Farmer Gary and I have a tradition. Each evening, he asks me to look up how many readers visited this blog over the past day. It ranges greatly, depending on whether I’ve added a new post that day.

Then comes the really good part. “Where are they from?”

Blog analytics are fascinating. I haven’t splurged on a deep-dive system (yet), but the one I use lists readers by their nation. Gary never tires of it.

Of course, the majority of readers are from the U.S.

But then it gets crazy. Here are the numbers (and cute little flags) from 2021:

Here are the other countries that stopped by: Macau SAR China, Serbia, Belize, and Brazil. I think we’ll see the numbers from Germany jump when we put together more stories about Gary’s ancestors.

How do they find Too Much Brudders? Through Google and Facebook mostly. The large range of nations is thanks to the Fans of The Folio Society private group on Facebook – whenever I mention Mom and Dad’s collection of Folio books, I post a link there.

Meanwhile, which is the most-read story?

The blog analytics tell us the top two, actually, are nearly a tie. And they’re both about nuns!

Just shy of one-thousand reads is the story of Sister Sylvia, a beloved local nun who passed away last May.

She was a delightful character!

And with just five fewer views (so far) is our dear Sister Amabilis. She was my great-aunt and taught first grade in Connecticut for 58 years.

Next in line is the story of Dad taking me Christmas shopping in 1963. Poor guy!

I asked Gary which is his favorite story and that dear man said they’re all his favorites (he’s the only person I know who can say something like that and truly mean it). But he did bring up the post that he finds most poignant.

It’s the last story Dad and I collaborated on: The Maine man. It took weeks to talk about, research, and put together, and ended – triumphantly – with Dad identifying a certain little fellow’s ears.

I’m not sure I could choose a favorite out of the 250 posts, either, but one story I’m extra glad I got to learn about and share is “Over the moon,” about the beautiful pin Dad had made for Mom. It’s especially nice because John, Aubrie, and Cameron recorded their own sweet version of Fly Me to the Moon for the post.

Meanwhile, we’re closing in on 35,000 visits, with the top overall day bringing in 481 readers.

Thanks to all who have subscribed and to those who drop by occasionally. We hope you’ll stick around! If you could see the boxes of family archives stacked up here in our study, you’d know it goes without saying we have many more stories to tell.

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