To my new Gorges' Grouse friends, greetings! Isn't it funny how one little post can intertwine us all together? The marvels and mystery of the Internet is amazing!
For those of you who haven't read, I am 62 years old and married to LuAnn who was raised on a farm in New York and raised her family on a farm there. We met thanks to Agriculture Online where I was posting on the Crop Scouting page in the mid nineties.
I am a retired teacher of agriculture and served seven years as a county extension agent. I started HyMark Consulting in 1994 when my boys needed a Supervised Agricultural Experience Program in their FFA Chapter and LuAnn and I have operated it as an LLC in Ohio since 2000.
We bought a farm in 2004 which became my farming and experiment location while she works as CEO of a local non profit that helps ex-offenders get back into the world of work. We love to travel and we lead very interesting lives. Our love for life through no-till farming has taken us to Europe and New Zealand and across the states. We have camped in the lower 48 and part of Canada and will soon visit our 50th state together, Hawaii.
If you browse my blogs from the last three years, you can see the gardening, farming and travel stories we found. I am quick to test new farming methods before I recommend them to others.
One I have learned over my life is the Albrecht soil testing method. I would recommend all my farming and gardening readers to read this link at your leisure. I sample my soils like it is described here. It is good to start here with any gardening or farming project so we can get a "snapshot" of what your soil looks like in order to formulate a plan to grow better crops.
Readers from all over the country send me their analyses to get my opinion. I do this for a fee for farmers and larger tracts but usually just give advice to someone who sends their labs analysis or recommend someone else they can talk to solve a problem or increase production and quality. The ones out of the country are a little challenging to equate from Metric to English!
So let's start there, you have plenty of reading to do in the links and my past blogs on many different subjects. Many of them have to do with gardening, farming or travel, so read and ask away!
To Gorges', thanks for asking my question and giving me some answers. As Budde pointed out, my blog is written more ilke my old Extension Newsletters I used to write and don't necessarily question the reader to comment. Blogspot did have a comment problem last week which seems to have been fixed temporarily, at least.
Welcome to all my new readers and let's help each other live a better life through our Internet exchange!
Sincerely,
Ed Winkle
I find that a mix of subjects, like you do, does seem to help readership for me, although there are VERY successful specialty blogs out there. Getting comments is still like pulling teeth though. Only about five percent of my readers comment.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I have the mindset to blog on one subject. It would get too boring! My goal has always been one story a day, I think everyone's life has at least one story in it each day, at least mine always seemed to.
ReplyDeleteI asked about your comments because you have a readership that comments more than most I have seen. I really though there was something wrong with my blogspot and I know it is set up a little differently than others with no password or little encrypted letters required. That probably lets in spam that Google has to control. Probably should have set my original template a little different but I was starting with no experience and shooting in the dark!
I have enjoyed writing HyMark High Spots now for over 3 years and it has brought me very interesting people along the way and a format to share my experience.
Hello again!
ReplyDeleteYour blog is interesting, i am always looking for info on growing things.It's tough here in the desert.
We are getting into growing Prickley Pear Cactus & Aloe vera but the tiny prairie dogs are getting into them too!< if it's Not the heat, it's the critters!
Oh Yeah! My Sister & her family live in Talmadge, Ohio. She & her Husband have Awesome gardens.
i try to comment as much as i can but am always checking in to see what others are up to..even when i've got nothing to say. i can't make comments on some blogs i follow but i read anyway and i still can't reply on my own Blog comments. But i'm always thrilled when the computer doesn't Fritz out when i push the ON button!)
Thanks for re-introducing yourself.. we appreciate your willingness to share what you know.