About This Blog

I've been doing this little blog here more than nine years now, but I've never made an effort to generate readership. Don't misunderstand, I've met some wonderful people through the blog, and everyone is welcome provided they follow basic rules of etiquette, but I'll never go out of my way to find a wider audience. I don't do advertising, or post a million comments looking for linkbacks. I don't submit photos of everything I cook to tastespotting, or any of the other sites of the sort. As a result, this isn't the sort of blog that gets a million comments saying, "Wow, looks yummy!!!"  I wouldn't be able to deal with that.

From time to time I'm contacted for product reviews, which I decline, and the occasional interview which to this point I have declined as well. I don't consider myself expert at much, and my opinions are typically only interesting within my own head. Recently, I was contacted by a journalist that wanted to do a piece on women that live as 50's housewives.

A couple years ago, I did a tongue-in-cheek post about my daily routine, and compared it to the sort of work women did in the 50's. That brought the Google hit, that brought the request for an interview. The thing is, (and I responded by pointing this out) I didn't chose to live that way as some sort of lifestyle pursuit, I just happened to live on a farm, and that's how it came together. The journalist wanted to interview me anyway, and I realised that it didn't matter what the circumstances were, it would be click bait, and an opportunity to be ripped apart in a comment thread for being some sort of regressive idiot woman doing the housework in heels and a dress (I don't) or subjected to being called a slag, fat, stupid, or any of the typical things women are called in public forums. We are living in a world where Mary Beard (of all people) gets death threats http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/23565145. If you can be as smart as Mary Beard, and have to take shit about your intellect (and have your looks insulted as some sort of bonus) no one is safe. I only read Thucydides because of the Western Civ. requirement, and I can't insult my trolls in ancient Greek. I declined being interviewed.

At least here, I have some editorial control. I put up with enough insults from my family over the years,  I'm not about to take it from strangers. I don't have any arguments to win, ideas to promote, and I would be horrified if anyone thought I was promoting my life as an ideal way of doing things. Yes, I homeschool. Do I think you should? How the hell would I know what works for you? I'm a vegetarian. Do I care if you eat meat? Obviously not if I'm cooking meat for my non-vegetarian husband. I would hope I've never posted anything here that makes someone feel inadequate, but just to be clear, I don't give a toss what you do, how you do it, or with whom-so long as you leave me the fuck alone. The minute you start lecturing me, you're fair game. I'm not an authority on anything (well, OK some things, but odds are you didn't come here to talk about stone tools) and you probably aren't either. I can't imagine a situation where I would approach a stranger, and offer my opinion on how they feed their baby, what they wear, or whether they smoke. Sorry, I just cannot imagine it, and yet...

No, this little blog isn't destined for a million hits a day. I get a fair number of people coming here looking for specific, obscure things, and I'm always pleased when I can reunite someone with a long sought after recipe. Sometimes people drop me an email to let me know how something worked, and those really do make me happy. I love hearing from readers, so long as you don't insult me, threaten me, tell me how to live my life, or expect me to know anything about the Peloponnesian wars. I promise to do the same in return.