First things first! We’ve had to change our email address
I’ve often wondered why people change these rather personal symbols of ones
electronic make-up and now it has happened to us. We have always been on dial
up and with little opportunity of ever having anything faster and so we decided
to inherit our daughter’s high- speed dish when she relocated to Alberta just
recently. Our new address is rrv@xplornet.com
Please delete our old one as it will soon be terminated. For those of you who use
martin@ruralroutevideos.com,
that will stay the same.
Lambing and calving are about finished up and a new year of farming and video
production work is about to begin.
2007 saw the completion of one of our more major projects, that of the 10
community videos. These were independent productions for these different Manitoba
communities and were written and produced to promote each of these communities to
anyone, or any business, interested in relocating. Retiring couples, city people
who were looking for a quieter and more rural way of life, doctors looking to
emigrate from some far off country to start a practice, business people, etc..
I believe that all of these productions have been met with great excitement and
many hundreds of these DVDs, if not into the thousands, are now circulating the
globe.
DVD duplication has certainly replaced our bank of VHS machines, now sitting
dormant at one end of our office area, no longer waiting for another batch of tapes
to be duplicated, because it’s just not going to happen. It’s really time for these
machines to be moth balled or at least taken to the dump. DVDs have simplified our
lives here. From the simple duplication, storage, cost savings, reliability and
ease of mailing, the DVD is a winner for all our customers.
2007 was the beginning of a new production possibility for us. In November I
received an anxious call from Pat Ottmann and the OT Angus Ranch in Saskatchewan.
They were planning and preparing for a complete dispersal sale of their nearly 500
head of registered Angus cattle. It would appear that their plans for their DVD
catalogue came to a nasty ending when their camera technician was unable to complete
their wishes and so they found me on the web and gave me a call. Within only a few
days I was up at the ranch working with the Ottmann family and filming each of their
animals and preparing for the production of their DVD catalogue. 4 days of travel
and filming and then a solid 5 days of “round the clock” editing, by which time
Jane and I had the 2 hour video completed and couriered out to Calgary. 1000 copies
were duplicated and inserted into their printed catalogues and sent out to potential
customers. We also produced the 5 hour video which was broadcast on sale day on the
Lonestar Channel, a part of their “on air” phone-in bidding opportunity. Buyers from
all across North America had the opportunity to watch these Angus cattle as their
numbers came up throughout the sale day. Close to a hundred of the nearly 500 head
were sold this way, from the Lonestar broadcast, and many more of these phone buyers
helped raise the price before becoming the runner up bidder. It was an enlightening
opportunity to work on this DVD sale catalogue and a chance to be involved with a
terrific family ranching operation. ….. From the success of that video I was offered
another bull sale, that of Eastondale Angus, another Saskatchewan Angus operation.
Both of these DVDs were met with great enthusiasm and, I was told by both ranches,
that they were a significant part of their successful sale. The “proof of the pudding”
was when I met one of the ranchers at the Eastondale sale. A calving situation had
delayed him and his wife in getting to the sale and so only arrived in time for the
start of the bidding. He told me that it didn’t bother him as he had watched my DVD
a number of times and had already made his mind up as to which bulls to be bidding
on and to what price. I don’t think a printed catalogue can ever do that! ……….. So,
if you’re planning on having a bull sale please give me a call and we can discuss
some possibilities!!
On a more personal note - Jane and I have watched as our family, our 3 daughters,
have found new experiences and taken on different challenges in the past year. Our
daughter, Bethan, her husband, Ron, and their son, Lukas have moved to greener pastures
in Alberta. They have rented a small home in Olds and Ron has found his new career as
an apprentice electrician. Bethan has been able to take her work with her, it’s all
done through cyberspace apparently. She has just a few courses left before finishing
her mathematics degree. We are all really looking forward to her graduation as it’s
been a hard struggle juggling between work, being a mother and taking classes. We sure
miss seeing them all and having our grandson around! …………… Ceri, who is our 2nd daughter,
married Darren Johnson last Summer. Darren is a really great guy. Darren and his family
operate a family farm in Western Manitoba with several thousand of acres of crops and
then close to 500 head of Bison. Ceri continues to teach but has found it a real challenge
to secure a permanent and full time position. They just don’t come up very often in rural
Manitoba……………. As for our youngest daughter, Katherine, who recently turned 21, she has
been continuing her studies at Brandon University and her music degree. Although she had
planned on moving to a different university to complete her studies, she has now been
offered a scholarship to remain in Brandon and so will be here for another year. Jane
and I get so much enjoyment from her concerts and gigs, so we were a little “down in
the mouth” at the prospects of her going to universities in either Toronto or Vancouver.
Last summer she won a $25,000 prize in a Jazz contest and so for this summer she is
living in Winnipeg and working on her first CD.
And so for 2008!! I’m about to start into a number of new video productions, pretty
well all of them are contracts. These will take me through this next summer and into the
winter, editing. The farm continues to stagger along and have just finished a great lambing
and, with a few cows left to calve, a really decent calving. It’s been pretty dry and so we
could really do with a good rain to set us up for a decent hay crop and a start to our
cropping season.
Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about Rural Route Videos or if
we can be of any help with an DVD idea that you may have. Until next time!
Martin Penfold
Rural Route Videos
Austin, Manitoba
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