Labor Day of Labor and....

Labor Day. I've never celebrated it but always took it off when offered. Our industry (agriculture) is not known for taking Labor Day as a holiday. Animals still need to be fed, fields need to be plowed, biological cycles continue unabated. Since I'm the "boss" of an agri-business it was my decision to work today. The phone started ringing before 8:00 a.m. with customers asking, "are y'all open today?" It turned into a rather busy day.

Tomorrow the kitchen renovation begins. We just finished unloading cabinets and clearing things out because tomorrow the demolition team comes. Well, that might be a little overstated. We're not totally re-doing everything -- just counter tops, sink and fixtures and some appliances. We will keep the cabinets and the tile on the floor. We will be re-painting and putting in a new back splash but not moving any walls or anything like that. I guess that means we will be eating out for the next week or so. My wife will like that but I'm spoiled to her good cooking. I definitely prefer it.

We also had a new addition to the family today. A tri-colored Australian Shepherd pup. He is "The Duke." No, he won't be a working dog. He will be a family dog. I'm not sure how well he will get along with our chocolate lab. She definitely put the "dominant" female whup on him. It didn't seem to phase him though. He seems pretty sharp.

I did spend a little time working on my other blog, Common Sense Agriculture, Conservation and Energy, today. I "begged onto" a few blog rolls and added a few links. It's an interesting challenge to introduce a new blog. How do you "politely" introduce it to folks? How do you generate traffic? How do you find other bloggers who are likely to be interested in it?

The new blogger tool with links in the profile for common interests is helpful. I've used it to hunt for other sites that list agriculture as their profession on the site profile. I've not found many sites that are truly agricultural in nature though -- at least not blogs. There are many, many agriculture related websites, just not that many bloggers. Of course, I'd be happy if I was proven wrong.

The Common Sense blog is where I am posting articles that I have written that our local newspaper is publishing. But, since they are only using one article per week, I am trying to post other items of interest during the rest of the time. The articles that get published will have "published" in the labels. Since they are going on the Agriculture Page of the newspaper, they will all be agriculture related.

Well, so much for the rambling this evening. I need to do some research.

A Commercial

I continue to learn a little each day about blogging. Today I added "Blog Rolling" and "Technorati" to the sidebar. Both of these tools are designed to broaden the readership of my blog. However, the best tool that I know is for you to share with others that you think might be interested in what I have to say, a link to this blog. You can do that by e-mailing them the URL to this website.

One of the side benefits of blogging is the opportunity to make a little extra money. When you visit any of the ads that are on the sidebar, or click on the ad words listed at the top which will pop up a list of ads to click on, I make a few cents. In a way, I guess these are my sponsors. Visit them occasionally. You might find something you want!

My intention for this blog is not to become commercial about it. It is really all about sharing thoughts and disciplining myself to write something on a daily basis. However, it doesn't hurt to make a little money doing something I enjoy.