You can tell locals pay a lot of attention to the weather forecasts. If you happened by the dumpsters the city put at Prosinski Park to handle plant waste from local gardens and lawns, it was clear everyone in town was cleaning out things to prepare for winter.

The usual rain gauge contest was underway at the coffee shop early Monday morning of this week when the crowd started talking about how much rain fell here over the weekend.

Folks who live on the east side of the Wind River Mountains have a tradition of getting “looped,” as often as possible. This is my term for driving the spectacular Loop Road.

It appears the Johnson County School District No. 1 calendar committee sought to stake out the middle ground when recommending a four-and-a-half-day school schedule for next year. There have been strong opinions voiced on both sides of the debate over a four-day versus five-day school week, …

As we watch the ninth month of this year wind down, locals are noticing the thermometer next to the back door is having a hard time getting much above the 50s and more yellow and gold spots are showing up on the cottonwood trees.

There’s a movement afoot in Western states that would make it easier to transfer federal lands, like those administered by U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, to state control. Proponents say such a transfer could mean big dollars for states. But it would also mean big expense…

Wyoming’s next great museum is under construction and will open next May.

The first days of this week may have seemed like summer, but the weatherman says we’ll get over that sensation this weekend. The trip from shorts to windbreakers is often only one-day long in Wyoming.

There’s good news in Johnson County.

How many old-timers are there in Wyoming these days?

At a recent meal with friends, I was made aware that a few of them get nervous when writing me a text or email. They’re not nervous that I’ll decline an invitation or cancel at the last minute. They’re afraid I’ll correct their grammar.

In Johnson County, where young children walk to school, neighbors smile and wave and serious crimes are few and far between, a dangerous stigma lingers, rooted in our way of life.

If fall isn’t here, there are sure a lot of signs it’s close by . . . cooler night-time temperatures, football games and conversations about elk hunting.

One of the hardest parts of being a reporter is the knowledge that there are times when you will fail at your job.

If anyone wanted to order perfect weather for the Labor Day Weekend, they must have got it done this year.

There are a lot of strong feelings about how the calendar should be structured, based on the number of people who attended and made comments at last week’s school calendar meeting.

The weather looks good for a high school football scrimmage against Worland this weekend. It should be perfect weather for the fans and players alike.

Call it an occupational hazard, but I am constantly in pursuit of a good story. What makes a story “good” varies wildly, but sports heroics are always good, same with someone overcoming long odds. In a small town, our reporters frequently get to tell the stories of ordinary people doing extr…

The recent decision by JOCO First and the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce to collaborate on a variety of outreach programs is both welcome and good business.

The Bench Sitters always win a purple ribbon at the county fair in the “Worrying Pessimist” competition. This year they were bunched up in the shade of the grandstands like a bunch of sheep fighting flies when the conversation took its usual turn.

Headlines across the state continue to illustrate our need to diversify Wyoming’s revenue streams in an attempt to smooth out some of the boom and bust related to our over dependence of the energy sector.

Editor's Note: This column is based on a now retracted Bulletin story. For information on the full story, visit http://www.buffalobulletin.com/news/article_bff6d6c6-c5c3-11e9-b1a5-7fa173607095.html.

The Bench Sitters wanted to point out a few extra reasons all of us who have been blessed to live next to the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming.

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.