About Me

I believe in God the Eternal Father and in His Son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost. I believe Jesus was the literal Son of God and came to earth, not only to show us, by example, how to live in this life but, as the only Perfect Man, to redeem us of our sins through His Atonement for them. I believe the United States of America is a blessed nation, choice above all other lands. I believe that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are Divinely inspired documents and that the Founding Fathers of this country were led, by God, through His Son, to create this country, based on those documents. I'm a white, heterosexual male. I'm a veteran of the United States Air Force where I was a Law Enforcement Specialist. I was also in civilian Law Enforcement and I adamantly support our police and their actions under most circumstances. Long ago, I swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and I have never rescinded that oath nor have I ever been released from it. I don't use illegal drugs and don't even drink alcohol any more. I don't carefully watch my diet, I hunt and fish. I eat meat, refined sugar and regular bread. I'm disgusted by the idea of "homosexual relations" and I think transgenderism is stupid. I think that abortions for anything other than the safety of the mothers health is not only wrong but is murder. I don't believe that climate change is caused by actions of puny humans. I believe it is a normal and natural cycle of the earth. I believe that Islamic terrorists are some of the most vile sub-human scum on the earth and should just be eradicated with extreme prejudice. I also think it likely that Islam as a whole is a vile destructive political ideology, not a religion and any effort on our part to cater to Muslims and their "beliefs", in order to not offend them is not only a mistake but could possibly lead to the destruction of modern society throughout the world. I think that illegal immigration damages our country and that many of the criminals and gang-bangers who inflict misery on so many are illegal immigrants. I believe we should deport anyone who has entered this country illegally while we encourage people to legally immigrate here, assimilate into our culture and help us to continue to be the greatest country on the earth. I believe that one of the biggest obstacles to prosperity in this country are oppressive government regulations and that our government, at all levels, should just stay out of our lives as much as possible. I believe that neither major political party has any real interest in the good of America or her people but are completely engrossed in only one thing...re-election. No matter the party or the level of government the jokes about lying politicians are no longer funny because they are too true. These final two paragraphs, I wrote just after President Trump was elected. since then, of course, he was re-elected by a vast majority but the election was stolen, through fraud, theft and treason and a demented old fool was placed in the President's office, illegitimately. Joe Biden was not elected, he was appointed by The Real People in Power which makes my last paragraph nearly prophetic. "Although I originally supported Ted Cruz in the 2016 Presidential primary, I have come around to thinking that President Trump could possibly be our last chance to keep our country what it has been throughout my lifetime. If Congress would keep their promises as well as President Trump has tried to keep his, we might actually recover from the last 20 years of incompetent and even deliberately destructive leadership. It's likely that even President Trump will not be able to overcome the rich attorney establishment and make the changes we need. As long as both major parties are primarily peopled by super rich members of the same "club" that has been running things for far too long, we may have no real chance. Maybe "The Hunger Games" or "The Postman" are our future now."

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Winter in Montana

 

Montana has numerous hazards.  Camping, fishing, hunting and hiking often is complicated by Grizzly bears, cougars and wolves.  We get incredible windstorms, hard rains and whiteout blizzards.  

But this current weather is, in my opinion, the worst Montana has to offer.  Right now, it's 92 degrees warmer inside my house than it is outside.  People from more southern areas often tease me because my 69-72 degree inside temp is colder than they see outside in their area.  Subzero cold is completely foreign to them and really, beyond their understanding.

Subzero cold is bad enough but the super cold (what I call anything under -20F) is a real issue.   Metal becomes brittle.  Pretty much anything that is on the verge of breaking will break.  Oil in your car freezes and doesn't flow properly, causing engine damage.  If your battery is low, it'll probably be killed by these temps.  Water lines in your house freeze and break.  Windows can crack or break.  If you left an unopened can of pop in your car, you'll find it has exploded and you've got some clean-up to do.

Here's one that even Montanans may not be aware of.  At 45 below, propane can gel, causing your furnace to go out.  So, here it is 45 below zero and your furnace quits working!  I've experienced this in my youth in West Yellowstone.  We kept a light bulb burning inside the cover of our propane tank to keep the regulator warm.  You'd see that all over town, little lights shining in all the back yards.

What would normally be a minor inconvenience can become deadly.  Get your car stuck in the snow?  Better be prepared to stay warm until help gets there.  If you slide off the road, hope you had the good sense to dress as if you were on an arctic excursion when you went out for dinner because if you don't have cold weather gear, that simple slide off can be the end for you.  And there won't be much traffic to find you because most of us like to just stay inside during these periods.

In the Jack London story: "To build a Fire", the character spits his tobacco juice and can hear it crackle as it freezes on the way to the ground.  When I was walking to school one time, in West Yellowstone, MT, I tried that.  I spat and I could hear it snap when it hit the snow.  Icicles formed on my eyelashes.   Nowadays, icicles form on my mustache as well.  

Even with no wind movement, your skin can freeze (frost bite) in just a few minutes.  Windchill, the way the wind makes your skin colder, can change that to a much shorter time.  Bare skin is a bad thing in our world during these "cold snaps".

And those of use who live here just go on with our lives without any real concern.  We're prepared.  Our vehicles have extra blankets, food and other supplies to keep us safe if something happens.  We dress for the weather.  Farmers are out feeding their cows.  It's calving season now, or beginning for some, so they are out all night, making sure the calves are born safely and are kept warm.  Water has to be kept flowing for the livestock.  Livestock seeks shelter in coulees and timbered areas.  We often bring newborn calves in to warming sheds or barns until their mamas get them fed up and warmed inside so they can withstand the outside temps.

We have electric engine heaters installed in all our vehicles to heat the coolant and/or oil when the engine isn't running.  When you find outlets at Montana business parking lots, it's not to charge your EV.  It's to plug in your engine heater.  We let our water trickle in the sink over night.  We have "heat tape" wrapped around our water lines in order to keep them from freezing.  This isn't new to a lot of us but I have to admit it isn't as fun or unimportant as it was when I was younger.  I'm glad I'm retired so I don't have to drive in it.

During the Alaska gold rush, you were a cheechako (tenderfoot) for the first year you were there but those who had lived through one or more winters were called a "Sourdough".  I've always been kind of proud to be a West Yellowstone Sourdough as "West" can be one of the coldest places, not only in Montana but in the entire "lower 48" of the U.S.

This weekend, probably tonight, we should reach the coldest temperature I've experienced here in Townsend, MT.  The forecast is for us to reach -35f as a low temp tonight.  The coldest I've ever personally experienced was -52 in West Yellowstone and that same winter, we never got above zero from late December until late February there.

It's during these periods that I think about becoming what we call a "Snowbird" and buying a winter place in Arizona.  But, there's something about these cold snaps.  The feel and the smell of the super cold air.  That feel of a "lazy wind" (too lazy to go around you so it goes through).   The squeak of the snow under foot.  That feeling as you go from 25 below into a house that's almost 100 degrees warmer.  Just knowing how to live like this, to keep vehicles and people healthy.  To care for animals.  Robert Service caught it in his poem "The Spell of the Yukon".  I just substitute "Montana" for "the Yukon".  Although it would be easier to be living somewhere that snow and weather that even approached freezing, I wouldn't like it.  I'm third generation in West Yellowstone and I always joke that I moved north to a better climate.  I'm a Montana boy and that's the way I will stay.