by Mister January 2017, James “Busvlogger” Moore

Okay, nobody calls me “Arkansas’ Youtuber”, except the precedent has been set on the Arkansas Women Blogger’s site… right here… because I wrote it just now.

Being a stay-at-home dad / video blogger / homestead farmer comes with a lot of diverse daily experiences. Some are glamorous, like the time I was in Anaheim, California having dinner with a Property Brother and the next day nearly (literally) rubbing elbows with Katie Couric. Others are less spectacular. Like that whole series of videos I made chasing our goat wildly round and round from the neighbor’s, only to have her gently lope back into her pen anticlimactically. (It happened so often that I made an intro for the video series.)

Most days, Jamie leaves for work and I get the kids up and ready for school; always insisting to our six year old twins that “I understand that you’ve already brushed your hair, but you don’t require a comb-over like Grandad!”

Once I’ve driven them to school, I have a slow, quiet breakfast with a black, no froo froo, no nonsense coffee.

I take the house pig out on her leash to answer the call of nature and let her eat, uninterrupted in the kitchen, while I take our yellow lab and German shepherd/Cujo mix out to sniff every inch of the yard.

At this point the pig has taken in water, so she needs to make water; one more trip outside before she retires to nap in our bed for most of the day. The dogs “help” me feed the two dairy goats, the five chickens and the two garden ducks. (long story)

We all go back in. Often I’ll put something out to defrost or get something into the crock pot for supper. I email folks about ideas I have for next month’s onlyinark.com video or I’m trying madly to convince someone that I’d be a perfect judge at the Squirrel Cookoff.

I can’t fold clothes or wash dishes without music, so the house is then filled with French electro pop or Sinatra crooning the standards. (I’m complicated)

Usually, shooting a video takes 5 to 15 minutes and editing takes about three hours. So a good chunk of my time is spent editing, then rendering, then uploading, then getting the music copyright cleared, then crafting the perfect thumbnail for people to see and click, then the title, description and then the really technical stuff.

I usually remember to eat lunch around 1:30. So I make myself leave my home office and eat the leftovers that the kids turned their noses up at the night before. Because I’m over forty (I know, shocking) and because I’ll be shuttling kids until supper. I may get a nap, unless the dogs are getting into something or her highness: Princess-Naps-All-Day decides that her curly tail wants to go outside again.

I tuck everyone back into their kennels and put real pants on, for the first time that day, to go get the kids from school. I have the route and the timing orchestrated perfectly. No string of school buses hold me up and I get to the school just as the last poor sucker to wait in the pick-up line pulls away; no duty teacher is put out with me and I don’t have to wait in line. I’m once again the king of dads, a professional, if you will!

Off to the allergist, scouts, dance, church, soccer practice; whatever the afternoon demands. Then back home to check everyone’s backpacks and get homework and supper underway. Jamie gets home from work, we eat, baths, much pleading and bed… for the kids. It’s Jamie and my special time to watch a show and talk; so fifteen minutes later, we’re both asleep on the couch, of course.