diff --git a/portal/blog.md b/portal/blog.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f62f46fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/portal/blog.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# Blog
+
+This will be replaced by `ablog` so there's nothing here.
diff --git a/portal/conf.py b/portal/conf.py
index ca5f8c43..ce57d8e0 100644
--- a/portal/conf.py
+++ b/portal/conf.py
@@ -118,7 +118,6 @@
         'index': 'page-banner.html',
         'resource-gallery': 'page-standalone.html',
     },
-    'secondary_sidebar_items': [],
     'footer_logos': {
         'NCAR': '_static/images/logos/NSF-NCAR_Lockup-UCAR-Dark_102523.png',
         'Unidata': '_static/images/logos/Unidata_logo_horizontal_1200x300.svg',
diff --git a/portal/index.md b/portal/index.md
index df83ff96..b9a09d9c 100644
--- a/portal/index.md
+++ b/portal/index.md
@@ -227,5 +227,6 @@ contributing.md
 cookbook-guide.md
 code_of_conduct.md
 resource-gallery.md
+blog.md
 metrics.md
 ```