I'm just trying to figure out a way of continuing to piece together a living in this sport. In the long run, Parks' Fly Shop isn't it. Richard is 71 and not interested in selling or even making contingency plans as to continuing the business if he dies. As it currently stands, I could continue to operate the Montana trips under my outfitter's license on his wife's behalf, but not the Forest Service or YNP trips, which constitute 80% of the business. Even if he would sell me the business, the potential for increasing the business significantly enough to pay for the lease or even better purchasing the building is minimal. The season here is just too short and property values are high. Those of you who've seen this building know it's EMPHATICALLY nothing special, but it's still probably worth about twice the business' gross sales in a year and more like six or seven times the actual net. Moreover, out-of-staters (particularly residents of the Deep South) are buying any home or apartment that comes on the market here to turn into tax haven vacation rentals, meaning that falling apart mobile homes on 50x100 foot lots are going for $200,000 or more, and actual houses are almost all going for over $300,000. The long and the short of it is that I will probably have to move to Livingston soon. My landlord is making noises about selling my house, just like the apartment I used to live in (which sold to VRBO-ers from Alabama who now rent my $500/month basement apartment for $200 a night). I made an offer on the falling apart tiny wreck of a house that I live in now, even though I don't really like it, and my landlady basically laughed in my face, which wasn't too encouraging...

If I do that, I can expect to scrounge up maybe 80-100 guide trips, either booked directly or through other shops/outfitters. Look at Castwell's old article about making a living as a guide to see what that actually works out to. Right now I'm making about $5000 a year tying flies and on track to make about $2000 a year writing. I think I can expand that last bit to maybe $5000, particularly if I write a book or two about general Yellowstone tourism. I see a particular niche there that isn't being filled that I think could make 3-5 e-book sales per day (which translates to $6-10 bucks a day). Still, all in all, it all adds up to "not enough to not have to do something else come winter" if I ever want to buy a house. Doing something else in the winter will take away from the time I'm able to spend tying, promoting the guiding, and writing. So I'm looking at any other way of adding to the business end, and some sort of "freemium" model like the asst'd crowdfunding sites might be a way of adding another "every little bit helps."

I do think the site owners of FAOL should look to putting out an actual e-book or PDF-format version of the issues, then set up some sort of donation-model for them. With web-based articles, it's too easy just to click-and-ignore.