On renewal letters and brown grass

Mary Anne Brezden from Shell Lake, Sask., phoned me asking why she received a letter from Grainews saying, "Urgent! Your subscription is about to run out." She was quite sure she had sent a cheque to renew. I asked the subscription department and turns out Mary Anne is paid up to May 2010. Heather Anderson, our circulation manager, says this happens quite often. She prepares a big batch of these letters to go out each month, and often by the time the letter gets printed and sent off, a subscriber has sent in a cheque. 

If you want to see when your subscription expires, look on the label of your next Grainews. To the right of the MSER number is a date, such as "2009-01." This is the year and month when your subscription runs out. If you have questions, Heather says the circulation (i.e. subscriptions) department is more than happy to talk to you. Call them toll free at 1-800-665-0502.

Shell Lake is dry, dry, dry...

Mary Anne and I chatted a bit about the weather. She and her brother, Donald, got just enough rain on their farm this past weekend to keep the dust down, and that's about it. Otherwise they've been "bone dry," she says. I asked how far the dry belt stretched. She said it goes as far west as Lloydminster, but not too far east. Prince Albert is in good shape, she says. And not too far south. "The farm two miles south of us got half an inch the other day and we got nothing," Mary Anne says.