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I have three ways to renew myself during these crazy times. It's challenging to stay positive without jumping on the bandwagon and criticize everything that is going on. I am determined to live above these circumstances and remain joyful and positive. The most important of the three is to spend time reading my bible, doing devotions, and finding time for solitude just to breathe and find peace. The second way is to think about other people. Prioritize the day so that we can find the time and a...
The City Council meeting with the Big Sandy Barracudas and the newly formed New Pool Committee was held. There were two items on the agenda. The Barracudas were pursuing permission to hold another swim meet in Big Sandy. This meet would take two days, and they would be inviting a few other towns to the event. Preliminary approval from Angel Johnson, the County Health Nurse, was brought for the council to review. There were a couple of items still be worked through. The board gave tentative approval for the swim meet to be planned, which would...
“Governor Steve Bullock and Lt. Governor Mike Cooney today released the Governor’s Plan for Reopening Safe and Healthy Schools for Montana to provide flexible guidance for public schools to prepare to offer in-person instruction in the fall,” on Thursday, July 2nd. They presented to the school a 17-page guideline for the school to implement. Ultimately the school board will need to apply those regulations by voting in Big Sandy’s 2020-2021 school year. There are guidelines for all three phases of reopening the schools, due to COVID-19. Kelly Ha...
Editor's note: Though these facts might be hard to read through, they were taken directly from the Montana Highway Patrol 2019 Annual Report. It is sobering. Chouteau is in District VIII. In that district, there are eight counties from Glacier to Phillips county. The population for District VIII is 60,078. We have 17 full-time uniform Positions. They drove 436,909 miles during 2019. There were 11,176 calls for service. There were 632 crashes investigated, 7,159 traffic stops, 5,386 citations...
This time of the year, Yucca dots the sides of the hills. I once showed my grandchildren, when they were little, the Yucca plant up close. They said, "Gramma, it's an ant home." Yucca, the plant is a perennial. There are 40-50 varieties of Yucca, depending on where you do your research. They can be like we see them here, a small plant with spiky leaves and beautiful white flowers or they can be shrubs or even trees "in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. They are native to the hot...
Researched by Zoe Merrill Editor’s note: Our lives make a difference. The Big Sandy Mountaineer should be about collecting stories from the people in the Big Sandy area. When I was told about Cornelia Knottnerus, after her death, I was reminded how important it is to get other’s stories. This woman lived in Big Sandy for many years and I would have loved to listen to her talk about her life. I would like to talk to you about yours. I listened to the Corrie’s whole oral history, over an hour long. I took notes but the following intro...
July 4th usually means exactly what we all think. It’s a celebration that started in 1776 continues to the present day. It is the celebration of the birth of American independence. It usually has activities with fireworks. Other towns have parades and concerts to go to while most families have a more casual family gatherings with camping, fishing, or barbecues. Actually, the first public reading of the Declaration was on July 8, 1776. It wasn’t until one year later, on July 4, 1777, that Independence Day was first celebrated. They adj...
After Big Sandy lost a grain elevator in town when CHS closed its door, I stopped one day at EGT-Tunis to visit with Josh Wulf, the Elevator Manager. He immediately wanted to place ads in the Mountaineer and to support Big Sandy however he could. EGT build three identical elevators in Montana, one at Tunis, one at Chester, and one at Kintyre Flats/Frazer. A year ago, they also bought an Elevator in Sidney. The Export Grain Terminal, EGT, is a joint venture between Bunge North America, the North...
It was a perfect day. Not too hot, although some would say if you sit outside in the sun all day, it doesn't matter what the temperature is, it gets hot. And if you saw any of the 22 garage sale participants on Sunday, many of them had sunburns. There were ten sites on the north side of Big Sandy and 12 sites on the south side. I was sitting in front of the Mountaineer when an older gentleman approached the sale from The Grocery Store. He bought a small item and then asked if there were any...
Although they held their regular meeting, some of the agenda items were regular, but others didn’t sound very normal. Yes, the building Maintenance Projects are going on as usual, with the FE Miley flooring progressing. And like every summer, deep clean takes place in each room, and some painting is going on in both the high school and grade school as well. The mirrors going up the stairs at the high school are being removed, and the area repainted. Travis reported, “All teachers will have computers that run Windows 10 that previously had windo...
One of the most favorite parts of the Big Sandy Mountaineer is the Old Timers section. It is research and written by Vicki Kulback and Lois Gay. When you see them on the street, acknowledge them for their continued support of our community and its history. The Big Sandy Museum is being affected by the COVID-19. It is open by appointment only in June. So, if you would like to take a relative or two down to the Museum to see our history call and someone will meet you and open it for you. They...
Interestingly, the Sunshine Snippers 4-H Club choose to write positive quotes on the sidewalk downtown, fitting of their name Sunshine. They did ask the permission of the business owners. I just had to have every one written down, thanks to my granddaughter Faith, who walked the streets and wrote them in a tablet for me. It’s worth reading and implementing them. Be the reason someone smiles today. Spread joy! Throw love like confetti. In a world where you can be everything, be kind. Think positive. Feel Positive. Be positive. Don’t give up It...
Raea Pansch 's heart told her she could do something to help Wynter Parker. I asked her what made her work so hard. She said, "my mom was talking about it." To tell the full story, I quote here from KRTV "Ten-year-old Wynter Parker's life was turned upside down in an instant on Friday. His mother Rokki Ferguson (30), father Sage Ferguson (26), younger siblings Sage Jr. (5), and Lovelee Bearcub (8), and uncle Ryan Four Souls (30) died in a two-vehicle crash in Chouteau County, leaving Wynter...
For four years, Cassie Bahnmiller has made a small nitch business by selling her Gourmet Krispies treats. She has so many customers that like to do pre-orders, so when she does make them, she always sells out. Cassie is famous around here for her Gourmet Krispies treats Reese's, Snickers, Oreo, S'mores, and Turtle. Turtles are my favorite. But Cassie's husband says she collects hobbies. She has started a new business or "hobby" by making home-made silk-screen shirts. Cassie does the screen...
City Wide Garage Sale The city-wide garage sale is a go! A few more hoops to jump through this year, but there are still 22 individual garage sale sites in the town this Saturday June 20. The sale starts at 8:00 in the morning and goes to 3:00 in the afternoon, if everything isn’t sold out by then. As in years past the Senior citizen center will be selling tacos in a bag as a fund raiser for the Big Sandy Barracuda’s swim team. A map is being printed but with last minute adds to the list it wasn’t available at the Mountaineer before print...
A number of gyms and businesses are reopening and there is a discussion on why the high school gym cannot be open to the public. The following is from a letter from The Chouteau County Environment Health Guidance letter for re-opening. All Phases: Employee Health-Health assessments should be conducted for all employees at beginning of each shift including keeping a log of temperature checks at the beginning of each shift of less than 100. Employees who have a fever, cough, or shortness of...
The Big Sandy City Council met and used the majority of its time to discuss the town's pool opening information. As well, the Big Sandy Barracuda's swim team presented to the city council a plan to hold a local swim meet. It was discussed and approved that the swim team could hold a swim meet. There was a plan, submitted to the Chouteau County Health nurse, which met the needs of Phase 2, and the city council also approved it. (On a side note, the Big Sandy City Council has approved plans to re-...
After researching Father's Day, I discovered it isn't celebrated the same way, or for that matter, it isn't even celebrated on the same day around the world. In the United States, it is always the third Sunday in June. In 1909, a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, "tried to establish an official equivalent to Mother's Day for male parents." She went around to local businesses to gather support for her idea, and on June 19, 1910, the state of Washington celebrated the first-ever Father's Day. In...
I was sitting outside the Mountaineer on the new bench, working on writing on what it means to be from a rural community. I smile because it means something precious. Three senior citizens were putting away this year's Rotary prizes because they couldn't hold the Rotary Banquet this year because of COVID-19. Sponsors were supportive, however, and told them to keep what they had donated till next year. They see me halfway down the block and yelled, "there is no story here!" I walked to them and l...
Nathan Keane usually gets up, lets the dog out, and then makes coffee for himself. For some reason, on Wednesday, June 3rd, he went directly to the kitchen to make himself some coffee. Nathan looked outside his kitchen window to see 30 feet from the house and in the chicken coop a grizzly bear. He had to do a double-take. "I couldn't believe it. I would have never dreamed there would be a grizzle bear in my front yard." The grizzly was inside the chicken pen. They couldn't see what he was...
Lift was required to close its doors on March 19th by the state of Montana because of COVID-19. Their doors were closed for 74 days and just opened this June 1st again. Lift is a CrossFit organization. The owner, Julie Myers, is happy. She said, "I'm very glad to be back open!" They do have to take precautions. "Everybody is supposed to wipe down every piece of equipment that they use." Clients are asked not to come if they have any of the symptoms of COVID-19. If you are sick, stay home....
It was fun to discover Mother Goose walking the streets of Big Sandy. Even more fun to see that she had ways to encourage the kids to read. According to Mother Goose, "This year's Summer Reading theme is Imagine Your Story, and challenge you to use your imagination. You can go on adventures with Jack and the Beanstalk or ride a wild unicorn. The adventure is yours to have." "Although this year's Summer Reading Program will look different than usual we have used our imaginations to come up with w...
The Booster Club met for the first time in four months. The essential discussion was probably the call to parents who care about their children's activities to get involved in supporting those activities. This Booster Club is like no other Booster Club. Usually, Booster Clubs are included only in high school sports activities. The Big Sandy Booster Club supports both grade school and high school activities, including all extracurricular activities, not just sports. An interesting fact is that...
Summer 2020 Challenge One of my favorite songs, because my mom and brother, both gone now because of cancer, loved it: Summertime, an' the livin' is easy.Fish are jumpin' an' the cotton is high. Oh, yo' daddy's rich and yo' ma is good-lookin'.So hush, little baby, don' you cry. One of these mornin's you goin' to rise up singin' Then you'll spread yo' wings an' you'll take the sky. But till that mornin', there's a nothin' can harm you With Daddy an' Mammy standin' by. But summer is also a busy...
Once again Keely Bahmiller heading up the effort for the 3rd Annual Big Sandy Community Yard Sale June 20th between 8-3:00. She is still trying to get more people to commit to have a sale. COVID-19 rules are required, but she has gotten permission from the County Health Nurse and the City council to once again organize a community Yard sale. In years past, the Community Yard Sale has had between 25-30 different Yard Sales. This year so far only 12 individuals have committed. People have travelled as far as Billings to attend and we need more...