We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
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Ginger Hansen recently became Director of the Chinook Senior Center. Last week she helped facilitate the first "international meal" at the Center. She explained, "I wanted to shake things up a bit with some new dishes and different taste experiences for our diners." The first international menu was Greek, a salute to Mary Pyette who is a regular at the Center for meals and activities. Mary's never bashful about sharing her Greek heritage from language to the baklava she brings regularly to share...
Alert readers may recall my wife, Sherry, and I lived in Whitlash (north of Chester in the Sweet Grass Hills) while she served as pastor of the Presbyterian Church there. We lived in Whitlash from December, 2018 to July, 2020. All during that time, even before moving to the Hills, I heard people talk about the Devil's Chimney. The site is one of the most discussed places in the Hills (right up there with the Bears Den) and many locals as well as visitors from foreign countries have explored the...
The ill-fated Dempsey-Gibbons World's Heavyweight Championship boxing match held a century ago was celebrated last weekend in Shelby. The event is likely Montana's most illustrious sporting event because it was such a massive failure and bankrupt several of its backers, including four banks that had to close. It all started as a publicity stunt by some realtors in Shelby hoping to draw attention to the burgeoning prairie town and sell real estate. The stunt ended up in an iron clad $300,000...
Many readers are aware that Kody Farmer, a long time writer for the "Blaine County Journal," has been hospitalized for a couple of months. Readers were surprised to learn that despite being in intensive care at the VA hospital in Salt Lake City Kody's was still writing for the paper. Kody was airlifted from Fort Harrison VA Hospital (in Helena, Montana) on April 22 to the VA Center in Utah. He's been recovering in intensive care since that flight to Salt Lake City more than 70 days ago. Keith...
By Steve Edwards BCJ News On July 1, 2023 Registered Pharmacist Angie Billmayer became the new owner/operator of the Chinook Pharmacy. She graduated from the Skaggs Pharmacy School at the University of Montana in 2006. When the native of Nebraska was asked how she ended up at the U of M she said, "I always wanted to be near the mountains." After pharmacy school she worked several different locations as a pharmacist, then she and husband Frank Billmayer, a Montana native, made their home on the...
Ken Finley's family and friends gathered to remember Ken last Saturday at his pumpkin patch down by the water plant in Chinook. In some ways the gathering for Ken's memorial service was a sad time. But, as Ken's son Jeff noted, "We decided to have the memorial service for dad at the pumpkin patch. It's the thing most people remember him by and it was a place he loved." A reception was held following the memorial service at the Chinook Senior Center. Jeff Finely told me earlier that he and his...
There's just under six weeks until the opening of the 2023 edition of the Blaine County Fair. Debbie Ramberg, Fair Manager, shared some recent changes this year that will make for a more secure overall facility and hopefully attract some new events to the fairgrounds arena in the future. A federal grant and funds raised by the Fair Board Foundation were used to finance the upgrades. The new fence around the fairgrounds Fair Manager Ramberg explained, "Last year a new insurance adjuster came in...
Three new staffers are now on board at the Chinook Senior Center. Candice Dunbar, Head Cook, joined the Center on May 28. The new Center Director, Ginger Hansen, and new Assistant Cook Karla Kennedy-Zarn, joined the staff on June 19. These paid staffers are supported by a number of volunteers who help in the kitchen and in other capacities at the Center. An all-volunteer board of directors sets policies and administratively supports the Center. Peggy Perry, who has served the last two years as...
Cheryl Upshaw Barber succumbed to cancer in late 2021. Cheryl was a long time active member of the Chinook Presbyterian Church and known for her regular calls to folks wishing them to "Have a nice day." Cheryl's family asked if some of the memorials given to the church in her honor could be used to plant pink flowers at the church in her honor. It was common knowledge that pink was Cheryl's favorite color. About a year later in September, 2022 Betty Lou Barber Stender, Cheryl's mother-in-law, di...
The Montana Meth Project has launched its 2023 Paint the State art campaign. The statewide event seeks to educate Montanans about the dangers of using meth. Statistics show that often the first use of meth leads to addiction. The campaign encourages children above age 13 and adults, 19 and over, to create monument-sized works of art that show "what a drug free life might look like in Montana." The Meth Project was is supported through a not-for-profit organization created by Thomas Siebel, a...
Alert "Journal" readers will recall my wife Sherry and I have been involved in dog sitting a Standard Poodle in Woodinville, Washington for the last couple of Novembers. This year we got a call from the folks who own Fiona (the poodle) that they would like for us to come dog sit in mid-May so they could go to a son's college graduation in Boston. "And," they added, "since we will be halfway to Europe when we get to Boston we decided to go on to Portugal for another week." That meant two weeks...
The members of the Chinook Volunteer Fire Department invite the community to join them as they honor Kraig Hansen and Preston Gilmore, two longtime local firefighters who recently retired. The event will be held 1pm-3pm on Saturday, June 10, at the Chinook Fire Hall at the south edge of the city. Kraig Hansen, who served as Chief of the Chinook department for 20 years, retired January 31 of this year. Before joining the Chinook department he was Chief of the Harlem Volunteer Fire Department for...
Alert readers of a certain age (60 or over) likely know someone who has suffered a fall or experienced a fall themselves. Statistics show that more than one in four Americans aged 65+ fall each year. And in Montana, the rate of seniors that fall is higher than the national average. Falls are the leading cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries among older adults. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) falls by seniors result in more than three million injuries...
I was a bit shocked when our married daughter said, "You'll have to print or type letters and cards to the grandkids because they can't read cursive writing. Better yet, send them texts." I checked around with other grandparents and they verified what I had just learned...many Generation Y folks (also known as millennials, born 1981-1996) and certainly Generation Z kids (born 1997-2010) cannot read or write cursive writing. Don't the schools still have all those posters along the tops of...
The Chinook Senior Center is offering two free presentations related to local and regional historical events. The presentations were first hosted by the Blaine County Museum in the winter. Senior center board members felt the topics would be of interest to the Center's clients as well. It was observed that many seniors, leery of the icy winter conditions and bad travel conditions, likely opted not to attend the winter programs. According to Peggy Perry, chair of the Center's board of directors,...
Chinook Lions Club members handed out about 30 American flags to first graders on Presidents Day last Monday, February 20. It's a ceremony that dates back at least 40 years per senior Chinook Lions Club members. For some families it's a third generation receiving the desktop stick flags. Flags are given to Meadowlark students as well as first graders in surrounding rural schools. Before the handing out ceremony and the end of program class photo, a Lions Club member presents a short program...
Theresa Danley, of the Chinook Presbyterian Church, is now a Commissioned Lay Pastor (CLP). CLPs preach, lead worship services and perform other functions of ordained ministers. For Theresa it was the culmination of seven-plus years of course work, study, teaching, preaching and preparation. She did academic classes through the Dubuque Seminary (Presbyterian) in Iowa. Much of her academic coursework to be a lay pastor was done online with occasional visits to the Iowa campus. The commissioning...
Alert readers may recall my story about the Ancient Order of the Deep that ran last August in the "Journal." The Ancient Order... was a Chinook-based group of men who gathered a few times each year to enjoy a Norwegian dinner and the main course was always lutefisk-dried and salted cod reconstituted and cooked for eating. Lutefisk is a traditional holiday dish prepared and consumed in many Nordic countries. The Ancient Order was the brainchild of Blondie Austad, a famed local connoisseur of eati...
An estimated 60 guests enjoyed "Love Chocolate...Love Your Library" last week at the Harlem Public Library. The event, first suggested several years ago by former Lutheran pastor Ellen Ayers, was a celebration of chocolate in the library. Ayers told the library staff about "chocolate in the stacks" that she saw staged in another town where she once lived. She described the event as an interesting way to celebrate reading and chocolate. That suggestion was made almost six years ago. Library...
Kraig Hansen retired as Fire Chief for the City of Chinook and Blaine County Fire Department on January 31, 2023. Hansen served for 20 years as Chief of the Chinook department and was Chief in Harlem for 13 years before joining the Chinook organization. His retirement capped a 47 year career as a volunteer firefighter. He will continue as Fire Warden for Blaine County. Early in October, 2022, Preston Gilmore retired after 20 years with the department. For "about the last four years" Gilmore was...
Looking back at records ofstories I've written for the "Journal" I found my only story about Groundhog Day was written in 2019 when Sherry and I were living in Whitlash while she served the Presbyterian Church there. I learned about the hairy marmot that lives in the Sweet Grass Hills but folks up there pooh-poohed the idea of a marmot predicting how much longer winter might last. Closest I could get to finding furry weather forecaster back on the prairie was Marmaduke Marmot, a mythical creatio...
1. In Europe the hedgehog was used as the ‘predictor’ of weather. What American immigrants first substituted the ground hog for the hedgehog? ________________ 2. There are Ground Hog Day celebrations in many states of the U.S. Why has Ground Hog Day never really caught on in the western United States, including Montana?_________________ 3. Punxsutawney Phil (in Pennsylvania) is one of the most famous weather prognosticators. How often over the past decade has Phil been correct in his forecast? _____________________ 4. In many parts of Eur...
I noticed a Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks (FWP) pickup parked for several days in front of the Grande Villa where my wife and I live in Chinook. During the day the pickup was loaded with some sort of animal traps, some mornings a full load, other days most of the traps gone. Asking around I finally met up with Jules Nelson and Daniel Johnson, two FWP wildlife technicians gathering data for an ongoing census survey to determine the status of swift foxes in our area. Jules Nelson, from...
A man at the church we've been attending while dog/house sitting in Woodinville, Washington, was offering to take folks on his 50-foot boat to cruise in Seattle's annual Christmas Ship Festival. The festival involves lighted boats cruising on Lake Washington and the Puget Sound. The parade visits various lakeside communities and presents short musical programs for folks gathered on the shoreline. The month long festival has been operating for nearly 80 years. Despite having lived a couple of...
While currently doing our annual dog/house sitting in Woodinville, Washington my wife and I decided we wanted a Christmas tree. We stopped at a tree lot near the local Safeway to buy a suitable tree. We got 'Christmas tree sticker shock' big time, a tree the right size for our Airbnb apartment cost $70. A serious tree was in the $300 range. A guy in cold weather gear approached and asked how he could help. We told him we were visiting from Montana and were looking for a reasonably priced tree....
