Being the novice blogger that I am I somehow moved my side page to the bottem and I could not figure out how to move it back up.  So I had to reset the template and I figured since I'd be losing all my changes anyhow I may as well test out other templates.  Very few of them worked for what I had already posted- the blog area was VERY narrow and my posts were covered up by the side panel.  This farm one seems to work well and although it's a bit (ok a LOT) more subdued than I normally like I figured with our chickens and pigs it's fitting!  I'm not sure if my counter thingy is working but it never had very much to count so I guess it doesn't matter anyhow!