October Ultimate Blog Challenge: but why?
I have an explanation and a potential apology for you all, my Gentle Readers, and I’ll just get this off my chest right away, on this auspicious day in this crispy cool and changeable and completely unpredictable month of October.
Here’s the deal: I’m going to be participating in October’s Ultimate Blog Challenge. Why am I apologizing? Because instead of writing two or three blog posts a week (which probably is quite enough to keep up with for you, at that, after all you have a rich and busy life, I know) I’m going to be writing one each day. That means those of you who are getting e-mails from me might be weary of them by the end of this week, much less at the end of the month. That’s why I’m letting you know about this change of events, and also to explain why I do this. So maybe you’ll still like me at the end of the month. Please? Will you?
This is what happens: I write a blog post every day, post it within the UBC group, and read and comment on several other blogs every day. (How do I do this? I get up very early indeed and get it done before breakfast, while it’s dark and quiet in the house). My mind, generally, is buzzing with ideas about what to write about as I go about my day, and I nearly always have my camera in my pocket. Ideas are never a problem. Sitting down to get them “on paper” is more of a challenge.
I can share cool photos like this with you. Here is my little Mack, showing me a fantastically beautiful sumac leaf.
I do believe it’s worthwhile to participate in this challenge, even though it stretches me quite a lot, creatively and in other ways, too. Here are a few reasons:
Reason 1: It stretches me quite a lot, creatively and in other ways, too. Something about pushing myself to do something that I am not sure that I can do is beneficial to me. I get stronger. More focused. More creative. A little wacky, but oh well.
Reason 2: I get to chum around with other bloggers. Making friends is fun. Reading other blogs every day is a valuable learning experience for me, and making friends with the nice folks who write them is icing on the cake. Right now some of my best blogger friends live in the UK, Mexico, Australia, and on the east coast of the United States. Somehow the world seems smaller this way, and it’s a good reminder to me that I have an audience to consider that is not just people exactly like myself.
Reason 3: (Sigh) I love to write. Ask anybody. I’ve always loved to write, to tell stories, to write lists, to put words on paper in some sort of particular order. Writing a blog every day allows me to sit down and write more, and I like that. Writing a blog gives me instant feedback on what I’ve written. And–eventually–when the book of stories that I’m working on is finished, hopefully there’ll be a few people around who will want to read it.
Reason 4: I have learned gobs about the nitty-gritty (some might call it “tech”) aspect of writing a blog from the moderators of the UBC and other bloggers who are more savvy about all this than I (nearly every one of them, by the way, and there were–last I checked–over 3,000 participants) and so I don’t have to pester my poor (techie) hard-working son Timothy over and over about how to add this widget or change this thingy . . .
Reason 5: It’s fun. And fun is good, right? If I can have this much fun, before breakfast, that is wholesome and educational and creatively energizing, why not?
Now this. Is color.
So those are the five reasons that I can come up with at the moment for Seizing the Day and participating in one more Ultimate Blog Challenge. And that’s why you’ll be receiving more blog posts from me than usual. Please don’t hate me.
Here are a few topics that I intend to cover this month:
- It’s October, so I’m going to be doing a lot of preserving, before the garden is frozen to a blackened death. I’ve got peppers to freeze, cabbage to make into saurkraut, still many tomatoes to put up, and fall apples to squeeze into cider and make into sauce. Sound like fun? Oooh! Also I’m letting a few radishes go to seed, so I can pickle the seedpods, and I’m also going to experiment with my winter radishes by making them into kimchee. I can’t wait to share all this with you!
- We’ve got the cover on the hoophouse, so I’ll be writing about that final step in the hoophouse project, as well as sharing with you what I’m doing with the few open, bare spots in there (probably gonna plant something that rhymes with “met-us”).
- Our family trip to Ponca is now on the books, and I’ve got lots of photos and fun stories to share with you about that.
- We’re gearing up to produce our twelfth (could it be that many?) annual musical melodrama, so I’ll share that process with you as it unfolds. We’ve got more students enrolled this fall than ever before, so I’m expecting all sorts of wonderfulness.
- It’s getting colder every week, and we still have some homestead-related projects to finish: we’ve still got to strain all our honey into jars, cut and split the rest of our firewood (oiy) and we want to work on eradicating our place of the noxious thorny locust trees, before winter is here to stay.
- Long evenings inside inspire creative projects, cooking heavier foods, and de-junking some areas of our place lest I go mad. This just seems to be the way we roll. So I’ll be sharing that with you. Or maybe not. Depends on how it all goes.
- For those of you who hang in there with me, I’m planning my first ever blog giveaway at the end of the month. I’m really excited about it, and it’ll be something pretty neat. So check in often! Here’s an idea: “like” my Facebook fan page and that way you’ll be sure not to miss it when I announce it. Sound good?
So ta-ta for now, Gentle Reader . . . at least until tomorrow! Thanks again for your patience and your delightful comments, they mean so much to me! I appreciate you all, I truly do!
27 thoughts on “October Ultimate Blog Challenge: but why?”
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I don’t know how you even find time to write a blog post every day. I’m tired just thinking about all the stuff you are doing in October.
Great writeup on the reasons to do the UBC. This is my first time doing it and I am pretty excited to see where the month takes me.
Good for you, Cindy! I do like to stay busy . . . and I have help to accomplish what needs to really be done in October! It is a busy month around here! Good luck to you with the UBC!
Hi! I’m doing it too! I can’t wait to find out how you are preserving and where is Ponca? And, oh yeah, going to Like your FB page.
Thanks for the FB LIKE, Brook, and for the comment! Ponca is a state park a few hours from us, and we have a family reunion there every fall. It’s fabulous and I’ll be writing about it soon!
Hi there! Stopping by from the UBC. I’m so glad to have found your blog. Love the title, and I so wish chickens were legal where I live! I look forward to reading more.
Wendy,
Chickens not legal where you are? Well . .. that’s just WRONG. Blessings on your blogging, Wendy, and thanks for the comment!
I very much look forward to your posts! I am glad you joined the challenge or I would never have come across your blog. We are quite similar in our pursuits!
Karin,
Is that right? I’ll be looking for your posts! Thanks so much for the comment!
What a lovely post! I’ve come over from the 31 day blog challenge and I completely agree with all your reasons for joining the challenge. Not only is it the first time I’ve done this challenge, it’s also my first attempt at blogging and using Twitter with any degree of competence. It sounds like your blog is going to be really interesting to read over the next month so I’ll certainly be back, and I’m sure your regular readers will still love you.
Andrea,
I hope so!! I’ll enjoy reading your blog this month. I just know that you’ll learn LOTS from joining in!
Yay! I get to tag along on your journeys again. I joined your facebook page. I’m just a fan!
Shawn,
Thank you thank you thank you!!
All the best for the challenge, Amy! Yes, it should stretch the writing muscles!
Well hello blogging bud 🙂 wonderful blog to kick off October’s challenge, I looking forward to 30 more 🙂
Hey friend! It’ll be fun to rub shoulders again during the blog challenge!
I can so relate to your “please don’t hate me” comment! This is my first time participating in the blog challenge and a FB friend already told me that when he used to post every day people told him he posted too much. But for many of the same reasons you mentioned, I’m eager to give it a go, and I hope people will stick around (and maybe I’ll even bring in some new readers along the way). Here’s to a successful challenge! 🙂
Amy–hi Amy!!
Anyway, Amy, I never want to alienate my followers (my Mom and Dad) but on the other hand, a blog challenge is such a great way to grow a website and a following. (And Mom and Dad really don’t mind reading my posts every day, really.) 😉 Blessings on your blogging, Amy!
Amy, that was a great blog! You are who I aspire to be!!!! However, I live in California and don’t have access to all that wonderful land where I can have chickens, bees, timber, etc. I am looking forward to your posts nonetheless.
Oh, Julie, I hope I can inspire and encourage, but not discourage!
31 days of posts- it’s almost enough to make us forget that Summer is gone, gone, gone!
Oh Roy, stop it, you’re driving needles in my ears!!!
This is perfect! I think I know what I’m going to be writing about tomorrow…I look forward to following you and reading your posts. You really are a great writer.
Kirsten,
I’m glad that you enjoyed my post . . . so what are you writing about tomorrow?
And I look forward to each and every one of those posts. Who would dare complain of more email from you? (Check back with me in a week.) Now, on day 14, when you are sleep starved and thinking you might want to have one less blogging friend on the East Coast – remember, I had absolutely nothing to do with it. I disavow any knowledge of my actions.
Alana,
You must realize that you tipped the scales in favor of my participating in the UBC . . you and your sweet comments. So the bloodshot eyes and the sleep-deprivation will be gazing in your direction about middle of the month . . . 😉 just kidding. Thanks for the nudge. It’s going to be awesome!!!
No worries! I for one enjoy your post. it is a pleasant break from the constant barrage of bad news. I am often uplifted and always smiling whenever I finish reading what you have so eloquently put down in your Blogs. You have a real talent, thank you.
Well, Steve, you have a real talent for encouragement. Thank you.