A Primer on Ageing , course # 001

 This will most likely be an ongoing theme here at Mile 14, like everything in life, life itself is a work in progress and we learn as we go , everyday every hour. So I decided to do a list of the things that have been working for me as I try to gracefully wander into my 70's... I know all of us have heard the rhetorical  things like " ageing ain't for sissy's " or a variant of that but I wanted to make sense of those things, kinda sort through what I'm learning and how I handle things differently now after going on 68 years of experience.  The biggest thing I need to learn is TO TAKE YOUR OWN ADVICE....so this, a letter to Jeff.

1. shoulda's, coulda's always mean didn't. Regrets will seem to make more sense if they are the " I wish I wouldn't have " variety instead of the " I wish I had " variety.

2. Stretch before you get out of bed, everyday.

3. Question authority as a way to help the world...afterall, now you are the authority.

4. Never tolerate being talked down to or lectured by young people. Be proudful. 

5. It's seems a natural part of ageing to want to be more cautious , be aware of that and then move on.

6. Sing loud and often.

7. There is nothing you can't do too much of, new is good.

8. Exercise everyday. If 10,000 steps is the good, 14,000 is better.

9. All you need is what you have....money wise, people wise, love wise, health wise etc.

10. Buy the double for a dollar at the airport.

11. I used to say ' reward your friends and punish your enemies ' now it's only about your friends. Ain't got time for the idiots I've known along the way. You don't have to be 'friends ' with everybody but you do have to be 'friendly'  with everybody.

12. Forgive, forget ....just live better and laugh more than the people who have disappointed you in life.

13. Don't shy away from sadness, you're at the age when it will accelerate so face it with love , warmth and dignity.

14.  Everything in your life brought you to this wonderful point, the things you shouldn't have done, the things that broke your heart and the successes   you've had . Don't be ashamed or make excuses for anything, anything period . 

15. Things are just has hard and happy is just as happy for everybody on the planet....try not to start the story with ' well back in the day ' or ' when I was cutting my teeth in the business '  

16.  A little pain is good. If you don't have some day to day pain you aren't doing enough . BUT, if that pain is more than a little or it is unusual, take care of it. You're in charge of your health so educate yourself  and see the Doctors when you must with the goal of 30 more years...or so....

17. Have fun....always.....ain't here for a haircut ! enjoy the ride and sit up top whenever you can.

Parallel Worlds

 So MPeasy is in Helena with her sister working on the house and the plan was to meet her at her sisters mountain retreat at Moose Lake and spend the night then drive home to Hammy. I get out  of bed and it's 50 degrees , did I mention that it's spring here ?....So.... I put on my shorts and flip flops and take off for Moose Lake about noon. I've always considered myself a common sense guy but this time I under estimated the difference in elevation, Hammy is at 3,570 feet and Moose Lake is at 5,300.  Here's pic of me in the Frankenstein's boots that Jim Weaver had to lend me.

On the way I stopped in the scenic town of Phillipsburg that is said to being over run by 

Californians like Kelly Clarkson, I needed gas and one of those really soggy egg salad sandwiches that I like when I road trip. The only guy around was the guy running the cash register and he started up the conversation....

" you ain't from around here are ya /" 

" Nope, ya can tell huh ?"

" So where ya goin ?"

" Moose Lake to see the relatives ?" 

" You got 4-wheel drive ?"

" yup, I got a little S.U.V. ?"

" You get stuck up there , ain't nobody to help ya ?"

" Oh I think I'll be O.K. " 

" Them California S.O.B's won't help ya "

" Used to be you could buy land here for 500 bucks an acre, now it's over 4 thousand thanks to them people "

" Well thanks for the chat. gotta go ".

As I drove along the sun was beating on me and I had the roof open and thinking when I got to the Lake me and MP would take the canoe around the lake for a cocktail cruise....Wrong...let's just say spring ain't hit Moose Lake yet. Beneventi has been telling me that the Root is where the Indians would winter as it's the mildest climate in the Big Sky. We drove back through the Big Hole country and I think he's right, the Root is a parallel universe, an island of ...dare I say it.....California like weather in Mooootana. Here's a pic from the wood fired hot tub and the Wise River area on the way home.

They got a funny way of running things in Alaska but boy howdy this Montana is going to take some getting used. I'm really frustrated by the way the government works....hold that.. doesn't work. I guess I shouldn't be to surprised as the current legislative session has had bills to allow concealed hand guns in schools and bars, the vote was actually close. And of course they got a Governor here that was warned for not taking the mandatory wolf trapping  course when he killed a black one because he's ' been trapping his whole life'...even if he is from back East.

Nobody wants to work and it seems the covid has turned into a big ol do nothing culture amongst all the government workers who seem to me to be the only segment of America that didn't lose jobs through all this....So it goes like this : When we arrived were told all the DMV and most other State agencies are closed but don't worry about your licensing as we're relaxing the rules until the covid spike ends. The finally it was OK we're taking on-line reservation for licenses , license plates and of course I need M.T. numbers for my boat to be legal. The 800 number rings for a full two hours and the on-line form has a ' create your account ' page which assigned me a password with a total of 18 letters , numbers and figures....Finally got our reservations for the first available day, May 25th. And the real rub is that you can't get a resident fishing license without a resident drivers license. So I call Fish and Game and ask if there's not something that can be done, ol #003 needs to go fishing. A surly woman told me it's not up to them it's the legislature so if I got problem go to them. I got the feeling the legislature is a little busy with all the important stuff they do to help me go fishing....

How's about a song....MP said she wasn't fond of this song I wrote about gossip in Soldotna so I round filed it for a couple years. But my friend Terry is helping me put together a second and third verse and as he says....at it's core it's really a love song. I was at a meeting and was introduced to a lady who said she was happy to meet  me finally as she had heard that me and MP had a very loving relationship....so I thought that's weird, but really cool at the same time.

 

 

A tale of two rivers

 It's actually springtime on the Bitteroot River and as I see people towing the boats and the energy surrounding it I'm struck again how different just about everything on the two rivers I know is. You know I like lists so I'll put it into that kind of form or what I've noticed starting with this...

Favorite Tow vehicle on the Root: Toyota Tundra, new.

Favorite tow vehicle on the Kenai: Suburban , old.

Favorite Root boat : rubber or the Clackacraft head Hunter

Favorite Kenai Boat : Willie Predator.

Favorite Root rods : Sage, Winston

Favorite  Kenai rods : Lamiglass, Loomis

Favorite Root reels : Orvis , Abel

Favorite Kenai reels : Shimano, ABU Ambasedeur

Favorite Root bait : none

Favorite Kenai bait : salmon eggs

Favorite Root beer : Chardonnay

Favorite Kenai beer : Miller lite, if it's on sale

Favorite Root shore lunch : humus, celery,  berries and ahhh...Chardonnay

Favorite Kenai Shore lunch :  Pizza Boys delivery

Favorite Root donut : Sticky Buns

Favorite Kenai donut : Twinkies

Favorite Root Musician : Rihanna

Favorite Kenai Musician; Hobo Jim

Favorite Kenai Fish term : Hog

Favorite Root fish term  : nice little fella

Favorite Root attire : cargo shorts, Sims UV blocker ( with name ) 

Favorite Kenai attire : Grunden or Helly Hansen 

Favorite Root foot wear : Teva's or Keen's

Favorite Kenai foot wear : Extra Tuff's

mmmmmmm......and speaking of boats, I lucked out and found just what I wanted and what a value it is. Thank you to my new friends at Elephant Boys in Spokane . For about the same price as I sold my 23 year old guide boat with patches and welds and 3000 hours on the motor I got this beauty brand spanking new.

It's the biggest 16' boat I've ever seen. Wide at the chine and the sides are higher than my guide boat at 32 inches. It has beautiful lines and with a 10 degree V to the pad and a reverse chine it's gonna swim just fine. I wanted something lighter and easier to put on and off the trailer as well as go down the road well. I also wanted the tiller handle as I feel really safe with it and I should , I've run it for thousands of hours.

I started my guide career with Mercury and then went to Johnson ( OMC), then I had the Honda sponsorship and got fired and then moved onto Yamaha. So back to square one with Mercury I'm duly impressed. This motor has the innovation that Mercury is known for and the tiller handle is so ergonomically correct that it's amazing. This motor comes with the low idle troll feature as well as a heated handle...now that's a feature !  I suppose you can see that I just love boats. Years ago MP said she wished I spent more time making the house look nice...in Jeff's world parking this baby in the yard does exactly that !  To quote my old friend Shawn Whitmore when I asked him why he was routinely buying new  boats " I guess I'm just a little queer about boats ".

It's and RH brand boat which is now part of a company named Fish Rite that all salmon anglers are familiar with. I hope you keep an eye on Mile 14, fish pics to come. 

No matter where you go...there ya are...

 We have a three mile hike along the Bitteroot River at a place called Skalkahoe Bend that we just love. It has lots of wildlife and healthy interesting people that we meet along the way....And...right now the Bitteroot Water Forum ( BWF ) is doing a project to ' save ' it. Well this is something I know a little bit about and sometimes you learn more from mistakes than you do from your successes. I hate to be critical as I guess you could make the case that I didn't do such a good job of saving the last river I was on but I'm going to risk it. I doubt many of my new neighbors read Mile 14, yet, but if they do here's the deal...I just moved here from California and am going to run for City Council....just joking.

So there's the problem. As you can see the top pic shows the meandering nature of the river and the bottom is looking upstream showing a natural eroding outside bend. The bank is under cut and the flow accelerates to the first pic's log jam where the erosion is stopped by some tree's and then the natural collection of debris that the roots hold. The footprint of our path runs parallel with the river of course but all of 30 to 50 feet from it. And of course they have the usual stay the hell off the bank signs. Unlike on the World famous there are no boat mooring divits , no bank fishing paths, no 200 - 500 powerboats running by everyday throwing wakes at the shoreline...it's all natural. But they only have so much  meander to lose so with no ( or little ) public input they came up with a plan and the work started today.

All along the outside bend about 100 ft. parallel a swale is being built to create trees and yes, willows to hold the bank. Then this part of the bank will be armored with rip rap in hopes of holding off the erosion until the swale matures enough to hold the bank...great plan...But of course unsightly and certainly not natural. One of my observations from the Kenai after 40 years of projects is that there was little or no consideration for the aesthetics of the bank saving projects. The light penetrating boardwalks are now everywhere, shiney aluminum that in many cases is lying around the riverbank derelict from a lack of maintenance. So what could have been done better Hamilton Montana ?

1. The BWF has been criticized for a lack of public input. You having scoping meetings for several reasons. To make the public more comfortable and let them know what to expect and to take suggestions on how the project could be handled to lessen any impact and maybe,just maybe , somebody might have a great idea about how to do it better, if you're listening.

# 1. leads to number 2.  If the bank must be armored it can be done organically with root wads and cabled trees. The clue is really in that first pic. You can see the trees holding the bank just like root wads would while allowing soil,  driftwood and river rock to build up....on the World Famous all those beautiful houses on the outside bend at Beaver Creek would be gone now if not for exactly that type of project. 

3. I don't know where all the $$$$ comes from but like many projects this one is gonna cost some serious lettuce. Now seeing's as it's public money for public property and that the erosion is 100 % natural has anybody thought about a mitigation approach ?  You take that same pool of money and instead of spending it on something that might or might not work you go and buy up some other riverfront for future public use and protection from development . 

4. I think that the BWF's approach should be a last resort thing if and when structures or homes are endangered which right now looks to be decades away if mother nature decides....

5. OK enough.... I know nobody likes new people moving into an area and wanting to change it into where they came from so I'll just shut up . But please BWF, have some meetings so people can get to know you, I'm new here and it's an interest of mine.

Speaking of water....who would ever have thought I'd have trouble finding a boat for my passion. Yikes, they tell me because of the pandemic and a slow down in manufacturing all the new 2021 models of the boats I'd like are spoken for...I went to Townsend Marine who says they are one of the largest Lund dealers in the USA just to see this.

I must be dumber than a mashed cat. I never would have guessed. As we drove up to the Marina I told MP that this is going to be fun as they hundreds and I mean hundreds of boats sitting around....well...wrong. They said I could order sometime in May and then hope for delivery by fall.

If I'd known I might have brought the big ol number 003 boat but it was just really to big and to purpose built for my new fishing life. I like the open with the tiller that I'm so used to but I don't need to seat 4 people and I want something light and easy to handle and to  tow to places I've never been before. Lund, Smokercraft almost all the manufactures make these boats in 16 and 18 foot and they look to be fantastic, they are a far cry from the skinny old red Lund that we all grew up in Alaska with. They are wide, have more V ( some up to 12 degrees ) and are lighter by half than what I'm used to.... I need to go from this: 

To this:

I really want to buy a brand new one and have the features etc that I want like oil bath hubs on the trailer. On St. Paddy's day we're going to Spokane as they have many large dealers there. No place in Montana has a new boat for me.....jeez...Louise....So if any of you, my friends see or know of a new or even used boat like this please holler, that ol white Chevy is ready to go where ever it's gotta go to make it's owner happy.

But all was not lost in our search for the next S.S. Minnow. When we went to Townsend we spent a night at the hot springs and discovered the coolest  picnic spot on the other side of a one way bridge over the Missouri near Toston Montana. The adventure continues....

All growed up.

 It's the weirdest thing. Until your parents pass and leave you alone there's just something where you still feel like a kid and it's a comfort to know that in somebody's eyes you're still just a kid...Odd to think that with MP's moms passing she's now an orphan of sorts. My folks left years ago so when Mary Beaudette went last week I guess I new the route a bit and wasn't surprised when we heard the ol ' she had a great life and that she was 95 ' ....when the people you love are 95 whats wrong with 97 ? 

Some how or another I used to think she didn't like me. She was just a mother who like all of them wanted the best for the kids and I was, well, a, mmmm....not as good at life as I am now. I think we just didn't understand each other and throw in a side order of being off to Alaska with her baby girl well our relationship took a awhile  but she came to love me and I her.

Mary was a tough woman. Growing up on a homestead on the Missouri breaks. Raising 5 kids without the help of a husband. Putting herself through college while raising the kids with no $$$$.  As I sat the other night and listened to MP and her sister reminisce I realized how difficult for her it must have been to have the kids in the orphanage while she made a future for them, the kids grew up on wild game and a pot of deer stew only had meat in it for the first serving.  BUT, the proof was in the pudding, her 5 children are remarkable individuals. I think the best thing a parent can help a child with is a positive self image and that she did, the women in the family have a certain strength and independence who were taught that there are no obstacles and their children were gifted this as well. 

Mary was moved into an assisted living facility after a crash a month ago. She was just to independent for that and she just choose to leave is what I believe. Our last gift besides the gift of love which is eternal was Phizer...The covid  strategy at the senior residence was to inoculate all the people who live there as well as all family and frequent visitors. So tomorrow we go to Helena for our second shot and our lives will get way closer to normal, just with one less person we really love .

Loooooooong week

 Man, it's been a long one for sure...MPeasy went to Helena just as the winterapocalypse set in. The family was getting mom into an assisted living place and I decided to stay and play the guitar and.....well....that was about the entire plan. So on Saturday I get a call that the Phizer vaccine will be given to everybody at Legacy Senior living as well as family and frequent visitors. So, I spent Super Bowl Sunday jacking up the old white truck and putting on the studded snow tires that haven't been on it in ten years. Of course one thing leads to another and the starter froze up in mid tire effort so me and the neighbor Josh had to change that out as well. So I drive from balmy Hamilton to -20 Helena and we have a reunion and wake up the morning of our vaccine with no heat in MP's moms house....yikes... Turns out the exhaust of the new high efficient furnace was broken and in the extreme cold the intake was sucking in the exhaust and shutting down the system. So Tom and I Mcguivered a fix and walla, shots done, furnace fixed , garage cleaned out to park our car, new tires, new starter and a trip to the Casino. Perfect.

It's no news to anybody that more than 1/2 of the USA is experiencing  extreme winter weather. Here it was Winter Storm Uri and now it's Winter Storm Viola soon to be followed by Winter Strom Get me the $@#%&* out of here... Ya know in Alaska they don't personalize the winter by naming it. Instead they just blame it on the Russians as it's usually a Siberian Front that is responsible and Alaskans go about the business of dealing with the Polar Vortex or the Mega High or the Aluetian trough. But here in Montana it's just sooooo exciting. Every morning I wake up to old smiley here and garner some real world survival skills from him. I kid you not , he told us the other morning the best way to stay warm is to stay inside.

 

I've driven through a few blizzards. In fact just a couple weeks ago we had a class 9 through Utah and of course between Anchorage and Soldotna I almost stopped the car in a whiteout in the Portage area returning from the Great Alaska Shootout...of course that was shortly after Sam got car sick and threw up a Hostess Pink Snowball into a frisbee right behind the drivers seat...you get the point, it's stressful and the blizzard on the way to Helena was a class 8 I'd guess. I stopped to help a couple cars that parked in the ditch and were way to stuck for me to do much except make sure the ladies stayed safe and the usual Hamilton-Helena 2 and 1/2 hour trip was 4 and 1/2 hours....But we got the shots and there's light at the  end of the tunnel, and it ain't a train.  In two more weeks we'll get our second shot and receive our get out of jail free card and just maybe we can go from this.

to this.

But being Alaskan as the rest of Hamy and Stevi were in lock down we drove to Stevi to shop at the Mennonite store because we have nice new studded tires and we just love shopping there.  We drove the old highway and stopped for our tradition of eating Jalepeno Poppers as we drive and reflect on the winter scene. I love the ' snow snakes ' that the wind drives across the road. Here's the scenes which was really kind of in between flurries.

As I type MP's waiting for me to finish so we can get our daily 3 mile morning in... You've heard me say it a million times, ' ya just gotta want to do it "....and little old fashion tuff has to come into play as well.   Geno used to say ' Christ hates a coward '...lets ALL carry on.

Life ain't always a tire swing

 We got the call last Thursday. Cousin Bobby found MP's mom lying next to the bed unconscious and she was in I.C.U. at St Petes  hospital. She had somehow fallen and her body was accepting room temp so she was hypothermic with a body temp of  93. Somehow she had gotten her hand tangled up in the box springs under the bed and her index finger was horribly mangled ....It looked like the end.  We packed immediately and left Green Valley at 4:00 a.m.. Our plan was to drive north staying in touch with the family so we could get MP to a major airport along the way when it was time. I stayed on Highway 15 all the way from Las Vegas, 700 hundred miles on the first day and 500 on the second as my mother in law seemed to be stable and maybe getting better, she is one tough lady. To make a long story short it wasn't long before we got a pic of her sitting up in bed eating salmon, yep, she ain't dyeing this time. At first she had lost memory from the hypothermia but that came around and then she had her finger amputated and she was playing her suduko puzzles with what she calls ' stubby' ...jeez...So, we're back in Montana. MP's mom will be released to an assisted living soon and all is right with the world, just another bump in the road. It's been an emotional week and a bit of a whirlwind.

Needless to say I didn't have time for our usual daisy sniffing along the way. But we did stop for fuel in Dubois Idaho and I was duly impressed by the isolation of this place. You don't get here by accident. Once a thriving town it now has just houses and one gas station/ grocery / beer / front porch sitting  all in one store...Downtown Dubois, you must go someday and wonder how and why people live there...I'll find out on the next trip when I have time to talk story with the locals.

You know you're in the far west when you see a sign that says ' next services 82 miles '.  This is what that looks like.

Lucky for me , right before we had to blast off to Montana we got to do some ultra cool stuff....Growing up as an Army Brat one of my hobbies is Military History, I read a lot. So right in Green Valley is a National Historical location which is the only Titan Missile Silo in existence. This place along with 11 other were rushed into service in the desert and came on line as a nuclear deterrent at the height of the Cold War, 1963.  Each missile had multiple re entry nuclear bombs. Together with the other Titan Batteries in Arkansas and North Dakota it amounted to hundreds of Nuclear weapons to assure what was called M.A.D. = mutually assured destruction . Naturally the Russians had Hundreds as well so both sides new it would be pointless to push the button when there was so much fire power involved. I have my own theory....considering that missile powered space flight was so new and complex I think they figured most of these things wouldn't work so redundancy was the key to winning a nuclear war. Here's me top side and the missile looking down, very cool.

At the Titan site we were encouraged to visit the Pima County Aerospace museum, we were told that it was very covid friendly as it's huge, almost 100 acres. So the next day we were there and it's about the coolest I've ever been to. Max and me did the Boeing Museum is Seattle but this place is like Seattle's on steroids. When I was a kid not only did I see a Nike Missile launch at Fort Greeley Alaska but many times we were at Edwards and George Air Force Base in California which is part of the desert training area with Fort Irwin where we were stationed. The experimental Delta wing Bomber the EXB-70 crashed near Fort Irwin...So it was cool for me to see all the planes I've heard of and so many that I've seen like these first swept wing bombers the B-47 that were stationed at Eielson AFB when us kids would go there to swim.

As we walked and I described all the planes to MPeasy A-10 tank busters and B-1 bombers flew over  from the museums neighbor, Davis Monthan AFB. The entire area is aviation. This Korean War era Mig-17 was one of my favorites. It battled our new swept wing fighter the F-83 Sabres and I have to say the Sabre looked to be a way more refined aircraft...in fact all the Russian Aircraft looked to be  kind of primitive compared  to their American counterparts and many were obvious copies. Here's the Mig and me in front of  a vertical takeoff British Harrier that won the War of the Falklands for the country that brought us the Beatles. 

As we were dropping some lettuce in the gift shop I noticed this on the wall and asked the cashier if she knew what it was called and she didn't. Well it's an Alaska thing I guess as it's the Marston Mat that they say helped win the war in the Aleutians , almost instant runway and...works darn nice for launching boats on the Kenai River.

Right down the road is what they call ' The Bone Yard ' .... It's actually where hundreds, no thousands of decommissioned airplanes rest in the dry and metal friendly desert. Some of these planes are relics but a huge portion of them have been put away with care and are maintained if ever needed again, the work of the 309th Aerospace + Regeneration Group. Very impressive the military might of our country. We saw hundreds of Hercules type cargo aircraft lined up I'd bet dollars to donuts from what I know of the U.S. military our guys could have them in the air in days. I told MP the worlds bullies like Kim Jong-Un ought to get a free tour.

So life is kinda normal. We're in Hammy and enjoying being in our new home. We walked along the river this morning and although it ain't the world famous it's just right for us right now, right here. Ain't MP cute walking in the snow squall ? I'll be batching it come mid week for a while when she goes to Helena to help get her Mom settled into the new place...it's a big part of why we're here....it's love.

We came home to a beautifully remodeled bathroom. My new friend Steve Robinson made it new again and as he decided to set the vanity into the wall it's made the worlds smallest bathroom way roomier. We love it  Stevie....mucho gracias.... I hope ya all come back to Mile 14.😎