Micro-blogging

 The possibilities are endless for telling stories these days. I got off Facebook because it did not match my needs and I was mad about the politics during the last administration.  I have been an Instragram straggler for many years, though, watching my fellow farmers get their carrots in the ground, looking at pictures of other people's small children in the fields, and seeing what others think is interesting about their lives.  I only posted three myself in the last six years because it seemed daunting to try to take a photo worthy of Instagram. People work so hard at being artsy. 

This blog has gone the way of other storytelling efforts. I find I can't think of the right angle or topic that might be interesting to an audience I can't identify. I used to send letters directly to a group of readers: that was my favorite because I could visualize all of the people. But after a few years of that, I found myself boxed in to a certain expectation (of my own) that I couldn't meet. I ran out of thoughts for that group.

In the last couple of weeks, I have embarked on a lightweight and low effort form of storytelling. Since the first day of August, I have posted a picture on Instagram with a long caption every day.  It might not be interesting to most people but it doesn't matter  because there will be a new one tomorrow. The project was to push against the August doldrums that weigh on almost every vegetable grower I know.  August is a perennial drag. It goes on and on, it is hot, there are too many jobs that look just the same as yesterday's job, and it is hard to feel like we are moving forward. All the other months have a sort of forward motion to them, as we are preparing for the next thing. In August we are just picking and moving vegetables. So I have been looking for the stories that show the many facets of this month. I plan to stop on August 31 and change to another schedule or form of communication, but this micro-blogging thing is perfect for this time of year.  

If you want to see August through the eyes of a hot and sweaty farmer who does not want to be dragged down into the vortex of despair, you can poke around on Instagram. I was not clever with my name. I just used my own, with a dot in the middle.