For those families preparing to send kids back to school, things are about to get a lot busier.

Next Wednesday, hundreds of Johnson County young people will roll out of bed and ready themselves for a new school year.

By the time this column is published, local kids and teachers will have fewer than two weeks remaining in their summer vacation. As has become my custom at this point in the summer, I need to send out advance apologies to my kids’ teachers at Meadowlark, Cloud Peak and Clear Creek: The Hicks…

We can mark the 2019 Johnson County Fair and Rodeo down as another success. Great parade on Saturday, organizers kept the rodeo running smoothly and everyone had to be pleased with prices at the annual Junior Livestock Sale Saturday evening.

Several times throughout the day, my watch beeps at me and tells me it is “time to stand up.” Unless I am on the phone or doing an interview, I typically oblige. I get up, walk around the office a bit and refill my water bottle before returning to my desk, feeling smug that I have appeased m…

Next to Christmas, the week of the Johnson County Fair and Rodeo is the favorite time of the year for most of the Bench Sitters.

Federal lands in Johnson County, Wyoming and the West are a checkerboard of landlocked, isolated parcels: public lands bounded by private holdings and accessible only by crossing private land.

Last weekend was busy in the village and a lot of the locals claim they “hid-out” during Longmire Days so the visitors would have lots of room to have a good time.

Mmmmmm. Tomato season has just started in my garden, and there is really nothing better than a garden-fresh tomato: juicy, sweet and tender. I grew up believing I didn’t like tomatoes, but it turns out what I don’t like are mealy, mushy, pale grocery-store versions of tomatoes. Since discove…

No single event draws our community together as much as the Johnson County Fair and Rodeo. After a summer of entertaining out-of-towners, the fair week is designed for the enjoyment of locals.

Jobs, jobs, jobs.

Every summer is different in Wyoming. We were looking back at a few Sven columns in years past at this time of the summer and learned things were “bone dry” and the fire danger was extreme by mid-July in 2012.

This weekend, Buffalo’s population is expected to more than double as thousands of diehard “Longmire” fans flock to town for Longmire Days. It is the busiest weekend of the summer for many businesses, and that’s saying something in a town with a busy summer travel season.

The Bench Sitters have finally declared summer has arrived. With more than one day in the 80s, they could be right.

In the last month, my kids fly-fished, played baseball, hiked, identified wildflowers, learned about shopping for back-to-school clothes on a budget, identified native plants, went to story hour and camped out.

Wyoming has a problem. We hate taxes. But we love the public services that our nearly complete reliance on the energy industry has afforded us.

There are a lot of people around Johnson County who take the Fourth of July as a serious day to celebrate all the freedoms we have in this country.

Wyoming is such an interesting place. Even when you omit Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and Devils Tower National Monument, the state is jammed with interesting sites to visit and sights to see.

Thursday marks the Fourth of July – the birth of America’s independence.

Many of the county fairs in Wyoming have pig wrestling as part of their venue. They rope the unsuspecting human into participation by saying “pig,” which is not in fact what you will “wrestle” if you are in the group above grade school. They always start with the small children and the littl…

If you have been driving around the village much in the last week it’s easy to tell “Tourist Season” is in full swing.

Sadly, the Buffalo Downtown Association announced earlier this week that it would be ceasing operations. The stated reason: A lack of sufficient funding to continue to pay the bills – including salaries, rent and utilities.

Last weekend, St. Francis Animal Shelter hosted a vaccination clinic offering shots, microchips and tags to our four legged friends. This event was a great service to our community. Getting our pets up to date on their shots can prevent diseases such as parvo, respiratory disease and rabies.…

Sadly, the Buffalo Bulletin is tasked again with reporting on additional sex abuse crimes. One is recent and the others happened decades ago, but because charges were never filed, they were not reported on at the time.

You can hear the most amazing stories at the coffee clubs every once in a while. Some come from overactive imaginations, but there are others that seem so real they must be based on some degree of truth.

After months of deliberation and discussions with community stakeholders, the school days at Meadowlark Elementary and Cloud Peak Elementary schools will be shortened by approximately 45 minutes.

My wife Nancy hates one of my favorite phrases, where I talk about my “bucket list,” which lists things I want to do before I die.

One of my memories that I like to share is the distinct thought dominating my brain during my high school graduation ceremony. That thought was: “What is going to happen to me?”

The days are sure getting longer!

With the recent rainy weather, I have been longing for days spent outside in the sunshine. Last weekend we were fortunate enough to have warmer temperatures and some rays peeking through the clouds. My husband and I took full advantage of it by going on our first morel mushroom hunt. Neither…

Tourism is big business in Johnson County. Travelers contributed just over $55 million to our local economy last year and accounted for just over $200 million in local wages.

The weather wasn’t great, but a good sized crowd turned out for the annual Memorial Day ceremonies Monday morning.

School boards are responsible for setting the vision and goals for the district; adopting policies that give the district direction to set priorities and achieve its goals; setting and overseeing the annual budget; and hiring and evaluating the superintendent. That’s according to the Nationa…

Let me tell you about an old teeter-totter adage believed by a great many Wyoming leaders. In this theory, it’s believed the Wyoming economy operates in the opposite way of the national USA economy.

The weather was perfect for Mother’s Day this past Sunday. It was like a special reward for those many nights of lost sleep while caring for children who were hungry, thirsty or had a bad cold or upset stomach.

In 1999, Baz Luhrmann released the single  “Wear Sunscreen,” a spoken-word track that offers various pieces of advice to graduates on how to live a happier life and avoid common frustrations. The song comes directly from an essay written as a hypothetical commencement speech by columnist Mar…

While Wyoming lawmakers are working hard to find ways to increase revenue in the state to diversify the economy, unfortunately many of them seem willfully blind when it comes to a real opportunity sitting right there in front of them: growing our tourism sector. In the last two years, bills …

Even though it’s been cool this week, there are more signs of spring and hope of summer each day.

Like most Wyomingites, spring is the season that is most confusing to me. It cannot decide if it is winter or summer!

In the months since Johnson County Schools Superintendent Jim Wagner surveyed parents regarding moving Buffalo schools to a four-day school week, we have received many letters both for and against the proposal.

On April 18, the University of Wyoming American Heritage Center and Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne teamed up to sponsor a panel discussion on the economic and fiscal future of the state. They assembled a panel of six individuals with varying backgrounds to provide perspectives …

The Johnson County School District is considering shortening the school day by 40 minutes for elementary students starting this August.

That “spring feeling” slipped a little the first part of this week when cold winds were blowing some snow around the village.

One thing about the Bench Sitters that has not changed over the many years this column has been in the Bulletin is that they share a trait of being secretive about some of the most trivial things in their lives.

Johnson County’s valuation will likely decline by 14% this year, which means less money to operate the county and tighter budgets for every department and special district.

I’ve spent the past 8½ years at the Buffalo Bulletin interviewing some of the community’s most amazing people, covering some of the harsher facts of life and learning the ins and outs of the place I grew up in and am raising my family in.

A sure sign of spring in Johnson County, besides all the calves and lambs you can spot along the highways, is the assurance that the weather is likely to change every 24 hours or less.