Tag I'm it, seven links......

I was tagged it back in November by NZ Eco Chick, but I decided to take some time to think about this post.  Its an opportunity to summarise my own blog in seven links and then pass it on to five other people, its like a chain letter for blogs, and its a bit of fun.  I recently did a Leibster blog award post, so I didn't want to repeat recommend any of those blogs, or any of the blogs that NZ Eco Chick nominated, I really wanted to tell you about some different blogs that I like, that you might not have found yet.  And that's before I even started to think about which of my posts to include!

Most Beautiful Post
This is hard because my posts aren't really about beauty, I'm trying to be a little more practical than that, and besides, I don't have a flash camera, so none of the photos are great!  However, I did write a post about our gum trees, which I find absolutely beautiful, I love looking at the gum trees where-ever we go in Australia.  So the gum tree post is the obvious one for my most beautiful post.

Most Controversial Post
Even though I have written on some controversial topics, such as raw milk and organics, I find that most people who read this blog already agree with me.  However, one post that did seem to strike a nerve was the one where I mentioned that climate change was linked to population growth.  I had several comments about that one.  I had no idea it was such a novel concept, later I posted about Mother (the film), which presents a similar idea, and later again about another very good website which really explains the link between exponential population growth, stupid economic policies and environmental problems, I'm hoping that helped to persuade people that I'm not on my own here, but I didn't get heaps of comments.  I did start to wonder if I should keep my opinions to myself and just write about practical matters, but I can't help telling you what I think!  Sorry!

Most Helpful Post
I think some of the information about yoghurt has been helpful, I've had a few comments about it, so I'm glad I wrote them.  Personally I think the hide tanning post will be the most helpful on an ongoing basis, as I couldn't find anything like this when we were planning to tan the first time and we had to make it up as we went along.  Other posts with helpful intent were killing chickens and home butchering of our steers.

Post that was surprisingly successful
My most popular post is the one about Gaslands (the film), its very short (I didn't want to spoil the story), and I think someone must have linked to it, as it has a ridiculous number of page views, but there's hardly any comments, I don't know why everyone is looking at it, but I hope they watch the film as a result!  The other popular ones have been about our mobile chicken pens and the dog box we made for the ute.  Again, few comments, so I hope people have found what they needed to know, of course I'm happy to help with dimensions/plans/instructions if someone asks.

Post that didn't get the attention it deserved 
One post from early on, that I thought was pretty good, but didn't get any comments, is "what to do with a bull calf" and its all about our decision about whether to nut our little bull Rocket.  I'm glad we did because he's grown some decent horns and I wouldn't like to see him as an angry bull!

baby Rocket

big horny Rocket!

Post that I'm most proud of
Once again, its hard to choose one and I realise that I have more than seven links now!  I think I'm most proud of the raw milk post because it was something I knew nothing about when we started milking our cow and I made an effort to research the topic and formulate my own conspiracy theory :)  It really opened my eyes to everything that's wrong with our food production "industry" and food safety regulations, and I hope that it made a difference to my readers as well.

Five blogs that I want to tell you about because I think they're great, even though I don't know if they'll want to join in on this, but it doesn't matter, I'll still think they're great!

The Deliberate Agrarian - The tagline of this blog is "One Man's Ruminations About Faith, Family, and Livin' The Good Life", but really its so much more than that!  Further down it says "a rich resource of contra-industrial thought, down-to-earth inspiration & useful how-to information".  This includes everything from butchering chickens, making cider, harvesting and cooking all manner of produce (even maple syrup) and building all sorts of clever machines to make an agrarian life easier.  The author now publishes a long monthly post to cover a range of topics, to which I look forward to reading each month.  As well as the fascinating content, the style of writing is a pleasure to read.  As the blog is from the US, not every detail is useful to me, but I enjoy reading about how things are done in another country.

Throwback at Trapper Creek - This US blog has the tagline "an ongoing chronicle of meeting the expectations of the land". In the "about" section the author lists her interests as: living the simple life, Biodynamics, rotational grazing, permaculture, vegetable gardening, seed saving, homeopathy, hydraulic rams, sustainable logging, self sufficiency, small scale organic farming, blacksmithing, hand quilting, hand embroidery, unschooling, and homesteading". Can you see why I love it? Everything from natural cattle care, making butter, a fabulous MASSIVE garden, and every post has gorgeous photos (including two Australian Shepard dogs, so CUTE!).

A Growing Tradition - Another US blog, this guy has only had  his suburban vege garden for two years, and it makes me green :) with envy to see what he is producing, organically, and constantly from that little plot, massive plump brightly coloured veges in huge quantities.  Again, the photos are amazing and make me want to try even harder in my own garden.  He has just announced that they are moving and will be starting a new garden, which will be fascinating to follow.  He also deals with some unique pests (from my perspective anyway) in the form of groundhogs and racoons, so cute (and yet so destructive to the garden, but still cute). 

Welcome to Cross Roads - While the first three blogs are from the US, these last two are from Australia.  This one says: "Here you can read about my challenges in the quest to change from consumer to conserver, about the drive to simplify life in as many ways possible. My journey is about becoming less reliant upon any one system and more resilient in every way possible. Aspiring not to have more but to be more".  Once again, you can see why I'm interested!  This blog is both inspirational, with lots of posts about population, resource use and consumerism, as well as being practical, with info about gardens, chickens and lots of cool alternative ideas (like soapwort, so excited about trying that!).

Eat at Dixiebelle's - Dixiebelle claims to be "Kid Wrangler, Wife Extraordinaire, Wannabe Urban Homesteader, Novice Permaculturalist, Earth & Communities Supporter, Laptop Activist, Survironmentalist, Rambling Blogger... join me in my journey, and try not to trip on the blah, blah, blah...", I'm amazed by what she has achieved on a small urban block in a short time period.  I also like the honest and genuine posts, in which Dixiebelle shares both success and failure, so that we may all learn from it, makes me feel better to see I'm not the only one struggling some days!  She's also got lots of great resources and information about permaculture and eating and growing local food.  

I hope you will take this opportunity to have a second look at some of my posts (and leave some comments, I love comments! ), and check out the blogs that I've tagged above.  I wonder who will take up the challenge and pass it on....Thanks NZ Eco Chick!