Your Community Builder
Your Community Builder
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Hello God, it’s me, Mara: You know, Lord, sometimes it just happens that there is a special day, a day when we notice a couple dozen wonderful things to cherish and treasure and enjoy. If we borrow an ingenious word, we can call that list, LIFE SAVERS. Then up pops a list to share with You, Lord. Are You ready or the list? Here we go! Letter from faraway special cousins… a drive on the prairie… blue sky above… this winter months weather like a clam before a storm… awe-inspiring cloud cover… about a ‘thousand’ cattle on the h...
Here is part three of my four-part series of articles dedicated to providing the you, the community, with information regarding basic estate planning documents, forms, and what to do with the information. In this article, I talk about Powers of Attorney. POWERS OF ATTORNEY A Power of Attorney form is a written authorization for a person to handle property or financial matters for another individual. The person signing the Power of Attorney form and giving someone power over his or her assets is called the "principal." The...
Hello, I always wanted to be a cowboy. And for a time, I thought maybe I had made it. I was riding saddle broncs, albeit poorly, roping a bit, riding on roundups and chasing cows through the willows. I was breaking a colt to ride once in awhile and could do a c-section on a cow tied to a tree. I had spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle (actually that is an old song) as I go riding merrily along (that’s the rest of the song, hum it, you’ll like it). But back to my story. Whenever you think you are good at something, or maybe one...
Hello, I’m not the biggest football fan around. I very seldom watch an entire game. That is unless it’s the Harding County Ranchers junior high team. Then I pack up Gramma and travel across two states to watch future NFL stars. I sit on hard bleachers in wind, rain, and snow and sip poor coffee and spit sunflower seeds out. And dang, it is fun. But this past weekend was a little different. The Bison were playing in Texas for their seventh championship in eight years. I attended NDSU, albeit briefly. It was in the late six...
Hello God, it’s me, Mara: You know, Lord, we’re already into January but have any of us made resolutions? If that word means to make “a firm decision on something,” how come we frail humans break our resolutions as fast as we make them? Maybe we should choose more wisely? We could all stand to gain some control over our health. Your Word says in Psalms 90:10, “The days of our lives are seventy years; and if reason to strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off and we fly aw...
I have never and will never make New Year’s resolutions. New Year’s resolutions are a matter of promising yourself to change habits. No promises will be made by me, just a best effort to change. By not making any promises, no promises will be broken. I once heard it takes two weeks to change a habit: two weeks of a changed behavior. That’s hard to do. No use of tobacco can easily be eliminated. When dealing with addiction, whether to chew or smoke, requires something akin to tears and exhaustion. Men are not likely to cry ...
Hello God, it’s me, Mara: You know, Lord, many precious friends and loved ones have been called Home in recent months – it’s almost like we’re missing the party but each departed friend is a magnet that attracts us to the next world. When a loved one who knew Jesus passes away, our thoughts often wander to “the other side” as we wonder what they might be experiencing right now. With our limited knowledge and brief glimpses given in Scripture, we try to imagine the glories of a Heavenly realm. Heaven. Our parents and grandpa...
I still have a couple of wonderful neighbors to remember and write about, which I will continue in this article. Across the street and up the hill from us were Francis B. and Alma Freese. Shifting Scenes Vol. III, page 80, has a very short article about them written by Nellie Guyer Dean. For some years they boarded individuals who went to high school at CCHS. Some of you reading this might be among them. Here is the history about this couple and their family. Francis Barnett Freese was born on June 26, 1889 at Tea, South...
Hello, Shirley said to write a Christmas story. And when Shirley says, I write. I think Christmas is over by the time you get this, but I’m writing it before Christmas so just bare with me. And that happens because, unlike ranches, newspapers adjust their schedule for printing on holidays. Christmas time is a time for friends and families. Kids and grandkids are coming home for Christmas. Neighbors are stopping by to drop off a gift or share a cup of coffee and wish each other well for the season. Santa is greasing up the s...
Hello, I enjoy looking at pictures. Whether they are in an album, on a smartphone, or in book on the coffee table. I enjoy seeing the pictures of families that come on the Christmas cards we receive. If you haven’t gotten our card yet, don’t worry, for the 48th, or maybe 49th year in a row, they are lost in the mail. I often wonder how many marriages get off to a rocky start because of pictures. You know. It’s 115 above. Hot and humid. The bride and groom are dressed in the most uncomfortable attire. The father of the bride...
When I was a very young child I remember my mom wrapping dozens of packages at Christmas. A big box filled with them went to Kansas where sisters and parents lived. Her brothers moved around with their families before settling in Texas. The presents were never large; men would often get socks, and women received gloves. But everyone received a gift, especially children. One year my mother worked part time at a five and ten cent store, wrapping packages. Those were the years before packaged bows. She learned to make beautiful...
It seems to take a while after sunrise now for birds to gather at the bird feeder by the kitchen window. On winter mornings like those recently, when the temperature struggled to rise much above zero, the chickadees, house finches and English house sparrows didn't show up until half an hour after sunrise. I don't blame them; winter mornings are meant for sleeping in. All animals that spend at least part of their lives in Montana, inside those man-made boundaries we call state...
I haven’t written a story for the Eagle recently and I thought some of you might want to know what I have been up to. My daughter Brenda, recently got a job in Sacramento in the field that she was in before she came up here to help me with her mother’s health. After Joanne’s death, Brenda and I threw our lots in together and we will live together, probably for the rest of my life. She was trying hard, but her online business, dyeing and selling yarn, was not doing as well as it used to so she went back to work. It is hard...
When we lived on the farm, my dad would always cut our tree from a forested hillside. The sizes varied with the years. Our old farmhouse had 10 ft. ceilings, and one year the tree he harvested touched the ceiling. Mom and dad started stringing the lights; they ended up using the larger, outdoor lights closer to the bottom. It took every ornament we had. We only put up the tree on Christmas Eve, and it stayed up well into the new year. By waiting until Christmas Eve, the kids had something to do while their Christmas...
Hello God, it’s me, Mara: You know, Lord, here’s an interesting Bible Verse for this season from Psalm 62:5: “My soul waits silently for God alone, for my expectations are from Him.” As we practice Your Presence, Lord, we can expect. A story is told of a mother who expects: she expects it’s going to be a bright day; she expects to hear from a family member; she expects her lima beans are sprouting and that it will be an early spring; she expects her children to be good. This mother expects the best. June Masters Bacher wrote:...
Hello, I’m too young to remember the good old days. I guess they were in the early 1900s. When you didn’t have snow plows and four-wheel drive tractors. You didn’t have snow blowers and insulated underwear. You didn’t have front-end loaders and sanded highways to drive on. If you wanted to get to your neighbors on a morning when it is –27, you harnessed a team up, threw a scoop shovel on the sled in case the team played out in a drift, wrapped a towel around your face and headed out. Those were the good old days! I am old en...
Here is part two of my four-part series of articles dedicated to providing you, the community, with information regarding basic estate planning documents, forms, and what to do with the information. In this article I talk about Living Trusts and the ways they can benefit you. WHAT IS A LIVING TRUST? A Living Trust is a legal document by which you can transfer your assets to yourself or another person as "trustee," to manage your assets for your benefit, or for the benefit of any person you direct. In most cases, you will...
On Wednesday, December 5, I turned 68. It will be the first year since I was in my early 20s when I won’t get a check, worth one dollar for every year I have lived. (It got better the older I turned). My mother started the tradition when I was 25, and we lived in Australia. First of all, you’re not supposed to send checks to another country, where the bank has to deal with the exchange rate. And if that weren’t enough, she made the check to me, using my maiden name! I explained her errors to the local bank where we had a che...
Yes, I know I haven’t had a “Memories” article since Nov. 2, but let me explain. On Oct. 27 we received a telephone call that our daughter Arlene and her husband were cleaning the eve troughs on their house. The ladder tipped and she fell 12-14 feet onto the basement cement entry. She was taken to the Twin Falls emergency room where they found a head injury with some bleeding that required seven stitches. She was airlifted to Boise, Idaho for more treatment. The head bleeding stopped, but she had two broken vertebrates in her...
Hello, I’ve always been pretty lucky. At least that’s what Dad says. And I realize that more than ever today. On Friday, I had one of those phone calls that you dream of. I was a winner! A big winner. I had a phone call from, listen to this, a phone call from Publishers Clearing House! I was their grand prizewinner! I was a little skeptical at first. But I’m sure it was a legitimate call. The accent definitely was not from North Dakota. And I know their headquarters is not in either North or South Dakota. The caller asked...
Hello God, it’s me, Mara: You know, Lord, the word ‘terminal’ sometimes causes a bit of a shock when we think about our own life…. not that any of us really ever figured that we were going to live down here on earth forever. An interesting article had a graph of weeks for us Homosapiens which generously allowed us the total number of weeks of our life on earth should we be granted the 85 years of life that we might live, should You tarry, Lord. If 18, we only have 3484 weeks. If 28, we only have 2964 weeks. If 38, we only ha...
Hello, A famous quote, probably more famous than Grandpa’s, “Never buy a horse from a guy that sits in the front pew at church,” was Winston Churchill’s, “The only thing we have to fear… is fear itself.” Evidently, Winston did not know Shirley. The Thanksgiving cow sales are over! The sales that men go to while Mom goes shopping on Black Friday. It’s this time of the year that neighbors start meeting at cow sales. Buying a few cows to replace the “opens.” Replacing some of those old girls that aren’t producing the kind of...
This morning, Brice and I were remembering a particular Thanksgiving 32 or 33 years ago. In Billings I had been able to buy a fresh turkey, delivered to my door by a turkey farmer. The birds were very tender. In Ekalaka, Doug Bonsell raised turkeys. I ordered a small one, 12-15 pounds. When it came to the house it had grown, grown to 21 pounds! It had to be washed in the bathtub! Would it even fit in the roaster or the oven? It got wedged in the roaster, and with all the other racks removed, set on the lowest rack in the...
Hello, It seems to me that the world is spinning faster than it used to. I suppose that happens as you age. You just write about the fourth of July and it's Veteran's Day. Then finish an article and it's Thanksgiving. Then Christmas pops up. I think I'm going to fly off! I had an interesting week. Was invited to read a few columns and give a little talk at a nursing home in Garrison. I haven't been to Garrison since the late sixties I would guess. And as they say, if you remember the sixties, you weren't there. Anyway, I...
Hello God, it’s me, Mara: You know, Lord, this month [on the 22nd] the full moon is called the Beaver Moon and according to folklore, that’s when the beavers become active while preparing for winter. A friend also mentioned that November’s Full Moon might also be called the Frosty Moon and some years that is for sure, but we’ll wait and see for this year! In the still of the evening, the blue of the sky is as no artist can capture. The moon peeks through naked trees and seems to wink and grin as a long, slim cloud wipes a...
