#31 ~ Mysteriously Losing Followers Daily on Blogger

My Baga is losing her “Followers” a few more each day. Please read what I have to say.

My name is Eloise, and I am not happy.

The more I think about it, the more upset I get. 

Oh dear,  this is it. I’ve lost it. 

  
 OK, Google...I, ten year old Eloise, am extremely upset with you. What are you doing messing with my Baga’s “ Followers”? You are taking them away from her a few each day. This is not nice thing to do if you ask me. She has spent years earning the trust of her followers, and now you are just dumping them in the trash. Well, I’ve had it. When you upset my Baga, you upset me more. 

Below, my Baga has put together as many updates as she could find regarding this HUGE change in your approach to your blogspot.com members. I hope all that you blogspot bloggers who are having problems like my Baga is will read these. Maybe it will become a bit clearer. Poor Baga....she is totally confused and does not know what to do.

The really sad thing is Baga was so excited when he finally hit 250 followers she made a special little gift for that person. Unfortunately, she didn’t pay any attention to the number, so now she has the gift and no #250.  She said to tell you if you were #250 to let her know, and she will send you your little goodie.

It was fun talking to you. Maybe one day I will have a blog, too.

Eloise

~~~~~~~~~~~~

An update on Google Friend Connect

December 21, 2015
In 2011, we announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. We made an exception for Blogger to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. Yet over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs.

As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.

We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow.

We know how important followers are to all bloggers, but we believe this change will improve the experience for both you and your readers.

Posted by Michael Goddard, Software Engineer

Here is one of the older Google releases I just found from 2011, but it tells you what they are planning on doing. This is the part that refers to Google Friend Connect.The rest of the post I left out.

More spring cleaning out of season

November 22, 2011

This is our third blog post in our off-season spring cleaning series. To recap, we’re in the process of shutting a number of products which haven’t had the impact we’d hoped for, integrating others as features into our broader product efforts, and ending several which have shown us a different path forward. Overall, our aim is to build a simpler, more intuitive, truly beautiful Google user experience. In terms of the details, here is the latest update:

• Google Friend Connect—Friend Connect allows webmasters to add social features to their sites by embedding a few snippets of code. We're retiring the service for all non-Blogger sites on March 1, 2012. We encourage affected sites to create a Google+ page and place a Google+ badge on their site so they can bring their community of followers to Google+ and use new features like Circles and Hangouts to keep in touch.

Here is a reply I found last night. Mary had written about her concerns of losing her followers day after day. This is Joan Davis's reply. Being a non-techie I do not really understand it.....

Joan Davis

1 day ago

+

1
2
1

 

Reply

Hi Mary!  I was reading through the comments to Blogger's post and found yours.  There are tons of ways for people to follow your blog on blogspot...so, there are no worries about the "friend connect" widget.  (It's been outdated for years anyway.)  My suggestion is to offer other ways to follow:  Blog Lovin', Feedly, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google + and RSS feed.  Most of my "followers" use their own method (i.e. Blog Lovin').  Anyway, best of luck to you!

I read somewhere last night that we should expect to lose 10-20 % of our followers....UGH! No one in the thread I was following was happy. Many had lost way over 100 friends, and it is continuing. Some of the people commenting were writing in non-english, so it is happening all over the world. None of the comments I read, and there were so many, were positive.

Here are my questions and concerns...

1.Is this why I am seeing so many people switching to Google+ with “circles” in addition to “followers”?

2. It looks to me like Google is going to be able to get lots more info about us to use for their business purposes.

3. Are we going to be in a situation where we have to switch to Google + to keep our followers?

4. What would happen if I was to switch to Wordpress? Would my blog remain in tact?

5. If I change to Google+, will my blog remain in tact?

6. Looking at Joan Davis’s reply, is there one of the choices that is better than the others?

Thank you in advance for any comments, explanations, or suggestion you might have for me. I was so upset then I saw my followers disappearing I decided to write up a post, but I wanted to add a bit of humor to it...so in comes my Eloise. I had that funny shot of her and decided to use it.

Many Thanks.....Genie

The good news is I have made it one month posting daily. Now, comes the second. I wonder if I will make it.

#30 ~ I’m Already Thinking Valentine’s Day

“If God had intended us to follow recipes,

He wouldn’t have given us grandmothers.”

~Linda Henley

Each year my son, Gene, Patti, and Eloise come here for my birthday on the 7th of February. Then we go out to Douthat State Park for fun, games, eating, and hiking. We have gone for so many years that this year we decided just stay here at the homeplace...so they are not coming until the next weekend...the one of Valentine’s Day. That’s when Eloise has a 3-day weekend. That’s a GOOD thing for Baga. The “tragedy" of this is I (Baga) will not get to help her make her Valentine’s Day cards for her classmates. We have done this together ever since she started school, so since she won’t be here I have had to make my own for her. 

This picture is linked with Weekend in Black and White.

Eloise’s Valentine is linked with Dezinaworld15 Cheeky Challenge for week 3 and Lunagirl Creative Challenge for January which is “babies or children”.. The Cheeky Challenge was for us to come up with a piece that represented something “romantic”,  and since I love children so much I decided to make a Valentine with a little boy and girl in it. The background frame and the hearts are from Goggle stock images, the texture is Cottoncandy which I think is Kim Klaassen’s but am not sure, and the little heart banner at the top is one I made for my dear friend, Weezie a while back. Even if Eloise was not going to be here to make her Valentine’s, I decided to make one of my own for the Cheeky Challenge and to send to her. 

#29 - Stonewall Filling Station ~ RT 60 - Rockbridge County

Stonewall Service Station

Route 60 West ~ West Midland Trail

Rockbridge County, Lexington, VA

Here still stands the old Stonewall Service Station. If you walk to the top of our driveway and look to the right, you will see this local treasure. The last time I checked someone lived in it, but that was a long time ago and I think it is only used for storage now. If you look closely, the columns are really cool. It has not been used as a filling station for 40 years that I know of, but with that coat of bright green paint, it looks like it could be cleaned up and put back into use in no time flat. Just some more “local color” from my neck of the woods.The property belongs to the people who own the first house on the left after hours going up the mountain. They are that close.

This post is linked with Lesley’s Signs2.

#28 ~ Hidden Valley

Hidden Valley Homestead where Archeological Digs Continue

The Entrance

The Old Someplace and a Fw More More Pictures of It from Different Angles

Front Steps

Here the rain is moving in.

This is the kitchen house which was built later on. The original one burned.

It is now 2 accommodations - one upstairs and un downstairs. The bottom one has a kitchen and both have living rooms and fireplaces. This is where I would want to stay. 

Not in the house. This is way more cozy and comfy. 

As we were leaving the owners returned and the wife took me through this building.

There is a covered walkway from this building to the main house,

Steps to Entrance

  

Vintage Door Knocker...I bet it is the original.

All the fences are wood.

 

Original Springhouse

The Spring House Water Supply

Here is the pipe where the water comes in.

I have to believe that they have a well and pump now, 
because this is really rusted.

Another Pipe

Rear of Spring House

II have no clue what this container if for. 
The owners of the B and B were not there when 

we were walking all around the property so I could
not ask them my wealth of questions.

Old Living Quarters 

More Old Living Quarters

 A BIG Goat

Family of Goats Plus a Few Chickens for Fresh Eggs

This has been an archeological site for years and years and is now governed by the National Forest Service. I do remember hearing that the digs have produced prehistoric remains. The home is now under private ownership and is used as a beautiful B and B where they take pristine care of their historical treasure. The wife raises the goats and there are bunches of them. The following is all I could find on the internet, but we are going to go back to talk at length to the owners so I acn update the history of the home, the property, and the area.

this post is linked with:
Good Fences on Thursdays
Saturdays Critters
Camera -Critters
Scenic Sundays   (I cannot get this one to link up. I get to it and then the IP address turns to               some odd thing that is “for sale.”I do not know how to do it this week.)


Pictures taken with my iPhone 5C in late November 2015

Wiki:

Hidden Valley, also known as Warwickton, is a historic home located near Bacova, Bath County, Virginia. It was built in 1858, and is a two-story, five-bay, brick structure with a hipped roof in a Greek Revival / Late Victorian style. It has a rear ell. The front facade features a pedimented tetra-style portico with Ionic order columns, placed over the central three bays of the five-bay facade. The entranceway is styled after a design on Plate 28 in Asher Benjamin's stylebook, The Practical Carpenter (1835).^[3]

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.^[1]

References[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b Staff (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
2. Jump up^ "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved2013-05-12.
3. Jump up^ Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission Staff (October 1969). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Hidden Valley" (PDF). and Accompanying photo

#27 ~ Jack in His Maze and Other Snow Scenes

Our World Tuesday at Home

Just a little while ago I walked into the living room, and this poor baby is what I found.

What in the world happened to it?

Maybe it hit the door and then Jack messed with it outside. and brought inside. 

The cat does not ever go out.

I tried to get a picture of the yellow on the head so it would help you all to identify it for me.

This always makes me so sad...but NEVER, has one been brought into the house...

that is saved for the mice that the cat catches at night in the lower cabinets.

Yes....We live in a very OLD farmhouse, and you cannot kill all the mice.

 My Favorite Tree in the Snow

 Hay Bales on the Way Home

Whenever we have a large snow, we build Jack a little maze.

I pretend is the one at Hampton Court.

I have never seen a little dog have such a good time...and his Mommy.

 Oops...Buddy, You dead ended me into a big tree. You need to be more careful. 

I could get hurt.

Get out here, please, and fix it for me. This is my peeing tree, duffus.

 The VA Dep’t of Transportation's big gravel pile.

 You can see that they have been moving up and down.

This is our front yard off to the left f the house. I thought the shadows were so cool.

The big field in front of the house with its shadows.

This post is linked with Our World Tuesday 
and

Shadow Shot Sunday 2.

#26 ~ Vintage Bicycle Found in Fairfield, VA

"The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine."

~John Howard

This post is linked with Tom’s Tuesday Treasures.

These pictures were taken with my iPhone C.

#24 and #25 ~ Skates, Success, and Believing in Yourself

The prompt this week for Digital Whisper is SKATES.

The prompt this week is:

“Believe in yourself and magic will happen.”

#23 ~ Our Barn and Homeplace in the Snow of January 2016

Yep...This is our old barn.

The front of it.

I have told Tom many times how much I like the editing he does with his barn pictures. well, today we emailed me with 2 edits he had done for me. I asked if it would be OK with him if I posted him, and he said it was fine, I think they turned out so pretty. The other one is further down the page with the picture of our house.

The back of it.

The Chicken House Door

We are getting ready to put up a new fence and get us some chickens.

We have missed our fresh eggs so much over the years. They have a happy nice sized home inside the barn and are not cramped at all.

These are “horse” stalls, but our pony, Pretzil lived out in one of our fenced in cow fields. Somehow he got the gate open or something because our baby decided after a bad ice and snow storm to wander into the creek we guess to get a drink of water. This happened around 35 years ago, so I do not remember all the details. Well, that was the end of our pet. When we got up the next morning Pretzel was upside down stiff as a board, and we had to call a farmer neighbor a with one of those pusher thingies - I think it is called a back hoe - to pick it up and take it to the happy hunting ground for ponies. It was so sad we have never gotten another one.The children were devastated.


This was the goat house for Rosebud and Sagebrush. They were very naught goats and would devour our garden. We finally gave them away to some neighbors. This is now used for extra building materials left over from the two bathrooms.

 This is the garage for the old Model A or T or whatever car that came after the horse and buggy we have pictures of out in front of the house.
It is my favorite thing on the property.

This side view of the barn had a tree growing out of this window.

We did cut it down years ago :-)

Our one outbuilding....our only storage. No usable attic and no basement...and one closet.We have got to do some work on that roof over the shed part. It does not look this bad when it is not covered in heavy snow, but it is need of some serious work.

Bud and Jack shoveling the Bridge to Somewhere.

A Snow covered Bridge to Somewhere
Yes, we lost a tree. 

Our neighbor from across the road plowing us out. 

He does this every time we get a bad storm and refuses to take a dime. 

We have begged him to take something, but he always says “NO! 

He is also the mailman and a very good neighbor and friend.

Our creek as pretty as it gets.


The Homeplace
It does look pretty in the snow.
The addition there on the left is a handicapped bathroom just in case I need it.
My son, Gene...Eloise’s daddy...designed it for us.

Here is the other picture that Tom edited for me. It looks SO good.

Icicles on the bay window in our living room.

This post is liked with Tom’s Barn Collective. 
Please consider participating in this meme. 
It is full of wonderful new barns each Sunday.