Living the Country Life Feature + Thoughts

We have a feature in a magazine I had never heard of called Living the Country Life. It is published by Meredith (think Better Homes and Gardens). A while back, I heard from an editor who wanted me to fact check an article they wrote about my work. She said they were re-using photos from a Rikki Snyder shoot that Country Home did here. (Meredith owns Country Home too and they hired Rikki for the shoot and they own all the photos - Rikki has no right to them anymore and I never had any right to them because I was the homeowner.) I was glad that there would be more photos being used because Rikki gave them 100 and they only used a few in the original feature. 

I was quite thrilled with the opening spread - a photo with my oil paintings of animals on the porch wall and the stairwell wall with a kitten. 

When you agree to have your home photographed, you never really know where it will lead. Publishers are trying to get more and more out of a photo shoot they pay for as a frugality measure to stay in business. I get that because print publishing is not what it once was. Everyone is just struggling to stay in the game.

It also seems that there are more and more "new" magazine titles coming out that are newstand only. Sometimes they are called bookazines and they are very targeted to a small segment of readers. These publications are usually more expensive than the mainstream magazines - at least $10 and sometimes $15 and $20. When I get the chance to go to Barnes and Noble, which isn't often, I am always floored by the number of titles that I have never heard of. Most of them have little or no advertising - hence the higher cost. 

I am grateful for any publicity I get because I only have so far of a reach on-line. Usually I hope something good will come out of a magazine feature and I might sell something but usually nothing happens except that I will get a few more newsletter subscribers or Facebook followers. So for all of you who think that people who get featured in magazines are making the big bucks - think again. For me, it is mostly an ego stroke. And my publishers like it because they might sell a few books.

Lately I have kind of resolved my thoughts of world domination, possible licensing agreements, and professional success. I guess I am getting older (that is an understatement) and am happy with the number of people who come to my blog and read (thank YOU), might come to a class here at the farm or perhaps might buy something. It really is all about showing up and making or writing things. I'm never going to get rich off this but I appreciate the small amount of success I have from time to time.

I thank you all for coming here and reading my thoughts. As I breezed through the pages of this Living the Country Life magazine, I got a kick out of the other features. One was of a family who raised sheep hosting a "sheep shearing party." Beautiful photos of gorgeous grandchildren, perfectly set tables, neighbors visiting. 

OMG - how hilarious that was for me to think about. When we shear our sheep, it is days full of long, dirty hours of hard physical work. There is nothing romantic about it and we all end up looking like we are covered in dirt. We stink to high heavens and if by mistake you lick your fingers, they taste like lanolin and poop. How funny to see a shearing day portrayed in a magazine with people looking beautiful. I guess it is a Martha Stewart moment when you have lots of help and money to pay people to do things for you. 

My take on this magazine is that they are trying to sell the "country life" as some kind of bucolic lifestyle where everything is perfect, people are beautiful and animals never get sick and die. Of course that is their take. That is the country dream of so many urban and suburban dwellers. It's a story that has been told for decades. Remember Green Acres? Or from the 1940's The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald (thank you Therese) which later became a film with Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert. The later spin-off was the Ma and Pa Kettle series of movies.  

My take of the "country life" after living here for almost twenty years is that it is so different than what is pictured in the glossies. Many things are harder and most things are more expensive - although I think the internet has changed a bit of that (that is if you live where there is high speed connection - for many rural dwellers that is not available.) It takes much longer to get places (with no traffic jams) and most things that suburban and city dwellers take for granted are totally inconvenient. I'm not complaining - I'm just stating a fact. Every time I go to visit and stay with my sister close to Boston or my Mom in the burbs of NJ, I realize this. 

I really don't want to live anywhere else and I can't imagine my life any different. Which is a nice feeling. As long as I plan, trip-chain, and realize that I really don't need most of the stuff that most people think are necessary, things are fine. We subsist on less and so what if your clothes are 15 years old as long as I can still squeeze into them. 

That's my thoughts for the day. If you are interested in reading another blog about living on less, I am enjoying Rhonda's blog Down To Earth - she is from down under. Hope you all are well.