7 links blog game

I don't often participate in these blog memes, but this one was a bit different, and an interesting way to review my blog over time.  Tayet Silverspoon over at "In a Goat's Shoes" nominated my blog for this little exercise - thank you Tayet!  Here's the objective:


Post the links to: 

• My most beautiful post
• My most popular post.
• My most controversial post.
• My most helpful post.
• A post whose success surprised me.
• A post I feel didn't get the attention it deserved.
• The post I am most proud of.

Goodness me!  This was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be at first.  I learned something new doing this exercise - I learned about my blog "Stats" tab.  I didn't know about all that information hidden in there, but Tayet told me how to find it, and it was really quite interesting.  


My Most Beautiful Post
Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so they say.  How am I to decide which is my most beautiful post, when we all have different opinions on what constitutes beauty?  None the less, I'm going to say it is this post, because it was all about the beauty surrounding me in my new home, despite the chaos that also surrounded me.  It's important to see the beauty through the veil of chaos.  


My Most Popular Post
I have posted 295 blog posts.  Wow.  That seems like quite a lot, although many people have thousands of posts...but I still had a moment of surprise when I realized how many I'd done.  Of all those, the post that is the most popular, based on number of views, is "Book Binding and Wire Wrapping."  I found this kind of strange because it's really not a post that is representative of the blog's character.  So much of the blog is about Lucky Nickel the goat, or my other critters, or even about spinning and fleece and yarn.  That book binding post was one I did after taking a class in how to do long stitch book binding, and also a class in wire wrapping.  They were during a break from law school and were just one-time events.  I haven't done any more book binding although I have done some more wire-wrapped jewelry.  Anyway, that post has the most views, at 1,827 views.  Wow!


My Most Controversial Post
Controversial?  Me?  I'm never controversial!  Am I?  Well, not intentionally.  I think, after much consideration, that my most controversial post might be this one:  An Unwelcome Guest.  That post was about the difficulties I was having with an opossum killing my chickens.  I think opossums are cute.  Lots of people disagree.  I knew that the opossum was killing the birds, but some people felt that opossums are just scavengers, not killers.  However, I caught him, red handed (with blood) with a still-warm dead chicken, in the fresh snow, and there were no other footprints.  I know he did it.  After he was...dispatched...I had no more losses.  I dislike having to kill an animal, but I was losing far too many chickens to this one.  


My Most Helpful Post
This one was easy - it's my post on how to shear a llama.  Incidentally, this is also my second most popular post, with a total of 1,413 page views.  I'm surprised it wasn't number one!  Anyway, this post has helped quite a few people learn the method I use to shear llamas, and based on their feedback to me via email or on Facebook, I know it has worked for them too.  That makes me happy.  It's good to know that my blog has been helpful to others.  I also noticed that my blog posts on how to give a goat a bath, and how to use diapers on baby lambs and goat kids, were also very popular.  That suggests they've been helpful posts for others too!


A Post Whose Success Surprised Me
As I've already mentioned, the post about the book binding and wire wrapping class being my most popular post was very surprising to me.  My 4th most popular post also surprised me.  It's this one:  Duck 1, Duck 2, Duck 3...  I'm not sure why it's so popular, but it does have a lot of cute duckling pictures.  It's a post about rescuing some ducklings from the Animal Rescue League.  


A Post I Feel Didn't Get the Attention it Deserved
Hmmm.  Tricky.  This took the longest time to choose.  I looked back over a lot of posts, and I picked two.  One of them is probably a bit selfish.  I wrote a poem, once, about a storm.  It just kind of came out suddenly as I was sitting there, watching the storm and wondering what to write about.  It only had 2 comments.  Most people probably don't like reading poetry really, but I thought it was a decent effort.  So if you feel like it, you can read it here.  


The second post that probably didn't get the attention it deserved is that post about when Cookie the goat first stood up by herself after suffering through about two weeks of infection with deer meningeal worm.  Cookie was a sweet mini-Nubian who was suddenly limping one day, and then soon after could no longer stand up.  I had to feed her and bathe her constantly and keep her comfortable while we had some testing done, which indicated she had high eosinophil counts in her spinal fluid, leading to the meningeal worm diagnosis.  It's really rather rare for a goat to survive deer meningeal worm infection, but Cookie did it.  She was laying down for probably about 2 weeks, maybe a bit longer, because her back legs were paralyzed by the infection. She had a permanent limp afterwards, and unfortunately I think that may have led to her early death about a year or so later from unknown causes.  However, her experience was a great learning experience for me and could be helpful to other goat owners also.  When she first stood up after so long of being down, I was so excited I took a picture and posted about it, but it didn't get any comments.  She probably deserved a few!


The Post I Am Most Proud Of
This one was pretty easy for me.  This post is the one about the wild rabbit that was killed by the car in front of me, and which I wrapped in a blanket and brought home to bury on my farm, in order to honour its short life.  You can read it here, and bring tissues, it's a sad one.  I am proud of it because I think most people would have just kept driving, and maybe would not even notice the small rabbit who tried so hard to escape.  I noticed, and I wanted to capture the memories and feelings I had, and remind my readers about the fragility of life.


Now I'm supposed to nominate some other bloggers to do this!  Hmmm...


1.  Isobelle Golightly the Beautiful Goat (she has a lot of posts to choose from!)
2.  Flartus, over at Flartopia (she probably has even MORE posts to choose from!)
3.  Oh bother.  I have to go put the chickens and goats away.  Ummm...YOU!  Yes you!  Reader with a blog!  Consider yourself nominated!