The Ekalaka Eagle - Your Community Builder

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...

Farming on cow/calf operations gets slipped in instead of sleep between calving, feeding, branding, fencing, and all the other spring work. It is often a high-speed, high-stress form of diversification that causes a lot of laundry problems. Anyway...

Cattle producers have two options as I see it. One is to bury our heads in the sand and keep doing what we have been doing and expecting a better result “next year,” and the other is to educate ourselves and do something proactively with the...

Several years back, I inadvertently stumbled upon a new method of calving--the homeopathic method. This like the discovery of all great things such as fire and disposable diapers came about quite by accident. Calving season was winding down, so many...

Many people try to be very careful prior to going on a big trip, so they don't fall and hurt themselves badly enough that they could not travel. Ranch people try to be extra careful prior to calving season, because that is probably the worst time of...

I love blogs that are honest and authentic, so I was elated when I stumbled upon a really entertaining blog written by Lindsey Habets of Conrad, Montana. Lindsey wrote a series of blogs from both of her toddlers' points of view that are humorous...

by Susan Metcalf This year we spent most of the high school basketball season huddled around our television watching the games on the NFHS app because of Covid restrictions. Now that restrictions have been lifted, we find ourselves in the bleachers...

My favorite holiday of the year is Dr. Seuss's birthday, which was March 2. Yes, Theodor Seuss Geisel would have been 117 years old this week. He and his 60 plus books have inspired young readers since 1937 when “To Think I Saw It All on Mulberry...

Winter has been fairly kind to us up until this past weekend when we suddenly plunged into the deep freeze. We do not start calving until mid-March, but my heart goes out to the people who are calving and lambing in this cold snowy weather. It...

Each month, the “Western Ag Reporter” is going to highlight a front page "feel good story" to remind readers that although times are tough in agriculture, there is a sunny side. I think the only reason farmers and ranchers remain in agriculture...