Boring Blog

So there is another blog I read from time to time, from a conservative columnist living on acreage in Northern Idaho. ( http://www.rural-revolution.com ) While politically we are polar opposites on almost every issue (therefore I usually skip her political posts), I love reading her posts about life in the woods -- their livestock, their weather, their homesteading efforts (which are significant).  

But she posted this morning that someone had complained about her blog, saying something to the effect that writing about broken chest freezers, biscuit recipes and other around-the-house topics was just a big yawn.  And of course instead of just getting lost and reading a different blog, the letter writer felt the need to let this lady know how boring he/she thought that kind of life was.

Which is the total and absolute conundrum about homesteading blogs.  If someone is really homesteading, you are going to see a lot of repetition and unless you are a homesteading fan, it will likely become boring to read about over time. Because, compared to modern life, the simple life of homestead tasks IS boring, by comparison. There are no Tahitian vacations, no outlandish luxury purchases, and very little of what people have come to expect for online entertainment, which is D-R-A-M-A. There are chest freezers breaking down, a little blood spilled here and there, fence issues and animal stories.

There is another blog I used to read (which I will not dignify with the term "homesteading blog" since it is not) which panders more to what your average reality-show consumer desires.  There is always drama, giant, metaphorical wolves at the door interspersed with sticky-sweet, bucolic farm life monologues, lots of self-promotion and advertising, and lots of opportunities for readers to send money to keep it all going and see the drama continued. 

The readers fund the drama in this case, and you donate money to ensure the next "episode" pops up on your blog feed tomorrow or the next day, although the official tagline usually runs something like "your donations keep the farm going." Because as we all know, farms are successful due to online donations, right?

Anyway, this second blog is not a blog about homesteading, although it may look like that on the surface. No, instead, it's actually a soap opera/reality TV show set on a few acres, with the blogger seeking not the simple life, but rather attention and recognition. But, I suppose the complaining letter-writer on the other blog would like it, because it does have a constantly rotating cast of new animals and new purchases, usually followed by lots of crisis and commensurate panic.

I will just say here that I love true homesteading blogs because they inspire me. Honestly, I also love decorating blogs if they inspire me.  In my opinion, if you are a real person doing real and creative things, that is interesting.  If I read a post about making butter, then I want to make some. If I read about planting a spring garden, then I get excited about planning mine. I do try to stay away from serious decorating blogs for this reason...if I see a newly remodeled bathroom, I start wanting one myself.  Better to just make some butter and be content with that. It's a lot cheaper that way.

But regarding the homesteading blogs I do read, I do not expect life on the average, honest homestead to read like an episode of "The Bachelor," with trips, roses and tears in every episode.

Here's to keeping it real on the homestead and the legitimate bloggers who help chronicle it. Let's leave the roses and tears to the drama queens.

A little humor

When people ask me why I do not write professionally anymore (I had a newspaper column for nine years) I point out that there are so many good writers out there nowadays that being a paid writer is fast becoming a thing of the past.

Yet I have always admired fine literature, no matter what its form....novel, column, blog....or product review.

It appears a rogue band of writers has commandeered this Amazon page for Tuscan milk and bombed it with hilarious, clever reviews, comments and questions.  1500 of them so far. Enjoy!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00032G1S0/ref=cm_cr_dpvoterdr#R3K9PWS2J0S7AK.2115.Helpful.Reviews

All hail Tuscan milk!  All hail Amazon.com!!

it's never really the end

I wrote my last column for the paper today, a very bittersweet experience.  I've enjoyed my eight years of being a columnist, although the slightly-raised public profile has honestly been a bit weird at times.  When I first started writing the column, I had a by-line using my name only.  A couple of years on, the paper started using pictures of their columnists, and I found myself getting recognized in restaurants, in the store, and shopping around town (I live in a very small town).  It was a bit uncomfortable for me, because I'm normally a pretty private person.  But gradually I adjusted.  Getting older (while my pic in the paper did not) also helped, since I gradually came to look less and less like the 2001 self in the picture I'd given them to use.  A former columnist for the paper, Anthony Cicale, told me to find a picture that looked as unlike the normal "me" as possible in order to protect my day-to-day privacy, and I'm glad I did.  


The best part of writing the column has, of course, been the actual writing itself, and connecting with readers when I captured what they were thinking right along with me.  To feel passionately about something and be able to give it a public platform is both a great gift and a great responsibility, and that has been very gratifying.  


But there are certain times in one's life when transition is the name of the game, and when the old has to be cast off to make way for the new -- even when the new has not yet taken shape.  It needs a vacant space to move into.  And so, my writing career for this paper, in this town, is over, ending on a good note.  


I will never stop writing, but there's a "vacant" sign hanging in the space I used to write my column in, in my life.  What will God bring into my life that will fill it up?  I don't know.  I have some ideas and some dreams. But I'm getting the space ready for whatever comes next.