If we're going to be opening the doors to several new people then I have a suggestion. I really don't feel comfortable repeatedly reintroducing myself to strangers (shy, doncha know), so what if we have a new subject called Bios or somesuch so new folks can refer to it to acquaint themselves with our basic selves on their own? Any thoughts?

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2003

Answers

sure

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2003

I like talking about myself but it does sound like a good idea. Bios doesn't sound like too good a subject though...sounds like a virus you can catch or something.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2003

Well, I'm new BUT .... ;-) I think this is a great idea.

I know there's a forum I've been involved with for years now, and we always dread it whenever someone new comes aboard and wants to know about everyone. A feeling of dread and *oh no, not this again* comes over everyone.

So, yea. Great idea.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2003

Biographies are fine with me. Do you want it to be a category for multiple threads (for instance, we have Over the Fence, where all the OTF threads go), or do you want it to be an ongoing thread? If an ongoing thread, we could all post whatever bio we currently favor or go out and search out an old one to copy and paste in. Then new members can post to it, and we can add additional "bio" information if there's anything relevant to mention. Now that I've typed this all out, it occurs to me that I COULD go search to see if there is an archived thread that could be revised . . .

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2003

Hey Joy, theres an introduce yourself category in the archives if that helps.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2003

I borrowed this from the "introduce yourself" category and just updated it.

Hi Group: I've been a regular at CS forum for over three yrs now and used to post at BWH a couple years ago. I found the CS forum more congenial so I stuck with them. Back then it was a fairly small group of consistantly helpful and respectful folks. As the group grew so did the variety of topics and along with that entered discussions about religion and politics, all of which was fine untill several discussions became shouting matches and not much good came of it. I'm happy this new board was started by Jim as a safe haven for those of us who aren't necessarily ultra-conservative or rabidly religious. Tho I enjoy discussing either of those topics as much as anyone I guess I'd consider myself a slightly left leaning moderate politically.

Religious wise, I guess I'd call myself a closet Christian because I'm wary of the pigeonholing folks tend to do when you apply some kinda label to yourself. I see truth and beauty in many of the worlds religions and reserve the right to explore as the spirit takes me. Actually, its one of a few of my abiding passions--- comparative religion with an emphasis on commonly held symbols and teachings.

My wife Chris and I moved to our current home about three years ago. We've got about 6 acres. About half the land had been a junk yard many years ago and about 1/4 of it had been a small rotten granite pit quary. We were able to buy it cheap because it looked like a moonscape when we got it. We've owned the land for 8-9 yrs and originally bought it as an investment without thinking we'd ever build here. But RE values really took off and the shack we'd been living in on a lake had increased in value enuf to justify selling it and build here.

We put up a used double wide on a basement and began in earnest to build a homestead, thinking this is where we'll retire. We've got about 3/4 acre in ponds(2) with fish that have wintered over for the last 6 yrs, a fruit orchard of about 22 trees, several raised beds for the garden in which we'll be growing cut flowers and vegies for market this year. For critters 2 cats, 5 chickens (manure and eggs) and a small flock of pigeons just because I like them.

The sale of the other house afforded us the ability to also put up a pole building to which I attached an 11 x 52 greenhouse and a 11 x 18 chicken coop and pigeon loft. We've been planting stuff in the house to move to the greenhouse in about two weeks for a seedling sale this spring. I've got enuf bench space in the greenhouse for about 3200 4" pots tho I doubt we'll fill them this season. I'm hoping to get into high gear this year with income generating stuff. I've literally been building soil for the last three years with 5-8 truck loads of leaves from the city each year for composting since we don't have real soil otherwise---just sand ot granite.

I drive a delivery van for a courier service and Chris works for a warehouse company.

BTW, we live in central WI

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2003

Hey Guys, I went back and read our Bio's from when we first started. When was that? 2000? Go read your old Bio! Then tell me that you haven't changed! I was going to copy and paste mine for my bio now, but read it and saw that we were not the same people that we were then.

Love TRen

"The gloom of the world, is but a shawdow. Behind it , yet within our reach, is joy. Take Joy."

Tia Giovannia

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2003

Well, here's one of the old threads, if anyone wants to read it:

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=004x6f

I'll do a shorter updated version . . .

I'm the moderator here, by default, since no one else wanted to do it. Mostly that means I fix any boo-boos! :-)

I'm 50, divorced for many years with no SO on the horizon (as far as I can tell!). Live in south central Wisconsin with a dog, 2 cats, and a passel of pet birds. I had a mouse, but she died last week. Obviously, I am a sucker for animals!

I also have a horse, but she is up north with my sister's herd. Sister is Julie, and she posts here too. She can write her own bio! I will say she's busy right now with a number of things and might not check in for awhile. She lives in our hometown, where we grew up, northern Wisconsin.

I live in a condo, but the complex has garden plots, and I have rented one for the past couple of years. The first year was a mixed bag of successes and failure, but last year went pretty well. So I guess I'll be having one again. Yummy tomatoes! I also plant in boxes on my deck, but the sunny areas are kind of limited so I can't plant as much as I would like.

And that will have to do for now, because I have to go do something else. :-)

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2003

Is there any way to update that U.S. map that Cindy did on our locations? That was pretty cool - made you realize how close / far apart we are from one another and still are able to chat like nothing.

-- Anonymous, April 09, 2003

Cindy was hosting that page on her server. The last time I checked it wasn't there anymore so I think she may have taken it down after she left the group. I agree that it was a cool idea, I just don't have the techie smarts to recreate it.

-- Anonymous, April 09, 2003

Here's my posting from 2 years ago. We still have an eagle eating our ducks (got a drake yesterday). I'm soon to be 51. We have 6 cats now. We no longer have the goats. I've been working off-farm for two additional years; therefore, things are even more behind than then! Mr. S. just had open-heart surgery. He's also in a 7-quarter program to become a Radiology Technologist, after quitting *his* old job. He's back in school and doing very well. Other than that, not much has changed. So here 'tis:

" Hmm. Wow! Your lives all sound so interesting!! I’m glad to get to know you. I am soon to be 49 and my husband is 11 days older than I. We have been married 19 years; no kids. We live in Snohomish County in Western Washington State, east of where Laura does. We have a modest 2-bedroom house and various outbuildings on 5 acres. We have a bunch of sheep (duh.) and a couple of goats, plus chickens, ducks (eagle bait now) cats (5) and geese. This is all old news.

I am a Christian, capital “C”, and I like it! I go to organized church and participate as an officer, etc. My denomination is unabashedly liberal, theologically speaking. We are quite inclusive and try to remember that Christ hung out with a bunch of marginalized weirdoes. So I try to remember to love everybody (some people seem harder for me to love than others!!!) I also believe that God speaks in a bunch of different languages, all the way from blades of green grass waving in the spring, to other languages and cultures in countries far away.

I don’t know what I am anymore, politically speaking. I used to be a very liberal feminist and civil rights supporter. I think getting older has mellowed me quite a bit, and events over the past several years have made me less inclined to believe that liberals have all the answers to things. Up until fairly recently, I have been thinking of myself as pretty middle-of-the-road. However, our new president is sending me fleeing right back to the left!

Job-wise, I am currently working in town as a medical transcriptionist. I also do some administrative stuff, which I would rather not have to do, but eventually I hope to get a clean-cut gig just doing transcription, hopefully from home. I “retired” a couple of years ago from working in retailing (apparel buyer, inventory manager, planner, systems analyst, etc.) which made for an interesting schizophrenic lifestyle while trying to live a simple country life! I hated commuting and corporate politics (still do.) So I up and quit a couple of years ago! However, I realized that my husband could be freed from his job sooner if I could only work a few more years (I think 3 at the most!! 2 even sounds like too long!!) Thus I went back to school for 45 more credits and graduated this past January. Been working since mid-February, so I’m still a newbie at all this medical stuff. Interesting, though! I really like the transcription part!

I got side-tracked for the past year with the school/new job thing so everything seems out of control and behind around here. I have a garden going again but with all the chores and maintenance (seems like every fence needs mending (goats!), every outbuilding needs painting, and every other project needs finishing!) I’m not sure how much I’ll be doing this year except trying to catch up. Ah well. That’s life!!

-- sheepish (the_original_sheepish@hotmail.com), April 06, 2001."

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2003

Ummm...well enough about me! (gag. cough...)

Isn't anyone else going to post anything about themselves? I can read the archives of course, but it would be interesting to get *updates* from some of you.

Reading the archives is interesting! So many folks that I really miss...what happened to them?

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2003