The Best Blog Posts of 2016

The Highest Rated Articles for 2016

I can't believe it's nearly March! Again! Time sure does seem to fly these days. Now is as good a time as any to look back at 2016 to reflect on what was in order to see just where it is we're going. Last year was our 2nd full year here in our little farm in South Georgia and the year of the chicken! Farmer Chris built that incredible chicken coop for our flock of six girls - Big Bird, Laverne, Shirley, Loner, Pretty, and Baby Bird. All the ladies started laying in late August / early September! We even experienced a mini molt with a few of them. I haven't bought eggs since August and that is awesome!

It gets more and more challenging to come up with content for the blog and have functional internet to post it! As a family without an iPhone by choice, we don't walk around with a camera in our hands to document every detail of our lives as it appears many people do (just scroll through your Facebook feed). We bake breads, cook meals from scratch, feed chickens, collect eggs, craft handmade items, manufacture soaps and shampoos, plow fields or plant nearly every day of the year. I'd love to hear from my readers - each post has a comment box at the bottom of the page - please feel free to leave comments, ask questions, let me know what you'd like to see or learn about!

Our little blog has had more than 5,000 since it's launch in late 2013!! Nearly 2,000 visitors stopped by to visit this website in 2016 alone! Wow! Thanks for the visits! Most of our readers are in the US, but also people in Russia, France, Portugal, and Germany have read our posts. I'd love to hear from more of you about what information you'd like to see more of on The Simple Life. If you see a blog post you just love, feel free to share it with your friends - don't keep it a secret! ☺

Here are the Top 5 blog posts from The Simple Life in 2016!

Ranked by Google based on the # of visitors. Be sure to check out each article & share your faves!

#5...Mmmmm! In Georgia, pecans are king so if ya got 'em, eat 'em! This post with photos and the recipe for my Georgia Butter Pecan Cookies got a lot of attention. Make these and you will too!

#4...The first peak of the 2016 garden was Garlic stems popping up! We learned a lot of growing garlic last year and in fact, planted the 2017 crop in late October of 2016 for a May - July 2017 harvest. The current garlic has been up and green stemmed for many months by now! 

#3...Canning! The first day of summer included a quick update about the chicken coop, harvesting potatoes and other delicious produce from the garden, and my canning work and plans. This year we sure hope to do even more canning! And we still have beautiful preserved veggies in jars to eat - the pantry is full but the cache is dwindling. 

#2...Our second most viewed article from 2016 is one of my personal favorites! Childhood Creeks captured images of our son (photo cred to my sweet friend & pro photographer, Dallas of Freckles Photography). A great memoir of those carefree summer days of childhood playing outside - a good read if I do say so myself!

And the top #1, most read post out of all the articles posted in 2016...

A Slow Paced Life outlines the beauty of a slower life spent outside, in the garden, in the woods, with less connection to technology and less hustle and bustle and fewer trips all over God's creation in the car. From my perspective, we live in a culture that glorifies busyness (and of course telling everyone all about on all the social media outlets). There is benefit and refreshment in slowing down, listening to the quiet of your own heartbeat, holding hands with the one you love, building something with your own two hands, watching the clouds, and just reflecting and thinking introspectively. Just slow it down, enjoy the moments, it'll all go by too quickly and it isn't a race to the finish line. ❤

The Top Three Blog Articles of All Time!

Because The Simple Life blog has been live on the internet for more than three years now, I like to take a look and see the top articles of all time! Here ya go:

#3...Cold Frame, published over time during the first months of 2014, this article won top post awards in 2014 and 2015. It's a pictorial review of Farmer Chris's building, installing, planting, and growing in a cold frame at the NC house. It is such a great project to help extend your growing season if you live somewhere with colder temperatures! Check it out and if you have a cold frame or similar project, I'd love to see it! Share in the comments at the bottom of this article.

#2...Childhood Creeks was one of our 2016 top five posts. Includes some beautiful photos from Dallas at Freckles Photography and a reminder of how our kids need to put down the digital devices and go outside to play. You only get this one chance to be a kid!

And the #1 all time most read blog post from The Simple Life is...

A Slow Paced Life, published here in 2016, beat out previous year's top posts. It's one of my all time favorites as well. A heartfelt, personal article lauding the slower paced country life. No matter where you live you can find a way to slow it down, stop rushing, and find a more satisfying way of life.

Please be sure to check out all this year's winners by clicking the link provided in the article (above). If you enjoy our blog, be sure to follow us so you don't miss anything and also use the comment boxes following every blog post to let us know what you like, what you want to see more of, and if you have questions, suggestions, comments, whatever - we'd just love to hear from you. 

Thanks for stopping by! ~Ramsey