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Hello to my friends and neighbors and future friends!
My name is Sharon, I’m glad to have you visiting my blog: Small Town Girl Blogger.
I’ve been wanting to start a blog ever since we moved to Omaha from the small town of Waterloo we had things we wanted to do to the house. We had quite a lengthy to do list. More about that later.
Background Information
It was quite a big decision to sell our home we had worked so hard to build. (I’ll blog about that later.) When we moved to Waterloo our little ”Punkin “was only two years old My husband and I had lived there for forty five years. It was a lot to move. Waterloo was where I had lived since I was born and my dad had lived there all his life except when he was in the Army. His parents lived here and my grandma’s parents had once lived their whole lives here. That’s as far as I’m going to take it for now.
My dad met my mom in Indiana while serving in the Army. She worked in a small cafe where she was a waitress. To make a long story short, after the war my mom and dad married It was on the long train ride to Waterloo, Nebraska that my mom, pregnant with me, first arrived in Waterloo.
Why I Started My Blog
I started this blog because I thought some of my life experiences could help others. In my blog, I thought I would share my love of gardening, art, cooking, living in a small town, how I became an entreprerneur in several fields so that I could adapt to disabilities I have faced. I’m going to tell you about places to visit that accommodate people with walkers or wheel chairs.
Blogs I enjoyed and why
I followed an older lady who was gardening when I was gardening. She was in a gardening zone ahead of my zone, 5B which is in Eastern Nebraska. Whatever she was doing with her garden; I would soon be doing the same thing. She had two dogs and we had two dogs. She was very frugal, I followed her until she passed away. Annie’s Granny was no more, I had hoped her daughter would continue the blog but no one has.
My Favorite Lifestyle Blogs
Another site I liked was written by a single mom who wrote about budgeting. I learned a lot from “the budget mom”. She was encouraging because she was a single mom working on her budget.
Another Favorite Lifestyle Blogs
Another favorite is Mavis Butterfield, she is an artist that hooks rugs and wall hangings and creates patterns for people
I hope that my blog will motivate and inspire you. I have had bloggers motivate me. I have always liked lifestyle blogs. One of my favorite blogs; Mavis sells her rugs and wall hangings on Etsy. She is also an avid gardener in Maine. She’s another frugal energetic person. I found all these bloggers motivated me to be a better homemaker.
Before computers and bloggers came about I only saw glimpses of peoples lives in books and magazines and on tv.
My grandma, Mabel, always encouraged me to read about other people’s lives; whether they were male or female. She said I could learn from them and I did. My grandmother was an elementary school
teacher in Waterloo when she was a young woman before I was born. Back then all the education required for a teacher was a high school education. My grandma went to Creighton in Omaha for her high school education.
Starting My Blog
I actually started my blog in 2019. I tried to read all I could on blogging and after much research I decided to go with WordPress and BlueHost. Getting the basics set up was easy. But then came the difficult part.
Getting Set Up
My niece’s husband Jeremy helped me get setup. I had been watching videos on You-Tube and tried following along on my computer. Jeremy suggested getting a work space set up first. I had been watching videos on You-Tube in my living room, and tried to follow along on my lap top using our coffee table for a desk. I had pictured setting up in the basement. I had a desk set up next to my sewing machine in the basement near my art studio space. We had one bedroom we had made into our office space. My husband has an antique Birdseye Maple flip down desk in one corner along with a file cabinet. I have the corner by the window. I must admit I took over the majority of the room. I have my desk between two book cases full of my notebooks of recipes I have collected and notebooks on blogging information. In the other corner I have a book case of more recipe notebooks. It is the only way I can stay organized.The room has evolved as I needed more table space for spreading notebooks of blogging information since my desk has other essentials on it. Jeremy took one look at the office space and said it would work perfect. We already had office chairs and additional lighting. The printer was on the small table next to the bookcase as you walked in the door. Jeremy said he had a big screen monitor he wasn’t using and I could have it. He actually had a couple I could have. He said he would see what he had and would bring it next time he came over. I could see how I liked it.
Times have changed. Computers have changed all this. I wanted to share my knowledge as well as my experience and hopefully help others and inspire them as I was motivated by what people shared with me.
Meanwhile I practiced how to use the large monitor and go back and forth between the monitor and my Mac laptop. After many calls to Jeremy I started feeling more confident in what I was doing.
I had bought Superb Theme Bloggist Pro or Premium. I didn’t go with the free version that way I would have all the bells and whistles.
Jeremy did some trouble shooting for me when it came to installing the theme then I found out I was on my own when it came to WordPress.
Jeremy knew all about computers and could even build them but when it came to starting a blog I was on my own so I could work on my blog.
I ran into some other problems with my computer and I called Apple. I was trying to synch my computer with my iPhone and it had been working and it quit. I had been able to type in Pages or notes or Reminders and it synched with my computer programs. I could write on my phone programs and later pull it up on my computer later to work on my blog. It was quite handy.
In talking to Apple I found out my old Mac purchased in 2015, was running out of storage space.
I called Jeremy, my computer expert who told me it was a good thing I didn’t proceed with what Apple recommended without a back up. I once had a backup called IBook but when we moved in November 2019 the IBook was misplaced. I had been looking for it for three years and had forgotten what it looked like. What did the cords look like? Why didn’t I take a picture before we moved of the set up? I could have tagged the cords telling which device it went with.
We were moving after having been married and accumulated stuff for 52 years! Three years and we still have boxes unpacked in the basement. I started looking at my computer modems and other electronic devices and found one black hefty box that I wasn’t sure what it was. I showed Jeremy and sure enough; it turned out to be the long lost backup: IBook! Jeremy was able to hook it up after I finally found the cords that went with the IBook.
TIP: When you are moving Take pictures of set ups and tag your cords as to what they go to. We now have a plastic tub full of cords that are not identifiable by me anyway.
It took me awhile to locate the cords. Jeremy was able to hook everything up; I had forgotten how to use Time Tunnel but Jeremy got me going using it.
It took a couple of days for the back up system to download everything. Jeremy brought me a flash drive so we could do a double back up. Jeremy said it would be a lot faster and I would not have to worry about not having a back up.
If it’s Irreplaceable BACK IT UP!
I guess I should tell you why I worry, about loosing data on my computer. My dad, Ralph Wilson was known as Waterloo, Nebraska’s town historian and he had spent his whole life collecting the history of Waterloo. The villages history had been destroyed by fire, and several floods. Dad had been able to find a great deal of the villages lost information . He often wrote articles about the history for local newspapers.
When he died on January 7, 2013, I promised I would see that his book he was writing on Waterloo would get published and printed. I promised along with my niece, Hanna that we would finish his books. While dad was alive I had put his book on my computer. I had many pictures as well saved on my computer from dad’s collection of history.
A rough copy of the book was published. It was full of typos that my sister, Linda and Julie helped me proofread and corrected so the publisher could correct the errors in typing. The pictures I had scanned into my computer also came out bit mapped and needed rescanned. For those that don’t know what bit mapped is it’s a dot matrix of dots that make up images. The publisher needs the original maps which I had found right before we moved. His original hand drawn maps were in a notebook. Dad had printed “MAPS “on the spine. He had tried to make it stand out by going over the lines multiple times.
When we moved some of dad’s notebooks were at our house. Notebooks that were in dad’s two car garage, dubbed “Ralph’s Museum”, were moved to a Storage Locker, we rent, and some to our new basement in Omaha. We have looked for the notebook but have not found it. We will have lived here five years in November (2025)! Just before we moved from Waterloo, I found the notebook. The box was to be labeled, so we could find the special book, but we have not been able to locate it.The plan has been to search for the notebook on rainy days or cold snowy days. Or hot summer days. The problem is that daily life and holidays occur. Life Happens! We don’t get down to the basement to search. I keep putting this on our :TO Do List: Look for Dad’s MAPS notebook! You will see this repeated on my To Do List!
Apple helped me decide what computer I should order. It is one that will be good to blog on and has plenty of storage. They even had a no interest payment plan. We decided when we ordered it we would get it paid off as soon as possible. Which we did.
When I’m not writing on my blog here, and learning to blog I have a List of things I Love To Do! Check for my list in my Navigation Menu. I haven’t learned how to “Link” as yet. Watch for more of my blogging journey in the months ahead.
I’m glad to have you stop by my Small Town Girl blogger.com
I finally decided it was time to stop spinning my wheels trying to make my blog and I called BlueHost to teach me step by step what todo. We paid for a month of lessons and so far I don’t know what I would do with out them helping me. Learning how to set up a web site to blog has quite a learning curve!
I hope to have my site up and running soon!
Again, I’m so glad to have you here at Small Town Girl Blogger. Please browse around for inspiration and ideas. Subscribe to my Mailing List. Sharon Steere