Just like that, everything changed. The phone rang and I was offered a teaching job in Moore, Montana, for under $12,000 a year. Even then, that was poverty wages. In fact, the music teacher's kids were the only ones in the school who qualified for the federal free lunch program. My brothers brought home more on unemployment when they got laid off from Land O' Lakes. Fortunately, as a young single...  Read More

After five days, four of them on a Greyhound bus, I was back in Minnesota without a teaching job. Montana was beautiful. I loved the mountains, the dry heat ( Minnesota is extremely humid in the summer) and the lack of mosquitoes. There was a teacher hiring freeze across the entire state of Minnesota, and the only job posting (other than Montana) at my college placement office was in Kuwait. I wok...  Read More

I thought that my interview with superintendent Rich Hughes went well, but I didn't have any indication about whether or not I'd be offered a job. The bus only came through once a day, so I borrowed a ride to Lewistown, Montana, to find a place to spend the night. The next day I was back on the bus for a 2 day trip home to Minnesota. To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement. I had...  Read More

I stood for a moment on the gravel street, suitcase in hand, wondering which way to go. The 'bus stop' was the Farmers' Co-op gas station. I asked the employee- Ralph- the only person I had seen, how to find the school. He pointed to a green, metal 'pole barn' looking building at the end of the street. It turns out that the gravel road I was standing on was Main Street in Moore, Montana. There wer...  Read More

Life was in some respects more of an adventure before we could 'Google.' I rode a Greyhound bus for two days to get to my first teaching job interview. I stepped off the bus on a hot summer day, wearing a corduroy sport coat and carrying a suitcase (yes, in those days they did not have wheels). It was my first time in Montana, and the only thing I knew about this little town was that they needed a...  Read More

Two tundra swans glided silently by as a loon's morning song echoed across the surface of the lake. A light fog is hovering over the water. There's something peaceful- something good for the soul- about being next to 'still' waters. As a young man tending sheep, David must have shared this feeling. He was a musician and is the most famous song writer of antiquity.  He wrote, "The Lord is my shephe...  Read More

I was out caribou hunting in the Alphabet Hills with one of my wrestlers. It was his first hunt. As I led the way down a very steep hill, I had an interesting experience. A rock was jutting up in the center of the trail about 3 or 4 inches... I thought. My small machine had 6 inches of clearance, so I paid little attention... until I was summersaulting over the top of my handle bars... feet high i...  Read More

A friend is taking me flying this morning. It started me thinking- it's been almost 30 years since I've flown a plane. I've flown IN a lot of planes since then, but never as the pilot. There is something that is very comfortable about letting someone else fly the plane- letting someone else handle the controls. I can simply enjoy the ride. This is the way that God wants us to live our lives. I onc...  Read More

My daughter and I were climbing a mountain the other day and nearly caught up with an older climber who had started long before us. In fact, I wondered if he was going to make the summit because he looked like he was struggling. I was shocked later that day to see him climbing an even higher peak farther into the mountains. I could see that he knows the 'secret' to climbing a mountain. What is tha...  Read More

So there I was, standing in the black spruce getting eaten alive by mosquitoes- stuck. My 4-wheeler was high centered in what amounted to a narrow, deep trench. Somehow I needed to tilt it up on its side so it would no longer be resting on the skid plate, and then throttle the 2 left wheels forward. I knocked down and limbed a spruce tree that I could use as a pry bar. By jamming the 6 inch end of...  Read More

Getting stuck in Alaska's wilderness on an a small 4-wheeler presents unique challenges. I'm certain that I've faced this more than 100 times, and many of them while hunting by myself. On this particular day I was 'high centered.' Not only could I not physically lift the front or the back of the machine, but even if I could, I had nowhere to move it. Each wheel rut was up against a solid earth wal...  Read More

I had snowmachined into the high country with some friends, and we were stopped just below treeline. I had hunted dall sheep in this country and knew how tough the peak and ridge above me were- both to get to and to walk. Imagine my shock when I looked high above me, and, standing on a windswept rock outcropping, were four moose... in the middle of winter... on a jagged mountain... far above treel...  Read More