I am glad you asked. I have a blog of which I am proud. I won't be much help to you though as I didn't do it myself but I am fortunate to have a webmaster who does such things for me. All I do is come up with something to say. If you visit my blog please read the entry titled "And I Love Her" I think it is one of my better efforts.
Poppa, keep a record of all you do concerning your greenhouse and it can be put on a blog later.

Here is a link that might be useful: Eddie's Rambling Garden Blog

Uh-oh.

ok, first let me say that content is really the essence of a blog.

Secondly, let me apologize for saying mine is pretty ugly as i should know better to be so shallow to focus on looks.

Thirdly, forgive me for being the one to tell you but, your web guy ripped you off. Please, don't stomp off. Let me explain...

Your blog look's exactly like mine.

I set mine up in five minutes for free. Somehow, he set your site up on blogger.com for free and just routes your comments back through your site. Ok, mine is slightly improved over yours because i selected a couple of options setting mine up that allows people to leave comments and puts every new day's blog on a separate page.

Here's how to prove it. go to blogspot.com (this is a spinoff of Google). click on the arrow that says "Create your blog now". Follow the rest of the intructions.

The default template is exactly what you have now. Ain't technology wonderful?

Sorry.
I hope you didn't pay too much.

Poppa

Whenever I hear the word "blog", I think of a big clot of phlegm, which is why I was glad when I heard it was voted as one of 2004's most irritating words of the year - one most hoped to get rid of etc.etc. It's an ugly word, I think. Why can't you use something like "Journal" or something - I can almost see the green slimy thing whenever I see the word. I know Poppa will understand.

Sorry, but I just had to say that.

Hey Eddie... i spent some time reading your stuff. Some nice things there and i can see why you like the piece you mentioned. The gal is two-timing me. I thought she was mine alone.

I'll have to revisit when i have time to listen to your songs. Something that i would have liked to do if i wasn't so chicken nor so cheap.

I did want to say that at one point you ask for comments, but your blog doesn't allow for them. One of the options i mentioned above was to create a link for people to post comments on your site (like a guestbook) and it also forwards them to your email. I don't know how you'd access those options from your site.

If you can figure out your logon/password you can use the URL i added on the earlier post to login and see the options.

Good luck and happy blogging.

Poppa

Poppa, Are our blogs really long lost twins? Are you not yet ready to publish your blog address? I didn't want to say it but my blog is free too. I mean not only do I not have to pay for it, I didn't have to pay the webmaster to set it up, I only had to ask. I chose not to make it interactive for the reason that I sometimes see elements of dissention on some forums and I just didn't want that. Yes, I did ask for comments but not posted on my blog. Comments can be emailed to me or left on my guestbook. Poppa, when you say you are too chicken or too cheap are you talking about writing and recording songs? You are only going to live once and even recording can be done cheaply using a program called Jasmine ($20) That's not what I used but my brother uses it and I may eventually when I run out of money. Now that we're on the topic of music, do you play an instrument? I may not have the best voice and there are people who can play the guitar better than me but I feel like I do pretty good when it comes to writing songs. I should have a CD out by early this summer.

I didn't publish the URL 'cause there's really nothing much there except stuff like "testing!" and my first uploaded picture of a pice of wood. if you're really hard up for something to do, then you can drop by and click on a few of the ads for me. Ok, so there's no ads either. Just another thing to distract me from doing the things i should be doing.

Yeah, too chicken to play (guitar) in public. I just play the same 6 sections of songs that i know for my own enjoyment. I string them together so it seems as if i know one whole one.

I have cakewalk's "guitar tracks", so i could record on my PC if i was of a mind. But recording is a lot like rereading a post before actually posting it. Gosh, if i did that i'd never post anything. Just too full of idiotic rantings and grammatical errors.

Maybe i should put together a cd after all.... "Songs from the asylum". i have plenty of material.

Poppa

I have unlimited forum/blog space--practically. I think 150 discussions with 150 lines of replies is pretty much unlimited. I paid a life-time fee for the platinum plan which allows me complete control over the content and who I allow to post. It has the googgle ads but does not pay me, instead, for every day that google displays it's bar ads, I get a free day in the contract. So basically, by signing up for the deluxe plan which got the google ad bar contract I'm in business for free for the rest of eternity. BTW...I don't use my forums anymore as they really are not as competative with the GW. I have them set aside for a rainy day and will use them if needed.

I did keep TrudiBlog on my site as I was building it but after NAL/AgNIC accepted my membership application I removed it and a lot of other personal pages and content from Wintersown.Org. It was much better to have the site wholly focused on WS and I carved myself from it. Sob. My biggest beef about TB was that I was spending as much time updating that as I should have been spending doing something else....like fine tuning my site or my life. I found the blog was an excuse to screw off from hard work. 86ing it was kinda tough--like standing on an ice flow and pushing yourself away from the berg ;-0 But now that it's done I feel freed from the responsibility of regular updating.

T

Interesting Trudi.. i can see how keeping the blog going is gonna take away from other things, but typically i have nothing to do from 10 pm til 2 a.m. so i might as well play there.

Everything you mention, controlling who can post, whether people can read comments posted, where i can post from... all those things i get from blogspot, PLUS i get to keep the money from the google ads. And it is all for free.

I'm a tightwad so the price beats out having to pay for a real website.

Poppa

I'm sorry, I think you may have misunderstood. I have a real website to which I attached the forums. The forums/blog are not the website--they function as adjuncts.

I don't see where Poppa misunderstood, you have a website with a blog, he has just a blog. Am I right Poppa? (It feels funny to call someone Poppa, that's what my grandson calls me.)

I thought he was talking of a blogsite, not per se a website ;-)

Poppa, I just created a blog for my DH earlier this week and was amazed at how easy it was. Five minutes, just as you said.

I found out if you go to Change Settings, Template, Pick New, there are more choices than were offered in the initial set up screen. Many of them are even in colors other than pea green.

DH's blog will be private for him and his companions to share details of their trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro next month. Really. Yeah, I'm married to a mad man.

V.

Yep, Eddie, you are correct. I don't have a real website, just the freebie blog to play with. Later next summer, i'll create a real blog site.

Sorry it feels odd to call me Poppa.... just keep in mind that i am 127 years old... perhaps that will help.

Veronicastrum: I didn't see the color options. i'll have to go back and look. Thanks!

Poppa