Weekly Site Changes Update: January 3-9, 2020

I want to immediately point out a happy re-discovery: there is a very easy way to see all the tags one has used.  I had forgotten as I hadn’t looked for the overall list in a while.  This will make ferreting out near dupes and typos easier than I feared.  Hooray!  That’s one headache gone from the process later.

I know I said I was going to wait to do the weekly reports until I started dusting off unpolished content, but I have to admit keeping records help me remember what I’ve done in case I need to fix a foul up.  Thankfully the progress with the first step (Culling the Categories) is going much faster than I thought.

Knowing how change can take a bit of an adjustment period, look at the Pinned Post that will explain my process.  That post, combined with the reports may help guide any returning visitor who is confused by the changes.

Seeing what’s in the tag list is making me realize how often I was using both a Category and a Tag for a post in a superfluous fashion, and makes it easier to figure out what really needs weeding out.

Here’s what I managed  this week:

1. Moved post titled “Reminders to Self” to “Indoor Musings” and added “Reminder to Self” Tag, then deleted “Reminders to Self” sub category as it was the only post in there.
2. Changed “Bookworming” to its own Subcategory rather than being a sub-sub because I wanted to get rid of at least all sub-subs under “Behind the Scenes”.
3. Changed “The Story” Category name to “Stories”, as some weren’t just about our property.  Also altered the Category description to be more accurate.  Lastly, took a few early posts out of this Category because they really were about Site Changes before I made that Subcategory: Added an About page and Added the Friends? page
4. Created a “Conservation” Category.  Consolidated all posts formerly listed under the “Rainwater Management”, “Soil”, “The Mighty Rs” Categories there, and used whichever Category name they had previously belonged to as the name of a Tag instead: Time to get the rain barrel out., Rain barrel(s) mini update, Speaking of regrading…, Paid for the second rain barrel today, 18th June Plantings and general Garden update, Rain barrel related projects, Garden Growth–18th April, 2019, Garden Growth–20th April, 2019, Potting soil smells off…, Woo! Unexpected progress…, Note to Future Me #11, Working as weather allows…, Along the driveway progress, First visit to a Conservation Commission meeting., Looking for doghouse conversion suggestions, Thoughts on sharing and friendships, Follow up of attending my first Conservation Commission meeting., Grape Trellis Project Part 2, Cleaning out/Setting up the monarch keeper, Part 2, Garden Growth–1st May, 2019.  I then deleted the Categories they’d been moved from.
5. Decided the Category “Learning a New Zone” was one of those that could work just as well as a Tag, given all the cross Categories that covers.  So far, an awful lot of folks that visit here are not even from New England, let alone Massachusetts, so my original intent of sharing info specific to those areas can be just as easily sussed out from the various other Tags I’ve either already used, or started using some time last year.  So all of those were taken out of that Category, with the namesake added as a Tag: Learning to work with a new climate, Keeping focus, strawberries everywhere followup part 2, Why I like keeping garden records, Follow up of attending my first Conservation Commission meeting., A short tale of Damsels and Dragons, Let your garden grow, Our berries of 2018, If I had a nickel…#1, This and That–24 October 2018, Oh, right…it’s March. I then deleted the Category.
6. I only had a handful of off-site garden specific posts, so I deleted the “Elsewhere” Category, and the two posts were given different homes: One week until the first community garden meeting. and A Tree on Marquette.
7. Simplified the name of the “Project Progress” Category, then deleted all the Subcategories under “Progress” with the exception of moving the “Monarch Guardianship” Subcategory from “Progress” to “Conservation”.   Instead of focusing on the four artificial areas I set up prior, the Tags will reflect specific garden types (sun, dry, woodland, etc) and/or a specific project name (driveway, Walapini).  This was over 100 posts, so I am not listing them all out here to save time better spent moving this reorganization forward.  I made a note on the Rollover list below to add a widget or flesh out the Our Plants Page that will have links to each of those Tagged posts.  No deadline for that yet, I apologize in advance if that makes something hard to search for in the short term until I get to that.
8. Deleted all but one of the Subcategories under “Plants”, the deleteds will get a similar Tag support as in #7 at a later date.  I’m going to give more time to consider if I should up “Seeds” to a Category or rename it to “Propagation” to allow for other types of methods and things that aren’t fruits or veggies (or even plants).
9. Deleted all the Subcategories under “Creatures”,  which will get a similar Tag support as in #7 at a later date.
10. Unsubcategoried “Notes to Future Me” from “Indoor Musings”– it didn’t really need to be a sub-sub.

Overall, I’m amazed at how quick this went.  I made a note below to do a last lookover of all Categories and Tags, because human error with all those moves is likely, so I’ll do those in smaller batches over time to best ensure there are no errors when I finish that lookover.

I dug through last year’s Office Window Views to figure out where I first dropped the ball.  May 22nd‘s Office Window View is now available, and it contains a comparison photo from the closets OWV from 2018 as well.  I will continue to add more when I need a break from Site Update Round 2–Who Left This Mess in the Tag Bin?  Unlike the Categories fix, this round will be long and I may be begging for the bell to sound given all I’ve already noticed needs fixin’.

Rollover:

• Commit to Tag cleanup (typos, dumb ideas, excessive, needed).
• Create either a widget or something under the Our Plants page that has all the new Tags listed for posts that used to be under sub cats of Plants or newly make Project Progress.
• Stop dithering about what new page menu you want (esp the Friends? page).
• Make 2020 Planting List page, reorg layout.
• Start a seed order list, make up mind about where to order.
• Check out that Native Plant book from the library again.
• Add missing OWV.
• Check back on the closer Native Plant places for hours.
• Add at least one image a month to create a rotating header.
• Polish missing posts overall.
• Start sketching out format for 2Hr Garden series for consistency.
• Take the few idea boards and change out non natives.
• Add one new plant a month.
• Add one new critter a month.
• Consider a Cloud tag/placement.
• Work on the garden plot plan.
• Feature image of the month widget?
• Any reality to time available for once a month comic?
• Is it too early for a static home page to feature things?
• By May 1st at latest: Check all posts’ Cats and Tags.