Your Community Builder
Your Community Builder
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Hello, I think for many people, May is the best month of the year. Grass is greening up, calving is winding down, farmers are starting to curry the ground, and the flies and mosquitoes haven’t really got going yet. So you can have a drink on the deck in the evening without battling bugs. One of the activities that takes place in ranch country is branding calves. Now for most ranchers, this is a community project. A couple weeks before branding people start arranging their schedule. You check with the neighbors to see when t...
If you read this on Thursday, I’ll be making my least favorite trip to Billings. If I have my new wheelchair, the trip will be more comfortable. The trip is to have the treatment for jaw pain. That treatment had been scheduled originally for the first week in January, rescheduled for the first week in February, rescheduled again for the first week in April, and finally the second week in May. All that rescheduling was the result of snow. Are we safe now? All medical trips should be scheduled in spring and fall. This t...
Hello, As is always said, old age is not good, but it is better than the other option. What made me think of this is my age. I’m getting old enough where I suppose I would be referred to as elderly. I used to think elderly was around 50, then I thought 60, then 70…Now I’m figuring it is in the early hundreds. I remember when Lynn turned 50. We were on the way to a rodeo and maybe had a cold beer. I toasted his birthday and Lynn said, “Just like a spare tire that’s never been out of the trunk!” I didn’t believe him. That tir...
My apologies for the late article! There have been some positive developments in my career that have delayed my submission of my Quarterly Legal Tip. I hope you will forgive my tardiness. Now on to the tip! Have you heard of the ABLE Savings Account? Do you know a fellow Montanan who is disabled and qualifies for programs such as Medicaid and SSI? Did you know that sometimes these programs make it difficult for individuals (or their families) to save money for their future or to provide themselves with things like employment...
I would like to share one comment as I begin; Bill Lavell and Madlon Brence mentioned one individual, Lee Bair, recently in their articles and it brought back my memories of this man. As I remember, he had lost a leg and became a salesman. As Madlon reports, Lee sold for Minnesota Woolen. Around 1950 or 1951, he came to our apartment where he measured and sold me a pair of dress trousers from Minnesota Woolen, which were delivered later with a perfect fit. I will now reflect on some past neighbors, Frank and Clara Nies, who...
My husband does the grocery shopping, but for decades I’ve provided him with a typed or computer generated grocery list. I may allow him to add to the list, but I always hope the store can provide all the other essentials I list. We went to Miles City and Baker last week, with lists for each town. I had an appointment with my neurologist to have Botox shots in my right hand, arm, and neck. The eye doctor was also in the building, and she had warned me macular degeneration was a problem with MS patients, so I needed to see h...
Robins returned before I thought the ground was thawed. Were there any worms near the surface for which robins could peck? What else do robins eat? Brice is seeing more cottontails when he looks through the windows. We used to have a cottontail nursery under our front ramp; close enough to watch through our front window when youngsters tentatively ventured outside. A cat may have discovered the den, or some other predator who dragged the dead babies out to the street. No more life has emerged from under the ramp. I had never...
Hello, Lena is leaving. No, not that Lena. My saddle horse. I bought Lena, I suppose, three years ago. We were trailing cattle north of Killdeer and Russ was riding her. He had saved her from going to the kill pen. A guy had dropped her at his house and Russ was to haul her to the horse buyer a couple days later. She was destined to be a steak sandwich in France. Russ is a hand and he made her look good as we moved those cattle. And by the end of the day, Lena, who is of Norwegian Fjord heritage, was in my trailer. For the...
Hello, You can tell a lot about a person by the hat they wear. At least, that is what I thought until now. I can remember Grandpa Herb and Uncle Hugh’s hats. They were sweat and grease stained. Grandpa had a few little holes cut in an old greasy felt hat to let a little fresh air in during the summer. The brims were scrunched over at the edges and they each had a unique shape. But when they cleaned up for the Fourth of July rodeo or parade, they would don a new straw hat, or dig out the felt hat that Grandma or Dorothy m...
Gwenith Schultz, museum receptionist and historian completed the first phase of the Eagle Archive project on Friday, April 6, 2018. The project began in 2005 with volunteers including Jeane Koefelda. Gwen continued the work in 2008 and has been the lead staff member on the project ever since. The workflow relied heavily on the ability of the museum to fund the project throughout the years and was completed with the assistance of grants including one from the Montana Community...
Did you get your taxes filed by April 15 or 16 or 17? Brice filed ours over the computer and the feds and state accepted both. It’s an easy enough project for Brice, but he tends to put it off. If we owed either, it would make sense to keep your money as long as you could, but if the government owes you, why not get it as soon as you can? When I was single, the wife of one of the graduate students worked for a CPA. In tax season they needed extra help to type finished tax returns. It was part time work and the pay would be n...
I don’t remember when I first met Ernest Tooke. I don’t believe that he went to grade school in Ekalaka, but I might be wrong. So when I arrived at CCHS, as a freshman, he was a junior in the same grade as my sister, Bertha. I’m sure that I knew him before that. Of course, everyone knew the Tookes, Feek and Faye and all the others along with their families. Ernie, as we called him then, was definitely one of the boys and a very popular one at that. All of the guys liked him immensely and he was very much a ladies man as we...
With my article about the Ekalaka Independent Basketball Tournaments giving information about scores, players, referees, businesses, etc., I never presented who placed in the top four during those nine years. I will include it at the bottom of this article and, as you will see, there were some close games and high scores. In the list of individual high scoring games published previously, I overlooked Dan Marinkovich who scored thirty five in a game in 1956 and was an all tourney player that year. Marinkovich was a teacher...
Hello, I’m not too much into vehicles. I mean I drive them a lot. But I’m not the kind of guy that lines up at the car wash when I get a little dust on a vehicle. I think I inherited that trait from my Grandpa. I don’t think he ever washed a vehicle. If the windshield on the pickup got too dirty, he would turn the wipers on and throw a bucket of water on it. That would do. I’m not saying how I treat a vehicle is right, but it’s just the way I roll. A couple of years ago, my kids gave me a “detailing” for my pickup at an...
That’s right, it happened again; snow, wind and hazardous driving conditions postponed the medical appointment to deal with my trygeminal nerve pain in the lower right jaw. That happened in January, February, but we mistakenly thought April would be safe. We should have remembered the year Katie tried to come home from Billings on spring break; we followed her all the way from Miles City to be sure she made it safely. Driving conditions were questionable in Ekalaka, on April 5, but got worse the farther west you went. We w...
Hello, I’m not going to write about the horrible calving weather last week. And I won’t mention the forecast for this week. As I write this early Monday morning, this week looks like more of the same. So you can read last week’s column and find out about saving calves in the bathtub. Every year I swear we are going to switch to May calving, and every year, when we have trouble keeping the bulls in, we say, “What the heck? Maybe it will be nice next spring.” But this year, I really mean it. Someone posted on social media the...
I am going to throw several different memories of individuals, tourney games, and records during those tourney years into my article this week. My last article had information about Carsten Loken. Many of you may not remember, but he was known more as "Dutch" Loken. I also want to state that girls high school basketball had not started when I was a referee. When I was in grade school, we played the high school girls-the game was different then. There were six players, three...
I was mentally prepared to compose a series of articles about the weather starting with the day fog settled over Ekalaka most of the day. Then came WIND! That’s right, all caps; the wind deserved them. At 4:00 am, Brice got up to unplug the computer, but it was too late. The computer was dead, or in a coma from which we could not awaken it. When power goes off and quickly comes back five times in a row, problems result. The power company is strong, but it can’t control the wind. Brice took our computer to the Best Buy whe...
Every once in a while, after I tell my daughter, Brenda, a story about Ekalaka, she tells me; “You should write a story about that!” This is what happened with this story. I was telling her about this salesman, Lee Bair. Later I realized that he was the only salesman that I could remember, so I will write about him and also some related things. Lee Bair only had one leg, but had a wooden or other prosthetic leg. He walked kind of stilted but got around very well. He lived either in Camp Crook or around there. He was a sal...
Hello, I don’t know. Maybe it’s just that I’m getting older. But I can’t remember the wind blowing like it has recently. I mean, every morning, the windows are rattling and snow is moving around the yard. The other day we lost a calf. Well, we didn’t really lose it. The cow lost it. I mean it died. out was that the cow was trying to have that little guy against the wind. If she had only stood up and turned around, would have been all right. Every rancher who has swung a leg over a horse, or saddled up the four-wheeler for a q...
My Father, Lee Lavell, was a most unusual character. Some of you older people in Ekalaka knew him or of him, but I am going to tell you something about him that probably none of you knew. He just did it and never told anybody except his family about it. Numerous times while I was growing up, Dad brought a down and out man home with him. Usually it was Barry Doby, who lived in a tiny house down a ways toward town from us. Barry Doby, I don't know if it was spelled this way or as Bary, used to get drunk once in a while and...
Hello, I’ve told you about my friend that is worse around the house than I? You know, the one that complained because none of the businesses were open on Sunday and he needed his solid oak doors sawed off because he had put in a new carpet and the doors drug on the floor. And since nothing was open, he was upset and sawed the doors off himself. Which would have been all right if he had a carpeted ceiling, because he sawed the top off. He does have a struggle. We were out for supper one night last week with some friends. S...
Good Day to you Laddie, Tis that favorite time of the year again lads, St. Paddy’s Day. The day we all celebrate the wee bit of Irish that we all wish we had. A day with a pint of Guiness or a shot of Jamison. Since I married an Irish/Norwegian lass, I have learned to appreciate the Irish wit and need for celebration. And I have deduced that there are a few things that you know if you are Irish. 1. When you were growing up, much of your food was boiled. 2. After a few beers, you become quite poetic. 3. Not knowing the words t...
As I continued to referee for several years, I was included in the top rating as an official. I was chosen for tournaments — the first being a Class C District A Tournament in Sidney, MT. Almost every referee looks forward to working a tournament. I believe the year was 1961 and the teams were Froid, Culbertson, Bainville, Brockton, Savage, Richey, Frazer, and Lambert. Some of these schools have now combined because of enrollment. A memory from this tourney was that Mr. Kenneth K. Kins was the coach of the Brockton I...
Upon reading the latest Sykes-Belltower history in the Eagle, I am reminded once again about the great debt that we owe to women and how important they are in our history and indeed to our present. Two ladies stood out in this story. One was Marguerite Goeders, standing only 4 ft. 2 inches, she magnificently did all the work required on the homestead while her husband worked in their blacksmith shop. The other was Mrs. Kingsley who walked through the snow and inclement weather to deliver mail just to make a living. I suspect...
