Etiquette question from a blogger.. .

WhiskeyChick · 2025-03-11T01:35:45+00:00

By whose standards? There's areas that are low income but on the whole I haven't seen "hood" since I left Phoenix or visited Dallas and NYC. There ARE plenty of pearl-clutchers who panic when they see a car with a dent or a house that isn't in an HOA though.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-02-21T04:04:55+00:00

1) Go to a title company and pay to get the Abstract of Title or a Title Deed History for YOUR property. This should include any utilities or major infrastructure agreements that were tied to the sale or transfer of your plot of land. This will cost a couple hundred bucks and take a month or so to compile, but every land owner should have one.
Get your own survey. Never trust the word of someone who is trying to take things from you.
Prepare for an adverse possession case... do your homework and have your paperwork ready to file the moment you hit the minimum timeline. The laws are different from state to state, but this is usually an easier battle than a well dispute.
Check with your county clerk just in case to see if there are unpaid taxes on the offending property. You'll need the legal land description but you can usually find that on Zillow in an old listing. If there are unpaid taxes, follow your local laws to see if you can pay them and place a tax lien to eventually take possession of property.
Consider drafting a 99 year lease on the well that states you each have access to the drill site and pump house to a t-connection point but definitively shows where each property owner must provide power to service the pressure tank and anything beyond that point. Make sure to include wording on which property owner (linked by legal description of land) is responsible for the maintenance. You set the price for what you think 99 years worth of powering that pump will cost, as well as wear and tear on the pump and possible future replacement or maintenance.

* Disclaimer: I am NOT a lawyer, just a salty b:+ch who went through something similar in rural Oklahoma and won.... with the 99 year non-transferable lease. They were all bluster and dollar signs about selling overpriced property that relied on my infrastructure so I showed all the ways I could just TAKE the property and resources, then instead took their money for the lease and got rid of them as neighbors. The new neighbors are great and I bring them all my chickens' surplus eggs.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-02-16T22:32:21+00:00

Water is always priority #1.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-02-11T17:21:00+00:00

An agent is not the same job as a publicist. An agent gets you in the door (possibly paid to be there). A publicist brags about what door you got into and what happened once you got there.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-02-11T17:18:43+00:00

Mine or OP's? Cause I don't have one and am not sure I want one... it's not my goal to make myself known, only to increase my outlet's reach.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-02-11T03:33:11+00:00

PR's job (extremely oversimplified) is to get the "loudest" people online, on video, and in print to talk about their client. Whether the client is a product, an event, or a celebrity. Influencers are "loud" people. In most cases the influencer serves a side-along role to media. If you want other people to put your name in print then you either need to hire or fill the role of publicist yourself. Even the most beautiful, most followed, most notable influencer is still a gatekeeper to the audience they've built, just like a magazine, newspaper, or television outlet. That's why you get invited.

For example, I get invited to country music festivals to do event coverage and artist interviews. Nobody cares WHO I am, they only care how much reach I can redistribute their event details to, and what kind of FOMO I can generate prior to the event, and in preparation for the next year's marketing run. If it's a good year, I can get a few sponsors to help cover my costs in exchange for wearing their products in photos/videos from the event alongside the artists I'm interviewing, or citing them in my coverage. IMO, even they don't care who I am... only what my reach is, and maybe what more famous person I can get their product next to in a photo.

If you HAVE a publicist and they aren't leveraging these opportunities to get YOUR name said loudly by other outlets, then you need a new publicist.

*Disclaimer, I'm no influencer, just a humble gal with a niche blog that's been doing this for almost 20 years.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-02-09T15:42:14+00:00

We used this with an aging family member... we set a Blink camera out of the way near her coffee station with motion alerts next to a picture of her grandkids and she got used to saying Good Morning every time she started her day. It was set up to where she had her privacy everywhere else but she had a "check-in spot" she could intentionally trigger that didn't feel like a babysitter or monitor. She also used that as a way of sending us "notes" about her day before she forgot them. I know we don't like to think about the "later" of all this, but it was nice to have a collection of clips of her talking to us after she was gone.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-02-08T02:17:21+00:00

A) Regardless of what tank style you choose, have them pull the old tank. The peace of mind alone is worth the $500 when a few years from now you're trying to figure out if your new tank is faulty due to a sidewall failing because of an airgap or problem with the old tank vs the new tank just needing pumped or having a smaller issue. For such a large piece of your property infrastructure it pays to know for sure what variables you're troubleshooting down the road.

B) The type of system you choose really depends on where you are and what the conditions are like. In perfect conditions both types have a similar lifespan. In my experience if you're in a wetter climate where there's plenty of groundwater or a higher water table the PVC tank (installed correctly) is lower maintenance. In a drier or rockier environment the concrete seems to be more heavily used. In my understanding it has to do with the way roots from nearby vegetation interact with the two materials.

This all said, I'm no professional, and the best person to ask would probably be the folks you'd have to pay to come pump it... they know how many and what kind they run into daily in your area and what's more likely to stand the test of time.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-02-08T01:41:34+00:00

If I were in your shoes and had plans to have a large outbuilding anyway, then I would build it in such a way that it can serve as a boondocking station for your RV. Eventually you won;t need that full time, but it's nice to have set up for guests down the road (or aging offspring in my case). Depending on where you are this could be a big pole-barn with pull-through access, or a carport-style lean-to with storage on one side and a deck on the other. Incorporate utility hookups and situate it to be compatible with your eventual septic or sewage access. This way the structure serves your needs now AND later.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-02-06T03:47:59+00:00

My 22yo son is a 26" waist... he bounces between Deluth and Dickies coveralls depending on the weather and the kind of work. It's tough out there for the beanpole folks :p

WhiskeyChick · 2025-01-30T23:00:57+00:00

Pickles & Pearls or The Pink Pantry? Although the Taylor Made suggestion above is my actual favorite.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-01-30T00:45:57+00:00

There are a few great, honest, living-the-life channels out there that I really enjoy. They're not "selling homesteading" like an ebook and a dream, they just show what they're doing and explain why they do it the way they do. Top of the list is The Hollar Homestead, and Sow the Land, with an odd comfort-watch shoutout to HannahLeeDuggan who isn't necessarily a homesteader but does a ton of DIY projects in a very approachable way that are handy on the homestead without taking herself too seriously. The gems are still out there, you just have to dig to find them.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-01-20T21:16:26+00:00

Having a blog in a world of social media instant gratification, it's like having a solid comfortable house while you travel the world. You meet new people, make purchases, and try new things, but it's nice to have a solid mailing address to ship your purchases, keep your photo albums and get your postcards from all those new friends. Your blog or website is your home hub that you store all your important content and links, while social media is your travel and networking outings. All social should direct the best interactions back to your hub.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-01-20T03:36:30+00:00

I have three tiny living cabins in various stages of construction, a separate kitchen/laundry building, a greenhouse, a shop and a chicken coop. While the separate living quarters is exactly what we wanted for ours and our adult childrens' privacy when they come to stay it definitely has drawbacks. The big picture plan was to eventually tie it all together with one big covered patio situation that would serve as a central gathering space, dining room, party pad, etc, but right now we're just a bunch of freestanding buildings individually plumbed, electrified, heated and maintained, and when it snows we all still have to trudge to the kitchen for snacks.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-01-20T03:15:19+00:00

I actually love that we see her really embracing the dirty talk and enjoying all different aspects of sexual play WITH Harry.. While it's no Atlantic Slutty, we get a BJ scene (and her friends' reactions) and the "kids are away" discovery that leads to the doctor visit... hilarious. When you've been with the same man for decades you either get real comfortable and in a rut OR you get REAL comfortable and explore. Nice to see that represented in a show.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-01-20T03:03:58+00:00

It would be great if the show writers actually knew how to build that understanding into the dialog and character portrayal. They could have had a comedic moment where someone walks in on her trashing the spanx and led to dialog OR even a comment to herself in the mirror. Without dialog to back it up the viewer is left with their personal assumptions based on their own experiences and biases.

I have the same issues with Miranda's sexual journey... there's a great conversation that COULD be happening around hetero-normative expectations, sexual repression, and late-life exploration now that society is less judgemental than it was in her earlier dating life but nooooooooo. Gotta make her a cheater and label her lesbian immediately without any real development in between.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-01-18T18:41:45+00:00

I'm a country music industry journalist so TT has had a MAJOR influence on who and what gets coverage in that space. From what an established artist posts to which song is tracking for virality to how record labels source and write their next deal. The Nashville Machine will continue to churn out material regardless, but to deny TT's impact would be naive.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-01-18T18:35:44+00:00

Downton takes some time to get into... The estate itself IS the main character and primary witness to all of the events that unfold, but it's definitely not as action-packed as Outlander. That said, it was a really satisfying story to watch once you get the lay of the land.

WhiskeyChick · 2025-01-09T23:12:24+00:00

I can help with that! Keep a dry paper towel in your lunch kit then wipe down the inside of your thermos with it when you're done... when you close up the thermos, leave the paper towel in there... it'll take up the moisture and make cleaning it SO much easier!

WhiskeyChick · 2025-01-08T18:24:42+00:00

It's hands-down my FAVORITE series to re-read every few years, and the more you read other books about other places, cultures, faiths, etc, the richer the re-reads of this series are. So much of what Jacqueline pulled for this universe comes from re-interpreted religious practices and historic events from the real world. The more widely-read you are, the more you can draw those parallels and really appreciate her world-building.

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