Earlier this week, I sat down and reviewed our Website.
I should really do this more often. It’s too easy to just leave it once it’s up and running, especially since writing on the blog every other day makes it feel like our Web presence is continuously updated. While it still represents us fairly well, our site has fallen out of date, and needed improvement.
I thought about this while we were in Baranof Warm Springs for the New Year. I planned to get some family photos while Aly was home, after the trip. Unfortunately, time got away from us, and we didn’t manage to do it. Even now, after updating, the photo I posted of Michelle and me on the main page serves as a placeholder for a more recent photo we have yet to take.
This question creates the most difficulty for me in designing our Web presence. While Aly has grown up and moved away, she’s still very much a part of the family, of course, but also an important part of our story here. I’m not ready to identify ourselves as a couple without our daughter, even when the natural progression of life makes us so. I continue to wrestle with that question. I don’t expect a resolution anytime soon.
I’m not quite clear on the relationship between our Web pages and this blog. I see them as very integrated, but I suspect that we have viewers who see one but not the other. Most of the new information, of course, comes from the blog—that’s its purpose. The Website, then, provides illustration and reference for the blog.
The biggest changes can be seen on the Garden page. We added new photos there more than anywhere else, and edited the text to (hopefully) make more sense. We haven’t added anything about all the grow boxes we installed in the garden, or the newly-dubbed “solar garden” near the solar array.
I’m also implementing an experiment: I instituted “the silver option.” I now offer lower prices on my two books, Sacred Coffee: A “Homesteader’s” Paradigm and Shy Ghosts Dancing: Dark Tales from Southeast Alaska for those willing to pay with silver. In other words, you can pay only $1.50 for Sacred Coffee, if you pay with 1964 or older “junk silver” coins.
Talk about chump change! I decided to try this based on the essays that begin with Silver Hunting for a Less-Than-Ideal Future. I seriously doubt anyone will take me up on this, but I thought it was worth a try. Who knows until I do, right?
If you haven’t seen our Website yet, or haven’t visited it lately, I invite you to take a look at it in its newly updated form. I urge you to refer back to it often to augment reading the blog posts.
Mark,
This Blog has kept me connected with Alaska in more ways than just memories. I have learned from many of your posts. Your gift of sharing is a great thing. Thank you so much for your gift of that. I lived 6 summers in Denali and am planning on returning to live in the most amazing place i have ever been. We named our daughter after Mount McKinley. Its a place that we have in our hearts for sure and your blog helps it burn brighter in ours.
Friend from Utah,
Jon
Jon, thank you so much! We really, really appreciate your encouragement, and your interest in the blog!
Hmmm. Is your daughter named McKinley, or Denali? I know people who have used both to name daughters. Aly, our daughter, is named Sarah (for her mother’s grandmother) Alexandra, a feminization of the Alexander Archipelago, which makes up most of Southeast Alaska.
We thought of giving her the nickname Denali. But she is just McKinley. It fits her personality which is as big as that Mountain. Her middle name is Lou which is named after my Mother in Laws real last name.
I have never been to that area of Alaska much. I was offered a job in Glacier Bay a few years ago, but things happened at the last minute where i had to give it up. I am working my way back slowly but surely to Alaska.
Jon, too bad Glacier Bay didn’t work out. The area around Denali is truly awesome, but I think I’d trade it for Glacier Bay any day!