Fall 2021 Publisher’s Note
We thought 2020 was a hard year but it turns out 2021 has been even more challenging. Across our state, farmers and ranchers facing drought, grasshoppers, and wildfires, are making tough decisions about how to keep their operations afloat. Small businesses across the state are struggling with labor shortages and rising costs.
It seems no one is exempt. If the drought didn’t hit you, the economy did. Fuel prices have risen, lumber prices soared, and used vehicles became impossible to find. As an inundation of people flocked to Montana to buy a little piece of paradise, the value of homes and real estate skyrocketed. And, it seems, covid is back.
Just as we’ve been trying to find our way and figure out what the next step should be, the turmoil in Afghanistan erupted. Without cause, we lost 13 brave soldiers. Thirteen families whose sons and daughters will never come home. Our deep respect and heartfelt prayers go out to those families.
The oppression is heavy, the answers are few. What do we do? Whom do we trust? How do we keep moving forward? Our futures seem uncertain and unsteady.
We met some very strong people in the past couple of months. People that have endured trials and persevered in the midst of them. We visited with two neighboring ranchers in eastern Montana whose ranches burned this summer. Both have roots that date back to the late 1800s. Over 100 years of generations of the same family have woken each morning to the same view of the pine covered hillsides, the same big sky, the same ground on which their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers walked.
In the time that their ancestors first settled in the area, there have been 24 presidents, The Great Depression, WW I & II, The Korean and Vietnam Wars, Iraq and Afghanistan. There’s been advancement in travel, technology, and medicine beyond measure. There’s been recessions and inflations and good times and bad. And through it all their families survived.
Neither of these ranchers are going to give up. It’s not an option. They are adjusting to what they need to do to ensure that their ranches recoup in the next several years stronger and better than before.
In this edition we also share a story of an incredible rescue. A helicopter pilot and a fire boss risked their lives to save the lives of others. We talk about grizzlies and the challenges in cohabitating with their increasing numbers and we stay on the lighter side by visiting with an iconic walk-up burger joint that has stood the test of time and we profile a mining town that didn’t.
We are in tumultuous times. But we are a strong people, our roots run deep and like our parents and grandparents before us, we need to be bold and courageous and face the future with determination.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13