Monday, February 18, 2013

Another beautiful day ... followed by snow on Tuesday?

It is gorgeous outside, well at least here in Palmer it is. Bright blue skies overhead, crisp morning temps that are supposed to raise up to nearly 50 degrees today. This is winter? Well, I guess it's winter in Kentucky. Weird and wacky weather for sure. Tomorrow they say we may see snow! What's up with that?

Even more of a question? Will we really see it tomorrow or not? It seems to kind of go over the top of Kentucky and hit the states around us. Some people on the weather blog refer to our area as the snow dome of Kentucky. It falls, then just rolls off the dome onto the states surrounding us.

After living here for over ten years, I've come to the conclusion that Kentucky will never get another monster snow. I've heard about the 'dusting' for years, but have yet to see over 3 or 4 inches on the ground at once. I am really not complaining. Not much at least. When we do get severe weather of any type it usually results in a disaster of some kind for someone in the state. And that's just plain awful!

I've lived in the north enough to know that snow is very pretty on the ground. It gets very old by April or May..... Sometimes in the mountains of Idaho, roads don't even open up until June or July. The snowplows can't get through some of the roads so they just close them off for the winter. Snowmobiles are very popular in these areas.

I remember living in northern Maine as a child and not seeing the ground except for about one month, walking over a raging river to get to school - until the spring thaw that is. We also lived in northern Michigan and all I remember about that is the snow. I barely remember seeing the ground there. My dad has pictures of us camping in the snow while we lived there. That's dedication to camping I'd say.

As much as I'm ready for spring, I doubt we've seen the end of winter. I'd love to spend today - President's Day - planting seeds to get a head start on my garden. But, I'm pretty sure I've got another week or so to get it accomplished. Maybe the next snow day???

Have a great week everyone. It's deadline week for me, so I'll be attached the this keyboard for the better part of the week. And for that, I'm grateful. Without our wonderful advertisers, I wouldn't be!




Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Do you have a dog? We've got two, sometimes three!

Dogs are filling up the television screens this morning. Tonight the winner of the Westminster Dog Show will be chosen. I can't help but watch each of the breeds as they walk around that area. I find several breeds I would love to have each and every year.

The only problem is I already have dogs. Two of them - sometimes three! Everyone knows about our Abby dog. We got her from a friend in Irvine who couldn't keep her. The first week .... adorable. The second and third weeks .... ready to give her away! I hadn't had a dog in years, since living in Oregon. And Abby was such a cute puppy. We took her to the vet for her shots and found out she was part beagle. Oh, so that explained her need to run every time we let her out the door. She's a leash dog. Yup, runs off every chance she gets.

Then there is Gracie, our great white pyrenees. What a big ole' lovable thing she is. All 85 pounds of her. She was actually another rescue .... her owner had a heart attack and couldn't keep her. We got her when she was about 6 months old. She lived in a kennel for several months while we waited for the sale of the farm to go through and then she lived in the barn with the critters.

Well, she lived in the barn until her first big shock at hearing thunder. She's the biggest chicken. I think she would come through the front windows if she could when the storms hit. And we're pretty sure she heard a pretty big boom in the barnyard because she doesn't like it out there anymore. She's perfectly content lying on the front or back decks, out in the yard, down by the pond. Just don't lock her in the barnyard. She'll find a way out every time. She's climbed over bull gates, snuck under woven wire fences, we've even caught her squeezing her body through a 4-inch woven wire. She's just spreads the wire out to allow her body to get through.

Our third dog, Sheba, actually died a couple of days after Thanksgiving last year. She ingested some type of poison while ---- wait for it ---- running off! Yep, she was another of our wonderful dogs that wouldn't stay behind a fence. We certainly aren't very good at training our dogs, are we?

I did mention that we sometimes have three dogs. And we do. The neighbor's dog, Boomer, seems to have fallen in love with our Gracie dog. He hardly ever leaves. He's a good dog, just not ours! He runs down the road every day when the bus runs, since there are three kids on there that actually own him. He walks them down the road .... and then comes right back to our porch. Boomer's 'dad' drives by in his big red Dodge truck and the dog's ears perk right up. He follows him up the road too. I guess just to make sure his master gets home okay, because he comes right back to our house.

He's taken up residence in our back screened in room, taking full advantage of the couch back there. He stays comfy, that's for sure. We aren't sure whether to feed him or not. Gracie certainly doesn't let him eat her food. We sneak him food once in a while ... not really knowing if his 'owners' feed him. I'm guessing that we should head down to the neighbors one of these days and talk about visitation and support!

Well, have a great day everyone! Enjoy every bit of this wonderful sunshine as you can. My friendly weather-blogging dude says snow may return tomorrow.

Blessings, Pam


Monday, February 11, 2013

February is always a weird month

February is always just a weird month for me. I guess because it's shorter than the rest of the months of the year. In my business, it means less time to get the next edition ready to print. And to make matters worse, the printers need the book on the last day of February to get us printed on time! So...... the rush begins.

I'm excited that we can actually print before the end of the month. Delivery will begin on the 4th, about as close to the first of the month as we've gotten with the new printers. Maybe we can slowly adjust to where we come out before the 1st each month.

My original idea for All Things Country Magazine was to pick up ads for the next edition when we delivered! That didn't work. For a couple of reasons. We are in a bit of a hurry when we deliver. It takes alot for two of us to deliver a good 10,000 magazines in three days. If the weather is good, we can get it done in two VERY LONG days. During the winter months, it's a bit tougher. So, that kind of hinders picking up ads due to the time constraints. If we picked up the next month's ads along the way, it would take even longer to get the magazine out to 20 counties.

The second reason? Advertisers are never ready a month in advance. I'm not quite sure how they do it when they advertise in Kentucky Living or Southern Living. The deadline is months in advance. And the prices? OMGosh. A full page in Kentucky Living is well over 5,000.00 per month. A business card in Kentucky Living is costly too.

All Things Country Magazine is not nearly a Kentucky Living or a Southern Living and I readily admit that. But we're getting pretty darned popular in the areas that we deliver to. And for that I'm very thankful. Going to the mailbox after the book comes out is alot of fun (maybe not for the mail lady). And this month there will be even more mail due to the kid's Abby Track drawing. I can't wait to read all the great comments about the publication. Even the critical ones I receive from time to time. At least I try to learn from the critical ones!

The March book kicks off Spring for me. I guess that's the exciting part of rushing to get it ready. We're rushing right along into the best season of all for me. I love the re-birth that happens each March and April. The trees start budding out and giving us brilliant color. The red buds. Oh, what can I say about those beauties? Daffodils and early blooming bulbs start showing their colors to welcome back all that springs brings.

As I look out the front window this morning, it's breezy and clouds are dotting the blue sky. The days are getting longer and more and more activity can be seen out there. More birds are out and about. I've even seen a robin already! I hate wishing my life away, but come on Spring.

Have a great Monday .... wherever you may be. Remember to count your blessings and give an extra hug to those you love.
Pam

Monday, February 4, 2013

Another edition put to bed

The February edition of All Things Country Magazine is at the printers. Took a whole 4 minutes to send it from our little farm in northern Estill County to Dayton, Ohio! I sure wish we could have 12,000 copies delivered in 4 minutes.

Times have sure changed over the years in publishing, although some things still remain the same. When I started in the newspaper business, I worked on a big old machine that didn't have a screen. My copy sat directly in front of me and I had a little bitty window that showed about 4 words, maybe 5 if they were short ones. And they disappeared every time you 'returned'. If you made a mistake, too bad! And you didn't know if you had even made a mistake until you took a film canister out of the big old machine, walked back to the darkroom and developed the 'galleys' - long strips of film that the type was printed onto.

You then took the galleys and read through them. Using a blue printers marker you crossed out lines that had errors. If you were lucky there were none. This rarely happened! You then had to sit back down at the big old machine and type JUST THAT LINE. If it happened to be longer than the line you were correcting was, then you had to keep typing until you caught up, so to speak, on your galley. Once corrections were typed you then had to repeat the developing process to get your galleys again.

The next step? The one that had me thinking my very first day on the job whether this was the job for me or not! You ran your galley through the wax machine, laid it on your light-table and using a pica pole (a printer name for a steel ruler) and your trusty x-acto knife - you cut your lines of corrections out and placed them over your error on the original galley. And of course, it has to be perfectly straight so you don't see a crooked line when the paper is printed.

Whew! Did you get all that? How many of you remember those days? This was only the first step in a very long process. I spent hours standing in front of light boards laying out pages of type. As straight as possible. I got pretty good at it by the time I started on my first 'apple' computer and didn't have to do it anymore. Another thing you got good at? Keeping a firm hold on that x-acto knife. You wouldn't believe the times I've dropped one and it just missed my foot. Trust me, an x-acto knife falling from about 4 feet straight down puts a pretty good puncture in the top of your foot! May not seem like it would, but the sharper you kept your knife the better, so it was very sharp - with a very sharp point!

So many changes, yet so many things remain the same. Delivery is one of those things. We've gotten pretty good at it, but still can't get it all done in one day, two days is really pushing it sometimes. The winter months are much harder obviously. I guess it has changed in some ways - we don't have to deliver it by horseback! Although when the gas bill comes in, it makes us wonder!

Another thing that never changes .... putting an edition out without some kind of mistake in it. I try. I try my hardest. But it never seems to happen. When we pick up the book, it usually doesn't take me long to find an error. A good part of the changes that have come around down the road ... the ability to correct my errors and upload it to our website. I can't fix the printed edition .... but I certainly can fix the online version!

I try not to look at the book more than a couple of times when it comes out. I get too disappointed. And heck, I've seen enough of it by the time it prints. By the time it prints and is all delivered, it's time to start on the next edition anyway!

So, February has been 'put to bed' as they refer to it in the printing industry. It's time for a nap .... and then to enjoy my one true time off each month! The day before delivery begins. And I say a day off, but I'm never too far from my emails .... or the critters outside, which is our other non-stop job!

Thanks for following along ... and have a beautiful day!
Pam