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September is disaster preparedness month (Ready.gov). "Promoting Preparedness Through Public Involvement", is the goal of this year's national public service campaign. Natural disasters continue to make headlines accross the globe altering economies, health outcomes and food security. Locally, we continue to confront the effects of an extremely dry summer and fall with record high temperatures. The impact of climate change on extreme weather events is impossible to overlook! More than ever...
Many veterinary clinics are implementing routine Wellness Exams. These are examinations of pets who appear healthy. These physical exams also include questions about your pet's lifestyle with a focus on maintaining an ideal well-being for your pet. How often your pet should have a Wellness Exam depends upon their age and breed. In general, puppies and kittens should have monthly Wellness Exams, adults can be seen annually, and seniors should have semi-annual Wellness Exams. It is commonly...
Anthropomorphism (pronounced: ann-throw-poe-MORF-ism) is the term used to define when we give animals (or inanimate objects such as rocks & trees) human characteristics. Here are a few examples: "Gus" is the world's largest Western Larch Tree and a full-time resident of Seeley Lake Montana. He is over 1,000 years old, 160 feet tall, 34 feet around. He has seen countless changes in human activity and loves his local celebrity status. Just south of Helena Montana is the "Sleeping Giant", a...
Editor’s note: Wetzel was a writer and died in 2018 at the age of 102. Her husband was Winston Wetzel, the superintendent of the Missoula County High School system who accompanied the development and realization of the Seeley-Swan High School. This tale is printed with permission from her daughter Gretchen von Rittberg. How would you feel if your children had to ride a bus for five hours a day to attend high school? Shooked? How would you feel if your neighbors’ kids rode a bus for five hours a day? Indifferent? In Montana a community that car...
During its reorganization period, the Sewer Board has developed an "Action Plan." The purpose was to create a working document that would guide the actions of the board over the foreseeable future. This is a living plan that will be updated as time goes on but will form a foundation for moving forward. The areas of focus, with sub-points, are: 1. Improve communication throughout the District. Securing member contact information to use for surveys, digital newsletters, share information,...
As the seasons change, the town is slowing down. Now is the time to start thinking about preparing for the winter weather. Make sure that your skirting is intact and pipes are well insulated. Also, having your furnace serviced and chimney/stove pipe inspected and cleaned will help prevent a fire or carbon monoxide poisoning. Travel may be difficult at times so prepare your vehicle for the season. Carry an extra blanket and some road flares. In addition to signaling for help, they may be an ignition source for starting a campfire for heating. An...
After reading the recent article in the Aug. 26 edition about the Forest Service withdrawing their project in the Scapegoat Wilderness, I couldn’t restrain myself any longer. The Forest Service and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks appear to be laboring under the perception that somehow, nobody is paying any attention. It appears that a number of well-heeled environmental groups are watching. There’s a surprise. All you have to say is we are going to land helicopters, run motorboats around and use generators to poison three lakes and 67 miles of...
Realtor Kevin Wetherell has noted home prices in the Seeley area have jumped by 53%...to an average price of $399,000. So much for affordable housing in Seeley Lake. What he does not mention, discuss or analyze is the impact realtors’ sales commissions have on housing prices. I would submit realtors’ commissions have a direct effect on the increased cost of housing AND the growth of local government. Here’s how: The realtors commission becomes part of the sales price of a home. That 4-6% increase in cost translates as a direct increase on an...
I often think of September, and not January, as the new year in our calendar. Kids are with new teachers, summer vacations are over and we're all settling back into a routine of sorts. It's a time to reflect on the last year and look ahead to the upcoming year. I've been thinking about the concept of "We the people..." and the opportunities we have to work together to solve problems. I always want to under-promise and over-deliver, but I will say, as your senator, representing our district in...
The world around us is obsessed with the pursuit of happiness. But what if I told you I had no interest in the pursuit of happiness but am instead more interested in the pursuit of joy? Let me explain. Happiness is a fleeting momentary circumstantial emotion whereas joy is a more permanent state of being. When we receive good news we may be happy, but this happiness can be quickly dashed by bad news. Because joy is a permanent state of being, I and many others choose to find joy in Christ. This...
This Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021 will be the 20th anniversary of an event that has totally changed our lives and how we look at the world. On that morning back in 2001, I walked through the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City as I went to my office in Lower Manhattan. Memories from that day are as clear to me today as the skies were on that fine fall day. As I walked past the bottom of the North Tower just before 9 a.m., I heard a dull boom directly overhead. My immediate thought was how odd...
Last spring the voles really did a number on my plants. They ate the bark off trees and the roots off several flowers and bushes. Is there any way to prevent damage next spring? Yes, but there is no single miraculous cure for stopping vole damage. There are various ways to reduce it. Usually, the solutions work best when combined and the time to start vole control for next spring is now. Voles-not moles-are the culprits. Moles live underground, as do voles. However, moles are smaller than voles...
Happy Fall, Now that temperatures are dipping it is once again time to apply for Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP) and Weatherization. The State of Montana, through the Department of Public Health and Human Services, offers two programs to help individuals reduce their heating costs. LIEAP pays part of winter energy bills for eligible people and the Weatherization Program helps participants improve the heating efficiency of their homes and thus reduce energy consumption. When and...
WHAT A DIFFERENCE THREE YEARS MAKES In 2018 and 2019 the local real estate market was healthy and predictable with very moderate price appreciation. Sales were consistent with no significant market increases either in total dollar volume sold or number of properties sold. Inventories of homes and land for sale was consistent and the market was neither a buyer’s nor a seller’s market. Purchase negotiations generally had fair outcomes. Then there was COVID and the related lockdowns which began in April 2020. Many people nationwide were wor...
Romans 8:7,8: “Because the mind/though life of the flesh is enmity towards Elohim, for it does not subject itself to the Torah/word of Elohim, neither indeed is it able,” v.8 “and those who are in the flesh are unable to please Elohim.” The flesh/self-life thrives/operates on the law/Torah of diminishing return. That is, it needs more and more and more. It will eventually not be satisfied by truth/Word of Elohim and will develop a lust for traditions, inherited doctrines of men, legends, fantasies and fables that are unheard of in the Scriptu...
The 80,000 acres that you crave is already under the protection of the US Forest Service. That is right, no subdivision will be put there! The ONLY thing the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act would do is to keep those nasty, raggedy people out of there that are elderly or handicapped. Wilderness - no assistance from mechanized devices - precludes our access and that is really what you want. These 80,000 acres HAD logging roads in it many years ago and therefore should NOT be eligible for wilderness designation. It should be open to ALL the...
Many moons ago, while be'n a glutton for punishment, I made a trip to the wild horse corrals near Sparks, Nevada to get a couple of broomtails. While wait'n on things to happen, I noticed a black man showed up to guard the gate. Seemed a little bored there all by himself. He had to check on everyone's invite 'cause some radicals were lurk'n about to disrupt proceedings. Anyway, I moseyed over to chat with him, introduced myself, he likewise sez his name was Jim. I shook his hand, looked him in...
I remember a man who stopped me once after a church service to tell me some of his troubles. He was not happy with some of the developments in his life and seemed to believe that telling at least one more person how he felt would give him some satisfaction. I listened for some time as he described some decisions he had made that resulted in pain and difficulty. Eventually I got a word in and asked if he felt anyone had pressured him to make those decisions. "No," he replied. "It was actually...
A field of green greets both residents and visitors to many of the lakes in the Clearwater Valley. However, this is not the field of green you may be thinking of – This particular landscape lacks barbecue pits, lawn furniture and a kayak propped up against an old ponderosa pine. The field of green to which I'm referring is the blanket of waterlilies that now cover many acres of shorefront. While native waterlilies still exist in the Clearwater, the native species are being pushed out as i...
The Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act (BCSA) is a bill introduced to Congress by Senator Jon Tester that will further protect the Blackfoot River by expanding protections to its headwaters as part of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area. The BCSA will also create more space for outdoor recreation near the Blackfoot and Clearwater Rivers and improve timber production and forest restoration in and around Seeley Lake. We need public policy that works to help one of the fastest-growing economic sectors in Montana - tourism and outdoor recreation....
What could conscious evolution possibly mean? Well, we know that consciousness is an awareness of people, events, objects and ourselves. We also know that evolution is a natural process that results in species, for example, surviving for a period of time (long or short), and that characteristic traits form for the different species. Usually, species adapt to their surroundings. So, conscious evolution means a changing consciousness that adapts to the surroundings, or lives, of humans, resulting...
Grizzly bears are not stationary creatures. With a range that historically stretched from the Pacific Coast across the Great Plains, bears evolved to thrive on many landscapes. Individual grizzlies will traverse habitats from mountain ridgelines to river valleys to prairie grasslands-as long as we don't get in their way. As they continue to recover from near-extinction in the lower 48 states, grizzlies are gradually returning to their historic range. In 2021 alone, parts of central Idaho,...
There's still some of us around that milked the cows by hand. My first encounter with this age-old routine came when I was 11. I'd been hired out to Uncle Lesile for the summers' hay'n. A bad storm left us without power and so there we were at 5 a.m. milk'n 24 cows by hand. Uncle, wife and me. Their children were grown and gone. Uncle milked seven, Marie 16 and me one. Otherwise, Marie never went to the barn. And she was ex-city gal from California. The Golden State was a different place back...
Thank you for the heart-warming article even in the face of the fire tragedy. Chief Dave Lane made such positive comments on the efforts of neighbors and the community members coming together for the good of all. As he said, it wasn’t perfect but it worked. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this was just the beginning of community members coming together in a positive, non-territorial way to work on the issue of a deficit in volunteers within the fire department. My heartfelt wish is that all the interested parties sit down at a ROUND table, add...
Summertime in Montana brings warmer temperatures, blue skies, and blooming wildflowers. This summer, however, much of Montana is blanketed in smoke, and the lack of moisture paired with record heat waves is causing some unexpected consequences. Seeley Lake has always been a destination for fishing and water-based recreation in the summer- for both locals and tourists alike. This summer, particularly, the conditions have created a perfect storm, bringing humans and bears closer together. My...
