The Ekalaka Eagle - Your Community Builder

I will have been writing a weekly column for 27 years this June. The best part about being a columnist is reading my mail. Sometimes I get “fan mail” that I use to fan the fire in the wood stove, but usually I get really nice comments and fuel...

Hello God, it’s me, Mara: You know, Lord, recently a friend shared how her grandkids helped her discover that she was making no effort at all to express joy and happy feelings when she spoke to them, or even to the rest of her family. She shared th...

We just celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday, so it is time for what has become my annual tradition—my Dr. Seuss Whoville poem. Probably every generation feels that the overall moral and ethical state of the world is declining at breakneck speed, but...

Hello God, it’s me, Mara: Thank You, dear Lord, for our great guys; neighbors, family, and friends. They come when called or just show up –they’ve helped us through our ‘bends’. They’re likable and merry, too, they’re popular and blesse...

The thermometer reads 17 below this morning, but I am in a wonderful mood, because I am fleeing from the tundra of Montana for a few days in Arizona. My torn hamstring has healed enough from doing the spilled dog water splits four weeks ago, and we...

My last article was on the J.G. (June) Olson and Harry Roberts families and stated how Harry loved baseball as did his son Gary. Gary has contacted me and triggered memories of another homestead family. That family was Charles F. “Chuck” and...

Many years ago I met this woman, I had drove off the road from Ekalaka Park, Ted and her drove us out to get my yellow pickup back on the road, It was an embarrassing way to meet, but Darlene was a woman of humor, and all was good, we laughed,...

Hello God, it’s me, Mara: You know, Lord, one can certainly be caught off guard if someone asks us, “What has God done for you today?” Our minds freeze, that’s almost like a pop-quiz teachers like to give, right? That question keeps one...

This year for the first time in 41 years, I will not be a participant in inducing trauma in children. Since I have retired as an educator, I will not be involved in the spelling bee. All across the country, kids are being traumatized not by cyber bul...

Hello God, it’s me, Mara: You know, Lord, A silly Calendar has a ‘Know-It-All’ on every single day, so, a glance showed that the other day was ‘Hot Tea Day’. We didn’t even notice that, but Hot Tea is what we had. Then there’s a Gumdrop...

During this last month before calving begins, we are enjoying normal dinner hours and having an actual bedtime as we count down the days until calving starts and that all changes. I love calving season now, because I am pretty much a second string...

I have a love affair with Ekalaka and Carter County. Compared with my entire life I didn’t spend much time there but it is embedded way down deep in my soul. Every time that I go there it is brought back to the forefront of my mind again. What is...

This time I am going to share some history on a business, its early time owner and some of his family. Some recent phone calls with Gary Roberts triggered my thoughts for this article. The individual was J.G. (June) Olson, his wife Henrietta and the...

I grew up in the Sun River Canyon northwest of Great Falls and thus Malmstrom Air Force Base. All the years I was growing up, a nuclear war with Russia was an ever-present threat. Our friends, the Mergenthals, who lived right by Gibson Dam had a...

Hello God, it’s me, Mara: You know, Lord, sometimes one sees Love being shared. One day, while waiting for an appointment, an older lady was checking out, a gentleman came in, greeted the guy at the desk, who greeted him, ‘Hey, Joe – I’ll be...

Returning to Carter Co. February 21 and February 22 is the Smiles Across Montana (SAM) team! This is a great opportunity to access local preventative dental care for school aged kids. It is open to all home, country, or public schooled students. Alre...

Hello God, it’s me, Mara: You know, Lord, when we were just little kids out on the ranch, far from town or neighbors, Grandpa, then a widower, lived out of state, made trips out to see us. Grandpa usually brought along a small paper or wooden wall-...

I will have been retired for one month this week, and somehow retirement is not working out like I thought it would. Perhaps the reason is that I retired from the only job where I actually received a salary. My bosses at my other jobs have not...

I have gone on record as a proponent of global warming--especially when the thermometer dips below zero. Following December’s storm dubbed Storm Elliott, which brought record low temperatures to Montana and Wyoming, I am starting to wonder if globa...

Hello God, it’s me, Mara: You know, Lord, that word ‘TIME’ -- now that is an appropriate word for another new decade which, more or less, has already begun, right? Checking out the dictionary, we view lists of numerous definitions. No matter...

This past weekend, I attended a natural cheese making workshop presented by Allison Cooley Agee, and the take-away for me is that cheese making is extremely labor intensive. There are so many steps and so many pitfalls to avoid that my cheeses would...

Hello God, it’s me, Mara: You know, Lord, it’s only a few days into the New Year and how fun to snuggle under a nice thick blanket in my quiet-time chair, looking forward to these silent moments with You, Lord, in the wee hours of a, so far,...

Technology never ceases to amaze me! Not only have they invented cars which drive themselves (something I am going to need very soon, and my family might argue that I need right now), but drones are going to change the way we live and play. They now...

Hello God, it’s me, Mara: You know, Lord, even though Christmas has passed, this was thought-provoking; Sarah Young wrote some interesting thoughts, so, just sharing a little bit of what she wrote: “I am leading you along a way that is uniquely...