Sorted by date Results 76 - 86 of 86
Some of this was from my book "Journey to the Backwoods" When I was lad and ol' Shep was a pup, we lived for a spell in an old homestead on the end of a dirt road. Weren't no modern conveniences but was a great place for a boy. No electricity for a few years, good thing Mom was a pioneer type, nothing fazed her. She did the wash on a scrub board in the same tub that us kids got our Saturday night bath. The outhouse was a two holer out behind the woodshed. I still remember those 30-40 below...
After the last go round with Ben Widrick, set me to think'n about one of his trapping endeavors. Back in the late thirties times were still tough and a dollar looked like a dinner plate. Uncle George and my dad were trapping beyond Bennies line but their paths crossed sometimes. Beaver was worth a dollar an inch and you were only allowed four per trapper. Anyway, to measure a beaver you stretched the hide almost round, measured nose to tail and side to side. A big beaver might measure 70 to 75 i...
Of this there can be no doubt for in the Good Book in Mark 10:16 Jesus took the children in His arms, put His hand on them and blessed them. It should trouble us all to hear how many children are abused and neglected. The little ones are denied the joy, love, security and correct discipline that childhood deserves. What troubles my soul is Planned Parenthood and their lack of compassion for the unborn. The callous way they sell baby body parts makes Hitler look like a day care provider. The last year I could find was 2014 - 926,000 helpless...
When I lived in the Swan and before I hauled my ponies and mule over to winter on the bench out of Fairfield to my great friend old Mormon Sam, I needed considerable hay. Elden Rammell once introduced me to an old timer on the Helmville cutoff named Otto Eder. Otto was like many that age (in his eighties). We had to go in and sit a spell. And he insisted we taste his homemade wine. I wasn’t much of a wine drinker but to be sociable I took a small glass. Don’t know what it was made of but it was real tasty stuff. Anyway, if memory serves me rig...
If'n you're a fairly new comer to the Seeley Swan area you probably never knew Mel Nelson. Ol' Mel had a little gas station just past Barber Creek road there on the left. Mel had a small airplane and repaired others. Mel could fix or tell you how to fix anything. Seems like he was a mechanic in the service. Well sir, it came to pass I had an old antique Case tractor to plow snow with. When lo and behold the old bucket of bolts got anti freeze in the oil. Just enough to ruin the babit on a rod. A...
Those of us who lived through the winter of the big snow 96-97 remember – plow ¬– shovel daily. We lived then on the Swan side of the Summit. Come February you couldn't see my jack fence. I had the old relic TD 14 Cat to plow with and had snow piles bigger than the cabin. The snow slid off the roof till it backed up onto the roof. I have a picture of Geraldine sitting on the roof, she just walked up the snow slide. We shoveled in front of the windows to see out. It was a sight to behold it was....
It was somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Mother was preparing for her yearly pilgrimage. The old hand grinder was clamped to the table with care and calling out the back door Mother knew I’d soon be there. She had all the dates and fruit and whatever she put in her famous fruitcake waiting for me to crank away. None of those big lumps in Mom’s fruitcake, no-sir-ree. I knew better then argue with my elders so I “debated.” And so I explained to her that I needed to finish the snowshoes I was working on, the trapline was ready to be l...
Have you watched and wondered how a flock of small birds just weave and turn as one headed for somewhere? Like some inner radar maneuvering this way and that. Just another wonder of Ol' Mother Nature. Every once in a blue moon a cock of the woods (Pileated Woodpecker) shows up. When I was a lad and Ol' shep was a pup, Uncle Tony, the hermit-my backwoods instructor, said, "When you hear that kak, kak, kak call it usually means rain." I sure didn't hear any this summer. I think maybe the smoke...
Along the back trails of my memories I remember some great hunters and the companionship we shared. Uncle George was a stalking backwoods instructor. I often saw him moving through the woods with no more sound then the breeze that rustled the dry autumn leaves. He was a man of unlimited patience. Some he learned hunting wily whitetail for a lifetime. Others came from being a Marine fighting in one of those World War II hell-holes in the South Pacific. Though wounded he was so grateful to come home. The lessons he gave us boys out there n’ t...
I have a sign by my cabin door that sez, “I’d rather be lost in the woods then found at home.” All these years lost from the Out ‘N The Woods column made me think what a college professor said to me when I quit writing. Sez he, “Your column made me so angry sometimes but I’m sure going to miss it.” Anyway, I’ll give it a hit and miss try again. So here goes. I don’t know about other places but here in our cabin it’s an infestation. I’ve caught at least 25 mice along the outside cabin wall. And once in a while one inside this summer. Then tha...
It’s been a while since I lived in the Seeley-Swan. And many things and people there I truly miss. But I wouldn’t miss the smoke. Us old folks with health problems are having a time of it, even over here in Proctor. Like I said many years ago the Forest Rangers of yesteryear must be rollin’ over in their graves. The way the Forest Service lets these fires go till it’s humanly impossible to put them out, it’s a disgrace. Some Forest Service person, when asked why they didn’t jump on the Rice Ridge Fire when it was 60 acres or less, his answer...
