WordPress tells me I have now been blogging for one year (as of yesterday). Hurrahs all around!

When I started this blog, I wasn’t really sure of what I wanted to do, I just wanted to write. I thought it might end up being an “Outfit of the Day” type deal, because I love looking at those kinds of blogs and with the sheer amount of clothes I own, it seemed like a good start to create outfits, but I have the same 5 or 6 “uniforms” I usually wear and then I have a ton of clothes I don’t wear. The novelty of just posting an outfit with no context wore off. Now that I’m reflecting on this, perhaps I will make more of an attempt to wear my clothes, or at least get rid of the clothes I don’t wear.

I wrote about my chickens and my horses, and frankly, I seemed much better at that. It felt really nice when someone else noticed and I got this:

I don’t know what that criteria for it was, but for my little blog to get noticed felt pretty neat! So I kept going with what I determined was my tongue-in-cheek version of horses, farm life, and being a terrible rider trying to get better.

I love blogging because it gives me the platform to share my love of my animals. The horses are full of personality, and I do sometimes give them more credit of human thought than perhaps they actually have, but sometimes it seems as though they are very thoughtful in their behaviors. Having my chickens has also been an eye opener for me, as I had no idea they had such distinct personalities. It’s easy to think of them as just meat in the grocery store, but seeing them interact, play, and even love and become heartbroken over the loss of their friends has shown me a side of them I never imagined. They are animals, but being an animal doesn’t mean they’re stupid, it means they are full of life. I know that not everyone is able to experience chickens in person (lots of restrictions on who/where can own chickens, and there are many places that aren’t welcoming of them at all) so I like to share their little stories. (By the way, I  eat chicken all the time, so I’m not saying people shouldn’t.)

On the other side of blogging, there’s so many excellent blogs I started reading, and following, and getting to know other bloggers (hopefully not in a creepy way). There’s such a huge community, where everyone is there for everyone else, and it’s really humbling to participate. I love reading everyone else’s adventures, triumphs and difficulties, and following as their stories unfold. I usually try to come up with something clever or funny to say, although I’m sure it often falls flat. Sometimes I can’t think of anything clever to say, so I have to be satisfied with just “liking” it, while inwardly cursing my lack of creativeness.

Because sometimes it’s interesting to know these things, here’s some random stats that wordpress is telling me:

• 127 posts so far (counting this one). I’m a bit of an underachiever, I should have posted way more.
• 3,639 Total Views
• 997 Visitors (Thanks for stopping by!!)

The biggest surprise of my blogging life so far was being contacted by the director of this film I reviewed. I can honestly say I never expected that to happen. Ironically, it happened right when I was working on another post reviewing another horse movie I’d just watched, and now I’m not sure if I should post it. People really can find you on the internet!

One of my most popular posts is this terrible guide I wrote to cutting your dogs hair. I suspect people found it when they were looking for an actual guide to cutting dog hair, and probably cursed me upon finding out it contained nothing of actual use. I thought about this the other day when I was cutting my dog’s hair, marveling that I get better at it every time. It’s only taken me 7 years to get this good!

Now moving forward, even though I’ve been a bit MIA recently (I had my reasons, don’t abandon me forever!), I’m going to keep blogging, try to keep up my quota of three a week, and have them full of all sorts of horse and chicken things, and of course Futurama gif/pics/quotes because I have trouble restraining myself. I’m sorry!

I’m also trying to figure out coding, and hopefully I’ll get my blog how I like it sometime in the next year. Eventually, the format will change, although not too much, as I do kind of like the format I have. Also, I will figure out how to make my About page accessible, as I was so happen when I updated it, and now, no one has even seen it. If you want to see it, here’s the link, although now I feel like it needs to be updated again.

Thanks for reading, and thank you, other bloggers, for writing, because I love to read your blogs. Yay for everyone!