function hts_blog_posts() {
	static $cache = null;
	if ( null !== $cache ) { return $cache; }
	$cache = array();

	$q = new WP_Query( array(
		'post_type'           => 'post',
		'post_status'         => 'publish',
		'posts_per_page'      => 24,
		'orderby'             => 'date',
		'order'               => 'DESC',
		'ignore_sticky_posts' => true,
		'no_found_rows'       => true,
	) );

	foreach ( $q->posts as $wp ) {
		$cat_name = 'Field Notes'; $cat_slug = 'field-notes';
		foreach ( get_the_category( $wp->ID ) as $t ) {
			if ( 'uncategorized' !== $t->slug ) { $cat_name = $t->name; $cat_slug = $t->slug; break; }
		}
		$content = apply_filters( 'the_content', $wp->post_content );
		$mins    = max( 1, (int) ceil( str_word_count( wp_strip_all_tags( $content ) ) / 200 ) );
		$excerpt = has_excerpt( $wp ) ? get_the_excerpt( $wp ) : wp_trim_words( wp_strip_all_tags( $content ), 28, '…' );
		$thumb   = get_the_post_thumbnail_url( $wp->ID, 'large' );

		$cache[] = array(
			'slug' => $wp->post_name, 'title' => get_the_title( $wp ), 'excerpt' => $excerpt,
			'category' => $cat_name, 'category_slug' => $cat_slug,
			'thumb' => $thumb ? $thumb : '',
			'date' => get_the_date( 'M j, Y', $wp ),
			'read' => $mins . ' min read', 'read_short' => $mins . ' min', 'read_minutes' => $mins,
			'body' => $content,
		);
	}
	wp_reset_postdata();
	return $cache;
}

function hts_blog_thumb_url( $thumb ) {
	if ( ! $thumb ) { return ''; }
	if ( preg_match( '#^https?://#i', $thumb ) ) { return $thumb; } // real featured image (absolute URL)
	return get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/assets/img/' . $thumb; // legacy bundled asset
}
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="https://harristechsolutions.com/wp-sitemap-index.xsl" ?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"><sitemap><loc>https://harristechsolutions.com/wp-sitemap-posts-post-1.xml</loc></sitemap><sitemap><loc>https://harristechsolutions.com/wp-sitemap-posts-page-1.xml</loc></sitemap><sitemap><loc>https://harristechsolutions.com/wp-sitemap-taxonomies-category-1.xml</loc></sitemap><sitemap><loc>https://harristechsolutions.com/wp-sitemap-users-1.xml</loc></sitemap></sitemapindex>