Look Forward and Walking Backwards

Looking forward but walking backwards is how I've felt about this blog in recent years. I am always looking forward and planning great things for it but it never quit makes to everyone to read. It either gets delayed/put off to the point of the post being out of season or completely lost in the abyss of my mind. So, I could sit here again and say how I am going to rededicate myself to my writings but I've done that before and it has not turned out the best. Then again I could completely scrap my blog and call it quits not like it is far from that with the lack of posting in the past year. Then again I like blogging and it does lead to me connecting with so many great people, so scarping it is not option. That leaves me with, well it leaves me with where I am at now. I post when I can, albeit hopefully I can pick up the pace this year, and if that does not work you can always find me on social media. Between my Twitter (@FoggyMtnMeander) and Facebook page (Foggy Mountain Meanderings) there isn't a shortage of updates and there's always a constant flow of pictures from Instagram (@foggymtnmeander) on both.

Basically what I am saying is I had a great 2013, it allowed me to harvest my first turkey amongst many other great experience in the outdoors this year. So here is to a great 2014 for everyone out there.

Below are just a few of my favorite pictures from the previous year.

The Return to Foggy Mountain

It has been blatantly obvious over the last year or so I have been absent. For those of you have have been following along know I have been in school, getting married, and starting a new job and working. With this whirlwind of life bearing down on me, I blogged when I could, but that was very seldom. I did manage to throw in one of the many book reviews I have to do and the story of my buck in bow season, but other than that I didn't get on here much recently. At this point, I started to think if I just needed to call it quits on the blog. Now don't get me wrong, this isn't intended to be a pity, woe as me post, this is more of a back story to lead into the true aspect of this post. Between finally graduating Graduate School and falling into a rhythm with work and life and some serious encouragement from my wife, I decided to keep blogging. The last part of this was trying to move past writers block.

Moving past writer's block has been an ongoing struggle, I've been trying to write this post since the second week of December.  All the while I was still reading all my favorite blogs to try and spark some form of a post I'd want to write. The spark wasn't there and the old stand-by post just weren't what I wanted to put out there. Many of the post I was reading involved hunting season recaps, year end reviews, and previews of what's to come in 2013. When looking at that, as I said before I didn't have much to recap from hunting season nor did I have much for a year end review. I guess I could go the route of giving my goals for 2013 and what I have planned. That is what I'm doing that in a form but not completely.

What I started to think about was why do I blog anymore or at this rate why do I want to keep blogging? I had started this blog blind and the only guidance I had was trying and mirror other more popular blogs in hopes of attracting more of an audience. This lead to me writing post that where more about producing a certain quantity of post not the quality of what I truly wanted to post. This is something that also played into my writing block and not writing for a while. After thinking about it more, I realize I started this blog because I couldn't find another blog about hunting, fishing, or foraging in West Virginia and because I enjoy writing and sharing my adventures as well as giving and getting advice. Now with that being said, I may write on these topics, but by no stretch of the imagination am I an expert in any of these fields. That's what makes it fun in writing, as it is labeled in the header, these are my misadventures and will help me and hopefully anyone else that is reading, grow as an outdoorsman.

To bring this full circle, what I am saying with all this rambling is that I am not here to try and make this blog my gateway into the outdoor industry. I am here because I love the outdoors and everything it has to offer. All I want to do is be able to share my adventures and advice with everyone that wants to hear it and show a positive outlook on West Virginia. I feel like I got away from that and want to get that back. I am not going to list my goals that I have for this year to come, at least not now.

A thing at inspired me to start this blog was my love for blogs like Hank Shaw's Hunter-Angler-Gardener-Cook, Georgia Pellegrini, and author Steven Rinella. I am no where near as skilled as any of these great chefs/hunters, but I do love to cook, can, and preserve wild game, mushrooms, ramps, and other things found in the wild or garden. I'd like to and plan on having more posts concentrating on this topic. This is  the main area that I want to integrate into the blog more. There will still be content on what I am doing as far as hunting, fishing and everything that goes with that, but not as much of the filler stories just to produce a post. Trail Cam Tuesday will still exist  yet it will be on a much more limited basis, which I believe will actually make it better. This is not going to be a major change to the blog or the content, this is more of an update on the mission statement of this blog and to explain to everyone where I've been. Although I might not have the same regularity of post as before I hope the quality of the post will make up for that. Thank you all for following along and I hope everyone has a great new year to come!