I lied. I said I would not do this. At least I didn’t say “never.” Raising four kids has taught me not to say that. Normally my blog is self deprecating, sarcastic perhaps, but at least trying for a light touch. This first entry is going to be whiney. Sorry. It’s going to explain WHY I have had to start over. 
About 2006 I started a blog at mrsdillpickle.blogspot.com called “The Pickle Barrel.” My email was sdill@arkansas.net. Arkansas.net is a little dial-up company in Fayetteville, Arkansas. When everyone (including me) had broadband, Arkansas.net contracted with a 3rd party to get Google support for our email addresses. It was important to me to remain sdill@arkansas.net. From 2012 to 2015 this worked. During that time, however, Google forced me to merge my accounts. So when Google announced they would no longer support that platform and Arkansas.net contracted with powerxmail.com, my sdill@arkansas.net account was no longer recognized by Google. I can’t log in to Google, so I can’t reach blogger.com as “me.” Obviously, Google had eaten Blogger. I looked at the forums but could not find an answer. I could not log in, so my blog was deleted. I appealed to Arkansas.net (several times). They said go to Google. Not an easy thing to do. Google said go to my provider. My daughter-in-law started me another gmail account) so that we could get to blogger and appeal them to unite the old blog with the new account. We received no answer. I enjoyed having the blog. I did not enter much the last year I had it because I was busy fighting cancer. (It was hard to find the humor in that situation.) I was waiting to announce my victory. But now I can’t get to the blog. I can’t even start a new one and give a link. I wasn’t trying to make money, but I liked leaving an online journal for friends and family. I’d have been glad to pay to keep the blog, but I wanted the one I had. I didn’t want to start over. I still day dream that one day I will be able to find the old entries out in cyberspace. I’d copy and paste them even if it took weeks. I still have the photos in my folders, but none of the narrative. So if you are wandering on the net in the wee hours of the morning and find an outdated blog about Dill kids, grandkids, dogs, and fish set in Benton, Arkansas, with mentions of Montana–lead me to it please.
Old Pickle Barrel 