Slim Randles' Home Country

Labor of love: spreading the word on manure

[May 04, 2013]  Emily's dilemma was obvious: How do you sell manure? Since she fell in love with Dewey Decker, she could think of nothing less than spending her life with him and embracing the fertilizer business whole hog, so to speak. Emily Stickles has never done anything halfway.

In her job with the county, she has kept a vigilant eye on almost every business around, encouraging where she could and crushing hard if she needed to stomp on violators.

But Dewey's business, scooping up cow manure and redistributing it to gardens all over the county, was a labor of love with her. This was her man's business, and she would do what she could to help.

She had papers spread out all over the kitchen table and was jotting down ideas. The first and most obvious one was to take advantage of the local paper and send them a news release. Oh, they might want advertising money, too ... they're kinda funny that way ... but a news release comes out looking almost like a news story. The trick is, it can't look like a free ad for the business, which it is.

She looked down at story ideas:

• "Local Merchant Says No Shortage of Product in Sight."

• "County Soils Need Biodegradable Amendments."

• "Avoiding Infertility: Spread the Word, and the Manure."

Well, that last one needs work.

Tomorrow she's going to corner Dewey and work up a business plan with him. Oh, she realizes all he wants to do is shovel ... but he'll need to graduate to supervisory work if his company is going to progress.

OK, how about "Valley Expert Says: Bovine Donations Enrich Local Gardens."

Maybe a cup of coffee will help her think.

[Text from file received from Slim Randles]

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