Before electing to hit cyberspace on my own last May, I fed my writing habit for about seven years on pair of other outdoor websites (Prairie State Outdoors – April 2010 to March 2011 and Heartland Outdoors – April 2011 to May 2017). So, one of the neat things when putting together my own place was getting to design the layout. Nothing too fancy given my modest skills and a penchant for frugality but with some welcome input from my wife, Julie, I think it works just fine.

One of the visual aspects that we opted to include was the scrolling banner that graces the homepage and hits visitors with a collection of 28 pictures. Now, I’ve got tubs and albums and CDs and hard drives crammed with outdoor pictures dating back over 50 years so selecting those for the banner definitely took some time and thought.

Tough decisions, but boy was it fun shuffling through all of those choices when designing that piece of the website (and four more pics adorn the “About” page as a bonus). With a 50th birthday on the horizon as I kicked off the website last May, I wanted the pictures to convey the enjoyment that the outdoors has provided for me and those family members that I have shared it with over the years.

Of course, I’m biased, but I think we did a darn good job.

Lots of people, lots of pursuits, lots of smiles and lots of stories in that banner, which was the aim.

And since there are 28 pictures and 28 days in February, my latest stunt is a closer look at each of the pics, one a day, every day.

A project in the vein of Rod Stewart’s “Every picture tells a story don’t it” and the standard “A picture is worth a thousand words.” I actually did the latter of those once upon a time for my five favorite outdoor pictures.

But, I digress.

For the “Blog Banner” project I will attempt to contain the rambles although I will be guilty of throwing in more than a few supplemental photos along the way.

And…we’re off. Talk to you tomorrow and the next day, and…Troy