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It is officially Bitterroot motorcycle riding season. Tourist bikes have been exploring up and down The Bitterroot River on Highway 93 for most of a month now. A skosh tardy in getting my bikes where I wanted them for this season, I started a little behind the early bikers, but not too much. Right at the top of my 2023 bike ride bucket list was a reconnoiter of Highway 38 between Grantsdale and Phillipsburg, Montana. It is right in my neighborhood, lightly traveled and reputed to be quite scenic. I was also warned repeatedly by people who have been there, done that, to explore it on my more maneuverable, agile Dr Zee (350 pounds) rather than jumping right in […]
I did not have much of a choice. I was left home alone. I had to practice more with my new-to-me motorcycle. The weather was gorgeous. My neighborhood is perfect. (People come here from all over the world to drink from the fountain of natural beauty in Montana’s Bitterroot) I know of several lightly-traveled, low-speed roads that are just right for a bike that likes to cruise in the 40-50 mile-per-hour range and a returning motorcycle pilot that is right there in his comfort zone. I have to reconnect those biker synapses muscle memories in my crusty old brain. The top right photo looks at the Bitterroot Mountain Range from its foothills. Next on the right is The Bitterroot […]
I have contributed numerous classes to the community, most through the Darby Adult Education program in southwestern Montana. An interesting array of people share their skills and passions with others in this nice little community. This Spring Semester is no exception. We have many nice choices in front of us for new experiences, knowledge, training, friendships and fun. I am bringing my first-level Amateur Radio class back by popular demand. I must be nearing 50 people I have helped earn their FCC Technician or General Class licenses. My guarantee: If you attend every class and study a few hours a week, you will pass the FCC Technician Exam at the end regardless of your technical background or lack thereof. I […]
In responding to my daughter who felt our Montana reunion last summer was a disaster, I found I could not share most of my thoughts. They would be quite unhelpful. Her San Francisco family of three along with an Idaho mother in-law and her brother’s Utah family of eight rented a vacation lodge. While there were some frictions there, they increased when that group combined with the Bitterroot elders, and further while visiting the homesteading family of six. I realized in the 1990s I did not fit the California culture, and, significantly, that I could somewhere else. Shopping online I found a more appropriate community, moving to Idaho late winter 2000-2001. A dozen years later I snuggled into an even […]
Conner Cabin from the bridgeWe spent over four years making this perfect for the two of us, but it is a bit snug with my Mom here too. We are moving to more appropriate housing and leaving our lovely riverside home behind. Major remodeling along with addition of the adjacent lot to our lease transformed this river-front home into a real find. I published many posts including pictures taken in our yard under the heading “Post Card From Conner“. That is what living here is like. looking upstream from the front lawn Four seasons in a location many spend extravagantly to visit on their vacations. Fishermen float by our front lawn in $900 per-day guided trips. The prior owner and […]
Led by the multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical industry, enemies of the valuable cannabis plant have kept it expensive in both money and risk to individual liberty for over 50 years. A plant that costs no more to grow than basil or oregano sells for 100 times what those non-prohibited herbs do. The worst part of this irrational war are the many costs to our society. Topping the list is our awful incarceration rate. A close second is that 99 dollars of the product cost goes to organized crime… with huge negative implications for liberty of all, even those not involved in either side of cannabis transactions. The United States is home to less than 5 percent of the world’s population but nearly […]
propeller plane delivers “contrail” to The Bitterroot June 11, 2016I was riding my bicycle on Conner Cutoff road when I saw an airplane approaching from the west. It was leaving a strong, broad, billowy “contrail”. One of those I see frequently in The Bitterroot that are extraordinary in volume and staying power. What was really remarkable about this one was the noise that reached me once the airplane got overhead … propellers!!! I really kicked myself for not taking my camera on the bike ride, but I took this photograph of its trail when I got home ten or fifteen minutes later. This, rather obviously, is not prop wash or engine exhaust from an airplane. Who is spraying, what, and […]
There are two elected positions in every USofA location where one man of courage, integrity and knowledge can make a serious difference. A constitutional sheriff is the highest law enforcement official elected by the people in each county of our country. Sadly, sheriffs who know and are willing to do the job correctly are a minority. Happily, the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association is working to change that, and many have stood strong for the people of their counties. I have done some work in that direction myself, as you can see elsewhere on this website. The other is the governor of each state. Since this Constitutional Republic of ours is a federation of sovereign states, the governors are […]
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