No. 1:  I think the title of this blog would work well as the title of a Hank the Cowdog book.  Perhaps I could do some ghostwriting for author John R. Erickson?  I would be a real hero in my kids’ eyes.

No. 2:  I took this photo last week of the moon reflecting on the Yellowstone River.

No. 3:  The reason I’m writing.  I keep running into folks who ask me if I’m still blogging.  The answer is yes, sporadically, whenever I have a few spare minutes, which averages out to never… I mean, about every 10 days or so.  In my over-idealistic imaginings I have this big dream of posting a blog every single day, but the reality is that 4 kids, homeschooling, and ranch life keep me hopping — so my writing is on the back burner right now.

Subsequently, I don’t promote my blog much these days.  I do keep writing, building up my portfolio I guess you could say, but I don’t share and promote as much as I once did.  Again, for a couple reasons:  1) I just don’t have time to maintain social media relationships, and 2) I have come to an almost certain conclusion that Facebook is a better place without me in it.  I weathered what to me amounted to social media disaster a couple years ago because of my blogging.  I eventually (mostly) emerged, but with a few more gray hairs and a strong hunch that, based on my public approval rating, my writing had become too aggressive and probably even inappropriate.  In the aftermath I continue writing… because writing is what I do… but I try to be much more careful with what I say.  (In case you’re wondering, all that old controversial content is still on my blog, because I figure it’s part of my honest/crazy/ugly/hopeful story.)

In conclusion, I Am Here.  My blog is still an open shop if anyone cares to come in.

Back to the reason I’m writing today:  After listening to my long explanation of the life status of my blog, people I meet on the street and at church and other places have been saying this:  “Well, I used to subscribe, but I haven’t received anything from you for months.”  (In case you don’t know, when you “subscribe” to a blog, you should receive an email notification each time a new blog is posted.)

This quandary sends me into a world of technology I don’t savvy.  Yes, as administrator of my blog, I’m sure I do have access to the list of email addresses that have subscribed to my blog in the last four years.  Do I readily know how to access that list?  No.  Do I have the energy to figure out how to access it?  No.  But I can promise that I’ve never deleted subscribers or altered the subscriber list in any way.

But here’s what I bet happened:  A few months ago I changed my old blog name — prairiemom.me — to montanamama.me.  (To read why I like the new name better, click on this post:  montanamama.me.)  The tech guru from India I chatted with online about the name change (let’s call him Kumar) assured me that nothing would be lost in merging the two addresses:  if you type in prairiemom.me, your browser should automatically redirect to montanamama.me.  What’s more, said Kumar, all my old posts would transfer to the new name no problem.  And, I double-checked and Kumar confirmed, the subscriptions would all transfer as well.

Still.  I am wondering if Kumar and I lost a little in translation, because it’s starting to seem like some subscriptions were indeed lost.  If yours was lost, I apologize on behalf of Kumar, myself, and technology that causes problems that people never could’ve dreamed of prior to the 21st Century.

Finally.  If for some reason your subscription to my blog has been lost, Hank the Cowdog says go ahead and subscribe again.  I promise you are welcome here.

© Tami Blake