One Nation, Under God
One Nation, Under God
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When I was young and full of myself there were a number of things I did that I swore I’d never quit. They were too cool, too unique, too fun. I couldn’t imagine a spring without horn hunting or a fall without chasing elk. I promised myself I’d drive over the Beartooth Pass every summer, and I’d never miss the Mothers’ Day caddis hatch on the Yellowstone River. Time has a way of breaking promises, however, and that list of things I’d never quit has dwindled to a scant few. One of them is com...
I don’t do sappy TV Shows and movies. I am not one that needs a chick flick to open my emotions. But, every once in a while, a film does make me tear up. The first time that I noticed this was while watching A Walk to Remember. I try no to spoil things, but if you recall there was a certain tragedy in that film that set my waterworks off. Years later, I watched Man of Steel. You may think, what could make a person cry during in a Superman movie? This is a slight spoiler but during Clark Kent’s childhood, he was just understanding his pow...
Get well wishes traveling prize was awarded to my sister, Janet Brown. She is out of the hospital and, for now, in assisted living. Happy birthday to Fred Allery Sr., and Fred Allery Jr. Also, happy birthday to my son Mitchell Moore and Irene Wendalyn of Chinook. Irene and I went to the Phillips County Fair Friday. We ate supper and went to the night concert that night and it was excellent Country music. Although the exhibits were down in number, congratulations to the 4-H children. What I miss...
The Water Use Act (Act), passed by the Montana Legislature in 1973, mainly dealt with free flowing streams, irrigation and ground water. It did not address livestock water use. So why is this an issue? Irrigation from free flowing streams requires a specific point of diversion and a specific place of use. Priority dates and the amount of water allocated to a user become important when drought conditions reduce the amount of water in the stream. Similarly, ground water can become an issue when subdivision withdrawals start impacting the water...
I was talking to my good friend Edub last week about folks we used to work with at the Bozeman Chronicle who had gone on to work for larger newspapers. We laughed about a rookie reporter at the paper who had struggled with the writing, couldn’t meet deadlines, and left after less than a year. Edub said he thought the guy was still working for the Boston Globe. Then he looked at me with a grin on his face and said: “And you’re working for the Phillips County News.” It’s true. My journalism career...
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you matter. I had the privilege of having my cousin, his wife, and their son, over for their vacation; this also doubled as a stay-cation for Susan, myself, and the boys. When they asked me months ago if they could come through for their vacation, I was like, “are you sure?!?” People from the outside world don’t know how rural we are here in Phillips County. I tried explaining that there was almost nothing to do here. I explained that the closest taco pl...
1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE. "If you're going to kill each other, do it outside...I just finished cleaning.” 2. My mother taught me RELIGION "You better pray that will come out of the carpet.” 3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL "If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week.” 4. My mother taught me LOGIC "Because I said so, that's why.” 5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC "If you fall out of that swing and break you neck, you are not going to the store with me.” 6. My mother ta...
I don’t know if it’s the months of social distancing or simply old age, but I’m barely presentable in public these days. My wife keeps telling me to zip up my pants. Not that I’m embarrassed to be unzipped in front of her, however, I doubt she’s the only to have noticed. I fear I’ll soon be known as that old dude who doesn’t zip up his pants. At least I’ve been keeping to myself. For many years I covered prep and college basketball for the Livingston Enterprise, the Bozeman Chronicle, and the Ph...
We have been experiencing some very hot weather and the weather map looks like it is to continue for at least another week. We did have a little rain last Thursday that cooled it for a very short time. People from away from here had asked about grasshoppers as they have been bad in some places. I had not noticed many here but yesterday while picking raspberries I found lots in the bushes. Hope they do not get too bad before harvests are done. Velyma Broadhead and Dora picked raspberries and...
Does the name “Beavertown” sound familiar? It was one of the booming “h” towns of yesteryear. Located near Beaver Creek (from which, it presumably, was named) it was the nearest town for homesteaders on the Saco divide and the ranches located on Larb Creek. Saco was near but many times Beaver Creek made it impossible to reach Saco due to its flooding. The town boasted a lumberyard, a blacksmith shop, grain elevator, Hotel, bar, post office, grocery store, and school. The school was grand with a lower level that hosted classrooms and a second fl...
Am I the only one who is tired of dirty politics? It is hard to believe that it is August. Happy birthday to all August birthdays, including my son, Mitchell Moore. A late happy birthday to July birthdays I missed including Pat Murdock. They had a nice birthday cake for her birthday. The Phillips County Fair was different this year, due to the virus. Most four age exhibits were in Malta. There were no carnival rides, and the kids missed them. There was a concert and other night activities....
I grow attached to my boats. I still have the Grumman canoe I bought with paper route money when I was 14, but many others have come and gone. The pretty wooden drift boat in which I learned to row is but a memory now. I cashed in a retirement plan to buy that boat and never regretted the decision. The aluminum Smokercraft that Barb and I bought when we first got together is also gone. It took us to dozens of lakes and rivers across Montana. We’ll probably never catch as many fish out of a...
I paused my Facebook account because I am tired of the hatred and fake news that is posted there. You can call me “triggered” but I argue I am less inclined to be such without this branch of social media …or any social media, for that matter (lest we forget that Facebook owns Instagram.) The amount of stupidity, conspiracy theories, and straight out lies on Facebook are the reason I have pulled that trigger. Couple those aspects along with the political ads (most of which are lies regardless of party) and the perfect storm of contentious quarr...
The national coronavirus death toll in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities is shocking and the stories are gut wrenching. More than 56,000 nursing home residents in the U.S. have died – some alone and afraid without a family member by their side. That’s 44% of all national COVID-19 related deaths, yet nursing home residents only make up 1% of the U.S. population. Here in Montana, there have been 13 deaths or 40% of total COVID-19 related deaths from an assisted living facility and most recently, from a memory care unit. As compare...
I’ve spent the past few months as I usually do – fishing and gardening and mowing grass. The tomatoes are coming on, as is the corn. The fish have been biting, and twice I’ve impaled myself with treble hooks. It’s almost life as normal. Almost. My son-in-law Elder is in quarantine after a co-worker at the restaurant in Livingston where he tends bar tested positive for covid. Now he’s out of work, both at the restaurant where he worked part time and at the warehouse where he worked fulltime...
E-gads! What an outcry from the people who refuse to wear masks. I hear ya, the choice is yours…but not really. Last week, Montana Governor Steve Bullock issued a mask mandate for certain counties in the state where there are four or more confirmed cases of COVID-19. Thankfully, and so far, that doesn’t include Phillips County where we do not have any cases at the time I am writing this. There are exemptions, for some, but at the end of the day, a mandate is, by definition, “an official order or commission to do something.” Now, nobody likes t...
As the country celebrates its birth as a nation, one of the most patriotic things Montanans can do is stand up and be counted--in the 2020 Census. Or, more accurately, go online and be counted. Or mail in the census form. Or chat with a census worker. Every 10 years, the country counts how many people live in the United States of America. The stakes are large. Results of the census determine how much money Montana gets from the federal government. That’s about $2 billion a year now. The equation is simple. The more people counted by the c...
I’m concerned. The weather forecast is calling for strong storms this afternoon. Lately, even the slightest chance of inclement weather has produced some scary meteorological events. I used to eagerly anticipate such natural phenomenom, but more often than not the weather that arrived was not nearly as exciting as what was advertised. I’ve never lived anywhere that the sky looks more threatening than it frequently does here in Malta only to just miss us to the south or the north. "Wow, that loo...
Yesterday I heard a jackass bleat. “Baaaahhh… Baaaahhhh.” As I sat in my Jeep with Goose the News Hound riding shotgun, the line behind me started to grow and folks lined up for free COVID-19 virus testing at the Milk River Pavilion last Thursday morning. The Phillips County Health Department and Phillips County Hospital and Family Clinic teamed-up on the day to give anyone who wanted one a test for COVID-19, so I figured what the heck. “Baaaahhh… Baaaahhhh.” There it was again. I looked out my car window and a man I have never seen, met,...
Sympathy to families who lost people due to gun violence in many places. Pat (Ivanovich) Donich who is Sally Austin’s sister, was in Whitewater. She bought dinner at North 40 for Sally A., Dallas, and Ashley Green, Jeanne Green, and myself. Thanks to Pat for dinner and visit. Pat has been in Minnesota for a nursing class reunion. she returned home on Sunday. On July 4, many from the area went to the lake. The Scheffelmaers went camping in the mountians near Zortman. Sally Austin took me to t...
You may recall that I wrote an article a few weeks ago that exposed the attempt by the Montana Department of Natural Resources (DNRC) to illegally give our ranchers' vested stockwater rights to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Well, we are not alone! I just read an article in the June 20, 2020 Tri-State Livestock News by the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) that detailed what was happening with stockwater rights in Idaho. First, a bit of history. In 1987 the Idaho Water Court began to adjudicate the Snake River Basin, a sizable piece of...
As a nation, state and society we are living in unprecedented times. As peace officer leaders in the State of Montana, we feel it is our obligation to speak about the unnecessary injuries and deaths, suffered by any persons, at the hands of law enforcement officers who fail or refuse to live by our peace officer code of ethics. We collectively acknowledge that incidents of excessive use of force, violence and misconduct are unacceptable and contradictory to our professional training, ethics, and personal morals. In every community ofMontana,...
A lot of folks up here in north-central Montana seem to think we live on an island, that the threat posed by the pandemic doesn’t concern us. Although I don’t share those thoughts, my wife and I have been living on an island of our own making. Since the middle of March we’ve been staying home, social distancing, avoiding crowds. It’s been harder on Barb than on me. I’m pretty much a hermit anyway, but she sorely misses lunches with her friends, bingo, and author conferences. We’re fortunate t...
Hopefully, everyone had a good Independence Day. Even as a kid, we didn’t make a huge deal of the 4th of July, but one thing was sure; there would be barbeque or grilled meat. Our kids aren’t too big yet, so we keep it simple when we “que”, and this year we bought some baby back ribs. I may or not have sung the Chili’s song, inserting the words “Peezy’s Baby Back Ribs” where Chili’s Baby Back Ribs goes. As far as cooking the ribs went, I tried to ignore them for the most part instead of the ty...
Sympathy to all who have been affected by the C 19 virus. Be aware of it. It's July so happy birthday to all birthdays including my daughter Teresa of Swift Current, Canada, and Gayle Young of Saco. Also, happy anniversary to all having July celebrations. Hope you all had a fun and safe 4th of July. Dixie Stordahl and Lu Besel went to the children's day at the Dinosaur museum in Malta. Lu took Sommer Green along to help. The children enjoyed it all. Bonnie McMullin and Lu Besel and others went...
