We're alive... ALIVE!!!

I have so much bringing up to date that needs to happen that it's absolutely ridiculous. If you're one of the few that follows me on facebook you might have some small idea of the chaos that we managed to insert ourselves into, otherwise... ugh.. where to start?!

Late last year, my wife A~ and I decided to put our house on the market when spring rolled around, and see what came of it. Well, what came of it was that we listed it on Feb 1st, and it managed to sell in exactly one month. Then we found ourselves contractually obligated to be out of the house by the end of March. During that time, we managed to find a wonderful house, that met 95% of everything we had identified as wanting in a new long-term home and made an offer. After some negotiations, we had an offer accepted and were scheduled to take ownership at the end of April, which left us in a temporary housing situation in an apartment. We would be able to be out of our temporary apartment and into the new home by the end of June. Because there were a number of small issues with the new house, crack in foundation that had a seasonal leak, outdated kitchen with really really funky countertops, leak in roof and just general outdatedness, we tackled a pretty significant remodel project on the inside of the place which left us pressed for time since I essentially gutted the entire kitchen down to studs and subfloor. We figured as long as I could have the kitchen completed, or close to completed by the time we moved in we would be alright. Well, we almost made it...

We did manage to have the majority of the kitchen framed and drywalled before we moved in and had started the process of building up our IKEA kitchen abinets. Let me take a moment to call BULLSHIT on anyone who says you can assemble an IKEA kitchen in a weekend! It did go together fairly easily, but took a ton of time and a number of calls to their service and support center before the kitchen was even functional, let alone completed. In the mean time, while I spent my nights working on a little project here or a little project there to finish the kitchen off, A~ busted her butt getting the rest of the main living areas functional and actually pretty damn nice looking. We still have a tone of work to do, but so far it still remains a labor of love.

As far as the yard and garden are concerned, I really have little to nothing to report other than it has been in my mind constantly. I plan to spend a lot of this upcoming winter plotting and planning the future iterations of the farm and how I hope to see it go forward. For now though, I have pretty regular discussions with myself as to what it is that I would like to see back there. It's fun to have enough land (2.6 ac) to really get to think about all the fun projects and long term goals that can be potentially accomplished.

Finally, the reason I can say definitively that I am back is because for the first time since March, we again have an internet connection in our home. Yes, you heard that right, the last nearly six months we managed to exist with no in house internet. It honestly wasn't too bad other than a few research problems I had when it came to some commisioned writing, but we managed to get by with phone data and local free wi-fi hotspots. Now though, now we're back on line and I have a TON of stuff going on and I'm excited again to be writing. I know there's still a few of you out there who drop by from time to time, and I still seem to pop up on the search pages so with any luck we can pick up where we left off and keep on growing the possibilities together.

Hope you are all well and have been much blessed since last we chatted.
Namaste.
Paul Gardener.
P~

Bare minimum connection

Just a real quick note, mainly because it was pointed out to me that I had not been keeping up with my comment moderation - I know you didn't mean to call me out, thanks for keeping me honest though! - and I thought I should take two seconds to explain myself..

Since we are currently ”in transit” and living in a small apartment for a few months, we decided to simply put many of our services, such as tv and internet, on hold rather then paying to move them twice. As such, everything you see from me, whether it be a facebook post or a blog entry, is coming to you via Android phone. It's kind of a pain to do some things, moderation included, on the phone so I tend to fall as little behind. Also, I can't stand my blog formatting, but hey... some info is better than none right!?
Bear with me please... We'll get there!
Best to you all... Hope your spring (or fall for my Aussie friends) is going well.
P~

Catalyst

When I wrote my last post, to be quite honest, I was pretty down. It really just put a damper on everything I felt we were trying to do. Obviously I won't let anyone stop me from having a perfectly legal garden, and I had already worked to change the laws so that I could keep my chickens so they're not going anywhere. The thing is that our garden wasn't only so we could produce food for ourselves. We love the feeling we get when we're able to give a lot of it away. We try to make multiple donations to a local women's shelter and of course ”produce bomb” the neighbors (those we can stand). But it was more than that. I felt like I was trying to point out during conversations with people, and during the beginning gardening classes that I teach, that this is possible... Our society can begin to take back at least some part of our food security and we can do it in our own backyards. I guess I was just disheartened that what I was trying so hard to do not only fell on many deaf ears, it was actually seen in a negative way? I, whether I was well meaning or not, was considered that ”trashy” neighbor that no one wants to live by. My wife and I have talked a long time about leaving the area we currently live in and trying to find some place perhaps more “tuned in” to the same things as we are. Our kids go to school a few towns over and that's the area we've thought of going to. We just never really had the catalyst to get us moving on it. It's finally come...

Now before I start getting the emails saying that I should not back down to my stupid ass neighbors, let me reiterate... we've been thinking about moving for some time. To be honest, even after the whole stink with the sign in the yard, we were still not ready to take action; we’ve never been reactionary in any of our life altering decisions. In late November though, I was told that the contact I am currently working under looked like it will not be getting renewed. There was no problems with the work, and still plenty to do in fact, it's just one of those “we need to cut back somewhere” kind of deals. So there it was... the catalyst to get us going on a long deliberated decision. Our house was put on the Market on the first of February, it was time to move on.

I began to write this post a little over a week ago. I’ve been incredibly busy with kids school projects, work, showing our home and looking at what is available on the market so it’s taken me some time to complete it. We’ve had a wonderful reception to our home on the market with an average of one showing every three days. In fact, at the time I am completing this post, I can say that we’ve received a lot of news... Last week, I found out for sure that I’ve received a brief reprieve from the unemployment scare in that my contract has been renewed for one more year. In addition, just 24 hours after that, we received an offer on our home and have accepted it. Our home is currently under contract. It took exactly every day of February, from the 1st to the 29th, but we look to have sold it in one month exactly! Just a few more hurdles like inspections and appraisals to get over and it’s a done deal. Time to find a new “farm”. For some reason, I was telling A~ from the start that I just believed that it would all happen at one time, back to back, and it did. The power of positive thinking and belief cannot be underestimated!

In talking about what we wanted going forward, we’ve decided, for a number of reasons, that we are going to downsize. Not necessarily joining the “small house” masses quite yet, but still we are looking for a smaller home. One with space enough, but perhaps not empty space to fill. If there is one thing that we have found to be true in the last six years or so that we have been slowing becoming more in tune with our lifestyle it is that the value in where we live lies most in the people we share the space with and less with the space itself. We hope to relocate ourselves to a place where we may have a little more acceptance of our “Homescale Farming” ways, and maybe even a little more space to conduct it in. More than anything though, we want to be closer to our kids school and we want to reduce our debt as a hedge against future employment scares. Here’s to hoping. We’ve seen a number of good homes, and may know more soon. Either way, we both look forward to a new adventure.

If you’ve been a guest here for some time you know that of late I’ve been a bit out of the picture. I got to a point that I felt like I just wasn’t adding anything to the discussion and didn’t really know what to share that wasn’t just a rehash of things I’d written before. I look forward to the process of building a new homescale farm as a chance to get back into the swing of things, learn more and try some new techniques. A chance to breath a little new life into our garden and to learn new lessons along the way. If you’re new here, well, welcome and stay tuned. I’ve been planning some big changes for some time and just never managed to get around to them; I think this may just be my own catalyst.

Namaste, and thank you for hanging in there.

P~

No, I didn't get lost...

Every day, I see my own last post as I check in on my google Reader account and read all the blogs that I subscribe to and I realize that with the last post I put up haveing been over a month ago, and then I think "My last post was a month ago and I said I was going up hunting... Hope nobody thinks I fell off a cliff or was eaten by a bear or anything..."

Of course, by now, you've realized that I did not in fact fall off said cliff and am not inside a bear, but am in fact just a slacking slacker that has not made myself get online and write... well seemingly anyway.

I've mentioned deadlines and certification tests that I've been working on, and now I have the holidays to contend with as well so... I'm just kind of tied up for now and likely will be until after the new year.

I did want to drop in here, for those that check in from time to time and wish you all a very happy and blessed holiday season. I hope all is well with you and yours and, but for the occasional pop in post, will see you again in 2011.

Peace...
Paul~

Going to Mother Earths Fair

Hi all! Just thought I'd drop you all all a little news bulletin about some big "outta town" type news.

I don't know how many out there read Mother Earth News, either online or in print, but you may recall that I also do some freelance writing for their sister (Or would it be brother??? ) magazine GRIT as well as posting an occasional blog post on their web site. Anyway, Mother's decided to host a "Fair" with "dozens of practical, hands-on demonstrations and workshops" and I'll be heading out to take part.

I should qualify that statement of course, I will be taking part as a spectator and enthusiastic participant, not as a demonstrator or anything. I foresee having a wonderful time though.

The only downside to it is that I'll be making the trip by myself. I wish I could bring the whole family, but on this one we agree that I'd be better off on my own. With the potential of over 100 (And I believe I've even heard of up to 180)demonstrations and two days of Sustainable farming and garden geekery to be had, I tend to get pretty into what I'm doing.

I look forward to getting some great new info that I can share with you all of course, and meeting lots of new people interested in the same things as I am.

If your in the Central PA area, or are close enough to get there, The Fair will be the weekend of Sept 25-26 at the Seven Springs Resort.

That's about it for now... Take care.
P~

Taking it easy for a weekend

By Doctors orders.

Not Doctor A~, although she is doing her best to keep me still, but by my actual Doctor. I've mentioned recently that my back has been giving me a lot of trouble, well, the trouble has been getting worse and the simple fixes haven't been helping. I've been taking it easy, not been working around the house like I'd like to, and was prescribed a course of oral medication to reduce inflammation which I diligently took. Still, last week I found myself almost unable to get up and walk around. For over a week now I've been subsisting on pain medicine and little sleep.

This morning I had an appointment to get an epidural injection of cortisone to - hopefully - improve my situation. With any luck, the inflammation will reduce and I can start doing some mild exercise and stretching and allow myself to heal. In the mean time, I've been ordered to take it easy, not to work too hard at anything for the weekend and let my back rest.

I'm going to take that as an opportunity try and catch up with some of the blog stuff that I've been wanting to post and just haven't had a chance to put up.

I may post up through the weekend, but mainly I'm going to write and format. Look forward to a nice sized posting blitz in the next week.

Have a great weekend all.

P~

Well that was nice...

I was informed that I was given a little bit of a shout out today. One of what they consider to be the 50 best gardening blogs. Thank you for the compliment!
Still can't figure out what it has to do with physical therapy... but Thank you anyway!
P~

Hi again.

I won't bother to go into the who's what's where's and such regarding my conspicuous absence this summer. I've tried to excuse myself the best I could, but in all honesty, I just had too much to do and compounded it with tech problems (That are still slowing me down) and you get the picture. The blog has suffered it's biggest dry spell since... well, since ever really. I'll skip the appologies too, because honestly it's been kind of nice to not have the self inflicted pressure to keep it up on top of everything.

That said, I 'm currently working on a couple of posts that I hope will wrap up some things. The basics really, how grows the garden? What happened to the greenhouse? You know the "burning issues."

With any luck here in the next couple of weeks things will be slowing to the point that I can get back to normal, or some variant thereof.

All the best to those of you still dropping by or checking the reader. Looking forward to reconnecting with you!

P~

Hellooooo again - checking in

Summer's been kickin', the garden's been growing and we've been busy as bees. That's part of the reason you haven't heard a lot from me this Summer. I'm glad to see there's still been a few of you stopping by though, sorry to disappoint! The main reason that I've been so absent the last few months is because I can hardly get on the computer. We've had a problem with our power supply to out laptop and I can hardly use it without it randomly shutting off! I hope we'll be able to get this worked out and repaired soon, but for now I'll still be intermittent at best.

Let me tell you it sucks too, We've gone camping in the High Uintas and had dinner at around 10,000 feet overlooking a beautiful vista and an alpine lake, we've finished off the final couple of areas in the back yard farm/garden and it looks great! The garden is doing well, and we've already passed 200 lbs for the year, plus there's also been some great developments in the greenhouse front, but alas I'm waiting for the 'puter to crash on me again and don't want to get too into it until I have the time to do it right!

I hope you're all doing well and look forward to getting back in touch with you all soon!
Grow on~
P~

Re-alignment... personal update.

Hi everyone, sorry for the silent treatment. It seems as though it's been a full week since I posted anything at all. I have to come clean with you, I've had a bit of a change in priority. When I began this blog it was so that I could have a voice of my own, a place where I could take the opportunity to sound off when I felt the need and to share my ideas and my plans. As I shared more, I read more, I got to know you and found myself a part of an incredible community of people. I love that. I look forward to hearing from you all every time I post something new and to sharing myself with you.

The downside is that I'm also a very goal oriented person. I like to be able to quantify what I'm doing, at least to myself and that sometimes gets in the way of my just being me. I started watching my statcounter every night and felt obligated to post every day, or at least nearly. I think I lost sight of the original intent and I've decided I need to re-align.

Because I never wanted to have the blog interfere with my family time, I began writing in the evenings after everyone was laying down. As I took on other writing obligations, like the Simple Green Frugal blog and GRIT magazine for instance, the evenings got longer. That and the fact that I was living with a camera around my neck whenever I was doing anything, so you can see it was getting a little out of perspective.

I'll still be posting, here and elsewhere, but as you've noticed it will be a little more intermittent. If I have something to say, I'll be here. If I think I have something valuable to add to a dialogue or something that I think will help someone else out, I'll add my two cents. I just won't be posting just to be posting.

I'm so thankful for everyone that comes here everyday, and to everyone with whom I've built such good friendships with. I look forward to continuing to hear from you and to hopefully adding so the urban farming, homesteading, Simple living community for much longer.

Now, with that in mind, here comes the down and dirty, my abismal failure. How NOT to grow tomatoes starts.

Namaste~
P~

Holy crap....I'm TWO!!

I guess I was so busy mourning my chickens and planning my gardens that I totally spaced it. But the 6th of March was my second blogiversary!!

It's been a great couple of years too hasn't it? I still get to hear from my friends that have been checking in here for ever it seems like. Farm Mom, Phelan, Eva, Rhonda and so many others. I get to share everything that goes on here in our little world with you and hear what's going on in yours. Even more, I get to learn from you all, and maybe even pass on some wisdom of my own to others.

I've grown a good bit this year too. In 2008 I had had 7,496 unique visitors and I was amazed at it. For last year (09) I had 27,760 Unique visitors, now I'm even more amazed!! No matter how often I get on here and see this little community that's developed I feel so lucky to get to have you stop by.

I'm looking forward to another great year with you all. I hope you'll stick around a while longer. And if you've just stopped by for the first time. Welcome! Leave a comment, ask a question or just lurk around for a while if you like. I'm easy to work with.

Here's to another year!
Paul~

interesting thread...

This was supposed to have been posted this morning... Guess I was tired and didn't click the publish button, OOps.

Just wanted to drop a quick FYI out to you this morning. As you may or may not know, I also write for Grit Magazines blog section of their website. The editor posted a great blog up yesterday and another last night based on some commenting that we had had between us. Both are well writen and very worthy of a read.

My response to both is also up and I invite you to take a jaunt over and check it out.
I'll be back up here again tomorrow.
All the best
P!

Checking in~

I'm off running around checking in a commenting on a lot of blogs that I enjoy reading. Sometimes I get so caught up with my goals or what I'm up to that I get off track with showing my support to the many other wonderful bloggers out there. If I don't get to yours tonight, I promise to drop in more often. I do read many of your blogs on a daily basis, it's just getting the time to get out of reader and leave comments that escapes me.

I so appreciate all the comments I get here, and honestly have been feeling a bit guilty that I haven't been reciprocating as often. Forgive me please...

Catch you all tomorrow.
P~

We need to talk...

I've got a question, actually a few questions, that have been stuck in my head and I just can't seem to find an answer to them so I want to hear your opinions. As far as I can tell, some people are for it, and some are against it, I tend to the former, but am wondering if I am missing something.

So what's got me so puzzled? Ad's, banners, potential revenue streams and the opposition to such. What's the deal with them as far as blogs are concerned? I know that some people that read this blog - and you know who you are - place banners and adSense links on their blogs and I have no problem with that. Others have Etsy accounts where they peddle their crafts or photos and such and I also have no problem with that either. Other blogs I've read, are seemingly adamant in having no such "corporate" advertising on their blogs; there's one campaign that even allows the author to declare such through a banner of their own.

As said, I don't have any issues either way other than when the ads are so prevalent that they take away from the content of the site or if they are "hidden links" (The kind that look like they are a link to another article or more information relevant to the blog, but are really just ads), but I do wonder why there has become such a seemingly common distaste for allowing alternate revenue streams to be gained through the blog format?

Many of you are familiar with the issues that have just faced one of our own due to the downturn in the economy and issues with the bank. I'm not going to go into it, If you know you know, if you don't you don't, she's a friend of mine and it's not my place to go posting it all over the web. My point is, this is a person that has a huge amount of knowledge and practical experience that people all over the world (presumably) have an interest in accessing. She offers this information to the world for nothing. There are no "fees" or "memberships" required to access her knowledge base, just a web address. I agree that this is how it should be, but can see no reason that she should not be able to at the very least attempt to gain some revenue through Ads that may relate to the information on her page, or though specifically chosen advertising's for companies that she believes in.

I am, as I have said many times, a free-market sort of guy. I also believe that we have an obligation to give of ourselves and of our experience freely to help others, but don't agree that that service to others precludes us from being able to also use one of our greatest assets to our benefit either. What's your opinion on it? Make me understand. I don't have ads, banners or shops on my blog, but can't say that I've never thought of it and may still, in the future, decide to include something like that. Would that devalue the information or opinions that I write? Someday I'd like to be at a place where I am able to write, not for a living necessarily, but certainly for additional income. Where's the difference between a hobby and a "side job". If I decided to charge for the gardening class that I offered for free last year would that have made me a bad guy? (BTW local readers... no plans for that OK, settle down...) Where's the line?

I want your opinions. whether your a regular reader, or someone that just popped in. If you had linked here and I had ads, banners or shops in the sidebar would it have changed your opinion of the blog? Have you ever quit a regular read because they decided to include them. Or perhaps your an author. What's your experience been with them. Why did you decide to go that way?

Thanks in advance for helping me resolve this. I've debated over an over whether to even address it or not, the logic being that it's my blog and I'll do whatever I want with it if that's something I decide to do. The thing is, the more I think about it, it's not just my blog anymore. Oh sure I'm the author, designer, photographer, etc, etc. and at the end of the day I make the decisions, but I get as much from you as I offer to you and I want your thoughts on this.
Thanks all.
P~

I don't know what to say???

Ever just have one of those times in life that just kind of leave you speechless? The kind of thing that you never really saw coming, but is welcomed heartily when it does? Well, obviously I'm not entirely speechless (I rarely am...), hence the post tonight, but I am flattered tremendously. A fellow blogger and Freedom Gardener, Andrew Stone, posted a write-up on my blog tonight that honestly just embarrassed me for it's complimentary nature. Thanks Andrew so much.

When I began writing this blog, just under two years ago, it was something I didn't quite understand to be honest. I mean yeah, I understood that it was a free repository for the written word, but I didn't understand the power for change in my own life that it could hold. Even more surprising to me is the influence that it could become to others. I began it as a way for me to, more than anything else, get my thoughts out of my head and to document them somewhere. I found that as I did they began to jell more clearly into not just random ideas but into much more, they started to redefine who I was. Actually not even redefine so much as to just put before me a clear picture of what I wanted, believed, enjoyed and strived for. Sometimes I think we get caught up in who we think we are and holding a virtual mirror up to myself helped me to see who I really was.

I found a voice I didn't know I had, and surprisingly to me, that there were people willing to listen to that voice. I don't know how to say it without sounding like I'm tooting my own horn, but when people email me from all over the world to ask questions or say thank you for "inspiring them", I just swell up. I enjoy it soooo much! I thought a lot about becoming a teacher in a past life, and doing this lets me live that just a little.

Well, enough of that for now. Why not drop into Andrews blog and give him a read. He's another Utahan, and has a really good site.

Till tomorrow.
P~

Growing Possibilities

I've still got a bit of sniffles, but the sore throat seems to be gone and I'm feeling quite a bit better tonight. Whether I felt 100% or not though I'd have to be on here to leave this post for you because tonight I've got some pretty cool news. I'm expanding again.

No no no... I don't mean like my waist line or anything, although next week if history holds true that may be the case as well. What I'm talking about is my writing is expanding again. Some of you may be familiar with a sister magazine of Mother Earth News called Grit Magazine. It is a rural-lifestyle magazine and is, in their words, dedicated to "maintaining the valuable rural traditions of community and stewardship in the United States". Now what's not to love about that right? Well now I get to be a part of that effort, you see I'll be writing a weekly blog for their web site called "Growing Possibilities". You can find it on their Reader Blogs page, (I'm the guy right at the top with the chicken) or link right over to it HERE.

I think that this will be a great place for me to share a lot of the things that I do around my place that differ from the way someone might do it, for instance, on a real farm, or at least on a place with more acreage. I work a much smaller piece of earth than many of the Grit readers probably do, but I think there are a lot of people that, like me, have yearned for a more earth-centric life even if it means making it in their suburban back yard. As I reasearched and learned more about what was possible I found a number of people and families, the Dervaes for instance, that were able to do so much on thier little piece of land and were such an inspiration to me. My hope is that as time goes on, I can be of some small help to others as well; passing it on so to speak. That's a good part of why I've been making it a goal this year to expand my writing, teaching and sharing as much as I can. This will be a great addition I think.

For all of you who have been with me for the last few years, I hope you'll stop by there once in a while as well. I'll generally only be posting something once a week, but it will usually be new information from the stuff I put on here and I'll put a notice up when I do post there. For any new readers coming over from Grit, welcome! I hope you'll take a look through some of the older posts and weigh in when you feel comfortable.

Here's to growing again...Growing Possibilities that is!
P~

My new digs

A~, being the greatest and most supportive wife in....oh, I don't know... the world, refurnished and decorated a very cool old writing desk that we had in the garage and put in up in our bedroom so I have a nice place to sit and do my writing at nights. Now I won't be leaning up against the wall, sitting on the floor with a pillow behind me. No really, that's pretty much how 90% of my posts have been written to date.

This is a desk that we picked up a couple of years back at a thrift store for probably $5.00 max. It was in our youngest son's room for a couple of years, a place I like to call the wrecking room, and got pretty beat up. When we traded it out for a dresser, we offered it up on Freecyle but got no takers. Probably because it was so beat up. It was largely surface stuff though, and after A~ sanded it, did some Decoupage to the surface of the top with pictures of our family and the garden, it looks great and I feel like a real writer in my own personal creation station!

Thanks honey, for your love and your support of all my crazy whims. You're the best!
P~

Taking a cue

I'm still trying to muscle (literally) through the work in the back yard to control the bindweed and get the garden expansion put in place while the weather is still holding up so their not really a lot of new stuff to write about on a daily basis.

I went through this same period last year around this time too. The garden work is mostly down to the mudane digging, pulling, and prepping. The harvests have been put up for the most part, still some beets expected, but not for a little while yet, and we're not yet snow bound so I haven't been spending too much time working in the house on new "experiments". So, in this short period of seasonal evolution, I thought I'd steal a cue from Phelan over at Homesteading Neophyte, and take suggestions or questions.

Do you have any questions you've been hoping I'd cover? Wondering about how I came to this way of life? Incredibly (and inexplicably) curious for more information about me? Now's the time to ask. If I don't know the answer I'll make something up...no, just kidding, I'll let you know I don't know, or find the information for you if I can. Either way, With the numbers of new readers I seemed to have garnered in the last few weeks, I thought this may be a good time to open the blog up to your questions.

I look forward to them!
P~

A new adventure.

I've had a wonderful new offer from a good blog-friend of mine, Rhonda from Down-to-Earth, to participate in a new project that she's put together. It's called the Simple Green Frugal Co-op and she's brought together some wonderful writers that deal with moving towards a simpler, more sustainable life, through frugal choices and greener alternatives. I can't say how happy I am that she sought me out to participate. You'll find a link to the new blog in the side bar on the right.

It's actually a happy coincidence. I've been thinking a lot lately about writing more, not so much making more posts here, but further putting myself out into the world and sharing the things I've learned, and my perspectives on them. (How conceited am I right?) It's just that I feel like I'm in a good position to do so. For many reasons, A~ and I began down a path a couple of years back that has led us to making some major changes in the way we live. These are changes that have had,not only the benefit of fostering a more healthful and sustainable life for us and our kids, but has had the additional benefit of helping us to weather the changes to the world around us. Simplicity has brought us together more as a couple and a family, greening has helped us to reduce our consumption and our mark on the world and our frugality has helped us keep up with the sinking economy.

So where does that leave this blog? Just in the same place as it is right now. I'll still be posting here regularly, this is after all my original home on the blogoshpere. I've only been asked to contribute to the new site at least once every two weeks, and more likely it will be more like two or three. So for the most part, I'll be posting my day to day entries right here, just like always.

I do hope you'll drop on in over there however. I've read some of the bloggers before, and some are new to me, but from the looks of it, it should quickly become a weath of information and knowledge on the web. Thanks for your support with this everyone, and please be patient with me if some growing pains arise.

P~

Feeling the BURN

There are a few blogs that I read regularly. I read them for various reasons, from the witty way that the author writes about everyday events to the eye opening information on current events or for inspiration and encouragement with some of the things that I try to do that they've already conquered. These blogs are important to me. Many of the authors have become friends in a sort of profound way that I never would have thought possible. So, imagine my dismay when I hear them tell me how they are getting disillusioned with the whole blogging thing or that they're just plain burning out? And it's not just one or two, I've seen a lot of this lately. How could this happen? Many of the writers I frequent write about simple living. How could we be burning out with that?

A blogger that I truly respect and I were talking about their impending burnout just today as a matter of fact. The thing is, the same things that this person shared with me that seem to be causing a bit of "pressure" for them, are things that to some degree I've felt too. So it occurred to me, how many other bloggers feel the same thing; or for that matter will at some point down the road? Part of the pressure that this person is feeling comes from the same thing that makes them such a popular blogger in the first place, their giving nature. I think that it's a part of many, if not all, of us that choose to share of ourselves through this forum. Of course we do it for our own reasons, but over time doesn't it start to feel like we have a certain obligation to the readers we have that regularly take their time to read what we have to say. I feel it. Sometimes I just feel terrible that I don't have the time to write a personal little reply to every comment that I get. Compound that now with the fact that as bloggers, we begin to feel a part of a certain "community" online. We value the interaction we have with other bloggers and readers, and so can begin to feel obligated to be a good reader of the many other bloggers that stop by our sites. Now we've not only put ourselves in the place of feeling obligated to interact with our readers but to in turn be dutiful readers ourselves on top of maintaining our own blogs, blogs based to a great extent on our families and our gardens and generally all the things that we do over and above the normal duties of maintaining a home. So there in lies the quandary, to blog about life, or live to blog.

How often do you find yourself saying " hold on a second sweetie..." to your little ones because you're trying to "catch up" on your writing, commenting or reading? Where is your "line in the sand"? Do you have one for that matter? I had this problem early on in my evolution in this blogging experiment and through it have found a certain balance. That's not to say that I don't get out of whack once and a while, but generally I have found a couple of "rules" that I stick to and it keeps me in line. For one thing, I blog at night. Usually between 11 and 1 or 2 am. The reason for that is because it's my technique for dealing with priorities. My kids and wife are the most important things to me. The blog gets ignored during the day (with few exceptions) because that is "family time". In the evening time, kids go to bed and that's A~ and P~ time. A~ needs her sleep far more than I so after she settles for the night, I blog, comment, surf. As I said, often times I am up till about 12:30- 1:30, but I'd be up till then anyway so I re-allocate the time to the computer. It limits the intrusion to my life and allows me to focus without distraction. Some days I'm tired and I just forgo it, other times we have something else we're doing and I skip it. That's my biggest line in the sand, computer time is at night when life's obligations are met and takes backseat to family needs at all times. I try to have my biggest technical impact throughout the day be taking photos, that's it.

I don't have the opportunity to comment on others blogs very often either and sometimes feel a bit guilty. I probably don't get as many readers because of it but I can enjoy life, work in my garden, and help out in my neighborhood and I guess in the end those are the things that will bring me more happiness than spending all day chasing readers I'll never meet or otherwise meeting my need to "be there" for everyone else. I've also had an internal struggle about wanting to have a simple life, and trying to reconcile cramming that life so full of "wants" that I lose focus on the simple part. I'd like to work for myself, I want to find a bigger piece of land that I can work, I want to start a community garden, I want to help teach others all the things I've learned through my efforts and research. All noble pursuits I think, but they won't love me when I'm sick or visit me when I'm old? So in the mean time I plan and hope and enjoy what I have right now. Those things will come, I have faith. I'm only 37 right now, and my youngest is 11 so I'll have plenty of time to do things later when they're grown.

I know I'm going on and on now, but I have one final bit to pass on. When I first started blogging I would get so excited about all of the Meme things that get passed around and the great and inspirational challenges that so many people sponsor. At some point I decided two things. 1) Most of these memes are little more than thinly veiled attempts to get people to visit the originators site (my opinion) and require that we read a lot of other blogs just so we have a go to list of good blogs to refer to. Most of us have a favorite links section, to me, that is my permanent meme list. I like them, I read them and I leave it at that. 2) Every challenge I would participate in would end up making me feel obligated to keeping up with it, which would eventually lead to my feeling inadequate at it, purely for lack of time. Any more, I am always honored to receive recognition from others, and am inspired by the challenges out there, but the memes die with me, and I generally don't pledge to post on any challenge, whether I participate or not. So if you've ever nominated me for a meme that I didn't reply to, or wondered why I don't participate in any of the challenges...there you go. Self preservation!

So, what do you have to add? What do you do to "time manage" all the irons that we have in the fire? Where's your line in the sand? I know a lot of my readers blog as well so I'm putting you on the hook (not that you have to be a blogger to chime in). Who knows, maybe the solutions we can share will help to keep some of our favorite reads around a little longer.

Blog atcha later!

P~