The Ekalaka Eagle - Your Community Builder

Many readers commiserated with me in my pack rat war that I recently recounted, but to be honest, the pack rat war was not the most fierce battle I ever fought as a camp cook. Now, hunting camp cooking is ordinarily a delightful experience! You get u...

Every time I read a Baxter Black poem, I am inspired to become a cowboy poet, but "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert Service is my favorite inspirational poem. It was his signature poem that launched his career. He got the idea from a story he...

Seems like most battles these days are fought on social media where keyboard warriors try to change our perceptions, if not our lives, and it just might have the power to change the course of history. Everything we do now is chronicled on social medi...

by Susan Metcalf I spent Labor Day weekend in Burlington, Colorado helping my sister and brother-in-law, Jane and Shawn Bellows, host a national Iron Horsemen event. The amount of work involved in feeding three meals to approximately 400...

The bull elk are starting to bugle, and this is the week that hunters are packing into the wilderness for the opening of early rifle season. One of the best things about working in the outfitting industry is helping clients fulfill lifelong dreams su...

We have been in the retail/food service business now for two and a half months, and many readers have asked how that is going? The answer to that is very well after the first couple days. The first couple days were not our brightest shining moments...

Every year when we wrapped up our ranch vacation season and turned the "dude" horses out to pasture, I marveled at how they were the key to the success of our operation. These old ranch horses endure a lot of greenhorn mistakes, but they bring their...

School is about to start, which means teachers are having back to school dreams, kids are buying supplies and clothes, and parents are celebrating the fact that they made it through summer vacation. As an English teacher I am so excited to see that...

The chokecherries did pretty well this year despite the heat, drought, and smoke, so around our place that means the bears are coming down out of the Deer Creeks for a berry eating frenzy. I am always torn about mentioning bear visitors to our cabin...

All of my life I have heard stories about 1936. That was the summer that my Great Grandfather Roberts stopped eating, because he could not deal with the drought and Great Depression any longer. They had tried to winter their cows on slough grass hay...

Just when my muscles have grown used to working, it is almost time to go back and sit at a desk as the school year approaches. The entire month of June, my body thinks it enlisted in the Army and no one told it. By July, the severe muscle cramps...

Often it is true that the dead become greater in death than they were in life. Such was not the case when our adopted dog, Marvin, died, and he became an international rock star on Facebook when within hours he received tributes from ranch vacation...

It is a tough year in Montana with drought, grasshoppers, and now wildfires. As I write this, our Musselshell Ranch is under evacuation order from the Peterson Fire. We are praying that our place will be spared while knowing that our neighbors to...

I absolutely love kitchen tips, and I try to pass them along without too much commentary, but sometimes I just can't resist sharing comments about the actual practicality of those tips. For example, Martha Stewart claims that if you have a headache,...

To many of us, Independence Day is celebrated with rodeo. I hope that as you are celebrating this year with big beef burgers and a rodeo and hopefully no fireworks due to the extreme fire danger in this drought, you take some time to reflect on this...

Summer is the time when I decide to roll up my sleeves and clean out some junk. However, my parents were children of the Great Depression, so I can still hear their voices ringing in my ears when I think about pitching stuff that could potentially...

"Have you lost your mind?" Millie Woolley asked. "Yes, I thought you were smarter than that!" added Shelly Carroccia, as we stood outside the papered over storefront windows of the boutique my daughter Brooke and I are starting on McLeod Street in...

I receive many submissions from readers, and I love to share them. However, in my 26 years of writing this column, I believe this is the funniest piece any reader has ever sent me. Thanks, Tom Ogle of Paris, Illinois for making me laugh out loud...

by Susan Metcalf With Memorial Day coming up on Monday, I feel it is important to remember that Memorial Day is about much more than barbecues and a day off. It is a time to remember and honor loved ones and fallen heroes, and it is also important...

My column about aging awhile back brought several suggestions on how to combat aging including advice on where to get the best deal on orthotic inserts for my shoes to suggestions that if I would forego wearing foundation, cross my heart...

Many years ago in the mail I received a hilarious self-published book from Maralee Robinson of Billings, Montana. It is called "East Meets West: Real Dude Meets Real Cowboy: Indoor Plumbing Meets Outdoor Plumbing, and All the Things They Have in Comm...

Sunday is Mother's Day, so I would like to wish all mothers a special day. Those of us who have lost our mothers realize how time spent with our mothers is more valuable than any other gift we could give or be given. I have never written a column...

A few years back, a young man came to the ranch to learn all he could about cowboying during calving season. Of course, I talked him into writing a guest column for me to chronicle his experience. The following story chronicles his impression of...

The horse market is pretty much through the roof right now, which is great if you are selling, but not if you are buying. I know that I sound like an old fogey, but I have bought many horses for $500.00 in my lifetime, and every one of them turned...