https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/1efvb/ab/72OxNc

Well, I have only 8 days left on my Kickstarter Campaign and it sadly doesn’t look like it’s going to make it. But, I am very appreciative to the 38 backers who backed me. To repeat, Kickstarter is “all or nothing” so if a campaign doesn’t make the goal backers don’t owe anything.

While looking to get exposure for my Kickstarter campaign I was contacted by The Crowd Funder Show. The show’s producer called me to tell me they’d like to do a segment on my campaign. I happily agreed! What I didn’t realize is that they create an entirely new promotion and they provide matching gift cards as rewards.

Each level has certain gift cards and I believe backers get to choose which ones but I am still not exactly sure. I have backed my own project and I will soon find out and post the information. It appears places like Best Buy, Home Depot and Sears are at the top 3 levels of support so if you were planning on making any purchases at these locations you may be able to support me essentially for free.

Coming soon also will be the show’s segment on my project. I will post it once it is aired and put online!

Again, I want to thank you all for your support and I hope my first draft completed memoir, “Muckville: Farm Policy, Media and the Strange Oddities of Semi-Rural Life” can afford to be edited and get published soon.

Here once again is Eve’s introduction to Muckville:

A NOTE FROM EVE

Muckville. That’s where we live, both literally and figuratively.

And every day something weird is happening on this farm. In the early years I kept waiting for it to end, waiting for calm. After 20 years I now realize that for better or worse, that’s just not going to happen.  Part of it has to do with who I married. I think he described it best one night when we were talking about how people react to adversity. He said, “People basically fall into one of two categories: sheep or wolf. And I’m not a sheep.” I think I am a sheep who hitched a ride with a wolf. When we lost our crop to hail the first time in 1996 and our insurance turned out to be worthless and I was pregnant and large amounts of debt loomed on the horizon, I was perfectly willing to throw up my hands, quit and go do something else. In that respect I think I am like most people. Life is just easier if you can go along with the flow and avoid the pitfalls.  But if everyone did that improvements would seldom if ever be made.

If I’ve surmised anything over the years, it’s that problems come about seemingly on their own resulting from a convergence of factors: a misinterpretation of a law or regulation, a quirky personality, a do-gooder who is just plain wrong, and/or a bureaucrat who refuses to do anything other than “the way it’s always been done.” The result is that change takes a lot of work but more importantly perseverance.

So what do you need to make a change? The first quality just about everyone has. It equates to “What the @#$% happened here?” The second quality many people have, “I’m mad. I’m going to complain to the proper authorities, and this will be fixed!” But there are a lot of problems out there and it is just as likely that your problem won’t be fixed. Sure some may complain for a while but at some point most people simply cut their losses and walk away grumbling. If you are really determined to make a change, it takes more than complaining. Change comes about because you can articulate exactly what is wrong and why, AND you have mapped out and researched what should be done instead. Only then do you have a chance.

Chris (God bless him) has chronicled several things we have fought to change. Some of it is humorous. a lot of it comes under “You just can’t make that up!” and parts of it I simply cannot read because it was enough for me to live through it. We hope that you will be entertained and learn a little about production agriculture along the way. But what we really hope is that maybe the next time you see a problem, you will have the courage to be a wolf.