NEAFCSMontana2016

Jane Wolery
Follow my blog at  www.31homeplace.blogspot.com

MSU Teton County Extension

PO Box 130 * 1 Main Ave S., Courthouse

Choteau, MT 59422

jwolery@montana.edu

406-466-2491 Office *  406-590-2492 Cell

www.msuextension.org/teton

Lake McDonald, Apgar, MT in Glacier National Park

We are just a short time away from the NEAFCS conference and you may have wondered about the absence of any blog posts for the last several weeks.  As I suspect is true of most Extension professionals, I have had a very busy summer.  I was trying to live up to my motto, “Better a full life than a dull life.” Professionally, my schedule included 4-H Leadership Retreat, 4-H Textile Show, 4-H Fair, 4-H Congress and 4-H Camp.  Personally, my schedule included a friend’s daughter’s wedding, Fourth of July festivities in Choteau, and swim meets.  My daughters both swim competitively in the summer.  Because of all these events, I feel like I got to see much of our great state of Montana.  I do, however, feel like we could play a game of “Where’s Wolery?”  If you want to get out your Montana map, you can see if you can spot some of the places I’ve been this summer … Great Falls, Lewistown, Jordan, Glendive, Wibaux, Chester, Joplin, Conrad, Apgar, Columbia Falls, Helena, Seeley Lake, Lincoln, Missoula, Stevensville, Hamilton, Como Lake, Lake McDonald, Monarch, Bozeman, Townsend, Augusta … I don’t know how many miles I’ve traveled this summer and I’m not going to take time to count, but it is a bunch and I never left the state!

It makes me think of a piece I wrote for a Montana literature class (way) back in college:

Miles.

          Friday.  I’ve traveled fifteen-hundred and thirteen miles since last Friday.  Never left the state.

Montana.

Hinsdale to Joplin.  Two-hundred and nine miles.  Six turns.  One into the yard.

Forty five miles an hour through Hingham.  I slow down to sixty-five.  Too many miles.  Too few cops.

Five in the family.  Three vehicles headed the thirty miles north.  Auction today.

Twenty-six.  Thirty-five.  Never been able to keep a count of the grain bins shining in a row.  Eight years old. Someone said there was money in them.  I imagined coins.  Grain.

Highway painted at the edge of town.  Identifies the year and the kids who are free to leave.

Outrider Drive Inn. The building has been gone for years.  Sign is still there.

Gravel.  Meet a tractor.  Wave.

Sweet Grass Hills, Montana

Sweet Grass Hills give the sun something to hide behind.  Blue cardboard cutout silhouette is ominous as it is backlit – violent orange.  Sky.

Clouds.  Land. Forever stretches of blue sky. Shapes in the clouds.

Five different towns. Five different Stockman’s Bars.  Never been in one.

Seventy-three miles an hour makes raindrops swim up the windshield.  A futile attempt to escape the blades.

Every so often, deer.  Usually one solitary one watches while I pass.

Scanning.  Always.

          Mountains, trees, curves along rivers,

                    Flat, straight, huge …

                              Open …

                                        Miles …

If you want to fill some of your remaining summer days or the miles you travel with some good Montana literature, my FCS colleagues and I have compiled a list for you.  Check your local library for the books in either print or audio form. (I enjoy audio while traveling or while I’m cleaning at home. It is amazing how much longer you can scrub if you have a good book in your ear!) The list features either Montana authors or Montana topics.  Perhaps some of the books will inspire you to travel a few extra miles while you are in Montana.  Plus, since Big Sky Resort was conceptualized by Chet Huntley, who was a man of words as an NBC broadcaster, but Montana native, it is only fitting that we share a few Montana words with you as you head to Big Sky Resort.  Incidentally, Huntley attended school in Saco, Montana, for a while and I’ve driven by the Huntley School hundreds of times in my life.  My husband is from Saco!

Bonus:  The first person to add a comment identifying which book is not about
Montana or by a Montana author will receive a small gift.  Add your name and
university.  Hint:  Western Region might have the best chance.  

Here is a list of some suggested Montana Reads in no particular order:

Montana Reads

Books and Authors

All But the Waltz, by Mary Clearman Blew

Blind Your Ponies, by Standley Gordon West

Bound Like Grass, by Ruth McLaughlin

Breaking Clean, by Judy Blunt

A Bride Goes West, by Nannie T. Alderson and Helena Huntington Smith

Charlie Russell’s Yarns, by Charlie Russell

Dancing at the Rascal Fair, by Ivan Doig

English Creek, by Ivan Doig

Fire and Brimstone, by Michael Punke

Fool’s Crow, by James Welch

It’s Just Grass and Water, by Wally McRae

Last Bus to Wisdom, by Ivan Doig

Legends of the Fall, by Jim Harrison

Montana:  High, Wide and Handsome, by Joseph Kinsey Howard

Montana: High, Wide and Handsome (Volume Two), by Rick Graetz

Paper Talk:  Charlie Russell’s American West, by Charlie Russell and Brian W. Dippie

Plenty-Coups:  Chief of the Crows, by Frank B. Linderman

Pretty Shield:  Medicine Woman of the Crows, by Frank B. Linderman

Ride with Me, Mariah Montana, by Ivan Doig

Rima in the Weeds, by Deidre McNamer

A River Runs Through It, by Norman Maclean

Stick Horses and Other Stories of Ranch Life, by Wally McRae

Ten Tough Trips: Montana Writers and the West, by William Bevis

The Big Sky, by A.B. Guthrie

The Horse Whisperer, by Nicholas Evans

The Last Best Place:  A Montana Anthology, by William Kittredge and Annick Smith

The Smoke Jumper, by Nicholas Evans

The Virginian, by Owen Wister

This House of Sky, by Ivan Doig

Tough Trip through Paradise, by Andrew Garcia

Trash Fish: A Life, by Greg Keeler

We Pointed Them North, by E.C. Abbott and Helena Huntington Smith

When You and I Were Young, Whitefish, by Dorothy Johnson

Wind from an Enemy Sky, by D’Arcy McNickle

Winter Wheat, by Mildred Walker

Wolf and the Winds, by Frank B. Linderman

Young Men and Fire, by Norman Maclean

One of my colleagues, Phyllis Hansen, sent the following list.  She and her daughter buy books about Montana locations as they travel the state.  These are some that are their bookshelves. 

A Guide to Historic Bozeman, by Jim Jenks

Glacier Day Hikes, by Alan Leftridge

Glacier Ghost Stories, by Karen Stevens

Haunted Montana, by Karen Stevens

It Happened in Montana, by James A. Crutchfield

Jerry's Riot: The True Story of Montana's 1959 Prison Disturbance, by Kevin S. Giles

Miracle on the East Ridge, by Pat Kearney

Montana Off the Beaten Path, by Michael McCoy

More Haunted Montana, by Karen Stevens

Nothing To Tell: Extraordinary Stores of Montana Ranch Women

Out of the Night: A story of the tragedy and hope from a survivor of the 1959 Montana-Yellowstone Earthquake, by Irene Bennett Dunn

Taken By Bear in Yellowstone, by Kathleen Snow

Women in Wonderland: Lives, Legends and Legacies of Yellowstone National Park, by Elizabeth A. Watry

Young Men and Fire, by Norman Maclean

You might check out these two links for more reading material. 

http://www.humanitiesmontana.org/map/#

http://www.missoulapubliclibrary.org/readers-corner/montana-reads

Como Lake

Feel free to add your favorite book/author from Montana or share one from your state in the comment section below!