Weather Still Rules
Hopefully by the time you have read this column, you have read part or all of the 2013 Fall Cattlemen’s Special Edition. We’re really proud of this year’s edition and hope you are also. We focused on agriculture in Albany County and, like most counties in Wyoming, it is diverse.
From the mountains on the south to the mountains on the north with the high plains in between, it is ranching, raising livestock, putting up hay – really good hay – and raising families. Well, that’s Wyoming, isn’t it?
On some special editions, it can be just a grind, kind of like gathering cattle some days. Sometimes it goes smoothly, but other times you just think, “Why me, Lord?” This Fall Cattlemen’s edition was really slow as far as selling advertising in the beginning. Then on the last week, it came pouring in – the most ever for that edition, so much that when Amanda measured it all up, Saige needed six more articles to fill the paper. That news was a shock for Saige, but as usual she had good ideas and whipped them out that afternoon and evening. As you see, Amanda did a great job on layout and using the right colors. She has really brightened up the Roundup, and everyone likes the way her ads look.
When getting ads gets a little tough, Jody and Denise just start digging harder and don’t give up. There have been times when we have had to pull the plug and tell them to stop selling we’ve got to go to press. They just don’t give up.
Despite Curt being out of the office a lot of September, he also had good sales. Hard work and good service is normal for him, as his customers know. Curt, Jody and Denise all know selling is not easy. The only shortcuts are hard work and work harder.
Special editions are fun, along with hard work, for the writers as they get to visit and meet so many producers in the counties. When we call producers, they always say we don’t have much of a story here, but once we get to the ranch, meet the family and see the place, there is always a story.
Everything went smoothly. The special edition was printed on Thursday and came out great. The Roundup was proofed late that afternoon, Friday morning came with the snow, and the internet went down. Andrea and Saige used their iPhones hotspots for makeshift internet on their computers, they got the corrections and markets to Amanda, and off it went to the printer. As the afternoon wore on and highways were closing, we had our fingers crossed and talked to our good Lord to hold off the snow a little, but it kept coming. The Roundup didn’t get to the Post Office until Monday morning when it reopened. Weather ruled the day.
But being a couple of days late is no big deal, considering all the damage and loss of livestock the storm brought. It was a tough, hard storm that affected everyone in many ways. We’ll remember October 2013 for this devastating storm and not for the Roundup being late.
