Saturday, December 5, 2009

The Last Harvest


Clearly, we spent the fall doing a bit more than blogging. Tom wrote a lovely article about corn that should have been published in September, but I couldn't find a proper corn related picture that I liked, and got distracted. October's article should have been all about the awesome take from our herb garden and the experimental ways we tried to preserve it, including freezing, drying, pureeing with sugar, and potting up entire plants. November? Well, we weren't at home until the end of November, and the garden should have been rife with neglect and littered with destruction by the time we returned. Instead, that early spring labor paid off, and quite a few of our crops were not only producing, but still at their best.

Although the ground was not yet frozen, our zone 6 garden must have had a few frosty nights. The basil was a toasty black color and the summer vines were a twisted mass of decay. Helpful worms had skeletonized my fall cauliflower bed. The parsley was still a beautiful vibrant green, while the leeks, swiss chard and celery were perfectly healthy. The tops of the horseradish had died back which meant it was time for harvesting. Had we planted any kale or mustard greens, those too would be more flavorful after a frost.

Therefore, I think we will spend the cold Northeast winter bragging about our harvest, as absurd as that sounds considering the current layer of icy rain covering the ground. We have some lost time to make up for. We also have the inclination to spend time with our family, stoking the fire, creating meals from our harvest, and idly dreaming about the rebirth of the spring garden. I hope you join us!
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The Big Bad Blog Beginning: Marketing Gone Awry

So awhile back, I was talking to my home business and web marketing diva. I know what you're thinking right now. You're thinking, "Big deal! Everybody has a home business and web marketing diva." Maybe so, but if you're not talking to Dina at http://www.wordfeeder.com/, then you've got the wrong gal.

Since I have the right gal, Dina said, "You should start a blog to help promote your website."

"Really? How come?"

She then said something along the lines of "Hoogety boogety search engine optimization foogety moogety page hierarchy loogety toot toot meta-tags and strategic links...." and many other extremely smart things. Please keep in mind Dina has never actually said "hoogety boogety" to me in any context. What she did do was give me a brief explanation of web marketing that made complete sense, but the wisdom of which I would completely mangle upon retelling. The relevant gist was as follows - a blog, when properly done, can be a great tool to drive traffic to my website.

I mulled this over for quite some time. Could I write clear and informative articles about the decorative painting business? Er, sure, I think. New techniques, preferred paint and brush brands, offers of free templates.....Ooh, but how bout the funny fellow painter ladies I see at my teacher's studio? Or the nutjobs who I meet at craft shows?

And then I started thinking about other humorous stuff, like the time my mother swiped HER mother's mother's day gift from me and refused to give it back. And the stories from my grandfather about the 8-10 different ways he's accidentally electrocuted himself throughout the years, and yet still stands. Or about the time I spent half a day convinced that drunk people snuck into my yard during the night and dug up 48 newly planted impatiens (until I realized a deer ate them).

That's about the point that I realized that I actually want a blog to show the world how hilarious I am, and if I can throw some web marketing in there, so be it. I can make it work. For example, the two funniest things I do are 1.) garden organically 2.) allow people to speak to me. Since I paint flowers and creatures and landscapes, does it count as web marketing if I blog about growing flowers in a landscape while shouting obscenities at creatures? You betcha! And when my mother does something bizarre, should that go in there too? Absolutely. Ah, yes. Yet another blog is born.

So in the end, I will market my website the way I organic garden - seek out the advice of experts, change it all around, and find myself continually shocked when my system doesn't work. Effective? No. Funny? Oh yes indeed! Keep reading.....