Our favorite little town

 Choteau Montana...just something about that place . It's not like the rest of the State isn't friendly and welcoming it's just that in this town it's unmistakable . We're waiting at a crosswalk and in the middle of the light controlled intersection and a guy driving a one ton dually and pulling 5 tons of Hay pulls to stop and waves us over...and smiles.  Our waitress at the unbelievably affordable John Henry bar / casino / restaurant says " whatchya doin in Choteau " and we tell her that we love her town and come to bird watch at the Lake often, when we mention Alaska she says " my husband right there works in Alaska, ya wanna visit with him " ? ...and so it goes in Choteau Montana.

So we're up at  cold thirty as usual to be at Freeze out Lake to watch the birds lift off . Well, fall bird watching is complicated  by a few things, one of which is hunting season . Wouldn't ya know that they'd have a hunting season for Swans here in Montana and guess what kind of birds were the only ones present  ?  Yup, Tundra Swans and they 'lift off' real good when they're being shot at . I was pretty proud of myself for getting this shot as the Swans were at the farthest side in the farthest off lake. I set my old trusty Minolta on the tripod and then used maximum digital zoom with the time to hold the camera steady. Walla.

Of course the Lakes and management area are a ( yawn ) State Park and of course State Parks come with State Park policies soooo......During hunting season all the roads have gates that are locked closed. This area is huge and some of the hunting and viewing areas are way to far away to walk so it begs the question. If it's legal hunting and there are enough birds for harvest why make it so darn hard on the park users ? People that know me know that I easily find fault with State Parks . This time I think I've been real gentlemanly with a little constructive criticism . MP and I were disappointed that this vast eco system was basically closed but we'll be back to see the birds off in the spring when it's open.  

One thing they're good at with State Parks.....Signs. Look at how big this area is, can you imagine walking to the far side of that lake ?

I'm a fish / boat / music guy and agriculture is new to me, and I'm impressed . If I hadn't ventured north I think I would have found myself a place in this Montana lifestyle. There's an energy in the morning just like there is on the harbor floats as the boats are prepping to leave, you can feel it, it's money, it's culture , it's the American way.

I took this shot driving through Fairfiefd. I think it's a gorgeous scene, the symmetry of it especially. It was a cool morning and hour after sun up and truck after truck was arriving to unload. On the other side of the bins train cars were being loaded. It was bustling with activity . Wish I could tell you what they were loading and where it was going and well....I've got a lot to learn about Montana. But so far I can tell you this for sure, we love this part of the State.

The power of the pen

 Well first off the staff here at the Mile 14 Southern Bureau has to apologize for not making our own imposed deadlines as promised, we let it go dark for an entire month and that's not right. But it was a weird month and nothing spectacular occured other than my friend Keith traveling through and stopped to give counsel on operation Walleye and gift me this treasure drove of tackle....thanks buddy. But soon our fortunes will reverse and we'll be in Mazatlan surf fishing and singing. My neck is soooo much better so I'll have adventures to report. Please come back to Mile 14.  Check out the goodies.

So what I thought I'd do is shine a little light....explain what's bothering me a bit and I'd bet dollars to donuts many or even all of you ' know the feeling ' .  In this day and age of instant information it takes just a little effort to shine the light as Howard Beal did in the movie  Network when he famously opened his window and encouraged people to yell out ' I'm sick and tired of this #%&* and I'm not going to take it anymore " . Howard called it a cleansing moment of clarity . So Mile 14 is my window. I have about 500 loyal readers and if some of those 500 have windows and....well you get the idea, maybe somewhere somehow somebody will hear.

These guys right here. Terrible . We've banked with these guys for over thirty years and have run mucho dinero through their system and what do you get for that...ya get mined, you get taken advantage of, robbed. Here's the short story. We had a wonderful Canadian couple come down to buy our camper. They brought a guaranteed bank draft for the Royal Bank of Canada that was for the agreed price adjusted to the current foreign exchange rate. Well, our friends here at Wells Fargo manipulate the exchange rate with what their own web page calls ' set at our discretion ' which is no more than a hidden fee of 3% , it's called a non-competetive exchange rate . In this case we were charged $ 545.00 good ol American Money for a safe and easy transaction.  So it goes like this.....I'm still in business, guide #003 Walleye expert fish killer for hire. Now being in a border State I have a huge customer base from Alberta that love to come south and fish with me. Of course we tailor the price so we can accept their currency for their convenience .So every week when I deposit my hard earned work these people at W.F. want me to give them 3 % of my life....I don't think so. W.F. is in the news a lot and I don't really need to go into that, you know the story but the final chapter of this mine job was when it was suggested we could make up the ' non competitive exchange rate ' by investing the left over money from the deposit in one of their CD's ....So it's hello Interstate Bank and if any of you Wells Fargo people want to go fishing we'll have a great professionally guided trip and I'll tell you about our ' fresh bait fee ' when the trips over . The only good news was just look how happy they were with their new camper and how cool it is .

Election : The next 18 days can't come soon enough and I'm sure all of us are feeling it. What a system, we have candidates that have raised and spent millions. We got commercials during the football game that last long enough for ya to cook a burger. Everybody's got a nasty nickname . Everyday our mail box has 4 to 10 of these in it....Kinda old school I'd say. I wish I'd saved them, we'd have had enough to wall paper that nursery bed room we've be working on....hehehe, pulling your leg with that one.

Taxes : One of the underlying themes this election season in Montana is - they don't like people moving here....yawn.... They complain about you all the while you're paving the roads and putting their kids through college. They think it's some kinda utopia and that new people are ruining it in many ways. Our rental house in Hamilton Mt. is 750 sq. feet and has one bathroom with two garages on 3 city lots, it's nice and has a beautiful view. For that we pay about the same property tax as our house in Alaska that was 2500 sq. feet with 3 bathrooms, two garages on 7 acres of riverfront . It's an absurd amount of tax here in Montana and somehow they've crafted it into being somebody's fault besides the government. 

But. Our elected officials got to thinking that this tax situation could end up with some of them getting unelected and how in the heck are they gonna change the world with that happening. So they come up with a rebate system to send you $$$$$ but it doesn't just come in the mail with a check and an apology, oh no, you have to apply for it and prove you're not one of those @#&%* non-residents....And then the next year you have to do it all over again cause ya mighta been lying the first time....and oh , I'm joking about the apology , that never happens . AND while this is all going on with ridiculous amounts of $$$$$ the State has a 2 billion dollar surplus in the budget . Go figure. That's 2,000,000,000....Yikes....

OK, I feel better...thank you for your patience. And don't forget to open that window and let people know of yet another unethical business practice at Wells Fargo Bank . 

Update : It's been a week now and I had hoped that the Bank would use some of the ' discretion ' they have mentioned on their webpage and somehow try to correct this situation a bit . No business person like myself would ever begrudge a business from making $$$$. But this amount on one transaction is ridiculous . I was left with a guy telling us he thought it was too much and after talking with his manager we were told someone would ' get back ' with us with either help or an explanation.....Well add ' lied to ' and 'ignored ' to the list along with 'taken advantage of and hidden fees ' ..... But stupid me, I could have taken the Canadian Bank draft to ANY bank and opened an account with absolutely no fee and a nice " welcome to our  Bank Mr. King '.

It's all foreign to me...fishing for life

 

It really is....but , I'm adjusting . My friends on the Kenai have suffered through King Salmon closures of course and this fall they waited for the usually dependable Silver run to develop and then suffered through the slowest fishing that run has ever delivered....so....where am I going with this ?  Well, I have no right to weeny whine about my own empty fish box. It's been humbling . The fishing report says  cow bells down 30 ft with lead core line . So I get the color coded lead core . I get line counter reels . I get down riggers . I got 30 sets of cowbells . I got as many hard baits as Capital Sports and .....nadda . The other day a guy watched me put the Minnow VI on the trailer and he said " wow , you're good at that " . I replied " yup it's the only part of it I'm good at ".  OK Jeff, remember your mantra ' The joy is is in the pursuit ' ! And oh, that Pike you see there is 3 fishing trips worth . And you wonder why my blog is late ?

So I caught this Jumbo unit with a 6 inch blade on a Gerber Knife... We're not sure what the hell it is but you gotta admit ol #003 is still a High Liner .  We're still living off the ' the fat of the land ' just lacking a bit of white flakey protein with tarter sauce. As we say in the business, how about this load.

I caught these gorgeous Montana scenes yesterday on a Panasonic Lumix DC Vario water and shock proof camera.  Tom has been itching to go hunting and of course I don't hunt big game as I have a personal code that came from killing soooo many gorgeous fish through the years that now I don't kill anything that has eye lashes. So we went Grouse hunting on a mountain he knows outside of Wolf Creek Montana home of the legendary Oasis Bar. For the first time in my recent life we did serious mountain climbing in that old white Chevy of mine and man oh man....drop that baby into granny low and she'll climb a telephone pole. I was kinda proud of my 26 year old truck. We saw one Blue Grouse that we jumped with the truck and it flew down a 45 degree hill into a tree and we made the adult decision to let that guy win. It was steep and a long way down and Tom's a year older than me.....hehehe

About a week ago me and MPeasy went to Garnet Ghost town, this is not a place you get to by accident. 

This place is way up in the mountains on an 11 mile road that only goes there. Most of the town burned down years ago but what's left certainly shows you the life of the Gold Rushers .  It's amazing picturesque , in the bottom photo it would have been nice to get a pic of just how the town is but of course the Park Rangers hands their trucks parked everywhere. It's everywhere with those people, they treat the Park like it was theirs and not ours....

Well I wish I had a new song for you but I don't. So instead of that I have a video that I took 10 years ago on the road below our house.  It was this time of year almost to the day. The animals were in rut and weren't much interested in much else until one saw me. The video is only 35 seconds long so turn the volume up and watch it until the end and you'll see old guy move fast .  We're going to do some fall fishing so check back, I'll post on the first successful day, you might even hear me crowing like an old Banty rooster...

The world's Greatest Salmon

 Well....It went from an emergency to a ' stock of concern ' to a total closure and then to this...

only 6,630 Kenai Kings over the sonar by the time the counts stopped being published by the ADF+G on August 20th. The counts used to end when the sport harvest stopped on July 31, then it would stop when the commercial harvest end on August 15, then it was decided that every fish counted so why not let the sonar run until August 31....well, there's no fish...if you don't like the numbers just quit counting I guess but it doesn't take away from the fact that people need and deserve the information, they need to know how bad the situation is.  The black line represents this year , the worst run in History, maybe not even enough fish to sustain the run. the other climbing lines represent the last few years and the flat red line represents the desired sonar counts and the very top line represents the good ol days.

I have some observations. And if any of you say to yourselves ' ol Jeff there ain't got a dog in the hunt '  or why's he always so critical ....well....I owe this everything and invested my entire adult life in it.....so here goes whether you like it or not. But first here's the one on my wall, my reminder , my talisman , my wonderful memories.

The first step in problem solving is to admit you have a problem.

When you're in a hole quit digging ! Does it really make sense to anybody that with ALL (or at least most ) of the local harvest fisheries closed to experiment with a new gear type ? A new commercial fishery . Yup, ADF+G gave permission to an influential commercial fisherman to experiment this year with a beach seine because the theory is King Salmon can be released from this type of gear....HOW ARE YOU GOING TO RELEASE SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T EXIST ....unless this beach seine can somehow create more salmon what in the hell are we doing ?

There is a management line that runs east and west across lower Cook Inlet. To the south King Harvest is allowed, to the north it's not.....well...the salmon can't see that line. 

Cook Inlet and Kodiak  salmon share an area that the young fish would / will transit on their way to feeding grounds. The Shelikof Strait is Trawled by factory boats from Seattle and worked with Seine nets for salmon by the Kodiak fleet. Here's the same graph info for Kodiak's Karluk River which has had robust King and Silver runs for decades. Unlike the Kenai the fish are enumerated by a weir where they are seen and counted by humans, there is no degree of doubt with accuracy as is sometimes a question with sonar enumeration....this year the Karluk King Salmon return is 75 fish....75 !

It's clearly code red . In one short year the Kenai run was cut in half and the Karluk run has disappeared . If this were to repeat in 2025 we might easily be beyond recovery, not sustainable and maybe even not enough fish for an egg take to save the genetics by hatchery. It's obviously to big for ADF+G to handle locally, there'e no shame in calling in the cavalry. Get everyone on board. use the Endangered Species Act. And until we get this sorted out stop ALL harvest, bycatch , directed fisheries etc....

And now the one that everyone is gonna role up their eyes and moan over. The Homer Winter King Derby . Somewhere somebody somehow r ADF+G came to the conclusion that these immature King Salmon are not local fish and mostly of Canadian origen. I could go on and on about this but I'll save you all from that and make  it simple...This doesn't pass the ' common sense test ' ...  The Homer Chamber of Commerce loves this event as well as the winter fishery in general. STOP IT, you're contributing to the demise of the greatest salmon ever in the world . 

Fair enough

 Driving has been the thing that aggravates my neck the most so finally feeling better and coming off double secret probation there's only one thing to do....road trip .  On Friday we hustled on up the Montana State Fair in Great Falls . MP and me had one of our very first dates to the same Fair in 1975 and we have fond memories of walking the midway and eating corn on the cob while checking out the latest huge farm equipment and what they help produce.  Well, nothing stays the same does it ?  Today's version of the State Fair is just one thing....$$$$$$...that's right , it's one big fund raiser for the gypo Food trucks and the people reselling Mexican trinkets , and in most cases the people on the selling circuit aren't even from Montana . So we wandered, I appreciate the military recruiters and the political volunteers, thanks for making some of the fair normal to those two groups. We had deep fried Cheese curds, ten dollar milk shake with sprinkles and Mp got a huge smoked turkey leg for our picnic. It was really  hot at 1:00 so I was needing a nice cold Pacifico and we couldn't find the beer tent.....mmmm....so, we went to the information booth and find out they don't sell beer until 4:00 . Are you kidding me ? You've all heard me write of my astonishment at the beer culture in my new sate so this twist was kinda unexpected. I tell the gal at the info booth that we live in a State where beer brewing and consumption is in the High School curriculum and it's hard to believe ya gotta wait 3 more hours for a beer....she said " I know ".  

So we take the cooler which has Pacifico's and the Turkey Leg onto the Interstate 90 frontage road in search for the perfect picnic spot....and we found it . I took this pic after we started the car in Great Falls.

We picnicked in ' Thunder and Lightfoot ' country . Simply gorgeous .

The next day found us at the Broadwater County Fair in Townsend that has one of our favorite golf courses and thrift store...they were having a bag sale, yahtzee . This County Fair is what they should be about, the people that live there, the way of life, what it takes. There was no entrance fee, the livestock and the produce were incredible. Unlike Helena or Great Falls these 4-H kids aren't the Dentist's kid who's mom feeds the pig . They're all part of the industry that they they and they only create.

The VFW had ice cream with Carmel sauce and m+m sprinkles for 3 bucks.  No carnival but the volunteers set up a home made playground for the youngest kids . They didn't have any guns to raffle off but they did have home made Corn Hole boards that said ' Farm Life on them. As we cruised the few building we walked right into the Pie eating contest and I hope this video turns out cuz we had a pretty good belly laugh going....

I don't think I've seen, thought of or heard of a pie  eating contest since I was a kid. That's pretty good stuff eh ?....A young 4- H'r told us the way about pigs. He told me about the art of showing them and how you try to keep your pig in front of the judge as much as possible . I asked him why he didn't just get a McDonald's cheeseburger and put it in your back pocket as I guessed that pig would follow you anywhere. He said that wasn't a bad idea but ol porky there might very well bite a whole in you pants.

Now MP didn't think it was to funny , she didn't like the pig excrement on her feet...should'nt have worn sandals baby . She wiped it all of . No harm no foul.

Me and Tom went fishing this morning. Lots of trout like this one here in Mooootana. Guess I should do another fish posing primer as a way of public service for any of you up and coming fishermen that would like to be famous....and ya, I know they're slimey and hard to hold before the release but it goes like this. Hold the fish in front of you as far as possible without pulling a muscle. If you keep your arms tucked in tight to your body the viewers might miss that you're ' long arming ' the photo . There's no shame in this, everybody does it . Have him cradled in one hand if possible. In a boat hold him over the net in case he slips out of your grip . Smile confidently, and an 0 face gets extra points . So it was fun today Tom, I'd give you a B on the pose and of course....and A on the fish.  

And the scenery , the chase, the fellowship and of course breakfast at Smiths in East Helena get an A+.

 

The fix is in

 Here's a pic of ol retired #003 after being wheeled back into the recovery room after my Radio Frequency Ablation ( rfa ) .  Even though the Deep Vein Thrombosis I've dealt with lately was very serious this old age arthritic neck of mine was really interfering with my life style , me and MPeasy had coined our own clinical name for it ....3 hour neck...because that's about as long as I could do anything before the pain / tingling / numbness would send me to the recliner .

Well....to the rescue Dr.'s  Anthony Russo and Steve Perry at the Billings Clinic in Bozeman Montana . When it became unbearable I went to a Helena Doctor who offered Cervical fusion surgery . I settled on Physical therapy and just hoped it would get better...it didn't. So then I went searching for the best care available and I found it. If I'm good at anything it's public relations so I ask people, sometimes strangers, I do research and then I am persistent and finally got the call that Dr. Russo would take me on as a patient . After looking at my MRI and x-rays that I had to rather forcibly retrieve from my first Dr. and talking with me about lifestyle and goals Dr. Russo said that yes, he could fix it with surgery but he suggested we try the less invasive RFA first....so O.K. ...off we go. When you seek counsel always accept it . 

This deal is not for the faint of heart. To make sure the ablation has a good chance of success they first do two Medial Branch Blocks which are kinda like a spinal pain block. They insert 4 needles into my neck at C3 through C6. These needles are flexible and they probe using imaging technology to find just the right nerve bundles. No anesthesia as you have to be awake to tell them if you feel anything that you shouldn't or if you lose any movement and then they inject lidocaine and it's simple, if the pain / tingling stops they know they're in the right spot. One of the reasons the procedure is bearable is because it happens fairly fast and Steve keeps you motivated by telling you how much longer you need to be still. I told the operating theatre the wisdom of Willy Nelson when he said ' the weight of an object is not as important as how long you have to hold on to it ' . Then several weeks after the 1st procedure they do it again to make absolutely sure they are in the right spot. On the follow  up Steve asked me how it went and I told him that I was actually having fairly severe numbness and tingling  when he did the procedure and it stopped immediately but I was disappointed in that it came back within and hour.....He said ' Perfect ' that's exactly what we want to see !

So Tuesday was the day for the main event , the actual Ablation . They had kinda used up the surprise factor on me and I was having pretty good anxiety leading up to it , and for good reason. But this time they said I would get a mild sedative that would help the discomfort and still allow me to talk with them. It was described as ' like have two margaritas '....I told them I'm usually a 3 or 4 Margarita guy and they said har har but you're still only getting 2. So the procedure it kinda the same but longer and after probing and positioning they go from one needle to the next with the Radio Frequency which creates heat and kinda burns the nerve bundles. Kind of like a caughterize .Then they inject some cortisone to help you in the short term . Then they pull the needles out and ask you how you feel....I tell them I really liked the Tammy Wynette and George Jones music. 

The Ablation needles are bigger than the block needles at 8 or 10 m.m. , 1/8 of an inch or so . On the first two procedures they have a needle in you and are prepared to do sedation if the patient can't handle the procedure and as uncomfortable as it is they said I was good to go for the whole show, some patients don't make the cut....I learned a lot about myself. MP said that I'd been very brave....well, I found out that bravery is what happens when you're in a situation with NO options.

It's three days later now and the site of the injections is sore as hell....but...yesterday I had an entirely pain free day, the first in about 2 years. I can tell I'm better . I can tell this next season in Mexico I'll be able to do the things I love.....Thank You sooo much Dr's Russo and Perry....if ya ever need a stress relieving boat trip with the chance of catching a slimey, I'm your guy ! 
 

It's so hot I

 saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walking. This morning at 5 a.m. it was seventy degrees , ten degrees higher than the daytime high in Soldotna Alaska. So you're wondering how the fishing went as what else would a guy be doing at 5 a.m. , right ?  mmm..... well actually we close the house up after we completely open it up as early as we can in the morning, fan at the front door, all the windows open and then close drapes and windows about 8:30 and then its, 85 by 10:00. I know to most of you this is routine...I'm still learning.

So we got a lot to learn. For instance , in our joy of having an Apple tree that produces pounds of wonderful McIntosh juicy red apples we never dreamed it could carry so much fruit that it breaks . Yesterday we went out to find a huge branch bearing over maybe 100 pounds of fruit broken and bent over. Yikes !  So being that guy I sharpen the chainsaw and go to work . It was 10:30 and already 85 degrees....I get dizzy and kneel down before I would've fallen  down and scared the crap out of MP and honestly, myself.... MP helps into the house and twenty minutes in front of the air conditioner and two Gatorades later I'm fine.....yup, we got a lot to learn.

And of course what happens when it won't rain and it's 100 degrees for days on end ?????  This the plume as seen from the Southern bureau of MIle 14. But you know me, old lucky lucky lucky....the prevailing wind is to the east so for us on the west of the fires we only get all the smoke from other fires and the air quality index has hovered in the dark yellow at 80 to 90 .

So what to do....leave the apple tree clean up for another day. Pack a picnic . Go to flowing water. Get in  flowing water. Sing a song ......ahhhh things are more better already.

For my friends in Mazatlan I've been working on new songs while in doors from the heat. And of course I think of the rain in Alaska and well...just Alaska....which I miss along with my and Alaska's friend Hobo Jim Varsos. This song is one of his early ones. It really speaks to mine and his path through life . Of course I worked the cannery as a kid and had not been in one for 30 years when MP and I got invited to Kenai Packers year end party with entertainment by Hobo JIm . He played this song and to this day I can hear the rhythmic drumming of the conveyor belts, I can smell the heavy protein fish smell that I've lived with my whole life . The steamy hiss of the retorts when their pressure is released . The muffled sound and yelling to talk with your ear plugs in and the longing that goes with the work to be done and $$$$$ , in the fishing industry we call it ' making your season ' ....Thanks Jim, we all miss you .