The Ekalaka Eagle - Your Community Builder

When our son was in junior high, his English teacher asked the students to write about someone they admired. Any mother would be flattered to think her adolescent son admired her. She might not be so flattered by the title of his essay. In bold...

This article is not about marijuana, often called “grass”, no, it’s about ground covers. Town property owners are required to maintain their lawns with grass mowed to acceptable levels. And most try to do that, mowing between rains sometimes. We ha...

We’ve all been waiting too long for spring to arrive, for overnight lows to stay above freezing, for lilacs to bloom and fruit bearing bushes to flower, be pollinated, with the promise of wonderful tastes to come. Luckily that held off long enough t...

Monday was Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as it was originally known, meant to honor soldiers lost in the Civil War. But when the country found itself in another war, World War I, the holiday was changed to honor all fallen soldiers. Memorials to...

We have waited for weeks for our garden to dry enough to till, only to have more rainfall. Lawns were mowed quickly between showers. Yes, it is nice to have the moisture, but when can we plant? Our forecast for the week was warmer and drier. On a Mon...

I bought calendars late in December for my husband and a friend featuring hot peppers. What would I get for myself? I decided on herbs, assuming they would be familiar herbs we grow outside our back door. Some were: rosemary, sage, chives, oregano,...

Sunday was Cinco de Mayo (May 5), a holiday meant to commemorate the Battle of Puebla, fought between the Mexican and French armies in 1862. In Mexico’s history, it’s generally considered a minor event. But a century and a half later, it is still cel...

I’ve been thinking about this article for weeks, watching the grass green up everywhere I looked. Brice reported seeing the beginning of buds on our old apple tree. I hope it doesn’t bloom too early, only to have blossoms frozen leaving us with no...

It wasn’t too long ago that Brice spotted a robin sitting in our apple tree. It wasn’t much longer before he saw another. Where are the chickadees that used to come before the robins? Maybe they will be coming soon. Robins are nice. They make nes...

In 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote his famous quote, saying the only things true in life were death and taxes. If you were alive on Monday, April 15, 2019, your taxes were due. When we lived in Billings, I did our taxes one year and decided we were due...

I missed the deadline for last week’s paper, and I apologize to people who read my articles. I have a medical excuse, but not the normal one. This time I had pneumonia, but not a bad case. I was having trouble driving my wheelchair in the house. I w...

I never considered myself a “Feminist.” I was just always instructed by my parents to do my best. That often meant excelling past male students. It was appalling to me to learn some of my fellow, very bright female classmates, might choose to sco...

If I remember correctly, 1935-36, the year Camp Needmore was being built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, (CCC), February was a cold and very snowy month. In fact it was the coldest February on record, a miserable month where their bulldozer was...

I remember an old picture I saw of a pioneer woman positioned next to a large cauldron, surrounded by fire — a nineteenth century hot water heater! It was laundry day. There was no wringer to squeeze water from clothes. There were no rinse tubs in s...

When the price of DNA analysis had fallen enough for me to purchase it, I did so for my husband and me. I already knew my mother’s family were German, and my father’s maternal grandmother had filled me in on his family history. I’m 48 percent Germa...

After Mainstreet Market burned down, people were suddenly forced to drive the 35 miles to Baker, or farther if they lived out of town, to get most groceries. We relied on lists and hoped not to forget anything. If we missed anything, we generally liv...

I watch too much television where I see lots of ads for things we don’t need, starting with Home Security systems. Do we need cameras at our front doors to guard against intruders or thieves where we would see them and tell the potential thieves we a...

The government of the United States opened up last week (for three more weeks) to solve the problem of border security and the President’s preference for a border wall. Federal employees should get paid. The government had been shut down for over a...

In winter one main job is to keep the home warm, whether with coal or wood fires or later with gas or electricity. There is nothing warmer than sitting in front of a blazing wood fire, but that warmth doesn’t travel far; the rest of the house r...

In days gone by, people would take a team and wagon and travel cross country to Miles City twice a year for supplies - twice a year in good weather. Brice travels to Baker every 10 to 14 days for bananas for me. If you buy too many, they just get bla...

I have never and will never make New Year’s resolutions. New Year’s resolutions are a matter of promising yourself to change habits. No promises will be made by me, just a best effort to change. By not making any promises, no promises will be bro...

When I was a very young child I remember my mom wrapping dozens of packages at Christmas. A big box filled with them went to Kansas where sisters and parents lived. Her brothers moved around with their families before settling in Texas. The presents...

When we lived on the farm, my dad would always cut our tree from a forested hillside. The sizes varied with the years. Our old farmhouse had 10 ft. ceilings, and one year the tree he harvested touched the ceiling. Mom and dad started stringing the...

On Wednesday, December 5, I turned 68. It will be the first year since I was in my early 20s when I won’t get a check, worth one dollar for every year I have lived. (It got better the older I turned). My mother started the tradition when I was 25, a...

This morning, Brice and I were remembering a particular Thanksgiving 32 or 33 years ago. In Billings I had been able to buy a fresh turkey, delivered to my door by a turkey farmer. The birds were very tender. In Ekalaka, Doug Bonsell raised turkeys....