My new favorite newshound...

Louie

I didn't know I was going to get an editorial consultant when we picked Louie up in Connecticut about a month ago. He was four months old on Saturday, and he's really developed a taste for newspapers.  Mostly he eats them. You might say he devours the news, and on Sundays he's got his work cut out for him. That's the day we read the local paper, the New York Times on occasion, and, of course, the latest edition of Lancaster Farming.

Yesterday, I went for my second or third cup of coffee, absent-mindedly put my paper on the floor and when I came back there was Louie, actually looking at it. You know, cock the head this way, then that way, then wonder why all the words are upside down.

But, at least, not eating it. I took it as a sign of respect.

Maybe he knows how I pay for his puppy food.

Niche marketing kept a 75-year family farm tradition alive for Layne and Beth Klein of Easton, Pa. When their 70-cow herd fell victim to tumbling milk prices in January, 2003, the Kleins held on to their farm, which had been in the family since 1934, by selling the herd. They kept a few replacement heifers. When the heifers started milking, the Kleins became cheesemakers. They now have a farm store, a westore, and sell 20 varieties of cheese.  They also sell raw milk, eggs, their own beef, yogurt and other products out of their farm store. Lancaster Farming alum Lou Ann Good,  now a correspondent, reports on the Kleins' turnaround in the May Eastern Dairy Reporter, part of your current edition.

I did this when I was a kid. But it's less scary when they just roll you into the creek. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYQn9nl07M4