As you can see from the picture, my neighbor, Bill, and I enjoy relaxing around a camp fire and solving all of the world's problems, while keeping a careful eye out for satellites passing overhead. You may also notice a recorder (a Zoom H2 Handy Recorder, which I believe is no longer produced) with which we are recording ourselves for the purpose of podcasting.

I have been an avid listener to podcasts for many years now and several people have told us that we should start a podcast of our fireside chats. Most everyone who has been with us for our evening chats have commented that they enjoy them immensely.

The final push that got us to start was Bill retiring. So this summer we have begun recording and releasing a podcast. It's an experiment, but we are determined to keep it fun and enjoy the process. Our first few episodes are literally us just chatting by the fire, complete with the snaps and pops in the background of the fire, which came through really well on the recording. Future episodes will doubtless be more organized, but sometimes you just have to start with what you're best at to set a good baseline level of expectation.

I bring the recording device and a willingness to take on the engineer role for the two of us. Bill provides the fire pit and thought up the name for our podcast: "The Pastor and the Guy Next Door". Everyone seems to love the name, so we're going with it. While it may not be short and punchy as a good marketing name should be, it has the advantage of being completely true and memorable.

Fortunately for Bill and I, my daughter is studying to be a graphic designer, so I smiled sweetly at her and she designed us some rocking podcast artwork for the show. While I'm a fair photographer, I could never have come up with something like that myself, so I am both blessed and grateful.

So, I'd appreciate it if you'd check out our humble podcast. We've had fun making it and I think you'll have fun listening to it. We've submitted it to the major podcast directories, but they take a while to list you. The current best way to reach it is to visit our podcast page at our blog hosting provider. In a few weeks you should just be able to search for The Pastor and the Guy Next Door in your podcast app.