A Blog in 2024?

It's been a long time since I've "blogged".

I know blogs seem kind of outdated, but I feel that they still have a place. For some they are to "drive traffic" or "create a brand" or whatever, but none of that really appeals to me. I've really just been craving a creative outlet lately and a way to organize my thoughts, and writing has always been that for me. I've also been wanting a way to curate and share notable happenings in life and am just kind of over social media. I thought about doing the YouTube thing, but then again, it's contributing to someone else's website. I can and have made nature-related videos, but it doesn't calm me to do it. It actually stresses me out because it just takes SO long. I guess I'm more of a once-a-year YouTuber.

In 2018 I started the habit of jotting down what happened each day. I started out writing my "to do" list on the left side of the page and things that happened on the right side and called it a "sklog" (combination of "tasks" and "log"). That went on for a few years before I moved my tasks to a different medium and just called the book a "log". For years it was just a few sentences, and at that point I was using a [horizontal] weekly Moleskine planner. I'm now on my second (?) year of using a Moleskine daily (so each day gets a full page). When I switched to the daily planner I started calling it a "journal" because I would actually write out every little thing that went on in a day. Some entries are pretty boring, like this entry from Monday, February 19, 2024: "Rainy morning. Woke up before my alarm. Took a shower. Ate leftover fondue for breakfast (divine!). Went to work. Lots of emails. Left office around 6:30pm. BLTs for dinner. More computer work in evening while watching 90s music videos and Dateline." And others will be much more interesting. Like today's entry, for example, which will include staying home from work to wait for a delivery of 5 baby chicks! And starting a blog! The journal entry will literally just be that - a brief mention of pretty amazing and life-shifting events.

I don't plan on quitting my journal habit any time soon, but I wanted to create this blog to capture more of the exciting stuff with elaborations of thoughts, ideas, emotions, and of course, photos! I like the idea of having this to look back on when I'm "old", and it's a chance to share these things "my own way" (outside of social media).

I settled on the name "Roots & Wanders" because I expect this to be a combination of homesteading, gardening, cooking, home life (the "roots" part) and also adventures such as camping, hiking, boating, fishing, vacations, etc. (the "wanders" part). It made so much sense to me that I was surprised the domain wasn't already taken! There is a "Root & Wander" photography company in North Carolina, but I don't anticipate our worlds colliding too much.

This is all I'll say for now. I'll save the chicks and other homestead happenings for another post just for the sake of keeping things organized. What a day!