It has been a mighty long time since any new material has gone up (about 8 months!). It is not that nothing has been happening, but on the contrary - too much has been happening. We have been in the new house for a couple of months, and that has been wonderful, although it has taken a lot of extra time moving in. We have had a nice summer, although not incredibly eventful. Currently, we have 9 puppies from Angus and Sadie. That makes them 50% Border Collie and 50% Yellow Lab. Well, they all came out black, and at six weeks it is hard to tell if they will look like Sadie or Angus. I am betting Sadie. They have just gotten their shots and are ready to find a home. We are keeping one, I guess, but the others I hope go to good homes. I will put a few of their pictures here, and that is it for today's update. Hopefully a more complete one will come soon.
If you have MSN Instant Messenger, I am dealhound@hotmail.com. With AOL, I am Dealhound123. And with Yahoo, I am dealhound@yahoo.com. I am not on all the time, but you can sometimes find me there.
The site is not complete, as I guess no site ever is, but rather than say under construction or in progress, I think I will just say, come back often and see what is happening. Most importantly, I hope that this site does not stay stationary, but does change, with new information, pictures, stories and new conversations on the bulletin board. This site is to serve a lot of purposes. It is to keep us all somewhat informed with what is happening in other parts of our family. It is particularly aimed at keeping a running account of my immediate family, the Tim Martin Family. I know that one day, I will be able to look back on the newsletters that I have done and see a history of our family and my kids. What was happening with us at the time, what we looked like and what was important to us. Also, it is a tool for me to learn and use some skills for making websites. as I learn some new things, you may see them on this site and wonder what they are for. For example, I have a couple of songs off the "O Brother" movie on the site that are there because I like them, but also because I wanted to learn how to use RealPlayer. To hear them, you need to have a new version of the realplayer on your computer.
The site is divided into 5 sections. The main three are Family, Newsletter and Bulletin. The Family section will include stories about us, pictures of us and other miscellaneous stuff. Also, there are "Family Portal" pages that will take you to a page about another part of our family that can be developed into whatever you wish. I am starting out by putting just the basics, a picture of each person in the family and there names. If you want to fill in more detail on these pages, or add other pages that link off the portal page, just let me know. I may contact you individually to prod you into giving me more content for these pages. The Newsletter page is the section that will have the MartinFarm.com newsletter. The most recent one will be on the main page. Older versions will link off this page, so that you can go back and read all the past newsletters if you would like. I plan to keep all the older newsletters on the site permanently. If you would like me to place any news on this page, send it to me and I will get it up soon. Also, I may soon put up a notification email list. If you would like to know when there is a new newsletter up, add your name to the list and I will email you when it is fresh. The last main area of the site is the MartinFarm.com Bulletin Board. This is going to be the hardest sell, and I am sure it is probably an uphill battle, but I would like to get each of you to at least register on the board and make at least one posting. If you do that, you will see how simple it is to use and maybe you will like it and use it. It is simply a place to post messages to each other to where all of us can read and respond to what you say. It could even be a place for you each to place any pertinent news and dates that you would like the rest of us to be aware of. It is another way to communicate to everyone at once and post important stuff (like weddings and births, etc). The board has an email notification feature also that will let you know if there is a new posting or if someone has responded to something that you have posted. If you have any problems with the notification system, just email me and I will help you get signed up. It is really easy though, and I do not think that you will have any trouble. Please register under your own name, so that we will all know who you are and will not have to guess who "fatcat_61" is. I am Tim on the board.
The last two sections are the Home section, which is just the main page with the main links off it and a general welcome message. The other is the About Us section that will just show and say a little something about each member of my family.
I hope sincerely that you will all help to make this page interesting and most of all, useful by visiting, using the Bulletin Board and sending me comments, suggestions and things that you would like to see (ideas).
