http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/main/C564/L/ New West Network: The Voice of the Rocky Mountains en info@newwest.net Copyright 2008 Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:46:27 MDT Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:46:27 MDT http://www.newwest.net/city/article/holiday_cards_with_western_roots/C564/C564/ Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:46:27 MDT The Ruggs have been a Leanin' Tree kind of family for a long, long time. And in addition to sending and receiving a truckload of Leanin' Tree cards over the years, I have written in the past about the Leanin' Tree Museum of Western Art. (In fact, watch this space for an updated article on ol' Edward Trumble's art collection.) So when Twila Green, Leanin' Tree's customer service manager, shot me an e-mail the other day about this season's holiday cards, I thought I'd pass a little bit of the info on to y'all. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/biathlon_course_decision_lacks_prudence/C564/C564/ Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:25:12 MDT Off in the shadowy halls of government offices, public lands have been stripped of key protections. When a bureaucrat somewhere in the system deems a proposal worthy, there's no worry-it will find a way to sail through the approval process. That's exactly what's taking place in the Helena National Forest in Montana. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/tis_the_season_for_christmas_lights_and_cussing/C564/C564/ Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:17:55 MDT Well, I finally got around to taking down the Christmas lights from the house last Saturday. I laid them all out in the driveway, then plugged them in and checked every bulb on each string. Then I carefully coiled them all up, sealed them in a plastic bag, and tossed them into the garbage. I've been burned enough times to know that, when I put the lights back on the house in two weeks, half of the strings won't light up. I could never see the point in replacing nine flimsy bulbs in a $3.00 string of crappy lights, so I always get mad, yank down the dead string, and replace it with a new $3.00 string. This year I figure I'll just save myself the anguish and replace it all before I start. Hey, I'm happy to help boost the economy. Of China. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/context_neeeded_in_beetle_discussion/C564/C564/ Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:48:58 MDT In the November 17th Science Section of The New York Times there was an article by Jim Robbins about the current pine beetle event occurring in the West. There was a lot of good factual information in the piece about pine beetles and their basic ecology, and on the whole, Robbins did a good job of describing some of the concerns that people have about the beetle situation. Nevertheless, the tone and implied message conveyed an overly pessimistic and negative picture of beetles as well as wildfires. It was not so much that it had a lot of false statements as much as the way it was written. Taken together the various quotes, and background in the article leaves one with the perception that somehow beetles, as well as wildfires are "out of control" in the West's ecosystems. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/another_birthday_another_pawn_shop_prize1/C564/C564/ Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:42:39 MDT Nothing like a brand new used guitar to light a fire under a performing musician. Friday afternoon I walked into my favorite local pawn shop, with $235 unfettered (read: birthday) dollars burning a hole in my wallet. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for as I scanned the dozens of guitars hanging from hooks on the wall. There were several Strat knockoffs, a couple of pointy Jackson and ESP metal guitars, and a mishmash of various sticker-covered six-stringers that were suited more for a high school shredder, not for a discerning practitioner of maximum honky tonk such as myself. It's the same thing every year. I receive a modest windfall, and before the birthday candles have even cooled off, I come home with a new pawn shop prize. One year it was a bass. The year after that, an Epiphone Dot. After that, a mandolin (there should be a five-day waiting period on those things). The next year it was a Strat. The bass and mandolin are still hanging in the studio downstairs, and I sold the Strat last year to help finance the kids' new laptop. So my guitars, as with most guitar enthusiasts, come and go. That's why pawn shops are so popular with us musicians. These instruments are like currency, and on any given day, you might stumble upon some treasure that a desperate guitar slinger had to unload in order to get the money to pay for his addiction/bail bond/ex-wife. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/getting_ready_for_winter/C564/C564/ Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:16:53 MDT Winter, to me, means skiing or at least memories of skiing, sledding and four-wheeling in southern Utah, when I seem to have most of the wilderness to myself. But I tell my wife, "Winter is death." http://www.newwest.net/city/article/a_walk_in_the_woods_with_guns/C564/C564/ Sun, 16 Nov 2008 12:05:33 MDT Considering that hunters are supposed to be a dying breed, there sure were a lot of pickup trucks jammed into the pullouts along route 200 east of Missoula last Tuesday, and a lot of men in camouflage-patterned orange vests standing around next to them. It was Veteran's Day, and my neighbor Vin and I were headed out to some Forest Service land near Nine Mile Prairie Road to hunt for deer. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/return_the_powder_to_the_people/C564/C564/ Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:16:19 MDT Today's ski industry is centered around making money off land instead of making turns in powder. The mountain is merely a commodity, an expensive amenity to be exploited for financial interests that have nothing to do with outdoor recreation. The Yellowstone Club was never about skiing. The ski area was merely the carrot dangled in front of buyers to sell them land and the exclusivity that accompanies deep pockets. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/king_does_country/C564/C564/ Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:23:03 MDT In my review of Lee Ann Womack's recently released album, Call Me Crazy, I refrained from including one of the tracks in my grading of the disc. "The Bees," I said, brings to my mind imagery from Stephen King's Misery. Keith Urban's contribution to the song notwithstanding, I have yet to hear from anyone disagreeing with my assessment (other than a friend at MCA/Mercury), so I'm going to take the silence as assent. And lest you think that linking country music with America's premiere living storyteller- Stephen King- is too much of a stretch, I'm here to make the connection even stronger, via King's latest offering, Duma Key, now out in paperback. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/parent_teacher_conference_byo_cookies/C564/C564/ Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:59:39 MDT "Well, Speaker has been doing great in science, great in math, and we're in the middle of our unit in social studies. Here's the rubric that explains the grading system, and here are a couple of papers she's written." She slid the pages across the table, and I sat back, thinking, unit? Unit of what? Whole blood? Rubric? I thought they came in cube form. The terminology I've been hearing from the kids and their teachers since they entered kindertarten has me wondering if I ever really attended school, or was it all just a vivid nightmare. I have to admit that I did wet the bed as a child. From the hallway. "And you can see that she's very proficient in her reading..." Mrs. A began. "Yeah, she gets that from Barb," I said, cutting her off. "Barb's reading at an eighth grade level." My laughter was cut off by the pain of Barb's heel on my instep, which I interpreted as "no sex for a month."