News Release: Give Me a Home Where the Dairy Cows RoamWritten by LeAnn R. Ralph
October 2004 For Immediate Release…Give Me a Home Where Dairy Cows Roam COLFAX, WISCONSIN — Did you know that since 1969, United States has lost 85 percent of its dairy farms. And did you know that since 1969, Wisconsin has lost nearly 70 percent of its dairy farms? "I lived away from my hometown in west central Wisconsin for 15 years. When I returned in mid 1990s, I expected to be living in a farming community again. Instead, I discovered that many of small family dairy farms like one where I grew up had disappeared" said LeAnn R. Ralph, author of books Christmas in Dairyland (True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm) (August 2003) and Give Me a Home Where Dairy Cows Roam (October 2004). Figures from Census of Agriculture and from American Farm Bureau Federation indicate that in 1969 more than a half a million dairy farms operated in United States, but by year 2000, only 83,000 dairy farms remained. And according to statistics from U.S. Census of Agriculture, during last three decades of twentieth century, Wisconsin went from 66,000 dairy farms down to 20,000 dairy farms. "That's why I decided to write stories about growing up on a dairy farm. Our farm was home-steaded by my Norwegian great-grandfather in late 1800s, but small family farms are a thing of past. They have pretty much disappeared from landscape," Ralph said. "My dad milked 20 cows and knew all of them by name. Nowadays trend is toward corporate farms that milk hundreds of cows," she said. Ralph's new book, Give Me a Home Where Dairy Cows Roam (192 pages; $13.95; ISBN 1-59113-592-3) is a collection of 20 true stories that took place on her family's farm 40 years ago. Story titles include "Taking Bull by Horns," "Spring Cleaning," "A Different Sort of Cow," "Dad's Favorite Recipe," "Popsicle Blues," "On Top of World," and "Better Butter."
| | Camera Cell Phones -- More uses than you could have imagined Written by Elizabeth Edwards
I was shopping in large superstore with my five-year-old daughter, perfectly unaware that in next few minutes I would be living through every parent’s nightmare – in an instant my child would disappear from my side. She had been looking through little dresses right beside me and, when I called her to go try one on, she was no where to be found. I loudly called out her name, trying to keep panic from my voice, as I frantically looked all around. I rushed to front of store to inform security and first thing he asked me was, “What was she wearing?” Wearing? What was she wearing? We had dressed quickly that morning, looking forward to a Saturday spent shopping for clothes she would soon wear to kindergarten. Next Tuesday would be her very first day of school. In my panic I couldn’t remember what I had pulled from her closet that day. Was it her blue shorts set…no, she had worn that yesterday. I simply couldn’t remember. As I fought back tears of an anguished parent, I saw my precious little girl walking toward me, holding hand of an alert clerk who had found her wandering toward back of store. When I asked her why she had left me, she innocently explained that she had seen someone who looked like her grandmother and she had simply followed her. As I hugged her through my tears, I noticed that she was wearing her purple checked shirt and green shorts, and that I had braided her hair that morning before we left home. In my fear over not being able to find her, I had forgotten all those little details about her appearance. And, even worse, I had left my large purse at home with my other wallet that held my most current picture of her. Later, as my husband and I were discussing what had happened, he mentioned one of his customers had told him last time he had taken his four children to theme park, he had lined them all up at entrance and taken each one’s picture with his wife’s cell phone camera. That way if one of them became lost, he could instantly show security his child’s picture, complete with very clothes they were wearing at time they disappeared. The day of my ordeal, my camera-equipped cell phone had been in my bag around my waist entire time. It had never once occurred to me to snap my child’s picture in parking lot as we walked toward large store. Honestly, I hadn’t used camera feature that much, and had purchased phone more for some other features than fact that it could take a picture. Camera cell phones were first introduced in US about two years ago. Since then, their popularity has skyrocketed. Industry officials estimate that 12% of all cell phones sold in 2003 were equipped with a camera and that figure is steadily increasing. The camera cell phone may well be most popular electronic device this holiday season. Concerns over picture quality are diminishing rapidly as digital electronics in cell phone cameras become more and more advanced. One and two megapixel models are readily available and, according to an independent study released this past summer, pictures from these tiny cameras make “significantly better” 4” x 6” prints than those from both digital and traditional film “one-time-use” cameras.
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