Captain's Log- Pruning and Fertilizing

I grow plants. Lots of them. We are lousy at the Boyer Bunny Ranch with plants. I love them like I love the bunnies and the chickens. Except I don’t name them. That’s a little much. Says the girl whose 13 chickens all have names. (Larry, get off the shed!)

Apparently, I have quite a knack for growing plants. There is an abundance. A plethora. Some people can sing, some can dance, me – things grow. 

In my younger years, there was a leaning to letting plants do their thing. Plant, water, sun. To get all wild and overgrown. To just see what would happen if you let nature take its course. One time for Anne Pershing I wrote a column about this massive, pink rosebush that had overtaken the front entry way of my house. There was for me a certain beauty in seeing what would happen when I just got out of the way. 

Over the years, I’ve learned, sometimes the hard way, that plants do better when you facilitate their growth a bit. Trimming them back, strategically, will do wonders for encouraging growth. Learning the art of water and sun will produce beautiful flowers. And in the structure, it turns out, there comes a level of expansion I never imagined. 

Pruning a plant yields cuttings that you can root and in weeks you have even more plants while the momma plant becomes even more healthy and flourishing. 

It’s like life. 

There comes a time when you have to take a look at what’s going on and prune and do some major clean up and recalculation. 

The end of the year seems a good time to take stock and assess your situation and make some strategic nips. We’re doing that here at The Fallon Post – madly cutting costs everywhere we can in anticipation that we will continue to bloom in even more strategic ways. 

Along with that, our team has talked a lot about how we operate and what it costs and how we can build our strength in the paper. One idea the team raised with me was to raise our prices on the newsstand and the subscriptions. Two years ago, we did a survey of our readers and overwhelmingly you all supported an increase, but I resisted and didn’t do it. In the six years we’ve been doing this, we have never increased our prices. 

But now we just have to. To quote one of my favorite movies, “The cost of land in California is $600 an acre, an acre!” (Rustler’s Rhapsody).

Beginning January 1, 2025, six years after we started this windmill-tilting we will raise the newsstand to $2 a piece and subscriptions will go to $149.95. 

We will continue to make this the best possible local, community newspaper and make it worth your while and your money. We appreciate your support over the years. Your encouragement. Your belief in what we’re doing. 

So while we prune and fertilize, your support of this increase will allow us to still be right here…

…Keeping you Posted. 

Rach.