neil Armstrong and his wind tunnel.​

​Summer 2018 . . . I started researching and writing about Neil. I got my FIRST R&R from an agent for my safety story. R&R stands for Revise and Resubmit. I’d done it! That was the 1st sign of success. The 1st sign I was close to meeting that 10,000-Hour Rule.    ​

​​Fall 2018/Winter 2019 . . . I started working with Callie Metler and her Writing Magic classes to critique Neil and Safety. I wrote a new one about the ducks at the dock. I continued reading and taking classes. 

​May 2019 . . . PUBLISHED! I published my 1st book NEIL ARMSTRONG’S WIND TUNNEL DREAM in time for the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing. The book did phenomenally well!

​ June 2019 . . . I started working on LAKE FUN FOR YOU AND ME. I got a no from the publisher on the safety story, but a maybe for later. I kept working at my craft, and on these three manuscripts. 

​May 2020 . . . Published! I published LAKE FUN FOR YOU AND ME. I also received word that the publisher is still interested in my safety book.
​

Summer 2020 . . . I spent most of the summer on the ants, editing and revising through chapter 27. I started a new Nativity story, hoping to self-publish it in my hometown and beyond.

​September 2020 . . .  I was hard at work on 2 stories, the Nativity story and a new one about the zoo.  BiblioKid and I were working on a contract to write a new lake book, a chapter book. 

​ October 2020 . . . The agent said she was interested! But first – I’d have to polish 4 manuscripts by Feb. 2020. Meanwhile I was editing Zoe and working on the zoo book.

​November/December 2020 . . .  I finished editing the text for Zoe. We started/finished the illustrations. I worked on all 4 stories for the agent challenge, but focused on safety and ducks. I also started research for a new book about the zoo. My plan – to take Zoe and her family to the zoo.
​

January thru April 2021 . . .  The zoo book got pushed to the back burner after I wrote my 1st chapter. It’s stored in my computer for later. PUBLISHED! I published ZOE’S SCAVENGER HUNT FUN in March of 2021. The ducks, dog, and Nativity stories are still in progress, but safety is polished! I pulled the ants out for another round of editing. I’m on chapter 5, only 25 more to go. It’s a good thing I love revision!
​
It took me 2-1/2 nights to finish this blog, but I made 2 discoveries. In 2007 I worked on 1 book at a time. Now I can juggle 6.  I’ve come a long way, but I have so much farther to go. I finally finished this post tonight, and I made another discovery . . . screenshots are easier to add to Weebly than lots of tiny images. LIVE and LEARN!   

​​Part 1 – When I Was Young – As long as I can remember, Coke has been my favorite drink. I have to confess, when I was young, I couldn’t tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi. Now, and for most of my life, Coke has been it!

Back in the day, Coke was something special. We didn’t have pop, or soda, or whatever you call it, every day. Coke was for a few occasions so it was special. Here are a few of those special days when my parents let me have it. 

​

​CARDS – Occasionally my parents had friends over to play cards. They didn’t have alcohol in the house. Coke or Pepsi were the drinks for young and old. Chips were our favorite snack.

​
While the parents played, we did too. We did games like Monopoly. We watched TV and had our own variety shows. The 60’s/70’s were known for shows like Sonny & Cher, Laugh-in, and Flip Wilson. We had fun copying them.

​​VISITING GRANDFATHERS – I’ve only had grandfathers. One lived in southern Ohio. The other in southern Kentucky. That meant a 6 to 10-hour round trip. We always stayed for a week or weekend.

Coke was part of the visit, on the way, and later as a treat. As we grew older, I think we had it more often. I wonder if it was because milk goes bad. I don’t remember it at all, but I remember pop, and sweet tea with my southern relatives.

​

Birthdays – They were definitely Coca-Cola occasions, while everyone visited, then for dinner. But later with pie or cake, milk was it.
 

New Year’s Eve – That WAS a Coke holiday. All night long we were allowed to have pop. My parents had card friends and their kids over. We kids were allowed to stay up past midnight. It was one of the best days of the whole year!

​​Traveling – When I was little, there was less money, so we’d pack the cooler with sandwiches and pop. Mom never made us drink milk. Maybe it was too hard to pack.

Things changed as we grew older. Dad wanted fast food. His idea of efficiency was to drop us off at a place like McDonalds. We bath-roomed. Mom got sandwiches, and Dad gassed up the car. He’d pull up. We’d pile into the car, and off we’d go till the next gas/restroom stop.
​

​Family Vacations – When I was little, Mom and Dad camped. It was cheaper. Mom packed lots of food and pop to bring along. Coke was part of our vacation.

​
As we grew older, my dad gave up camping. By the time I reached middle school, we started going to hotels, and mom got a vacation too! In those days the Coke flowed . . . at meals, in the car driving. It was lovely!

​THE AD – It came out on radio in February of 1971. I was still 11. In May I turned 12, and sometime later in 1971, THE AD came out . . . The song – I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.

​ 
If you’d like to see or hear it, google the song title, and look for the screenshot. It’s still as wonderful as it was then. I didn’t realize how much until now. I don’t think it’s the reason I love Coke more than Pepsi, but I think it’s a factor. Who knew ads could have so much influence? I had the piano music and played it fluently, back when I was 12, because I WANTED to. Ads HAVE power.

Part 2 – When My Family Was Young – In college and into my 20’s, Coke was still my favorite drink. Here are a few of my favorite stories from the good old days, when my family was young.  
​

A Honeymoon Hike – When my husband and I married in 1985, we honeymooned in Hawaii. We spent most days on the beach, but we spent a day hiking to a waterfall. It was a hot afternoon, and we were literally walking through a jungle. We didn’t have a cooler, and I think it started our first married argument.

People were swimming at the waterfall. Not us! We were hot, tired, thirsty, and without swimsuits. My husband offered papaya juice when we got back to civilization. No thanks! All I wanted was an ice-cold Coca-Cola. He’s a smart man – he found a machine, FAST!

​Second babies are easier. You know what to expect. Was there coke? Who knows? I had a 2year old and a newborn to juggle.
​​
Pepsi starred in my last delivery. We followed their truck all the way to the hospital. Their ad that year – ‘Gotta have it.’ I did – 30 minutes later! I’m glad we made it! Our gas tank was on empty.
​

​Three Young Children – My kids had milk and juice, but they had way more pop than I did growing up. It was part of the kids’ meals in the 90’s. Fun for them, and for me!
​
The boys loved coke from the start. Not my daughter. She’d rather have juice or water. I couldn’t believe it! Eventually – she did discover the real thing!
​

​Part 3 – Coke and Me Now – What I’ve Learned​ - My kids are adults, ages 28 – 33. My life has changed a lot since they left for college. Now I allow myself a little coke. Here’s what changed . . .

Too Much of a Good Thing? – Yes, you can have too much! I did! I worked hard as a teacher. I gave back to myself, by the choices I made. I ate foods that I loved. I didn’t worry about sweets and sugars. When I was young, I could get away with it. Not anymore.  Sometime back in 2005/2006, I don’t remember exactly when, I discovered I was a diabetic.
​

​​How did I find out? – By accident – I took a class in Columbus that went for 2 days. In the middle of the night, I felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest. My dad had heart issues, and that’s one of the symptoms, but I also knew it could be acid reflux. I took a Rolaid. Within 20 minutes I felt better.

​It was probably acid reflux, but a prudent person would see the doctor. I did! My heart was fine. They ran an EKG on me. It showed I’d never had heart problems, but my doctor was prudent too. She asked me to do some bloodwork. 

​​And  the Bloodwork Said . . .  My A1C was higher than the normal range. If you’re a little above, you’re prediabetic, and you try to head it off.  If you’re consistently above it over time, you’re a diabetic.

​Two Ways to Control it– DUH! Diet and exercise. It’s true! Diet means you eat less sugar/fun foods and more healthy foods. Exercise – I walked my dog. She loved it!

​Learning to Read Labels – It’s key! And it’s easy! Here’s a label I found on Wikipedia. It has lots of information, but I only need to look at 3 things when I pick out new foods – Serving Size, Total Carbohydrates, and Dietary Fiber.

Want a serving of macaroni? That’s 1 cup or 31 grams of carbohydrates (carbs). That’s high. I keep mine closer to 15. Pasta has more carbs than other foods so I don’t eat much of it. Foods like bread and rice are better for me.

The other thing I look for is dietary fiber. High fiber is a good thing! You get to subtract it off the carbs. That means FREE carbs!  If my macaroni had 3 grams of fiber, I would be eating 28 grams instead of 31. I love fiber!

​

​​Making Better Choices – I’ve learned over the last 16 years how to do that. Can you guess which is the better choice below? DUH! The apple, of course, but cookies are more fun. When I first became a diabetic, I was scared to make the wrong choice so I ate super healthy foods. I felt like I couldn’t have fun foods any more.

​​That didn’t last! It couldn’t. You need fun. You need foods that make you happy, but, over time I learned to balance fun and healthy. I eat more fruits and vegetables. I still have my coke and chocolate chip cookies, but less often. I have a coke a week, not every day. I learned to like dark chocolate. I work to balance fun and healthy foods every day. It’s a journey!
​

​Exercise – My dog died, and I’m an inside girl so now I walk in the house. It’s weird, but it works! I’m close to the bathroom. It’s climate controlled, and there are no dogs to attack me. It’s perfect – almost!

​ 
I also joined Noom. It counts my steps. It helps me watch my food intake. It counts my calories. My job – to enter what I eat and how much.

Balance - I aim for 1200 calories a day. I aim for 5000 steps a day. Sometimes I’m higher. Sometimes I’m lower, but sometimes I’m just right. Noom helps me find balance in my life.
​
I test my blood sugar every morning. I also inject insulin. It’s been challenging, but these changes have kept me balanced for 4 years. Here’s to 4 more!

This is a really cool map! It shows how the US came to be bit by bit, territory by territory. The brown area is the original 13 colonies and the territories that originally belonged to England. The white area – the Louisiana Purchase.

​          Part 1 - Trivia Question #1  – How much did the Louisiana Purchase cost the United States?
                                                                   $2                 $5              $10               $15 million
 
                                                  Trivia Question #2 – Which country did we buy it from?
                                                  Spain                   Portugal                    France                  England

​Answer #1 – It cost $15 million.                                                                   Answer #2 – We bought it from France.
​

​​And the story? Remember Thomas Jefferson from the Declaration of Independence? He was now president, from 1801 – 1809. In April of 1802, he wrote the following prediction to Pierre Samuel du Pont – that France taking Louisiana from Spain “… is the embryo of a tornado which will burst on the countries on both shores of the Atlantic and involve in its effects their highest destinies.” Huh? What did he say?

​​In other words – it would cause huge problems for our new-born country to have France controlling the Mississippi and the port of New Orleans. President Jefferson took action. He sent James Monroe (another founding father and future president) off to Paris. Monroe was to negotiate the real estate deal of the century! Florida and New Orleans for a cool $10 million.

​But lucky for us, Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in 1799. He was short on cash so he decided to abandon the French colonies in the New World to shore up the finances at home. Napoleon asked for a cool $15 million, and in one real estate transaction, Monroe and Jefferson doubled the size of the US west of the Mississippi, for an additional $5 million.  Thanks to the dynamic duo, our new country now owned 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi.

Like anything else, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Those lands actually belonged to the Native Americans, and it has been estimated the true cost for the Louisiana Purchase is closer to $2.6 billion. But in the long run, it was a real bargain for our new-born country.

 
Sources of Information
1. Source: Monticello.org | Date Updated: July 22, 20192.  

​2.  https://www.traveltrivia.com/answer-how-much-did-the-louisiana-purchase-cost-the-united-states/ 

​3.   Louisiana Purchase - Wikipedia 

Answer #1 – Trumpet                                                                                                  Answer #2 – All of these, and more!
​

​So how did Louis get started playing the trumpet? He was born and raised in New Orleans in a neighborhood called ‘The Battlefield,’ and yes, it was a pretty rough place. But it was the sounds of New Orleans that brought Louis to music.
 
Louis met the Karnoffsky family when he started school at age 6. He did odd jobs for them. They took Louis in, fed and nurtured him. They treated him like family. The Karnoffsky’s had a junk wagon, and Louis played a tin horn to bring in customers. Morris advanced Louis the money to buy his 1st trumpet from a pawn shop. I didn’t know that Louis always wore a Star of David pendant because of the Karnoffskys, and the treatment they received as Jews. 

​Louis learned music – by playing it. He’s in this photo from 1918. He was playing in Fate Marable’s band onboard the S.S. Sidney, traveling up and down the Mississippi. Fate’s on the piano, and Louis is to his left. He was 17.
 
Louis played everything – blues, big band, Latin American folksongs, classical symphonies, opera, Broadway showtunes, and rock. You name it, and he could play it! When I think of Louis, I think of these two songs . . . 

​This is a shot of Louis on the set of Hello Dolly with Barbara Streisand. If you want to listen in, google Hello Dolly, and scroll down until you see my screenshot. Then – enjoy!
​

​To find What a Wonderful World, google the title. Then scroll down until you see this screenshot. I think it’s incredible to see how far music took Louis – from ‘The Battlefield in New Orleans to Hollywood movie sets. 

  
Sources of Information:
1.    More Info: en.wikipedia.org 
2. https://quizzclub.com/games/bonus/what-instrument-was-played-by-famous-jazz-musician-louis-armstrong/answer/374952/

​

​Sorry, no map – yet! It would give away one of the answers. But don’t worry – it’s right after them!
​
Part 3 – Trivia Question #5 – What is a muffuletta?
bread                     salad                    sandwich               pizza
 
Trivia Question #6 – Where did it come from?
New York           New Orleans           Indianapolis        San Francisco
​

​ Here’s the map, and its title gave away where muffulettas came from. It’s written in French because it shows the French Quarter, the tourist part of New Orleans. Scroll down to the bottom to read its story.

This is the Central Grocery of New Orleans. The building is older than the sandwich. To find it on the map, start with the Mississippi River. Go straight up, and you’ll see the Moonwalk. Keep going, and you’ll find the Café Du Monde. It’s a BIG tourist destination! (We’ll stop back later.)
​
Now go up to the first street. Look left to find its name. It’s Decatur, but turn the other way, and travel down the street until you see the French Market. That’s where you’ll find the Central Grocery. Sorry! It’s not marked on the map so I’m not sure which side of the street it’s on, but it’s definitely on Decatur!

​​Go inside, and you’ll find everything in the photo.  Start on the top left . . . that’s a muffuletta!  It’s open so you can see its ingredients.

​Go clockwise, and you can pick up sandwiches for takeout. Continue around, and there’s a jar of olives, the kind in the sandwich. Last but not least – there’s a round muffuletta bun.
​
Salvatore Lupo invented the 1st muffuletta in 1906. The area around his grocery was the Italian Sector, and muffuletta was Sicilian bread. His customers wanted Italian food so they’d buy the bread, plus the fixings. It was hard to eat in pieces, so Salvatore put the deli meat, olives, and cheese together in a sandwich. Its name – The Muffuletta, and it’s still going strong a century later!

​Looking for sweets? Go back to Café Du Monde, and pick up a Beignet. It’s pastry - think doughnuts without the hole, but with lots of powdered sugar on top. LOTS! They’re served hot, and they’re the perfect New Orleans treat.

​Sources of Information:
1. Source: New Orleans Historical | Date Updated: April 2, 2021 

1. Where was the muffaletta sandwich invented?: New Orleans | Travel Trivia
2.   Muffuletta - Wikipedia 

4.  Central Grocery - Wikipedia
5.  Beignet - Wikipedia
​

Photo Sources: 
1. Central grocery –  By No machine-readable author provided. Jan Kronsell assumed (based on copyright claims). - CC BY-SA 3.0,  https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=127539
2. Muffuletta –  By Perlow, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3191684
3.  Begnet –  By Flickr photographer hamron / harmon - https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookies/2452009929/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4142967
4. Café Du Monde – By Jeremykemp - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14881345
​
​                                    Tomorrow – I have a great book for My Reads . . .  about muffuletta!

Started 4/18/21                                        Finished 4/21/21
​Restarted 4/21/21                                    Finished 5/2/21
I haven’t read this book before, but I’ve followed Louisa Clark through 2 other books, and I was ready to follow her to New York in this one. It  didn’t disappoint! I’m on Chapter 24, 75% of the way through the book.

Today I wasn’t planning to, but somehow I took the day off and read. I followed the twists and unexpected turns Louisa took. Tomorrow I hope I find time to finish it off . . . I’m dying to know how it ends!
Amazon’s Description:
Louisa Clark arrives in New York ready to start a new life, confident that she can embrace this new adventure and keep her relationship with Ambulance Sam alive across several thousand miles. She steps into the world of the superrich, working for Leonard Gopnik and his much younger second wife, Agnes. Lou is determined to get the most out of the experience and throws herself into her new job and New York life.

As she begins to mix in New York high society, Lou meets Joshua Ryan, a man who brings with him a whisper of her past. Before long, Lou finds herself torn between Fifth Avenue where she works and the treasure-filled vintage clothing store where she actually feels at home. And when matters come to a head, she has to ask herself: Who is Louisa Clark? And how do you find the courage to follow your heart—wherever that may lead?

Funny, romantic, and poignant, Still Me follows Lou as she discovers who she is and who she was always meant to be—and learns to live boldly in her brave new world.
​

Started 4/12/21                                              Finished 4/17/21 
I’ve read this one a couple times, but I couldn’t find purchase date. So far I’ve reread about William the Conqueror who built the Tower, the theories about the lost princes, and Jane Grey. Now I’m into Bloody Mary. She pardoned Jane, and then reneged,  so she could marry a Spanish prince.

One passage struck me – it never has before. In Mary’s England she waged war against the Protestants, and they fought back. Over 30,000 people died because of her fanatical beliefs. It reminds me of what’s going on in the US. Right now 1 side is fighting – they call it peaceful protest. The other side, my side, is looking for ways to peacefully fight back. The more the world changes, the more it stays the same.  
I hope you check out this book . . . It’s an easy read, but it lets you feel like you’re there, experiencing history, safely from inside a book.
Amazon’s Description:
The brooding grey walls of the Tower of London circumscribe one of the most recognizable buildings on the planet. Over its thousand-year history the Tower stood as a symbol of the English monarchy and served as both a palace and a prison. It is a place where court intrigues, clandestine liaisons, unimaginable tortures and grisly executions took place with frightening regularity. Tales from the Tower is the factual history of the great building itself told through the true stories of the people, royal and common, good and bad, heroes and villains, who lived and died there. Including characters such as William the Conqueror, the Princes in the Tower, Jane Grey, Guy Fawkes, Colonel Blood and Rudolf Hess, the broad range of stories encompassed in Tales from the Tower present a microcosm of all human experience, from love and death to greed and betrayal, all played out against romantic period settings ranging from medieval knights in shining armor to the darkest days of World War II.. Anyone who loves history and adventure will find Tales from the Tower a classic page turner.
​

Started 4/4/21                                                      Finished 4/11/21  
I just finished THE VIRGIN QUEEN’S DAUGHTER, again. I bought it back in 2012. I liked the author, Ella March Chase, so I bought this book back then too. I’ve always been curious about the queen who ruled for 9 days. Her name – Lady Jane Grey. This is her story, It’s also the story of her two younger sisters.
Their father gambled on them. He used them to secure the English crown. Being rich and powerful does not guarantee happiness. The powerful will do what they need to hold onto it. They did in 1553, and they still do today.
Amazon’s Description:
Sixteen-year-old Jane Grey—the “Nine-Day Queen”—is a quiet and obedient young lady destined to become the shortest reigning English monarch. Her beautiful middle sister, Lady Katherine Grey charms all the right people, until a scandalous love affair causes loyalties to shift. And finally, Lady Mary Grey is a dwarf with a twisted spine whose goal is simply to protect the people she loves—but at a terrible cost.
 
In an age in which begetting sons was all that mattered and queens rose and fell on the sex of their child, these three girls with royal Tudor blood lived under the dangerous whims of parents with a passion for gambling. The stakes they would wager: their daughters' lives against rampant ambition.

​Outside the Bendlerblock – Welcome to Berlin and to the courtyard of the Bendlerblock. It was once the headquarters of the German High Command. This is where Hitler’s generals planned and fought WWII.

After Germany lost the war, the buildings on the left side of the photograph became The Memorial to the German Resistance. I stood in this courtyard back in 2007. I was chaperoning my son and his friends. We were visiting our sister city. This is where I was introduced to the White Rose. 
​

​Story #1 – Messages From the White Rose
I walked into one of the rooms and met 17 college kids. They were the White Rose, and they worked to resist Hitler and his generals. You couldn’t publicly resist the Nazi’s. That would have meant certain death.

The White Rose wrote leaflets and left them behind to be found. They said do less, but not so little that you’d be caught and arrested. If you usually gave 5 cents to the Nazis, give 4. If you usually made 10 cannonballs a day, make 8 or 9. Imagine, trickles of resistance, fighting a common cause. It was brilliant!

If you’d like to visit the Memorial to the German Resistance, you can go online. The first link is for the Resistance Center. The second is for the White Rose. The third is where I found my photos.
1. German Resistance Memorial Center - History (gdw-berlin.de)
2. German Resistance Memorial Center - 15 The White Rose (gdw-berlin.de)
3. Memorial to the German Resistance - Wikipedia
If you’d like to learn more about the White Rose, follow this link to my post. http://www.rindabeach.com/blog/the-story-of-the-white-rose
​

​ Story #2 – A Chance Encounter – After going to Germany in 2007, my life changed. I became a writer, and I joined the board of Sister Cities. I wanted to see the program grow. I wanted to see more kids travel to Lengerich so I helped the high school kids heading there in 2008. I helped them raise money, and one of the fund raisers was with Elder Beerman. They used to do a program called Community Days where groups came into the store and sold fliers for $5. The kids who sold them got the WHOLE $5. Elder Beerman didn’t take a cent. The customer who bought the booklet, would save more than their original $5. This fund raiser was a winner for everyone!
​

​I was in Elder Beerman, minding my own business . . . Actually I was helping a student sell booklets. Somehow I started talking . . . I guess it’s a gift, and I met the nephew of Hans and Sophie Scholl. I didn’t remember Hans or Sophie, but I remembered the White Rose.

​He told me his name, and I so wish I could remember it. The Scholls and the White Rose are famous in Germany. Here’s their postcard from the German Democratic Republic, East Germany. Two million went into circulation in 1961. I was 2 back then.
​

​​The Germans don’t use air-conditioning. Their windows were open, and they heard me talking, telling the students to behave. (I must have been using my teacher voice).

Somehow during that conversation, I mentioned the Scholls. I told their story, how I’d met their nephew, how they’d died by execution. I assumed it was firing squad. That’s what I saw in the movies.
​
When the conversation ended, we headed in for our tour. That’s when I discovered I’d been overheard. One of the Germans pulled me aside and told me how they’d heard everything. Why? She wanted me to know how the Scholls died. I was shocked! Those kids never got to grow up – They were beheaded. I had no idea!

​Then she wanted to know the name of the nephew. Imagine my surprise to discover – that they’d love to have this descendant return. Over the years, I’ve always wished I could find him again, and this is my attempt for a redo. I discovered when I wrote the other post in February –  that two of Sophie’s sisters married. Inge died in Germany so it wasn’t her. Their other sister, Elizabeth married Sophie’s boyfriend, Fritz Hartnagel. I don’t know if my guess is right, but maybe chance will work again, and I’ll find Sophie and Hans’ nephew once more. Maybe you can help me. Fingers crossed!

​​Claus saw Hitler regularly, so he would plant the bomb in the Wolf’s Lair, a Nazi military headquarters. His chance arrived July 20, 1944. Claus activated the briefcase, took it into the meeting, and planted it next to Hitler. Within minutes, he left the meeting to take a phone call, prearranged, of course.

The bomb went off around 1PM, and the photo shows the damage done to the conference room. Claus watched from outside and believed no one survived. He hopped on a plane, flew to Berlin to activate Valkyrie. By the time he arrived, radio reports said Hitler survived, but Claus thought it was fake news. He pushed on.

​​What really happened to Hitler? Someone moved the briefcase behind a thick table leg. Hitler survived, with slight wounds. General Goebbels got on the radio and announced that Hitler was alive. Later that day Hitler spoke for himself.
​
The plot quickly unraveled. It was tracked back to the Bendlerblock, and it ended in a quick shootout. The resistance lost, and the High Command was back in power.

When I toured the building in 2007, I was in the room where the shootout took place, where Ludwig Beck tried to take his life. If the plot had been successful, he would have replaced Hitler, and the war might have ended a year early. 

By 1AM on July 21st, 12 hours after the plot began, General Friedrich Fromm charged and court-martialed Claus and three other officers. He was ordered to keep the four alive. This is where he executed them - in the courtyard of Bendlerblock. BTW General Fromm was arrested the next day. He was executed in March of 1945.
​

​The name of the movie, Valkyrie. It came out December 25, 2008, Christmas Day. I’m glad I got to see the movie before I returned to the Bendlerblock in 2008. BTW – the photo above is of Tom Cruise and the real Clause von Stauffenberg. Can you tell who is who? The real Claus is the 1st man. One of the reasons Tom took this part – his resemblance to the true hero.

​I can’t imagine the runup to July. This is the real Claus recuperating. He was injured April 7, 1943 in Tunisia. He lost his left eye, right hand, and two fingers on his left hand. The photo includes a niece and nephew, and 3 of his 4 children. His wife was pregnant when he died. His 5th daughter was born 7 months after his execution.
​
After the July plot his four children were put into foster care and their name changed. My research doesn’t say when, but the children were restored to their mother, probably as soon as the Allies arrived in Germany. Nina lived to the ripe old age of 92, dying in 2006, a year before I walked into the Bendlerblock.

​Information Sources:​
1.  Claus von Stauffenberg - Wikipedia
2.  German Resistance Memorial Center - 9 Stauffenberg and the Assassination Attempt of July 20, 1944 (gdw-berlin.de)   
3. Valkyrie (film) - Wikipedia

​Photo Sources:
1.  Movie Poster - By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19478688
 
2. Tom and Claus: Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13270560

​
​

​Story #5 – The Final Story – A Poem I’ll Never Forget – There aren’t many  poems I can quote or summarize, but this is one of them. It was read to me in 2007, in the Bendlerblock. I was in the room dedicated to the Christian resistance. Some of the Christian heroes are listed below. You can go to the page dedicated to them on the German Memorial Resistance page, click on their pictures, and read about them. One of the people you see below, he wrote this poem. 

Information Sources:
1.  Martin Niemöller, "First They Came..." - Quote or No Quote? - Professor Buzzkill - History's Myths Debunked
2. German Resistance Memorial Center - 5 Resistance out of Christian Faith (gdw-berlin.de)
3. Katie Couric Quote - Katie Couric Says Trump Supporters Need to Be 'Deprogrammed' | CBN News
​

This is me in 2007. If you know my story – I started writing because I held a bat – on a mop – in Germany – in 2007. I believed it was a Godwink moment, that I was called to write.

Now I wonder if I was called then, to speak now. Only God knows, and he usually doesn’t whisper in my ear. Life would be a lot easier if he did, but here’s another famous quote – It’s not for us to question why. It’s for us to do or die. Me – I prefer not to die, but, God’s will is God’s will.
​
I also wondered back in 2007, if I could speak out, if I were in the situation the Germans were in the runup to WWII. Now, I know the answer . . . I just spoke up, and some people will not like it.

                                                                                         The 1st try

I started my journey on January 13th by emailing my web guru, Lisa, to ask for a PayPal button. I had no idea what I was getting into. The emails bounced back and forth between us for the next couple days while I tried to find the code she needed. Here’s a sample from the first couple 

In March Brooke asked about my presales. I didn’t have any. The problem – I didn’t know I was supposed to post the link to my PayPal button on social media. People can’t buy something they don’t know about. Duh!

When I started my launch countdown, I added my buy link to the post. That was March 1st, and that’s when I found my first problem. My daughter messaged me that she couldn’t buy my book. I checked it out!
​
​My whole website was down! I couldn’t even get in – at all! That’s never happened before, and my site has been live since 2016. The only change – my buy link. By the time I went to bed, I was back online, back in business. At least I thought so.

                                                                                                                                             The 2nd Try

​The PayPal button came up again on March 8th, the night before Zoe’s debut. That’s the night I posted the #1 thing to do at the lake – read ZOE!

I called PayPal Support and got Neysa. She was wonderful. She walked me through getting that darn button. By the end of our session, I thought I was good to go. Neysa even sent me 2 notes, one about the button. The other about API Credentials. (I still have no idea what they are, except that it’s a number unique to me, and that if someone gets that number, they can hack into my account.)

I emailed the new number to Lisa that night. Guess what – It didn’t work! I don’t know why. Lisa is great at tech issues. Everything you see on my website is due to the foundation she set up. I copied and sent Neysa’s note to Lisa. Nothing changed.
​
I tried to work with the API Credentials, even though I didn’t know what I was doing. Lisa and I tried two different ways to use them. We failed both times.

At 10PM on launch day I gave up and filed a case with Technical Support. After 24 hours in crisis mode, I turned it over to the tech team. It was the BEST decision I made all day.

Lesson #1 – Know when to give up. I had tried everything Brooke, Lisa, Paypal, and Neysa suggested. I wasn’t making any progress. I kept making the same mistake, over and over again. I’m so GLAD I quit!

                                                                                                                                                The Third and Final Try

​I got my first email from Tech Support on March 10th. Adithya wanted me to generate another button, but I said NO! I sent him the one Neysa and I created. I hoped Adithya would find the error and help me fix it.

He DID say there was an important client ID missing from the button code on the 11th. He didn’t think I generated the code with PayPal, and he asked me to try again. I did, but it felt like I was repeating the same old directions. When you do that, you get the same old results.

I heard back on the 15th and 16th. Adithya sent directions both days, but I couldn’t understand them.  I felt like someone threw me in the deep end of the pool, and I didn’t know how to swim. If someone has ever given you a project that’s above and beyond your skills, you know how I felt.
​
Here’s one of his answers. I looked at my code for 30 minutes, trying to find what he wanted me to find, and change. I couldn’t.  ​

Lesson #2 – When something’s not working – change strategies! The emails didn’t work. I couldn’t see or understand what Adithya was asking me to do so I asked for a conference call. I thought if we zoomed, he could guide me into doing what he asked.
​
PS – this section was SUPER hard to write. I thought I’d finish the post tonight, but I couldn’t. This was as far as I could write. The more words I used, the more tangled my thoughts became. I hope I let you feel a little of my frustration . . .  without the knots.
 
                                              A Happy Ending – A Conference Call to the Other Side of the Earth

​When I couldn’t make heads or tails of the code, I asked for a conference call. That was March 16th. By the 17th Adithya said he could meet anytime from 9AM – 9PM IST. I had to look up IST – India Standard Time. Then I found a conversion chart for EST – Eastern Standard Time in the US. I don’t even want to think how many time zones are between India and the US. 

Can you find the US and India on this World Map? ​

There were two sets of times that worked. First, 9-10:30AM in India. That’s almost midnight in Ohio! The second, 8-9PM in India. That’s when I wake up, about 10:30 in the morning in Ohio. I’m not a morning person so I asked for the first time.
​
Adithya immediately set up a time to meet the next morning. Unfortunately, I read his email after I had breakfast, when Adithya was done for the day. We finally got a call set up for after midnight on the 19th. Within 30 minutes I had my code. You’d think it would have been easy. He could see my computer screen as we talked, but it was still tricky.

The tough parts – 1. We both thought our PayPal computer screens looked the same. I knew computer keyboards look different. The keys are in different places, but I thought the screens would be the same, just in different languages. No wonder I couldn’t follow directions from Adithya’s emails. The commands weren’t in the same places.
​
2. There was also a language difference. Thank goodness Adithya spoke English, but he spoke with an Indian accent, which was hard occasionally for me to understand. Sometimes my American English was hard for him.
​
It sounds funny to have trouble communicating in the same language, but it happens. I was in England, and the hotel guide sent my husband and I to ‘Mer Mickey.’ We couldn’t find it on the map, but we did find ‘Mermaid Quay.’ Our hotel guide didn’t get the joke – but my husband and I did. FYI – the faster you speak, the harder it is to be understood in international situations. SLOW DOWN! ​

During the conversation, Adithya had me generate that code again. This time he asked me to paste it onto an email and send it to him. Then he did his magic (he put the right code in the right place – I still couldn’t do it.) He sent the corrected code back to me. I was almost done!

When I got up on the 19th, I sent the code to my developer, Lisa (I thought she was my tech person, but her real title is web developer. Live – And Learn!). Lisa put it up, and at 6:41PM on the 19th, I thought the journey was over.
​
NOT! Brooke, my publisher went in on the 22nd, and found it didn’t work again. URGH! I sent out 12 emails from 4 - 6PM. Sometime during that period Brooke sent me a Capture image (it looked like Greek to me, again), but I sent it off to Lisa. She worked on it, but we needed someone to test-drive the button. Brooke did, and I was finally in business. I closed the case on PayPal, and my daughter finally bought her book. Life is good!

​​​Janet Campbell from Elderspark.com reached out to write another post. I said sure. Here’s what she wrote . . .

When it comes to types of retirement, there are few that offer as much self-sufficiency and personal satisfaction as homesteading. This is a style of retirement built around hard work, cost-saving, and the pride of a day well spent. However, it’s not for everyone. Here’s a quick look at some of the pros and cons of homesteading, as well as some tips that I’m happy to share with Teacher, Speaker, and Author Rinda Beach. I hope they help you find your perfect place. 
​

​                                                                                 Part 1 - What Is Homesteading?
“Homesteading” is a broad term, but in general, it’s a lifestyle in which people try to live more sustainably by “living off the land,” so to speak. Homesteaders may grow their own fruits or vegetables, raise meat, grow crops to make fabric for clothing, or a combination of these practices. In addition to benefiting from their own hard work, many also sell their homegrown fare in their local community via farmers markets or mom-and-pop shops.

​People of all ages can homestead. Seniors can certainly pursue this lifestyle post-retirement, but as we discuss below, those with physical disabilities or mobility issues are wise to be selective about homesteading hobbies that accommodate their needs. For example, rather than growing potatoes in the ground (which are heavy and require a lot of physical labor to tend to), planting lightweight lettuce, peppers, and tomatoes in raised containers might be a better option for older adults.

​
Part 2 - Benefits of Homesteading
There are a ton of wonderful pros to homesteading for retirees. The first is that, when you’re homesteading, you can make a fixed income stretch a lot further. The food you produce on your land substantially cuts down your grocery bill, meaning you have more money to go toward other costs. 

Moreover, if you really get a knack for it, you can look into selling goods you’ve grown or made. If you go this route, however, be sure to check out whether or not you need to register as an LLC. This designation offers some legal protections that make good sense for anyone running a business out of their home. Turning your homestead into an income source can put you in an even better financial position.

Another great benefit of homesteading is that it’s a very physically active form of retirement. It’s easy to grow sedentary when you’re done working, but it’s terrible for your body and your mind. Staying active keeps you strong and sharp, helping you stay healthier for longer. Since homesteading is, by its very nature, a physically demanding lifestyle, you’ll be certain to get plenty of healthy exercise and fresh air. 

​
​ Part 3 – Cons of Homesteading
Despite its myriad benefits, homesteading still isn’t for everyone. Take the physical activity element mentioned above. Although it’s great to have the opportunity to stay physically active, it can be unsustainable. If you already have mobility loss, for example, a homesteading situation can be impossible to maintain. Now, you can often mitigate this by planning a smaller garden or limiting your planned production, but it’s important to recognize the physical commitment from the start. 

​It’s also a big commitment and can preclude some other retirement aspirations. It’s difficult to travel while homesteading since you must find someone to care for your crops (and animals, if you have them) while you’re away. Many hobbies are also difficult to juggle along with the demanding schedule homesteading often requires. This isn’t to say homesteading will occupy all of your time, but recognizing the demands before you get started can help you figure out if it’s a good fit.  

​ Part 4 – Finding a Homesteading Property
When it comes to finding your perfect property, keep an open mind. Many people assume homesteading can only happen in rural areas, but it’s far from the truth. There’s a ton of technology out there that makes homesteading accessible for people in suburban and even urban areas. That said, you should always check zoning laws before you commit to make sure the features you’d like to have are allowed at that address. 

You should also take time to think about your overall ideal lifestyle and the kind of spaces you’ll need to achieve it. For example, if you think you’d like to make (and perhaps, sell) your own jam, you’ll want a spacious kitchen with plenty of room for canning, as well as a pantry you can use to store your products. Consider any workshops, guest rooms, and other features you’d need and like to have to be able to achieve the homestead retirement that’s right for you.

Though it’s not for everyone, homesteading is a wonderful form of retirement. Do the research to figure out if it’s right for you and, if so, invest in the perfect property to achieve the golden years you’re dreaming of.