The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
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This last siege of storms has made for long winter. The snow is welcome, but it may delay spring grass and the return of migratory birds. As kids, our first sign of spring was the melting snow, which was ideal for snowballs. During the better part of winter, the snow was too cold and dry to stick together. After the doldrums of the cold months, any change was welcome. We knew that the huge snowbanks formed in December would start to disappear soon. Being raised in the country...
Montana is a single state. But in reality, there are many Montanas – some defined by variations in terrain and vegetation, others by climate and still others by land use and population density. Area economies also vary considerably from one part of Montana to the next. From east to west, the state splits into two vastly different regions, one defined by rolling grasslands stretching across sprawling plains and the other defined by a large number of forested and interconnected...
Dear Dietitian, My cousin tells me she is taking fish oil supplements to help her with depression. Do you know of any studies on this topic? Thank you, Andrea Dear Andrea, Omega-3 fatty acids, or simply omega-3s, have received a considerable amount of attention from the healthcare field and the general public. There are several omega-3s, and two in particular have been studied, DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid), which are found in fish, especially...
Winter will end. Trust me. But what will we see when all that white stuff disappears? A landscape green from melting snow littered with dead deer? Probably not. Yes, February was brutal for much of the state, but let's not lose our perspective. This is winter. This is Montana – a northern latitude state. And for the memory deprived last year was worse or at least longer. This year, few ranchers so far have complained of deer in their haystacks. Nothing like last year. That's p...
This last blizzard got me thinking about how hard the old timers had to work just to keep the house warm from September to May, and to cook every day of the year. Both families and homes were often large in those days, many having a cook stove plus three or four heating stoves. I've been told that some of the houses used over 60 cords a year. Our paternal great uncle took care of the firewood at the ranch, and always maintained the woodshed completely full of split blocks – p...
Dear Dietitian, My husband was recently in the hospital and diagnosed with congestive heart failure. He has been instructed to follow a 1500 mg sodium diet. He's trying, but it's very difficult. I'm afraid he will get frustrated and give up. Any words of wisdom? Signed, Deborah Dear Deborah, A new diagnosis can be overwhelming and often brings about the need for a lifestyle change. For readers who are not familiar with congestive heart failure (CHF), it's a chronic condition...
Dear Dietitian, My friend is always on the latest health kick, so now she is taking probiotics every day and swears she feels so much better. She keeps bugging me to take them too, but I priced them at the drugstore, and they are expensive. Are they worth it? Sharon Dear Sharon, Probiotics are a popular health trend with sales of $1.4 billion in the United States in 2014. Since then, sales have nearly doubled, racking up $2.4 billion in 2018. Everyone wants to be healthy, espe...
Having been raised in a rather traditional lifestyle and culture, I by no means consider myself a person who places no value in the past. Having said that, I like to think that I also recognize the danger inherent in clinging inflexibly to outdated traditions that no longer fit in the world in which we live. I'm all for honoring and learning from the past, but at what point does holding on to the version of the past that suits us become a detriment to the future? This is the...
When I was at my sickest in Brazil, and my legs didn't work to the point I sometimes couldn't get off the toilet by myself, I remembered a rancher whom I knew from my infancy to adulthood. Kenny and his brother had a ranch about six miles from ours. He suffered polio as a child, and didn't have the use of his legs. He used crutches his entire life, Even on crutches, Kenny mowed hay in the summer, a job that often involved him struggling on and off the tractor scores of times...
To change biblically and travel the “self-confrontation journey” one must be born-again, a Christian, a Christ-follower; the terms may vary but you must be a person who has sincerely asked Jesus Christ to be your Savior. This is the priority principle. However, even if you are not a Christian, but you recognize there is a need for change you can still gain tremendous benefits tby applying God’s Word to your life. Taking the life principles of the Bible and applying them works...
I've always kept myself on the outer edges of society, preferring to observe its actions and ideas with a soft contempt, always keeping my "ironic distance" from the point of my own contrived superiority. I think this trait began in the spring of 1965, when I was a senior in high school. In those days, Lawrence Welk and Art Linkletter ruled the TV world. The supposed moral decay of the later 1960's hadn't yet reached Montana. It was then that I saw through the arbitrary...
Years back almost every ranch kept a "farm flock" of 100 – 200 ewes. They provided extra income from their wool and lambs, but could be a nuisance with their fence crawling ways and propensity to die when offered any opportunity. We got started in the business when a herder working on a ranch that ran thousands of sheep gave our father thirty orphan lambs. I don't know how our mother managed. She had at least four or five children then, none old enough to be much help, plus s...
This week I want to share some thoughts on how a person can change. But it is not change for changes’ sake, but how a person can change Biblically? How does a person adjust their thinking to match up with what God would have them think; or act or speak or live? I imagine most of us have heard that this “eternal life” God offers us is a gift. Unfortunately many reject this gift (Matthew 7: 13-14; John 3:16-21). If one does not have a sincere relationship with the Lord Jesus...
Dear Dietitian, My husband was just diagnosed with prediabetes. We were given a sheet of paper with information on this, but it left us with many questions. Does he need a special diet? Will he have full-blown diabetes in a few years? We need more information, please. Suzanne Dear Suzanne, A new diagnosis can be overwhelming, and often leaves us with many questions. You are wise to seek information. Prediabetes is when your blood sugars are high, but not high enough to be...
Some time ago I saw a photograph taken at the Helmville cemetery on the day they buried my great grandfather in 1922. In the picture there's a cottonwood sapling, maybe 10 feet high. Both the tree and my great grandfather are still there, but the cottonwood is 80 feet tall and about 3 feet at the butt. I'm sure the old man is part of that tree. Entering the family ranch, a person sees the corrals and the cow barn built before the 20th century. The first cabin still exists,...
I think I may have unwittingly traumatized my kid this weekend. She’s stoic, so it’s hard to tell, but I have the sneaking suspicion that I’ll be hearing about this incident over Thanksgiving dinner in about ten years. I’ll explain, but first I will ask you to not judge me too harshly. I think every parent or step-parent on earth has probably made a similar mistake at one time or another. You all remember that time your parents innocently popped Old Yeller or Watership Down into the VCR, right? Or, maybe they took your tw...
Well after almost one month of the New Year I imagine we all have failed in several or all of our New Year’s resolutions. It is very difficult to make changes. Old habitats die hard they say! For me that is most certainly true. A key aspect of failing to make changes in how we think, act, spend money, spend time or whatever the area is that concerns us, is that we go with the flow. By that I mean we fail to take a real and honest hard look in to our own lives. We keep doing w...
Dear Dietitian, I just read an article that said eating a high fiber diet helps prevent colon cancer, but other articles on this topic have said the opposite. This is frustrating and confusing! Can you help clear things up? Joe Dear Joe, Scientific studies are often confusing because the results are different. Before something becomes clear in science, it has to be tested several times in different cultures in different parts of the world. It must also be tested on men and...
Dear Readers, A few months ago, I wrote about the 2018 Escherichia Coli (E. Coli) outbreaks related to Romaine lettuce. The contaminated lettuce was eventually traced to farms in California and Arizona. Due to these outbreaks, 272 people became ill, 121 were hospitalized, and 5 people died. Recently, there have been voluntary recalls for possible E. Coli contamination, but this time with cauliflower, red leaf lettuce, and green leaf lettuce. None of the recalled produce...
It took me a long time to fully appreciate the differences between a rural upbringing and an urban upbringing. These differences are not especially manifest, but they exist. Montana has no large cities, so all its urban areas retain a bit of country influence. Some years ago the most common name for a bar in Montana towns was “STOCKMEN'S.” Until the 1970s, law mandated that children attend school in the county where their parents paid property taxes, so all the high sch...
Our mother had four children under six years old in the house (two more came some years later,) a wringer washer, but no clothes dryer or dishwasher. Frozen foods came later, so every meal took a lot of work to prepare. That was the situation of most women sixty years ago, the number and ages of the children were the only variables. The world was divided into women's work and men's work. Our father was aware of the disparity, and would occasionally quote the old adage: “A m...
Despite having grown up surrounded by animals – or perhaps because of it – I am not a card-carrying member of the dog lover’s club. Before you rally a lynch mob, let me explain my position by saying that I was raised surrounded primarily by working dogs. I will admit that the line between working dog and pet was somewhat blurred in our household, but many of you who grew up on farms and ranches and would probably not dream of letting a dog onto your bed will certainly understand the difference. Loyal and intelligent as our c...
Dear Readers, Now that the holidays are over and it's back to our normal routine, some of us may resolve to eat healthier in 2019. Many of us have overindulged in certain foods and have picked up a few pounds during the holiday season. For me, it was fudge and my great-grandmother's oatmeal cookies. When I finally mustered the courage to step on the scale, it unsympathetically revealed a four-pound weight gain. I'm hoping two of those pounds are just water. . . maybe? Not to...
It looks like the ghost of winter past has decided to visit. We knew that we would have to plow, shovel and drive through a bit of snow before winter was out! If we wanted to complain about the heat we would have all migrated south for the winter, right? The beauty of the snow-capped mountains is wonderful. The sunshine on the ice crystals that form on the trees and shrubs is amazing. Hearing the laughter of my granddaughter playing in the snow is a joy. Yes there is a lot of...
Dear Readers, Chances are many of you who are reading this are taking some type of herbal supplement. Be it ginseng for better energy, saw palmetto for prostate health, or echinacea to boost the immune system, many are turning to natural remedies for their health. It is important to realize that just because something is natural, does not mean it is good for you. Many herbal supplements interact with other medications, so it is important to talk to your health care provider...
