During the winter lull when most self respecting arthropods are either hiding or are the "usual suspects" lurking around our cabin, I start thinking about the last year and the lessons learned. The tedious details of the otherwise pleasure of writing a blog include typos, errors and dead links.
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| In play mode with luna moth |
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| Weed Warrior |
First typos and editing content is cleaned up before publishing by my lovely and talented editor who works long hours for no money and little credit. She does this in breaks from her job as "Bull Mills weed warrior," virtually eliminating all invasive plant species that she finds here. There Barb, this is your pay for the year.
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| Jay Barber at work |
We are grateful for the many friends and experts who help identify finds and provide resources. They graciously review some of the blogs, correcting my errors before I make a bigger fool of myself than usual. These include Chris Barnhart, Linda Ellis, Brian Edmond, Mark Bower, Charley Burwick, and a host of others, some of whom have asked to remain anonymous to preserve their reputations. I also want to acknowledge Jay Barber, all the MDC team, and Patrick Beyers who support Master Naturalists and make this possible. All of you are invited to Bull Mills at any time for proper if inadequate thanks.
That leaves the "dead links." It is amazing how many valuable resources from professional and academic sites suddenly disappear from our "Resources" site in the upper right column of each blog. Keeping track of them is a pain unless you have a Barb Clark. She dropped out of the clear blue sky a few years ago, sending me a list of my dead links. Since then, she routinely patrols the site, sending me dead links and suggestions. You can't get that kind of service for money (at least from this cheap blog).
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| Barb Clark |
While on the subject of Barb Clark and resources, check out her
Internet Plant Sites, an extensive listing of resources on the web which had 10,014 hits the other day.
Barb Clark wrote back, "Hope you aren't retiring the blog." No, not unless the FCC ever reads it and pulls the plug.