The Local-News Crisis Is Weirdly Easy to Solve

Restoring the journalism jobs lost over the past 20 years wouldn’t just be cheap—it would pay for itself

Zak Podmore did not bring down a corrupt mayor. He did not discover secret torture sites or expose abuses by a powerful religious institution. But there was something about this one article he wrote as a reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune in 2019 that changed my conception of the value of local news.

Podmore, then a staff journalist for the Tribune and a corps member of Report for America, a nonprofit I cofounded, published a story revealing that San Juan County, Utah, had paid a single law firm hundreds of thousands of dollars in lobbying fees. Among other things, Podmore found that the firm had overcharged the county, the poorest in the state, by $109,500. Spurred by his story, the firm paid the money back. Perhaps because it didn’t involve billions of dollars, but rather a more imaginable number, it struck me: In one story, Podmore had retrieved for the county a sum that was triple his annual salary.

You’ve probably read about the collapse of local news over the past two decades. On average, two newspapers close each week. Some 1,800 communities that used to have local news now don’t. Many of the papers still hanging on are forced to make do with skeleton staffs as their owners, often private-equity firms, seek to cut costs. The number of newspaper newsroom employees dropped by 57 percent from 2008 to 2020, according to a Pew Research study, leading to thousands of “ghost newspapers” that barely cover their community.

For the past 15 years, I have been part of an effort to reverse this trend.

Editor's Column

We had the opportunity to meet Steve Waldman, President of Rebuild Local News and co-founder of Report for America (and author of the piece you see at right) during the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Convention in March. Waldman was speaking about his initiatives and the importance of rebuilding local news, especially in rural areas. He was interested in our model and our plans for the future. The piece you see at right succinctly explains the danger to our democracy posed by the closure of newspapers, large group or hedge fund-owned newspapers and the rise of ghost and skeleton-crew newspapers. Independent community newspapers have impact that ripples outward. I would have loved to have been a part of Report for America after college, opportunities like that help train the next generation of journalists. Now let's make sure there are independent local community newspapers waiting for them.

— Nicole Aimone, Editor-in-Chief

That means I’ve grown used to talking about the threat that news deserts pose to American democracy. After all, the whole concept of democratic selfgovernment depends on the people knowing what public officials are up to. That’s impossible without a watchdog press. Researchers have linked the decline of local news to decreased voter participation and higher rates of corruption, along with increased raised the pay of the city manager to $787,637 and that of the police chief to $457,000. The Los Angeles Times eventually exposed the graft, and several city officials ended up in prison. Prosecutors accused them of costing taxpayers at least $5.5 million through their inflated salaries. These salaries were approved at municipal meetings, which is to say that if even one reporter (say, with a salary of $60,000) had been in attendance, the city might have saved millions of dollars. issue, on average. polarization and more ideologically extreme elected officials. At this point, I can make high-minded speeches about this stuff in my sleep, with Thomas Jefferson quotes and everything. Recently, however, I’ve come to realize that I have been ignoring a less lofty but perhaps more persuasive argument: Funding local news would more than pay for itself.

Unlike other seemingly intractable problems, the demise of local news wouldn’t cost very much money to reverse. Journalists are not particularly well compensated. Assuming an average salary of $60,000 (generous by industry standards), it would cost only about $1.5 billion a year to sustain 25,000 localreporter positions, a rough estimate of the number that have disappeared nationwide over the past two decades. That’s two-hundredths of a percent of federal spending in 2022. I personally think this would be an amount well worth sacrificing to save American democracy. But the amazing thing is that it wouldn’t really be a sacrifice at all. If more public or philanthropic money were directed toward sustaining local news, it would most likely produce financial benefits many times greater than the cost.

What do government officials do when no one’s watching? Often, they enrich themselves or their allies at the taxpayers’ expense. In the 2000s, some years after its local paper shut down, the city of Bell, California, a low-income, overwhelmingly Latino community,

Sometimes the work of journalists prompts government investigations into the private sector, which, in turn, produce fines that go into the public’s bank account. After the Tampa Bay Times found that a battery recycler was exposing its employees and the surrounding community to high levels of lead and other toxins, regulators fined the company $800,000. A ProPublica investigation into one firm’s questionable mortgage-backed securities prompted investigations by the Security and Exchange Commission, which ultimately assessed $435 million in fines. A review of more than 12,000 entries in the Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards found that about one in 10 triggered fines from the government, and twice as many prompted audits.

In other cases, local-news organizations return money directly to consumers by forcing better behavior from private institutions. MLK50, a local newsroom in Memphis, teamed up with ProPublica to report that Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare had sued more than 8,300 people, many of them poor, for unpaid hospital bills. In response, the faithbased institution erased nearly $12 million in debt.

Of course, most journalism does not convert quite so immediately into cash on hand. The impacts may be enormous but indirect. One study of toxic emissions at 40,000 plants found that when newspapers reported on pollution, emissions declined by 29 percent compared with plants that were not covered. The study did not track the ripple effects, but it stands to reason that residents in the less polluted areas would have fewer health problems, which in turn would translate to lower medical costs and less lost work time. Another study, by the scholars Pengjie Gao, Chang Lee, and Dermot Murphy, looked at bond offerings in communities with and without local news from 1996 to 2015. It concluded that for each bond offering, the borrowing costs were five to 11 basis points higher in the less covered communities. That translated to additional costs of $650,000 an

Letter To The Editor

Dear Editor, WI Rep. Derrick Van Orden (Dis.-3) has proven that he is unfit for public office. During the wee hours of Thursday morning, July 27, his unchecked temper caused him to lash out at a group of teenage senate pages in the capitol rotunda. Senate pages are 16- and 17-yearolds who assist Senators. When Senators work late, as happened Wednesday night, pages are allowed to rest in the nearby rotunda.

Following Van Orden’s verbal assault, one of the pages wrote down his exact words. “Who the f--- are you?” Van Orden asked. One person said they were “senate pages.” Van Orden fired back: “I don’t give a f--- who you are, get out!”

He called the pages “jackasses” and

“pieces of s---,” and told them he didn’t “give a f--- who you are.” “Wake the f--up you little s----. … What the f--- are you all doing? Get the f--- out of here. You are defiling the space you [pieces of s---],” Van Orden bellowed. “You jackasses, get out!”

The incident, which happened very early Thursday morning, outraged Senators who were working that night, calling the string of foul language “horrible.” Further, House members were shocked that Van Orden refused to apologize to the teenagers for his malicious attack.

Punchbowl News recently reported that “This is not the first time Van Orden has flashed his temper. He reportedly threatened a 17-year-old library page in his home state over a gay pride display and demanded to know who set it up.

One academic tried to track the economic effects even further downstream. In his book Democracy’s Detectives: The Economics of Investigative Journalism, the Stanford professor James Hamilton looked at a series by KCBS in Los Angeles that uncovered a flawed restaurantinspection program. The exposé prompted L.A. County to require restaurants to display their inspection scores, which in turn led to a 13.3 percent drop in L.A. County hospital admissions for food poisoning. Hamilton estimated a savings of about $148,000. In another case study, Hamilton analyzed a series by the Raleigh News & Observer that found that, because the state criminaljustice system didn’t adequately keep track of those under supervision, 580 people on probation in North Carolina killed someone from 2000 to 2008. After the state implemented reforms, murders committed by people on probation declined. Applying the statistical “value of human life” used by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Hamilton concluded that society saved about $62 million in just the first year after the policy changes. The series cost only about $200,000 to produce.

Ideally, investment in local news would come from the federal government, which has more freedom to think long-term than cash-strapped states and municipalities do. The Rebuild Local News coalition, of which I am president, supports legislation that would provide a refundable tax credit for news organizations that employ local reporters, and a tax break for small businesses that advertise in local news. A new version of the bill was just introduced in the House of Representatives by the Republican Claudia Tenney and the Democrat Suzan DelBene. Civic-minded philanthropists focused on high-impact donations should also put money into local news, given the likely societal returns. It’s impossible to quantify exactly how much money would be generated for government and consumers by restoring the health of local news. But it’s nearly as hard to deny that the investment would pay off handsomely. And the savingdemocracy part? Well, that’s just gravy.

Steven Waldman is president of Rebuild Local News and a co-founder of Report for America. The Wisconsin Newspaper Association is a member of the Rebuild Local News project. Support for this project was provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. This piece originally appeared in The Atlantic.

The page in question had set the display up. She told her parents she did not feel safe to return to the library for work.”

Who among us would keep our jobs if this sort of temper tantrum and foul language were used at our places of work? I suspect none. As a former teacher, I know I would have been immediately suspended and probably fired in short order. Van Orden unfortunately may keep his House seat until the next election cycle. But next November, he deserves to lose his seat and never hold public office again. He’s shown everyone he is UNFIT.

Lee D. Van Landuyt

Hillsboro, Wisconsin

Meeting Our Needs — Part 13: 'You’re too honest.'

“Meeting Our Needs” is a series that acknowledges the organizations and individuals who work to make our communities better, stronger, healthier and more inclusive. We know we face challenges and divisions among us, but we miss and underestimate the essential goodness of rural Wisconsinites when we fail to celebrate those who are lifting us up in so many ways. Let us hear your stories, contact bpestel@msn.com to be included in this series.

separated these two men. And that got me thinking. Too many of us may be viewing the world through the wrong lens. What separates us may not be our politics, but our degree of adherence and commitment to the principles of tolerance. It may be more effective if we begin viewing ourselves as being either in, and loyal to, the Tolerant Party or the Intolerant Party.

When political party is overlaid on this more fundamental divide and a conflict results, loyalty to political party needs to be the one to be set aside. You can’t serve two diametrically opposed masters. At least you can’t if you choose to live your life in an internally consistent and rational world.

Let me go back to some definitions and then provide examples of what I’m seeing here.

On to the quotes. This quote is on page 11 of the indictment:

“As a conservative Republican…I voted for President Trump and worked hard to reelect him. But I cannot and will not entertain a suggestion that we violate current law to change the outcome of a certified election…I …swore an oath to support the U.S. Constitution… It would violate that oath, the basic principles of republican government, and the rule of law if we attempted to nullify the people's vote…” and “would bring mutually assured destruction for every future election.” I’m trying to compose a response to this – I’m at a loss. I cannot fathom anyone defending the leader of the Intolerant Party followed immediately by an appeal to the principles of the Tolerant Party. How is this guy’s head not exploding?

These quotes should make our brains scream obscenities at us over the confluence of two such extreme opposites coming out of the same mouth. What is wrong with these guys?

I thought I was done with this series, and then I read the Jan.6 indictment of Donald Trump and the Paradox of Tolerance again reared its head. The evidence of criminal conduct seems overwhelming. OK, innocent until proven guilty, that’s the law; that’s a rule the tolerant must adhere to if our government has any chance of surviving and meeting our needs. So, no comment on the charges, all I’m going to do is analyze some quotes given by witnesses.

“You’re too honest” was Trump’s response to Vice President Mike Pence when Pence told him that under the Constitution he had no authority to reject or return votes to the states. “You’re too honest” is the response of an intolerant man to a tolerant man (at least he sounds like one at the moment). It is not the response of a Republican to a Democrat; party affiliation is not what

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On certain topics in areas of great community interest, the editors of the Valley Sentinel may take positions they believe best represent and serve the interests of the community. Any opinions or positions taken by the editorial board are separate and distinct in labeling and substance from the community journalism that appears in the rest of the publication and does not affect the integrity and impartiality of our reporting.

The USA is a liberal democracy, which is defined as a system of government in which individual rights and freedoms are officially recognized and protected, the exercise of political power is limited by the rule of law. Under this system of government, because tolerance of differences and equal application of the rule of law must be paramount, the Tolerant Party must prevail.

Since the Intolerant Party is not restricted by the principles of equality and rule of law, and they write their own rules to suit themselves, we have a problem that brings us to the paradox.

The philosopher Karl Popper wrote: “Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.”

The result is that the Tolerant Party cannot survive unless it is willing to be intolerant of the Intolerant Party. (Every time I write or say this something inside my brain starts screaming obscenities at me - #$*#ing paradox!)

This is someone who very much appears to want to live in the Tolerant Party. He “cannot and will not” violate his oath to the Constitution, the basic principles of a liberal democracy, and the rule of law. Yet, in the same statement he identifies himself with a political party and as a man who “worked hard to reelect” the obvious leader of the Intolerant Party. His loyalty to a political party has put him in direct conflict with his desire to be a member of the Tolerant Party. This has to be a very uncomfortable place to live if he stops to think about it. How does his head not scream obscenities at him? I guess we can hope that it does.

On page 19 of the indictment is another quote:

“…I fought hard for President Trump…I think he’s done an incredible job. But I love our republic, too. I can't fathom risking our norms, traditions and institutions to pass a resolution retroactively changing the electors for Trump... I fear we'd lose our country forever. This truly would bring mutually assured destruction for every future election…And I can't stand for that. I won't.”

This one really makes my head spin. The man thinks Trump has done “an incredible job” but Trump has just asked him to take actions that lead him to say “I fear we’d lose our country forever” publication with an accessible, hybrid model that allows anyone that wants to read local news to have access to it. We do not believe financial ability should be a barrier to reading local news. We may be a free paper, but unfortunately it’s not free to print papers. Valley Sentinel will stay a free and truly independent and accessible paper. Please frequent our local businesses and let them

The paradox of this is real and should make our brains scream at us. We should be thankful for those screams because they force us to stop, think and act with extreme caution. The tolerant will always struggle with the dilemma of when and how to stand up to the intolerant. The one thing that the tolerant should never avoid, however, is to denounce the positions and statements of false equivalences from the intolerant. It would seem the intolerant are incapable of hearing the screams of their own brains trying to deal with the inconsistency of their positions. The tolerant should be vigilant, hear those screams and do what they can to drown out the voices of the intolerant.

So, this is where we are. A liberal democracy must be a tolerant society, and if loyalty to the Tolerant Party does not supersede political party affiliation when the two come into conflict, our democracy is at risk. If people in political positions of power do not see the absurdity of trying to serve two diametrically opposed masters, our democracy is at risk. If citizens of voting age do not see the seriousness of this dilemma, our democracy is at risk. …Or maybe I’m being hyperbolic? What is your brain screaming at you?

Beverly is a retired professor. She lives in a remodeled farmhouse and tends 40 acres of woodland in Richland County. When not in the woods she spends her time reading, writing and enjoying the beauty of the Driftless Area.

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CHRIS HARDIE'S 'BACK HOME' COLUMN

Cleaning up memories

Chris Hardie, Columnist

There is nothing predictable about memories, which are sometimes as harsh as the strike of the hammer on the anvil and the next moment as soft as puffy clouds in the blue summer sky.

I’ve forgotten much more than I remember, which will not improve as I age, but every so often the gate that holds back my recollections opens up and they flood my mind.

my last connection to him.

Bit by bit, object by object, tool by tool, I began to sort. There was never any organizational system when it pertained to Dad and his tools – a trait I unfortunately inherited. There were other items stored in the cabinets and here are the ones that captured Dad in many ways.

Deer antlers: On the top of a storage cupboard were nine pairs of deer antlers from over the years. Dad loved hunting and saved his antlers. I smiled when I discovered that sometime a few years ago when he kept the garage door open all the time a bird had built a nest on the bottom side of one rack.

Pliers: Dad always carried pliers and after wearing out a few pockets, he opted for a leather holster he wore on his belt. The pliers were used for everything from pounding nails, fixing stanchions or even pulling a loose tooth if I complained (which I learned not to do after one or two times).

Such was the case the day after the third anniversary of my father’s death when I finally got around to cleaning the garage of my parent’s former house. It was exactly one year after my mother moved from the home, which has been put up for sale.

The rest of the house had been sorted and cleaned, but the garage was the last. It’s not that I lack things to do, but perhaps my reason for delay was because it was the final domain of my father. Maybe deep down I felt like it was

Tape measure: The second of his three tools that he always carried – along with a pocket knife – was a small tape measure. He never needed it for larger measurements – he knew the length of his strike and would just walk it off.

Ruler: This small metal measurer reminded me of him because it was a promotion for Sunbeam bread. Dad actually despised the bread – he hated the soft consistency – so he used the name for any kind of bread that he hated.

Baseball: Dad loved baseball. He played for local farm teams and was one heckuva pitcher. During high school he worked on his uncle’s farm during the day and then would play baseball at night. He was a fan of the Milwaukee Braves and later the Brewers. I’ve written a story about how my brother Kevin and I lost his treasured baseball that he once caught at a Braves game.

Ax: This ax was used for butchering chickens. Dad would cut off the heads on a stump, I would dip them in hot water and pluck and Mom would eviscerate. It was a hot and smelly job, but the meat was delicious.

Level: There were several antique levels in the garage. Dad’s father was a skilled carpenter. Dad was not. He was extremely capable, but never had the patience for the fine finish work. He was definitely from the “it’s good enough” school of carpentry.

Christmas tree stand: Some years Dad

Exit Interview: Closure of Lone Rock Bistro leaves a hole, Q&A with owner

continued from page 1 people came out in our last weeks after announcing the closing to say goodbye and thank you. It was very hard for staff in the last few weeks and emotions were running high at times. I commend them for getting through it with grace. It's never easy to face the people you are letting down. losses in such a short time makes it very hard to give positive advice right now. VS: Please feel free to add anything else.

MH: Rocketman was more or less a casualty of Roarin' 20s and lives on as Goodfellas Pizza at the [Rite Way Plaza] shell station with the old Pizza Manager at Rocketman, Rich, as the new owner. Our relationship with Rich was damaged beyond repair when we found out he was aware of David's plans to move into the Roarin' 20s space behind my back. So Rich is on his own. The Bistro is related in the way that when I met with my team after closing Roarin' 20s/Rocketman we decided that the stress of everything and the working to just break even, or even lose money at times, was not the best use of our lives.

VS: What’s the future for the Bistro? For the building?

MH: Right now I am looking to do one of three things: 1.) rent it to a new operator, 2.) sell the building, or 3.) change the concept into something simple that can be run with bar staff only. My team has decided to leave the food business so it won't be a restaurant with myself, Justin or Sammi at the helm moving forward. My number is on the sign out front if anyone is interested. I'm working with my partner on the building and I expect to have this sorted out one way or another by Spring. I can't afford to just leave it empty.

VS: What does the Valley restaurant scene look like right now? What challenges and opportunities are out there for existing and prospective businesses?

MH: We would like to thank all the people who have come out to support our adventures in the restaurant would harvest Christmas trees the oldfashioned way by going out into his woods and finding a fir tree that would barely fit through the front door, much less into a tree holder. We had some of the more memorable – and ugly – trees. A few hours later and the job was done. I saved many of the tools – and the deer antlers – but there was plenty to throw away too. Objects and possessions are sometimes important, but it’s the memories that are the true treasures. business out here in SW Wisconsin. Meeting all the good people was the highlight of the experience. I would also like to thank you guys at the Valley Sentinel for all the support and attention you have given us throughout the years.

Chris Hardie spent more than 30 years as a reporter, editor and publisher. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and won dozens of state and national journalism awards. He is a former president of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. Contact him at chardie1963@gmail.com.

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There was quite a big mess to clean up financially from Roarin' 20s and that made putting resources into the Bistro more difficult.

VS: How did you come to the decision to close the Bistro? What precipitated it?

MH: Justin came to me and said that he and Sammi wanted to be done. My mother and I did not have the energy to take it on. So we closed.

VS: What has the community response to the closing been like?

MH: The community reaction was that of disappointment. Many many

MH: There is some hope in Spring Green. The people doing Homecoming are expanding into the old bank space on the main street there, so that is exciting. Also it looks like Anita's Cafe is moving from Arena into the empty space next down the road from Subway on HWY 14. There is a fairly new cafe in the Round Barn as well. As for the challenges — there are many, especially in these small communities. Staffing, cost of goods and utilities, small population density and so on. When it comes to opportunities there are many because there are places sitting empty. Some are even turn-key.

VS: Do you have any advice for entrepreneurs looking to get into the restaurant business?

MH: Right now is not the best time to ask me this. Coming off of so many

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Reflections from Lost Horizon Farm — Wilbur & C.B. Snowflake

Each edition, retired dairy farmer Barb Garvoille brings her musings on dairy farm life from her own years of experience on Lost Horizon Farm with her late husband Vince “Mr. Farmer” Garvoille. This mooving memoir focuses on 1980-2000, join Barb as she rises with the herd.

Wilbur

The neighbor did not have any resident cats to trim the rodent population infesting his hog stable. A trade was arranged. This neighbor got a pregnant barn cat, and we received Wilbur, a Spotted Poland China runt pig, for our end of the deal. At barely 2 pounds, Wilbur was very weak when he arrived. During his first night at Lost Horizon Farm, he struggled to drink the warmed milk replacer from his bottle. With medication, a cozy home, play time and lots of attention at feeding times from our daughters, his condition improved markedly. When we met the neighbor in town a few weeks later, he seemed very surprised when we told him Wilbur was doing well.

When he was little, the kids loved to bathe Wilbur in the bathtub and gently scrub his bristly hair with a soft toothbrush. They would also take him out of his blanketed dog crate and play with him. Pigs are very smart; it took only 24 hours for Wilbur to figure out how to use his snout to push open the latch on the dog crate! The latch had to be wired shut from the outside! Wilbur lived in his crate in the house for two weeks. At the end of that time period, the vet clipped his needle teeth, castrated him and repaired a hernia he had developed. As a follow up, Wilbur was given an injection to prevent an infection from his minor surgery. This medication initiated an intense case of diarrhea. Its smell was so overpowering and unpleasant and the spray pattern so widespread that Wilbur was unceremoniously scooped up and taken outdoors immediately to live in a bedded calf hutch. Wilbur grew rapidly on his ration of hog grower/ finisher and delighted in cookie treats (Oreos were his favorite). In fact, a cookie was as good as a lead rope for Wilbur; he would follow the children all around if he knew they had a cookie. As he matured, unlike the Wilbur in Charlotte's Web, our Wilbur's behavior became decidedly more like the barrow he had become. He began to "root" the children out of his way or push them with his dense, stocky body. His attraction as a playmate diminished. A bowling ball was placed in his pen for enrichment, and he seemed quite content pushing that around. He retained his love for sweets which made it very simple to tempt him onto and off of the stock trailer when he was taken to the local abattoir. No one in the family particularly enjoyed the meat from Wilbur. Afterall, he had been a beloved pet in his youth, and too many sweet treats had made his flesh more fatty than flavorful.

C.B. Snowflake

On a day Mr. Farmer had gone to collect our daughter Alyson at school, these two happened to see a firstgrader's mom holding a young lamb for “show and tell." Alyson continued to be so animated in her speech about the little lamb that the following spring we were prompted to purchase a newborn Corriedale from the same sheep producer. The children named our bottle baby, C.B. Snowflake. (The name was too lengthy and was soon abbreviated to C.B. or C.Brrr.). She was a vigorous lamb, eager for the sheep milk replacer fed to her through a special sheep nipple placed at the end of a glass soda pop bottle. Imprinted on the children, she would follow them around when she was released from her calf hutch. Later, with a collar and leash, she could be walked, just like a dog. In fact, the first time she was sheared, she was ''walked" right up to the shearer. Like most sheep, C.B. became almost catatonic while being shorn. Set on her rear, she did not struggle, and her wool came off in almost one continuous piece. Newly shorn, she enjoyed having her naked body rubbed. Whomever rubbed her had their hands much softened by the lanolin on her skin.

When C.B. was little and nursing, her thin, narrow tail would wag. After her tail had been docked, Alyson discovered that poking the apex of the stubby, chubby tail that remained would make C.B. wiggle. One time, C.B. must have taken offense to one too many pokes, and she turned around and butted Alyson. The next thing we knew, Alyson was riding backwards on C.B. holding on to her wool! This unusual ride lasted for about 100 yards until C.B. had enough of her load, twisted, and bucked Alyson off. C.B. remembered this incident, and when anyone would get too close to her backside tail region, C.B. would quickly turn around, lower her head, and make as if she were about to charge.

Besides having her feet trimmed occasionally and having to be shorn in the spring, C.B. was a low maintenance pet and kindly surrogate nanny to many younger weaned calves. Some of the calves would want to nibble on her wool, but C.B. would simply butt them away. During the time Bird, the Belgian mare, was at the farm, C.B. shared the horse pasture with her. When Bird was loaded on a trailer to leave the farm, C.B. walked right alongside the horse and had to be turned back. For days afterward, she bleated for her now absent companion.

C.B. lived a long sheep life, a decade, on the farm. The sheep shearer, Bruce, whose “real” job was working as a postal carrier, looked forward to coming to Lost Horizon Farm. Instead of a flock of sheep to shear, he had only one very gentle critter to do, and a farm family that appreciated his work and enjoyed conversing with him.

Barb has called Lost Horizon Farm, just north of Spring Green, her home for the past 43 years. She is fond of all creatures (including snakes). Her joy stems from being able to be outdoors every day observing and treasuring the plant and animal life on her small piece of this planet. She loved milking cows and is proud to have been a dairy farmer.