In Part II of CFJ’s candid conversation with Governor Schweitzer, he addressed various issues, many of them quite controversial, and he did so with characteristic candor. Part One - look to March 06 .

Abortion & Privacy

CFJ: You are a Pro-Choice Democrat.

As you’re aware, NARAL Pro-Choice America is now headed by former superintendent for public instruction and former Montana legislator Nancy Keenan.

NARAL recently gave 19 states in the U.S. an “F” for their restriction of access to contraception and abortion. In this same report, Montana was given an “A-” grade. Why is it a priority for your administration to be Pro-Choice, and to make abortion and contraception accessible?

SCHWEITZER: I am pro-privacy. And that is an intensely private decision you make. Whatever your religion, whatever your philosophy, this is a private decision that you make in the privacy of your home, in your doctor’s clinic, in your church. It’s not for a government to be involved. That is consistent with my feelings about privacy, whether it be illegal wiretapping, or big government looking over your shoulder, what you read in the library, or where you go on the Internet. This is a matter of privacy.

On the Office of Montana Poet Laureate

CFJ: You’ve been very diligent in your support of the arts in Montana. In particular, you were very supportive of instating the position of Poet Laureate in Montana. Why do you think the office of Poet Laureate is important, and how do you think Sandra Alcosser is doing as the state’s inaugural Poet Laureate?

SCHWEITZER: Well, it’s too early in the game. As you know, there’s no money associated with the Poet Laureate. I just think that Montana has a mystique, and anything that we can do to foster that mystique, whether it’s the products we produce, or the art that we produce, it is a synergism that improves our ability to market all things Montana.

On So-Called “Nativist” Politics in Montana

CFJ: Since returning to Montana a few years ago, I’ve been surprised by the rise in so-called “nativist” politics. This can be seen, more superficially, in the appearance of “Native” bumper stickers across the state. More substantially, however, there’s a concern among some born and raised in Montana that outside money doesn’t necessarily benefit Montanans (for example, the dramatic rise in property taxes around Flathead Lake). Do you feel that this perception is justified, and how do you propose to resolve this divide?

SCHWEITZER: Well, let me frame it in a little different way. “Nativists”… Probably more than 90 percent of Montana could claim that—maybe 95 percent—all four of my grandparents homesteaded here. But that was less than 100 years ago; that was 1909. Makes me “Native”? You know what? I don’t even have brown eyes. There are Native people in Montana, and most of them aren’t the ones putting that “Montana Native” bumper sticker on their cars. They came from somewhere else. They came, like my grandparents, to Montana, because they had nowhere to go back to. They were the last and the least of the world. They came here with just faith in God and high hopes. That’s it. And we embraced them. Whoever was here embraced them. And, sometimes, we go through waves of being against somebody. You know, I’m half German-Russian, my grandmother never learned to speak English, and in 1917 and 18, we were locking people up because they spoke German. In World War II, we locked-up Japanese farmers—very successful Japanese farmers—in Montana. There was a time when we didn’t like the Irish—I’m half Irish.

And so, this ebbs and flows, but some of the best people I’ve met in Montana, people who are giving back the most, came to Montana during the last ten years.

And let’s talk about property values. Sure, there are people who have decided that they like Montana and they’re willing to invest in Montana. You know, when they build a trophy home on Flathead, they probably employ one or two people just to take care of that home. So it is creating employment opportunities.

I have proposed, and I can’t get the chamber of commerce, Montana Taxpayers Association, and a few others, to close loopholes. We have a tax code that actually encourages out-of-staters to own real estate in Montana, and they’re taxed at a lesser rate than we are in Montana. And, I want to close that loophole. I tried in the last legislative session, and I’ll try again in the next. I don’t want to tax them at an increased rate, but I don’t think we ought to subsidize them.

CFJ: So, is it fair to say, overall, that you reject this notion of “Native” as posed in my question?

SCHWEITZER: Yep. Well, there are some people who are Native, and I respect them a great deal. Take a look around this office, and you know that I do.

On the Allocation of Tobbaco Settlement Funds

CFJ: Several of the Clark Fork Journal’s readers have expressed concern about how Montana’s portion of the Tobacco Settlement is being utilized. Can you talk a bit about how those funds are being allocated?

SCHWEITZER: Well, I think that they would be less concerned if they recognized that, number one, small businesses. We’ve created the small-business health pool, so if you employ between two and nine people, you can apply to be a part of that pool, and we’ll give you a targeted tax credit and effectively pay half the cost of health insurance for your employees, their families, and even your own family.

The other place we’ve invested a great deal of money is in Child Health Insurance Program [C.H.I.P.]. So that if you are up to 1.5 percent, 1.5 times the poverty rate, up to $29,000 per year, then the state of Montana will help pay for the cost of insuring kids up to the age of 18. And those are tobacco dollars. So, tobacco dollars are being reinvested in health care, and I think it’s a good place.

On Healthcare for Small Businesses

CFJ: Following up on that, as you’re aware, the issue of providing healthcare to employees is a serious concern facing small business owners in Montana. Several small business owners have told me that while existing programs benefit businesses with fewer than 5 employees or greater than 50 employees, they do little to aid companies in the middle range. You’ve corrected that by stating that the range is 2 to 9.

As you know, this employee range also correlates to a critical time in a company’s development. How do think these existing programs have been working, and going forward, how can they be developed to address the needs of these mid-range companies, knowing that 1 in 5 Montanans have no health coverage, and employers with 10 or fewer workers employ 25-percent of Montana’s workforce?

SCHWEITZER: We actually lead the nation in the percent of our population who work for an employer with 10 or fewer employees. So, that’s why it’s important for those employers with 2 to 9 employees. I want people that are talented, that are working some place right now, that have thought, ‘I’d like to start a business. I’ve got an idea.’ But so many of them are not able to make that plunge because they and their families may have health insurance where they work right now, and they say, ‘I just can’t afford to make that plunge, I can’t afford to do this.’

This health insurance pool is in its infancy. You know, we’ve just launched it in the last few months. It’s too early to tell the strengths and weaknesses of it. But we will continue to monitor it as we go. We arbitrarily picked between 2 and 9. We don’t have unlimited resources. If we had more smokers, we’d have more money, but I would hardly wish for that.

If you would like to read the rest of Part II of the CFJ’s conversation with Governor Schweitzer, visit our website at www.clarkforkjournal.com.

Jill Davies is the director of Sustainable Living Systems, a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching environmentally favorable approaches to food production. She hopes to increase enthusiasm for the building of a new and vibrant local food system. Creating a secure community food system, capable of supporting sustainable agriculture right here in the Bitterroot, is something she aims to achieve through a mixture of education and persuasiveness.

Generally speaking, “local food” is a principle of sustainability relying upon the consumption of locally grown food products. Local food initiatives are part and parcel of local purchasing concepts; they are based upon preferences to buy locally generated goods and services.

The concept is often related to the slogan “Think globally, Act locally,” prevalent in green politics. Those in favor of developing a local food economy, like Davies and the folks at Corvallis-based Sustainable Living Systems, believe that since food is essential for everyone, everywhere, every single day, then a slight change in the way it is produced and advertised will have a tremendous result on individual health and the overall ecosystem.

Local food is also often interpreted as being organic, or produced by farmers who adopt sustainable and lenient practices. Many local food advocates tend to equate local food with material produced by independent farmers in the community, while equating “non-local food” with food produced and transformed by large agribusiness.

“Fresh, organically grown food is more nutritious,” says Davies. “Healthy food from a healthy soil creates healthy bodies and minds.”

Proponents like Davies say shopping decisions favoring local food consumption directly influence the well-being of people because local food is unprocessed and tastes better than food shipped long distances from other states or countries.

“When you have a local food system you get exceptional taste and freshness,” says Davies.

Furthermore, she says, a local food system will improve the local economy, strengthen the alternative food network and may be ecologically more sustainable.

Strengthening the local economy, says Davies, means buying local produce as a method of keeping your dollars circulating in the community. Forming dependable, sincere and cognizant relationships with the farmers growing your groceries is also a part of that development process.

Institutions, including schools, restaurants, nursing homes, and hospitals, will play a key role in the creation and advancement of a local food system. Getting these institutions to commit to buying at least some local products, even if it’s only carrots or lettuce, is a pretty solid starting point. “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” signs are a unique part of the information campaign, too. “Help from these institutions is most important,” Davies says.

“We want to educate the public to look for our signs, and know that places displaying these signs are carrying fresh, local products,” she says.

Davies grew up around the time of the transformation from organic agriculture to industrial agriculture, and speaks about a vanished time when the Bitterroot Valley was the former breadbasket of Montana. “Up until the 1950s, the Bitterroot produced the majority of the state’s food,” she says.

“Now, all the food eaten here comes from far away – from Albertson’s, Safeway and Super One. There are few organic food producers here. Only a small percentage of the food eaten in the Bitterroot actually originates here. Most of it comes from industrial agriculture sources far away.”

Davies studied biodynamics in England in the early 1970s. Based on a series of lectures given in the early 1920s by the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, biodynamics merges the practices of organic agriculture. But it goes a bit deeper by trying to harmonize the grower’s work with other subject matters, such as gravity, magnetism, and lunar phases.

After working in the gardens of a commune in France, and then on a biodynamic truck farm in Switzerland, she returned to the United States. Davies again traveled to England in 1999, attending a course at Schumacher College on biotechnology in agriculture, and has been immersed in this issue ever since. Her agricultural and organic knowledge has been advanced by agro-ecology guru Helen Atthowe, whose certified organic vegetable and fruit farm is east of Stevensville.

Davies hopes that our geographic region will once again serve as a principal source of grain and produce supply, and that a food co-op site will be found or built by next spring. “Hopefully, we’ll have a store opened by then. The co-op will be a gigantic component of the local food system”

In order for this consumer food outlet to materialize, more grants need to be written, more meetings held, additional subscribers signed up, and further loans obtained. The Bozeman Food Co-op, boasting 14,000 members and an interrelated network of community cooperative consumers and farmers, small businesses and local producers, remains the model worthy of replication.

Part of building a sustainable, local food system that fosters the economic health of the Bitterroot’s communities and farms, includes, said Davies, prohibiting the proliferation of big box stores like Wal-Mart. The world’s largest retailer and largest private employer (1.3 million employees), Wal-Mart, raked in over $312 billion in sales last year.

But recently, the company has drawn intense scrutiny, mainly from the Bitterroot Good Neighbors Coalition, for its negative economic impact, its poor wages, lack of affordable health coverage for its employees, and its stiff resistance to unionization. “These Wal-Mart super centers are the number one food retailers in the country. One of the first steps to building and nurturing a local economy is keeping out such places. Box stores don’t purchase locally produced products to be sold in their stores. This leads to a decrease in the amount of local cash flow that changes hands.”

Another objective Davies touts is the development of local food storage, processing and distribution facilities. Consumers subscribing to this reasoning may be able to buy food directly from local family farms or through other direct channels such as farmers’ markets, food cooperatives, like the planned Co-op and retail outlet, and community-supported agricultural programs.

“The Bitterroot Valley is definitely ready for a good co-op program, self-sufficient food planning, and a healthier food system.”

In June 2004, Gene Mim Mack and Robbie Springs purchased a piece of property in Stevensville with a profoundly rich history, more worthy of safeguarding than, quite possibly, any other structure in town.

The building’s commanding historical presence and the community’s fondness and respect for that history, convinced the couple it was the ideal place to renovate into a fully-functioning hotel. Since that time they’ve added elegant décor, improved its operational capacity and reinvented its meaning.

“Knowing this place meant so much to so many people is what put us over the top,” says Gene, whose past experiences in construction circles involved home and commercial building projects in Alaska.

“The intensity of the experiences that people had here really made us say yes,” he adds. “This building is irreplaceable to many people.”

For almost 100 years, the building now operating as the Stevensville Hotel, located at 107 E. 3rd Street, has played a greatly important and influential role in Stevensville life. Originally constructed in 1910 by Dr. William Thornton, it served the entire Bitterroot Valley as the area’s first hospital. Modeled in the Classic Revival style with contorted windows, dormers and white Tuscan columns buttressing the two-story balcony with spindled railings, the medical center was complete with the most modern of equipment.

After Dr. Thornton moved to Missoula in 1917, a new owner, Dr. P.S. Rennick, reshaped the hospital in the late 1920s, enlarging the sun porch and altering the west dormers. The health facility continued under Dr. Rennick’s administration until his death in 1939.

Years later, the building was reopened as a rest home and as a boarding house. The former Thornton Hospital then sat vacant for many years, before being utilized briefly, albeit unsuccessfully, as an athletic club, as a child care facility and an investment property.

In 1999, the building opened as the Stevi hotel. Five years later, Gene and Robbie purchased the unadorned superstructure, bringing with them the decorative tact and taste with which it was previously lacking.

“This building has been a part of Stevensville for so long that people are really attached to it,” says Robbie. “So, it’s not hard to understand how we were able to see past sixty years of neglect and find the beauty in this building.”

For the past two years, Gene and Robbie have imparted new aesthetic vigor into the old edifice through various repairing and remodeling projects. The act of improving such a structure by renewing it to its former good condition requires obvious amounts of energy, exertion and passion. Some of these creative obligations began with lots of stripping, sanding and painting, followed up with considerable electrical and paneling work. “It’s a compliment when people think the furniture and the lightning are original,” says Robbie.

The pair spent ample time mulling over their new hotel’s layout, design and decorative color schemes. They mutually decided on its furniture. The couple’s goal from the beginning: restore the hotel without making it appear brand new.

“There was nothing in the hotel when we bought it,” says Robbie. “We’ve preserved some items during the restoration, like the picture rails, the molding, the doors and the baseboards.”

The historic property is furnished with items, antiques and local art acquired from quite near and way beyond, including fashionable tables and heirlooms bought in Hamilton, E-Bay purchases hauled back from Utah, and ornate dressers shipped from California.

Sporting a bold, rich palette in pleasant and eclectic colors, certainly aids and enhances strong feelings of the hotel’s aura and its storied past; in an effort to preserve the certain historical ambience and age, there are no TV’s in the rooms. Both Gene and Robbie encourage an atmosphere at the hotel where people communicate freely and frequently.

“There are no phones or televisions in the rooms so as not to have any such distractions,” says Robbie. “That makes it easier to step back in time.”

Currently, a kitchen renovation project is being mapped out, and an additional bedroom on the main floor is planned. Once all the inside improvements are made, the couple will set their refashioning sights on the building’s exterior.

Gene and Robbie: Sailing through the past

One other thing compelled Gene and Robbie, (who both grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, but did not meet until years later in Alaska), to venture upon this renovation project: a mutual love of adventure.

Gene and Robbie enjoy traveling, and they speak tenderly when discussing the brilliant landscapes they’ve visited, studied and lived in. In fact, Gene proposed in Tonga and the couple married in 1997 in New Zealand. Two years earlier, the couple purchased a 35-foot cutter rigged sailboat in Seattle, and steered down the coast to San Francisco, before sailing across the Pacific.

The next five months, they landed on some of the world’s most picturesque and isolated island groups: Tahiti & French Polynesia, Cook Islands, American and Western Samoa, Tonga, and, finally, New Zealand. In September 1997, their daughter Alison was born in Takapuna, New Zealand.

In northern Vanuatu, north of Tasmania, they discovered a small, unruffled protected bay community called Asanvari. Gene and Robbie formed the volunteer Asanvari Peace Corp, after writing grants for the people of Asanvari, and submitting them to foreign aid agencies. After six months of perpetual work building structures from locally harvested materials in Vanuatu, the family spent another summer in Australia, where they realized it was time for a change.

After leaving the boat down under, returning back to the United States, they discovered a new experience and focal point waiting. That centerpiece of attention manifested itself in the inherent physical beauty of one of Stevensville’s most historic dwellings.

Today, Gene and Robbie are both quite happy to be contributing to Stevensville’s extraordinarily contagious community spirit. Both are actively involved in the town’s seemingly endless civic sharing, participation, and fellowship.

“Part of this hotel’s energy is its community spirit,” says Robbie. “We try to make it available for art showings and small meetings, letting the public know that they are welcomed. We like keeping that personal connection going.”

In mid-February this year, Hamilton’s Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital’s Radiology Department began offering to its patients a new weapon for diagnosis of breast cancer, with its revolutionizing mammography machine, the General Electric Senographic 2000. It is one of only two in Montana, and is considered to be the highest technologically advanced mammography machine ever made.

This machine is digital, meaning its medical capacity far exceeds the standard X-ray film version. For starters, it penetrates breast tissue better and produces clearer pictures. This method also produces 40 percent less radiation than the old version, which, medically speaking is quite substantial and makes the machine all the more of an asset. There is also an enormous reduction of false-positive results with the system, which means retakes are less likely to be necessary. In addition, the patient’s testing time for the procedure is drastically reduced (by about half), and that minimizes discomfort. There is virtually no waiting time with a digital system for images (verses that of film development). Digital images are ready in about 10 seconds.

It is recommended that women of age 40 and over take proactive steps by getting an annual mammogram performed. The hospital’s digital mammography machine makes that decision that much easier. If you elect to have your mammogram done at the hospital, you will have the good fortune of either Kathy Miller, the senior mammographer, or Gwen Gorham, an associate mammographer, performing your procedure. Miller has been performing her craft at the hospital since 1988, and Gorham has been with them almost two years. Either one of these very competent mammographers will put you at ease before, during and after the test.

The hospital makes sure the setting for the test is as comfortable as possible. The room’s lighting is dimmed, and the dressing rooms are close to the main room. Upon completion of the test, there is also an exit room, which affords extra privacy, too.

“Before the test, you shouldn’t use deodorant, glittery lotions or powders. Those products contain metals, which will show up on the mammogram as white specks. Cancer cells images also appear as white specks,” Miller advises.

After the test’s completion, a radiology doctor will evaluate the images. With digital, images can be enhanced and manipulated, and the information can be electronically accessed (by password) by doctors anywhere within the hospital. The data can also be stored on a compact disk.

Here’s another good part about having your mammogram performed at Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital: A patient can utilize this technology for only $22 more than the cost of the old analogue X-ray version.

The program at Marcus Daly also participates in the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana medical provider plan. If you are a member of BCBS, that translates into huge savings, because most Western Montana radiologists are non-participators (and often charge substantially more than what is allowed by the BCBS fee allowance). Because of the savings, the hospital has seen patients come for testing from areas outside of Hamilton, including those from Missoula County, Lake County and even Flathead County.

In less than the two months, since the installation of the new mammogram machine, there have already been patients with confirmed breast cancer. Because of early detection, those patients’ chances of a full recovery are more promising than ever before.

The statistics are staggering! In the United States, about 211,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer per year, and approximately one in eight will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.

What may surprise many is that though breast cancer is thought of as a woman’s disease, annually in the Unites States 1,700 men are diagnosed with it. Additionally, about five percent of men will develop an inflammatory condition (gynoconastiasm), which can send them in to have the test. Basically, that occurs when a man will experience a lump or swelling on one side of his chest, which is usually benign.

Early detection has meant the survival (cancer-free for over five years) of over two million breast cancer victims, and having an annual mammogram is the key.

“Detection is one reason why survival rates are so much better [than the previous few years],” Miller explains.

So, here’s some “food for thought.” This is a marvelous test which can be done in our own backyard; it’s close, convenient, and inexpensive; and it’s a state-of-the-art machine that could save your life.

Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital is located 1200 Westwood Drive in Hamilton.

At once resolutely bleak and compassionately lyrical, halfway between a slap and an embrace, Richard Paup’s black-and-white photographs create ambivalent, suspended moods that defy clear reading. Taken between 1968 and 1979, his artistic contributions, part of a genre often labeled “street photography,” will be on display at the Frame Shop in Hamilton beginning April 21.

Many of Paup’s photos share his fascination with the magic of the incidental in the open city, emphasizing the artist’s highly specific interests in urban life: people acting up or daydreaming, standing or sitting, in windows, beside graffiti-marked buildings, on sidewalks and occasionally in the subway. Traveling thousands of miles on North American interstates, European highways and Asian mountain trails provided Paup with an inestimable variety of subject matters, lighting conditions and opportunities to shoot photographs of “real life” situations with a Leica camera.

“These aren’t happy photographs and they’re not necessarily depressing ones, but rather they give a clue into the nature of what our human existence really is. They reflect on the human condition. There are very thoughtful, ponderous aspects to seeing people, when stripped of their false smiles, as they really are.”

Shot with razor reflexes, Paup’s black-and-white documentary photography proves that authentic life is impossible to choreograph and arrange. His subjects are ordinary citizens seen in passing: sitting on a bus, talking in a phone booth, waiting for a train, peering through a café window. Although occasional eye contact is made, nothing is revealed.

Curiously, so many of Paup’s photographs feel strangely unlifelike – true to a moment, yet at the same time, have a peculiar, eerie gloss on them. “I’ve always been interested in watching various people in changing environments,” he explains.

“I was looking all the time and concentrating on finding that real moment,” says Paup, a former photographer for the movie industry, who left show business in 1980, after joining the union more than a decade earlier.

“Sometimes, I feel as if I see stuff that nobody else sees. As a photographer, I’m searching for cues to tell me that something is interesting. Essentially, a photographer really needs to be scanning the environment for information all the time.”

Paup’s photographs, a majority of which were taken unbeknownst to the subject, can easily be observed as expressions of a kind of universal urban truth, and as timeless distillations of gestures and attitudes. It’s hard to imagine these pictures reading effectively in color, circumstances not lost on Paup, who has spent ample time mulling over variations in skin tones and prominent relationships between hues.

“The structure of the image becomes much more important in black-and-white. Sometimes shooting color can be a crutch because with black-and-white, structurally and compositionally, you have to be stronger. There’s a certain amount of sensitivity to tonality and overall skill involved with black-and-white.”

Capturing people as they truly are, often relaxed and casual, somehow defines the essence of personality, like the man reading the newspaper in Montreal or the gaudily dressed African-American men with their abundant afros conversing near a Manhattan phone booth.

Paup’s keen eye and intuition has captured the decisive moment, a snippet in time with which his icon Henri Cartier-Bresson defined as ‘the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression.”

Such a decisive moment, whether outlining a hurried man walking briskly through the airport terminal or an overwrought woman riding the crowded bus home, requires a curious intersection of forces. For example, a photo Paup snapped of a guy on a train in France managed to skillfully blend the geometry of the available diagonal light beaming on the floor with the geometry, angles and symmetry of the shadowy corridor. The ending result is a perfect composition in a scintilla of a second.

“This type of photography has great emotion and feeling. See, there’s an emotional content to it so you need to be prepared to capture a certain gesture. You can’t be fooling around. The moment only exists for a tiny fraction of a second. If you’re indecisive, or not ready, you’ll miss it.”

In 1979, Paup got the sense his art was slowly slipping into something redundant, even pointless. After taking more than a decade off from shooting, Paup, who arrived in the Bitterroot in 1994, was “inspired by its landscape and lighting to do some color work.” Distressingly, many of the places in Montana captured in Paup’s landscape photography have disappeared due to swiftly encroaching housing and road development. Some of these images, however, are on permanent display on the second floor of St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula.

Today, not only are Paup’s photos being viewed and appreciated as records of human grace and energy, but as signs of a nostalgic impulse for the yesteryear of childhood and a now-distant decade. “There’s a certain nostalgia that exists for what people think the 1960s and 1970s were like, something that has now passed into the realm of mythology,” says Paup.

“At the time I was shooting these photos nobody cared about these images,” says Paup. “Now, thirty years later people are looking at these pictures. Black-and-white photography is retrocool these days. The styles of dress and the images are now quite dated, and younger people are looking at these photos as something historical.”

Indeed, there’s a newfound interest in his photography, something that Paup sincerely appreciates. In fact, last summer, over 40 of his prints were on display in Missoula, and, currently, he is busy printing and arranging over 120 photos which may be published as a book.

“It’s very exciting for me knowing that people are interested in my work.”

Richard Paup’s photography will be on display at the Frame Shop starting April 21. The Frame Shop is located at 325 W. Main Street in Hamilton. 363-6684.

There is a period between March 15 and the end of April which transitions winter and spring. Often, there’s too much snow to hike, the air is a little frigid for boating, and the roads are too muddy to get to the snow. Most taxes are due on April 15, and many of us rush around to meet that deadline.

The inactivity of the season brings along a sort of depression; we tend to eat more than we should, exercise less and worry about the taxes we probably will have to pay. While we mope around the house feeling sorry for ourselves, our eye catches an article in Outside magazine. The article shows pictures of beautiful landscapes, people hiking through mountain meadows and a kayak or canoe gliding peacefully on the water. Our minds begin to wander and soon we start thinking about a trip we have wanted to take for a long period of time. Plans are made and the wheels of motion begin to roll. The term used for this psychological drama is called “cabin fever.”

Cabin fever begins the process of planning for summer adventure. The first process in that planning is to find a way to lose the 20 extra pounds we put on during the winter and spring. Americans are obsessed with the idea of dieting to achieve these weight goals. Most of these diets come with caveats, such as, “I do not want to give up bacon”, “but cheese is my favorite food” or “I’m really not interested in exercising. I just want to diet”. Well, an old friend of mine told me the formula for weight control is simple, “The food that goes in your mouth has to be used up by the body, pushed out of the body or made into fat”. So, in mathematical terms: Food consumption minus exercise minus expulsion will equal weight gain or lose. It sounds so simple, eat less, exercise more and lose weight.

Well, we are not so simple a people. Throw in our taste buds, years of bad habits, television, snack foods, computers, a lack of discipline, and stimulating advertising, and all of a sudden we have a serious problem. It becomes a real challenge to lose weight. It’s so much a challenge that it has become a multibillion dollar industry, and each year we feed that industry more and more of our money.

Many of my friends have told me that I must be a natural athlete. I always seem to be in shape for every trip that we make despite my fifty plus years. They have said that I could not put weight on because of my genetics. I usually do not say much of anything, but if they only knew what I had to do to keep active, it would shame them.

A long time ago, I decided to live a certain lifestyle, which would keep me active and healthy. I wanted to be able to give my son the opportunity to actively engage in the outdoors with his father, something that I had missed as a child. I also wanted to live a life full of adventure and not have to quit because of a life of inactivity. All of these points and many more have made me realize that our health must be a priority if we want to give back to our families and communities.

So, three times a week I wake up at five in the morning and meet a friend down at my shop, and we lift weights. My friend depends on me to show up and I feel obligated to be there in case he shows up. Neither one of us will tell the other that we are not coming to work out, so you never know. It’s a little trick to keep us from staying in a warm bed at 5 a.m.

For lunch I will eat a salad that has lots of vegetables in it. I stay away from my most desired foods: bacon and cheese. I combine my workouts with weekend recreation. I eat low-fat foods and stay away from fried foods. I park at the back of the parking lot instead of trying desperately to find the closest parking space. I read stimulating books that increase my zest for life and avoid the television. I work hard (it burns fat) and try to enjoy people.

As you read this you are probably thinking that I am perfect. I have purposely left out all of my bad habits to inspire you into changing your lifestyle instead of going on that diet plan. If you can’t do it for yourself, do it for your family and friends.

And for those friends that think I can’t put on weight, well, they are wrong. Both my parents are overweight. It must be genetics!

Jim Wilson is the owner of Pipestone Mountaineering in Missoula. Pipestone specializes in avalanche gear, winter active gear, and much more. For questions or information about outdoor products and services call 721-1670.

It’s an instinctive behavior for a dog to chase. Dogs love chasing anything that moves, such as cats, runners, bicycles, cars and other moving objects. If your dog is a herding dog, then your dog’s nature is to herd the moving objects. Often, the predatory nature of a dog is enough to cause chase. Dogs love to chase, and in some cases enjoy being chased.

Exposing your dog to a situation where he will want to chase requires that you train him in a controlled setting. It is important for you to simulate a situation where your dog can concentrate and understand the behavior you desire. The dog must have the opportunity and ability to perform the correct behavior repetitively, since up until now he has probably only had practice misbehaving. Therefore, for this to successfully work, you must begin setting up situations while your pup is young. Don’t let chasing become a behavior pattern.

Start the training session indoors in your home. This gives you the “controlled” setting. Put your dog on a leash and stand with him at the end of a room or hallway. Wave a tennis ball in front of him but don’t allow him to touch it. Now, roll or toss it across the room or down the hall and tell him “OFF.” If he starts to go after it, command “OFF!” and give a firm tug on the dog’s leash. It is extremely important that you not allow him to chase and get the ball, or he will think that word “OFF” means for him to chase and “get the ball.” We are not trying to teach the dog to fetch. Practice this several times a day until he gets the message what “OFF” means. “Don’t go after the ball, “i.e.: don’t chase. When he gets it right, praise him profusely and give him a special treat.

When he seems to understand this new “game,” repeat it in different rooms of your house. Practice in the garage and in your back yard. When it is clear to you that he really understands the meaning of “OFF,” try the “game” again without holding on to the leash. Leave his leash on the floor so you can grab it, or step on it quickly, should he forget what “OFF” means. When he has mastered this, try it with him completely off leash, but still in your own home and yard.

It is the same concept just with different objects with regard to joggers, cars, and other dogs or animals. You are replacing the ball with the real deal. Be aware you must repeat training too, in order for it to become a consistently favorable response. Your work and effort will show the results.

Don’t wait until your dog is in full chase before doing something. Success is most likely when you use “OFF” as a preventive command. If your dog has a strong predisposition to chase, it is your responsibility to be alert for his safety, as well as for the safety of others. If you feel you cannot pay attention to the environment around you when you are with the dog, simply do not let him off leash.

David “Dogman” Riggs is the owner of Montana Retrievers. If you have any questions regarding dog training or other related topics, you may contact him via email at riggs@montanaretrievers.com or call 406-859-LABS (5227). Visit his web page www.montanaretrievers.com