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We have been up the Champlain waterways, through the Chambly Canal, down the St. Lawrence River to Montreal, up to Quebec on a train, and now on the Rideau canal, having passed through Ottawa. The foliage is verdant, the sky alternately weeping or dazzlingly blue, the churches ancient and towering, and the towns along the way quainter than quaint. There are a plethora of monster vacation palaces with 200K wake boats along the way, but they don't quite fit the narrative. This adventure is way...
It’s been a few years since I deliberately fished for winter whitefish. The last time, I joined some friends at a café in Darby for a late breakfast. The object was to fuel ourselves up with enough calories to withstand a chilly afternoon on the river, where we planned to catch a mess of whitefish. After that, the plan was to cook a few for an early dinner according to one of Mike’s all-time-great whitefish recipes (he’s a great cook) and if enough were left over, to smoke them. Who would do the smoking was uncertain. Both Jim and Mike are gr...
Cal Bird stopped by my shop in northern California on a hot midsummer afternoon about 40 years ago. He was on his way to fish Hat Creek and wanted me to come along. If Cal wanted me to go fishing with him, I rarely refused. Cal was old enough to be my father. I called him Papa, as his children did, and we loved each other as a father and son. We met when I was a student at San Francisco State. He had a small fly shop not far from where I lived. I was amazed the first time I watched him tie — and peppered him with all sorts of questions. He d...
Alvin looked like he could have stepped out of an old-country Weiner schnitzel or biergarten commercial: rotund body, big features, big frame, distinctly Germanic features set in a jolly countenance, and big strong workingman's hands with calloused fingers the size of bratwursts. He wanted to learn how to tie flies. He enrolled in a course I was teaching. He was the nicest guy in the world, and we became good friends, but my first thought going in was that it would be a challenge for him to...
As this new year begins so does a new Reading Challenge. The 2024 Missoula Reads reading logs are in, folks! Swing by your local library to pick up your copy. If you can’t wait, check out the new categories online on the Missoula Public Library main website (programs & events, ongoing programs, Missoula Reads). I was so impressed by the number of people who completed last year’s challenge! Way to go everyone. Prizes for completed 2023 logs should be arriving very soon. If you haven’t recei...
For the last five years of my surgical career in Billings I endured two or three sessions a week of “hot yoga.” Seriously hot, 104 degrees with added humidity. I had been experiencing the common occupational hazards of surgery--neck, back, and shoulder pain resulting from twisting, bending, and generally contorting the skeleton into improbable positions to see into the nether regions of the human body. With regular, seemingly tortuous yoga sessions I had none of the aforementioned somatic complaints. A friend of mine suggested that I went bec...
I'll take the stillness. I'll take the fact I don't have to shovel snow. I'll take streets that are mostly dry and fairly safe to drive on in the afternoons and the luxury of not having much of anyplace to go most mornings. I'll take the daily temperatures that produce highs, some days, that bring mist off the river. The mist, if everything goes just right, freezes overnight to appear as hoar frost the following mornings; some mornings there is enough sunlight to turn the whole landscape into a...
WOW!! Peter Stark has brought to life a time and place in our young nation’s history that would forever shape the future of the United States. But I think, more so, it would shape the destiny of all Indigenous tribes. It is the story of the lengths a corrupt, self-serving politician would take to expand the United States and a courageous Shawnee Chief who would rally this country’s first people, to unite and stop the destruction of their way of life. Stark will be presenting this new book in conversation with Montana Poet Laureate Chris LaTray...
What is health? Ms Webster defines Health as: “a condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit … freedom from physical disease or pain.” A more colloquial standard may mean something different. Does it mean freedom from all disease? Not having chronic disease? Managing the symptoms of the ailment of the day? Not having a bad flu? Or is it something different yet again. When speaking of health and disease, we may believe it is a bad flu and our success of avoiding it is what makes us healthy for the year. It may mean one of the many chronic...
There have been many interesting and influential Seeley Lakers since our community began. Jasper Seely, from whom our town got its name, is among the more fascinating, and a look at his life is also a look at America during a period of robust growth and change. Born in Niles, Michigan, in 1857, Jasper Seely would be 166 years old today. The town of Niles was settled in the early 19th century, although nearby Fort St. Joseph dates back to 1691. Niles has been called the City of Four Flags since it was governed at various times by the Spanish,...
Mack was flown to us at the university hospital nearly dead. He had contracted a vicious virus that had attacked his heart, and despite every available medication, a ventilator, and a cardiac assist pump, his heart failure was so severe that his organs were shutting down. Mack was sent to us in the hope that he could be saved with a heart transplant. His wife had died a year earlier, around Christmas, and now his daughter Lisa, 15, faced the loss of her remaining parent, again at Christmastime. She was alone with her desperately ill father, no...
Creativity and human nature are almost synonymous. That’s because people are creative in almost every moment. We tend to think of creativity in terms of great painters, musicians, or outstanding cultural developments, but there is much more to the creative process than meets the eye. The creative process flows from the depths of our psyche (our psychology) to our consciousness (our awareness), and then we express it in our lives. Creative expression begins with young children, as they play a...
A holiday bazaar, whether church or community, is deeply nostalgic for me. Memories of the green-tiled basement of the Methodist Church in Missoula in the 1960s evoke taste memories of butterscotch bars, riots of color in quilted art and remarkable expressions of creativity from souls that otherwise appeared so conventional. When the opportunity to have a stall at the Upper Swan Valley Historical Society "Frostbite Bazaar" presented itself, I saw an opportunity to sell some of my books, and to...
MISSOULA, MT - Missoula Aging Services (MAS) received information about an active scam targeting older adults in Missoula. In the report, several individuals received multiple calls last week from someone claiming to be from Medicare with what looked like a local number. This could be a trend in other areas and the agency would like to remind Medicare recipients to be aware: Medicare does not need to verify your information to get you more benefits. Oct. 15 through Dec. 7 is a particularly busy time with Medicare Open Enrollment, and the...
For a long time I didn't bother with fishing the winter midges that typically occur in December. They were too small – and I didn't know much about them. That changed on those winter days when it was comfortable to be out fishing and I'd see a pod of trout rising incessantly in a foam eddy, and I couldn't catch them. I learned that there are over fifty species of midges active in trout streams. That was intimidating. Because they're so little they're difficult to see clearly, much less c...
With colder temperatures upon us, perhaps it’s time to swing by your local library and find a cozy book to enlighten the mind or warm the heart. Your local Seeley Lake Public Library has many brand new popular titles in both non-fiction and fiction for adults. Here is a current sampling of what is available (all quotes from the books’ jacket covers). This month’s nonfiction highlight is Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture by Virginia Sole-Smith. The author “exposes the daily onslaug...
I have a sign on the bulletin space above my desk that says, ‘Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” For me especially, and those who know me well would agree, that’s a good admonition. The quote is from Teddy Roosevelt. It’s one of many Teddy Roosevelt quotes worth remembering. From the time I was a young man or more likely an old boy, Teddy Roosevelt has been one of my heroes. Still is, for reasons added to those I found inspirational as a 12-year-old, looking at the rough-riding figure on horseback, riding into the Dakotas...
My name is Dr. Jackie Ordemann and I am thrilled to share that I have joined Partnership Health Center’s Seeley Swan Medical Center team as a family medicine physician. I will provide primary medical care to patients of all ages, and I am especially excited to announce that I will provide a new service for Seeley area residents: prenatal care. I have many reasons to be excited about serving residents of the Seeley Lake area. First, I believe strongly that rural communities should have access to excellent healthcare. I have always had a heart f...
After I finished high school, I underwent 16 years of additional training—college, medical school, surgical residency, surgical fellowship—before I started a real job. I was 34 years old and deep red broke. Finally, I thought, I am done with the educational waterboarding. Not so fast. The last 32 years have been a continuous, Sisyphean series of courses, seminars, meetings, recertifications, and general shakedowns to make sure I am “up to date.” All these, of course, involve substantial fees. If you do not pay these fees you will be listed...
In a way I felt sorry for the guy and in another, thought he got what he deserved. The incident happened in a small café in Macdoel, California, a small town in northern California below the Oregon border, north of Mount Shasta, near the Tule Lake and Lower Klamath National Wildlife Preserves. At times it seems that every migratory waterfowl bird on the Pacific flyway would headquarter on the 90,000 acres of marshland on these preserves. On a series of crisp early winter mornings before first...
New medical research continually changes and adjusts the way physicians practice medicine and treat patients. Dentistry is no different. Evidence-based recommendations in dentistry are based on high-quality studies that undergo rigorous review. As new research emerges, changes to patient care must be made to align our practice with the science and ensure we are providing the highest-quality care possible. When patients are accustomed to a certain experience at the dentist, a change to that experience can sometimes, understandably, cause...
Once again we'll be going to my friend Jim's place for Thanksgiving. Among other things, our camaraderie is rooted in flyfishing. And as is so often true of flyfishers, our commonality extends to other things, other areas of interest, other affinities. The usual crowd consists of three or four couples of empty nesters, depending on who will travel out-of-state to visit the children, or which kids will make the trek home this year. It just sort of happened, over time, that this tradition...
The title of this column can be understood from several different points of view. For example, most often environmental changes that engulf the planet come to mind. There also is the environment that engulfs our inner world, that is our psychology or psyche, and then there are the political, family, scientific and other environments that engulf our lives. Changes or needed changes can be related to any or all of these environments or climates. Understanding that the word climate is not clearly...
When I was a kid I was fascinated by trout flies. It seemed almost inborn. It started when I was about eight when my godfather showed me a box of flies that he tied. There was a sporting goods store in my small home town that sold .22 rifles and ammo, among other things, and I took to shooting at an early age. My dad and my godfather instructed me carefully and well. My dad had the stock of my first .22 sawed off so it would fit a boy. There was a small assortment of flies in the store where...
MISSOULA, MT - Open Enrollment is your annual opportunity to optimize your Medicare coverage. Whether you’re considering a Medicare Advantage plan or adjusting your Prescription Drug Plan, MAS is here to help you make the most of Medicare. Open Enrollment consultations are tailored to your situation, helping you review your options and secure the most suitable and cost-effective plan for the coming year. Open Enrollment falls between Oct. 15 to Dec. 7. It allows for adjustments to Medicare Advantage plans and Prescription Drug Plans (Part D). W...
