I wonder sometimes if common sense in our nation is a thing of the past.  At a meeting of outdoor writers some greatly admired turkey hunter who worked for the Forest Products Institute told them all that today there are more trees growing in America today than ever before. 

I guess he gets paid for ridiculous deception. You wonder what kind of nonsense you can get people to believe nowadays.  Were those admirers of this great turkey hunter that gullible, to believe nonsense like that?  Let me tell you something about the steady warming of the earth.  It is real, and as forests fall, and millions of acres of pastureland and open earth are created, and millions of acres of pavement and cement are created, the earth will get warmer.  

Why do the idiots in Washington who fear that it will get hotter each year and carbon dioxide will increase in the major cities, never mention ANY of those factors.  On January 1 I photographed five species of flowers blooming here on my ridgetop.  See all of them, which I have never seen blooming here in January, on my website, larrydablemontoutdoors.  And doggone, I hate to admit it, but earth warming in the dead of winter doesn’t seem so bad.  But I sure hate it in August.

Can you believe we started our publishing company 22 years ago?  Since then we have published 88 magazines.  I wish we could have got to 100 but such is not to be. The one coming out this spring is the last one… for several reasons.

First of all, the disease that was created in China has caused paper companies to shut down and those who remain open have doubled and tripled the price of paper.  To continue and try to remain in the black, we would have to double our advertising prices and subscription costs to a higher price than I want to charge.  The magazines we put out in the spring will cost us more than 5 dollars each, and we sell them for 6 dollars. Therefore we have decided discontinue our publications for a while, and maybe for good. I think it is likely that we will just cut back to one or two issues a year if things in our country should ever return to normal. 

But if I am up in Canada someday, back in the wilderness fleeing the mess our country is becoming, trying to get away from the diversity this nation seems to think is a good thing, I may want to stay there. And if, while I am there I am attacked by a hungry bear, there won’t be any more magazines to come.  And I have had a nightmare that someone may someday find my watch in a pile of bear dung!!!

Knowing this, I want to give everyone the opportunity to get their subscription money back.  If you are a subscriber all this will be explained in the spring issue, which you should receive in March.

There are other things complicating the decision to change the way we are doing things.  For one, we do not have enough employees now to do what we have done in the past.  For a couple of years we have not had an advertising manager and with today’s climate and ‘leadership’ in the U.S. we have just given up. I see no chance for an improving future. I figure if half our nation voted for the people now in power, how can we survive much longer as a nation.  

It is also a fact that subscribers we had 20 years ago have dwindled, as so many of them have passed away.  And it is a fact that today, people who are under 40 do not read magazines.  

Our new plans allow us to keep the option of having non-seasonal, occasional special issues once or twice a year. AND — my weekly newspaper column will continue. I have many more books to publish as well. BUT… I promised many times that we would return subscription money any time we were unable too keep doing magazines which satisfy our readers, and I intend to keep that promise.  Since we have more than 80 magazines from past years, those who don’t have them all can find great reading in our back issues, which we can send out.

It is going to take awhile get every one paid, so be patient with me. I will continue to write articles regularly and post them with my photographs on the internet at larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com Thanks for all of you who have let me know how much you have enjoyed our books and magazines and outdoor columns over the past few years.

You can call me at my office number, 417-777-5227, write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613 or email me at lightninridge47@gmail.com.  All the back issues of the magazines and all 12 of my books can be seen on website www.larrydablemont.com