Sorted by date Results 1652 - 1676 of 3567
Big Sandy will soon have a new basketball court. The crumbling and cracked concrete of the existing courts at the FE Miley Elementary School has been removed. A new, larger, 40 x 80 feet court will replace it. The court will have 2 sets of basketball hoops with steel backboards, one set at the 8 feet height, and the other at regulation, 10 feet height. A repositionable net will be set at mid-court so that tennis, badminton, and volleyball can be played on the concrete as well. The court can be utilized as an area for outdoor learning once schoo...
We have just been notified our our 4th active case of Covid 19. We are in the process of notifying and quaranting contacts. Please be safe and now that we have four cases the Governor’s Mask directive applies in this county. Masks will be worn for all inside activities whether social distanced or not and some specified outdoor activities when social distancing is not possible. Govenor’s Mask Mandate As used in this Directive, the following terms have the following meanings: • “Business” means any for-profit or non-profit entity which has emplo...
The Montana online library service, Library 2 Go, is a useful service that many Big Sandy locals have grown to love. This was especially the case during quarantine when trips to the library were shut down and trips to book stores were fewer and farther between. Library 2 Go (or Libby, which is the name of one of the apps) is an online library service providing nearly 16,000 titles in audio and e-books available to anyone with a library card, an internet connection, and a means of listening or reading. For readers in a small town, this is an...
I approached the parking lot of Big Sandy Church of God, watching as cars quickly filled the parking lot and the roadside. Half a dozen volunteers run to cars carrying boxes of food and checking names off the official count list. The food distribution is part of a program that is providing relief to communities across the country during the COVID lockdown. For the past nine weeks, the Farmers To Families Food Box Program has been distributing food boxes to Big Sandy families, providing needed...
• Water trees three times a month in addition to watering your lawn. • Deep watering to a depth of 12” inches below the soil surface is recommended. Saturate the soil around the tree within the “dripline” (the outer edges of the tree’s branches) to disperse water down toward the roots. • For evergreens, water 3’-5’ beyond the dripline on all sides of the tree. • The objective is to water slowly, dispersing the flow of water to get the water deep down to the trees roots. Watering for short periods of time only encourages shallow rooting whi...
Quick Pickles Maybe canning cucumbers for pickles is not for you but you still have those fresh cucumbers? An easy alternative is to make quick pickles in the refrigerator. Great tasting, very easy and ready in a few hours! Try this recipe for a different twist on the traditional refrigerator pickles: 3/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar 1/4 cup water 1 garlic clove, peeled and halved 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric 1/8 teaspoon black peppercorns 1/8 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds 8 ounces pickling cucumbers*, ends trimmed, sliced ¼ inch thick 2 sprigs...
Big Bud has gotten a shiny new pair of shoes, or more accurately: four new pairs of tires. The World's Largest Tractor, which calls Big Sandy home, was outfitted with brand new tires for the first time since it rolled off the assembly line in 1977. The update comes as the Big Bud 747 is undergoing preparations for its trip home later this year. One of the tractor's 8 tires had gone flat while it was on display. Attempts to repair it revealed that the 40-year old set of custom made construction...
Nelson Mandela once said, “There is no keener revelation of a society’s soul than in the way in which it treats its children.” Child Sex trafficking is an ugly secret that many in America refuse to accept, or acknowledge. Human Trafficking is a 150-billion-dollar industry. It is the fastest criminal enterprise in the world recently surpassing the illegal drug trade. There are an estimated 30 million people trapped by it today. Slavery was not abolished in 1865. There are more slaves today then there has ever been at one time in all of histo...
At the regular Big Sandy School Board meeting, they once again visited about how best to open the schools. However, before that, the Student Council asked permission to have a dunk tank at the Fall Kick off to help them raise funds. They realized that the Fall Kick-Off is not a sure thing, but was hoping if there was a Kick-Off that they could receive permission to rent one from Great Falls. The board decided that it was an administrative decision. The Building Maintenance Projects that are finished are the ditch beside the gym is completed, si...
On a snowy Monday morning in March, Covid-19 disrupted an aspect of my life, and the lives of many other locals, in a way that has forced me to innovate and adapt daily: the High School gym shut down. For years, I have rolled out of bed before the sunrise and trudged the 3 blocks to the school to workout. One of the hidden treasures of our community is a well-equipped workout facility that rivals many paid gyms I’ve visited. Even better is the astonishing fact that the gym was available to locals for the cost of an electronic entry fob. For m...
4-H, the nation’s largest youth development organization, grows confident young people who are empowered for life today and prepared for career tomorrow. 4-H programs empower nearly six million young people across the U.S. through experiences that develop critical life skills. 4-H is the youth development program of our nation’s Cooperative Extension System and USDA, and serves every county and parish in the U.S. through a network of 110 public universities and more than 3000 local Extension offices. Globally, 4-H collaborates with ind...
The Big Sandy City Council met Monday night to vote on whether to move forward with the Big Sandy Barracudas’ request to hold a swim meet in Big Sandy on July 25-26th. Before the vote could take place, the Barracudas coach, Travis Baumann told the council that the team had decided that holding a meet here in town was not worth the risk of potentially exposing the community to Coronavirus. Three cases have been confirmed in Chouteau County as of the writing of this article. A fourth case would require that the swim meet attendees wear masks, p...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate using alcohol-based hand sanitizer which contains at least 60% alcohol. Think all hand sanitizer is the same? If it is labelled alcohol hand sanitizer, it should all be safe to use, right? Apparently not, given a recall from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The recall is due to methanol being used as an ingredient in some brands of sanitizer. Methanol alcohol is highly toxic through inhalation, oral or skin exposures. For these obvious reasons, it is not an acceptable...
Havre Elks Lodge #1201 recently awarded five scholarships to local graduating high school seniors. Lodge Scholarship Chairman Bob Nieuwenhuyse announced that Hope Gasvoda, Stacey Alderdice and Clint Darlington of Big Sandy High School, Aubrey Welch of North Star High School, and Cameron Pleninger from Havre High School are the recipients of this year's local Elks Most Valuable Student Awards. The five local MVS winners were advanced to the Montana State Elks competition. Hope Gasvoda will be...
The plan to open Big Sandy schools is still in the discussion format. They have asked every parent to take a survey on the Big Sandy School's Web site. It is important to have parents input before they make their final decisions. There are three options: Option 1 full return to school with safeguards in place such as mask-wearing, temperature checks, frequent hand washing/sanitizing, limits on large gatherings, no visitors allowed in the buildings; Option 2 Blending learning model where half of...
“So, how many times a week does someone ask you about the gym reopening?” I asked Kelly Haaland, the superintendent of Big Sandy Schools. I’d talked to enough school employees to know that it was a hot topic that had prompted a lot of discussion. Mr. Haaland laughed as he replied: “I’m asked about it daily,” before going on to explain to me the challenges associated with reopening the gym for the community during the time of Covid-19 easing restrictions. The problem the school faces is that in order to comply with the regulations for cleanin...
COVID-19 has led to a once-in-a-century pandemic. More than 3.2 million Americans have been infected, and more than 135,000 have died. In the last month, active cases in Montana have risen from 55 to over 1,000. Too many Montanans continue to congregate in large gatherings where a single person can spread COVID-19 to many others; and too few are wearing face coverings in public settings. Inability to control the spread of COVID-19 endangers vulnerable Montanans, businesses who want to keep...
MSU Agriculture research centers have three test plots for winter wheat in Chouteau County. Research plots are managed by MSU Western Triangle Agricultural Research Center (WTARC) south of the Knees, MSU Northern Agricultural Research Center (NARC) north of Loma and MSU Central Agricultural Research Center (CARC) west of Geraldine. A special thanks to John Miller (WTARC agronomist), Peggy Lamb (NARC agronomist) and Jed Eberly (CARC agronomist) for establishing and maintaining the Chouteau County test plots. The Extension office would also like...
The millions of infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought globally are creating stress over everything from personal health to employment, lifestyle, and finances. Given these difficult circumstances, it’s more important than ever for people to know about coping mechanisms to better manage stress, protect their immune system, and increase their chances of staying healthy, says Dr. Nammy Patel, DDS (www.sfgreendentist.com), author of Age With Style: Your Guide To A Youthful Smile & Healthy Living. “COV...
It's been a year and what a year. I feel like I've just started to learn to crawl. I had no idea what owning a business meant. There are still somethings I need to learn. I wanted to be a part of a paper that celebrated our local culture. I believed it was important to support a rural economy and way of life. I told myself I had to learn how to put the Big Sandy Mountaineer together. I don't like jigsaw puzzles, so a six/eight/ten-page jigsaw puzzle is a little daunting, so I still haven't...
Every farmer knows the risk of hail, but when it comes, it’s devastating. This last week there was a storm that brought hail clear across the state of Montana almost. It wasn’t a wide swath, but where it landed, there was quite a bit of damage. No farmer wants a paycheck from insurance companies. They would rather harvest their crops, especially this year, because they looked so good. Nothing like bring in the crops! For those of you who don’t know, there is Crop-hail insurance. It is a type of insurance that pays the farmer for any damag...
Editor's Note: After this article on preparing for an emergency, we will do a series of articles concerning health and safety in your home. First, understand that no-one thinks a serious accident or illness will happen to them, so like almost everyone, we do not prepare for one. EMT personnel are well trained for emergencies and can help get the person to the medical facility. Do not try to take a seriously ill or injured family member to the hospital call 911. When I took training to become a C...
I hope our Chouteau County gardeners have had a productive year growing vegetables, flowers, trees and shrubs. Below are a few tips for the month of August. • Renovate strawberries by mowing a minimum of every three years. Some people mow their strawberries every year following fruit production. Be sure to set the mower high enough to mow the leaves. Mowing to low may damage the crowns and kill the plant. • Topdress strawberries after harvest with a complete fertilizer like 16-16-16. • Pinch the tops of indeterminate tomatoes and reduce water...
There has been one incidence of a positive test in Chouteau County even though it is not showing up on the State website. The reason for this is that the person who tested positive is visiting Chouteau County and gave her address in California when she was tested. Hence the positive will be counted by her home county even though she is temporarily residing and recovering in Chouteau County. There have also been other incidences of people testing positive outside of our county but having had contact with county residents. Armed with this...
Now and then, someone will ask me how Ron and Don and doing. "I haven't seen them around for a while." If you are new to town, Ron and Don Christensen, twins, for years walked the streets of Big Sandy collecting everyone's pop cans and visiting all the town down businesses. They are 74 years old and have a difficult time getting around, especially Don, who's had a few falls and a broken bone. But they still see themselves at home. They don't ever want to move. "No way!" I asked if I could take...