MONTANA

June 2016

A Monthly Publication for Folks 50 and Better

A Day on the Bighorn

Winnetts mayor
A woman of endurance
Hunting educator keeps kids learning

INSIDE

Savvy Senior.............................................Page 3
Opinion.....................................................Page 4
Health........................................................Page 5
Menu.........................................................Page 18

Calendar....................................................Page 19
Volunteering..............................................Page 20
Strange But True.......................................Page 22

News Lite
Man makes burglar teens call 911

COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) A Coos Bay homeowner made teens

caught breaking into his house call 911 to report themselves.
KATU-TV reports the three 14-year-old boys were all taken to
the Douglas County Juvenile Detention Center on charges including burglary, trespassing and possession of marijuana.
The Coos County sheriffs office says the man was armed
when he discovered the boys burglarizing his home.
Emergency dispatchers say he made one of the teens call police
and report the burglary in progress.

World dance record

BEIJING (AP) Chinas dancing grannies have taken their

moves to the record books.
Guinness World Records says more than 31,000 Chinese participants have set a record for mass plaza dancing in multiple
locations.

Some 31,697 people in Beijing, Shanghai and four other cities

set the new mark on May 21 by performing choreographed dance
moves together for more than five minutes, Guinness said on its
website.

Man runs for 10,000 consecutive days

SAUGUS, Mass. (AP) A Massachusetts man who made a

resolution on Jan. 1, 1989, to run every day is still going strong
27 years later.
Saugus resident Lenworth Kip Williamson recently ran for
the 10,000th consecutive day.
The 57-year-old General Electric Co. engineering manager tells
The Daily Item of Lynn that he remembers reading at the time
that if you can do something for 21 days, it becomes a habit. Williamson sticks to the streets, regardless of the weather, and puts in
at least 3 miles a day. At least once a week, he puts in a 6- to
8-mile run.
He says as long as his legs work, he will continue running.

Stronger
together.
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June 2016

Jim Miller, creator of the syndicated Savvy

Senior information column, is a longtime
advocate of senior issues. He has been featured in
Time magazine; is author of The Savvy Senior:
The Ultimate Guide to Health, Family and
Finances for Senior Citizens; and is a regular
contributor to the NBC Today show.

Simple Smartphones for seniors

Dear Savvy Senior,
Can you recommend some smartphones that are specifically
designed for seniors? My 75-year-old mother is interested in
upgrading from a basic cellphone to a smartphone, but will need
one thats very easy to operate.
Inquiring Daughter

Dear Inquiring,
I wrote about this topic just last year, but in the fast changing
world of personal technology devices, theres a new crop of
simplified smartphones that have recently hit the market that are
better than ever for tech-shy seniors. Here are my three top
options.

Doro 824 SmartEasy

Offered by Consumer Cellular, the new Doro 824 SmartEasy is

one of the best, simplified smartphones available today. It starts
with a bright, 5-inch high-resolution touch screen display that
offers large icons and text, and customizable volume settings. Its
simplified design pairs down the options, providing uncluttered,
easy access to key contacts and frequently used features such
as the phone, text messages, the camera email and the Internet
right from the home screen. And, it provides help as you go along
from the built-in coach.
It also offers a unique pre-installed My Doro Manager app that
can also be downloaded by family or friends. This app provides a
number of tutorials showing your mom how to enjoy her phone,
and gives her trusted contacts the remote ability to help manage
and adjust her Doro smartphone from their smartphone no matter
where they are.

And for added convenience and safety, the Doro 824 provides
three physical buttons on the front of the phone for quick, onetouch access to the home screen, recently used applications, and a
back button that returns to the previous screen. And an Emergency Alert button on the back of the phone that will automatically
dial one, predetermined contact in the event of an emergency.

The Doro 824 is sold online atConsumerCellular.com, over the

phone at 888-532-5366, or at any Target or Sears store for $200
with no contract.

Jitterbug Smart

Offered by GreatCall wireless, the new 4thgeneration Jitterbug

Smart is much bigger than previous GreatCall smartphones. This
phone is actually an Alcatel smartphone thats been rebranded and
loaded with GreatCalls simplified user interface software.
It has a big, bright 5.5-inch high-definition touch screen, and a

simple single-list menu on the home page that provides easy

access to only frequently used features, along with one-touch
access to contacts and other apps.

It also provides convenient voice typing for emails and texts,

and offers a variety of optional health and safety features, like
MedCoach, that sends medication and prescription refill reminders. Urgent Care, which provides unlimited access to registered
nurses and doctors to answer health questions. And a 5Star medical-alert service that lets you speak to a live emergency-alert
agent around the clock. These trained agents will confirm your
moms location via GPS tracking technology and dispatch help as
needed.
Available online atGreatCall.com, or at Best Buy, Rite Aid,
Sears and Walmart stores for $150 with a onetime $35 activation
fee and no contract.

Samsung Galaxy Note5

While this smartphone isnt designed specifically for seniors, its

large size (5.7-inch screen) and unique Easy mode setting that
boosts the icon and font sizes and simplifies the home-screen layout, makes it a good option.
With the Easy mode turned on, the Note5s home screen will
display only the time, date and local weather, and six frequently
used functions. To access your 12 most important contacts, you
would simply swipe the home screen to the right. And to access
your 12 favorites apps, swipe to the left.

The Note5 (seeSamsung.com/galaxynote5)is available with

32 and 64 GB of storage from the major carriers (AT&T, Sprint,
Verizon, T-Mobile) and some smaller carriers at prices ranging
between $615 and $840 without a contract.
Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443,
Norman, OK 73070, or visitSavvySenior.org.
June 2016

Opinion

From kerosene lanterns to smartphone boarding passes

Correction

In a story titled Montana family provides all-natural beef for

America in the May issue of Montana Best Times, incorrect
photo credits were given for two photos. All the photos were taken by Dan Killoy. Montana Best Times Editor Dwight Harriman
regrets the errors.
June 2016
4

occasion I trekked through the jungle at night with a group

of people using pine-pitch torches for light.
To go from that to putting my cell phone atop a scanner
in the Denver and Chicago airports kind of freaks me out. I
thought it was a big deal when I got a IIsi Macintosh computer with something like an 80-megabyte hard drive for
my job as editor at the paper in Terry, Montana, back in the
early 1990s. Today, desktop computers have hard drive
space measured in gigabytes and terabytes incomprehensibly greater than those early machines.
Where will it all lead? I can tell you. Our children, when they
get to be 50-plussers, will view our smartphone boarding passes as something as primitive as those pine-pitch torches lighting
my way through the jungle at night not too many years ago.
Unbelievable.
Dwight Harriman,
Montana Best Times Editor
MONTANA

On a recent trip to Chicago to visit our children, my wife

and I broke through the technology glass ceiling and used
our smartphones as boarding passes to get on the plane.
Thats right, we put those babies on the scanner and
walked right down the tunnel to the aircraft who needs
paper anymore? Actually, I do, because I kept the paper
versions of our boarding passes close at hand in case technology failed. I wasnt going to miss a flight to see our kids
because of a dead cellphone battery. So I guess my age
showed, because I for sure had a backup plan.
The bullet-paced track of technology is amazing even for
young millennials. And for baby boomers who have
watched it change in their lifetime, its astounding. And for
me personally, its unbelievable.
I grew up in Bolivia, where, in rural areas, electricity was
either nonexistent or at least of very poor quality, where
there were no phones Im talking about the old rotary
kind where kerosene and gas lanterns provided light,
and where the pinnacle of technology was a radio. I have
also worked in remote areas of Honduras where on one

A Monthly Publication for Folks 50 and Better

P.O. Box 2000, 401 S. Main St., Livingston MT 59047

Tel. (406) 222-2000 or toll-free (800) 345-8412 Fax: (406) 222-8580
E-mail: montanabesttimes@livent.net Subscription rate: $25/yr.
Published monthly by Yellowstone Newspapers, Livingston, Montana
Dwight Harriman, Editor Sean Douma, Designer

Health

6 sleep problems that crop up after age 50

By Sarah Klein
Prevention magazine/TNS

For the first time, older adults got their very own personalized
sleep recommendations. The National Sleep Foundation concluded, after reviewing the scientific research on sleep duration,
that adults 65 and up should aim for 7 to 8 hours a night, compared to adults 26 to 64, who should sleep between 7 and 9. The
distinction might not seem like a huge deal at first, but its a nod
to what many older adults inherently know to be true: Sleep
really does change with age.
Our sleep changes throughout the lifespan, says Natalie D.
Dautovich, PhD, the NSFs environmental scholar and an assistant psychology professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. Some of the most dramatic changes, she says, actually occur
in our 20s, but as we reach older adulthood some themes tend to
arise. Many 50+ sleepers find its easier to become awakened
during the night, which is reflected in a little shorter sleep duration over all, Dautovich says.
Its not exactly a welcome change: The NSF found 71 percent
of 55- to 64-year-olds report some sleep problem, including difficulty falling asleep, waking up still tired, or snoring.
Dautovich urges anyone dealing with these issues to bring
them up to a medical professional. Depending on your symptoms maybe youre excessively sleepy during the day or
youre irritable, unfocused, and achy medication, lifestyle
changes, or even cognitive therapy can help.
Here are a few of the unique sleep situations facing you as
you age.
Your bedtime and your wake-up time shift earlier.
Remember how all you wanted to do when you were 19 was
stay up late and doze until noon? You werent just exercising
your laziest teenager muscles; our natural internal clocks, technically called our circadian rhythms, are delayed until our 20s,
meaning we truly dont get tired until later at night and dont
feel alert until later in the morning, Dautovich explains. After
we grow out of this phase, though, our circadian rhythms keep
advancing, and later in life we tend to become sleepy earlier and
feel our most alert earlier in the morning, too.
You wake up more during the night.
An odd thing starts to happen in our brains as we age, says
board-certified sleep specialist and sleep doctor, Michael J. Breus, PhD. The amplitude of our brain waves changes, he says.
To be classified as deep, restful, restorative sleep, brain waves
have to reach a certain height, and after age 50 or so, the spikes
simply dont get as high, he says. That lighter sleep is a heck of
a lot easier to disturb, meaning you become a lot easier to wake
up. Whether its your bed partners snoring, the usual creaky
house noises, or a little indigestion, you may find youre no longer able to sleep right through disturbances. Those arousals in
turn mean youre getting worse sleep, Breus says. (Heres how
to sleep better every night.)
Of course, its only natural to figure you can make up for that
with an afternoon nap. A word of caution, though: While youre

undoubtedly tired during the day if youve tossed and turned all
night, napping can sometimes do more harm than good. Unfortunately, that can disrupt our natural rhythms and result in poorer sleep the following night, Dautovich says.
You gotta go.
Some 53 percent of adults ages 55 to 84 get up to pee every
night or almost every night, according to the NSF. Certainly,
some of us get a more frequent urge to relieve ourselves as we
age, possibly because our nerves dont function as well. But hitting the head may also be related to that lighter sleep we get,
she says. People are more aware of urges to urinate that they
may not have been aware of when they were in deeper sleep.
As long as you can fall back to sleep within 5 or 10 minutes of a
pee break, dont stress. If its difficult to doze off again after a
trip to the loo, bring it up with your doc.
Your hot flashes never quit.
Menopauses famed hormonal wackiness can definitely disrupt your slumber, Dautovich says. Fluctuations in estrogen and
progesterone can make healthy sleep harder to come by, and
insufferable hot flashes can wake some women up or make it
impossible to drift off. Mood changes can also trigger sleep
problems, making menopause decidedly unfriendly to sleep.
Aside from following all the general sleep hygiene rules,
Dautovich suggests making your sleep environment more flexible if you can: Sleep in breathable fabrics and layer sheets and
blankets on the bed so you can easily fling em to the side midflash.
You start to snore.
One of agings more unpleasant side effects is how easy it is
to suddenly find yourself carrying a bit of extra poundage. That
weight gain can lead to snoring, because a thicker neck means
a narrower windpipe, Breus explains. If your windpipe narrows
so much it becomes blocked, you may even stop breathing
periodically throughout the night, known as obstructive sleep
apnea.
While sleep apnea is more common in men, he says, after
menopause many more women start to experience it, too. If
youre snoring or have apnea, you dont get as much air in, Breus says, which changes the overall quality of sleep. Of course,
youre also likely bothering the person lying next to you. If
you sleep next to a snoring bed partner, you lose approximately
1 hour of sleep a night, he says. (Separate bedrooms suddenly
doesnt seem so outlandish ... )
Youre at a higher risk for restless legs.
The rates of this mysterious sleep-related condition start to
climb after people hit 50 or so, Breus says. The overpowering
urge to move, usually the legs, can also grow more severe with
age. Although theres still a lot experts dont totally understand
about restless legs syndrome, its thought to be related to the
brain chemical dopamine, which declines with age, or iron deficiency, also common among older folks.

For more great health tips, pick up a copy of Prevention magazine, visit www.prevention.com, or follow us @PreventionMag.
June 2016
5

Above: Gary Kirkpatrick floats down the Bighorn River on a recent fly-fishing trip. On the cover: Kirkpatrick tries his
hand wading near shore.

A day on the Bighorn

Theres much more to it than catching fish

Story and photos by Jason Stuart

Montana Best Times
BIGHORN RIVER We scoot down the river like a leaf on
the wind, no sounds to be heard but the soft thwap, thwap,
thwap as the drift boat bounces over the riffles and the light
swoosh of the oars as they break the surface of the crystalline
waters. In the distance, the last vestiges of winters embrace cling
in airy whispers to the high peaks of the Bighorns, while above,
an azure April sky peppered with cottony powder-puffs of clouds
heralds the dawn of spring and life renewed.
There could be no better morning for my first fly-fishing float
trip down the world-renowned Bighorn River. Ive seen it and
fished it before, but never like this. And I could have no better
guide for this adventure than Gary Kirkpatrick.

Introducing people to the river

Gary, 67, is a just-recently retired telecommunications engineer

from Glendive. He is not a professional fishing guide, but youd
be hard-pressed to find anyone with a more intimate knowledge
of this river. Hes been fishing it since the Yellowtail Dam went
up in 1968, transforming the Bighorn from an unremarkable fishing stream with but a few trout in it below the gates of the Bighorn Canyon into the legendary blue ribbon trout fishery it is
today.
The fish per mile, it varies, but sometimes youre talking
about 3,500 to 4,500 fish per river mile, which is absolutely
amazing, Gary says of the Bighorn.
That this river hides a writhing mass of fish flesh beneath its
glass veneer is borne out as I watch innumerable trout scatter
beneath us as the boat passes. It is further evidenced by the bald
June 2016

eagle we spy early into our float. It is the largest eagle I have ever
seen, grown fat gorging on the trout buffet below. The majestic
but ungainly bird floats across the Big Sky like a winged zeppelin, scanning the waters below for his next helping.
As we float, Gary speaks of the river, how, even as a largely
controlled stream below the dam, its constantly changing. We
float past one of his old favored fishing holes. We might have
stopped, but the hole doesnt look the same. High water at some
point has scoured out the banks and altered it drastically. That
hole is gone, but the river has undoubtedly created a new one
somewhere else, waiting to be discovered by a pioneering angler.
These fishing holes have names, too. Duck Blind. Crow
Beach. The Turkey Foot. Gary speaks of each one like they
were old friends with whom he cant wait to reunite. Its quickly
clear he knows as much about the Bighorn as any of the guides
who charge fly-fishing tourists hundreds of bucks a pop for their
services, but he never had any inkling to be one.
I was asked to be a guide several times, but I had another job,
Gary says. To be honest, being a guide on the river never really
appealed to me.
That being said, Gary is an unofficial Bighorn guide of sorts
for denizens of Glendive. He has taken several people from Glendive on their first float trips down the river over the years. For
several, they caught the first trout of their lifetime with Gary as
their mentor.
The night before our trip, Gary proudly shows me his photo
collection of each Glendivian hes introduced to Bighorn fly-fishing, and to the exhilarating joy of reeling in a thrashing trout.
Each person in every photo beams widely, their first Bighorn
trout or first trout, period clutched in their hands.
Gary intends to add me to this collection.

cern over the slight snowpack is the cause.)

He teaches me the patented Bighorn slap
to knock the moss off my fly before each cast,
but the stuff still takes its toll. When Gary
lands the first fish of the day, he has a devil of
a time reeling it in, as one of the moss clumps
wraps itself around the fish. When I net it, you
cant tell where moss ends and trout begins.
Despite the dearth of action one usually
expects on this blue ribbon trout stream, Gary
remains ever optimistic.
The fishings great, the catchings not, he
says several times throughout the day, an
upbeat outlook that Gary appears to apply to
life in general.
Finally, about midway through our trip, we
stop at one of Garys favorite holes, and I watch
in a combination of awe and frustration as Gary
walks right out to a specific spot and promptly
lands four or five fish in quick succession.
Kirkpatrick enjoys the peace of the Bighorn River on a recent outing.
Gary pivots me into the spot where he was
while he graciously goes to tie up a new rig
after the one I had been using got hopelessly
Fishing bonds
tangled up on me. He even gives me his pole. My first few casts
Thats part of Garys raison detre for taking these fishing
are fruitless, however, and my frustration builds. Gary, watching
excursions in the first place. Building relationships with people is me from near the bank, shouts at me to cast upriver in exactly the
every bit as important to him as the act of fishing itself, while
10 oclock position, aiming at a small pile of boulders upriver on
fishing together strengthens the bonds being built.
the opposite bank.
I think you develop a relationship thats long-lasting and lasts for
I follow his instructions to the letter, and, like clockwork, on my
many, many years, Gary says. Its not like getting to know somevery first cast, my strike indicator vanishes in an instant below the
body through an organization or anything else you develop a
surface as a trout absolutely wallops my fly. I reel in a very nice,
unique relationship. Fishing, I think, takes that to a higher degree.
fat 17-inch Bighorn brown. Gary runs over to net him for me.
Fishing is the proverbial chicken soup to Garys soul. It has
Then he has me hold up my prize so he can snap my picture.
been since he was 8 and his father took him for his first fishing
Ive officially been added to his collection.
excursion along Montanas Boulder River. He shared that story
We continue fishing for several hours after that, but that fish
with me, how his dad plopped him in a spot along the bank and
will be the only one I actually land all day.
left him to his own devices.
As his father walked away, young Gary quickly snagged himself
River mantra
in a tree behind him as he attempted to cast. His father saw, but did
But, as Gary postulates repeatedly, what difference does that
nothing, just gave him a look and kept walking. Learning through
make? The silvery ribbon of the Bighorn stretches out before us
failure was the elder Kirkpatricks preferred teaching method.
beneath the boundless Big Sky while the purple majesty of the
As Gary himself says, He was teaching me.
mountains looms behind us. The Canada geese are nesting all
A few casts later, 8-year-old Gary got it right and caught his
along its banks. A half-dozen different species of ducks swim
first fish, by which he became hooked as much as that trout.
Truth be told, six decades later, I dont think hes ever let that fish around us throughout our float. Enormous eagles soar overhead.
Today, were experiencing all the bounty and soul regenerating
off the line.
power of Montanas natural wonder, and nothing, not even a paucity of trout, can dampen that.
Landing a nice one
I like the fact that I can truly say that, like today, it was an
amazing day of fishing, but the catchings not the best, Gary
On our float trip, there arent too many fish on anybodys line.
says. That means a lot to me, to have that environment. The rivA cold front moved in the day before and gave the fish the locker, theres so many aspects to it.
jaw. (To the uninitiated, as Gary explains, the drop in barometric
And as we finally pull into the landing and I ready to leave
pressure that comes with a cold front has a physiological effect
on fish, making them lethargic.) Gary is eager to put me on a fish back for home and the drudgery of offices and work schedules,
the truth of Garys words strike like an arrow through the very
and Im eager to catch one, but for the longest time, Im skunked
center of my soul.
with nary so much as a nibble.
The fishings great, the catchings not.
The fishing is made more difficult by the gigantic clumps of
Amen.
green moss which come hurtling down the river like amorphous

aquatic goblins. Garys never seen the moss like this so early, a
Reach Jason Stuart is a reporter at the Glendive Ranger
fact he comments on repeatedly as we fight through the stuff. (He
Review. Reach him at rrreporter@rangerreview.com or (406)
later learned that the unusually warm winter combined with dam
377-3303.
regulators restricting the outflow from the reservoir out of conJune 2016

Winnett mayor busier

than ever in retirement

Story and photos by Doreen Heintz

Montana Best Times
LEWISTOWN When the town of
Winnetts Ralph Corbett retired from the
Petroleum County road department after
30 and a half years, he fully expected his
life to slow down, but that just has not
been the case.
For years, Ralph and his wife, Carol
Ann Schaffer, have walked the sidelines at
football games and watched many basketball games and volleyball matches in the
gymnasiums at Winnett, Roundup and
Grass Range. Ralph and Carol are sports
photographers for the Roundup Record
Tribune/Winnett Times. The two also take
photos for parents at the three schools.
Ralph fully intended to keep taking photos, even though it meant purchasing new
digital cameras, a few years back, but it is
all the other things Ralph now does in
addition to photography that keeps him
very busy during his retirement years.
Ralph has served the town of Winnett as
its mayor for the past two and a half years.
In addition, he serves on the Central Montana Tourism Board and the Conservation
District Board, and is a member of the
Snowy Mountain Development Corporation Board of Directors. In addition, Ralph
has served as a rifle hunting safety instructor for the past 29 years and as a bow
hunting safety specialist for 26 years.
And if that is not enough, Ralph serves
Winnett as the associate water and waste
water operator. In his free time, he likes to
hunt as well as shoot informally but not
competitively. He reloads all of his own
ammunition.
Yes, I also like to listen to the radio,
but I dont care to watch television,
Ralph said of his active life style in retirement.

Background

Ralph was born in Great Falls and grew

up in Cascade. After graduating from high
school, he enlisted in the Navy and served
his country for four years.
I saw duty off the waters of Vietnam,
said Ralph. I was on a ship called the USS
Mount Katmai. We helped provide ammunition for our servicemen in Vietnam.
June 2016
8

Ralph Corbett takes photos at a track meet in Lewistown the first weekend in
April.
It was also in the Navy when I developed my first interest in photography,
Ralph said. I took just general photos
back then.
After being discharged from the Navy,
Ralph went to college at Montana State
University in Bozeman and spent his summers working for the U.S. Forest Service.

After three years of college, Ralph quit

school.
I never regret quitting college, he
said. I had just had enough.
After spending one year running a pilot
car business, Ralph began working as a
ranch hand. He ended up near Winnett
working on a ranch. There, he met Carol.

The two were married in 1978. After working on a ranch for

several years, Ralph was hired for the Petroleum County road
department.
Ralph got Carol interested in photography.
Carol is more precise when it comes to taking pictures than I
am, Ralph admitted. I see myself more as a photojournalist.

Photographing the kids

Now, if there is a sporting event happening in central Montana,

one will most likely see Ralph or Carol or both at the event. Carol
doesnt get to take photos as much as Ralph, because she is also a
bus driver for the Winnett school.
Ralph doesnt have a preference of what sport he likes to shoot
the most he just likes photographing the young people of central Montana and watching them grow and develop over the
years.
Like many other retirees, Ralph stays busier now than when he
was working a full-time job.

Doreen Heintz is the sports editor at the Lewistown NewsArgus. Reach her at sports@lewistownnews.com or (406)5353401.
Another shot of Ralph Corbett taking photos at the track
meet in Lewistown the first weekend in April.

News Lite
Caught playing ball at unfinished stadium

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) The Hartford Yard Goats wont

be the first to take the field at Dunkin Donuts Park when the
Double-A team makes it long-awaited debut at the new stadium.
Police say four men were arrested and charged with criminal
trespassing after they were caught playing baseball in the yet-tobe-completed Connecticut ballpark at about 8:30 p.m.
An officer assigned to a security detail at the stadium discovered the men after hearing yelling and cheering coming from the
field. When the officer went to investigate the commotion, he
found a man on the pitchers mound, another in the batters box
and two in the outfield.
Police say one of the men who was charged works for Centerplan Construction, a company involved in building the ballpark.
The others were his friends.

12-year-old student ready to start university

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) A 12-year-old Sacramento

student who already has three community college degrees and has
been accepted to two University of California campuses says he
plans on studying biomedical engineering and becoming a doctor
and medical researcher by the time he turns 18.
Tanishq Abraham has been accepted to UC Davis and received
a regents scholarship to UC Santa Cruz, but he has yet to decide
which university hell attend, reported Sacramento television station CBS 13.
I think Ill be 18 when I get my M.D., he said.
Tanishq started community college at age 7 and last year he
received associates degrees from American River College, a

community college in Sacramento, in general science; math and

physical science; and foreign language studies.
Professors at the college didnt initially want him in their classes because of his age. But finally a professor agreed to let him
attend if his mother, a doctor of veterinary medicine, also took
the class. There were times when I had to explain general relativity and special relativity to my mom, he said.
Biology professor Marlene Martinez said he was never afraid
to ask a lot of questions. In lecture he would always pop up with
so, does that mean ... or what about this? Martinez said.
Tanishq, who joined the IQ society Mensa at only 4 years old,
has always picked up knowledge quickly, his father, Bijou Abraham, told NBC News.

Great News for Seniors 62 yrs of Age & Older!

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Electric, Gas, Water, Sewer, & Trash
Included in Rent
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June 2016

A woman of endurance
Terry resident is a mother, equestrian, rancher, nurse, runner
titions recognized by the International
Federation for Equestrian sport.
Fredrickson qualified with her horse,
Teka, for the Pan American Endurance
Ride in Winnipeg, Canada, in August
1999. The Pan American Games are the
biggest set of equestrian events in the
Western Hemisphere.

Janet Fredrickson rides Teka, in the

Shamrock 150-mile, 3-day race in
Wheatland, Wyoming.

Photos courtesy of Janet Fredrickson

Janet Fredrickson, left, and Dr. Judy Burnin are pictured with Honduran children and a basket the kids made for medical volunteers, on one of Fredricksons
trips to Honduras.

By Mary Elizabeth Grue

Montana Best Times
TERRY As an equestrian, mother,
rancher, nurse and runner, Janet Fredrickson can truly be called a woman of endurance.
Fredrickson, 52, lives on a ranch south
of Terry with her husband Scott, whom
she met at Montana State University when
June 2016

10

they were on the same livestock judging

team.
Here is a look at Fredricksons most
interesting and busy life.

Equestrian

Before having a family, Fredrickson

competed in endurance riding, an equestrian sport based on controlled, long-distance
races. It is one of the international compe-

Teka, or its registered name, Sharteka, is

a 15-hand, half-Arabian, half-Akhal Teke
mare. The Akhal-Teke breed is from Turkmenistan, where they are a national
emblem. They are known for their endurance, speed, intelligence, and they have a
distinctive metallic sheen.
I bought her sight unseen when she
was 3, explained Fredrickson. She was
delivered to Butte, Montana, on Thanksgiving 1994. You can start competing at 5
years old. She did a 50-miler on her fifth
birthday and was the 1996 War Mare, for
having the most points in the Northwest
region, for a first-year mare. (War Mare
is a term used to describe mares of particular nobility and courage throughout the
ages.)
Teka excelled at 100-milers and multiday rides, according to Fredrickson. In the
Big Horn 100, Teka took Best Condition.
In the Shamrock 150-mile, 3-day ride at
Wheatland, Wyoming, Teka took first. At
Mount Carmel, Utah, Teka also garnered
first place for the five-day, 250-mile ride.
In total, Teka rode 5,000 miles before she
was retired.
Fredrickson did endurance riding from
1990 to 2006, racking up 10,000 miles.

Pictured in this May 12, 1999,

photo taken in Smolensk, Russia are, from left, front row,
the Fredricksons adopted children Sergey, 5, Anna (Anastasia), 4, Kristina, 7, Ella (Elvira), 9 and Natasha (Natalia),
5. Janet Fredrickson is at
Natalias right. In the back
row from left are Scott Fredrickson; the childrens paternal grandmother, Nadia
Kosteleva; and the orphanage
director.

Explaining why she no longer does the rides, Fredrickson said,

My horse got old and I didnt want to train another one. It takes
a lot of training. The horses are hot-blooded, I didnt want to get
hurt, is what it boils down to.

Mother

The Fredricksons, who dont have biological children, adopted

a family of five Russian children from the Gnezdyshko Orphanage (Gnezdyshko means Little Nest or Baby House in the
Russian language) in Smolensk, Russia.
It was quite a saga.
In November of 1998 we started the process to adopt, Fredrickson said. At the time we lived in Hot Springs, Montana. We
just got a computer, I just started looking, and I didnt really
know how to use a computer, so this picture kept coming back on
the screen of this child Scott, kept asking is the child a boy or
a girl. The children didnt have names on the website, just numbers. The site said, instead of names, from Eastern Europe. We
didnt know if the children were in Russia or where for sure. As it
turns out, the picture of the child that kept popping up on my
screen was Anna, our youngest daughter.
Because of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, food
shortages were commonplace, and that made it hard for families
to stay together.
The biological father of the Fredrickson children was in prison,
and he wrote a letter giving up his parental rights, Fredrickson said.
He wanted to give his children a chance at life, she commented. He could have gone to prison for stealing food for his
family, for all we know.
The Fredricksons went through the Lutheran Social Services
for the childrens adoption and they received a grant from A Child
Waits Foundation, which helps families with moderate incomes
make adoptions.
As part of the process, they had to have a study of their home,
which proved their house was too small, so they bought a modular home. They had to get a minivan that seats seven with seat
belts all they had was pickups.

The children had to be at least

3 years old to be in the Russian
orphanage.
There were two younger siblings that we couldnt adopt
because they were too young.
Their names were Vladimir and
Angela, Fredrickson said sadly.
The Fredricksons needed a
court date in Russia and
couldnt get it, so Janet Fredrickson wrote to then-Rep. Max Baucus, who secured a date.
They flew into Moscow on May 9, 1999. They had to pay thousands of dollars in new American $100 bills to adopt the children,
and Scott carried the new bills on his person.
When they landed, it was the countrys Independence Day, and
Fredrickson said they were shooting off cannons and werent happy with Americans because of what took place during the Kosovo
War. So, needless to say, they did no sightseeing while there.
They waived the two-week waiting period, Fredrickson said.
When we met the five children (Ella, Natasha, Kristina, Sergey
and Anna) for the first time in person, we had to agree to take
them, and then we went to court the next day. We had problems in
Russia, as to adopt you need to have a large net income, and with
Scott being a full-time farmer, his net income was zero. Even
though we had already adopted the children in court we had to
prove that we had an income. We had to arrange for our income
paperwork to be faxed to Russia by my father, Ralph Smith.
When we left with the children, their paternal grandmother
collapsed, Fredrickson said. Anna came running down the hall
yelling, Momma! Momma! Anna was isolated because she had
the mumps and strep throat.
At the United States Embassy they had to pay with Russian money, and at the Russian Embassy they had to pay in U.S. currency. On
the flight back to the U.S., the five children didnt sleep at all.
They landed in Los Angeles, where the new family had trouble
at customs because the Russian paperwork spelled the familys
name with an x Fredrixson.
They finally flew to Salt Lake and drove home to Montana
from there.
The five Fredrickson children have all graduated from Terry
High School. Ella is now 26 years old, Natasha is 25, Kristina is
24, Sergey is 22 and Anna is 21.

Rancher

The Fredricksons ranch is located on what is called the Kirkpatrick Place on Broadview Bench, south of Terry.
June 2016
11

The Fredricksons became interested in the French breed of cattle called Aubracs, and family members traveled to France to
investigate them. They then bought eight Aubrac heifers from
Wisconsin and had them artificially inseminated with the Aubrac
semen from France.
From this little group of heifers, we grew our herd, Fredrickson said.
Aubrac is a very old breed of cattle used for beef. They are a
tough breed known for longevity and high resistance to disease.
Their milk is used to make Laguiole cheese.
The Fredricksons are calving out about 130 cows this spring.

Nurse

Fredrickson, a registered nurse, has been on three trips to Honduras to volunteer through the organization Friends of Barnabas.
I work at the Veterans Administration Community Living
Center in Miles City, so I can schedule time off for these trips,
explained Fredrickson, The trips last 10 days.
On three of her trips, her daughter, Anna, got to go along, and
helped out as a dental assistant.
What they are doing is just pulling teeth with a Honduras dentist, Fredrickson said. She and Anna were the only volunteers
from Montana.
In Honduras, I have a medical station. I give out medicines
like muscle rub, hydrocortisone cream, cough syrups, Tums,
Tylenol. We give the people about 30 days worth of medications.
If a patient is pregnant we usually give the new mothers three to
six months worth of Tums for extra calcium beyond the prenatal
vitamins, explained Fredrickson. There a lot of teenage pregnancy mothers are very young, 14 to 15 years old, and they
breast-feed. They more often or typically get through the sixth
grade because the families cant afford the uniforms and supplies.
A lot of the time only one child out of a family may attend school
unless they can get a sponsor through different groups. The
amount of children per family runs from five to seven. There is a
high mortality rate in kids; a lot of babies are born at home. You
are considered an adult at age 16.
Most of the clinics are set up in schools.
I take an extra bag of supplies that I fill with kids clothes and
shoes and other supplies like anti-fungal creams, Fredrickson
said. They have a lot of parasites in the water, so we give the
people a deworming pill in orange pop. Its very hot and humid
there and most of the people walk there.
Whole families come in together to the medical stations.
They all sit on kindergarten-sized chairs If a patient has something potentially seriously wrong, I refer them to the Honduran
doctor. Only then does the patient get a referral and can get into a
specialist I have seen patients with chronic diabetes, cardiac
problems, club feet, cervical cancer and melanoma, for example,
that I referred to the Honduran doctor for further medical care.
She added, Sometimes we have time at the medical stations to
play with the kids. The people in turn like to give us things like
bags of lemons, wicker baskets they weave and hugs, lots of
hugs. Gracias is repeated, and they say, Bless you a lot.
Fredrickson plans on returning to Honduras in October of this
year with another team. They will screen children with heart
problems, cleft palate and other congenital issues.

Runner

As if the above activities werent enough, Fredrickson is also a

marathon runner. She participated in the Bataan Memorial Death
June 2016

12

Janet Fredrickson runs in the 2015 Bataan Memorial Death

March marathon held at the White Sands Missile Range in
New Mexico.
March marathon at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico
in 2015.
The annual event, which commemorates the Bataan Death
March of World War II, is one of the top marathons in the country, and is run on trails as well as on roads.
A lot of military people participate. Survivors of the Bataan
Death March were there, Fredrickson said of the 2015 event. A
lot of Wounded Warriors were there also. They had speakers who
were actual POWs.
Fredrickson plans more running events. She will participate in
the Aug. 28 Santa Rosa Marathon in Santa Rosa, California, and
in the New York City Marathon.
I signed up for the New York City Marathon lottery, and my
name was drawn. I will be running on Nov. 6, 2016, during the
presidential election, Fredrickson said.
I am running in honor of my mother, Patsy Sutherland Smith,
and to raise money for research to prevent pancreatic cancer,
Fredrickson says on her Facebook page. If you would like to
help, you may go to Freds Team and search for Janet Fredrickson, participant.
Fredrickson started running marathons in 2012 and to date has
done 16.
I want to do one in every state! she smiled.

Mary Elizabeth Grue is story and photo contributor to the Terry Tribune. She may be reached at (406) 653-5513.

The ins and outs of Social Security and taxes

By Mark Miller
www.retirementrevised.com/TNS
Its an unpleasant fact of life: The taxman can take a bite out
of your Social Security benefits.
The federal tax formula was crafted to initially target higherincome households, but the share of benefits taxed has risen
over the years, because the income thresholds for taxation
arent indexed for inflation or real income growth. Meanwhile,
there are big variations in how states tax benefits. As a result, a
solid retirement plan should include an understanding of
whether you will pay taxes on Social Security benefits, how
much youll pay, and how that will impact your overall tax picture in retirement. In some cases, savvy planning can lessen the
tax bite.
About half of all Social Security beneficiaries owed some
amount of income tax on their benefits in 2014, according to
the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), but the burden falls
mainly on higher-income households. Beneficiaries with
incomes below $40,000 owed less than 0.5 percent of benefits
in taxes in 2014, while those earning more than $100,000 owed
21 percent.
However, the CBO estimates that taxes paid will rise from
6.5 percent of total benefits in 2014 to more than 8 percent by
2024, and more than 9 percent by 2039. That is due to the lack
of indexation of the income thresholds.

How benefits are taxed

The formula used to determine the tax is unique. First, you

determine a figure Social Security calls combined income
(also sometimes called provisional income). This is equal to
your adjusted gross income plus nontaxable interest plus 50
percent of your Social Security.
No taxes are paid by beneficiaries with combined income
equal to or below $25,000 for single filers and $32,000 for
married filers. (If that sounds like a marriage penalty, thats
because it is one. On the other hand, married couples can
access valuable spousal and survivor benefits not available to
single people. So, lets call that one a wash.)
Beneficiaries in the next tier of income $34,000 for single
filers and $44,000 for married filers pay taxes on up to 50
percent of their benefits. Beneficiaries with income above
those levels pay taxes on up to 85 percent of benefits.
Beneficiaries receive IRS Form SSA-1099 from the IRS during tax season, which reports your net benefit subject to tax
(after Part B Medicare premiums have been subtracted).
Income is reported on the 1040 or 1040a forms (Form
1040EZ cannot be used). The popular tax-filing software programs also have the capacity to handle Social Security income.
You can also ask the Social Security Administration to withhold
taxes when you file for benefits at rates of 7 percent, 10 percent,
15 percent or 25 percent. Its just a matter of convenience
not a requirement, says Greg Rosica, a tax partner at Ernst &
Young and contributing author to the EY Tax Guide 2016.
State policy on taxation of benefits varies. Twenty-nine
states (including the District of Columbia) that have a broadbased income tax exempt all Social Security from tax, accord-

ing to a tally by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Seven states tax some Social Security benefits but provide an
exemption that is more generous than what is available at the
federal level. Six states tax Social Security benefits using the
federal formula.

Minimizing the bite

There isnt much you can do to minimize taxation of Social

Security and most experts dont consider it important
enough to drive overall retirement-plan strategies. Most of the
people we work with understand it they would prefer not to
pay it, but it is what it is, says Rosica. Some planning can be
done around it, but it can be challenging because planning for
this might cause other things not to work as well.
Still, the taxation of benefits has the effect of boosting marginal tax rates significantly in some cases. A beneficiary
otherwise in a 15 percent tax bracket could face marginal rates
of 22.5 percent to 27.75 percent, calculates Michael Kitces,
director of research for Maryland-based Pinnacle Advisory
Group; those in the 25 percent bracket could see marginal tax
rates as high as 46.25 percent. It just makes your tax bracket
higher than you might have otherwise thought, he says.
The bracket-boosting effect kicks in while Social Security
taxes are phasing in starting at $25,000; after the maximum
amount of Social Security (85 percent) has been included in
income, the rates start behaving normally again. Managing the
timing on drawing income from tax-deferred accounts can help,
Kitces says. When do I take money out? Am I doing a Roth
conversion? Do I want to invest in a nonqualified deferred
annuity as a way to defer income?
The Roth calculations, in particular, change when Social
Security tax is considered, he says. The classic rule is to put
an available dollar into an IRA when you still are working, if
you think your tax bracket will be lower in retirement, he
says. But if Im in a 15 percent bracket and its actually going
to be over 27 percent in retirement, I should pay my tax bill
now and fund the Roth.
An every-other-year strategy for taking tax-deferred income
also can help, says Rosica. If Im in that $25,000 to $50,000
income level, there probably are ways to arrange your affairs to
get better outcomes, he says.
Kitces adds that, in some cases, the best alternating-year
strategy is to add more income in the high-income year, after
the 85 percent cap has been hit, to avoid falling in the $25,000
to $50,000 range in the following year.
This is somewhat counterintuitive for most people, but its
actually a big opportunity, he says. For instance, rather than
having annual income of $50,000, you really might be better
off by doing $75,000 in one year, then $25,000 the following
year. Most people are trained to think that boosting income to
$75,000 is higher income and causes more taxes when, in
reality, it can result in less!

Mark Miller is a journalist and author who focuses on retirement and aging. He is the author of The Hard Times Guide to
Retirement Security: Practical Strategies for Money, Work and
Living. Mark also edits and publishes RetirementRevised.com.
June 2016

13

Hunting educator keeps kids

learning switch turned on

Don Darling interacts with children during a hunters education session in the classroom.

Story and photos by J.P. Plutt

Montana Best Times
DILLON Dillons Don Darling, 79,
has been teaching hunter education in
Beaverhead County since 2000, a 17-year
stint that is impressive by any measure.
Darlings retirement years in Dillon
were preceded by a long involvement with
hunter education that now totals 50 years
half a century. Its a dedication to hunting and youth that is heroic, historic and
honorable.

Years of wisdom put to use

With his vast experience in hunter education, Darling has taken the Dillon program from a single instructor class to one
involving six certified instructors and
three certified assistant instructors. He is
confident the increase in teacher-to-student ratio has greatly benefitted the students going through the program.
When I can teach a class of 20 or 25, it
is one on 25, said Darling of the changing
June 2016

14

dynamic of the hunter education classroom. Well, we had 28 kids (in the last
class) and eight or nine instructors, so each
instructor is teaching a much smaller
group of people.
I think the kids really profit here. The
other profit here is that instead me teaching every lesson, I teach two of the 10 lessons, and another instructor will teach one
or two, and so on, and we all cooperate
very strongly.
Darlings evolving view on the hunter
education presentation comes from a background in education and that half century
involvement in hunter education instruction. The Dillon version of the class
includes Darlings wisdom put forth on
specific topics, the insight of Montana
Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Craig
Fager on the ecology of hunting, and game
warden Kerry Wahls presentation on
hunting laws. The students also learn gun
safety and the mechanical workings of a
gun.
That growth in staff has helped offset
what Darling feels is a potential challenge,

as the bottom age of the students in hunter

education has dropped over the past eight
years from 12 to 11 and now 10 in certain
circumstances.
It is not that we are here to entertain
them, but we have to keep their interest,
said Darling, who volunteers his time as
an instructor. Sometimes they turn their
learning switch off and you can see it in
their face. So I try to do things with them
so they dont have that glazed look in their
eyes.
Im a little concerned that mentally, if
they waited a couple of years they would
have a different attitude towards safety
and hunting. The maturity you gain
between 10 and 12, I think, is tremendous.

Growing as an instructor

Darlings involvement in hunter education began in 1966 in his home state of

Minnesota. A local game warden asked
him if he had ever considered becoming a
hunter education instructor.

I never had, but I blame him for getting

me started in the 60s, recalled Darling of
his one-half century involvement in the avocation. He was very helpful. I was able to,
back in 1966, teach hunter ed in the public
classroom during the regular school day,
which I think would be a little unusual
now.
That first year they decided to teach seventh-graders, a little older than the group he
now teaches. That first stint in Minnesota
lasted six or eight years, and became his
first of six stops on his hunter education
resume that spanned five decades and four
states.
Darling moved to Missoula in the 1970s
and then to Helena between 1981 and 1985,
continuing with his profession as a teacher
in public education while also providing
hunter education instruction. While in Helena, Darlings instruction grew to include
trap shooting.
The chief game warden at that time, Bob
Bird, in Helena, really encouraged me, said
Darling. Not only was I able to teach hunter ed in an after-school and Saturday situation, but we collaborated and I taught trap
shooting to kids in both high schools in Helena during the school day.
Darling recalls a day shooting trap when
the clay pigeon broke into pieces as it came
out of the machine that throws the targets
into the air. He was standing behind the
young girl at the shooting station and she
turned to him, with the safety off, pointing
the shotgun directly at his chest.
What do I do now? she asked.
As calmly as I could I said, Just turn
around and shoot the next bird.
The young lady turned away and broke
the next target, unaware of how nervous she
had just made her instructor.

Teaching in Alaska

Darlings professional career advanced in

1985 when he was hired as a superintendent
in Nez Perce, Idaho.
With a very cooperative state hunter ed
coordinator, he continued teaching both
hunter education and trap shooting in Idaho
from 1985 to 1989, Darling said.
The wanderlust hit me again and we
moved to Alaska, said Darling of the next
step in the journey with his wife, Pat. If
you want an unusual situation, you should
teach hunter ed in a bush community in
Alaska. They were very nice students, but
they were a different kind of student. They
learn very well, but it is a little different
challenge as compared to teaching students
here in Montana.

Young hunters carefully cross a fence under Don Darlings watchful eye during a
hunters education field session.
Darlings students were for the most part,
members of the indigenous Eskimo population. The children in his hunter education
classes were taught about hunting from their
fathers in a subsistence hunting environment.
Under Alaska and federal law, they are
allowed to shoot anything they want, any
time they want, explained Darling. It is
whatever comes along today, with whatever firearm you have today, with the idea
that it will go right in the pot in the kitchen.
While he was a teacher and hunter education instructor in Alaska, Darling was learning about cultural differences.
Here in the lower 48, there is more
sportsmanship involved, the thrill of the
hunt, the idea of going out and having some
fun, said Darling of the hunting experience. They dont treat it as fun in Alaska.
They treat it as, I am the provider of food
for the family.
They learn the same way, everything
turns out the same, but the thought, the idea,
the direction that they have that theyre
going to go out and hunt today means
theyre going to bring something home for
the table.
While giving a field day test in Alaska
one year, Darling had six or seven students
view a game trail and asked them, if a
moose were standing by a nearby tree,
would it be legal and appropriate to shoot?
I always wait five or 10 seconds for the
kids to think, and in that five,10 seconds a
moose walked out on the game trail, Darling recalled. There were a few strange
looks.

Beaming kids and parents

Darling retired in 1998 from a career in

education spanning over 40 years, and he
and Pat began looking for a new home.
They put together a list of five ideal locations where they would like to relocate and
investigated each location. After considering
the pros and cons of each place, Darling
said Dillon was the easy win.
Darlings life in Dillon has included hunter education, a vocation he can see continuing another year or another decade.
I do the field part of the class, that is I
take the kids out and show them how to
cross a fence, what are the hunting practices
if you are hunting in a group, Darling
explained. Im noticing with my bad knee
and my bad back, sometimes it is nice to
have an assistant instructor helping me.
As long as Im confident that Im doing
a good job in the classroom, Id like to keep
on, whether it is another year or another 10
years. If I cant do it right, Im not going to
do it.
As he reflects back on the many changes
in hunter education during his 50 years with
the program, Darling smiles as he dwells on
one constant the pride students and their
parents show when the certificates are handed out at the end of a successful session.
There is a lot of smiles right at the end
when you hand out the certificates, the kids
are beaming, the parents are beaming, said
Darling of his payoff. I like to see kids succeed, that is a pretty good reward.
JP Plutt is the managing editor of the Dillon Tribune. Reach him at editor@dillontribune.com or (406) 683-2331.
June 2016
15

Travel

Create your own adventure

in these fan fave towns

Relax on the beach at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa. Photo courtesy Visit South Walton/TNS

By Kathy Witt

Kathy Witt/TNS
A passbook, an app and several package
enhancements help travelers this spring
and summer design and customize their
fun in such chart-topping destinations as
San Antonio, Texas, Charleston, S.C. and
South Walton, Fla.

Passbook To Free Stays

In San Antonio, Texas, the supremely

well-situated Hotel Contessa just rolled
out its San Antonio Passbook program.
Thumb through the 20-page booklet on the
hotels riverside patio to find suggestions
for some of the citys top attractions, many
of them a stroll away.
Rising dramatically from the banks of
the San Antonio River on a quiet stretch of
the famed River Walk, Hotel Contessa is
the only four-diamond all-suite hotel
located directly on San Antonios most
popular attraction. Book an outdoor table
at Las Ramblas for dinner and watch the
barges float by. Stretch out on a chaise
lounge beside the rooftop pool and take in
some breathtaking city views.
Head to the Alamo, where you can customize the experience with a guided afterhours, battlefield or VIP tour. Dip into the
history of the American West through
paintings, sculptures and artifacts (Pancho
June 2016

16

Villas saddle, Santa Annas sword) at the

Biscoe Museum of Western Art. Take the
glass-walled elevator to the top of the 750foot Tower of the Americas, a legacy of
the 1968 Worlds Fair, for dinner at the
revolving Chart House Restaurant.
Book Hotel Contessas Define Your
Destination package, available through
Aug. 30, 2016, and youll get accommodations, breakfast for two at Las Ramblas
Restaurant (home of the best huevos rancheros youll ever eat), valet parking, noon
check-out and the passbook, a fun souvenir to tuck into your scrapbook once home.
Get your Passbook stamped at the front
desk before embarking on your explorations; part of the fun of this program is
tracking sites explored. With each visit to
Hotel Contessa, you earn additional
stamps. With five stamps, visitors receive
50 percent off their next stay; 10 stamps
nets one complimentary overnight.
Of course, the place to be is the River
Walk. It unfurls over 15 miles, from the
museums north of downtown to the missions south, and is pedestrian-friendly
every step of the way. Lushly planted and
punctuated with public artworks, including
suspended fish and a vaquero (Mexican
cowboy) driving Texas Longhorns, its centerpiece is the historic downtown area,
lively with hotels, shops and restaurants.
Clusters of umbrella-topped patio tables
add splashes of color to a river scene that

charms with touring barges, arched bridges and bougainvillea.

One way to explore the River Walk is on
a foraging expedition with Chef Elizabeth
Johnson. Follow the flow and foliage to
learn about San Antonios unique culinary
history. Afterward, join the chef in her restaurant, Pharm Table, where youll taste
the fruits of your foraging labors while
also enjoying healthy and tasty dishes
made with locally-sourced ingredients.
Food is your medicine chest, says
Johnson, noting the restaurants name is a
synonym for culinary medicine. Menu
items, including veggie tacos and quinoa
tamales, are inventive and mouth-wateringly flavorful.

Click your way

to a perfect stay

Click into South Walton, Fla.s Find

Your Perfect Beach locator webpage or
download the app and you can click or
swipe your way to the beach community
that most perfectly aligns with your getaway goals. Keeping in mind that this jewel of a town stretching out lazily along the
Gulf of Mexico is made up of 16 individual beach communities each with its
own vibe and verve narrowing perfect down can be challenging.
Choose tranquil, shopping and spa
and foodie favorite from among 14

Photo courtesy Hotel Contessa/TNS

Amenities at Hotel Contessa include refined suites with colorful Spanish flair, a heated rooftop pool and hot tub with city
views, a 24-hour exercise room and a full-service spa.
choices and two perfect beaches emerge:
Sandestin and Seagrove. Plug in walkable, arts and culture and architecture
and youll find two other beach idylls.
With family, water activities and
ecosploring, youll get five. Continue
drilling down to exactly the kind of experience you want with choices relating to
accommodations and their activities.
Sandestin-bound foodies who love to
shop and seek spa tranquility will find the
Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa
a great match. Customize your stay by
choosing one of several themed packages,
including golf, wine, bed and breakfast _
or a triple indulgence treat at the hotels
Serenity by the Spa that lets you craft your
own spa package.
If strolling along architecturally beautiful streets that look like they belong in a
Hollywood movie set while soaking up the
area arts and culture, Rosemary Beach is a
peerless pick. And The Pearl, a luxury
boutique hotel and spa, will put you in the
midst of this master and mindfully planned
beach community.
With breezy coastal decor and sophisticated styling, The Pearl cossets guests
with upscale in-room amenities and spa
products, rainfall showerheads, private
balconies overlooking a very pretty town
or pool, a different turndown treat each
night and an interactive iPad-powered
platform where you can swipe your way to
dinner reservations, room service calls and
concierge requests.
Through June 29, The Pearl is offering a
Choose Your Savings deal: Stay three
nights/get 30 percent off standard rates;
stay two nights/get 25 percent off; stay
one night/get 20 percent off. This offer

Photo courtesy Visit South Walton/TNS

The Pearl is all about luxury, elegance and comfort.

includes complimentary beach setups,

valet parking and nightly turn-down with
freshly baked treats.

Enhancement add-ons

When you get away to the harbor-front

haven declared by Southern Living as a
Best Place to Stay, youll be able to add
the enhancement of your choice to an
already fun adventure. The Cottages on
Charleston Harbor, located on historic
Patriots Point in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., is a
choice collection of cottages perched near
waters edge.
The two-bedroom, three bath cottages
have private screened-in porches with
rocking chairs, full kitchens, designer furnishings, pillow top mattresses, luxury linens and more. Stretch out on the hammock. Curl up with a good book or sip a
glass of wine while taking in the views of
Charlestons harbor, downtown and historical Ft. Sumter.
The Cottages on Charleston Harbor
have an All-American Vacation package
that includes cottage accommodations,
tickets to a Riverdogs baseball game, tours
of Ft. Sumter and the USS Yorktown a
World War II aircraft carrier plus All
American treats for the family, like sparklers, small American flags and nostalgic
candy (taffy, braided lollipops, string licorice, caramel corn).
Depending on your interests, you can
design your own adventure, choosing from
three different experiences. Tee It Up & Hit
the Links includes a round of golf on the
Links Course at Patriots Point Links and a
Course Survival Kit a small cooler bag
with visor, sunscreen and bottled water.
Add the Harbor-Front Romantic

enhancement and enjoy champagne,

strawberries and chocolate truffles on
arrival, breakfast delivered to your cottage
each morning and the use of two plush
cottage bathrobes during your stay (robes
may be purchased for $75/each). Optional
spa treatments, including massage, mani
and pedi, are available.
If youre craving a culinary experience
in a town known for its inventive and varied gastronomical scene, youll want to
add the Foodies Delight to your stay.
Youll get a $100 gift card for just $50 that
can be used at one of these Charleston
faves: Victors Social Club, Vincent Chiccos or Michaels on the Alley.
INFORMATION
Charleston Area Convention & Visitors
Bureau, www.CharlestonCVB.com
The Cottages on Charleston Harbor,
www.TheCottagesonCharlestonHarbor.
com
The Cottages Stay Enhancements, www.
TheCottagesonCharlestonHarbor.com/
stay-enhancement.php
San Antonio Convention & Visitors
Bureau, www.VisitSanAntonio.com
Hotel Contessa, www.TheHotelContessa.com
Define Your Destination package,
www.theHotelContessa.com/san_antonio_
hotel_deals
Pharm Table, www.PharmTable.com
Visit South Walton, www.VisitSouthWalton.com; beach locator webpage: www.
VisitSouthWalton.com/Beaches; app: www.
VisitSouthWalton.com/visit-south-waltons-perfect-beach-app
Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort &
Spa, www.HiltonSandestinBeach.com
June 2016

17

On The Menu

With Jim Durfey

No-sweat chicken fajitas

June brings the first really hot days of

the summer. On days like that, you dont
want to be standing over a hot stove while
you perspire profusely.
Thats where a slow cooker can save the
day.
Since there is a minimum amount of
preparation after the ingredients are
taken out of the slow cooker, this is a great
meal that will greet you when you walk in
the door after eight hours on the job or after a day of playing in the great outdoors.
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 - 10 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 red, 1 orange and 1 green bell pepper,
julienned
1 yellow onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 tbsp. honey
Flour tortillas
Fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
Sour cream
Salsa
Shredded cheddar cheese

Avocados have had a bad health rep in

some circles because they contain fat. But
dont you believe it. Avocados have more
potassium than bananas and they contain
heart-healthy monounsaturated fatty acids. There are other health benefits for the
fruit that is sometimes referred to as the
alligator pear.
So dont shy away from the baked avocado recipe below. The slices can be baked in
a toaster oven, which will help to prevent
your kitchen from getting overly warm.

Slow cooker chicken fajitas

Pour half of canned tomatoes in bottom of slow cooker. Spread evenly.
Top with half of peppers and half of onion slices. Sprinkle garlic over top.
Add chicken breasts. Sprinkle chili powder, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper
over chicken breasts. Top chicken with remaining canned tomatoes, peppers
and onion.
Cover and cook on low six to eight hours or on high three to four hours,
until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender. Remove chicken
and shred. Ladle out one or two cups of broth from slow cooker and save for
stock in another recipe.
In small bowl whisk together lime juice and honey. Add to slow cooker
along with chicken. Gently toss to combine. Serve warm in tortillas with
desired toppings.

crunchy baked avocado slices

2 large avocados, sliced
Juice of lime
Salt and pepper to taste
c. flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 c. Panko bread crumbs
2 tbsp. oil
Chipotle dipping sauce (see recipe below)

1 c. light mayonnaise
1 c. light sour cream
2 1/2 tbsp. dry ranch dressing mix
3 green onions, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 chipotle chile from a can in adobo sauce,
minced, or more to taste
June 2016

18

Pre-heat oven to 400. Pour one tablespoon oil on sheet tray or baking dish; set aside. Squeeze fresh lime juice on avocado slices to preserve
color while baking. Season with salt and pepper. Dredge in flour, then
dip in egg and coat in Panko bread crumbs. Be sure avocado slices are
coated well in bread crumbs. Place in single layer on greased sheet pan.
Drizzle with remaining oil or spray with cooking spray. This will help the
avocado slices crisp in the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until avocados
are golden and crispy. If desired, more oil can be drizzled while they are
baking for additional crispness. Serve with chipotle dipping sauce or with
ranch dressing, ketchup or your favorite dip.

chipotle dipping sauce

Whisk mayonnaise, sour cream, ranch dressing mix, green onions, garlic,
lime juice, and chipotle chile together in a bowl until blended.
Serve immediately, or refrigerate until needed.

2016

c a l e n d a r
 Wednesday, June 1
Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum, through October,
Glendive
Counterpoint Photography Exhibit, through June 4, Livingston Center for Art and Culture, Livingston
WSE Livingston Farmers Market, Wednesdays through Sept.
21, Miles Park, Livingston
Yellowstone Gateway Museum of Park County, through September, Livingston
Crow Scout Party tee-pee camping on the Crow Reservation, through September, Lodge Grass
Western Art Roundup, through June 17, Miles City
Montana Preservation Alliance Road Show: The Path Less
Traveled, through June 4, downtown Red Lodge
 Friday, June 3
Sixth Annual Double Header Baseball Legion Against
Cancer, 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Dehler Park, Billings
Steel Magnolias, weekends through June 26, Blue Slipper Theatre, Livingston
 Saturday, June 4
For Pets Sake Pet Expo, Gallatin County Fairgrounds, Bozeman
Livingston Wheels Car Show, downtown Livingston
Red Lodge Music Festival, through June 12, Red Lodge
Wild Rivers Film Tour, Red Lodge
 Tuesday, June 7
Bogert Park Farmers Market, Tuesday through Sept. 27, Bogert
Park, Bozeman
 Saturday, June 11
Demoliton Derby, 1 p.m., Big Horn County Fairgrounds, Hardin
Charlie Russell Chew Choo Dinner Train, 5:30 p.m.,
Hanover Boarding Station, Lewistown
 Thursday, June 16
Headwaters Country Jam, through June 18, The Bridge - Jefferson River Canyon, Three Forks
 Friday, June 17
Nitro National Pro Hill Climb, through June 18, Columbus
Nikolai Demidenko on Piano, Tippet Rise Art Center, Fishtail
Upper Yellowstone Roundup, through June 18, Jim Duffy
Arena, Gardiner

 Saturday, June 18
Gallatin Valley Farmers Market, Saturdays through Sept. 10,
Gallatin Valley Fairgrounds, Bozeman
Leisure and Luxury in the Age of Nero: The Villas of
Oplantis Near Pompeii, through Dec. 31, Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman
Nikolai Demidenko on Piano with the Ariel String Quartet, Tippet Rise Art Center, Fishtail
Naturalist Walk: Birding Day, Whitehall
 Tuesday, June 21
A Visit with an 1879 American Fur Company Trader, 7-8
p.m., Wise River School, Wise River
 Thursday, June 23
Crow Native Days Rodeo and Pow Wow, through June 25,
Edison Real Bird Memorial Complex, Crow Agency
Red Lodge Songwriter Festival, through June 25, Red Lodge
 Friday, June 24
Big Timber Rodeo, through June 25, Sweet Grass County Fairgrounds, Big Timber
Sweet Grass Fest, through June 25, Sweet Grass County Fairgrounds, Big Timber
Battle of the Little Big Horn Reenactment, through June 26,
Hardin
Little Big Horn Stampede, through June 25, Hardin
 Saturday, June 25
Montana BBQ Cook-off, through June 26, downtown Absarokee
Forgotten Pioneers, Bannack State Park, Dillon
Charlie Russell Chew Choo Dinner Train, 5:30 p.m.,
Hanover Boarding Station, Lewistown
Bluegrass Festival, noon-afternoon, Pine Creek United Methodist Church, Livingston
History of Social Dance in America, Missouri Headwaters
State Park, Three Forks
 Monday, June 27
USAF Academy Band: A Patriotic Celebration, Willson
Auditorium, Bozeman
Yellowstone Engraved, through July 31, WaterWorks Art Museum, Miles City
 Thursday, June 30
A Visit with Teddy Roosevelt, Livingston-Park County Public
Library, Livingston
June 2016

19

RSVP

Below is a list of volunteer openings available through the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) in communities across
southern Montana. To learn more about RSVP, call (800) 424-8867 or TTY (800) 833-3722 or log on to www. seniorcorps.org.

Custer & Rosebud counties

- CNADA: Needs a volunteer to answer

phones and other receptionist duties. You
choose the hours and days.
- Clinic Ambassador: Need volunteer to
greet patients and visitors, providing directions and more, two locations.
- Custer County Community Table
Volunteers needed to serve meals, wash
dishes and greet the public at the Soup
Kitchen.
- Custer County Food Bank: Volunteer
assistants needed for 8 a.m-1:30 p.m.,
Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, to
process donations, stock shelves and more.
- DAV van: Drivers needed to provide
transportation to veterans to medical
appointments.
- Eagles Manor: Volunteer exercise class
leader needed, 1-2 days a week, you pick
the days and the exercise for residents.
- Health Clinic: One ambassador needed
for afternoon shifts.
- Miles City Soup Kitchen: Desperately
seeking servers and greeters Monday-Friday; pick a day of the week you would like
to serve.
- St. Vincent DePaul: Volunteers to assist
in several different capacities.
- VA Activities: Application packet available at VA Activities Directors Office.
- WaterWorks Art Museum: Needs volunteers to assist in summer kids classes.
Also need volunteer receptionists, 2-hour
shifts Tuesdays-Sundays;
If you are interested in these or other volunteer opportunities please contact: Betty
Vail, RSVP Director; 210 Winchester Ave.
#413, Miles City, MT 59301; phone (406)
234-0505; email: rsvp05@midrivers.com.

Fergus & Judith Basin counties

- American Red Cross: Seeking to build

a Fergus County Disaster Action Team to
assist during local emergencies.
- Art Center: In need of volunteers on
Saturdays.
- Boys and Girls Club: seeking a seasonal volunteer to maintain their memorial
garden.
- Central Montana Fairgrounds: Seeking
clerical support.
- Central Montana Youth Mentoring:
Seeking clerical support.
June 2016
20

- Community Cupboard (Food Bank):

Volunteers are needed to help any week
mornings as well as with deliveries.
- Council on Aging: Volunteers needed
to assist at the daily Grubstakes meal and
with clerical help during the busy lunch
hour.
- Library: Volunteer help always appreciated.
- Relay for Life: Seeking volunteers to
work various roles before and during the
annual event held on July 8, 2016.
- ROWL (Recycle Our Waste Lewistown): Looking for volunteers to join
teams baling recyclables.
- Treasure Depot: Thrift store needs volunteers to sort, hang clothes and put other
items on display for sale, especially need
additional volunteers on Saturdays.
-Valle Vista: Multiple opportunities to
volunteer with the elderly residents.
- Office of Veterans Affairs: Seeking
clerical support.
- RSVP always has various needs for
your skills and volunteer services in our
community.
Contact: RSVP Volunteer Coordinator
Sara Wald, 404 W. Broadway, Wells Fargo
Bank building, (upstairs), Lewistown, MT
59457; phone (406) 535-0077; email: rsvplew@midrivers.com.

Gallatin County

- American Cancer Society-Road to

Recovery: Drivers needed, for patients
receiving treatments, from their home to
the hospital.
- American Red Cross Blood Drive:
Three volunteer opportunities available:
Blood Drive Ambassador needed to welcome, greet, thank and provide overview
for blood donors; Team Leader Volunteers
needed to recruit, train and schedule Donor
Ambassadors and Couriers; Community
Outreach Specialist to seek out locations to
set up sign up tables for prospective volunteers and/or blood donors. Excellent customer service skills needed, training will
be provided, flexible schedule.
- Befrienders: Befriend a senior; visit on
a regular weekly basis.
- Belgrade Senior Center: Meals on
Wheels needs regular and substitute drivers
MondayFriday, to deliver meals to seniors
before noon.

- Big Brothers Big Sisters: Be a positive

role model for only a few hours each week.
- Bozeman and Belgrade Sacks Thrift
Stores: Need volunteers 2-3-hour shifts on
any day,Monday-Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-6
p.m.
- Bozeman Deaconess Hospital: Volunteers needed for the information desks in
the Atrium and the Perk,8
a.m.-noon,noon-4 p.m.; volunteer to
escort patients through the hospital, must
be able to be on your feet for long periods; volunteer needed at the Care Boutique in the Cancer Center to help customers and to keep merchandise in order.
- Bozeman Senior Center Foot Clinic:
Retired or nearly retired nurses are urgently needed, 2 days a month, either 4- or
8-hour shifts.
- Bozeman Symphony: Volunteers to
greet patrons, check tickets and hand out
programs; ushers to guide patrons to their
seats; someone to set up the Underwriter
Room, and treats for the musicians are
needed.
- Bozeman Symphony Sunday Matinees:Need volunteer head of concessions
to set up and tear down concessions areas
and keep them clean during the concert,
must be able to stand for long times and
able to lift no more than 50 lbs.
- Cancer Support Community: Volunteer
receptionist needed for the last two Tuesdays of the month from 10 a.m.-1 p.m.;
position would be shared with another volunteer so there could be flexibility of
schedule.
- Galavan: Volunteers needed to make
reminder calls and to confirm rides for the
following day; also need a volunteer for
morning dispatch to receive phone calls/
messages and relay information from clients to staff as required; drivers neededMonday-Friday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.CDL
required and Galavan will assist you in
obtaining one.
- Gallatin Rest Home: Volunteers wanted
for visiting the residents, sharing your
knowledge of a craft, playing cards or
reading to a resident.
- Gallatin Valley Food Bank: Volunteers
needed to deliver commodities to seniors
in their homes once a month. Deliveries in
Belgrade are especially needed.
- HRDC Housing Department Ready to

Rent: Curriculum for families and individuals who have rental barriers such as lack of
poor rental history, property upkeep, renter
responsibilities, landlord/tenant communication and financial priorities.
- Habitat for Humanity Restore: Belgrade
store needs volunteers for general help,
sorting donations and assisting customers.
- Heart of The Valley: Compassionate
volunteers especially needed to love, play
with and cuddle cats.
- Help Center: Computer literate volunteer interested in entering data into a social
services database; volunteers also needed to
make phone calls to different agencies/programs to make sure database is up to date
and make safety calls to home bound
seniors.
- Jessie Wilber Gallery at The Emerson:
Volunteers needed on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays to greet people at the
main desk, answer questions and keep track
of the number of visitors.
- Museum of the Rockies: Variety of
opportunities available such as helping in
the gift shop and more.
- RSVP Handcrafters: Volunteers to quilt,
knit, crochet and embroider hats for chemo
patients, baby blankets and other handmade
goods once a week (can work from home);
also need volunteers to tie and finish quilts.
Donations of baby yarn needed for the
quilting, knitting and crocheting projects
and can be dropped off at the RSVP office
upstairs in the Senior Center.
- Seniors: You may qualify for $192$600 a year for grocery and food assistance.
-Three Forks Food Bank:Volunteer
needed on Mondays and/orThursdaysto
help with administrative duties, including
answer phones and questions, some paper
and computer work. They will train.
- VITA: Volunteer at the Community
Caf to serve as the first point of contact for
customers, set a friendly and welcoming
atmosphere, monitor site traffic and sign in
procedure, Monday, Wednesday and Friday
afternoons noon-3 p.m.
- Warming Center: Volunteers needed for
a variety of different shifts, 7 p.m.-7 a.m.;
training held every Tuesday at the Warming
Center.Please call for more information.
- Your unique skills and interests are
needed, without making a long-term commitment, in a variety of ongoing, special,
one-time events.
Contact: Debi Casagranda, RSVP Program Coordinator, 807 N. Tracy, Bozeman,
MT 59715; phone (406) 587-5444; fax
(406) 582 8499; email: dcasagranda@
thehrdc.org

Musselshell, Golden Valley &

Petroleum counties

- Central Grade School: Needs volunteer

tutors to encourage children with their reading skills in the America Reads program.
Also volunteers needed to assist younger
students with lunch, clear tables and serve
from the salad bar.
- Drama Camp: Volunteers needed for
positions of director and assistant director.
- Food Bank: Distribute food commodities to seniors and others in the community;
help unload the truck as needed.
- 4-H Fair: Volunteers needed to sit at the
table in the art building.
- Nursing Home: Pianoplayers and singers neededon Fridays to entertain residents,
alsoassistant needed in activities for residents to enrich supported lifestyle.
- RIDE: Volunteers needed for selling
tickets at the night shows.
- Senior Bus: Volunteers to pick up folks
who are unable to drive themselves.
- Senior Center: Volunteers are needed to
provide meals, clean up in the dining room
and/or keep records; meal provided.
- The Trade Show: Volunteers needed to
serve at door prize table.
- Dinner Theater: Volunteers needed for
cooking and serving the meal.
- RSVP offers maximum flexibility and
choice to its volunteers as it matches the
personal interests and skills of older Americans with opportunities to serve their communities. You choose how and where to
serve. Volunteering is an opportunity to
learn new skills, make friends and connect
with your community.
Contact: Shelley Halvorson, South Central MT RSVP, 315 1/2 Main St., Ste. #1,
Roundup, MT 59072; phone (406) 3231403; fax (406) 323-4403; email:
rdprsvp2@midrivers.com ; Facebook:
South Central MT RSVP.

Park County

- Big Brothers Big Sisters: Volunteers

needed as positive role models to children,
only a few hours a week.
- Chamber of Commerce: Has a number
of openings for the 2016 NPS Centennial
Park County Days, Aug. 14-21 at various
locations in town; each day has a different
event.
- Food Pantry: Volunteers needed to help
on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
- Fix-It Brigade: Volunteers of all ages
and skill levels needed to help with small
home repairs such as mending a fence, or
something as simple as changing light
bulbs. You will be helping seniors or veter-

ans for a 2-hour or less task, on your time

schedule.
- Handcrafters: Join this group on Thursdays 1-2 p.m. in making crocheted or knitted caps and scarves for children at Head
Start. Also making gifts for the prenatal
classes and baby hats and afghans for the
hospital newborns. Sewers needed to make
simple pillowcases for soldiers overseas.
- Links for Learning: Needs volunteers
after school 3:45-5 p.m. at any of the three
elementary schools listening to children
read. No experience necessary.
- Livingston Depot Center: Looking for
volunteers through Mid-September as gifts
shop attendants, maintenance helper, and
off-season office assistants; schedules vary
and training is provided.
- Livingstons Fly Fishing Fair: Volunteers needed to help in several areas,
August 2-6 at Park High School.
- Loaves and Fishes: Volunteers needed
to prepare a dinner meal.
- Mainstreeter Store: Needs someone
who enjoys working with the public. Help
greet customers, label and hang clothes and
accept donations. Volunteer 4 hours a week
and get 50 percent off your purchases.
- Meals on Wheels: In need of substitute
drivers to deliver meals to seniors in their
homes.
- Senior Center: Volunteers needed to cut
unsold clothing into rags Thursdays, 1 p.m.
- Senior Center Foot Clinic: Volunteers
and nurses needed twice a month to help
the seniors with foot care.
- Spay and Neuter Clinic: Needs strong
volunteers on Wednesdays, this summer at
the Farmers Market to set up and take down
the wooden booth lemonade stand.
- Stafford Animal Shelter: Gentle compassionate volunteers to socialize and play
with the kittens and cats and walk the dogs.
1-hour safety training provided.
- Transportation: Drivers needed to help
patients keep their doctor appointments in
Livingston and/or in Bozeman. Gas reimbursement may be provided.
- Yellowstone Gateway Museum: Volunteer needed to man the front desk and help
catalog and label items.
- RSVP: Has many one-time events,
including mailings and fundraising events
this summer that require volunteers, such as
at the Hoot. Your unique skills and interests
are needed, without making a long-term
commitment, in a variety of on-going and
special one-time events.
Contact: Deb Downs, Program Coordinator, 111 So. 2nd St., Livingston, MT
59047; phone (406) 222-2281; email: debdowns@rsvpmt.org.
June 2016
21

By Bill Sones and Rich Sones, Ph.D.

Send STRANGE questions to brothers Bill and Rich at strangetrue@cs.com

Cockroaches use time-lapse

photography? No way!
Q. How do cockroaches use a type of time-lapse
photography to get around?
A. And thats not all they can do: Some species can hold their
breath for up to 40 minutes, eat paper and dried glue, or live for
weeks without a head, says Rachel Nuwer in Scientific
American magazine. Another of their superpowers is seeing in
the dark by pooling light signals over time like time lapse
photography. When physicists at Finlands University of Oulu
tested 30 American cockroaches under computer simulation of
moonless nights, they determined the roach eyes absorb one
photon of light every 10 seconds.
Thats an amazingly small amount of light, says biophysicist
Matti Weckstrom, but the roaches could see just fine, suggesting
that the roach nervous system pools information from its
thousands of photoreceptors over time and uses the summation
of those signals to see (Journal of Experimental Biology). Only
a few other species can do this.
Could we humans figure this one out, we might have much
better night-vision technology, Weckstrom concludes.
Q. Whats the dramatic contrast in the housing market
these days? Are you up on the lingo?
A. Think of ever-bigger houses as the major trend: In 1900, the
average U.S. single-family house was 65 square meters (700
square feet), jumping to 154 square meters (1660 sq. ft.) in 1973
and a whopping 234 square meters (2520 sq. ft.) in 2007, says
Paul McFedries in IEEE Spectrum magazine. All of this has led
to new words to accommodate the new reality: monster homes
or megahomes; bigfoot homes for massive houses crammed
into small lots; even starter castles for garishly large dwellings.
Yet this sort of conspicuous consumption has fostered a side
phenomenon of conspicuous austerity with people buying
teensy tiny houses called microhouses (under 19 square meters,
or 200 sq. ft.) and nanohouses (under 10 square meters or 110
sq. ft.). Call it the tiny house movement advocating smallfootprint living for those dedicated environmentalists with their
eco homes.
As to the culprit for the gargantuan growth, McFedries
suggests its likely a version of the expenditure cascade, the
increase in spending that results from consumption by the
wealthy, which triggers emulative spending by the next lower
class, which triggers spending by the class below that and so on.
Yet in terms of sustainability, tiny housers may be showing the
way that small is indeed the new big.
Q. It sounds like pretty beastly behavior, so what are plants
doing getting into this one?
A. The plants are meat-eaters or carnivores, and though they
June 2016

22

dont immediately spring to mind, there are 600 or more of these

species thriving in places where other plants struggle, including
bogs and heaths, says Gemma Tarlach in Discover magazine.
Some have traps plus enzymes that can hold and digest proteins.
The famous Venus flytrap has a snapping taco shell.
The most widespread of them, found on every continent but
Antarctica, are aquatic bladderworts, where passing prey trip
trigger hairs that open and close a trapdoor in only a few
milliseconds, creating pressure variation to suck the prey inside.
This was finally documented in 2010 using high-speed videos.
Borneos Nepenthes rajah, the largest carnivorous plant
whose pitcher can hold more than a half-gallon of fluid, evolved
to eat poop. It works this way: Nectar secreted by the pitcher lid
attracts tree shrews and rats that then sit on the rim and defecate
into it, providing the plant with nutrients.
Interestingly, the oldest carnivorous plant leaf fossil was
found in Baltic amber that is 35-47 million years old.
Q. What impact is the Internet having on the English
language? And by the way, are your eyebrows on fleek?
A. The Internet provides a conduit for new language to spread
worldwide, performing a role that once only major TV broadcasts
could fulfill, says Hal Hodson in New Scientist magazine. Just
ask Peaches Monroee, who in a Vine video described her newly
shaped eyebrows as on fleek, that is, looking good. Almost
immediately, the video went viral, currently with some 38 million
viewers, and has even been made into a Nicki Minaj song.
Software that charts the rise of language online has uncovered
three of the fastest-proliferating words in the United Kingdom:
bootyful, an alternative for beautiful; cyw for coming
your way; and scrims from gaming forums that refer to
practice sessions before competitions.
Katherine Martin, head of US Dictionaries at Oxford
University Press in New York, finds this all very exciting. A lot
of things that would have been oral, and therefore never recorded,
are being recorded as text, and are therefore searchable and
findable.
Yet this swirl of language creation and distribution online is a
challenge for linguists, adds lexicographer David Barnhart.
Unlike an earlier, print-dominated era, novel words are now
relatively easy to discover. The problem is how to sort out the
useful from the useless evidence.
Q. True or False: A boa constrictor kills its prey by
suffocating it.
A. False. Actually, it turns out that the snake kills like a
demon blood pressure cuff, squeezing down circulation to its
final stop, reported Susan Milius in Science News magazine.
As ecologist Scott Bobac says, snakes are extraordinary hunters.

Lacking hands and feet, they depend on speed to contend with

flailing claws and hooves so embracing prey into heart failure is
faster than suffocating it.
In attacking a rat, for instance, a boa constrictor will cinch several loops around its upper body and press hard enough to starve
organs of oxygenated blood. Within six minutes or so, the snake
releases its grip--the rats circulation having faltered and failed
-and swallows the rodent whole (Journal of Experimental Biology).
And one more serpentine myth to lay to rest: Its not the
snakes jaws separating at the back that makes this possible.
Rather, the movable bones in the head and stretchy cartilage
allow the chin to open wide and engorge the prey wholesale.
Q. You Moms-to-be, how smart are the clothes youve been
putting on your baby bump?
A. Smart, smart, smart is the word for the latest style of maternity clothes, which have been fashioned with silver wires in the
waistline, says Aviva Rutkin in New Scientist magazine. Conductive wires are discretely woven into the fabric to permit monitoring of temperature, heart rate and blood pressure. This clothing
line, that permits pregnant women to keep better track of their
changing bodies, was designed by fashion design student Blake
Uretsky. Since wearable technology clothing often struggles to be
both attractive and useful, she interviewed many local mothers
about their experiences and came up with B Maternity Wearables, including blouses, trousers, skirts and even an evening
gown-in neutral colors and adjustable to a growing bump. A

Crossword

Across
1 Librarians might use
them
12 Lt. col.s inferior
15 Sci-fi concept
16 Lovelace whom many
consider the first computer
programmer
17 Whatchamacallit
18 Solo on-screen
19 Trail, perhaps
20 Milky Way source
21 Camera product
23 Tablet container
24 Coral Triangle tourist
destination
25 Left rolling in the aisles
26 Down a lot
28 __ other
30 Robot starter
31 Pay dirt
33 Hassle
35 First instrument for
many
38 Icy Hot competitor
39 Keep secret
41 Sushi bar delicacy
42 __ pedal: guitar
accessory
43 Slam offering
45 Org. that monitors
plants

48 Nervous person?
50 Fail to beat the heat
52 AIDS-fighting drug
54 Rough stuff
55 Low-cost pub
56 __ bien
57 Storage unit?
58 Vaping devices
61 Wheel of Fortune
purchase
62 Amusing editor, at
times
63 Mo. for which tanzanite
is a birthstone
64 Comics-derived danger
alert
Down
1 Yoga variety
2 Fine after an
accident
3 Well-lit?
4 Gimme a __
5 Noodle variety
6 Certain queens
domain
7 Steamed cantina
food
8 Like a certain
female artery
9 Ink deliverers
10 WWII arena

small wire on the wearers belt relays the health data to a smartphone app, which can notify a doctor if her vital signs veer out
of whack, perhaps due to stress or inactivity.
As maternal health expert Julia Walsh says, for most pregnant
women this constant monitoring is unnecessary. But women
with high-risk pregnancies or who enjoy tracking devices like the
Fitbit, for example, could get a lot out of it.

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allow you to focus on the other important things in your life!
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11 Basils wife on Fawlty

Towers
12 Buddhism branch
13 Company offering
many promotions
14 Mystery woman
22 Watches over
24 Where an engineer may
retire
25 Less forward
27 Artery problem
29 Bear fruit?
32 Secretly unite
34 Arrogant sort
35 Beverage used in

Chinese cuisine
36 Team member in
Moneyball
37 Eldorado group
39 Soured
40 Part-human
mythological creature
44 Threat
46 Get cracking
47 Ancient cacao bean
traders
49 TED talk subjects
51 Encyclopedia Browns
first name
53 Discretion
55 Italian tubes
56 Sera is a form
of it
59 Tea holder
60 Halting
syllable

June 2016

23

Alzheimers Disease and Dementia

Are You at Risk?

According to a new study by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the
National institute on Aging, men and women with hearing loss are much more likely
to develop dementia and Alzheimers disease. People with severe hearing loss, the study
reports, were 5 times more likely to develop dementia than those with normal hearing.

Have you noticed a change in your

ability to remember?

The more hearing loss you have, the greater the likelihood of
developing dementia or Alzheimers disease. Hearing aids could delay or
prevent dementia by improving the patients hearing.
2011 Study by John Hopins University School of Medicine and the National Instituded of Aging.

FREE PUBLIC SERVICE

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Your hearing will be electronically tested* and you will
be shown how your hearing compares to normal hearing.
Your ears will be examined with a video otoscope* to
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In-store demonstration of the newest
Miracle-Ear technology* so you can hear
the improvement yourself!

IS IT TIME FOR A HEARING TEST?

YES NO

Do you feel that people mumble or do not speak clearly?

Do you turn the TV up louder than others need to?
Do family or friends get frustrated when you ask them to
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Do you have trouble understanding the voices of women
and small children when they are speaking?
Is it hard to follow the conversation in noisy places like
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Schedule your FREE Hearing Test** and In-Store Demonstration