Sorted by date Results 1251 - 1275 of 3275
This article was written by Dennis Cash, retired MSU Extension Service forage specialist. The winter feeding is likely your single largest ranch expense. Reducing hay waste can save you money. Hay losses at feeding on most ranches averages about one fourth, but can easily approach half. During good haying conditions and with proper storage, most losses to alfalfa or alfalfa-grass hays can be minimized. Dense large round or rectangular bales are widely used, but significant losses occur when these are stacked in the open. Hay sheds and tarps...
GLASGOW- It's that time of year when ice anglers and other recreationists will be heading out to Montana's "hard" waters for the winter season. Everyone needs to be safe around ice, whether ice fishing, ice skating, hunting, snowmobiling, or just taking a walk. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks reminds folks that safety should be the number one concern during a day out on (or near) the ice. And when on the ice, remember: • Anglers and other recreationists should be familiar with the water body t...
Today marks a hidden holiday, as uncelebrated as it is unappreciated. It was 229 years ago today that the United States ratified the Bill of Rights, ensuring unprecedented freedom for the people of an emerging nation. Bill of Rights Day has actually been a national holiday since Nov. 28, 1941 when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt designated Dec. 15 “Bill of Rights Day.” Roosevelt had big plans, envisioning flag-flying and ceremonies nationwide. Roosevelt observed that Adolph Hitler feared “our freedom of speech, press and religion.” Unfortu...
“Coronavirus hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season! Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason...” After a long year of cancelled school, cancelled homecoming, cancelled Rotary Banquet, and cancelled Chili Feed; 2020 set its grinchy sights on the last major event of the Big Sandy event calendar. The 2020 Christmas Stroll, which is usually scheduled for the first week of December, has been cancelled. Marlys Myers who has been involved in organizing the Christmas stroll for longer than any of the other current organ...
4 has been a difficult year for many families in the Big Sandy area. Especially during the holidays, the Big Sandy Food Bank has encountered a much higher than normal level of need. For the third consecutive year, they'll be getting some extra help from FE Miley Elementary school in the form of Christmas dinner boxes. The Christmas Dinner Food Drive is organized by Samantha Burns Weaver, the Kindergarten teacher. "I started the food drive three years ago with the thought of doing a project wh...
Two weeks ago, Thomas and Heather Dilworth purchased the Big Sandy Organics, a local business, from Bob and Ann Quinn. Heather said, "The Kamut is an awesome product. We hope to bring on some other healthy snacks, a different variety of snacks, and expand in the lentils, chickpeas, and add a couple of flavors." In the meantime, they have added a whole second lever in the shop, doubling their space. In their future, they hope to add a little retail front to the shop. They are working towards and...
Montana State University Extension will host a free, annual cropping seminar series January 6, 2021 in Fort Benton, Denton, Havre, Chester, Shelby, Cut Bank, Conrad, Choteau, and Great Falls. Speakers will cover grasshopper control, antagonistic effects of herbicides, management of herbicide resistant weeds, and farm and ranch safety. Due to Covid-19, presentations will be broadcast to local locations for viewing. If producers would prefer to view the presentations at home, they can contact their local extension office for the broadcast link....
Editor’s note: This article is usually not attempted for fear of not getting everybody in home-based businesses based in Big Sandy listed; however, it is too important not to proceed. If I did not get your business listed, please let me know, and I will run a correction listing your business in the next Big Sandy Mountaineer. This year with the struggles that COVID-19 has affected our economy, it is important that we support our local businesses during our Christmas shopping. It is true we don’t have shopping available like Great Falls, or Hav...
Montana's second largest agricultural commodity is calf to cow beef production. However, despite being surrounded by cattle ranches, most of the 821 schools in the state serve beef that has been shipped in from out of state. The Montana Beef to School Project is a three year program that aims to change things. Their goal is to make sure that Montana Schools benefit from high quality Montana beef, while supporting local farmers and processors and providing opportunities to educate students about...
"I kinda just fell into this job, But I ended up really loving it, so I stuck with it," Shersteen Cline explained in response to my question about whether or not she'd grown up wanting to be a teacher. The Big Sandy native, daughter of Shane and Ruth Ann Cline, graduated from high school in our town before heading off to Missoula to study Biology. "I really loved science when I was going to High School, so I went in that direction," she explained. She wasn't sure what exactly she would do with...
There are many “tips” to caring for a Christmas tree that propose to make it last longer or stay greener. In truth, all a tree really needs to maintain freshness is adequate water. This is easily done by using the proper tree stand and keeping the water level in the stand above the base of the tree. The following tips will help to maintain the freshness and aroma of a live Christmas tree this holiday season. Use a tree stand that holds enough water for the size of the tree. The rule of thumb is one quart of water per one inch of stem dia...
With so much of our lives happening online this year, protecting our personal information is even more important. One sure way to keep your personal information from getting into the hands of those you do not want to have your information is to use strong passwords for your online accounts. Using strong passwords, having a different password for every account and changing passwords every 60 days are some of the most important ways to keep your online accounts from being hacked. Most of these points you have heard before but check out the...
The observance of Thanksgiving Day felt appropriately simple to me this year. I write this, however, with the caveat that I cooked nothing for the turkey dinner. Those who devoted hours to their bird and/or its tabletop companions may have seen their mileage vary in the simplicity department. So did, perhaps, others who tangled with technology to expand their gathering virtually, relying on Zoom, FaceTime, Skype and other apps to videostream loved ones from afar into their gathering. A blessing when they behave, these digital connection tools...
Jimmy Griffin grew up in Simpsonville, South Carolina (Upstate, Foothills, Piedmont region). "I was born when my parents were living in a trailer house that was parked on the college campus, where my dad was a student." After graduating from that same university in December of 1986, Jimmy traveled out to Montana for the spring and summer. "Curiosity and opportunity landed me in a spare bedroom at my Aunt and Uncle's home in Havre. I quickly made friends of their friends, rented some canoes in...
Thanksgiving in 2020 will be unique in its own way. After eight months of COVID-19 and ugly political rhetoric, we find ourselves celebrating a holiday where we are supposed to give thanks. As usual, if you go around the table, as is the tradition in many homes, saying what we are thankful for. We often give thanks for the same thing we said last year; family, food, health, or our home. Frustrations, even anger, have taken their toll this year, and although we still have those things to be thankful for, it doesn’t feel like enough. I asked a f...
7 families in the Big Sandy area received Angel Baskets on Monday Evening, November 16th. The baskets include turkeys and other fixings to prepare a Thanksgiving meal for the receiving families. The Angel Basket program has been a staple of the Big Sandy Holiday season for 4 years now. It is organized by the Angel Committee, which is a project of the GFWC Fort Benton Women's Club. The Angel Committee also organizes baskets for Christmas and the Angel Tree program in Fort Benton. Terry Grant, wh...
By Bethany Monroe DeBorde Angel Trees are now on display in a variety of local businesses, offering green and red tags with gift requests for Chouteau County children. Angel Committee members are asking for the community to step up to the challenge, as the need is particularly high this year. They are looking to purchase toys, clothes and other requested items for 133 Chouteau County kids this year – 58 in the Big Sandy area and 75 in the Fort Benton, Geraldine, Highwood and Carter area. With two tags for each child – one tag contains clo...
The Halloween festivities have come and gone here at BSMC. This year's celebration looked a little different without the parade of goblins and ghouls from FE Miley. Heather Wolery was so kind to provide a slideshow of each of the kids with their costumes on. The staff continued the costume contest tradition and didn't hold anything back this year. The building was decorated, top to bottom, and the Halloween Party was hosted on October 30. For the last 3 years, the nursing staff has won the...
Sampling of hay is essential to livestock management. Hay sampling is best accomplished with a hollow core probe consisting of a stainless-steel tube and a sharp cutting end. The Chouteau County Extension office has a hay probe available for check out. One core should be sampled from at least 20 bales from a lot of hay. A lot of hay is defined as hay harvested from a field of uniform maturity within two days. A lot should not exceed 200 tons. Poor sampling techniques and an inadequate number of subsamples (less than 20) are the largest sources...
In the last article about diabetes monitoring, weight was included in the list as one of the items to track to help manage diabetes. While there are many ways to maintaining weight, food is typically the first one people with diabetes have the most questions about. When it comes to food, having a plan about what to eat helps. Planning meal and snack option helps to have healthy food options on hand to avoid eating foods which may get you off track. Planning what to eat sounds like a lot of work, taking too much time to go through your recipes,...
Basketball and wrestling seasons are just around the corner, though they were originally slated to begin this week. The Montana High School Association (MHSA) pushed back the start of winter sports until December 7th, in an effort to allow the state to get a handle on the increasing number of Covid-19 cases across the state. While it does not appear that case numbers will be decreasing any time soon, plans are still being made for the start of winter sports seasons. The first competition for winter sports will be held on January 2nd. The MHSA h...
Several years ago, Heather Wolery read "Pete the Cat's Groovy Guide to Life" during her speech to Big Sandy's graduating class. She chose the book because when she started teaching 3rd grade at FE Miley Elementary School, it was one of the books she read to her class. 9 years later, she was their principal, and she chose to send them off with the same words of wisdom she used to teach them years before. Throughout the talk, she related the tidbits of wisdom and famous quotes to different...
My wife and I discovered Geocaching a little over a decade ago while on a double date with a friend from work and his wife. We went to a local park and with our GPS-enabled cell phones in hand, raced around looking for buried treasures. We found a half dozen hidden treasure boxes our first afternoon. The fun is in the searching. Geocaches are often hidden in ingenious locations, sometimes disguised and sitting in plain sight. In the years since, we have gone searching for geocaches on dates,...
If we continue to have drought conditions, grasshopper pest populations will explode this spring. One insecticide available is Dimilin 2L. Below are a few facts about Dimilin 2L. • Dimilin 2L is an insecticide that interferes with molting. This insect growth regulator does not poison the grasshoppers, but it controls immature grasshoppers by interfering with their normal shedding of skin as they grow. As a result, it takes time to see mortality. • Dimilin 2L is an insect growth regulator which is effective on a wide variety of insect pes...
To continue the theme of American Diabetes month in November, self-care for people with diabetes is important and necessary to manage the chronic condition. Self-care can help people with diabetes feel better and reduce the risks of complications. Diabetes targets individuals differently which makes it challenging. However, there are several ways to help individuals self-manage their own diabetes. Monitoring is one of the ways discussed in this article. First, monitoring blood sugar is key. Knowing what the blood sugar levels will help a...
