You may have noticed a plea at the bottom of my last few posts — it’s at the bottom of this one — and you may have wondered what it’s all about. It’s about tools and a promise.
Here’s what I’m asking you to do:
Pledge to support A Good Spot on Substack now.
Continue to subscribe for free to A Good Spot on Substack.
When the time comes to turn on paid subscriptions to A Good Spot — and it won’t come for a long time, at the very, very, very earliest a year from now — when I am doing my own thing to help animals on the ground, in an actual location that I am calling A Good Spot (i.e., when A Good Spot transforms from a dream in a digital reality to a physical reality), you can decide to fulfill your pledge or you can decide to withdraw your pledge and continue as a free subscriber. (It’s okay if you can’t follow-through on the pledge later because life has done what life does and has thrown you a curve ball, since the pledge, not the money is the point here.)
Here’s why I’m asking you to do this:
It will give me the excuse I need to donate another $100 to an existing animal rescue this year, if five people pledge before the end of the year. This is the promise I am making. (Three people have pledged — just 2 to go!)
The self-serving reason. I suspect that Substack’s algorithm will like A Good Spot more if it has pledges.
Finally, the practical reason. The Open House at Claddagh (This Old Horse) illustrated the importance of the right tools, which, you know, cost money. A volunteer from another farm came to help out and while we stuffed hay bags, we were dismayed to learn there was only one pitchfork. Not enough tools to go around. I am convinced we were slowed by this scarcity. The same volunteer drooled over the shovel that we have for the bedding. It is a thing of beauty. A bright red, poly one-form shovel that handles like a dream.1 Their farm could use one. Both farms are run by This Old Horse, so if I donate to This Old Horse, maybe we can get the tools that we need.
The Open House was a success. I’ve never seen so many cars in the yard; more visitors will mean more volunteers, right? We need volunteers. Further, I got to spend quality time with Mac during the Open House. It made the nine-hour day worth it. Mac is a wonderful soul. And finally, I learned how to groom a horse; I think I’ll keep you in suspense and write about that next time.
Pledges to A Good Spot
Please, consider pledging to this substack, A Good Spot, as it would be greatly encouraging and well, simply, AWESOME. (Pledging is not paying right away; a subscriber pledges to become a paid subscriber if and when I turn on paid subscriptions, which I don’t plan to do for a long while. When I do, every thin dime will go directly to rescued animals.)
And, if by the end of 2023 I have five (just 5!) people pledging support, I will donate $100 to one of the animal rescues I talk about (but I won’t turn on paid subscriptions to do that).
I informed more than one person that if that shovel went missing, we know where to look for it, so don't worry about us losing ours, but it really shouldn’t come to this kind of rivalry, should it? (If you can’t tell, I’m joking.) I really enjoyed the volunteer who gave us a hand Saturday, especially her sense of humor.