Subscribers to R.A.W. !!

I have found the most fantastic tool to make your subscription even better than you can imagine!

Aside from the digital magazine, you are also now members of the Rural American Woman website, which will also have forums, networking, member profiles, and even special group and member websites and member shopping!

I have been working very hard on creating all of these wonderful things to be at your disposal in the next few days. My lovely subscribers, who have already chosen to convert their annual print subscription to the 2 year digital subscription, will be added to the members database and you will receive an email with all the information you need to log in to the site and all the great features.

Not a subscriber yet? You can go to the current R.A.W. website at www.ruralamericanwoman.com and subscribe through the SUBSCRIBE link. An annual subscription to all the goodies listed above is only $18 per year (only $1.50 per month!) When the new site is ready, you will be informed and your log in information will be emailed to you.

Thank you for your support! All my hard work is dedicated to all of YOU who work so hard with the earth and animals and others. Bless you all!

Get Your Rural & Ag Blogs in the Magazine!

If you would like your blog included in Rural American Woman, please email the following to me at christine @ ruralamericanwoman.com (remember to omit the spaces!) in the subject line please put: ADD MY BLOG

Please email in the format below to be included.

NAME OF BLOG - URL OF BLOG - SHORT DESCRIPTION OF BLOG (under 20 words if possible)

example:

The Adventures of the Farmer's Wife - http://www.agriwoman.com/blog.html - Life and adventures on our family homestead dairy farm established in 1852.

Blogs of interest include:

- any type of farming or agricultural interest,
- rural living and lifestyle
- rural enterprise/business
- marketing your rural enterprise/business
- tips, how to's, info on anything and everything related to ag & rural enterprise
- supplementing farming/ag income by creating business related to ag in some manner
- etc. etc.

In other words, your blog must have SOMETHING to do with farming, agricultural interests and/or rural enterprise.

The more the merrier!

I can't guarantee that your blog will be included, but if it fits into the categories above, your a pretty good bet!

Can't wait to see your blog! :D

Going DIGITAL!

I have tried every way possible to create a print magazine that you can hold in your hand, take with you and share with others. But printing takes a great deal of money.

I had several advertisers lined up for the first issue of 'Rural American Woman', however it was at that time the economy took an unfortunate turn and the majority of advertisers pulled out as they felt it safer to hang on to those dollars rather than advertise in a new magazine without a proven track record. The remaining advertisers were not enough to pay for the number of copies I promised them they would appear in. I understand the advertisers’ situation completely, as I am also a small business owner (also hurt by the state of the economy) and have also tried to save money by cutting out advertising expenses and even disconnecting my business phone and consolidating by using our home phone and my cell phone to save money. As dairy farmers (we also cash crop what the cows don't use) we've been hurt considerably by paying the high prices to put our crops in and then taking a bath when the markets took a dive and it was time to sell. I know many of you are in the same situation.

So, after that, I had intended to just print and distribute the magazine myself, only to subscribers, after the 'fallout' but it is simply too cost prohibitive...

That said, I have decided to go completely digital at this time. When the economy perks up, there is definitely a chance that RAW will have a print supplement to go with the digital version, go to 100% print, or perhaps subscribers will prefer the digital edition all the way; I honestly don't know and that remains to be seen.

The annual subscription fee will now be $12. The $12 will go for hosting fees and other admin fees as I want to make the site very interactive; including forums for us to connect in real life. It's highly unlikely I will make a profit, but the project is more important to me than money. My subscribers, so far, have been wonderful and understanding... thank you!

I have to say, I felt very depressed and overwhelmed by the whole situation, not wanting to disappoint, yet unable to come through with the exact product I promised, but I do feel better with my decision.

And think about it, aside from being eco-friendly, I can do so much more with a digital version - even sound and video which is so great for those wanting to share!

On the down-side, I will be unable to pay contributors for their articles, so if any of you submitted articles and are adamant about being paid, please email me with your name and the name of your piece and I will remove it from the contributors’ basket, queue or magazine itself. As a writer, I understand and would not expect you to write for free. I did enough of that for many years. This magazine is going to have to be strictly volunteer at this time, so if you *do* want to contribute and do not mind a writing credit only as your payment, wonderful!

(The magazine *is* done in a digital format for traditional printing. It's simply a matter of bringing those files into a user friendly digital format to email.) I'm looking for some great, inexpensive if possible, digital magazine compilation software. If you know of any, please let me know!

I receive letters almost daily from women still excited about the magazine and expressing their gratitude and kindness toward me. I also receive emails from women hoping that this magazine can help them to connect with other women because they feel isolated or have difficulty finding other like-minded women to connect with.

I truly feel it is more important to get 'Rural American Woman Magazine' out there is *some* form rather than let it die because things are tough in the pocketbook. Don’t you?

Take care and my very best to you and your families during the holidays and always!

Go Little Fella, Yeah!

The Little Fella is our 1966 International grain truck. To put the Little Fella's age in perspective - he is one year younger than I am. Perhaps that is just putting my age in perspective, but that's okay, neither of us plan to retire soon.



The Little Fella hauls beans and corn for us and occasionally wheat for some custom work that my husband, Bill, does. We normally haul grain to our local mill, Olsen's, which is about 10 miles from us. Bill has gone to another mill for a farmer or two he has done custom work for, but prefers not to as the Little Fella doesn't do well on hills and Bill doesn't want to be stopped again for going too slow.

I enjoy riding to Olsen's with Bill in the Little Fella, but I do not have an air ride seat like Bill does, so there usually aren't too many trips per day for me. Takes a little time for my ovaries to settle back down to where they are accustomed to being and if you ride in the Little Fella, I'd suggest going pee beforehand because it won't be long until you have to go again after a few miles of jostling your bladder and kidneys around.

Pokes aside, The Little Fella has been hauling our grain and helping to support our farm for quite a few years now. He's paid off and paid off for us, so there's little to complain about, even if the steering shaft fell off the other day - thank God it was in the driveway and not going down the road. Easy enough fix though and steering is just a little tighter now, so it's all good.

The Little Fella is really quite a celebrity. Old timers love to check him out and talk about earlier times driving a truck much like him. The Little Fella is also a one man vehicle meaning only one man (Bill) can actually drive him! The Little Fella has a few issues, but don't we all?

Go Little Fella, YEAH!

My Letter to Glenn Beck

Dear Glenn,

Looking for an American Hero? My husband is a 5th generation farmer. Our homestead farm was established in 1852. We milk 45 cows two times a day and farm almost 500 acres and he does 99% of it on his own. I milk cows with him in the morning and evening and in between, he does the rest of the chores, field work and anything else that has to be done. Between milkings and chores, I operate a screen printing business and am trying to get a magazine for rural and ag women off the ground to make extra money. Every year we struggle to keep the farm going in this failing economy and just when we think we might actually make a profit, (and why is it such a crime for a farmer to make a profit?!) the economy fails more.

Glenn, how many people do you know who work more than 12 hours a day? 14? How about 16? Without getting paid any more for their efforts?

When is the small and mid-size American Farmer going to get some recognition for their efforts? What are the candidates going to do to keep farmers like us in business? While prices of fuel, fertilizer and chemicals go up, so do our expenses to operate. While people complain about the higher prices of milk and cheese, they don't understand that we pay more to produce the product and, in the end, make less in the process. Thank God for the growing number of people who believe in supporting their local farmers and actually go out and do it.

We have not heard one word about agriculture in all the bullshit retoric by either candidate. Who is looking out for the American Farmer? Who is going to prevent the average American from paying from paying $7, $8, $9 a gallon for milk when the American Farmer is out of business and we need to rely on another country for our milk, cheese and whey products? And meat... Do you really want to rely on meat from another country?

Come on out and milk a couple cows and shovel some shit, Glenn. We'll pay you for your time, but sorry, we can only afford $7 an hour and forget about benefits; we can't even afford our own health insurance. But if you bring your gun for opening weekend of deer hunting, we'll give you the best home cooked breakfast you've ever had and a chance to shoot a great buck on our land with some of the nicest and most genuine people you'll ever meet.

Remember that American Hero I mentioned? That's my husband, Bill. The most decent, honest and hard working person I know. The world would be better off with a few more of him.

Don't worry, Glenn, I'm not ripping on you personally, I'm a fan of yours, but come on... we have not heard one word about what the candidates will do for the American Farmer. How do you feel about this?

If you think I'm the only one who feels this way, ask another farmer.

Christine Calnin
Montello, Wisconsin

RURAL AMERICAN WOMAN!

So the deed is done! The name of AgriWoman Quarterly is changed and got all the web changes and other info changed over as well.

Thanks so much to Molly for her 'simply' fantastic idea and many thanks to all my wonderful Twitter friends who have been so supportive and have had many great suggestions, that I may just use *in* the mag.

I have also had a good number of subscribers through Twitter and am devising a great networking/marketing plan that they can take advantage of to market their businesses and network with other Rural American Women as well. It will be a spread in the magazine that is more of an 'online/mail order mall'. Kind of like a 'flea market'! There will be a number of ads per page that will feature the product(s), services etc and also discounts for those who purchase or patronize through the magazine. There will also be an online version of this as well, so shoppers can go directly to links! The pricing will be very reasonable and I think it's going to be great.

If you are interested in advertising in the magazine, this is the time to do it! you can visit the website and grad the adrates.pdf and also see the fall special for classified advertising on the home page of the site as well. http://www.ruralamericanwoman.com

I will be posting the special 'flea market mall' rates shortly. The magazine depends on advertising for printing capital, so please don't hesitate to contact me for your ad. Remember, the initial printing is 10,000 and the copies will be distributed *directly* to other women in agriculture/rural enterprise via a number of state women's ag groups.

I'm also happy to negotiate a better ad rate if what you see is not in your budget. The purpose of the mag is to help women network, promote their businesses and entertain!

Have a very dairy day!

Magazine name change...

Wow! It's been a long time since I've posted and it's time to get back to it; keep it updated and actually supply a link. So here goes!

I'm going to change the name of the magazine. 'AgriWoman Quarterly' is the current name, but after speaking with a couple of the women from American Agri-Women, I've decided, not necessarily as a legal issue, but out of respect for their hard work, to change the name. We hope to work together and want to avoid any confusion, so I thought it best to go ahead and change the name as AAW is a fantastic organization and I'm thrilled at the opportunity to work and network with them.

So now... I'm trying to think of a good name that shows the spirit of the magazine and I'm actually quite excited to find a ... more exciting? ... name. Any ideas out there? Or perhaps, I should run a contest?

A couple of the names I've tossed around (subject to research of course):

The Farm & Ranch Woman's Journal
The Farm & Ranch Woman's Companion

I even thought of some cutsier names: Grandma's Plow Journal - For Women in Ag & Rural Enterprise.

Yeah, yeah, I know. The good ones always come to me as I'm falling asleep and I don't remember them. If you're interested in a contest - I can get a few prizes together and we'll take it from there. Make sure to check out the website: http://www.agriwoman.com to get the feel.

Much more to come!