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Jim Taylor Motors in Fort Benton employs the "best diesel mechanic in the state", at least according to Nick Brock, internet manager for the dealership. I visited the dealership to speak with the best mechanic in the state, and met Jason Langer. He was modest in response the suggestion that he was the best diesel mechanic in the state. When I pressed Jason to explain what set him apart as the best, he explained "It's not that I'm better than any other tech. It's knowing where to find the informa...
After retiring and moving to Big Sandy, Ron Baumann opened a small engine repair business, bringing along 44 years of experience to serve our community. "The average farm has 10 to 12 pieces of equipment on it that's related to this. A lot of people don't know how, or don't have the patience or the time to work on them. I love what I do. I treat everything that comes in here like it's mine," Ron explained regarding the local market for 2 and 4 cycle engine repair. Ron brings a lifetime of...
Fans attending the Big Sandy-Chinook basketball game 2 weeks ago were treated to a heart warming display of sportsmanship, courtesy of the Chinook Sugar Beeters and the Big Sandy Pioneers. In the closing minutes of the game, 8th grader Sonny Phillips scored his first basket as a varsity player. After a missed 3 point attempt was rebounded by a Sugar Beeter, the opposing player passed the ball back to Sunny who made a second attempt at the 3 point shot, and again missing. The missed shot was...
I woke up at 2:30 this morning. After tossing and turning for 30 minutes, I finally gave up on trying to get back to sleep and got up. I’ve got to admit that I wasn’t all that happy about getting up many hours before the alarm. After finally giving up on getting back to sleep, I got out of bed, started the coffee maker, and settled in for a long morning. I started the morning reading a novel, followed by studying for the morning sermon, cleaning the kitchen, changing bed sheets, and a few oth...
Big Sandy High School AG students have been blessed for the last three years by the presence of Layne Taylor. Layne brings his interests, experiences, and passions to the classroom to make the AG education experience a benefit to our community's young people. One example (of many) is the newest addition to the shop: a metal forge. Mr Taylor turned his personal interest in metal working into an opportunity to teach. "I built a forge over Christmas break. For 23 years, I've been been curious...
Last Thursday, FE Miley Elementary celebrated its first National Kazoo Day. National Kazoo Day falls on the fourth Thursday of January every year. The festivities began in the afternoon music classes, where Mr. TJ Bond introduced the kids to their kazoos and practiced songs with the students. Afterwards, he lined the students up at the classroom door and practiced playing and marching with the kids around the basketball courts. Finally, he spent some time playing kazoos through various...
Over the weekend, I spent some time thinking about life changing moments. I suspect that there aren’t a whole lot of them for most people. For me, I can identify a handful of experiences that have changed things radically for me. One of those times was a Sunday morning a little over 15 years ago. Our church brought in a guest speaker one Sunday who talked about the ministry done by Bashor Children’s Home. He spoke about the lost and abused kids that came to live there and how the home helped to...
The Big Sandy High School Junior class has completed construction on a shed that is now for sale, with the proceeds going to support FFA. The project originally began as a joint venture with Clay Dixon, who fronted the money for construction costs. At the time, Mr. Dixon was planning on renting out storage sheds to the community as a business venture. After changing his mind about the project, the decision was made to sell the building. Actual construction of the building was started by the...
"Big Sandy as a place of residence becomes better every day. People are pouring into the country... coming right down to the brass tacks, the Big Sandy area offers more opportunities to the man who wants to get ahead... than any other place... The finest agricultural land... Water that's the best and entirely free from soda or alkali; the best shipping facilities... Come to Big Sandy..." This ringing endorsement was printed in the Mountaineer in 1915. After 135 years, our town continues to get...
I have heard that Covid hits everyone differently. For me, it began like a cold. I was working on my car one evening, and I began to feel run down. Every December, I catch a cold, so I wasn’t that surprised when my throat started hurting, a headache set in, and my energy level evaporated. I was prepared with Robitussin, because the same cold hits me every year around Christmastime. The sore throat passed quickly, and then I just felt tired. I also coughed a bit and was congested. It wasn’t tha...
Because my family moved every couple of years, I attended a handful of schools growing up. I think this is the reason I don’t really remember any of my teachers before High School, except for one. I will always remember my second grade teacher: Mrs. Strickland. As an adult, I marvel at how appropriately named she was. I was in her class at Valparaiso Elementary School in Florida. I remember her clearly because that school still utilized corporal punishment for dealing with discipline problems. I...
In her book “The Hiding Place,” Dutch Christian Corrie TenBoom recounts her family’s experiences hiding Jews in Holland during WW2. They were eventually discovered, and the entire family was sent to concentration camps. Corrie alone survived the camps. One of the most remarkable moments in the book happens when she is brought in to be interrogated by an SS officer. TenBoom was terrified of being tortured and prayed for God to save her. The officer came in and began questioning the young girl....
Every morning, starting when I get out of bed, I find myself watching the clock. I have a certain amount of time to drink my first coffee of the day, walk the dog before my wife leaves for work, and get the kids out of bed and off to school. Once I get the kids out the door, I have a certain number of minutes before I have to meet with people, start writing the sermon for the week, do hospital visits, and tend to every other urgent thing that demands my attention now. I have to get it all done...
As the pandemic grinds on and begins to affect Big Sandy more directly, the Big Sandy Pharmacy has begun to offer antibody tests to determine if you have been exposed to the virus and developed antibodies. Dr. Danielle Weaver, PharmD describes the test and what it looks for: “You can come in and get a finger stick. It’s just a blood sample. We can test for two different antibodies. One is IGG, and the other is IGM. IGM indicates that you’ve had more of recent exposure and IGG indicates you’v...
The weekend before Christmas, visitors to Pep's were treated to a special helping of holiday cheer when Nona Danruther spent Friday and Saturday evenings playing Christmas music on the piano. Her performance was prompted by a simple desire to play: "I have all this Christmas music that I've played for 40 years; I've collected for 40 years. They're arrangements that I change, and there's nowhere to play them. I can't play them at the Medical Center, because they are locked down. And there is a...
Visitors to FE Miley Elementary School this Christmas season encounter an unusual Christmas Decoration as they walk in the front entrance. The Mitten Tree placed by the local 4-H group is a different sort of Holiday decoration. The tree itself is decorated with hats and gloves for students in need of warm weather gear. The Mitten Tree service project was the brainchild of Hope Gasvoda, who presented the idea to the club three years ago. Kristie Rutledge, who serves as an organizational leader...
The Big Sandy Education Foundation, has been quietly working to improve our local schools and help students for nearly five years. The less well known foundation has given over $25,000 to classroom projects at the schools and over $8,000 in scholarships in the last five years. Brad Moore, the chairman of the foundation board, explained some of the recent projects the foundation has undertaken: “A couple of our bigger projects that we helped with... we gave $5,000 to the lighting project in t...
Many of the town's Christmas celebrations have been cancelled this year due to the pandemic. However, the show must go on, and so music teacher TJ Bond and FE Miley Elementary Elementary have put on the annual Christmas concert with a creative twist. Due to safety considerations, the concert was not performed for a live audience. Instead, the show was streamed online where it can be viewed by parents, families, and the community. "I wish we could do the real thing! But what a great solution in...
When I was in college, I had a comic strip hanging up in my dorm room. The single panel was from the nationally syndicated “Pluggers” comic. The text of the comic was simple: “An ounce of work is worth a pound of meetings.” I have long held this opinion and think back to the motto often. The fact of the matter is that 10 minutes of work will generally outproduce hours worth of meetings. This morning, I have found myself reflecting on this idea and applying it to a different subject altoget...
“Coronavirus hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season! Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason...” After a long year of cancelled school, cancelled homecoming, cancelled Rotary Banquet, and cancelled Chili Feed; 2020 set its grinchy sights on the last major event of the Big Sandy event calendar. The 2020 Christmas Stroll, which is usually scheduled for the first week of December, has been cancelled. Marlys Myers who has been involved in organizing the Christmas stroll for l...
4 has been a difficult year for many families in the Big Sandy area. Especially during the holidays, the Big Sandy Food Bank has encountered a much higher than normal level of need. For the third consecutive year, they'll be getting some extra help from FE Miley Elementary school in the form of Christmas dinner boxes. The Christmas Dinner Food Drive is organized by Samantha Burns Weaver, the Kindergarten teacher. "I started the food drive three years ago with the thought of doing a project wh...
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor who spoke out openly against Hitler during WWII. For his public opposition to the Nazis and his involvement in a plot to assassinate the dictator, Bonhoeffer was arrested, kept in a concentration camp for 2 years, then executed. In a letter he wrote to his fiancé from prison, Bonhoeffer reflected on Christmas with the amazing comment that: “I think we were going to have an exceptionally good Christmas.” The statement is a little crazy given his circ...
Montana's second largest agricultural commodity is calf to cow beef production. However, despite being surrounded by cattle ranches, most of the 821 schools in the state serve beef that has been shipped in from out of state. The Montana Beef to School Project is a three year program that aims to change things. Their goal is to make sure that Montana Schools benefit from high quality Montana beef, while supporting local farmers and processors and providing opportunities to educate students about...
"I kinda just fell into this job, But I ended up really loving it, so I stuck with it," Shersteen Cline explained in response to my question about whether or not she'd grown up wanting to be a teacher. The Big Sandy native, daughter of Shane and Ruth Ann Cline, graduated from high school in our town before heading off to Missoula to study Biology. "I really loved science when I was going to High School, so I went in that direction," she explained. She wasn't sure what exactly she would do with...
Many years ago, my wife and I were on our way to a friend’s house for Christmas on a terribly cold and snowy morning in Northern Indiana. While taking a turn in our early 80s LTD, we slid on the ice and got bellied up in the snow on the side of the road. I did my best to shovel us out, but didn’t make a ton of progress. After a bit, a guy came along and helped me get the car loose. We talked for about 10 minutes while we worked. Afterward, I got into the car and explained to my wife that the...