Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 463
I am happy to say that I am surviving anther month of March and its unpredictable weather as we transition from winter to spring. In my opinion, March provides us with the most fickle weather of the year. Its unpredictable days may give us a massive blizzard, along with bone chilling cold, and in that same 31-day period we can enjoy balmy spring-like days that allow us to work outside in a T-shirt. Both extremes mean March, neither is unusual in the least during the third month of the year, and we accept these wild rambunctious swings as part...
Our neighbor lady has quite a few talents. She has imagination, a sense of humor and artistic talent to boot. She excels at creating posters, cards and other graphic materials. Three years ago, she produced a collage as a memento of the first year the four of us had spent in our respective mountain homes. The collage featured many of the humorous and unexpected events our two households encountered over the course of that first year. This past Christmas she gifted us with a new collage, one that totally captured the year of 2020; logging in a...
Years ago, before I underwent a double knee replacement, I got quite adept at predicting weather changes. My knees would ache abominably a day or so before we would see the weather turn; whatever that shift happened to be. Depending on how badly my knees hurt prior to this weather downturn, I realized a particular kind of painful knee meant wind. Strong, gusty winds, to be precise. I would know a day in advance that we would experience windy weather, so I made sure I had outdoor odds and ends put away so the wind didn’t carry them into the n...
Yikes, what a year we all saw in 2020. To say this past year proved itself a most unusual year qualifies as an understatement, as nearly everyone I know can’t wait to look at 2020 from his or her rear-view mirror. 2020 provided us with situations and experiences we’ve only read about in books. Experts have warned for years that the world was and is ripe for pandemics, but we humans always feel these events will happen in another time and place. Scientists have also cautioned that we will endure more frequent hurricanes and turbulent wea...
Some of you may remember a story I wrote several years ago about outhouses. In that little tale I explained how fascinated I have always been with these outdoor potty rooms. I have outhouse paraphernalia everywhere; coin banks, tree ornaments, calendars, towels, pictures, an outhouse quilt I made years ago, a night light, knickknacks, you name it. If it is an outhouse item, I have it or want it if I don't happen to own that particular trinket. I am not sure why I have such an interest in these...
When life flows along as we expect, we take electricity for granted. The refrigerator hums along on its own, a flick of the finger lights up a room, water splashes out of the tap on demand, and we enjoy hot showers whenever we require them. Coffeepots perk up their amazing brew each morning and our satisfaction knows no bounds. However, when the power flickers out, we are jolted out of our complacency in half a nanosecond, especially if one gets caught in the shower, or heaven forbid, the power goes off about the same time my husband expects...
I have always loved baked goods. Especially as a youth, I could never resist any tempting concoction placed in front of me. Pastries, cream horns, cream puffs, pie, chocolate cookies laden with coconut and nuts; you name it. If it wasn’t good for me, I really enjoyed indulging my decadent tastes. Fortunately, as I have aged, I have become a lot more discriminating as to what I place in my mouth. I can easily separate out the excellent pastry from those that ought to be left in the store, as the majority of baked goods today truly are not p...
Madison County has a regulation that requires a property owner to clearly mark his or her 911 physical address at the entrance to the driveway so emergency services can find the property if called to the site for any sort of emergency. We have lived on our little abode on the side of a hill now for the past three years, and although we have the road name clearly marked, we have never managed to put the actual road number at the entrance to our driveway. We have talked about completing this little task multiple times, but somehow other projects...
Cowboys knew what they were doing, in more ways than one. Remember those oversize bandannas they always wore around their necks? Just think, that big kerchief served a multitude of uses. Cowboys could use those fabric neckpieces as a cooling cloth on the neck when they wet the material, they could fix the bandanna over their faces as a shielding mask in a dust or snowstorm, wipe noses, mop up blood from scratches obtained riding through sagebrush, stem bleeding from a gunshot or arrow wound, or use it to disguise themselves when it came time to...
My husband loves to spend time in the woods. He’ll travel several miles to reach our BLM ‘big timber’ country, where he enjoys the scenery, the hushed solitude of the forest, and the search for firewood. Logging puts him in a good mood as well, whether he fells standing dead trees or cuts up deadfall. He enjoys chopping trees into manageable pieces, loading the chunks on the pickup, and hauling them home for future winter use. When he takes a cruise in the side-by-side, he always carries a chainsaw, gas, oil, and assorted tools with him on th...
I used to be made of rubber: elastic, stretchable, and just about indestructible, or at least that is the way I felt. When I was a child and even still as a young adult, I could leap over tall buildings in a single bound, tumble down stairs, bounce like a rubber ball on the way down, and get up laughing when I hit bottom. I could ride horses all day long, try the preposterous stunts I’d watched cowboys perform on TV, fall with a crash to the ground over and over, but get up, climb back on, and try the trick all over again. I never did master a...
Owls have amazing eyesight and night vision. They lurk in trees at night, look below them, see a dark rodent running across equally dark ground, swoop down, and unerringly make a catch. Wow, talk about the ability to see in the dark. I wish I had it so good. My eyes have never provided me with crystal clear sight. My daylight vision leaves a lot to be desired, never mind navigating at night. I can’t blame this on older age, because even as a child, I never saw particularly well whatever the time of day. Darkness and shadows really presented p...
If you are worried about how you are going to pay your home energy bill as a result of issues related to COVID-19, please contact Energy Share of Montana. Energy Share is a statewide nonprofit organization whose purpose is to help Montanans facing loss of heat or lights in their home, and who have no resources to pay the bill themselves. Energy Share is fuel blind so helps people no matter what their heat source is. If you or someone you know needs help: • Contact Action for Eastern Montana, Glendive, MT, 1-800-227-0703 or www.aemt.org. They h...
Most of us were raised to be respectful, to offer help in times of need, to make ourselves useful, and to say yes when someone asked a favor. We were taught to do what we could to help and assist someone when asked or needed, and to try hard not to hurt anyone’s feelings. I’ve decided I’ve mixed up a few of those directives along the path of life. I know that when people ask me to do something or they want a favor of one sort or another, I have mistakenly decided somewhere or other along the way that to say no would upset them, put them at a...
My husband and I enjoy snacks. We like our cookies, crackers, nuts of all shapes and sizes, candies, and other assorted treats. When we have such delightful goodies in the house, we keep them in a specific spot so we both know where to check when the snack monster strikes. My husband also has a special cupboard in his shop that he reserves for tasty tidbits of all description. He calls his cupboard his ‘secret stash’, which in my opinion happens to be the worst kept secret on the mountain. The neighbors know about his so-called ‘se...
Technology truly has changed everything. Remember when we would get a new wristwatch? We’d pull out the stem, set the watch to the appropriate time, push the stem back in, and then rotate that stem back and forth to wind the watch. The device kept great analog time and all of us could tell the hour and minute of the day by looking at that timepiece. People understood what a person meant when he or she announced that it was a quarter to six. It seems that kids today only understand digital time and have no idea what you are talking about when yo...
My mother grew up during the Depression. She only had a handful of books at her disposal, and since she loved to read, she read and reread those half dozen books multiple times and treasured each and every one of them. She still had those books when we cleaned out her apartment after her death. She never forgot the dearth of books in her household as she grew up. She made up her mind that her children would have books at their disposal, and she made good on that vow. I grew up surrounded by publications of all kinds, and I developed a love of...
Multiple accounts of scam calls have been reported to Montana's Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP). Just this month seven Montanans, believing that they were talking to Medicare, gave out their Medicare numbers. Those calls included "your Medicare number is invalid" and "Medicare is replacing cards with one that has a chip reader," and in all cases they asked to confirm the current numbers. A direct result of people's Medicare numbers falling into the wrong hands in the more than $21,000 in documented...
It seems my husband and I always decide to begin a project at the wrong time of year. We purchase snow shovels in April, barbecues in November, and sleds after the snow melts, a new self-propelled four-wheel drive push lawn mower when the grass has withered in the fall, and the list goes on. Whatever we do, we end up waiting months before we get to use our new item. This September we pulled our usual “let’s do it now when it’s too late to take advantage of it this season” stunt. We decided to treat ourselves to a small greenhouse. This wasn’t...
I love my three siblings. After all, we grew up together, we knew what buttons to push if one of us wanted to start an argument, and we also knew the way to soothe those ruffled feelings. We banded together against perceived outside threats, we kept one another’s secrets, we understood and, in most cases, empathized with their problems as we navigated ourselves through childhood. In short, we grew up in a typical fashion and learned to respect and care about one another. Of course, we all matured and flew away with the four winds. All four of u...
Did you know that the phrase 'senior moments', which means a temporary lapse of memory, first made an appearance in 1996? The staff of Webster's New World College Dictionary made it the word of the year in 2000. The term seems to poke gentle fun at us older people, but it does give us an excuse when those annoying lapses of memory do occur, which seems to happen more frequently than one would like. Before we get to the point when we start to worry about those memory glitches, we tend to find...
When I moved to Virginia City, the sign “Welcome to Virginia City - Resisting Change since 1863” amused me. I understand the sentiment behind that statement, as the community wants to preserve the old buildings and atmosphere that attracts thousands of tourists every year. The town even has sign law restrictions for businesses that dictate sign size, color, and construction, along with restrictions on what people can or cannot do to their outside property that lies within the historic district. Townsfolks would like to preserve what they hav...
We all encounter inanities in life. Pet peeves, gripes, and complaints differ greatly among people. What drives me totally mad does not seem to bother others at all. Each one of us experiences minor life encounters and occurrences that annoy us as an individual immensely while others around us don’t seem to find the same happenings nearly as irritating as we do. Thank goodness tolerance levels differ from person to person. I thought I would share some of the occurrences in my life that vex me. I’ve listed several, in no particular order of ann...
I think I have moved to the right place. It seems in most parts of the country older people no longer receive the respect they deserve. We're often looked upon as a burden, as using up vanishing natural resources; younger people don't value our expertise nor do they want our advice. 'Old' often equates with relic, antique, artifact, shopworn, and used up. However, in Virginia City people delight in old objects. Visitors come from all fifty states and around the world to view the dated treasures...
Maybe this observation applies only to this household, but somehow I doubt it. It seems that when the man of the house does something silly, or makes a mistake, or has some sort of accident, the woman of the house is expected to soothe feelings, assure her man that accidents do happen, the incident of course was in no way his fault, she of course will pay any resulting bills, and she will never mention the peccadillo again. However, woe on the woman if she happens to make the same sort of...
