Check It Out! Our Small Farm Website Has a New Look!

Welcome to the “new look” for our website on rural life and living on a small farm.

In The Beginning There Was HTML

This is just the latest change of many since this small farm site started in 2002.  At first, RuralRamblings.com was a static website, using HTML pages and the help of FrontPage software.

Over the next 5 years, there were several cosmetic changes and pages added and deleted, with new pages every spring of the latest batch of lambs and kids, and whatever else was happening on the farm.

The Middle Years On Blogger

Eventually I heard about blogging, and decided to give that a try for our stories of the adventures and misadventures on our hobby farm in the southeastern United States.

I switched to using BlogSpot (now Blogger) on July 4, 2007.  At first, I had a blog directly on their server.  However, someone had beat me to the name Rural Ramblings, so I had to change the title a bit and called it “Rural Ramblings at Kings Country”.

About a year later, as my technical skills improved, I decided to switch from their server to using my own domain and their software.  That gave me more control over what I could do with the site and was a good step up.

The Maturing Website Meets WordPress

But keeping up with the best publishing practices means adapting to ever-changing processes, and eventually I decided to give the WordPress platform a try.  I switched over in February 2009, and have stuck with that ever since.

That’s not to say there haven’t been changes!  There were and are continual upgrades to the WordPress platform, the plugins I used with it, and the pro theme I used.

Those upgrades bought us to the latest major overhaul of our small farm website.  Although I’d been considering updating the site for some time, the final shove was when my long-time, much-loved Thesis theme underwent a total make-over.

I could have lived with having to install it as an entirely new theme, and having to move all the customizations from the old version to the new one, but the latest version is cumbersome, complicated and cuss-worthy.

In other words, I hate it.

I won’t go into the nitty-gritty of why I don’t like it here, as most people reading posts on this blog aren’t interested in the technical details.  Suffice it to say I found it such a disappointment, that after happily using it for over 3 years, I went looking for a new pro theme.

A New Beginning For RuralRamblings.com

And what better theme for a new beginning than… Genesis.  Defined as

the origin or coming into being of something

That seems appropriate for the rebirth of a long-standing website.

As with most pro themes, there is a learning curve.  I’m not a newbie by any means, but I will confess I gripe and grumble when having to learn new software.  (I realize most people might not think of a theme as software, but it’s full of code, so to me, it qualifies!)

Thankfully, I have a couple of very good friends who took pity on me when I was at the “tearing my hair out stage.”  (Hi Susan!  Hi Geoff!)  Considering they have a great business on website design, Website Designs Australia, this was just their thing!

I asked for advice on how to fix some issues, gave Susan the keys to the backend so she could see what I was talking about, and after a day of emails flying back and forth, some issues fixed, but many still unresolved… in the wee hours I finally said, “That’s it! I’m going to bed and will try again tomorrow.”  (Which of course by then would actually be later that same day… )

Magic Happens at Rural Ramblings!

Well, the thing about my Genesis Guru is she lives in Australia.  So while I was sleeping, she was still going strong.  When I woke the next morning and checked the website, it had magically reformed itself, and all the parts were working!  Stellar!

It’s mighty nice to have problems fixed while you dream!  And what a great friend to spend so much of her time fixing my mess!

And That’s The Story on Our New Site!

So there you have it, from 2002 until the present, the story on the evolution of our small farm site.  It’s been a twisty-turny kind of journey, and I’m sure there will be more changes in the future.

But not for some time!

For now, I hope you enjoy our new look, and a renewed commitment to telling stories about rural life, our family, farm animals, and the joys and tribulations of life on a small farm.