Where did the past year go?

I can honestly say this last year seems to of totally escaped me. The time has simply flown by, and I have found myself wondering what happened to the days and entire dang months.

I saw a comment somewhere after mourning what seemed to be the loss of summer that said, "who changed July, August and September into one-day months?" That is literally how it felt.

I realized also that I passed my silver anniversary here at the Mountain Home News late this year. Wow, that in itself is a crazy thought.

I had returned to Mountain Home and local family in 1991 to raise my kids and have since remarried, become a grandmother to 16 and just this October became a great grandmother. Who would of "thunk" it.

That whirlwind of time has given me so many blessings and memories that now at this point in my life. I just hope to remember them.

On a serious note, I hope this finds everyone looking forward to 2017 with hope, faith and a passion for whatever makes your heart soar. I am hoping the businesses locally see a trend that takes an upturn for bigger and better numbers and accomplishments.

We all have our goals, which are impossible to reach without the support of this local community. Running a small business, I well understand the obstacle and roadblocks that we wiggle around and attempt to get over on a daily basis. For me and the staff here at the paper, we have one product to sell. For us, it is your local newspaper, be it through subscription or single sales that include the news, events and upcoming sales and promotions that all the businesses have to provide you.

We rely on advertisers that are promoting their wares and services to our readers and, in turn, encourage our readers to shop local and support these advertisers to help all the businesses profit and stay in business and also through our classifieds when individuals are selling their private property.

I believe in this community and believe we must all do our part to support and nurture our family, friends and our neighbors. For us in this business, the news is not always good, but it is what keeps our community informed with validated verified information and records. We understand businesses attempting to keep things affordable and still producing and or providing a viable product or service while still paying our own bills and understand it is a struggle that businesses and individuals alike endure.

With that being said, I would like to thank in advance all our readers and advertiser for their support and part in participating in providing your local hometown papers. We absolutely could not do it without you.

I had a conversation this last year with an employee about what all it takes to produce a weekly paper. When we sat down and actually talked about it, and I told him that it simply is not a "newspaper fairy" that drops the news and records and advertising in the mailbox, which many years ago I had just assumed happened.

In reality, it takes an enormous amount of effort and resources. He then suggested that we sit down and share that process sometime, and maybe we will.

I had never really thought about it until I started working here 25 years ago. The process from start to finish is actually quite demanding, but I can say that I have 11 staff members that do it weekly for the three individual papers and they are dedicated to collecting, producing, printing and delivering what you see every week all right here.

They are all amazing individuals. We are "old school" with many things and do things manually that require good old fashion people and manual labor. We do not have a lot of automation around here. We do partner with others in our distribution as well, and I count my many blessing in having them all and being an active employer that is working, living and providing locally.

As I have shared some thoughts with you, I just really want to say "thank you" again for your continued support, and that I wish everyone a very Happy New Year, tons of love and happiness and I extend my own wish for your success and goodwill for our community. My door is always open so don't hesitate to stop by or give me a call.

How many of us does it take to raise a healthy prosperous community? All of us!

Happy New Year.