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Sometimes enough is enough. I'm thinking specifically here of cell phones. My husband and I both have used Tracfone for years; you maybe remember, those old-fashion flip phones that don't do much else other than allow us to dial out and to receive calls. Incidentally having a phone, not a mini computer, is our sole purpose in having a portable communications device we can carry in our pockets. We do not text, we don't want to check weather, access the Internet, nor do we feel the need to keep...
Every year, my sister and I plan a get-away together. We choose a destination, set a date for our adventure, and off we go. When we lived a mile apart, our sister trips took us in any direction we wanted. Now that we live nine hours apart, we investigate locations approximately equidistant between our respective residences. This way neither one of us has a long travel time to reach our chosen vacation spot. This year, we decided to meet in Wallace, Idaho, midway between my home in Virginia City and my sister’s home near Dayton, Washington. W...
The thought of approaching winter leaves me cold – no pun intended. Labor Day, in my opinion, denotes the most depressing holiday of the year because of the many events it signifies have come to an end. Hot languid days have come and gone for another year, summer has packed her bags with the intention of departing while winter lurks gleefully just around the corner. We have beautiful autumn to enjoy before winter truly arrives, but the season between summer and winter can prove finicky as well. To make matters worse, we never know what to e...
I used to believe that old dogs could certainly learn new tricks. After all, age and experience have to count for something. In the case of canines, dogs learn the fine art of manipulating their humans as the dogs age. They can learn at any age what it means when humans crinkle cheese wrappers but they can conveniently forget what a stern NO means if they decide they have something better to do. They learn what they need to know to keep their humans placated, and they will learn something new when they see what’s in it for them. They can still...
I have loved biking ever since I first mastered the balancing act required to propel a two wheeled conveyance down the road. Through the years I've had an assortment of bicycles ranging from a single speed clunker to a magnificent twenty-six speed mountain bike. When I moved to eastern Montana two decades ago, I would haul out my trusty bike and pedal down trails and paths and roads. I enjoyed the exercise as well as the opportunity to spend pleasurable time outdoors on the prairie. Four years...
We have absentee neighbors. They live just down the road from us during the summer months, but they have obligations in Nevada so they live in that state for the winter season. Sometimes they need to order items for their Montana home while they are still stuck in Nevada. On these occasions they email us to advise us that a parcel or package of theirs is on the way, sent to us under our name and at our post office box. We collect the parcel when it arrives and stow it safely at their house so their purchase sits waiting for them when they arriv...
It seems that anymore, someone somewhere has set a day aside for anything and everything imaginable. Just in the first several days of January and February alone, we have such oddities as Bloody Mary Day, Science Fiction Day, Fruitcake Day, Tater Tot Day, Wear Red Day, and Shower with a Friend Day. The list goes on and on for nearly every day of every month each year. I have no idea how these days are set, or for the most part, who would even celebrate them. I mean, there is even a Lumpy Rug Day and a Two Different Colored Shoes Day, both in...
Diabetes affects people of all ages, but it occurs more often in older adults. According to the American Diabetes Association, more than one in every four Americans over the age of 65 has diabetes. Managing diabetes can be tough, but support from health care providers, diabetes educators, community resources and friends and family can make it much easier. The first step to better managing diabetes and high blood sugar is to learn more about it. Montana State University Extension is partnering with others to offer a series of six, free diabetes...
I sat at my desk a few weeks ago looking out my window watching the snow fall. My mood turned as sour as curdled milk as those fluffy white flakes kept slowly but steadily falling out of the sky. If the calendar said November, I’d smile as the ground turned white. I’d pull out a latch hook project to start, gather good books for winter reading, haul out the toboggan, make sure my insulated boots stood ready by the door, and my thoughts would turn with pleasure to all sorts of upcoming winter activities. But it isn’t November, it is April...
We do have a few moose here in the Virginia City area. We don’t have herds of these largest members of the deer family, like we do elk or deer, but these majestic creatures do roam the countryside. My friends in Alder see them frequently throughout the winter, as these herbivores enjoy browsing through the willows along the creek. Both my friends enjoy watching these animals and they have a few pictures of their moose neighbors munching contentedly on branches and twigs just outside the front door. Two seasons ago, a young moose routinely r...
Cornucopia Road lies just outside Virginia City. This rutted gravel road begins at the pond on the west side of Virginia City, and snakes its way uphill, making numerous sharp curves and turns on its way to the top of the mountain. I would guess a traveler moving up this little hill ascends over 1000 feet in altitude from the time he or she leaves the base of the road until she reaches the top. So, Cornucopia most definitely does have a grade to it, with some portions of the road much steeper than others, but nowhere does this throughway have...
With the return of January, every publication in creation tackles the subject of New Year’s resolutions and making improvements of all sorts in one’s life. When the new year dawns bright and fresh, writers, figuring this is a good way to fill blank pages, devote a lot of space discussing how and why to make resolutions, how to keep them, tricks and hints on how to follow through on those well-meaning resolves, and a host of other spin-offs on the subject of resolutions of all sorts. Personally, I shake my head at all this hoopla, and I gen...
We humans like instant gratification and quick results. Most of us wait impatiently in line, become enraged when we need to queue up to take our turn, and chew viciously at our fingernails waiting for someone else who does not value punctuality and dares to waste our precious time. Couple this desire to see instantaneous results to a huge project that requires everything to fall neatly into place at the proper time, and a person could go insane waiting, worrying and watching. It’s times like these that a person needs to remember a few words o...
My generation grew up writing thank you notes. Whenever we received a gift from anyone, we sat down and wrote a brief note expressing our appreciation for the item in question. Sometimes it proved difficult to thank someone for a totally inappropriate or disliked present, but nonetheless, we wrote some sort of note anyway. Our mother saw to that. In this day of texting and emails, the thank you note seems to have fallen by the wayside. Someone texts a thank you using a few unintelligible symbols that only the young people can decipher, or...
Are you nearing the age of 65? If so, you have a lot of decisions to make as you may need to sign up for Medicare. “Turning 65: Medicare Basics” program will be offered from 3 pm to 4 pm on Monday, November 20 at the NDSU Extension Service in McKenzie County (205 6th Street NW in Watford City.) Pre-registration is requested by Friday, November 17. Please e-mail [email protected] or call the NDSU Extension Service/McKenzie County at 701-444-3451 if you are interested in attending. Thi...
My opinion of Halloween has changed drastically through the years. I have come full circle in the process, beginning with an initial delight in the fall celebration as a child, growing to dislike the Halloween pranks as a young adult, and now as an older woman I have once again embraced this fall festival with anticipation. I enjoyed Halloween as a child. In those ancient of days communities still hosted Halloween parades and I always entered the town parade hoping my costume would win a prize....
Most people have heard of those famous, or infamous depending on whom you talk to, vigilantes that ruled the streets of Virginia City in late 1863 and early 1864. These citizens took it upon themselves to rid the town of unsavory characters and they did so with gusto, hanging at least twenty people in a six week period. These vigilantes vanished from the forefront in 1864 with the arrival of a district judge, but their legend lives on in books and tall tales. It appears that a tiny band of...
Tender footed me has never experienced major weather upheavals. Hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, forest fires, and other natural disasters or weather phenomena all belong in the realm of ‘they happen to someone else, far far away from here’. No longer. I can now say that I have lived through an unwanted natural geological event, even if I had no idea at the time what on earth I heard or felt. Every so often, earthquakes have a habit of jolting residents of Montana. Virginia City suffered through a major earthquake in the early fif...
State and local public health officials are reporting the season’s first West Nile Virus (WNV) detections with both mosquito samples and humans testing positive for infection. Three human cases have been reported in McCone, Bighorn and Toole counties while mosquito samples from Blaine, Hill, Custer and Prairie counties recently tested positive. The human cases, all adults, experienced mild symptoms and did not require hospitalization. “With the hot conditions experienced in July we see mosquitoes carrying WNV emerge,” said DPHHS Director Sheil...
I love the sun. I understand completely why the ancients worshipped this blazing disc. Giver of life, casting brightness to light our path, increasing one’s sense of well-being; John Denver hit the nail on the head. Sunshine on my shoulders DOES make me happy. Given my complete appreciation of the sun, it makes sense that solar gadgets and the idea of harnessing the sun’s power intrigues me. I own a vast array of solar powered objects, from flashlights and lanterns to reading lamps and power packs that charge small items, as well as sev...
I noticed a most stunning pair of shoes this past weekend. These shoes gleamed in the sunlight, the silver soles merged into a metallic red that glistened and flashed as the wearer of these magnificently fashionable footwear moved along the street. I took a good look at the man sporting these marvelous creations and I broke into a smile of glee. The owner of those fancy shoes has more years under his belt than I do. Footwear has certainly changed since I was a youngster. Back then, we had less than stellar shoes from which to choose. Every...
We learned in school about the hardships those who settled the west endured: no running water, leaky, drafty shacks made from sod or tar paper, working from dawn to dusk to clear the land and get the crops in, sickness, cold, shortage of food; the list goes on. Our idea of roughing it today can’t in any way compare with roughing it one hundred years ago. My husband and I are currently roughing it 21st century style. We just sold our home. We needed to sell our house in order to purchase the cabin we intend to live in by summer’s end. The cabin,...
Who owns a river? That is the question that Dr. Bruce Wendt’s junior history class at Billings West High School attempted to answer last spring. Their research and project became an exhibit at the Western Heritage Center entitled, “Who Owns the Yellowstone?” With help from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC), that exhibit will be traveling to public libraries along the river from late March through mid-June. Each year, one of Dr. Wendt’s classes creates a project that becomes an exhibit at the Western Heritag...
When you walk into a grocery store or convenience store, what do you see? Rows of groceries. Coolers with soft drinks and beer. Counters and cash registers. And, in a lot of places, tobacco products on a large wall display. Stores aren’t just where we buy things. The entire time we’re there, we’re being marketed to. There are ads almost everyplace we look. The message we get is to buy more. Try something new. Get a better deal. Once you open your eyes, tobacco advertising is everywhere you look inside the store. It’s on signs and shelves, on th...
National Volunteer Week is April 10-17 and the American Red Cross of Montana is honoring its volunteers who give their time to help people in need. Nearly 400 serve the Red Cross in Montana and more than 300,000 volunteers serve the organization nationwide, helping staff blood drives, volunteering at veterans hospitals, teaching people lifesaving skills such as First Aid and CPR, responding to home fires in the middle of the night and so much more. “We want to take this time during Volunteer Week to thank our volunteers for their service,” sai...
