Weekly Comments Archive
Archived Issue
Friday, February 24, 2006
ISSUE #398
Farmers flock to Kenton Country, ignore Olympics

# 398, February 24, 2006

ADA, Ohio:  Once again the farmers descended on this little college town to learn about conservation farming and newfangled technology. They return every year at this time, kinda like the swallows to Capistrano or the buzzards to Hinkley, except there’s more of ’em with each succeeding year.

These farmers came here from Indiana and Michigan and other states and the total flock added up to around 700. Nitrogen and diesel fuel have got so expensive they are figuring out how to get by with less of it. Use no-till, plant cover crops, spread manure, grow corn and soybeans then make ethanol and biodiesel out of it. If that don’t work, they’ll come back next year for new and better ideas.

This town Ada is in the same county as Kenton, and this whole region is known as Kenton Country. It’s quiet, no big airports or interstate highways to keep you awake at night. It’s quiet, but connected. Johnny Appleseed passed through here, planting trees. Gene Autry dropped in for a spell. The county is flat, good for farming. No mountains, but there’s been so little snow this winter, a mountain would be pretty much worthless.

The Winter Olympics are almost over. Nobody knows for sure just when they end, but NBC will keep ’em going till Sunday night. There’s been some wonderful surprises, like Julia Mancuso, Joey Cheek and Shani Davis. But some disappointments: our hockey team won one game out of six, which was hardly worth the trip to Italy. Bode Miller forgot how to ski, and you may find him waiting tables at Snowshoe or driving a Zamboni.

Is it just me, or do the Torino gold medals look like a CD?

This argument over who gets to run our big ports knocked any other news in the creek. A lot of folks don’t want any foreigners butting in. They say, “We don’t need any Arabs telling us how and when to dock our ships.” Of course they aren’t our ships any more either. No matter how it turns out, the ports will be run by the same ones that’s been running them: the Longshoremen.

Historic quote from Will Rogers: (more on Presidents Day)

“George Washington was quite a farmer. Instead of putting a golf course on his land, he put in Indian corn that he had captured from the Indians. His nineteenth hole was in his own house. Washington was the most versatile President we ever had. He was a farmer, Civil Engineer and gentlemen. He made enough at Civil engineering to indulge in both the other luxuries. And Jefferson sitting up there on his hill believed in equality for all. But he dident divide up the hill with any poor deserving Democrats.” WA #313, December 23, 1928

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