My First Field: Netlify
When I started my website, my first home was a free service called Netlify. It let me publish my website to the world with a simple drag and drop. For a beginner like me, it was a wonderful tool.
Then one day, I received a message saying it was almost time to pay. I thought it would stay free, so the notice came as a surprise. For a senior beginner like me, it was quite a shock.
Looking for a New Home
Should I keep paying? Or should I move to a new place?
While looking for another option, I found Cloudflare. I learned that if I saved my website files on GitHub, Cloudflare could publish my website automatically.
GitHub is like a storage shed beside the field — you keep your seeds (your code) there, and Cloudflare plants them for you. It sounded easy.
But it was not.
I spent many hours looking at the black Terminal screen and typing strange git commands again and again. Sometimes nothing happened. Sometimes the screen showed old files. Sometimes I only saw error messages.
Even so, I checked each problem one by one. In the end, I successfully connected GitHub and Cloudflare and moved my website to its new home.
Raising My Flag
After the move, I made another important decision.
I bought my own domain name: satofarms.com
A domain name is like an address on the Internet.
I am not a business expert. I do not have a perfect plan for the future.
Still, having my own address felt like the right next step.
A dot-com is not just a business plan.
It is a flag. It says, “I am here.”
First, you raise the flag.
What comes next will reveal itself over time.
One Week with Two Fields
For one week, I kept both websites running: the old one on Netlify and the new one on Cloudflare (satofarms.com). Today, I decided to move everything to Cloudflare. In doing so, I returned to a fully free setup once again.
The Road Ahead
Right now, satofarms.com is only a simple landing page.
But I already have many dreams for it.
I want to write about my rice fields and vegetable gardens in both Japanese and English.
Maybe someone from another country will read my stories and decide to visit Nakanojo or Shima Onsen.
Maybe someone will think,
“Rice farming in Japan is so beautiful.”
In the future, I also hope to use AI.
I dream of speaking into my phone while working in the fields, and having my words become a blog post automatically.
Maybe that day is not so far away.
Of course, these are still only ideas.
They may never become reality.
But if I never try, the chance will always be zero.
Farming and building a website are very similar.
You plant seeds. You water them. You pull the weeds.
Then you wait with patience.
Today, I am still taking one small step at a time, growing satofarms.com just as I grow my fields.