Totally unoriginal title, I'm sure I'm not the first to use it. But here goes, my first steem post!
I confess, until a couple of weeks ago I had never heard of Steem, it started with a conversation with my dad about crypto currency, whether it was actually heading anywhere and how it works. My dad has always been the sort to keep an eye on new developments so as a relative technophobe I knew he was the one to ask. At first I thought Steem sounded too good to be true but as we talked I couldn't believe such a brilliant idea existed and so here I am! I've been loitering for a few weeks reading posts and as I have some time spare this morning I thought it was about time I actually wrote something.
I'm not entirely sure what this blog will be about just yet, hence the name, my life is a jumble of things so there might well be a bit of everything on here.
A bit about me:
I am 26 and from south gloucestershire (UK), professionally I am a breeder of rare breed chickens, ducks, geese etc... Which came about after my parents purchased some young chickens when I was around 4 years old. My mum made the mistake of paying me 50p to clean the hen house (whilst dodging our seriously nasty cockerel at the time!) as a child and by the age of 11 my birthday presents consisted of some bantams and an incubator, purchased from the man who installed our house alarms and had previously used it to hatch peregrine falcons. That machine worked hard right up until a couple of years ago! Over time my collection of breeds grew, at 13 my dad bought me a website to sell my surplus chicks, gave me some editing software and photo software and said here you go, make your website, I did and it's been in existence ever since.
Over time I became unwell and by the age of 15 I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Or M.E), by the time I left school at 18, having scraped a couple of A-levels, I found that no one wanted to employ anyone who was tired all the time. So I dabbled in my art and dog walking for a couple of years and eventually came to the conclusion that I may as well do something I was "good" at - chickens. And thus my childhood hobby became my full time job, there are good days and bad days but on the whole I enjoy it and it's good to be out in the fresh air. I may well sort out posting some tips and tricks for chicken keepers if anyone would be interested?
At the age of 17 my great aunt sadly died and left me some money, at the time I'd been allowed to go and groom the horses across the road and my mum and I decided that they seemed to have a considerably benefit to my health so, as you do, I spent some of the money on a horse! I ended up with Bob the norwegian fjord who has been a lifeline and a great friend and teacher for nearly 10 years. Now at the age of around 25 he's looking older and so in 2016 I decided it was time to start bringing on a younger one ready for Bob to have a well earned retirement. I was completely hooked on the breed by this point and ended up with a beautiful grade A, but unbroken 10 year old mare- Lyra. My first project horse and certainly a huge learning curve, she's not typical for the breed at all (more of a racehorse hiding in a cute pony costume!) but -finally- she's turning out brilliantly.
Then last year a close friend also bought a fjord, unfortunately she didn't quite get on with him and to my surprise she gifted him to me. Enter Louie a drafty gelding who'd had 8 homes before me, when I met him on the day my friend viewed him to buy he was the most dejected most uninterested horse I've ever met. Fast forward just over a year and he's a totally different animal who has his nose in everything and seems to be trusting us more and more each day. He also has a surprising talent for jumping so watch this space! 
As well as being an animal nut, I've always loved art (which ended up being one of my A-levels), I haven't done much in a long time, since starting the business properly I've been so busy, but I hope to take it up again. I also used to play the flute in a Junior orchestra, something else I haven't picked up in quite a few years but it is something I'd love to do again. I'd also really like to learn to play the cello but we'll see, I'm not sure if I have the talent for strings!
I also enjoy keeping up with world events and like a good debate, I enjoy learning more about how and why people think what they do. My mum is currently back at college studying counselling so helping her with her studying is proving interesting, I may well end up writing something about it for here.
Anyway I think that's quite enough about me for one day. I am looking forward to making some fellow Steem friends and learning more about you all!
Charlotte
Hello thoughtspot! Welcome to Steemit! Hope you'll like the community here. As a start, here are 5 tips that we believe will be helpful to you:
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Welcome to Steemit platform, from all of us in promo-nigeria. Steemit is a beautiful place to be and we are sure you will be happy here. Get to know more by blogging consistently. Never be discouraged, seek for assistant when necessary. Cheers!
Hello @thoughtspot! Welcome to steemit! Hope you'll like being here :)
Welcome to Steemit @thoughtspot :)
wow those horses look very muscular I don't think I've ever seen this breed of horse before they look cool. I like the feather pattern of that chicken very unique. I see you don’t have a Steemit Profile Picture I made a contest post on the bottom it will teach you, then after you make yours feel free to enter the contest to create mine. https://steemit.com/contest/@isteemithard/design-isteemithard-a-profile-picture-avatar-contest-14-winner-of-13
@thoughtspot ...welcome to this great community..I'm positive you'll do well , I've followed you, please do well to follow back..peace!
You have got an amazing look... Welcome to steemit 🙋💃
Join us on our Steemschool discord channel using this link https://discord.gg/2F74XX9 and get to learn about various niches...
Photography, arts, poetry, business amongst others...
The interesting part is we have people all over the world and we help each other grow...
Best wishes 👏👍
Welcome to Steemit thoughtspot. Let me know if you got any questions about Steem or anything related to it! The official FAQ can be found here and has A LOT of information https://steemit.com/faq.html - Also remember, Steemit is just ONE of the sites built that uses Steem the blockchain. We also have DTube - our very own Youtube, DSound for Soundcloud and Steepshot if you prefer Instagram like experience. I'd also like to mention ChainBB - forums, Busy - Steemit with more modern look basically, DMania for memes and Dlive for streaming just like in Twitch! You can also earn Steem by gaming now! Search for Steemgar if that's more your thing. Welcome to the blockchain! :)
Thank you! That's really helpful :D
Welcome to Steemit fellow horse lover!
Welcome to Steemit Charlotte! LOL at companies don't want to employ people who are always tired!
It is interesting about the Chickens. My Brother-in-Law has a whole yard full of show Chickens that are treated like Royalty. (We are in South Africa).
And lovely horses. I myself is not so much a horse fan but my wife is an absolute nut for them. Even though we can't keep our own as we live in the city and she is highly allergic to horse hair (go figure) she is collecting all the Schleich Horse Figurines. I think she might actually have a Fjord in there.
Looking forward to reading more posts from you.
Thank you! That's so cool! what kind of chickens does he keep? We've had people take our eggs all over the world so it's really interesting to see what keepers abroad are up to.
I love the idea of the Schleich figures, I've got an image of a whole stable of them in my head haha!
hi@hi ! Welcome to Steemit !
the picture on your blog is beautiful! :)
Thos are some wonderful looking horses. It is nice that you can work doing your childhood hobby. That is kind of cool.
Welcome to Steemit and I wish you the best in your endeavors here.
Love the ponies. So cute.
Welcome to Steemit @thoughtspot!
I wish you much success and hope you find Steemit to be as rewarding and informative as I have.
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Oh yea, I have upvoted you and followed you. Many blessings from @introbot & @bycoleman
Hola bienvenido a la gran familia steemit, ¿Quieres aprender como crecer en esta plataforma? acércate a nuestra comunidad, te enseñaremos con clases de Liderazgo, poesías, arte, negocios y comunicación.
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Hello, welcome to the great steemit family. Do you want to learn how to grow on this platform? get closer to our community, we will teach you with classes of Leadership, poetry, art, business and communication.
https://discord.gg/hrjxG4G