Taking Stock

I mentioned last week that The Mister and I were celebrating our anniversary. Over the years, people have asked me why we got married in September, since that isn't a typical "wedding" month. The answer is quite simple and has everything to do with being a farmer. In Arizona, September is what they call "lay by" month. The cotton, which was our primary crop at the time, was grown and the bolls were opening up. We would let the plants dry up and then spray them with a form of salt water to completely dry up the green leaves making it easier for the machine to pick the cotton. So there is a window of time between watering, weeding and nurturing the cotton, and harvesting the cotton. That's when farmers take vacation, if they're the vacationing type.

Embracing the farmer's lifestyle, I found myself using Septembers to take stock of life; school had started, but the frenzied pace of extracurricular activities hadn't yet begun, and it was before the holidays with all that those months entailed. Our pace is different now; there is no "lay by" in building communities (unless you count the time from Thanksgiving through New Year when it's impossible to get decisions, contracts, etc.), and with only our youngest still in the nest, the school activities don't take up as much energy. But I still find myself regarding September as a time frame for reflection and gathering energy for the upcoming months. So I thought I might reflect for a moment on the evolution of The Front Porch, especially as some new readers have pulled up a rocker.

First, a basic overview of the blog itself, with some brief pointers for navigating (longtime readers can skip this part). For a definition of what a blog is, link back to some posts I did early on (just click your mouse on the highlighted words to link; after you've finished reading, click on the "back" button or arrow) about blogs, Blog Reading 101 and More on Blog Reading. I mentioned last week that if you ever wish to see a picture enlarged, just put the cursor on the picture and click. I understand that some of the links to newspaper articles from older entries no longer work as the newspapers archive their articles. I'm sure there's probably a way to keep those links fresh, but I am not yet technical enough to do it. However, I do always try to quote the pertinent paragraphs in the post itself, so hopefully the context will still be there.

As to The Front Porch specifically, we started this blog on January 18 of this year, and have settled into a comfortable routine. We try to post every weekday, and leave the weekends for other endeavors. The purpose of the blog is to introduce ourselves to our new neighbors in Morrison Ranch, and to let the residents get to know the Morrison family, including some of our history - which has a tremendous impact on how we've designed the community. I am an unashamed cheerleader for the Morrison family (having married into the family, that feels more like admiration than hubris to me) and Morrison Ranch, as well as Gilbert. So the topics for most of my posts have to do with those three areas.

As to who the "we" is on the Front Porch, there are currently 3 of us who post, though you will notice that I hog most of the space (the other 2 do more actual WORK than chatting). There are six of us that work in our office, and I did a profile on each one back in April. You can find those profiles here: Meet The Mister, Meet Bias For Action (the other two blog posters), Meet The Water Expert, Meet The First Cousin, Meet The Sixth Man, and Meet The Missus. I also did a profile on each of our existing communities in June; I won't link to them now, but you can find them by clicking on the June archives button on the right side of the blog page.

One more thing. Sitting on someone's front porch and chatting is generally a two way conversation, even if the host dominates most of the talk time. The event that actually pushed me over the hump of indecision about blogging was a comment that my sister - who lives in Higley Groves West - made one day about a rumor circulating in her neighborhood. Her neighbors were feeling some distress that a drugstore was going in on the southwest corner of Higley and Elliot. The only problem? It wasn't (and still isn't) true. I thought, "you know, if people would just ask me, I'd tell them; it isn't a big secret or anything. We aren't trying to 'slip something by' the residents; heck, WE are residents!" Back in the day when Gilbert was small and everyone knew everyone, you could flag down an oncoming car you recognized, roll down your windows, sit in the middle of the street, and just ask your neighbor about the current rumor. We're too large for that now, and the horns honking would be too loud, but communication is still available in this new-fangled era, and very, very necessary. So I welcome emails with questions, comments, suggestions, rumors, typographical corrections... I expect the volume of emails and of readers will continue to increase as new projects come online; in the wheelbarrow full of papers that new homeowners receive from the builders there is a link to the blog. And of course, half of the readers are family and friends, so that segment of readers will likely increase as well.

Back to my original point of taking stock of the blog, I think I would summarize it like this:
I have really enjoyed posting, especially when there's something valuable to say; it's been difficult at times, especially when nothing valuable to say comes to mind, or when the computer gives me fits; I have LOVED hearing some stories of how folks ended up in Morrison Ranch; and so I think I'll keep doing it for a while longer and hope that others are finding some benefits as well.