How the Mother Earth News Ruined My Life By Makin' Me Successful, Famous and Rich

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Our new Albuquerque facility has greatly reduced these shipping problems. But the intense response we've received from that year-ago MOTHER article (and from our subsequent ads in the magazine) have made it clear that we're going to need a lot of help if we're serious about supplying the demand for our splitter.

And that's why we began discussing the problems of our success with Arnold Industries of Toledo, Ohio last February. And-thanks to Arnold's technical, financial, and marketing help-we're now selling Sticklers all over the world

SOMETHINGS, HOWEVER, HAVE STAYED THE SAME

But will success spoil Taos Equipment? Is Arnold Industries a grasping corporate octopus out to consume our little company? Will the quality of the Stickler be cut so that we can "cash in" on its popularity? We think not. In fact, we're sometimes amazed that, as the old saying goes, "the more things have changed for us, the more they've stayed the same".

Taos Equipment has certainly retained a great deal of its "alternative life" flavor. At least we're still eating far more goat yogurt from Mason jars for lunch than is usually consumed in most business offices. And everyone understands when Tish Demmin occasionally arrives late for work, wearing a rather haggard look: She's the local midwife and has 64 singlehanded deliveries behind her.

And Arnold Industries? Well, our most important contact there is George Blackstone, 28, president and son of the firm's founder. George is a very savvy businessman . . . but he can also be found occasionally tinkering with a pyramid model in his office, testing its preservative effects on bananas. George is all right.

As for the Stickler itself: So far, we've plowed most of the money that Taos Equipment has made (and will make for a long time) into setting up production and quality control facilities capable of handling the demand for the splitter. We've also completely redesigned the basic product, so that it'll perform even better than our first versions. We've even invested heavily in the development of variations on the basic unit--tractormounted PTO (power takeoff) splitters, self-powered units, garden tractor models, etc--that a good many of you folks have asked for.

In every important respect, then, we feel that Taos Equipment is still pretty much the same as it was before MOTHER's article rocketed it to "stardom". And we're very comfortable with our relationship with Arnold Industries. And we believe that the Stickler we're manufacturing right now is the best Stickler we've ever made ... and that tomorrow's Stickler will be even better.

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