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Winnett’s mayor

A woman of endurance

Hunting educator keeps kids learning

A Day on the Bighorn

June 2016

June 2016 — 2

Savvy Senior ............................................Page 3Opinion ....................................................Page 4 Health .......................................................Page 5Menu ........................................................Page 18

Calendar ...................................................Page 19Volunteering .............................................Page 20Strange But True ......................................Page 22

INSIDE

New West Health Services is a PPO Plan with a Medicare Contract. Enrollment in New West Medicare depends on contract renewal. You must continue to pay your Medicare Part B premium. Limitations, co-payments, and restrictions may apply. The formulary, pharmacy network, and/or provider network may change at any time. You will receive notification when necessary. The benefit information provided is a brief summary, not a complete description of benefits. For more information contact New West Medicare. For accommodations of persons with special needs at a sales meeting call 1-888-873-8044, TTY 711, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Benefits may change on January 1 of each year. H2701_NW#_SP_672-12-2015 Accepted

At New West Medicare, we are the only Montana company that is 100% focused on providing the best Medicare experience for our friends, family, and neighbors. That’s why we offer no deductibles, low co-pays, the ability to use health care providers you want, prescription drug coverage, and a healthy aging program with a fitness facility membership in every plan. Plus, we pride ourselves on providing our members with excellent customer service from right here in Montana. Let New West make Medicare simple for you.

888.873.8044 · TTY 711newwestmedicare.comFind us on

What does it mean to bea New West Medicare member?

Strongertogether.

Man makes burglar teens call 911 COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) — A Coos Bay homeowner made teens

caught breaking into his house call 911 to report themselves.KATU-TV reports the three 14-year-old boys were all taken to

the Douglas County Juvenile Detention Center on charges includ-ing burglary, trespassing and possession of marijuana.

The Coos County sheriff’s office says the man was armed when he discovered the boys burglarizing his home.

Emergency dispatchers say he made one of the teens call police and report the burglary in progress.

World dance record BEIJING (AP) — China’s dancing grannies have taken their

moves to the record books.Guinness World Records says more than 31,000 Chinese par-

ticipants have set a record for mass plaza dancing in multiple locations.

Some 31,697 people in Beijing, Shanghai and four other cities set the new mark on May 21 by performing choreographed dance moves together for more than five minutes, Guinness said on its website.

Man runs for 10,000 consecutive days SAUGUS, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man who made a

resolution on Jan. 1, 1989, to run every day is still going strong — 27 years later.

Saugus resident Lenworth “Kip” Williamson recently ran for the 10,000th consecutive day.

The 57-year-old General Electric Co. engineering manager tells The Daily Item of Lynn that he remembers reading at the time that if you can do something for 21 days, it becomes a habit. Wil-liamson sticks to the streets, regardless of the weather, and puts in at least 3 miles a day. At least once a week, he puts in a 6- to 8-mile run.

He says as long as his legs work, he will continue running.

News Lite

Dear Savvy Senior, Can you recommend some smartphones that are specifically

designed for seniors? My 75-year-old mother is interested in upgrading from a basic cellphone to a smartphone, but will need one that’s very easy to operate.

– Inquiring Daughter

Dear Inquiring, I wrote about this topic just last year, but in the fast changing

world of personal technology devices, there’s a new crop of simplified smartphones that have recently hit the market that are better than ever for tech-shy seniors. Here are my three top options.

»Doro 824 SmartEasyOffered by Consumer Cellular, the new Doro 824 SmartEasy is

one of the best, simplified smartphones available today. It starts with a bright, 5-inch high-resolution touch screen display that offers large icons and text, and customizable volume settings. Its simplified design pairs down the options, providing uncluttered, easy access to key contacts and frequently used features — such as the phone, text messages, the camera email and the Internet — right from the home screen. And, it provides help as you go along from the built-in coach.

It also offers a unique pre-installed My Doro Manager app that can also be downloaded by family or friends. This app provides a number of tutorials showing your mom how to enjoy her phone, and gives her trusted contacts the remote ability to help manage and adjust her Doro smartphone from their smartphone no matter where they are.

And for added convenience and safety, the Doro 824 provides three physical buttons on the front of the phone for quick, one-touch access to the home screen, recently used applications, and a back button that returns to the previous screen. And an “Emergen-cy Alert” button on the back of the phone that will automatically dial one, predetermined contact in the event of an emergency.

The Doro 824 is sold online at ConsumerCellular.com, over the phone at 888-532-5366, or at any Target or Sears store for $200 with no contract.

» Jitterbug SmartOffered by GreatCall wireless, the new 4th generation Jitterbug

Smart is much bigger than previous GreatCall smartphones. This phone is actually an Alcatel smartphone that’s been rebranded and loaded with GreatCall’s simplified user interface software.

It has a big, bright 5.5-inch high-definition touch screen, and a

simple single-list menu on the home page that provides easy access to only frequently used features, along with one-touch access to contacts and other apps.

It also provides convenient voice typing for emails and texts, and offers a variety of optional health and safety features, like MedCoach, that sends medication and prescription refill remind-ers. Urgent Care, which provides unlimited access to registered nurses and doctors to answer health questions. And a 5Star medi-cal-alert service that lets you speak to a live emergency-alert agent around the clock. These trained agents will confirm your mom’s location via GPS tracking technology and dispatch help as needed.

Available online at GreatCall.com, or at Best Buy, Rite Aid, Sears and Walmart stores for $150 with a onetime $35 activation fee and no contract.

»Samsung Galaxy Note5While this smartphone isn’t designed specifically for seniors, its

large size (5.7-inch screen) and unique “Easy” mode setting that boosts the icon and font sizes and simplifies the home-screen lay-out, makes it a good option.

With the Easy mode turned on, the Note5’s home screen will display only the time, date and local weather, and six frequently used functions. To access your 12 most important contacts, you would simply swipe the home screen to the right. And to access your 12 favorites apps, swipe to the left.

The Note5 (see Samsung.com/galaxynote5) is available with 32 and 64 GB of storage from the major carriers (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile) and some smaller carriers at prices ranging between $615 and $840 without a contract.

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org.

June 2016 — 3

Jim Miller, creator of the syndicated “Savvy Senior” information column, is a longtime advocate of senior issues. He has been featured in Time magazine; is author of “The Savvy Senior: The Ultimate Guide to Health, Family and Finances for Senior Citizens”; and is a regular contributor to the NBC “Today” show.

Simple Smartphones for seniors

June 2016 — 4

Opinion

From kerosene lanterns to smartphone boarding passesOn a recent trip to Chicago to visit our children, my wife

and I broke through the technology glass ceiling and used our smartphones as boarding passes to get on the plane.

That’s right, we put those babies on the scanner and walked right down the tunnel to the aircraft — who needs paper anymore? Actually, I do, because I kept the paper versions of our boarding passes close at hand in case tech-nology failed. I wasn’t going to miss a flight to see our kids because of a dead cellphone battery. So I guess my age showed, because I for sure had a backup plan.

The bullet-paced track of technology is amazing even for young millennials. And for baby boomers who have watched it change in their lifetime, it’s astounding. And for me personally, it’s unbelievable.

I grew up in Bolivia, where, in rural areas, electricity was either nonexistent or at least of very poor quality, where there were no phones — I’m talking about the old rotary kind — where kerosene and gas lanterns provided light, and where the pinnacle of technology was a radio. I have also worked in remote areas of Honduras where on one

occasion I trekked through the jungle at night with a group of people using pine-pitch torches for light.

To go from that to putting my cell phone atop a scanner in the Denver and Chicago airports kind of freaks me out. I thought it was a big deal when I got a IIsi Macintosh com-puter with something like an 80-megabyte hard drive for my job as editor at the paper in Terry, Montana, back in the early 1990s. Today, desktop computers have hard drive space measured in gigabytes and terabytes — incompre-hensibly greater than those early machines.

Where will it all lead? I can tell you. Our children, when they get to be 50-plussers, will view our smartphone boarding pass-es as something as primitive as those pine-pitch torches lighting my way through the jungle at night not too many years ago.

Unbelievable.– Dwight Harriman,

Montana Best Times Editor

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Dwight Harriman, Editor • Sean Douma, Designer

P.O. Box 2000, 401 S. Main St., Livingston MT 59047Tel. (406) 222-2000 or toll-free (800) 345-8412 • Fax: (406) 222-8580 E-mail: montanabesttimes@livent.net • Subscription rate: $25/yr. Published monthly by Yellowstone Newspapers, Livingston, Montana

Correction In a story titled “Montana family provides all-natural beef for America” in the May issue of Montana Best Times, incorrect photo credits were given for two photos. All the photos were tak-en by Dan Killoy. Montana Best Times Editor Dwight Harriman regrets the errors.

Health

June 2016 — 5

By Sarah KleinPrevention magazine/TNS

For the first time, older adults got their very own personalized sleep recommendations. The National Sleep Foundation con-cluded, after reviewing the scientific research on sleep duration, that adults 65 and up should aim for 7 to 8 hours a night, com-pared to adults 26 to 64, who should sleep between 7 and 9. The distinction might not seem like a huge deal at first, but it’s a nod to what many older adults inherently know to be true: Sleep really does change with age.

“Our sleep changes throughout the lifespan,” says Natalie D. Dautovich, PhD, the NSF’s environmental scholar and an assis-tant psychology professor at Virginia Commonwealth Universi-ty. Some of the most dramatic changes, she says, actually occur in our 20s, but as we reach older adulthood some themes tend to arise. Many 50+ sleepers find it’s easier to become awakened during the night, which is reflected in a little shorter sleep dura-tion over all, Dautovich says.

It’s not exactly a welcome change: The NSF found 71 percent of 55- to 64-year-olds report some sleep problem, including dif-ficulty falling asleep, waking up still tired, or snoring.

Dautovich urges anyone dealing with these issues to bring them up to a medical professional. Depending on your symp-toms — maybe you’re excessively sleepy during the day or you’re irritable, unfocused, and achy — medication, lifestyle changes, or even cognitive therapy can help.

Here are a few of the unique sleep situations facing you as you age.

• Your bedtime and your wake-up time shift earlier.Remember how all you wanted to do when you were 19 was

stay up late and doze until noon? You weren’t just exercising your laziest teenager muscles; our natural internal clocks, tech-nically called our circadian rhythms, are delayed until our 20s, meaning we truly don’t get tired until later at night and don’t feel alert until later in the morning, Dautovich explains. After we grow out of this phase, though, our circadian rhythms keep advancing, and later in life we tend to become sleepy earlier and feel our most alert earlier in the morning, too.

• You wake up more during the night.An odd thing starts to happen in our brains as we age, says

board-certified sleep specialist and sleep doctor, Michael J. Bre-us, PhD. “The amplitude of our brain waves changes,” he says. To be classified as deep, restful, restorative sleep, brain waves have to reach a certain height, and after age 50 or so, the spikes simply don’t get as high, he says. That lighter sleep is a heck of a lot easier to disturb, meaning you become a lot easier to wake up. Whether it’s your bed partner’s snoring, the usual creaky house noises, or a little indigestion, you may find you’re no lon-ger able to sleep right through disturbances. Those arousals in turn mean you’re getting worse sleep, Breus says. (Here’s how to sleep better every night.)

Of course, it’s only natural to figure you can make up for that with an afternoon nap. A word of caution, though: While you’re

undoubtedly tired during the day if you’ve tossed and turned all night, napping can sometimes do more harm than good. “Unfor-tunately, that can disrupt our natural rhythms and result in poor-er sleep the following night,” Dautovich says.

• You gotta go.Some 53 percent of adults ages 55 to 84 get up to pee every

night or almost every night, according to the NSF. Certainly, some of us get a more frequent urge to relieve ourselves as we age, possibly because our nerves don’t function as well. But hit-ting the head may also be related to that lighter sleep we get, she says. “People are more aware of urges to urinate that they may not have been aware of when they were in deeper sleep.” As long as you can fall back to sleep within 5 or 10 minutes of a pee break, don’t stress. If it’s difficult to doze off again after a trip to the loo, bring it up with your doc.

• Your hot flashes never quit.Menopause’s famed hormonal wackiness can definitely dis-

rupt your slumber, Dautovich says. Fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone can make healthy sleep harder to come by, and insufferable hot flashes can wake some women up or make it impossible to drift off. Mood changes can also trigger sleep problems, making menopause decidedly unfriendly to sleep. Aside from following all the general sleep hygiene rules, Dautovich suggests making your sleep environment more “flex-ible” if you can: Sleep in breathable fabrics and layer sheets and blankets on the bed so you can easily fling ‘em to the side mid-flash.

• You start to snore.One of aging’s more unpleasant side effects is how easy it is

to suddenly find yourself carrying a bit of extra poundage. That weight gain can lead to snoring, because a thicker neck means a narrower windpipe, Breus explains. If your windpipe narrows so much it becomes blocked, you may even stop breathing periodically throughout the night, known as obstructive sleep apnea.

While sleep apnea is more common in men, he says, after menopause many more women start to experience it, too. If you’re snoring or have apnea, you don’t get as much air in, Bre-us says, which changes the overall quality of sleep. Of course, you’re also likely bothering the person lying next to you. “If you sleep next to a snoring bed partner, you lose approximately 1 hour of sleep a night,” he says. (Separate bedrooms suddenly doesn’t seem so outlandish ... )

• You’re at a higher risk for restless legs.The rates of this mysterious sleep-related condition start to

climb after people hit 50 or so, Breus says. The overpowering urge to move, usually the legs, can also grow more severe with age. Although there’s still a lot experts don’t totally understand about restless legs syndrome, it’s thought to be related to the brain chemical dopamine, which declines with age, or iron defi-ciency, also common among older folks.

––––For more great health tips, pick up a copy of Prevention mag-

azine, visit www.prevention.com, or follow us @PreventionMag.

6 sleep problems that crop up after age 50

June 2016 — 6

� Story and photos by Jason Stuart Montana Best Times

BIGHORN RIVER — We scoot down the river like a leaf on the wind, no sounds to be heard but the soft “thwap, thwap, thwap” as the drift boat bounces over the riffles and the light “swoosh” of the oars as they break the surface of the crystalline waters. In the distance, the last vestiges of winter’s embrace cling in airy whispers to the high peaks of the Bighorns, while above, an azure April sky peppered with cottony powder-puffs of clouds heralds the dawn of spring and life renewed.

There could be no better morning for my first fly-fishing float trip down the world-renowned Bighorn River. I’ve seen it and fished it before, but never like this. And I could have no better guide for this adventure than Gary Kirkpatrick.

Introducing people to the riverGary, 67, is a just-recently retired telecommunications engineer

from Glendive. He is not a professional fishing guide, but you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone with a more intimate knowledge of this river. He’s been fishing it since the Yellowtail Dam went up in 1968, transforming the Bighorn from an unremarkable fish-ing stream with but a few trout in it below the gates of the Big-horn Canyon into the legendary blue ribbon trout fishery it is today.

“The fish per mile, it varies, but sometimes you’re talking about 3,500 to 4,500 fish per river mile, which is absolutely amazing,” Gary says of the Bighorn.

That this river hides a writhing mass of fish flesh beneath its glass veneer is borne out as I watch innumerable trout scatter beneath us as the boat passes. It is further evidenced by the bald

eagle we spy early into our float. It is the largest eagle I have ever seen, grown fat gorging on the trout buffet below. The majestic but ungainly bird floats across the Big Sky like a winged zeppe-lin, scanning the waters below for his next helping.

As we float, Gary speaks of the river, how, even as a largely controlled stream below the dam, it’s constantly changing. We float past one of his old favored fishing holes. We might have stopped, but the hole doesn’t look the same. High water at some point has scoured out the banks and altered it drastically. That hole is gone, but the river has undoubtedly created a new one somewhere else, waiting to be discovered by a pioneering angler.

These fishing holes have names, too. “Duck Blind.” “Crow Beach.” “The Turkey Foot.” Gary speaks of each one like they were old friends with whom he can’t wait to reunite. It’s quickly clear he knows as much about the Bighorn as any of the guides who charge fly-fishing tourists hundreds of bucks a pop for their services, but he never had any inkling to be one.

“I was asked to be a guide several times, but I had another job,” Gary says. “To be honest, being a guide on the river never really appealed to me.”

That being said, Gary is an “unofficial” Bighorn guide of sorts for denizens of Glendive. He has taken several people from Glen-dive on their first float trips down the river over the years. For several, they caught the first trout of their lifetime with Gary as their mentor.

The night before our trip, Gary proudly shows me his photo collection of each Glendivian he’s introduced to Bighorn fly-fish-ing, and to the exhilarating joy of reeling in a thrashing trout. Each person in every photo beams widely, their first Bighorn trout — or first trout, period — clutched in their hands.

Gary intends to add me to this collection.

A day on the BighornThere’s much more to it than catching fish

Above: Gary Kirkpatrick floats down the Bighorn River on a recent fly-fishing trip. On the cover: Kirkpatrick tries his hand wading near shore.

Fishing bondsThat’s part of Gary’s raison d’etre for taking these fishing

excursions in the first place. Building relationships with people is every bit as important to him as the act of fishing itself, while fishing together strengthens the bonds being built.

“I think you develop a relationship that’s long-lasting and lasts for many, many years,” Gary says. “It’s not like getting to know some-body through an organization or anything else — you develop a unique relationship. Fishing, I think, takes that to a higher degree.”

Fishing is the proverbial chicken soup to Gary’s soul. It has been since he was 8 and his father took him for his first fishing excursion along Montana’s Boulder River. He shared that story with me, how his dad plopped him in a spot along the bank and left him to his own devices.

As his father walked away, young Gary quickly snagged himself in a tree behind him as he attempted to cast. His father saw, but did nothing, just gave him a look and kept walking. Learning through failure was the elder Kirkpatrick’s preferred teaching method.

As Gary himself says, “He was teaching me.” A few casts later, 8-year-old Gary got it right and caught his

first fish, by which he became hooked as much as that trout. Truth be told, six decades later, I don’t think he’s ever let that fish off the line.

Landing a nice oneOn our float trip, there aren’t too many fish on anybody’s line.

A cold front moved in the day before and gave the fish the lock-jaw. (To the uninitiated, as Gary explains, the drop in barometric pressure that comes with a cold front has a physiological effect on fish, making them lethargic.) Gary is eager to put me on a fish and I’m eager to catch one, but for the longest time, I’m skunked with nary so much as a nibble.

The fishing is made more difficult by the gigantic clumps of green moss which come hurtling down the river like amorphous aquatic goblins. Gary’s never seen the moss like this so early, a fact he comments on repeatedly as we fight through the stuff. (He later learned that the unusually warm winter combined with dam regulators restricting the outflow from the reservoir out of con-

cern over the slight snowpack is the cause.)He teaches me the patented “Bighorn slap”

to knock the moss off my fly before each cast, but the stuff still takes its toll. When Gary lands the first fish of the day, he has a devil of a time reeling it in, as one of the moss clumps wraps itself around the fish. When I net it, you can’t tell where moss ends and trout begins.

Despite the dearth of action one usually expects on this blue ribbon trout stream, Gary remains ever optimistic.

“The fishing’s great, the catching’s not,” he says several times throughout the day, an upbeat outlook that Gary appears to apply to life in general.

Finally, about midway through our trip, we stop at one of Gary’s favorite holes, and I watch in a combination of awe and frustration as Gary walks right out to a specific spot and promptly lands four or five fish in quick succession.

Gary pivots me into the spot where he was while he graciously goes to tie up a new rig after the one I had been using got hopelessly

tangled up on me. He even gives me his pole. My first few casts are fruitless, however, and my frustration builds. Gary, watching me from near the bank, shouts at me to cast upriver in exactly the 10 o’clock position, aiming at a small pile of boulders upriver on the opposite bank.

I follow his instructions to the letter, and, like clockwork, on my very first cast, my strike indicator vanishes in an instant below the surface as a trout absolutely wallops my fly. I reel in a very nice, fat 17-inch Bighorn brown. Gary runs over to net him for me. Then he has me hold up my prize so he can snap my picture.

I’ve officially been added to his collection.We continue fishing for several hours after that, but that fish

will be the only one I actually land all day.

River mantraBut, as Gary postulates repeatedly, what difference does that

make? The silvery ribbon of the Bighorn stretches out before us beneath the boundless Big Sky while the purple majesty of the mountains looms behind us. The Canada geese are nesting all along its banks. A half-dozen different species of ducks swim around us throughout our float. Enormous eagles soar overhead. Today, we’re experiencing all the bounty and soul regenerating power of Montana’s natural wonder, and nothing, not even a pau-city of trout, can dampen that.

“I like the fact that I can truly say that, like today, it was an amazing day of fishing, but the catching’s not the best,” Gary says. “That means a lot to me, to have that environment. The riv-er, there’s so many aspects to it.”

And as we finally pull into the landing and I ready to leave back for home and the drudgery of offices and work schedules, the truth of Gary’s words strike like an arrow through the very center of my soul.

“The fishing’s great, the catching’s not.” Amen.––––Reach Jason Stuart is a reporter at the Glendive Ranger

Review. Reach him at rrreporter@rangerreview.com or (406) 377-3303.

June 2016 — 7

Kirkpatrick enjoys the peace of the Bighorn River on a recent outing.

� Story and photos by Doreen Heintz Montana Best Times

LEWISTOWN — When the town of Winnett’s Ralph Corbett retired from the Petroleum County road department after 30 and a half years, he fully expected his life to slow down, but that just has not been the case.

For years, Ralph and his wife, Carol Ann Schaffer, have walked the sidelines at football games and watched many basket-ball games and volleyball matches in the gymnasiums at Winnett, Roundup and Grass Range. Ralph and Carol are sports photographers for the Roundup Record Tribune/Winnett Times. The two also take photos for parents at the three schools.

Ralph fully intended to keep taking pho-tos, even though it meant purchasing new digital cameras, a few years back, but it is all the other things Ralph now does — in addition to photography — that keeps him very busy during his retirement years.

Ralph has served the town of Winnett as its mayor for the past two and a half years. In addition, he serves on the Central Mon-tana Tourism Board and the Conservation District Board, and is a member of the Snowy Mountain Development Corpora-tion Board of Directors. In addition, Ralph has served as a rifle hunting safety instruc-tor for the past 29 years and as a bow hunting safety specialist for 26 years.

And if that is not enough, Ralph serves Winnett as the associate water and waste water operator. In his free time, he likes to hunt as well as shoot informally — but not competitively. He reloads all of his own ammunition.

“Yes, I also like to listen to the radio, but I don’t care to watch television,” Ralph said of his active life style in retire-ment.

BackgroundRalph was born in Great Falls and grew

up in Cascade. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Navy and served his country for four years.

“I saw duty off the waters of Vietnam,” said Ralph. “I was on a ship called the USS Mount Katmai. We helped provide ammu-nition for our servicemen in Vietnam.

“It was also in the Navy when I devel-oped my first interest in photography,” Ralph said. “I took just general photos back then.”

After being discharged from the Navy, Ralph went to college at Montana State University in Bozeman and spent his sum-mers working for the U.S. Forest Service.

After three years of college, Ralph quit school.

“I never regret quitting college,” he said. “I had just had enough.”

After spending one year running a pilot car business, Ralph began working as a ranch hand. He ended up near Winnett working on a ranch. There, he met Carol.

June 2016 — 8

Winnett mayor busier than ever in retirement

Ralph Corbett takes photos at a track meet in Lewistown the first weekend in April.

The two were married in 1978. After working on a ranch for several years, Ralph was hired for the Petroleum County road department.

Ralph got Carol interested in photography. “Carol is more precise when it comes to taking pictures than I

am,” Ralph admitted. “I see myself more as a photojournalist.”

Photographing the kidsNow, if there is a sporting event happening in central Montana,

one will most likely see Ralph or Carol or both at the event. Carol doesn’t get to take photos as much as Ralph, because she is also a bus driver for the Winnett school.

Ralph doesn’t have a preference of what sport he likes to shoot the most — he just likes photographing the young people of cen-tral Montana and watching them grow and develop over the years.

Like many other retirees, Ralph stays busier now than when he was working a full-time job.

––––Doreen Heintz is the sports editor at the Lewistown News-

Argus. Reach her at sports@lewistownnews.com or (406)535-3401.

June 2016 — 9

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Call (406) 248-9117 • 1439 Main Street • Billings, MT

Another shot of Ralph Corbett taking photos at the track meet in Lewistown the first weekend in April.

Caught playing ball at unfinished stadium HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The Hartford Yard Goats won’t

be the first to take the field at Dunkin’ Donuts Park when the Double-A team makes it long-awaited debut at the new stadium.

Police say four men were arrested and charged with criminal trespassing after they were caught playing baseball in the yet-to-be-completed Connecticut ballpark at about 8:30 p.m.

An officer assigned to a security detail at the stadium discov-ered the men after hearing yelling and cheering coming from the field. When the officer went to investigate the commotion, he found a man on the pitcher’s mound, another in the batter’s box and two in the outfield.

Police say one of the men who was charged works for Center-plan Construction, a company involved in building the ballpark. The others were his friends.

12-year-old student ready to start university SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A 12-year-old Sacramento

student who already has three community college degrees and has been accepted to two University of California campuses says he plans on studying biomedical engineering and becoming a doctor and medical researcher by the time he turns 18.

Tanishq Abraham has been accepted to UC Davis and received a regents scholarship to UC Santa Cruz, but he has yet to decide which university he’ll attend, reported Sacramento television sta-tion CBS 13.

“I think I’ll be 18 when I get my M.D.,” he said.Tanishq started community college at age 7 and last year he

received associate’s degrees from American River College, a

community college in Sacramento, in general science; math and physical science; and foreign language studies.

Professors at the college didn’t initially want him in their class-es because of his age. But finally a professor agreed to let him attend if his mother, a doctor of veterinary medicine, also took the class. “There were times when I had to explain general rela-tivity and special relativity to my mom,” he said.

Biology professor Marlene Martinez said he was never afraid to ask a lot of questions. “In lecture he would always pop up with ‘so, does that mean ...’ or ‘what about this?’ “ Martinez said.

Tanishq, who joined the IQ society Mensa at only 4 years old, has always picked up knowledge quickly, his father, Bijou Abra-ham, told NBC News.

News Lite

� By Mary Elizabeth Grue Montana Best Times

TERRY — As an equestrian, mother, rancher, nurse and runner, Janet Fredrick-son can truly be called a woman of endur-ance.

Fredrickson, 52, lives on a ranch south of Terry with her husband Scott, whom she met at Montana State University when

they were on the same livestock judging team.

Here is a look at Fredrickson’s most interesting and busy life.

EquestrianBefore having a family, Fredrickson

competed in endurance riding, an equestri-an sport based on controlled, long-distance races. It is one of the international compe-

titions recognized by the International Federation for Equestrian sport.

Fredrickson qualified with her horse, Teka, for the Pan American Endurance Ride in Winnipeg, Canada, in August 1999. The Pan American Games are the biggest set of equestrian events in the Western Hemisphere.

Teka, or its registered name, Sharteka, is a 15-hand, half-Arabian, half-Akhal Teke mare. The Akhal-Teke breed is from Turk-menistan, where they are a national emblem. They are known for their endur-ance, speed, intelligence, and they have a distinctive metallic sheen.

“I bought her sight unseen when she was 3, explained Fredrickson. “She was delivered to Butte, Montana, on Thanks-giving 1994. You can start competing at 5 years old. She did a 50-miler on her fifth birthday and was the 1996 War Mare, for having the most points in the Northwest region, for a first-year mare.” (War Mare is a term used to describe mares of particu-lar nobility and courage throughout the ages.)

Teka excelled at 100-milers and multi-day rides, according to Fredrickson. In the Big Horn 100, Teka took Best Condition. In the Shamrock 150-mile, 3-day ride at Wheatland, Wyoming, Teka took first. At Mount Carmel, Utah, Teka also garnered first place for the five-day, 250-mile ride. In total, Teka rode 5,000 miles before she was retired.

Fredrickson did endurance riding from 1990 to 2006, racking up 10,000 miles.

June 2016 — 10

A woman of endurance

Photos courtesy of Janet FredricksonJanet Fredrickson, left, and Dr. Judy Burnin are pictured with Honduran chil-dren and a basket the kids made for medical volunteers, on one of Fredrickson’s trips to Honduras.

Janet Fredrickson rides Teka, in the Shamrock 150-mile, 3-day race in Wheatland, Wyoming.

Terry resident is a mother, equestrian, rancher, nurse, runner

June 2016 — 11

Explaining why she no longer does the rides, Fredrickson said, “My horse got old and I didn’t want to train another one. It takes a lot of training. The horses are hot-blooded, I didn’t want to get hurt, is what it boils down to.”

MotherThe Fredricksons, who don’t have biological children, adopted

a family of five Russian children from the Gnezdyshko Orphan-age (Gnezdyshko means “Little Nest” or Baby House” in the Russian language) in Smolensk, Russia.

It was quite a saga.“In November of 1998 we started the process to adopt,” Fred-

rickson said. “At the time we lived in Hot Springs, Montana. We just got a computer, I just started looking, and I didn’t really know how to use a computer, so this picture kept coming back on the screen of this child … Scott, kept asking is the child a boy or a girl. The children didn’t have names on the website, just num-bers. The site said, instead of names, from ‘Eastern Europe.’ We didn’t know if the children were in Russia or where for sure. As it turns out, the picture of the child that kept popping up on my screen was Anna, our youngest daughter.”

Because of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, food shortages were commonplace, and that made it hard for families to stay together.

The biological father of the Fredrickson children was in prison, and he wrote a letter giving up his parental rights, Fredrickson said.

“He wanted to give his children a chance at life,” she com-mented. “He could have gone to prison for stealing food for his family, for all we know.”

The Fredricksons went through the Lutheran Social Services for the children’s adoption and they received a grant from A Child Waits Foundation, which helps families with moderate incomes make adoptions.

As part of the process, they had to have a study of their home, which proved their house was too small, so they bought a modu-lar home. They had to get a minivan that seats seven with seat belts — all they had was pickups.

The children had to be at least 3 years old to be in the Russian orphanage.

“There were two younger sib-lings that we couldn’t adopt because they were too young. Their names were Vladimir and Angela,” Fredrickson said sadly.

The Fredricksons needed a court date in Russia and

couldn’t get it, so Janet Fredrickson wrote to then-Rep. Max Bau-cus, who secured a date.

They flew into Moscow on May 9, 1999. They had to pay thou-sands of dollars in new American $100 bills to adopt the children, and Scott carried the new bills on his person.

When they landed, it was the country’s Independence Day, and Fredrickson said they were shooting off cannons and weren’t hap-py with Americans because of what took place during the Kosovo War. So, needless to say, they did no sightseeing while there.

“They waived the two-week waiting period,” Fredrickson said. “When we met the five children (Ella, Natasha, Kristina, Sergey and Anna) for the first time in person, we had to agree to take them, and then we went to court the next day. We had problems in Russia, as to adopt you need to have a large net income, and with Scott being a full-time farmer, his net income was zero. Even though we had already adopted the children in court we had to prove that we had an income. We had to arrange for our income paperwork to be faxed to Russia by my father, Ralph Smith.

“When we left with the children, their paternal grandmother collapsed,” Fredrickson said. “Anna came running down the hall yelling, ‘Momma! Momma!’ Anna was isolated because she had the mumps and strep throat.”

At the United States Embassy they had to pay with Russian mon-ey, and at the Russian Embassy they had to pay in U.S. currency. On the flight back to the U.S., the five children didn’t sleep at all.

They landed in Los Angeles, where the new family had trouble at customs because the Russian paperwork spelled the family’s name with an “x” — “Fredrixson.”

They finally flew to Salt Lake and drove home to Montana from there.

The five Fredrickson children have all graduated from Terry High School. Ella is now 26 years old, Natasha is 25, Kristina is 24, Sergey is 22 and Anna is 21.

RancherThe Fredrickson’s ranch is located on what is called the “Kirk-

patrick Place” on Broadview Bench, south of Terry.

Pictured in this May 12, 1999, photo taken in Smolensk, Rus-sia are, from left, front row, the Fredricksons adopted chil-dren Sergey, 5, Anna (Anasta-sia), 4, Kristina, 7, Ella (Elvi-ra), 9 and Natasha (Natalia), 5. Janet Fredrickson is at Natalia’s right. In the back row from left are Scott Fred-rickson; the children’s pater-nal grandmother, Nadia Kosteleva; and the orphanage director.

The Fredricksons became interested in the French breed of cat-tle called Aubracs, and family members traveled to France to investigate them. They then bought eight Aubrac heifers from Wisconsin and had them artificially inseminated with the Aubrac semen from France.

“From this little group of heifers, we grew our herd,” Fredrick-son said.

Aubrac is a very old breed of cattle used for beef. They are a tough breed known for longevity and high resistance to disease. Their milk is used to make Laguiole cheese.

The Fredricksons are calving out about 130 cows this spring.

NurseFredrickson, a registered nurse, has been on three trips to Hon-

duras to volunteer through the organization Friends of Barnabas. “I work at the Veterans Administration Community Living

Center in Miles City, so I can schedule time off for these trips,” explained Fredrickson, “The trips last 10 days.”

On three of her trips, her daughter, Anna, got to go along, and helped out as a dental assistant.

“What they are doing is just pulling teeth with a Honduras den-tist,” Fredrickson said. She and Anna were the only volunteers from Montana.

“In Honduras, I have a medical station. I give out medicines like muscle rub, hydrocortisone cream, cough syrups, Tums, Tylenol. We give the people about 30 days’ worth of medications. If a patient is pregnant we usually give the new mothers three to six months’ worth of Tums for extra calcium beyond the prenatal vitamins,” explained Fredrickson. “There a lot of teenage preg-nancy — mothers are very young, 14 to 15 years old, and they breast-feed. They more often or typically get through the sixth grade because the families can’t afford the uniforms and supplies. A lot of the time only one child out of a family may attend school unless they can get a sponsor through different groups. The amount of children per family runs from five to seven. There is a high mortality rate in kids; a lot of babies are born at home. You are considered an adult at age 16.”

Most of the clinics are set up in schools.“I take an extra bag of supplies that I fill with kid’s clothes and

shoes and other supplies like anti-fungal creams,” Fredrickson said. “… They have a lot of parasites in the water, so we give the people a deworming pill in orange pop. It’s very hot and humid there and most of the people walk there.

“… Whole families come in together to the medical stations. They all sit on kindergarten-sized chairs … If a patient has some-thing potentially seriously wrong, I refer them to the Honduran doctor. Only then does the patient get a referral and can get into a specialist … I have seen patients with chronic diabetes, cardiac problems, club feet, cervical cancer and melanoma, for example, that I referred to the Honduran doctor for further medical care.”

She added, “Sometimes we have time at the medical stations to play with the kids. The people in turn like to give us things like bags of lemons, wicker baskets they weave and hugs, lots of hugs. “Gracias’ is repeated, and they say, ‘Bless you’ a lot.”

Fredrickson plans on returning to Honduras in October of this year with another team. They will screen children with heart problems, cleft palate and other congenital issues.

RunnerAs if the above activities weren’t enough, Fredrickson is also a

marathon runner. She participated in the Bataan Memorial Death

March marathon at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico in 2015.

The annual event, which commemorates the Bataan Death March of World War II, is one of the top marathons in the coun-try, and is run on trails as well as on roads.

“A lot of military people participate. Survivors of the Bataan Death March were there,” Fredrickson said of the 2015 event. “A lot of Wounded Warriors were there also. They had speakers who were actual POWs.”

Fredrickson plans more running events. She will participate in the Aug. 28 Santa Rosa Marathon in Santa Rosa, California, and in the New York City Marathon.

“I signed up for the New York City Marathon lottery, and my name was drawn. I will be running on Nov. 6, 2016, during the presidential election,” Fredrickson said.

“I am running in honor of my mother, Patsy Sutherland Smith, and to raise money for research to prevent pancreatic cancer,” Fredrickson says on her Facebook page. “If you would like to help, you may go to ‘Fred’s Team’ and search for Janet Fredrick-son, participant.”

Fredrickson started running marathons in 2012 and to date has done 16.

“I want to do one in every state!” she smiled. –––––Mary Elizabeth Grue is story and photo contributor to the Ter-

ry Tribune. She may be reached at (406) 653-5513.

June 2016 — 12

Janet Fredrickson runs in the 2015 Bataan Memorial Death March marathon held at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

June 2016 — 13

� By Mark Miller www.retirementrevised.com/TNS

It’s an unpleasant fact of life: The taxman can take a bite out of your Social Security benefits.

The federal tax formula was crafted to initially target higher-income households, but the share of benefits taxed has risen over the years, because the income thresholds for taxation aren’t indexed for inflation or real income growth. Meanwhile, there are big variations in how states tax benefits. As a result, a solid retirement plan should include an understanding of whether you will pay taxes on Social Security benefits, how much you’ll pay, and how that will impact your overall tax pic-ture in retirement. In some cases, savvy planning can lessen the tax bite.

About half of all Social Security beneficiaries owed some amount of income tax on their benefits in 2014, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), but the burden falls mainly on higher-income households. Beneficiaries with incomes below $40,000 owed less than 0.5 percent of benefits in taxes in 2014, while those earning more than $100,000 owed 21 percent.

However, the CBO estimates that taxes paid will rise from 6.5 percent of total benefits in 2014 to more than 8 percent by 2024, and more than 9 percent by 2039. That is due to the lack of indexation of the income thresholds.

How benefits are taxedThe formula used to determine the tax is unique. First, you

determine a figure Social Security calls “combined income” (also sometimes called “provisional income”). This is equal to your adjusted gross income plus nontaxable interest plus 50 percent of your Social Security.

No taxes are paid by beneficiaries with combined income equal to or below $25,000 for single filers and $32,000 for married filers. (If that sounds like a marriage penalty, that’s because it is one. On the other hand, married couples can access valuable spousal and survivor benefits not available to single people. So, let’s call that one a wash.)

Beneficiaries in the next tier of income — $34,000 for single filers and $44,000 for married filers — pay taxes on up to 50 percent of their benefits. Beneficiaries with income above those levels pay taxes on up to 85 percent of benefits.

Beneficiaries receive IRS Form SSA-1099 from the IRS dur-ing tax season, which reports your net benefit subject to tax (after Part B Medicare premiums have been subtracted).

Income is reported on the 1040 or 1040a forms (Form 1040EZ cannot be used). The popular tax-filing software pro-grams also have the capacity to handle Social Security income. You can also ask the Social Security Administration to withhold taxes when you file for benefits at rates of 7 percent, 10 percent, 15 percent or 25 percent. “It’s just a matter of convenience — not a requirement,” says Greg Rosica, a tax partner at Ernst & Young and contributing author to the EY Tax Guide 2016.

State policy on taxation of benefits varies. Twenty-nine states (including the District of Columbia) that have a broad-based income tax exempt all Social Security from tax, accord-

ing to a tally by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Seven states tax some Social Security benefits but provide an exemption that is more generous than what is available at the federal level. Six states tax Social Security benefits using the federal formula.

Minimizing the biteThere isn’t much you can do to minimize taxation of Social

Security — and most experts don’t consider it important enough to drive overall retirement-plan strategies. “Most of the people we work with understand it — they would prefer not to pay it, but it is what it is,” says Rosica. “Some planning can be done around it, but it can be challenging because planning for this might cause other things not to work as well.”

Still, the taxation of benefits has the effect of boosting mar-ginal tax rates — significantly in some cases. A beneficiary otherwise in a 15 percent tax bracket could face marginal rates of 22.5 percent to 27.75 percent, calculates Michael Kitces, director of research for Maryland-based Pinnacle Advisory Group; those in the 25 percent bracket could see marginal tax rates as high as 46.25 percent. “It just makes your tax bracket higher than you might have otherwise thought,” he says.

The bracket-boosting effect kicks in while Social Security taxes are phasing in — starting at $25,000; after the maximum amount of Social Security (85 percent) has been included in income, the rates start behaving normally again. Managing the timing on drawing income from tax-deferred accounts can help, Kitces says. “When do I take money out? Am I doing a Roth conversion? Do I want to invest in a nonqualified deferred annuity as a way to defer income?”

The Roth calculations, in particular, change when Social Security tax is considered, he says. “The classic rule is to put an available dollar into an IRA when you still are working, if you think your tax bracket will be lower in retirement,” he says. “But if I’m in a 15 percent bracket and it’s actually going to be over 27 percent in retirement, I should pay my tax bill now and fund the Roth.”

An every-other-year strategy for taking tax-deferred income also can help, says Rosica. “If I’m in that $25,000 to $50,000 income level, there probably are ways to arrange your affairs to get better outcomes,” he says.

Kitces adds that, in some cases, the best alternating-year strategy is to add more income in the high-income year, after the 85 percent cap has been hit, to avoid falling in the $25,000 to $50,000 range in the following year.

“This is somewhat counterintuitive for most people, but it’s actually a big opportunity,” he says. “For instance, rather than having annual income of $50,000, you really might be better off by doing $75,000 in one year, then $25,000 the following year. Most people are trained to think that boosting income to $75,000 is ‘higher’ income and causes more taxes when, in reality, it can result in less!”

––––Mark Miller is a journalist and author who focuses on retire-

ment and aging. He is the author of “The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security: Practical Strategies for Money, Work and Living.” Mark also edits and publishes RetirementRevised.com.

The ins and outs of Social Security and taxes

June 2016 — 14

Hunting educator keeps kids’ ‘learning switch’ turned on

� Story and photos by J.P. Plutt Montana Best Times

DILLON — Dillon’s Don Darling, 79, has been teaching hunter education in Beaverhead County since 2000, a 17-year stint that is impressive by any measure.

Darling’s retirement years in Dillon were preceded by a long involvement with hunter education that now totals 50 years — half a century. It’s a dedication to hunt-ing and youth that is heroic, historic and honorable.

Years of wisdom put to useWith his vast experience in hunter edu-

cation, Darling has taken the Dillon pro-gram from a single instructor class to one involving six certified instructors and three certified assistant instructors. He is confident the increase in teacher-to-stu-dent ratio has greatly benefitted the stu-dents going through the program.

“When I can teach a class of 20 or 25, it is one on 25,” said Darling of the changing

dynamic of the hunter education class-room. “Well, we had 28 kids (in the last class) and eight or nine instructors, so each instructor is teaching a much smaller group of people.

“I think the kids really profit here. The other profit here is that instead me teach-ing every lesson, I teach two of the 10 les-sons, and another instructor will teach one or two, and so on, and we all cooperate very strongly.”

Darling’s evolving view on the hunter education presentation comes from a back-ground in education and that half century involvement in hunter education instruc-tion. The Dillon version of the class includes Darling’s wisdom put forth on specific topics, the insight of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Craig Fager on the ecology of hunting, and game warden Kerry Wahl’s presentation on hunting laws. The students also learn gun safety and the mechanical workings of a gun.

That growth in staff has helped offset what Darling feels is a potential challenge,

as the bottom age of the students in hunter education has dropped over the past eight years from 12 to 11 and now 10 in certain circumstances.

“It is not that we are here to entertain them, but we have to keep their interest,” said Darling, who volunteers his time as an instructor. “Sometimes they turn their learning switch off and you can see it in their face. So I try to do things with them so they don’t have that glazed look in their eyes.

“I’m a little concerned that mentally, if they waited a couple of years they would have a different attitude towards safety and hunting. The maturity you gain between 10 and 12, I think, is tremen-dous.”

Growing as an instructorDarling’s involvement in hunter educa-

tion began in 1966 in his home state of Minnesota. A local game warden asked him if he had ever considered becoming a hunter education instructor.

Don Darling interacts with children during a hunter’s education session in the classroom.

June 2016 — 15

Young hunters carefully cross a fence under Don Darling’s watchful eye during a hunter’s education field session.

“I never had, but I blame him for getting me started in the 60s,” recalled Darling of his one-half century involvement in the avo-cation. “He was very helpful. I was able to, back in 1966, teach hunter ed in the public classroom during the regular school day, which I think would be a little unusual now.”

That first year they decided to teach sev-enth-graders, a little older than the group he now teaches. That first stint in Minnesota lasted six or eight years, and became his first of six stops on his hunter education resume that spanned five decades and four states.

Darling moved to Missoula in the 1970s and then to Helena between 1981 and 1985, continuing with his profession as a teacher in public education while also providing hunter education instruction. While in Hele-na, Darling’s instruction grew to include trap shooting.

“The chief game warden at that time, Bob Bird, in Helena, really encouraged me,” said Darling. “Not only was I able to teach hunt-er ed in an after-school and Saturday situa-tion, but we collaborated and I taught trap shooting to kids in both high schools in Hel-ena during the school day.”

Darling recalls a day shooting trap when the clay pigeon broke into pieces as it came out of the machine that throws the targets into the air. He was standing behind the young girl at the shooting station and she turned to him, with the safety off, pointing the shotgun directly at his chest.

“What do I do now?” she asked.“As calmly as I could I said, ‘Just turn

around and shoot the next bird.’”The young lady turned away and broke

the next target, unaware of how nervous she had just made her instructor.

Teaching in AlaskaDarling’s professional career advanced in

1985 when he was hired as a superintendent in Nez Perce, Idaho.

With a “very cooperative state hunter ed coordinator,” he continued teaching both hunter education and trap shooting in Idaho from 1985 to 1989, Darling said.

“The wanderlust hit me again and we moved to Alaska,” said Darling of the next step in the journey with his wife, Pat. “If you want an unusual situation, you should teach hunter ed in a bush community in Alaska. They were very nice students, but they were a different kind of student. They learn very well, but it is a little different challenge as compared to teaching students here in Montana.”

Darling’s students were for the most part, members of the indigenous Eskimo popula-tion. The children in his hunter education classes were taught about hunting from their fathers in a subsistence hunting environ-ment.

“Under Alaska and federal law, they are allowed to shoot anything they want, any time they want,” explained Darling. “It is whatever comes along today, with whatev-er firearm you have today, with the idea that it will go right in the pot in the kitch-en.”

While he was a teacher and hunter educa-tion instructor in Alaska, Darling was learn-ing about cultural differences.

“Here in the lower 48, there is more sportsmanship involved, the thrill of the hunt, the idea of going out and having some fun,” said Darling of the hunting experi-ence. “They don’t treat it as fun in Alaska. They treat it as, ‘I am the provider of food for the family.’

“They learn the same way, everything turns out the same, but the thought, the idea, the direction that they have that they’re going to go out and hunt today means they’re going to bring something home for the table.”

While giving a field day test in Alaska one year, Darling had six or seven students view a game trail and asked them, if a moose were standing by a nearby tree, would it be legal and appropriate to shoot?

“I always wait five or 10 seconds for the kids to think, and in that five,10 seconds a moose walked out on the game trail,” Dar-ling recalled. “There were a few strange looks.”

Beaming kids and parents Darling retired in 1998 from a career in education spanning over 40 years, and he and Pat began looking for a new home. They put together a list of five ideal loca-tions where they would like to relocate and investigated each location. After considering the pros and cons of each place, Darling said Dillon was the easy win.

Darling’s life in Dillon has included hunt-er education, a vocation he can see continu-ing another year or another decade.

“I do the field part of the class, that is I take the kids out and show them how to cross a fence, what are the hunting practices if you are hunting in a group,” Darling explained. “I’m noticing with my bad knee and my bad back, sometimes it is nice to have an assistant instructor helping me.

“As long as I’m confident that I’m doing a good job in the classroom, I’d like to keep on, whether it is another year or another 10 years. If I can’t do it right, I’m not going to do it.”

As he reflects back on the many changes in hunter education during his 50 years with the program, Darling smiles as he dwells on one constant — the pride students and their parents show when the certificates are hand-ed out at the end of a successful session.

“There is a lot of smiles right at the end when you hand out the certificates, the kids are beaming, the parents are beaming,” said Darling of his payoff. “I like to see kids suc-ceed, that is a pretty good reward.”

JP Plutt is the managing editor of the Dil-lon Tribune. Reach him at editor@dillontri-bune.com or (406) 683-2331.

� By Kathy Witt Kathy Witt/TNS

A passbook, an app and several package enhancements help travelers this spring and summer design and customize their fun in such chart-topping destinations as San Antonio, Texas, Charleston, S.C. and South Walton, Fla.

Passbook To Free StaysIn San Antonio, Texas, the supremely

well-situated Hotel Contessa just rolled out its San Antonio Passbook program. Thumb through the 20-page booklet on the hotel’s riverside patio to find suggestions for some of the city’s top attractions, many of them a stroll away.

Rising dramatically from the banks of the San Antonio River on a quiet stretch of the famed River Walk, Hotel Contessa is the only four-diamond all-suite hotel located directly on San Antonio’s most popular attraction. Book an outdoor table at Las Ramblas for dinner and watch the barges float by. Stretch out on a chaise lounge beside the rooftop pool and take in some breathtaking city views.

Head to the Alamo, where you can cus-tomize the experience with a guided after-hours, battlefield or VIP tour. Dip into the history of the American West through paintings, sculptures and artifacts (Pancho

Villa’s saddle, Santa Anna’s sword) at the Biscoe Museum of Western Art. Take the glass-walled elevator to the top of the 750-foot Tower of the Americas, a legacy of the 1968 World’s Fair, for dinner at the revolving Chart House Restaurant.

Book Hotel Contessa’s “Define Your Destination” package, available through Aug. 30, 2016, and you’ll get accommoda-tions, breakfast for two at Las Ramblas Restaurant (home of the best huevos ran-cheros you’ll ever eat), valet parking, noon check-out and the passbook, a fun souve-nir to tuck into your scrapbook once home.

Get your Passbook stamped at the front desk before embarking on your explora-tions; part of the fun of this program is tracking sites explored. With each visit to Hotel Contessa, you earn additional stamps. With five stamps, visitors receive 50 percent off their next stay; 10 stamps nets one complimentary overnight.

Of course, the place to be is the River Walk. It unfurls over 15 miles, from the museums north of downtown to the mis-sions south, and is pedestrian-friendly every step of the way. Lushly planted and punctuated with public artworks, including suspended fish and a vaquero (Mexican cowboy) driving Texas Longhorns, its cen-terpiece is the historic downtown area, lively with hotels, shops and restaurants. Clusters of umbrella-topped patio tables add splashes of color to a river scene that

charms with touring barges, arched bridg-es and bougainvillea.

One way to explore the River Walk is on a foraging expedition with Chef Elizabeth Johnson. Follow the flow and foliage to learn about San Antonio’s unique culinary history. Afterward, join the chef in her res-taurant, Pharm Table, where you’ll taste the fruits of your foraging labors while also enjoying healthy and tasty dishes made with locally-sourced ingredients.

“Food is your medicine chest,” says Johnson, noting the restaurant’s name is a synonym for culinary medicine. Menu items, including veggie tacos and quinoa tamales, are inventive and mouth-water-ingly flavorful.

Click your way to a perfect stay

Click into South Walton, Fla.’s “Find Your Perfect Beach” locator webpage or download the app and you can click or swipe your way to the beach community that most perfectly aligns with your get-away goals. Keeping in mind that this jew-el of a town stretching out lazily along the Gulf of Mexico is made up of 16 individu-al beach communities — each with its own vibe and verve — narrowing “per-fect” down can be challenging.

Choose “tranquil,” “shopping and spa” and “foodie favorite” from among 14

June 2016 — 16

Create your own adventure in these fan fave towns

Relax on the beach at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa. Photo courtesy Visit South Walton/TNS

Travel

June 2016 — 17

Photo courtesy Hotel Contessa/TNSAmenities at Hotel Contessa include refined suites with color-ful Spanish flair, a heated rooftop pool and hot tub with city views, a 24-hour exercise room and a full-service spa.

Photo courtesy Visit South Walton/TNSThe Pearl is all about luxury, elegance and comfort.

choices and two perfect beaches emerge: Sandestin and Seagrove. Plug in “walk-able,” “arts and culture” and “architecture” and you’ll find two other beach idylls. With “family,” “water activities” and “ecosploring,” you’ll get five. Continue drilling down to exactly the kind of expe-rience you want with choices relating to accommodations and their activities.

Sandestin-bound foodies who love to shop and seek spa tranquility will find the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa a great match. Customize your stay by choosing one of several themed packages, including golf, wine, bed and breakfast _ or a triple indulgence treat at the hotel’s Serenity by the Spa that lets you craft your own spa package.

If strolling along architecturally beauti-ful streets that look like they belong in a Hollywood movie set while soaking up the area arts and culture, Rosemary Beach is a peerless pick. And The Pearl, a luxury boutique hotel and spa, will put you in the midst of this master and mindfully planned beach community.

With breezy coastal decor and sophisti-cated styling, The Pearl cossets guests with upscale in-room amenities and spa products, rainfall showerheads, private balconies overlooking a very pretty town or pool, a different turndown treat each night and an interactive iPad-powered platform where you can swipe your way to dinner reservations, room service calls and concierge requests.

Through June 29, The Pearl is offering a Choose Your Savings deal: Stay three nights/get 30 percent off standard rates; stay two nights/get 25 percent off; stay one night/get 20 percent off. This offer

includes complimentary beach setups, valet parking and nightly turn-down with freshly baked treats.

Enhancement add-onsWhen you get away to the harbor-front

haven declared by Southern Living as a “Best Place to Stay,” you’ll be able to add the enhancement of your choice to an already fun adventure. The Cottages on Charleston Harbor, located on historic Patriots Point in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., is a choice collection of cottages perched near water’s edge.

The two-bedroom, three bath cottages have private screened-in porches with rocking chairs, full kitchens, designer fur-nishings, pillow top mattresses, luxury lin-ens and more. Stretch out on the ham-mock. Curl up with a good book or sip a glass of wine while taking in the views of Charleston’s harbor, downtown and histor-ical Ft. Sumter.

The Cottages on Charleston Harbor have an All-American Vacation package that includes cottage accommodations, tickets to a Riverdogs baseball game, tours of Ft. Sumter and the USS Yorktown — a World War II aircraft carrier — plus All American treats for the family, like spar-klers, small American flags and nostalgic candy (taffy, braided lollipops, string lico-rice, caramel corn).

Depending on your interests, you can design your own adventure, choosing from three different experiences. Tee It Up & Hit the Links includes a round of golf on the Links Course at Patriots Point Links and a Course Survival Kit — a small cooler bag with visor, sunscreen and bottled water.

Add the Harbor-Front Romantic

enhancement and enjoy champagne, strawberries and chocolate truffles on arrival, breakfast delivered to your cottage each morning and the use of two plush cottage bathrobes during your stay (robes may be purchased for $75/each). Optional spa treatments, including massage, mani and pedi, are available.

If you’re craving a culinary experience in a town known for its inventive and var-ied gastronomical scene, you’ll want to add the Foodie’s Delight to your stay. You’ll get a $100 gift card for just $50 that can be used at one of these Charleston faves: Victor’s Social Club, Vincent Chic-co’s or Michael’s on the Alley.

INFORMATIONCharleston Area Convention & Visitors

Bureau, www.CharlestonCVB.comThe Cottages on Charleston Harbor,

www.TheCottagesonCharlestonHarbor.com

The Cottages’ Stay Enhancements, www.TheCottagesonCharlestonHarbor.com/stay-enhancement.php

San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau, www.VisitSanAntonio.com

Hotel Contessa, www.TheHotelContes-sa.com

“Define Your Destination” package, www.theHotelContessa.com/san_antonio_hotel_deals

Pharm Table, www.PharmTable.comVisit South Walton, www.VisitSouthWal-

ton.com; beach locator webpage: www.VisitSouthWalton.com/Beaches; app: www.VisitSouthWalton.com/visit-south-walton-s-perfect-beach-app

Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa, www.HiltonSandestinBeach.com

June 2016 — 18

With Jim DurfeyOn The Menu

2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts1 - 10 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chilies

1 red, 1 orange and 1 green bell pepper, julienned

1 yellow onion, sliced4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp. chili powder2 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. paprika1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper2 tbsp. fresh lime juice

1 tbsp. honeyFlour tortillas

Fresh cilantro leaves, choppedSour cream

SalsaShredded cheddar cheese

1 c. light mayonnaise1 c. light sour cream

2 1/2 tbsp. dry ranch dressing mix 3 green onions, minced

1 clove garlic, minced 1 tbsp. fresh lime juice

1 chipotle chile from a can in adobo sauce, minced, or more to taste

Pour half of canned tomatoes in bottom of slow cooker. Spread evenly. Top with half of peppers and half of onion slices. Sprinkle garlic over top. Add chicken breasts. Sprinkle chili powder, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper over chicken breasts. Top chicken with remaining canned tomatoes, peppers and onion.

Cover and cook on low six to eight hours or on high three to four hours, until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender. Remove chicken and shred. Ladle out one or two cups of broth from slow cooker and save for stock in another recipe.

In small bowl whisk together lime juice and honey. Add to slow cooker along with chicken. Gently toss to combine. Serve warm in tortillas with desired toppings.

2 large avocados, slicedJuice of ½ lime

Salt and pepper to taste¼ c. flour

1 egg, lightly beaten1 c. Panko bread crumbs

2 tbsp. oilChipotle dipping sauce (see recipe below)

Pre-heat oven to 400°. Pour one tablespoon oil on sheet tray or bak-ing dish; set aside. Squeeze fresh lime juice on avocado slices to preserve color while baking. Season with salt and pepper. Dredge in flour, then dip in egg and coat in Panko bread crumbs. Be sure avocado slices are coated well in bread crumbs. Place in single layer on greased sheet pan. Drizzle with remaining oil or spray with cooking spray. This will help the avocado slices crisp in the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until avocados are golden and crispy. If desired, more oil can be drizzled while they are baking for additional crispness. Serve with chipotle dipping sauce or with ranch dressing, ketchup or your favorite dip.

Whisk mayonnaise, sour cream, ranch dressing mix, green onions, garlic, lime juice, and chipotle chile together in a bowl until blended. Serve immediately, or refrigerate until needed.

Slow cooker chicken fajitaS

crunchy baked avocado SliceS

chipotle dipping Sauce

No-sweat chicken fajitas June brings the first really hot days of the summer. On days like that, you don’t want to be standing over a hot stove while you perspire profusely. That’s where a slow cooker can save the day. Since there is a minimum amount of preparation after the ingredients are taken out of the slow cooker, this is a great meal that will greet you when you walk in the door after eight hours on the job or af-ter a day of playing in the great outdoors.

Avocados have had a bad health rep in some circles because they contain fat. But don’t you believe it. Avocados have more potassium than bananas and they contain heart-healthy monounsaturated fatty ac-ids. There are other health benefits for the fruit that is sometimes referred to as the alligator pear. So don’t shy away from the baked avoca-do recipe below. The slices can be baked in a toaster oven, which will help to prevent your kitchen from getting overly warm.

�—� Wednesday, June 1

• Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum, through October, Glendive

• Counterpoint Photography Exhibit, through June 4, Livings-ton Center for Art and Culture, Livingston

• WSE Livingston Farmers Market, Wednesdays through Sept. 21, Miles Park, Livingston

• Yellowstone Gateway Museum of Park County, through Sep-tember, Livingston

• Crow Scout Party tee-pee camping on the Crow Reserva-tion, through September, Lodge Grass

• Western Art Roundup, through June 17, Miles City• Montana Preservation Alliance Road Show: The Path Less

Traveled, through June 4, downtown Red Lodge

�—� Friday, June 3

• Sixth Annual Double Header Baseball “Legion Against Cancer,” 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Dehler Park, Billings

• Steel Magnolias, weekends through June 26, Blue Slipper The-atre, Livingston

�—� Saturday, June 4

• For Pet’s Sake Pet Expo, Gallatin County Fairgrounds, Boze-man

• Livingston Wheels Car Show, downtown Livingston• Red Lodge Music Festival, through June 12, Red Lodge• Wild Rivers Film Tour, Red Lodge

�—� Tuesday, June 7

• Bogert Park Farmers Market, Tuesday through Sept. 27, Bogert Park, Bozeman

�—� Saturday, June 11

• Demoliton Derby, 1 p.m., Big Horn County Fairgrounds, Har-din

• Charlie Russell Chew Choo Dinner Train, 5:30 p.m., Hanover Boarding Station, Lewistown

�—� Thursday, June 16

• Headwaters Country Jam, through June 18, The Bridge - Jef-ferson River Canyon, Three Forks

�—� Friday, June 17

• Nitro National Pro Hill Climb, through June 18, Columbus• Nikolai Demidenko on Piano, Tippet Rise Art Center, Fishtail• Upper Yellowstone Roundup, through June 18, Jim Duffy

Arena, Gardiner

�—� Saturday, June 18

• Gallatin Valley Farmers Market, Saturdays through Sept. 10, Gallatin Valley Fairgrounds, Bozeman

• Leisure and Luxury in the Age of Nero: The Villas of Oplantis Near Pompeii, through Dec. 31, Museum of the Rock-ies, Bozeman

• Nikolai Demidenko on Piano with the Ariel String Quar-tet, Tippet Rise Art Center, Fishtail

• Naturalist Walk: Birding Day, Whitehall

�—� Tuesday, June 21

• A Visit with an 1879 American Fur Company Trader, 7-8 p.m., Wise River School, Wise River

�—� Thursday, June 23

• Crow Native Days Rodeo and Pow Wow, through June 25, Edison Real Bird Memorial Complex, Crow Agency

• Red Lodge Songwriter Festival, through June 25, Red Lodge

�—� Friday, June 24

• Big Timber Rodeo, through June 25, Sweet Grass County Fair-grounds, Big Timber

• Sweet Grass Fest, through June 25, Sweet Grass County Fair-grounds, Big Timber

• Battle of the Little Big Horn Reenactment, through June 26, Hardin

• Little Big Horn Stampede, through June 25, Hardin

�—� Saturday, June 25

• Montana BBQ Cook-off, through June 26, downtown Absaro-kee

• Forgotten Pioneers, Bannack State Park, Dillon• Charlie Russell Chew Choo Dinner Train, 5:30 p.m.,

Hanover Boarding Station, Lewistown• Bluegrass Festival, noon-afternoon, Pine Creek United Method-

ist Church, Livingston• History of Social Dance in America, Missouri Headwaters

State Park, Three Forks

�—� Monday, June 27

• USAF Academy Band: A Patriotic Celebration, Willson Auditorium, Bozeman

• Yellowstone Engraved, through July 31, WaterWorks Art Muse-um, Miles City

�—� Thursday, June 30

• A Visit with Teddy Roosevelt, Livingston-Park County Public Library, Livingston

June 2016 �— 19

c a l e n d a r2016

June 2016 — 20

Below is a list of volunteer openings available through the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) in communities across southern Montana. To learn more about RSVP, call (800) 424-8867 or TTY (800) 833-3722 or log on to www. seniorcorps.org.

Custer & Rosebud counties- CNADA: Needs a volunteer to answer

phones and other receptionist duties. You choose the hours and days.

- Clinic Ambassador: Need volunteer to greet patients and visitors, providing direc-tions and more, two locations.

- Custer County Community Table – Volunteers needed to serve meals, wash dishes and greet the public at the Soup Kitchen.

- Custer County Food Bank: Volunteer assistants needed for 8 a.m-1:30 p.m., Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, to process donations, stock shelves and more.

- DAV van: Drivers needed to provide transportation to veterans to medical appointments.

- Eagles Manor: Volunteer exercise class leader needed, 1-2 days a week, you pick the days and the exercise for residents.

- Health Clinic: One ambassador needed for afternoon shifts.

- Miles City Soup Kitchen: Desperately seeking servers and greeters Monday-Fri-day; pick a day of the week you would like to serve.

- St. Vincent DePaul: Volunteers to assist in several different capacities.

- VA Activities: Application packet avail-able at VA Activities Director’s Office.

- WaterWorks Art Museum: Needs vol-unteers to assist in summer kids classes. Also need volunteer receptionists, 2-hour shifts Tuesdays-Sundays;

If you are interested in these or other vol-unteer opportunities please contact: Betty Vail, RSVP Director; 210 Winchester Ave. #413, Miles City, MT 59301; phone (406) 234-0505; email: rsvp05@midrivers.com.

Fergus & Judith Basin counties- American Red Cross: Seeking to build

a Fergus County Disaster Action Team to assist during local emergencies.

- Art Center: In need of volunteers on Saturdays.

- Boys and Girls Club: seeking a season-al volunteer to maintain their memorial garden.

- Central Montana Fairgrounds: Seeking clerical support.

- Central Montana Youth Mentoring: Seeking clerical support.

- Community Cupboard (Food Bank): Volunteers are needed to help any week mornings as well as with deliveries.

- Council on Aging: Volunteers needed to assist at the daily Grubstakes meal and with clerical help during the busy lunch hour.

- Library: Volunteer help always appreci-ated.

- Relay for Life: Seeking volunteers to work various roles before and during the annual event held on July 8, 2016.

- ROWL (Recycle Our Waste Lewis-town): Looking for volunteers to join teams baling recyclables.

- Treasure Depot: Thrift store needs vol-unteers to sort, hang clothes and put other items on display for sale, especially need additional volunteers on Saturdays.

-Valle Vista: Multiple opportunities to volunteer with the elderly residents.

- Office of Veterans Affairs: Seeking clerical support.

- RSVP always has various needs for your skills and volunteer services in our community.

Contact: RSVP Volunteer Coordinator Sara Wald, 404 W. Broadway, Wells Fargo Bank building, (upstairs), Lewistown, MT 59457; phone (406) 535-0077; email: rsv-plew@midrivers.com.

Gallatin County- American Cancer Society-Road to

Recovery: Drivers needed, for patients receiving treatments, from their home to the hospital.

- American Red Cross Blood Drive: Three volunteer opportunities available: Blood Drive Ambassador needed to wel-come, greet, thank and provide overview for blood donors; Team Leader Volunteers needed to recruit, train and schedule Donor Ambassadors and Couriers; Community Outreach Specialist to seek out locations to set up sign up tables for prospective volun-teers and/or blood donors. Excellent cus-tomer service skills needed, training will be provided, flexible schedule.

- Befrienders: Befriend a senior; visit on a regular weekly basis.

- Belgrade Senior Center: Meals on Wheels needs regular and substitute drivers Monday–Friday, to deliver meals to seniors before noon.

- Big Brothers Big Sisters: Be a positive role model for only a few hours each week.

- Bozeman and Belgrade Sacks Thrift Stores: Need volunteers 2-3-hour shifts on any day, Monday-Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m.

- Bozeman Deaconess Hospital: Volun-teers needed for the information desks in the Atrium and the Perk, 8 a.m.-noon, noon-4 p.m.; volunteer to escort patients through the hospital, must be able to be on your feet for long peri-ods; volunteer needed at the Care Bou-tique in the Cancer Center to help custom-ers and to keep merchandise in order.

- Bozeman Senior Center Foot Clinic: Retired or nearly retired nurses are urgent-ly needed, 2 days a month, either 4- or 8-hour shifts.

- Bozeman Symphony: Volunteers to greet patrons, check tickets and hand out programs; ushers to guide patrons to their seats; someone to set up the Underwriter Room, and treats for the musicians are needed.

- Bozeman Symphony Sunday Mati-nees: Need volunteer head of concessions to set up and tear down concessions areas and keep them clean during the concert, must be able to stand for long times and able to lift no more than 50 lbs.

- Cancer Support Community: Volunteer receptionist needed for the last two Tues-days of the month from 10 a.m.-1 p.m.; position would be shared with another vol-unteer so there could be flexibility of schedule.

- Galavan: Volunteers needed to make reminder calls and to confirm rides for the following day; also need a volunteer for morning dispatch to receive phone calls/messages and relay information from cli-ents to staff as required; drivers need-ed Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. CDL required and Galavan will assist you in obtaining one.

- Gallatin Rest Home: Volunteers wanted for visiting the residents, sharing your knowledge of a craft, playing cards or reading to a resident.

- Gallatin Valley Food Bank: Volunteers needed to deliver commodities to seniors in their homes once a month. Deliveries in Belgrade are especially needed.

- HRDC Housing Department Ready to

RSVP

June 2016 — 21

Rent: Curriculum for families and individu-als who have rental barriers such as lack of poor rental history, property upkeep, renter responsibilities, landlord/tenant communi-cation and financial priorities.

- Habitat for Humanity Restore: Belgrade store needs volunteers for general help, sorting donations and assisting customers.

- Heart of The Valley: Compassionate volunteers especially needed to love, play with and cuddle cats.

- Help Center: Computer literate volun-teer interested in entering data into a social services database; volunteers also needed to make phone calls to different agencies/pro-grams to make sure database is up to date and make safety calls to home bound seniors.

- Jessie Wilber Gallery at The Emerson: Volunteers needed on Wednesdays, Thurs-days, and Fridays to greet people at the main desk, answer questions and keep track of the number of visitors.

- Museum of the Rockies: Variety of opportunities available such as helping in the gift shop and more.

- RSVP Handcrafters: Volunteers to quilt, knit, crochet and embroider hats for chemo patients, baby blankets and other handmade goods once a week (can work from home); also need volunteers to tie and finish quilts. Donations of baby yarn needed for the quilting, knitting and crocheting projects and can be dropped off at the RSVP office upstairs in the Senior Center.

- Seniors: You may qualify for $192-$600 a year for grocery and food assis-tance.

- Three Forks Food Bank: Volunteer needed on Mondays and/or Thursdays to help with administrative duties, including answer phones and questions, some paper and computer work. They will train.

- VITA: Volunteer at the Community Café to serve as the first point of contact for customers, set a friendly and welcoming atmosphere, monitor site traffic and sign in procedure, Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons noon-3 p.m.

- Warming Center: Volunteers needed for a variety of different shifts, 7 p.m.-7 a.m.; training held every Tuesday at the Warming Center. Please call for more information.

- Your unique skills and interests are needed, without making a long-term com-mitment, in a variety of ongoing, special, one-time events.

Contact: Debi Casagranda, RSVP Pro-gram Coordinator, 807 N. Tracy, Bozeman, MT 59715; phone (406) 587-5444; fax (406) 582 8499; email: dcasagranda@thehrdc.org

Musselshell, Golden Valley & Petroleum counties

- Central Grade School: Needs volunteer tutors to encourage children with their read-ing skills in the America Reads program. Also volunteers needed to assist younger students with lunch, clear tables and serve from the salad bar.

- Drama Camp: Volunteers needed for positions of director and assistant director.

- Food Bank: Distribute food commodi-ties to seniors and others in the community; help unload the truck as needed.

- 4-H Fair: Volunteers needed to sit at the table in the art building.

- Nursing Home: Piano players and sing-ers needed on Fridays to entertain residents, also assistant needed in activities for resi-dents to enrich supported lifestyle.

- RIDE: Volunteers needed for selling tickets at the night shows.

- Senior Bus: Volunteers to pick up folks who are unable to drive themselves.

- Senior Center: Volunteers are needed to provide meals, clean up in the dining room and/or keep records; meal provided.

- The Trade Show: Volunteers needed to serve at door prize table.

- Dinner Theater: Volunteers needed for cooking and serving the meal.

- RSVP offers maximum flexibility and choice to its volunteers as it matches the personal interests and skills of older Ameri-cans with opportunities to serve their com-munities. You choose how and where to serve. Volunteering is an opportunity to learn new skills, make friends and connect with your community.

Contact: Shelley Halvorson, South Cen-tral MT RSVP, 315 1/2 Main St., Ste. #1, Roundup, MT 59072; phone (406) 323-1403; fax (406) 323-4403; email: rdprsvp2@midrivers.com ; Facebook: South Central MT RSVP.

Park County- Big Brothers Big Sisters: Volunteers

needed as positive role models to children, only a few hours a week.

- Chamber of Commerce: Has a number of openings for the 2016 NPS Centennial Park County Days, Aug. 14-21 at various locations in town; each day has a different event.

- Food Pantry: Volunteers needed to help on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

- Fix-It Brigade: Volunteers of all ages and skill levels needed to help with small home repairs such as mending a fence, or something as simple as changing light bulbs. You will be helping seniors or veter-

ans for a 2-hour or less task, on your time schedule.

- Handcrafters: Join this group on Thurs-days 1-2 p.m. in making crocheted or knit-ted caps and scarves for children at Head Start. Also making gifts for the prenatal classes and baby hats and afghans for the hospital newborns. Sewers needed to make simple pillowcases for soldiers overseas.

- Links for Learning: Needs volunteers after school 3:45-5 p.m. at any of the three elementary schools listening to children read. No experience necessary.

- Livingston Depot Center: Looking for volunteers through Mid-September as gifts shop attendants, maintenance helper, and off-season office assistants; schedules vary and training is provided.

- Livingston’s Fly Fishing Fair: Volun-teers needed to help in several areas, August 2-6 at Park High School.

- Loaves and Fishes: Volunteers needed to prepare a dinner meal.

- Mainstreeter Store: Needs someone who enjoys working with the public. Help greet customers, label and hang clothes and accept donations. Volunteer 4 hours a week and get 50 percent off your purchases.

- Meals on Wheels: In need of substitute drivers to deliver meals to seniors in their homes.

- Senior Center: Volunteers needed to cut unsold clothing into rags Thursdays, 1 p.m.

- Senior Center Foot Clinic: Volunteers and nurses needed twice a month to help the seniors with foot care.

- Spay and Neuter Clinic: Needs strong volunteers on Wednesdays, this summer at the Farmers Market to set up and take down the wooden booth lemonade stand.

- Stafford Animal Shelter: Gentle com-passionate volunteers to socialize and play with the kittens and cats and walk the dogs. 1-hour safety training provided.

- Transportation: Drivers needed to help patients keep their doctor appointments in Livingston and/or in Bozeman. Gas reim-bursement may be provided.

- Yellowstone Gateway Museum: Volun-teer needed to man the front desk and help catalog and label items.

- RSVP: Has many one-time events, including mailings and fundraising events this summer that require volunteers, such as at the Hoot. Your unique skills and interests are needed, without making a long-term commitment, in a variety of on-going and special one-time events.

Contact: Deb Downs, Program Coordi-nator, 111 So. 2nd St., Livingston, MT 59047; phone (406) 222-2281; email: deb-downs@rsvpmt.org.

June 2016 — 22

By Bill Sones and Rich Sones, Ph.D.Send STRANGE questions to brothers Bill and Rich at strangetrue@cs.com

Q. How do cockroaches use a type of time-lapse photography to get around?

A. And that’s not all they can do: Some species can hold their breath for up to 40 minutes, eat paper and dried glue, or live for weeks without a head, says Rachel Nuwer in “Scientific American” magazine. Another of their superpowers is seeing in the dark by pooling light signals over time “like time lapse photography.” When physicists at Finland’s University of Oulu tested 30 American cockroaches under computer simulation of moonless nights, they determined the roach eyes absorb one photon of light every 10 seconds.

That’s an amazingly small amount of light, says biophysicist Matti Weckstrom, but the roaches could see just fine, suggesting that “the roach nervous system pools information from its thousands of photoreceptors over time” and uses the summation of those signals to see (“Journal of Experimental Biology”). Only a few other species can do this.

Could we humans figure this one out, we might have much better night-vision technology, Weckstrom concludes.

Q. What’s the dramatic contrast in the housing market these days? Are you up on the lingo?

A. Think of ever-bigger houses as the major trend: In 1900, the average U.S. single-family house was 65 square meters (700 square feet), jumping to 154 square meters (1660 sq. ft.) in 1973 and a whopping 234 square meters (2520 sq. ft.) in 2007, says Paul McFedries in ”IEEE Spectrum” magazine. All of this has led to new words to accommodate the new reality: “monster homes” or “megahomes”; “bigfoot homes” for massive houses crammed into small lots; even “starter castles” for garishly large dwellings.

Yet this sort of conspicuous consumption has fostered a side phenomenon of “conspicuous austerity” with people buying teensy tiny houses called “microhouses” (under 19 square meters, or 200 sq. ft.) and “nanohouses” (under 10 square meters or 110 sq. ft.). Call it the “tiny house” movement advocating “small-footprint living” for those dedicated environmentalists with their “eco homes.”

As to the culprit for the gargantuan growth, McFedries suggests it’s “likely a version of the ‘expenditure cascade,’ the increase in spending that results from consumption by the wealthy, which triggers emulative spending by the next lower class, which triggers spending by the class below that and so on.” Yet in terms of sustainability, tiny housers may be showing the way that “small is indeed the new big.”

Q. It sounds like pretty beastly behavior, so what are plants doing getting into this one?

A. The plants are meat-eaters or “carnivores,” and though they

don’t immediately spring to mind, there are 600 or more of these species thriving in “places where other plants struggle, including bogs and heaths,” says Gemma Tarlach in “Discover” magazine. Some have traps plus enzymes that can hold and digest proteins. The famous Venus’ flytrap has a snapping taco shell.

The most widespread of them, found on every continent but Antarctica, are aquatic bladderworts, where passing prey trip “trigger hairs” that open and close a trapdoor in only a few milliseconds, creating pressure variation to suck the prey inside. This was finally documented in 2010 using high-speed videos.

Borneo’s “Nepenthes rajah,” the largest carnivorous plant whose pitcher can hold more than a half-gallon of fluid, evolved to eat poop. It works this way: Nectar secreted by the pitcher lid attracts tree shrews and rats that then sit on the rim and defecate into it, providing the plant with nutrients.

Interestingly, “the oldest carnivorous plant leaf fossil was found in Baltic amber that is 35-47 million years old.”

Q. What impact is the Internet having on the English language? And by the way, are your eyebrows “on fleek”?

A. The Internet “provides a conduit for new language to spread worldwide, performing a role that once only major TV broadcasts could fulfill,” says Hal Hodson in “New Scientist” magazine. Just ask Peaches Monroee, who in a Vine video described her newly shaped eyebrows as “on fleek,” that is, “looking good.” Almost immediately, the video went viral, currently with some 38 million viewers, and has even been made into a Nicki Minaj song.

Software that charts the rise of language online has uncovered three of the fastest-proliferating words in the United Kingdom: “bootyful,” an alternative for “beautiful”; “cyw” for “coming your way”; and “scrims” from gaming forums that refer to practice sessions before competitions.

Katherine Martin, head of US Dictionaries at Oxford University Press in New York, finds this all very exciting. “A lot of things that would have been oral, and therefore never recorded, are being recorded as text, and are therefore searchable and findable.”

“Yet this swirl of language creation and distribution online is a challenge for linguists,” adds lexicographer David Barnhart. Unlike an earlier, print-dominated era, novel words are now relatively easy to discover. The problem is “how to sort out the useful from the ‘useless’ evidence.”

Q. True or False: A boa constrictor kills its prey by suffocating it.

A. False. Actually, it turns out that the snake kills like a “demon blood pressure cuff, squeezing down circulation to its final stop,” reported Susan Milius in “Science News” magazine. As ecologist Scott Bobac says, snakes are extraordinary hunters.

Cockroaches use time-lapse photography? No way!

Lacking hands and feet, they depend on speed to contend with flailing claws and hooves so “embracing prey into heart failure is faster than suffocating it.”

In attacking a rat, for instance, a boa constrictor will cinch sev-eral loops around its upper body and press hard enough “to starve organs of oxygenated blood.” Within six minutes or so, the snake releases its grip--the rat’s circulation having faltered and failed—-and swallows the rodent whole (“Journal of Experimental Biolo-gy”).

And one more serpentine myth to lay to rest: It’s not the snake’s jaws separating at the back that makes this possible. Rather, the movable bones in the head and stretchy cartilage allow the chin to open wide and engorge the prey wholesale.

Q. You Moms-to-be, how smart are the clothes you’ve been putting on your “baby bump”?

A. Smart, smart, smart is the word for the latest style of mater-nity clothes, which have been fashioned with silver wires in the waistline, says Aviva Rutkin in “New Scientist” magazine. Con-ductive wires are discretely woven into the fabric to permit moni-toring of temperature, heart rate and blood pressure. This clothing line, that permits pregnant women to keep better track of their changing bodies, was designed by fashion design student Blake Uretsky. Since wearable technology clothing often struggles to be both attractive and useful, she interviewed many local mothers about their experiences and came up with “B” Maternity Wear-ables, including blouses, trousers, skirts and even an evening gown—-in neutral colors and adjustable to a growing bump. A

small wire on the wearer’s belt relays the health data to a smart-phone app, which can notify a doctor if her vital signs “veer out of whack, perhaps due to stress or inactivity.”

As maternal health expert Julia Walsh says, for most pregnant women this constant monitoring is unnecessary. “But women with high-risk pregnancies or who enjoy tracking devices like the Fitbit, for example, could get a lot out of it.”

Across1 Librarians might use

them12 Lt. col.’s inferior15 Sci-fi concept16 Lovelace whom many

consider the first computer programmer

17 Whatchamacallit18 Solo on-screen19 Trail, perhaps20 Milky Way source21 Camera product23 Tablet container24 Coral Triangle tourist

destination25 Left rolling in the aisles26 Down a lot28 __ other30 Robot starter31 Pay dirt33 Hassle35 First instrument for

many38 Icy Hot competitor39 Keep secret41 Sushi bar delicacy42 __ pedal: guitar

accessory43 Slam offering45 Org. that monitors

plants

48 Nervous person?50 Fail to beat the heat52 AIDS-fighting drug54 Rough stuff55 Low-cost pub56 “__ bien”57 Storage unit?58 Vaping devices61 “Wheel of Fortune”

purchase62 Amusing editor, at

times63 Mo. for which tanzanite

is a birthstone64 Comics-derived danger

alert

Down1 Yoga variety2 Fine after an

accident3 Well-lit?4 “Gimme a __”5 Noodle variety6 Certain queen’s

domain7 Steamed cantina

food8 Like a certain

female artery9 Ink deliverers10 WWII arena

11 Basil’s wife on “Fawlty Towers”

12 Buddhism branch13 Company offering

many promotions14 Mystery woman22 Watches over24 Where an engineer may

retire25 Less forward27 Artery problem29 Bear fruit?32 Secretly unite34 Arrogant sort35 Beverage used in

Chinese cuisine36 Team member in

“Moneyball”37 “Eldorado” group39 Soured40 Part-human

mythological creature44 Threat46 Get cracking47 Ancient cacao bean

traders49 TED talk subjects51 Encyclopedia Brown’s

first name53 Discretion

55 Italian tubes56 Sera is a form

of it59 Tea holder60 Halting

syllable

Crossword

June 2016 — 23

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