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  • Looking out my Backdoor: Micro slice of a simple life in paradise

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Oct 10, 2019

    When one lives in a tiny community, little things can tend to balloon into huge importance. When I say “small community,” I don’t mean a place numbered in four digits, where you might recognize a couple thousand through ordinary daily contact: That young man with the ponytail works at the glass repair shop, the woman with red hair and big glasses clerk at the IGA and that over-dressed couple walks around the park every day with their dog, Riley. A place where you might know 20...

  • The Postscript: Slow travelers

    Carrie Classon|Updated Oct 9, 2019

    Peter and I are packing for our annual trip again. My husband, Peter, is retired and I write, so we are able to travel now. Getting married late in life, this might have posed some problems because Peter is exactly the opposite sort of traveler I used to be. "I'm packing two separate bags - one for Spain and one for on the way there," Peter informs me. "This will mean some duplication, but it will simplify things when it's time to fly!" Peter is obviously pleased with...

  • Beaver trapping agendas could ruin Beaver Creek Park

    Updated Oct 4, 2019

    Is our park board being unduly influenced by animal rights advocates, especially when it comes to Beaver Creek Park? After attending several meetings and listening to representatives of animal rights groups and a sympathetic park board member, residents of Hill County should be concerned. The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks oversees the management of Montana’s wildlife, fish and parks. It uses scientific studies, ethical and humane methods to do this. Montana counties rely on committees and boards to m...

  • View from the North 40: All this for one little shower stall?

    Pam Burke|Updated Oct 4, 2019

    Anticipation and Dread are like fraternal twins separated at birth, one raised by well-adjusted and supportive parents to think positively, and the other raised by well-meaning, but vaguely clueless people who mistake stillness and silence for maturity rather than the terror and general malaise it represented. Anticipation confidently looks forward to things happening, expecting positive outcomes — or at least expecting to be able to formulate and execute solutions that will o...

  • Looking out my Backdoor: What you gonna do when the lights go out?

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Oct 3, 2019

    Stand on the curb of any street in any town in Mexico and look up. No, not that high. Those are just the ubiquitous buzzards, turkey vultures, also fondly, tongue in cheek, called the Mexican Eagle. Yes, lower down, that’s what I want to show you, the leftover-spaghetti-mess of wires criss-crossing overhead, connecting each habitation to power, cable, satellite, internet and phone services. When I lived in an apartment on a busy street In Mazatlan, for entertainment, I w...

  • More than a field

    Updated Oct 2, 2019

    I’ve recently finished my first month as the new executive director for the Montana State University-Northern Foundation, and it’s an amazing time to be a part of all that is happening at MSU-Northern. While, technically, I am not an employee of the university — the foundation is a separate non-profit organization with the mission to support MSU-Northern students and the University’s strategic goals —my office is on the MSU-N campus and I, and our team, have direct daily interaction with faculty, staff and students....

  • Why can't we recycle all this stuff any more?

    Updated Oct 2, 2019

    My garbage can is overflowing with paper and cereal boxes and why can’t we recycle all this stuff anymore? Well, from my understanding, commodity prices are always fluctuating and with shipping costs in Montana prohibitive due to long distances — it just doesn’t make sense from a business standpoint. One large recycling facility in the Pacific Northwest reports that in the last few years, the price for a ton of paper has gone from $140 to $30. I get it. If something is costing you more than its value — why mess with it? That...

  • The Postscript - Blooming late

    Carrie Classon|Updated Oct 2, 2019

    I realized that I might be a late bloomer — a little late, naturally. I love hearing about proteges: the 5-year-old drummer or the 16-year-old activist. I love hearing the 9-year-old who sings like an old soul and reading about the 14-year-old who just completed a master’s degree. I marvel at all these amazing accomplishments. I am impressed with the laser-like focus of these children and teenagers that enables them to change the world in awe-inspiring ways. I was never one...

  • Festival Days 2019 a great success

    Updated Oct 1, 2019

    The weekend’s success would not have been obtained without the continued support from the many volunteers and willingness of the many different entities of the community to come together on this third weekend in September to throw a community celebration for all to enjoy. Our many thanks go to the numerous volunteers, the businesses, community organizations, the vendors and our Festival Days sponsor partner Montana State University-Northern for helping the Chamber make the weekend a huge accomplishment. It takes a c...

  • View from the North 40: Testing 1,2,3 … the image is snowy

    Pam Burke|Updated Sep 27, 2019

    Winter is coming. It’s all everybody can talk about. This weekend’s storm is going to descend from the frozen Arctic wasteland of Canada’s hinterlands, envelop the Rockies in snow, roll it down the Rocky Mountain Front and sucker punch us right in the middle of autumn. And just like that, winter is coming. Then it’s going to sit around all week, astraddle of our prone bodies, poking us in the chest like it’s trying to type a letter to grandma. Sure it’s cool when winter come...

  • Lack of Internet access is holding rural communities back. Students too.

    Updated Sep 26, 2019

    Across Montana, thousands of students are headed back to school to begin a new year of learning and growth. Unfortunately, many students in rural Montana remain at risk of falling behind due to the lack of broadband access in their communities. Broadband internet has become indispensable both in the classroom and at home for students to become prepared to compete in the 21st Century economy and complete and submit their assignments. A top priority of the Montana Rural Education Association is to ensure our rural schools and...

  • Looking out my Backdoor: Sometimes a silly notion

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Sep 26, 2019

    After two weeks at a beach resort in Mazatlan, I wanna go home! Not that I don’t love it here. I do. I do. What is not to love? Fantastic balcony view. Comfortable room. Staff who treat me as though I am special. A city I know well. I sleep to the rhythmic sea-song of surf pounding the seawall. But … oh, that trickster little word … but. I must make a decision. Nothing momentous. This is a small thing. Nothing to do with the fate of nations. An unfortunate aspect of my psyche...

  • The Postscript: Forever home

    Updated Sep 25, 2019

    "The septic guy can't find the cover, call him," was the message. I've been getting a lot of messages like this since I decided to put my 100-plus- year-old farmhouse up for sale. I haven't lived in the farmhouse for years now - not since I moved out to go to graduate school and become a writer, met Peter, married Peter, and moved on with my life. The farmhouse was where I lived for many years with my first husband and then, for a while, after our divorce. The farmhouse is...

  • View from the North 40: A double-header fight of Them vs. Us, They vs. We

    Pam Burke|Updated Sep 20, 2019

    I’m not much into Them and They or Us and We, but the struggle between Them and Us and They and We has been growing in the last decade. I heard it in town last week, a conversation about Them. The conversation, which did not include me, by its volume did not exclude me either. It filled the room with talk of They and Them as opposed to Us and We, and about how a grown man, one of Us, might become one of Them by virtue of proximity to too many of Them. The problem with Them i...

  • Congress must remember feeding children is doing God's work

    Updated Sep 19, 2019

    What could be more important than how we care for our children? Pragmatists recognize that how we treat our children today in their dependency will shape how they treat us tomorrow in our old age. People of faith recognize all God’s children are just that — created in the Creator’s image. High-minded folks appreciate our most worthy charge as a society is to care well for all our children. Followers of Christ, observe, Jesus fed the hungry and taught us to do the same. While we may come at caring for children from different s...

  • Grass is greener, both sides of the fence!

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Sep 19, 2019

    One day last week Leo asked, “Had breakfast yet?” I grabbed my bag and we headed to the gordita place. I’m certain there are a hundred gordita places in Etzatlan. This one is on the man street; that’s what I call it. Block after block of repair shops, tire and tool stores, that kind of thing. Man stuff, man street. These aren’t stores like we are used to seeing. Might be five or six a block, open fronts, no signage. Might be more workers than tools. I sat in a plastic c...

  • The Postscript: No coffee

    Carrie Classon|Updated Sep 18, 2019

    Peter was up before anyone else - as he often is. My husband, Peter, gets up early in order to have enough time to brood before busybodies like me expect him to engage in cheerful conversation. But this morning we were staying at my parents' cabin and there was a glitch in the plans. The coffee jar was empty. Obviously, a person can't brood without coffee. Peter quietly opened one cupboard after another. No coffee. My parents are great planners so there was no chance they...

  • Montanans deserve better than one-size-fits-all federal health care

    Updated Sep 17, 2019

    Rural Montana is facing some pressing challenges. We must provide quality medical care for an aging population, so our seniors can enjoy healthy, vibrant lives in the communities they've always called home. And we need to create more jobs for the next generation of rural Montanans, so they have the opportunity to live in our great state. These two objectives both require enhancements to our health care system, but we need to implement these enhancements in a way that will not...

  • Congress should show courage on high-capacity clips

    Updated Sep 17, 2019

    The president has frequently repeated the NRA talking point that more extensive background checks on gun sales would not have prevented the recent rash of mass murders. Maybe so. It's hard to accurately see what lurks in a murderer's mind. The NRA, and therefore Trump, are skeptical about "red flag" laws, arguing that such laws are based on supposition and hearsay, and could result in the government wrongfully confiscating someone's property. Probably true. Both Trump and the...

  • Trump assault on primaries disempowers the people

    Updated Sep 17, 2019

    Respecting the voice of the people is an essential electoral element to a functioning democracy. Since the Progressive Era at the turn of the 20th Century, primary elections have been a vehicle empowering everyday U.S. citizens in the selection of party nominees for office. People-oriented primary elections reduce the influence of the powerful, the vested interests and political insiders. It was no surprise to see that the powerful within the National Republican Party have...

  • View from the North 40: Another edition of barnyards gone wild

    Pam Burke|Updated Sep 13, 2019

    The internet is full of farm animals that have gone wild in the past two weeks, and I’m not talking about Youtube videos of farm cats being all crazy cute and stuff. I am talking about the livestock participating in shenanigans that could get someone’s eye poked out. In no particular order, we have: 14 goats and sheep, all employees of a Virginia landscaping business who walked off the job sometime late Monday night or early Tuesday morning. The four-legged work crew was sup...

  • Archery elk permit process takes millions from Breaks communities

    Updated Sep 12, 2019

    With small Montana communities, especially in the eastern part of the state, struggling to sustain themselves, we don’t need the state government to make their struggle harder. Unfortunately, that is exactly what the Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks did in 2007 when it limited archery elk permits in hunting districts within the Missouri River Breaks. In February 2008, the FWP Commission voted to adopt this motion and set the archery draw quota to 65 percent of the “historical permits.” This action, by law, reduc...

  • Looking out my Backdoor: Dear Havre Daily News

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Sep 12, 2019

    I have turned into my father and I don’t like it. When I lived in Washington, I used to almost dread Dad’s phone calls because they too frequently meant that somebody we knew, in the family or in the neighborhood, had died. Every day I open the Havre Daily Homepage, ostensibly to see what is going on in my old neighborhood. But a not-so-teeny part of me can’t wait to scan down to the obituaries. I am always relieved when there are no names I recognize. Just this week, out o...

  • The Postscript: Marriage stew

    Carrie Classon|Updated Sep 11, 2019

    I told my husband, Peter, that our marriage was like stew — and that’s a good thing. This is a second marriage for both Peter and me. We were both married for a long time and then divorced for quite a while. We dated other people and realized how tricky the whole process of finding a new partner was, after habits had been set and preferences settled. When I met Peter, I was ready … I think. I had healed and spent time on my own and figured out who I was — single and over 50...

  • View from the North 40: A tale of too many rocks

    Pam Burke|Updated Sep 6, 2019

    Once upon a time in Montana we all would’ve been swimming with the fishes, but times change. The ice ages melt. The inland sea recedes. The Missouri River settles into a drainage 60 miles south. And the Milk River is left to meander through a gumbo valley that cuts through a high plains gumbo desert. This is modern times and everyone lives happily ever after. The End. You can’t see it, but I’m wiping away tears of laughter right now. Don’t feel left out, they’re not happy tea...

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