Archives September 2025

by Ima Phibber

Fall is here! In my humble opinion, it’s the best time of the year. Football, cooler weather, pumpkin spice, and of course mums. Chrysanthemums or mums are a staple flower and decoration in the South and in The Valley during the fall. They are beautiful flowers, but there’s one major issue with mums. They only live for about 3 days. People with the greenest of thumbs have difficulties keeping mums alive. But, a Valley botanist has hopefully solved this issue.

The Verdant Valley Nursery has been a fixture in The Valley for years. People flock to their nursery on Hwy. 81 every spring and fall to buy flowers and plants. The Mumford family established the nursery in 1952, and at least one Mumford has ran it since day one. It is now owned and operated by Bud and Daisy Mumford. Their young daughter, Rose, also works in the business as a botanist. Rose graduated with a degree in botany from MSU 3 years ago.

Bud Mumford said, “We were so glad Rose decided to get a degree in botany and come back and work for us. She’s very sharp. Some say she’s like a mad scientist. She spends a lot of time after work hours working with flowers doing some crazy stuff. She’s been working with mums for months now, and she finally had a breakthrough. We’re so proud of her and what’s she’s accomplished.”

Rose said, “We love our mums in the South, but they just don’t live very long. I set out months ago to solve that problem. I’m not going to bore you with the details, but I’ve created some genetically modified mums that will live much longer than typical mums. My mums are hearty and should live at least 90 days with proper care and in normal conditions. So, if you water them too much, no worries. If you get them too much sun, don’t worry. They should still last at least 30 days with little to no water and/or sunlight.”

People are flocking to the Verdant Valley Nursery to buy Rose’s mums. They thought they would be big sellers, so Rose and the team was able to plant and grow a massive supply. They are also wholesaling the mums to other nurseries and retailers, and that business should boom in the coming years.

One shopper said, “I’ve bought mums for years, but I’d decided this year that I wasn’t going to buy them anymore. I swear they’d be dead by the time I got them home. But, I’m so glad Rose has created these mums, and I bought a slew of them. I’ll be able to enjoy them for at least a month.”

Rose’s mums have been a hit. Her hours of hard work in the lab have paid off for her and the Mumfords. Look for Verdant Valley Nursery to really grow and expand in the coming years because of Rose’s mums which is positive for jobs in The Valley.

by Heeza de Seaver

The Hideaway Eatery is scheduled to open next week in Valley City. Valleyans are excited about the new restaurant. It will have a rustic feel, and it’s something new, fresh, and unique. We don’t have a ton of culinary options around here you know. Not only is the restaurant opening making news, a hiring practice for potential employees is also getting a lot of attention.

All servers and cooks will have to memorize the Cheesecake Factory menu in order to get hired. Owner Paula Stewart said, “We will have a varied and eclectic menu, and our servers and cooks will need to know it like the back of their hand. I occasionally eat at a Cheesecake Factory when I’m out of town, and they’re known for having a large and extensive menu. I recently thought that requiring my servers and cooks to memorize the Cheesecake Factory menu would be a great way to test potential servers and cooks’ ability to memorize and recall information. Our menu will be much smaller than the Cheesecake Factory, but our menu will change pretty often. Some say it’s too tough, but I think it’s a smart business practice.”

Stewart will give her potential servers and cooks 2 days to memorize the Cheesecake Factory menu. She thinks it will eliminate many potential hires that wouldn’t be good workers, and she thinks it show who really wants a job. Stewart said, “We’ll know pretty quick who really wants the job. I’ve had a lot of people just hand the Cheesecake Factory menu back to me when I told them to memorize it and come back to me in a couple days for a quiz. It culls a lot real quick!”

Stewart added, “I’ve even had a couple applicants come back with a parent to try to talk me into them not having to memorize the menu. One mom got irate with me telling me it was an unrealistic ask for their 18 year old to memorize the Cheesecake Factory menu. Needless to say, neither of these applicants were hired. These helicopter parents gotta chill out; your kids gotta grow up.”

There are mixed feelings about the Hideaway Eatery’s hiring practice. One young man said, “I’ve been out of work for a month, and I really need a job. But, there ain’t no way I can memorize that menu. I could probably memorize the Gospel of John before I memorize that thing. Are they gonna ask for our ACT score too? I think it’s so stupid and unnecessary. I guess I’ll move on to the next option.”

A teenage female said, “I memorized the Cheesecake Factory menu in about half a day. It was a piece of cake! I just memorize everything for my tests in school, so it wasn’t that difficult. I was hoping my best friend could get a job here as a server too, but she’s a blonde and she couldn’t memorize the menu. I guess she can be a hostess or dishwasher.”

Valleyans are very excited about new dining option opening next week, and I’m sure they’ll be glad to know their servers and cooks have very good memorization skills. We hope the hiring practice will allow them to hire good quality employees, because we want the Hideaway Eatery to be around for a long time.

by B. S. Ryter

Select or travel sports has taken off over the past 10 years. Select soccer, baseball, and softball have been popular for years, but select volleyball has really grown in the past few years in The Valley and surrounding areas as well. Many kids are involved in tournaments every weekend, and the first place and second place teams’ players are normally awarded with rings, especially in baseball and softball. So, thousands of rings are being awarded each year, and most of these rings end up collecting dust as time passes. Mom gets tired of these rings over time, and she really doesn’t want to to throw them away. Now, she has something to do with those rings.

Ray’s Ring Recycling (Triple R) can now help Mom out. Ray Ripowski started Triple R four months ago, and his business is doing very well. Ray’s wife, Ramona, got tired of their sons’ rings just sitting around everywhere in their rooms, and she threatened to throw them all away. Ripowski said, “When Ramona said that, a light bulb came on in my head. These rings are everywhere now, and I could start recycling these rings for people. I knew I could create something neat to sell back to the ring owners, and I’m still coming up with ideas for that. But, business is booming. Moms are glad to get rid of the rings.”

Ripowski works as a metal fabricator, and he’s doing the ring recycling on the side right now. But, he eventually hopes to do it full time. Ripowski gets the ring owners to mail or hand deliver the rings to him. After he receives them, he melts them down, and then creates a new customized metal piece for the customers. Currently, he offers just a handful of options including metal name plates, metal pictures, and engraved metal baseballs or softballs. His customers love the metal balls; many parents put their kids’ stats on the balls for keepsakes.

I was able to catch up with some of Triple R’s customers. One mom said, “I was fed up with all my sons’ rings. They kept accumulating, and I was about to throw them away. A friend told me about Triple R, and Ray created really nice engrave metals balls for my boys. I’d recommend Triple R to everybody.”

One dad said, “Look, it’s crazy that a business like Triple R even exists. I still can’t get over all these tournaments handing out second place rings. That wouldn’t have happened back in my day. I make my kids throw their second place rings away. We’ll keep the first place rings, but not the second place rings. But, Ray made some really nice name plates for my kids, and they really like them. If they keep winning rings, we’ll get some engraved balls done too. Ray does great work.”

Triple R has already garnered a reputation for doing great work. With the continued growth of select sports, their business should continue to grow. Ripowski said, “I hope they start handing out third and fourth place rings too. I’m for everyone getting a ring! That’s good for business.”

by Ben BeEssen

The two most used letters in the English language right now are AI. The artificial intelligence (AI) boom, revolution, or whatever you want to call it, is in full swing. AI is becoming a part of the lexicon more and more everyday, and more and more people are using it everyday. Most people are being exposed to AI by using large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s CoPilot, and more.

These LLMs are making many everyday tasks much easier. You need to write an important email to coworkers- run it through ChatGPT. You need an outline for a Sunday school lesson- just tell CoPilot what you need. You need a 3 day trip itinerary for Atlanta- enter the prompt in Grok. These LLMS are also affecting the journalism field. Many writers and “journalists” are using LLMs to write their stories for them, and it’s very difficult if not impossible to know if AI is used.

Some have accused the SRVO and its writers of using AI to write our stories/articles. We have some of the best writers in the business, and our writers have a ton of journalistic integrity. I have never used AI to write a story, and as far as I know, none of our writers have used it. This is going to be a bigger issue going forward, so the SRVO wanted to get out in front of the issue and let The Valley know our stance on the issue.

All of the SRVO writers have signed a pledge to never use AI to write our stories/articles. Not only have we signed a no AI pledge, our IT department has even blocked access to the LLMs on our network and wifi. So, SRVO readers, you can rest assured our coverage of The Valley’s news will always be authentic and organic.

I was able to get a couple quotes from a couple other SRVO writers. Ima Phibber said, “I’m old, so I don’t even know how to use AI. But, it’s sad these young journalists can’t think for themselves. No one is going to know how to think in the future. What if the internet goes down? People will lose their minds.”

I. B. Lyon said, “I’m so glad we all signed this pledge. I have a couple writer friends at other organizations, and I know they use ChatGPT to write their stories. They have gotten accolades for their work, and it’s a bunch of crap. I work hard on my articles, and I work hard to get good reliable sources. I hope other news organizations will follow our lead.”

Will other news organizations sign a no AI pledge? We’ll see, but I’m not holding my breath.