Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Want Cheese with that Whine?

So, here we are at the start of a new year. All the excitement of the season is past, and a lot of people are back to work, and back to normal. Some of us who work from home are probably trying to get back into the swing of things, too. There are probably a few with a slightly let-down feeling, rather like that last lonely party favour that got kicked under the edge of the couch and no-one has found yet. (In the Bag Lady’s house, it could probably mate with a stray dog biscuit and have a nice cozy little nest under there, raising dust bunnies into full-grown rabbits, totally undisturbed…)

The Bag Lady is struggling with her blog. She warned you when she started that she wasn’t sure if she had enough good stories to keep people interested. She feels rather like she is floundering around, still searching for a theme. Some of you said you wanted to hear more about life on a ranch. Well, this is the worst time of year for ranching stories. There isn’t very much going on right now. Calving season (on this ranch, at least) won’t start for awhile yet - although this year may hold a few surprises for the Bag Lady. The plan was that there weren’t going to be any cows on this place this year. Then one thing led to another, and there are still 6 older cows that could start calving any time, as well as a dozen or so heifers (first-time mothers) due to start calving in April. The rise of the Canadian dollar against the American dollar has wreaked havoc on an already shaky cattle market (which still hasn’t recovered from the devastation caused by the BSE crisis), so there are also 8 calves from last year, and 4 steers from the previous year that need to be slaughtered. (Anyone want to buy some organic beef?) But, other than feeding these cows every day, there isn’t much going on as far as the ranching aspect is concerned.

The Bag Lady is pretty sure that you don’t really want to hear her cleaning tips, which is about all she devotes her time to in January. She does a lot of furniture re-arranging (mostly just because it pisses her cowboy off so much!), and tries to come up with creative ways to hide the clutter. Her cowboy (bless his heart) bought her a new vacuum cleaner for Christmas, so she will actually have to use it periodically. (Just kidding! With 3 pets in the house, she vacuums almost every day, which is why she has gone through 5 vacuum cleaners in 14 years.)

She has written some rather flippant posts in the past, at least one of which seems to have offended one of her readers who no longer makes any comments, and for that she is sorry. She could write crazy rants about some stuff, but is afraid that would alienate even more of her readers. She doesn’t have all that many commenters to begin with, and would hate to lose more! Half the fun of doing this is hearing what everyone else has to say, and the Bag Lady loves the comments.

So if the Bag Lady posts stuff that is boring as hell, will you still read? Will you tell her she is boring as hell? Will you tell her to snap out of this hibernation phase and get out and do something interesting, then blog about it, for cryin’ out loud!?

9 comments:

Leah J. Utas said...

Cleaning tips, rendered a la Heloise, are actually quite fun as well as being sneakily informative.

I'll still read the Bag Lady, dfBag Lady. You need to play around and find your voice. The best way is to put out the posts and see what kind of feedback you get.

You have plenty of material to choose from. Go ahead and throw some things out.

And, if you're stuck, tell us about that Mistake Dip you make. I'm very curious. Food is a great default setting for blog posts.

the Bag Lady said...

dfLeah - thanks...perhaps part of the problem is writing in third person. Crabby discussed this last week in her blog. It's hard. The Bag Lady may have to reconsider.

Terrie Farley Moran said...

df Bag Lady,

I am back in Florida and on the library computer. Please don't disappear while I am trying to get my computer access set up!!!

Leah, great to see you posting and I know you understand my library frustrations.

I should be up and running in a day or so.

Terrie

Leah J. Utas said...

dfTerrie - I surely do. And thanks.

the Bag Lady said...

dfTerrie, the Bag Lady promises not to disappear (well, unless something really drastic happens!).
Oh, and dfLeah - that Mistake Dip turned out to be really quite marvellous! Oops.

Crabby McSlacker said...

Hey I could use cleaning tips!

And you are incapable of being boring, so don't worry about that.

Btw, I sympathize with Terrie and the quest for on-the-road internet access. Right now we're back in the van parked outside a Hilton hijacking their wireless and may be asked to move along any minute!

Reb said...

Sis, quit your whining! Just blog about anything, eventually you will find what works best for you. You always make it interesting and amusing, so just keep going!

Of course taking advise from someone who has no idea what to blog about herself may be a bit contradictory!

Besides, isn't that why you called it Blather, instead of say...sewing or ranching?

Hilary said...

It's fascinating how everyone elses life style is more intersting to us readers than you'd think. I think it's amazing that a city girl lives on a ranch yet thinks the posts about her life are boring. I can't imagine doing half of what you consider mundane tasks and not finding it blog-worthy. Just keep telling your tales.. no matter the voice. We're listening.. and even commenting. ;)

the Bag Lady said...

Crabby, Reb & Hilary - thanks, all! The Bag Lady is having an identity crisis...it's amazing to her that anyone who lives in a city (and gets to sit in a van outside a Hilton and hi-jack wireless communications, or visit Florida, or has neighbourhood block parties to celebrate New Year's Eve...) wants to read about a life spent gazing out the window at a bunch of cows, wondering when one of them is going to start calving! Or shoveling frozen cow poop out of a smelly barn. (It's hard to make THAT one sound like fun!!)
But, okay, she'll keep trying.