We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
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You know, Lord, sometimes we just seem to get stressed out, and that doesn’t please You, right? ‘Marcella’ shared how she stays on top of things and is relaxed amid the holiday rush. She called them the “Four Big C’s” and recommended them for a happier holiday season. Here’s how she Capitalizes on the Big c’s. CHRISTMAS CARDS: Write short notes in your cards in late November – or at least during the first week in December. Convey caring as you write, communicating that good feeling to your friends and loved one. That uplift will make you fee...
Columnist's note: In the past three weeks two community gatherings were held at Liberty Hall in Whitlash. The Hall is a 103-year old community meeting place, the first building completed when more than a century ago the old town site was abandoned and moved to the current location. The hall was built before a permanent church building, though a congregation was already functioning. Early settlers recognized the need for community-wide gatherings and built a suitable place for them to happen....
Columnist's note: Travelers in north central Montana are used to seeing pumpjacks (oil wells) dotting the region. Around Oilmont on the way from Whitlash to the I-15 access north of Shelby (on S-343) we pass a sizeable area of small, older-looking oil wells. Some are pumping, others seem to be idle. There's also a lot of abandoned buildings and equipment that were used to produce oil and gas. East of the town of Oilmont, about two and a half miles on the north side of the highway, there's a...
Columnist's note: In 2000, when my wife graduated from seminary and started a new career as a Presbyterian minister, we made an agreement: she had followed me and my career locations for about 30 years, now I would follow her and her career. While she pastored churches the arrangement has allowed me to try some interesting jobs in some far flung places-working on a grain farm in North Dakota, at a sugar beet plant in Minnesota, being a "toilet ranger" for the Forest Service in the Kootenai...
Robin Allen, a CHS Educator has assigned each of her Junior high students in Exploratory Agriculture a noxious weed to research. Their job is to be able to recognize noxious weeds as well as educate others on how to eradicate and stop the spread of the weed. There are a total of 36 weeds we will learn about through this project and the Blaine County Journal will Spotlight 1 or 2 each week. Dyer's Woad By Dentin DePriest: Life Cycle: The amount of time from the start of the stem growth to seed is...
Columnist's note: The Sweet Grass Hills are blessed with some very talented individuals. Not only are there ranchers and oil/gas operators, there are teachers, nurses, bureaucrats, writers and artists, even a former engineer on the B-2 stealth bomber. Jesse Thompson who lives on a ranch south of Whitlash, is a spokesperson for both the Montana Wool Growers and the Montana Angus Associations. I was curious how Jesse balances helping her husband, Chance, on their commercial Black Angus cow/calf...
Columnist's note: This past July the old Whitlash School was sold by sealed bid. That concluded more than a century of providing elementary education to students in the Whitlash area. Students now attend school in Chester. The history of the school is one of many examples how the pioneers and subsequent generations adapted to deal with the needs in rural communities. The Whitlash School hung on longer than most pioneer schools. Locals devised ways to acquire physical space for the school and...
Columnist's note: In early July I looked out a bedroom window and saw an empty flatbed truck go by our house pulling a trailer with a machine I recognized as one used for moving beehives. A few days later, along Whitlash Road, I saw a couple of groups of beehives that I was sure were not there earlier. I asked some local ranch families about the hives and they assured me I was not confused, the hives had just arrived. I'd never wondered about beehives in the Sweet Grass Hills. I talked to some...
Columnist's note: About 30 miles east of Missoula on MT Highway 200, while taking a couple of my grandsons back to the Seattle area, I saw the sign for the turnoff to 'Garnet Ghost Town.' I'd passed the turnoff many times. I told the kids, "Today we're going to the ghost town." 'Ghost town' got a positive response from the ten and twelve year old boys. Established in 1895 Garnet became a ghost town in the late 1940's when it lost most of its population and businesses. Renovation and...
Columnist's note: Writing about Grandview Cemetery, south of the Hills and north of Galata, I learned that Agnethe Forseth donated the two acres that became, for 90 years, a children's cemetery. Toni Brown Dafoe, a great granddaughter of Mrs. Forseth, recently brought me a notebook with 71 letters written by Mrs. Forseth and her two daughters. Toni's mother, Mrs. Jeannette Brown, told me the letters were translated by "a friend of Mrs. Forseth in Norway who was an English teacher." Agnethe...
Columnist's note: I recently took my vehicle for a recall notice to a dealership, the nearest being in Cut Bank. Beforehand the shop manager said, "Be prepared to spend the day." Like most folks from this area, I've driven through Cut Bank on US Highway 2 several times heading over to Kalispell or on west. My wife and I rode Amtrak to Cut Bank from Libby to a church meeting several years ago and spent a weekend there. It was the dead of winter so not a good time to be walking around. The day I t...
I do about 30 chin-ups at the gym several times a week. I don’t like doing chin-ups, and I couldn’t do them for many years. I’d try and try and couldn’t quite get myself up over the bar. Then, a crazy thing happened one day: I did one. After doing one, I found that doing a second one was easier. In the space of a few weeks, I jumped from none to more than a dozen. I didn’t develop some supernatural strength or find a new training program. What changed was that I figured out that I could do chin-ups. Before I did my first one, I never believed I...
Column No. 23 Since moving to Whitlash I'd notice vehicles, usually pickups, with Canadian plates stopped at the local post office. Recently I came across a newspaper story out of northern Washington state that described how U.S. border cities have many Canadians who rent post office boxes and support a sizeable number of private "parcel and courier services" that cater to Canadians getting mail and packages in the U.S. I wanted to learn why U.S. Postal Service boxes were in such demand in...
Column No. 23 Recently I went back to Chinook to help in the Lions Club's pronto pup stand during the 2019 Blaine County Fair. I'm still a member of the club and proceeds from sales of pronto pups and cheesy fries support the community work of the club. They always need help during the fair. Pronto pups are the Lions' variation of a corn dog. Someone asked, "Do you know about the hot dogs you are cooking?" I'm a relative newcomer to the area so didn't know the history of the iconic wiener so...
I am a procrastinator by nature. Though I’ve gotten better about it over the years, when I was in college, I turned it into an art. I began by waiting until a few days before an assignment was due to start working on it. Then as time went by, the starting point moved to the day before. Eventually, I began setting my alarm early on the due date and rushing through the work. There were times I would print up papers and run to class to turn them in with seconds to spare. As I have grown older and begun to look back at those days with a little m...
Column No. 22 Columnist's note: The Corps of Discovery never reached the Sweet Grass Hills. But Captain Meriwether Lewis explored much of the Marias River in southern Liberty County and recorded observations about the Sweet Grass Hills. During the expedition's westward trip in 1805 and the return trip in 1806, Captain Lewis' explorations along the river helped answer critical questions during the trip. Lewis himself named the river in June, 1805, in honor of a cousin, Maria Wood. Understanding...
This morning, I read an interesting op-ed written by a woman who is a lawyer and mom. She talks at length about the difficulty she has in that role and the hard truth that she often chooses her work life over her family because it fits her priorities. She laments the fact that she skipped birthdays and phoned in her participation in her kids’ school activities because her work was more important. I disagreed with the author on several points, but found myself identifying with her perspective because the same struggle often plagues folks in m...
From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham Q: Are the stories true of people dying, going to Heaven, and then coming back to tell about their experiences? A: Best-selling books and blockbuster movies have been read and seen about people dying and coming back to life and telling about Heaven. There was much excitement, curiosity and confusion. Someone said, “No one has ever come back from the grave to speak of Heaven.” This is true with one exception. His name is Jesus Christ. He left His glorious home in Heaven with God the Father and came to...
Column No. 21 Columnist's note: My wife and I have been in Whitlash just over six months. After 20+ columns related to the Sweet Grass Hills I decided to write about a couple of interesting stops we've made in Montana outside the Hills during the same period. On my bucket list to visit for some time, we finally stopped in the town of Fort Shaw to see where the 1904 "world champion girls' basketball team" was launched. Since reading "Full-Court Quest...," a 2004 book about the school and the...
I am allergic to dandelions. Every spring, my lawn begins to grow, the dandelions show up, and I start to develop headaches and sinus problems. When it gets tiresome enough, I mow in an effort to beat them back. Every home owner knows that mowing won’t solve the problem. In fact, it can make the dandelion problem worse by spreading their seeds out. The new seeds take root and new dandelions sprout up. I could certainly solve the problem, but I don’t really want to put the effort in. The issue is the roots that sit under the surface. Cutting the...
Q: Why does it seem suffering gets worse when we have more conveniences and more scientific breakthroughs than all of history? A: In every country throughout the world there are people suffering—it has been like this since the beginning. Personal pain has been with us since God told Eve she would have pain in childbirth. Some pain is visible, and some is intensely private. Suffering comes in all forms—physical, emotional, spiritual. Some people have their share of pain more than others, but all experience it; it’s part of life. Every gener...
Column No. 20 Columnist's note: With the onset of spring in the Sweet Grass Hills there's a profusion of wildflowers along the roads and in the fields. I've always had an interest in wildflowers and decided to do a column about wildflowers in my adopted home around Whitlash. I equipped myself with a couple of well-respected wildflower guide books, did some looking on the internet for resources to help me identify wildflowers and hooked up with Bob Thompson, a third generation rancher in the...
By Steve Edwards BCJ News Columnist's comment: Before we moved to the Sweet Grass Hills several people told me, "Be sure and visit that park in southern Alberta. I think it's near Whitlash" There'd be some finger-snapping as they tried to recall the park's name, then, "It's something about 'words on rocks' and it's really fascinating." Turns out they were talking about Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, less than an hour's drive from Whitlash. With summer now on us, my wife and I decided to spend...
Good morning friends and followers of the Lord Jesus. I trust this day finds you rested and in full devotion and love to our Lord and Savior. A few weeks ago, we had a post about searching the Scriptures, which was quite profound. It talked about the careful study of Scripture or searching as in seeking a treasure. The greatest treasure we can find is the Lord Jesus. I recently came across a study of the Cities of Refuge that Moses appointed for the children of Israel when they established themselves in the land of Canaan after they left...
Q: My grandson served in the military and is now back in civilian life. He feels defeated when he sees so many Americans against our flag. Can our nation turn itself around? A: (From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham) America has gone a long way down the wrong road. We are blessed to have brave citizens serve this country, but no one person can turn a nation around. For Christians we must remember that our allegiance is first to God, and then country. When a nation humbles itself before God, He blesses. Only by His power does a nation...
