Sunday, November 22, 2009

Top 10 Dayton Media on Twitter

I took my popular Dayton Media Twitter list and did another analysis this week to determine the most frequently followed Dayton journalists on Twitter. Here are the top 10.

  1. WHIO TV7 - 1,779 followers
  2. Dayton Daily News - Hal McCoy - 1.522 followers
  3. Dayton Daily News - 1,507 followers
  4. WDTN TV2 - 1,351followers
  5. Dayton Daily News - Ohio Politics - 1,056 followers
  6. Dayton Daily News - Mark Fisher Wine - 927 followers
  7. Greenville Advocate 360 - 903 followers
  8. WDTN TV2 - Kennan Oliphant - 826 followers
  9. WKEF TV22 - JeffBoth - 770 followers
  10. WHIO TV7 - Rich Wirdzek - 729 followers

    *Followers as of Nov. 15, 2009.

A few observations on this list:

  • Dayton Daily News - Mark Fisher Food falls off the list to number 14 overall. Previously, Fisher was the only Dayton journalist to have TWO Twitter accounts in the top ten--and perhaps the only Dayton journalist to have two accounts at all.
  • The list changed very little since October, with @jeffbooth1as the only newcomer.
  • WHIO TV7 maintained its lead over Dayton Daily News - Hal McCoy.
  • Honorable mention on this list goes to WHIO TV7 - Gabrielle Enright who comes in at number 11 and has been very innovative in her use of Twitter to cover the news.
  • Everyone's Twitter pal, Kennan Oliphant remains the most prolific individual media Twitter account, now with 5,338 updates.

To see how all the media on my Dayton Twitter list fared, see my spreadsheet.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

I Never Liked Those Cows Anyway...Sniff

Next week the cows are leaving. Thank God.

Unable to sustain feeding, housing, breeding and milking our 40 cows twice a day, my father-in-law made the decision to stop milking. The cows will be leaving. They will not be going to another farm.

I never liked those damn cows anyway.

Every time I tried to take a shower, they would drink and use up all the water pressure. They were always bawling in the night when I was trying to sleep. Every two days a semi-tanker would drive under my bedroom window at 3 a.m. to pick up the milk; it took months before I stopped waking up to the diesel engine humming outside.

One time they got loose and ran all over the neighborhood. Actually, they did that several times.

And when it got really wet, they stunk.

Those cows were a nuisance. They chained the whole family to this farm, preventing us from taking vacations, attending family events. Did you know each cow produces 100 pounds of manure a day?

Who needs those cows? Who needs little calves running to the fence out of curiosity about your upturned hand? Who needs homemade ice cream so rich no one noticed when I forgot the vanilla flavoring? Who needs to run out their kitchen door with the measuring cup just to get a quick cup of milk for a recipe? Who needs freshly washed heifers lying on a bed of straw at the county fair?

I never liked those damn cows anyway. So why am I crying now?

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Farmer's Dictionary

You've heard of the Farmer's Almanac. That's the book that farmers consult to determine the best route from the Middle of Nowhere to Des Moines. What? Oh, yeah, driving directions and map come from the Farmers' Atlas. The Farmer's Almanac is the book other people consult to determine the weather--farmers just watch their local TV news station for weather. It works out well because farmers also LOVE sports.


Since the kids are asleep, the satellite TV isn't working and Husband is in line at the elevator (see definition below), I thought I would provide a handy reference for those of us/you who are unfamiliar with basic agricultural terms. Hence. The Farmers' Dictionary.

elevator - The elevator stores and sells grain. All rural men are contractually obligated to visit the local elevator at least once a weekend. During harvest, local farmers bring their grain to the elevator to be stored and eventually sold.

gravity wagon - A type of grain wagon designed to narrow at the bottom, allowing all the grain inside to flow out when the valve is opened at the bottom.

cow - Female bovine who has had one or more calf

sow - Female swine who has had one or more litters of pigs

ewe - Female sheep who has had one or more lambs

popper - Aluminum box that fits on the back of a pick-up truck. Designed to haul pigs.

This is by no means a complete listing of agricultural terms, but a good start. Join us again soon to learn more from the Farmers' Dictionary. I'll leave you with a few terms that farmers never use.

Terms/phrases not used by farmers:
- vacation
- day off
- repair man
- new
- Hello, I'd like to order flowers for my wife

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Mending Fences

When you live on a farm that last made a fencing purchase in 1972, sometimes the animals are able to escape. Most times, Husband deals with the escapees on his own, my only evidence of wandering cows the "pies" they leave at the back door.

Sometimes the little escape artists are so cute you just have to watch them explore the big world outside their pen. This is cuter to me than my in-laws who have to shoo little pigs out of their garden and flower beds.


One time we came home from being gone all day and saw suspicious manure/mud wiped on our back door. Apparently, the pigs had escaped from their pen, leaped into the nearest puddle, and then decided to pay their respects to the farmer and his family.


This past summer Justin and Morgan ran in the house to breathlessly report that there were cows in the barnyard. Only half believing them I walked outside in time to see a herd of mature Ayshires dashing down our gravel driveway toward the road. Husband raced past them and turned then back toward the house, and they stampeded right past us again. After detouring through my father-in-law's garden, they eventually returned to their barn.

Sometimes the animals are loose by design. These ewes (mother sheep) are grazing near Husband's old basketball court by the pig pens. Ah, the old basketball court by the pigs pens--isn't that where most kids learn the sport? Anyway, the sheep are there because Husband's father let them out. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure why. I guess he figured the ewes wouldn't wander far without their lambs.


Yes, most women have a lot to worry about when the phone rings in the night or the police knock on the door. But farm women have one more thing on their mind--broken fences.

Appointment Pooping

  NOTE: If you do not want to read about my healthy bowel movement, well too late you just did. I recently became you-better-get-a-colonosco...