Imaginary Five Year Old-Cure for Writers Block

AgChat, blogging tipsBy: Jan Hoadley, farmer board member

Why and How Do You Farm?

Most people begin a blog to reach out and share what they do on a daily basis. Somewhere along the track it can get delayed with ‘educating’ rather than ‘sharing.’ Or, perhaps, you’re thinking about doing a blog but are unsure who will read it and what to write about. Developing ideas for new posts is easy if you increase awareness.

Imagine having a five year old shadow you for your daily chores. Why do you do that? What are you doing? Why are you doing it? How do you know what this chore needs done? All of these lead to a list of blog post ideas.

For example – we go out to do chores, and often don’t *think* about what we’re doing. Our evening chores might be feed and water poultry and rabbits, check for eggs, water gardens, breed a doe. Sounds boring doesn’t it?!

Enter the imaginary 5 year old. What are you feeding the rabbits? Both chickens and rabbits get pellets why are they in different bags? Why do seeds need watered and what kind are they? Why did we plant those seeds? Why did we choose the breeds we have from the hundreds available? How do we know when to breed? How do we handle the eggs?

Now flesh that out a little bit – what we do to collect eggs matters why? Because how they’re handled can make a difference in taste and fertility (if hatching) eggs. Do you think consumers don’t care about what we’re doing for food safety? All of the imaginary child’s questions are topic ideas.

Others might be what are we feeding and where is it made? Various farms may have different ways to show and explain what they do. Dairies may approach calf care, newborn care, maternity, care of fresh cows, what is in the feed and why, how do you clean the tanks and milkers. Crop farmers may have much to share on soil health and maintenance. Boring? Only if you make it so! Remember there are many saying farmers ‘ruin’ the soil. Consumers seeing that isn’t true is one possible reader, but also those gardeners are another. It’s interaction with agriculture.

These contacts may never purchase from you directly, but when the next media frenzy starts they may come to you for answers. Or they may say “hey I know one of those crop farmers, and he takes care of the soil!”

Explain what you do and how you do it to that imaginary 5 year old. It’s the cheapest employee you’ll ever have.


  1. My excuse for procrastonating blog posts is this very reason.. what to write about. It is such a simple concept, just explain our everyday or the farmers everyday. Who, what, when, where, why and how. Thanks for the motivation!

  2. My husband and I have just started our blog and this is a great post about posts. we hope to grow our farm/design blog and are wondering if you have suggestions for gaining members. We hope to have a repurposed decor and home goods store in the granary and a looking to use our blog to create interest. Thanks for your post,
    The Steffls