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Frenchtown knife maker Josh Smith
| Prescient prodigy matures and advances as one of knife industry’s cutting-edge craftsmen |
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| By Brian D'Ambrosio |
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Functional, pragmatic, and starkly detailed, custom knives have become increasingly ornate, involved, and artistically-oriented. Some of the most talented, utterly refined, custom knife makers call Montana home. Indeed, six of the world’s 100 mastersmiths reside under the valorous, bold-blue boundaries of Big Sky Country.
Of these 100 mastersmiths, more than a few learned the industry through the dreariness of begrudging inculcation. Some studied under the patient guidance and leadership of loved ones or local pundits. Others stumbled upon the practice fortuitously. Perhaps none took to the trade as naturally as Josh Smith, a prodigy of force, clarity and honest craft. The mood and atmosphere of his world – intentional, carefully constructed, patient – make the details of his knives ring as true as a hammer coming down on an anvil.
This month, when Smith, of Frenchtown, turns 27, he’ll already have more than 15 years’ worth of experience with knives affixed to his repertoire. At 11 years old, as a country kid in Lincoln, Montana, he was introduced to knife making by his little league baseball coach, Rick Dunkerley, who would show off his hunting knives at practice.
“I was immediately interested in Rick’s knives,” says Smith, “In 1992, I received one of them as a Christmas present, and in January 1993, at 11, I was invited to his shop, where he handed me a piece of steel – and I got going.”
The young apprentice started with basic knife forms and patterns before working his way up to more advanced levels of speed, sweat and steel. Dunkerley, impressed with the young man’s strength, smarts, and good attitude, urged Smith to join the American Bladesmith Society (ABA), which he did at age 12. The eager protégé was so serious about being a permanent part of Dunkerley’s world that he borrowed money from his folks to purchase his own knife making equipment, working off the debt doing excavation work for the family business.
“My parents instilled my work ethic. Before I could make knives I had to get my work done first. I had to get the wood chopped, grease the equipment, wash windows, load pipe, and make sure my dad was ready for the next day’s work.”
Two years later, Smith, 14, was crafting cutters of his own, even showcasing his wares at a knife show in Oregon. The ABA has three levels of involvement: apprenticeship, journeymansmith, and mastersmith. Following the required three years of apprenticeship, Smith felt as if he was ready for the performance part of the journeymansmith test. His examination took place in a mastersmith’s shop, where he proved he was able to forge a 10’ inch blade, and then use it to chop a 1’ inch free-swinging rope in half, with one hearty swipe. Plus, he needed to place the same blade in a vice, and twist it 90 degrees, without breaking it. Later, he brought five of his choicest knives to Atlanta, Georgia, where they were judged by a panel of fastidious mastersmiths, who critiqued and assessed the fit, finish and finesse of each submitted piece.
At 15, Smith was awarded his journeymansmith honors, and he is still the youngest person ever to receive such a bestowal. Likewise for the mastersmith recognition, which he received at age 19.
“I got made fun of in junior high for making such cruddy looking knives. After receiving my mastersmith things took off. But, even when I went to college, I treated knife making as a hobby. Later, I moved back to Lincoln, to take over the excavation business. In 2002, I finally decided to try and do it full-time, and since then, it’s taken off at an incredible pace.”
Over the years, Smith has learned the bare bones and brass tacks of the trade from some of the leaders of the craft, and he has found knife makers to be open, sanguine, and willing to share and exchange their valuable secrets, opinions and viewpoints. Tim Hancock, Larry Fuegan, and Don Fogg are three of his perennial favorites.
As a business owner, Smith realizes that the need to market and self-promote is almost as important as the cultivated beauty and decorative merit of the product. One can be taught the technical aspects of knife making, but flawless aesthetic flow, uniqueness of design, and weathered individuality, can’t be coached. Lullingly aesthetic, Smith’s knives are forever on the cusp of seizing the esoteric realm of unadorned beauty: They drift pleasingly along, like water finding its way through the landscape, or some small, vulnerable boat cast airily adrift on the sea.
“I’m still building my own look and style. Some makers find it quickly. I’m really not trying to push it along too fast. I’ll let it happen naturally. I’ve still got the time to find it.”
Since Smith has built a strong clientele, and has earned a solid reputation, he’s been granted looser latitude from collectors to venture unfettered, and to test the boundaries of speculative experimentation – something he enjoys. The knives that help pay the bills are never as rousing as the new, unrepeated ones that broaden aesthetic and emotional horizons.
“It’s good to have success, but it also can be difficult, because if you’ve got a knife in a magazine, a lot of people want to order that knife. Then you get stuck making the same knife over and over. Collectors allow me to push myself to try new things, and give me freedom.”
The business side of Smith is actively exploring different methods of outreach and opportunity. From updating mailing lists, to tracking the destinations of products, to journaling, to contacting collectors, to updating the website, he’s busying himself with the bottom line blending of cutlery, casting, and commerce: “Knife making is difficult to make a living at. Most people are at it part-time. When I was in high-school, I could sell a $125 knife that wasn’t the greatest; people bought them because I was a kid to support me.
“My story helped me gain the edge to be able to sell my knives and to put the money back into the operation. When I turned 18 and 19, people started buying my knives on their merit. When I turned 20 and 21, I realized that the knife needs to sell itself, and it doesn’t matter who’s standing behind the table.”
Knife making is more than just a business to Smith, rather it’s the demonstration of life’s tutoring and admonition, the participation of erudite pursuits, the germination of newfangled and rapidly emerging ideas. Plus, it’s the debunking of a few minor myths.
“Everybody knows a guy who made a knife out of a file in their shed one time, but there’s more to it. When you tell somebody you make knives, they have an image in their head, but then they see the work and they accept it as an art form.”
The first purchasers of Smith’s knives were his junior high school math and science teachers, who bought the second and third pieces he ever made for $20 apiece. The fourth sale went to a high school kid for the same price.
“I’ve still got the first one,” smiles Smith.
The knife making process offers myriad opportunities for Smith to let the sparks fly, the muscles strengthen, the physical energies emanate. His shop includes a bevy of both old and modern equipment, such as a homemade forge, a 50 ton hydraulic press, a rolling mill, and sanding machines. Not only is it a place of utilitarian artistry, but many of the fixtures inside provide Smith a reassuring stroll down memory lane: there’s a 2,000 pound surface grinder he purchased as a high school kid; and he still flutteringly hammers metal against an anvil once used by his grandfather.
Indeed, the knife making process incorporates a vivacious variety of Smith’s scientific, metallurgical, mathematical, and physical traits. From the heat treating process, to the implementation of fossilized walrus and mammoth ivory, to gold soldering, to the pressing of the gold tip and throat sheath, Smith’s job is one part physical, two parts intellectual. Each knife begins as a pencil sketched pattern on drawing paper, and then slowly transforms into something magical.
Today, the polished proof of Smith’s energetic forging, hammering, and carving, turns up just about everywhere and anywhere, from Japan to England, to EBay listings. In fact, he recently built an exquisitely ornate sword for a prince from the United Arab Emirates. “I do knives for the Montana hunter to Wall Street types and New York City chefs,” says Smith.
The knives Smith sells at national and international tradeshows range in price from $1,000 to $4,000. Elite, esteemed or hyped knife makers can fetch up to $80,000 for one piece. Making a sale is a fine reward for an honest week’s work, but, to Smith, keeping interest stirred, and exposing his custom creations to appreciative collectors and new audiences is affecting, too. He surmises that the artistry of knives will one day soon have a more conspicuous impact upon the wider world.
“It’s crucial for us knife makers to find new collectors,” says Smith. “The knife world is a neat atmosphere, and it’s an art form out there that really hasn’t been discovered yet. It’s on the brink of exploding. I hope to be able to be one of the people who can take it to the next level.”
Smith’s insatiable appetite for self-improvement is dwarfed only by his hunger for unafraid perfection, a tantalizing abstraction perpetually manifesting itself in neoteric ideas and unconventional creativity.
“There are so many things I can always improve upon. My design can always be improved…right now, I’m learning gold work and engraving and stone setting. I’m always trying to better myself…I control my own destiny.”
For more information, visit www.joshsmithknives.com.
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Art Beat of Missoula: George Ybarra
| Welded metal artist teams up with Feds to minimize bear-human conflicts |
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| By Brian D’Ambrosio |
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George Ybarra is well recognized in welded metal dominions for his artistic offerings. As an accomplished sculptor, Ybarra is active in the inventions and applications of new techniques in his field. Applying an unerring eye for composition, his metal fabrications interfuse aspects and essentials of modern art with the uninhibited landscape to form newfangled and original works. The end results of this merging are thrilling, and quick to animate both imagination and amazement.
For years Ybarra’s output has thread the impressive gamut of a fluxing cultural, environmental, and intellectual shindig. Small and large shards of metal are pulverized, shrunk, heated, melded, and reconfigured, and in the process inexplicably imbued with symbolic strength and grit, showing that in art, as in life, the whimsical nature of context and caprice influence and direct. Whatever their intent, Ybarra’s steel pieces function as portals into sudden hyper-realities. The thoughts and emotions they stir up are authentic, if only as fleeting pangs of frenetic energy.
These days Ybarra broadens his horizons carrying out a bevy of – at least for him, that is – nontraditional instruments of artistic self-widening. Recently, he finished a sculptural commission piece to grace the entrance to the Uptown Flats, a condominium development at Missoula’s north side.
But, in what perhaps has hitherto become his greatest adventure in the jolly junket of artistic sprightliness and experience, Ybarra is working as a subcontractor for Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (MFW&P), constructing bear cages, in an effort to help the organization sharpen bear management policies through the implementation of trash containment enforcement.
“I’m going outside the generally accepted definition of what working as an artist should be,” said Ybarra. “I’m still an artist, but I do enjoy doing this type of commercial welding work. I need to be versatile.”
James Jonkel, bear management director of Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, contracted Ybarra to create a heavy duty cage which would shield easily enticed bears from attractive pollutants and aromatic trash.
“I’m glad to be working with artists like George Ybarra,” said Jonkel. “We have discussed welding up several very simple, yet visually appealing, curbside, bear-resistant garbage can-like, storage-cages, I can check them out to folks living in and around Missoula. I needed George to help me design functional bear-resistant shutters and door covers.
Explained Jonkel: “One of the biggest issues in western Montana is the rampant growth occurring near wilderness areas. Many of the new homes, and many older homes, do not incorporate the concept of wildlife-resistant structures into their architectural design. I get calls every day from folks in rural areas who are having issues with bears’ breaking and entering into buildings. When I arrive at these residences, I usually observe two things: lots of wildlife attractants, such as birdfeeders, fruit trees and uncontained garbage; garbage stored in sheds and buildings, that a strong squirrel or four-year-old child would have no problem breaking into.”
Once completed, the spacious 8”x8”x6”cage, 1,200 to 1,400 pounds of expanded, durable metal, with wide, free-swinging doors, will be loaned to commercial businesses and private residents as part of a redoubled effort to educate people about the concept of garbage containment.
“We will get these cages into the areas where bears were causing the most problems last year,” said Ybarra, “We can use them for preventative measures. The idea from the start was to work from an idea that suited all.”
“I can talk to private homeowners, commercial businesses and landowners until I’m blue in the face, about how they should keep their garbage indoors, or inside a stout shed,” said Jonkel. “Most folks just nod, and say ‘I will see what I can do,’ rather than ask me to trap and relocate bears. That’s why I decided that I needed some new tools.”
Ybarra’s starkly functional bear cage is impervious to inclement weather, rollable, and has been durably designed to redefine – or, at the very least, spur the reassessment of – the consistency, thickness, and viscosity of today’s bear-resistant structures.
“The bear-resistant containment cage that Ybarra has built is an excellent example,” said Jonkel. “Now, when folks are having a problem with a bear in their garbage, I can show up with the portable bear-resistant cage, unload it, roll it in place over their dumpster or garbage cans, and say ‘this is what you need.’ You can borrow it for two weeks, and, during that time, you can figure out how to build a similar structure.”
“A Stickler for Sparks”
From a welding shop on the city’s north side, formerly a railroad and wholesale grocery district in the early 1900s, Ybarra, ingeniously works and sculpts reclaimed and recycled metals. Using materials acquired from discarded Pacific Steel decorative railings and from local scrap yards, he creates innovative items, like a found object character dancing with an old rotor till, and a “Garden Tango” abstract figure piece compounded with decayed farm implements; his works represent configurations completing the metamorphosis from the junk heap into the cutting edge of reality and unaccustomed meaning. Wagon wheel rims and hollow rod spokes form new art, battered steel pork and bean cans become part of a botanical decoration, and lamps are fashioned out of oxidized radiator pipe. With the exception of “Kenworth,” a 108”x120”x38” steel horse, Ybarra sticks to the unconventional: a Montana pitchfork bouquet; a skull and calico rose; a hammered steel bowl filled with crushed non-recyclable green glass; and a welded metal lamp comprised of discarded remnants.
“You have to look deeper into the pieces because there are so many different things that can be seen and pulled out,” said Ybarra, standing inside of the 600-square foot garage where the experimentation of steel’s suppleness is constant.
“That’s what I like most for the viewer is that there are so many things to experience in the art.”
Metal sculpting lends itself to greater exploration than most arts, said Ybarra. And, to him, there’s no better experimentation than turning relinquished objects, like brake peddles from 1930s Studebaker trucks or rusted tractor brakes, into meaningful artwork.
“My work is about using all the material that’s available,” he said.
Ybarra, who grew up in Dillon, has always appreciated objects for their unique shapes and structures. His father was a mason, and, as a young boy, playing with bricks, tiles, blocks and other masonry materials was the norm.
“As a kid, I would make sculptures from these leftover objects and brick fragments,” said Ybarra. “I always saw such materials as objects of beauty and for their aesthetics. It’s always been a part of me.”
Ybarra took to metal art after attending welding courses at the University of Montana in 1994, where he discovered metal’s inherent creative value. Most metals have shiny surfaces and are fairly good conductors of heat and electricity, and can be melted or fused, hammered into thin sheets, or drawn into wires.
“Metal is a great material because it builds big and it lasts forever. And I’ll tell you, there’s nothing like pounding metal,” said Ybarra.
Besides hammering thunderously and repeatedly, Ybarra spends ample time cutting, welding, and heating the metal to bend a production into its representational shape. The shaping, molding, and fashioning of pieces, such as a steel elongated reptile body or a gigantic abstract figure waltzing with a sunflower, requires special artistry and precision. And a little bit of prudence, too.
“I’m a stickler for sparks,” said Ybarra. “Obviously, I always want to know where they are going.”
While Ybarra wants to be sure such incandescent particles never take on a life of their own, his art and his reputation as a clever craftsman have. Not only can his decorative wall and twisted metal sculptures be found throughout Western Montana, his creations have been displayed in exhibits in the Peace Arch Park in Canada and Southland Museum of Art in Invercargill, New Zealand.
“It’s really tough to do something radically new or original,” said Ybarra.
But doing exorbitantly different things without much derivative doesn’t seem to be a problem for this artist: Since 2003, he has been working in a recycled old carriage house; not many artisans use recycled materials, no less discarded steel; and Ybarra, does all his own sales and marketing, maintaining consummate control over the entire merchandising process. A former art museum curator, Ybarra applies skills from the gallery business, bringing them to his home studio. “I’ve come to really understand art as a business, how to promote it, and how to get my work into the public arena.”
“Art is a give and take sort of a business,” continued Ybarra, who has spent more than a little time mulling over the juxtaposition of art, marketing and commerce.
In addition to welding, Ybarra, who doesn’t like limiting himself artistically, works with drip paintings. His recent canvasses are low key, and certainly less aggressive and more delicate than his scalding smelting of steel materials. With a palette of soothing pastels, anemic grays and residual splotches, these quiet and droll paintings are an antidote to a welding world filled with feverish gestures.
“There’s more self-involvement and purity in the drip paintings,” said Ybarra, who shrewdly balances minimalist restraint with Pop showmanship. “This type of art comes with a real fluid feeling, and it’s readily reshaped and graceful.”
From drip paintings, to twisted metal fabrications, to the exact dimensions of bear proof shutters and screen doors, for Ybarra, art is one vast possibility of various stages, eclectic vagaries, creative tendencies, and utilitarian designs.
“I’m excited to see what’s going to happen with these cages,” said Ybarra. “My enjoyment of original sculptural work is as great as it is with this cage. There’s beauty in both purposes. There’s beauty in building a container that will be saving lives. There’s beauty, as a welded metal artist, for me to give back something sincere.”
For more information or to see more images, contact George Ybarra: (406) 728-3892.
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The Story of Jim Hell Rock
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| Men and horses on the road at Jim Hell Rock |
| By Wm. W. Whitfield |
For many years the trail up the East Fork of the Bitter Root River avoided the narrow rocky canyon above Medicine Springs, and followed Spring Gulch up to a low saddle north of Sula Peak. This is the same trail that Lewis and Clark used after leaving the Salish Indian encampment near Sula in 1805, and the same trail many settlers here in the valley followed as they made their way over to the Big Hole Valley and various other points east of the divide. According to the recollections of Herbert “Bertie” Lord, early pioneers had often speculated as to whether a wagon road could be built along the river up through the rugged canyon, and in 1878 a team of experts was sent out from Missoula to investigate the possibility.
In a letter Bertie wrote to the editor of a local newspaper years later, he provided a detailed account of the excursion, with most of his information coming from conversations he had overheard between his father and W. B. Harlan, a key figure in the escapade. Bertie’s letter stated that for a number of years there had been “considerable talk about building a wagon road from the Bitter Root to Bannack. Finally, the county commissioners (this was part of Missoula County then) decided to send some viewers over the part of the road that would be in this county and make a report about the condition and whether it was feasible to build the road or not.
At that time the old Indian Trail came up the East Fork all the way on the north side to avoid crossing the river. W. B. Harlan was one of the three viewers appointed to look over the route and report their findings to the county commissioners at Missoula.”
The Lord family ranch was situated on the East Fork of the Bitter Root, near the mouth of Warm Springs Creek, just across the river from a favorite campsite used by the Salish Indians, known as Rattlesnake Flat. Bertie relates that in those days the old trail forked at the flats, the one on the north side followed Spring Gulch up over the saddle into Ross Hole, and the other less-used route traced the river up through the rocky canyon.
He goes on to say that when Mr. Harlan and his fellow viewers got up the river to Rattlesnake Flat they found old Delaware Jim and some Salish Indians encamped there. The surveyors asked Delaware Jim about the conditions in the canyon from there to Ross Hole, and if he thought a wagon road could be built through it. “Well,” says Delaware Jim, “ you won’t have much trouble until you get about half way to Ross Hole. When you come to a big rock, then you have hell.”
“Delaware Jim” Simonds was a Delaware Indian who reportedly had served along with his father as a hunter with the John C. Fremont Expedition in the spring of 1843. Afterwards, Jim and his brother Ben offered their services along the Emigrant Road during the summers, and often wintered in the Beaverhead or Bitter Root valleys of Montana, bringing along a wide variety of goods to trade with the local Indians. Throughout the 1850’s Major John Owen hired Jim to accompany him as hunter on many of his purchasing ventures from Fort Owen, and his name appears repeatedly in Owen’s journals. Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens even relied on Delaware Jim once as a hunter, guide and interpreter during the Blackfoot Council near Fort Benton. He also served as interpreter later on during the Nez Perce War, when soldiers from Fort Missoula built the futile barricade known as Fort Fizzle, in Lolo Canyon.
Getting back to the story of Jim Hell Rock, we again turn to the recollections of Bertie Lord, who says that when the survey crew got a little further up the canyon, “they found the big rock all right, and the river was running along side and against the base of the rock. A good sized tree that had been growing on the opposite side of the river had been undermined by high water and had fallen across the river and landed against the big rock and was there in a slanting position with the top a few feet up the rock. Mr. Harlan climbed up this leaning tree until he reached the face of the cliff where the tree had lodged, and with a fire coal wrote the words Jim’s Hell.” The inscription was positioned just under a kind of an overhang on the rock so it had some protection from the weather. The writing could be plainly seen for several years after Bertie came to the valley in 1882, and he used to look at it every time he went up or down the canyon.
Apparently Mr. Harlan thought the construction project was worth doing, so the contract to build a wagon road stretching from the upper valley through Ross Hole and over the divide at Gibbons Pass was given to Joseph Pardee in 1879, for the sum of $1,100. However, the contract did not include the cost of building any bridges over the East Fork, and the new road had to crisscross the river a number of times as it wound its way up through the narrow rocky gorge. Once the road was built through the canyon, there were six fords on the river, and two of them were at Jim Hell Rock.
One was just below the towering cliff, and the other was about 100 yards above it. Both fords were eliminated a few years later when another man was paid $200.00 to bring in fill material and build up the road right next to the rock. Bertie says that one of the best fishing-holes on the East Fork was lost in the process.
I can’t go on without mentioning an unusual story, which admittedly has only a minimal connection to Jim Hell Rock, but is worth retelling just the same. Again, my main source for the following material is Bertie Lord, who would have been about 13 years old at the time.
Bertie recalls that in the spring of 1883, Sig Chaffin gathered up about 300 hogs that belonged to a group of farmers from around Corvallis, and drove them to Ross Hole to pasture for the summer. Bertie was living with his father and uncle at Billie Edwards’ ranch on Rye Creek when the oddball procession passed through.
“I saw them go by, as the road was close to the house where we were living on the Edwards’ place. I also saw the hogs go back in the early fall. Sig and Alex and, I think, Mose (Chaffin) was with them, and I don’t remember whether there was anyone else or not. I have heard Sig and Alex talk a good many times about their experiences with that bunch of hogs that summer and I guess it was a headache from start to finish and they never tried it again.”
Bertie says that Sig Chaffin earned a $1.00 per head to care for the squealing herd of swine that summer, and that “the hogs had to live on grass and camas and whatever vegetation they could find on the flats of Ross Hole, and I don’t think they got fat on it, but they lived anyway.”
Apparently the passel of porkers had to ford the river 13 times between Corvallis and Ross Hole, and when they got to Rattlesnake Flat the herders followed the old Indian trail up Spring Gulch. The old trail was still utilized during high water, when the spring runoff would often completely fill the narrow canyon of the East Fork, and flood over the newly constructed road.
No bridges were built across that stretch of the river until several years after the road was completed. When the entourage finally got into Ross Hole, the men couldn’t keep their herd together any longer, and in no time at all the headstrong hogs were spread out “all over the basin.” At the end of the summer, our savvy swine-herders drove their unruly oinkers’ back to the Bitter Root, leading them down through the canyon where they passed over the ridge just behind Jim Hell Rock. Gathering up that extraordinary herd of hogs must have made for quite a memorable roundup!
These days the only herds navigating the rocky canyon are a curious batch of bighorn sheep that are often found standing right in the middle of the road. Today’s hurried traveler flies through the canyon past Jim Hell Rock without ever realizing just how drastically things have changed over time. The river no longer laps at the sheer rock wall as it did for endless generations before the road was built, and the rustic charcoal inscription placed there by W. B. Harlan has long since disappeared.
The wide modern highway sweeps by close to the stony escarpment in a way that was once reserved only for the icy waters of the East Fork, but if you look closely on your way back from Sula, you can still see the perfectly placed retaining wall that was carefully built up more than a hundred years ago.
And if you happen to slow down a little bit, and cast a passing glance at your rugged surroundings, you can almost imagine exactly what it was that Delaware Jim was talking about.
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| Court Appointed Special Advocates volunteer as “eyes and ears” of maltreated children |
| By Brian D’Ambrosio |
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When children are removed from their parents and placed into the foster care system, they need a considerate friend to allay associated trauma, an impartial advocate who holds their compassionate interest at heart, and an informed proponent well suited to match, and attend to their needs. They need someone passionate, astute, and alert enough to serve as their unique legal and emotional guardian.
For the betterment of such unfortunately afflicted children in Ravalli County, a child protection program exists: Bitterroot CASA. Qualifying for leadership in this organization’s world involves building a reputation for consistency as well as honesty.
Currently, Bitterroot CASA has 12 volunteers advocating for approximately 45 children. CASA are intensely scrutinized to insure worthiness of relative capability, good faith, fitting educability, and strong overall competency. Working in the labyrinthine circumstances of the court system, volunteers need to patiently glide the waters of an intricate, often perplexing, state of legal affairs.
Before being accepted as a CASA, a candidate must consent to a criminal records check, Department of Child and Family Services check, and complete a 36 hour pre-service training program. “Attorneys, court personnel, social workers, therapists, and senior CASA volunteers all assist in training new CASA guardians,” said Julie Crane, program director of Bitterroot CASA, who helped establish the non-profit in 2002, with the assistance and advice of Judge Jeffrey H. Langton and deputy county attorney Karen Mahar. Crane trained under the Missoula CASA program.
“Pre-service training topics include legal terminology,” continued Crane, “as well as courtroom procedure, system protocol, court report writing, child abuse and neglect issues and laws, cultural awareness, advocacy skills, and communication and information gathering.
“Cases are complex, and so many issues are involved. That’s why volunteers receive very good training before ever being assigned to a case.”
Typically, Bitterroot CASA conducts one substantial protocol training session per year, usually in the springtime. Crane recruits, trains, and supervises volunteers, whom she refers to as “the heart of the program.”
“Our volunteers are top notch, they come from all different backgrounds, but each desires to help kids in difficult situations,” says Crane. “I’m a stickler regarding who is allowed to volunteer for our program.”
The initial case involvement of CASA volunteers ordinarily begins once the child has been removed from their parents because of bad, neglectful or abusive treatment or conditions (sometimes they will represent kids remanded to juvenile detention). Volunteers work with their cases for various lengths of time, often for as long as one year. If birth parents take the social, emotional, and moral correctives necessary to remedy their issues, then reunification with their estranged offspring is possible. If parents can’t, or refuse to, resolve the problems that led to their child being placed in foster care, their parental rights would be terminated, and then adoption or another different living arrangement is recommended.
Indeed, volunteers are the “eyes and ears” of the court, and are given unfettered access to the child’s life. “They are officers of the court,” says Crane, “and they are appointed by a district court judge, to investigate the circumstances regarding the removal of children from families.”
“They do a little bit of everything, they write written reports, observe visitations, interview birth and foster parents, attend all court hearings, anything that can give the guardian a better picture of what’s going on with the child.”
The CASA volunteer, as guardian ad litem, presents their findings to the court, makes suggestions regarding child placement, and advices the judge as to their opinions of whether or not the rights of birth parents should for all intents and purposes cease, or if adoption candidates meet the correct criteria.
“In the past,” says Crane, “before the program was formed, the court had appointed public defenders who were attorneys to guardian, and they didn’t, due to large caseloads, have the time to investigate each case. CASA volunteers get one to three cases, at the maximum, so they can really focus on a case.”
Ultimately, the judge makes the final custodial decision regarding parental culpability or suitability. But, judges do in fact heavily weigh and consider the recommendations of CASA volunteers, and have expressed such sentiments in past court proceedings.
Mike Small, of Stevensville, started as a CASA volunteer in 2003. His mother had been a CASA volunteer, and it was from her that he’d learned of the program. For him, CASA is a way of giving back to the community and protecting the inherent goodness of childhood. As a guardian ad litem, mitigating the corrosive emotional effects of child trauma is one of his objectives. But, perhaps most importantly, he chose the program as a method for him to be a visible, compassionate, anchoring adult presence in the complex, confusing, often brutally unfair, lives of disaffected youth.
“There are many kids in great need of help,” said Small. “We try to make life a little bit easier for them. We do this by meeting with the children, their foster parents, their counselors, and by trying to get a good feel for a child’s situation. It’s a traumatic time for a child, and we reach into the child’s community. We earn their trust, and try to be neutral and objective people attentive to their needs.
“Hopefully, we are familiar enough with a child that we can provide the perspective and the information that the judge might not be able to get.”
Small says that, as an adult, he often draws emotional strength from the acts and fortitudes of the many remarkably resilient kids he has chosen to help counsel.
“When you take a child from a different, traumatic situation, and move him or her to a safer environment, you see an amazing change, and it’s a great feeling knowing that they are now being taken care of. To see kids in suitable foster or adoptive homes, a nurturing environment, is very satisfying to see.”
Neglected, abused and maltreated children harbor many self-doubts and need mentors and defenders who are not only fair and impartial and tenderhearted but have hearts of sheer altruism. Unselfish support is the brilliant and underappreciated resource binding the program together.
“The bottom line is that we want to help out children in need,” reiterated Small. “Even today, many folks are still only dimly aware of the resources here in Ravalli County. So much more is available than what’s recognized. With CASA, children’s needs are matched with what’s available.”
“Guardians spend a lot of time and put a lot of heart into their investigations,” said Crane. “They take their role seriously and give heavy consideration as to what they present to the court. CASA guardians advocate for the best interest of their kids.”
Bitterroot CASA’s annual fundraiser takes place April 4 at the Bitterroot River Inn. All monies raised fund the training of volunteers. For more information, visit www.bitterrootcasa.org., or contact Bitterroot CASA program director Julie Crane at 961-4535.
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The Super-sized problem of overweight children
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| By Devry Garity |
In the past 20 years the number of overweight children has doubled and nearly tripled in teenagers. Children’s growth and development is monitored in clinical settings by tracking their weight, height and BMI (Body Mass Index, a calculation of weight relative to height).
BMI is a simple screening tool that correlates well with other measures of body fat. Children and teens whose BMI is greater than 85% are considered to be at risk for overweight. Those above 95% are termed overweight. A small study looking at BMI of local school children reflected national statistics with 32% at risk for over weight and almost 20% overweight.
Children’s health can be significantly affected by being overweight. We are now seeing health problems in children that were thought to be primarily adult diseases in the past. Diseases such as type II diabetes, elevated cholesterol and lipid abnormalities, hypertension, sleep apnea, fatty liver disease and rising rates of poor self-esteem and depression. The future healthcare costs of treating these conditions is staggering.
What is causing our children to be overweight? When nutritional intake exceeds energy output, put simply more calories are being eaten than burned off.
Our intake of calories has radically increased. .We live in a Super-sized society, where portion sizes have become bigger. More families are eating fast food, which tends to be high in fat and calories, children have more access to preparing their own food and are eating readily available high calorie and fat foods, and soft drink consumption has skyrocketed.
As a society we have engineered physical activity out of our lives. Our children are more reliant on motorized vehicles for transportation, decreased physical activity in the school setting and increased time spent with inactive media sources (TV, computers, and video games). Young children now spend more time watching screens than performing any other activity other than sleeping.
What can we do to prevent this problem? By focusing on three areas. Healthy food choices, active lifestyle, and limiting inactive periods. Parenting behavior and role modeling can significantly change children’s behavior.
Develop healthy eating patterns. No dieting! Short term dieting is unrealistic and unhealthy for growing children and teens. Eat three balanced healthy meals as a family at the kitchen table with the TV off as often as possible. Studies have shown adolescents who skip breakfast tend to be more overweight than those who eat breakfast daily. Serve children and help them prepare well balanced meals with whole grains foods, lean meats, low fat milk and limit juice to no more than 1 cup per day. Serve fruits and vegetables at every meal, and have them readily available for snacking. Eliminate sugary soda, including diet pop, sports and energy drinks from the house. If it is not available they won’t drink it. And offer water freely.
Incorporate physical activity into everyday life. Walking or biking to destinations (store, school, park). Walking a dog, playing active games, devoting an area of house or garage to free play, encourage increased playtime outdoors. Have your children involved in local recreation programs organized sports. Studies have shown lifestyles learned as a child are much more likely to stay with a person into adulthood.
Use “screen time” sparingly. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no TV for children less than 2 years of age. One or two hours of “screen time” per day for children older than 2 years old.
Studies have shown restricting TV time to be effective, yet children who are reinforced for not watching TV participate in more activities. Here are some ideas to establish a reward system, gold star for each hour spend playing an activity with the TV off, at a set amount of stars reward with an active family outing (going to the park, hiking, fishing, skiing, or community pool).
I also recommend establishing a weekly screen time budget. Each day is allotted 2 hours of time for a total of 14 hours a week. This gives children more control and self empowerment on when and how to spent the time.
There is a common saying in pediatrics: Children are not little adults, therefore, we approach them in different ways. If a child is overweight, they have the ability to grow into their weight with the above approaches. If you have any questions about your child, nutrition or their weight, please contact your healthcare provider.
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| Ag Happenings: High on the Hog |
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| A lesson in old-fashioned farm diversity |
| By Rod Daniel |
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A Hamilton couple is turning tired pasture into productive vegetable ground while their tractor remains parked.
Aided by an army of happy hogs, Pam Watts and Leon Stangl – self proclaimed partners in swine – are working up the rocky ground off Ricketts Road to produce bushels of bountiful veggies, which they will sell from the farm directly to the customer.
Embracing the concept of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA for short), Leon and Pam have joined a nationwide movement aimed at bringing consumers and customers together for mutual benefit. Customers buy shares in the CSA, paying upfront for a season’s farm bounty. Then, once a week, they stop by the farm and pick up their weekly ration. The farmer benefits by getting paid ahead of time, and the consumer shares in the risk of producing the crops.
After a couple years of selling vegetables at the Hamilton farmers market and from the farm, Pam is sold on the idea of CSAs.
“It’s a one-time marketing thing, which leaves us time to do other things,” she said. “It’s also nice to have direct contact with the customers – relationships develop over the season.”
Weekly visits to the farm also give people a glimpse of what farming is like, Pam said. “People come away with a better idea of what’s in season,” she said. “They learn that tomatoes don’t grow in May in Montana. They also really appreciate the freshness and how good food tastes when it hasn’t been sitting in a truck or warehouse for several days.”
Creating that relationship between the customer and the farmer is important to Leon and Pam. The very name of their enterprise – Yourganic Farm – explains their mission. “Know your food, know your farmer” is a phrase Leon often repeats.
Rough around the Edges
A visit to Yourganic Farm is a lesson in old-fashioned farm diversity and a reality check on what it means to live off the land in the Bitterroot. Working farms are seldom tidy, and Yourganic Farm is no exception.
Driving up the wood chip driveway, visitors are just as likely to be greeted by twin orphan lambs, Dirty and Brownie, as the faithful farm dog, Jesse. And amid the welcoming wags, guests will see make-shift greenhouses, scratching chickens, overflowing tubs of brewery grain, barrels of whey, a couple Brown Swiss cows peeking over the fence, and a dozen or so sheep grazing in the distance.
But most noteworthy are the pigs – scores of them in all sizes, shapes and colors. The big ones will likely be penned within the confines of an electric fence or cattle panels, but the little ones often scamper among the scratching chickens, searching for spilt grain.
About the size of a football (aka pigskin), the piglets are cute as can be. But try picking one up and you’ll either be greeted by its own deafening, high-pitched squeal or the deep, wrathful grunt of the 200-pound mama sow. Either way, you’d best put the piglet down.
Unconfined Swine
Pigs are plentiful on the pastures at Yourganic Farm, but that’s not always been the case, Leon said.
“It started out that I just wanted to grow my own pigs for meat,” he said. “I bought a couple local hogs to butcher, and a year or so later I decide to buy one to breed.”
That was probably 15 years ago, he said, and since then, he has steadily increased the number of hogs produced each year, largely because of people’s preference for pastured pork. In a few months he’ll have more than 80 hogs.
“Right now we have 22 butcher hogs to be finished, and the first 10 are already sold,” he said. “The first five are for new customers who called last year. Last fall, the demand for our pigs definitely exceeded our supply.”
To help remedy that problem, Leon and Pam applied for and received a Montana Growth Through Agriculture grant to help them increase their capacity to produce prok. A relatively small allotment compared to other Montana Department of Agriculture grants, the $6,000 they’ll soon receive will allow them to buy a trailer to transport their live hogs to other fields and to the processor. It will also provide them more fencing material, electric fencers and troughs to increase the number of separate pastures.
Breeding for Better Bacon
Along with growing more pigs, Leon has also improved the genetics of his swine by purchasing semen from purebred boars in the Midwest and artificially inseminating selected sows about every two years. Each year, he selects for desirable traits by saving back the best boars and sows.
“We’re breeding for darker color, because out in the field lighter pigs tend to sun burn, which leads to stress and slower weight gain,” he said.
For the most part he’s gone with Berkshires, an Old World breed that’s darker and shorter and has a higher fat content. Once a popular breed in the U.S., Berkshires fell out of favor on factory hog farms because those growers wanted a bigger, faster growing pig with less fat. But outside, in the fresh air and sunlight, hogs eat a lot of grass and weeds and derive nutrients from the soil. Such a diet, Leon said, is perfect for the Berkshires and makes for superior texture and flavor in the meat.
“On pasture, a pig with a higher fat content is desirable,” he said, “because it produces good marbling on the lower fat diet.”
Leon and Pam’s pigs also get plenty of grain, including wheat, barley and oats, all of which is grown organically in Montana. They also get lentils and alfalfa. The feed is delivered by truck throughout the year.
Yourganic pigs also get barley pressings from Bitter Root Brewing Co. in Hamilton and whey from Lifeline Creamery in Victor. A high-protein liquid, whey is a byproduct of the cheese-making process.
The result, he said, is a darker meet with better texture and flavor. Recent 4-H test results from breeders across the state gave Yourganic pork the highest color rating out of 169 breeders.
“One of the chefs that buys our pork called it ‘forgiving,’” Leon said. “He said even if it’s overcooked a little bit, it still has good flavor and texture.”
A number of chefs in the valley, including those at Triple Creek and the Stock Farm, regularly buy Yourganic pork and families all over the Bitterroot have Yourganic pork in their freezer. It’s not cheap, nor should it be, Leon said. Because of increasing grain costs Yourganic pork costs about double what supermarket, factory-raised pork costs.
“People recognize its value,” he said, “and we’re not having any trouble selling it.”
Back to the Land
In addition to providing a good portion of the family income from their meat, the pigs root up the sod and accompanying quack grass in the pastures and leave a rich, evenly spread layer of fertilizer for next year’s vegetable crops. And because they don’t consume fossil fuels or require a mechanic to keep them running, the happy hogs provide yet another economic benefit to the farm.
“I figure we probably save $1,000 a year in fuel and manure costs,” Stangl said. “The pigs work it up, and I can finish it with two passes of the tractor.”
Pam also heaped praise on the soil-enhancing swine. “They’re amazing at getting rid of quack grass,” she said. “They really do it all. And they’re fun to watch, they’re cute and they have their own personalities. I really love them.”
REPORTER’S NOTE – In the interest of full disclosure, I must point out that Leon and I previously farmed together for several years and that he provided a pastured pig for my wedding in 2000. We also sport identical bumper stickers which read “Who’s Your Farmer?”
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Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital
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| Ambulance services strengthen commitment through modernization |
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| By Shannon Selway |
It wasn’t all that long ago, 2006, that Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital became the guardian of Ravalli County’s ambulance services. Area folks have appreciated a greater comfort level ever since, and that holds particularly true right now. It’s quite amazing how much the MDMH emergency services has accomplished addressing the needs of the ever-increasing rural population of the Bitterroot Valley, and how MDMH has done so with a progressive style that rivals what urban communities can deliver.
Since 2006, the demand for emergency services has dramatically increased. Not only is this so because of the increasing population in the Valley, but also much of that increased population bears many retirees. Likewise, MDMH’s emergency services have responded in kind. The department increased its number of Ford Wheeled Coach diesel ambulances to nine. Four are housed in Hamilton; two are housed in Stevensville; two in Darby and one in Victor. All serve 24/7 and are staffed with full-time paramedics and EMTs. These ambulances are strategically placed with the goal of getting emergency services to anywhere needed in Ravalli County within 20 minutes, which is quite a feat considering the size of the county.
To further that mission, when there’s an ambulance call – say, in Victor - another ambulance is shuffled to the Victor area to ensure that if another call were to come in for that area while the original Victor ambulance is out, that void would be filled. That can create a juggling act, but MDMH’s emergency services handle it with precision.
The emergency crews that respond have been through extensive medical training. Often, when needed, the crew assists in the emergency room at MDMH, always absorbing more techniques and information that ultimately compliments their emergency medical skills. It is one way MDMH emergency services ensure the public receives a highest level of care and expertise before a patient even enters the hospital doors. MDMH’s emergency staff also partakes in continuing medical education courses, always upgrading qualifications.
One key recent attribute of the MDMH’s emergency services is the commitment to have a certified paramedic on board when responding to an emergency call. A paramedic has the authority and training to administer medications that an EMT cannot. This can be most vital when addressing a heart attack victim where nitroglycerin, morphine, and other drugs are essential for the patient’s survival, or minimizing health damages.
Take, for example, what happened to Dr. William Frakenberger of Stevensville on February 16.
It was around 4:00 a.m. and he awoke with severe chest pain. He took a couple of aspirin and returned to bed. He attributed the pain to some heavy labor he did the day before (farm work), and thought he strained a chest muscle.
The pain, however, did not abate; he took a couple more aspirin. It did help, and the next morning he felt well enough to tend to more farming chores before breakfast. Breakfast posed another problem. He found he had trouble swallowing. His wife felt something was wrong and insisted he see someone at the clinic in Stevensville. Reluctantly, he agreed to go. There he was given an EKG and it revealed he was having a heart attack! The news stunned Dr. Frakenberger. He never dreamed he was having a heart attack. After all, he was physically fit and only 55! The clinic immediately summoned an ambulance.
“The crew of the ambulance basically saved my life! They were there in less than five minutes!” Frakenberger said. “The response time was so quick.”
In the haste of things, the clinic didn’t place an IV in Dr. Frakenberger. This was a procedure that needed to be done – in the ambulance ride that was taking him the Missoula’s Community Hospital.
“The idea of having someone insert an IV into me in a vehicle ‘on the fly’ didn’t wash well with me. But the paramedic was calming and professional. It went in just fine.”
And, it sounded like it was “just in time.” Dr. Frakenberger still was experiencing chest pain. He was administered more nitroglycerin under his tongue and then later, as they approached Lolo, his IV came in handy for the morphine injection (morphine slows the heart rate down). All the while, the paramedic and driver were communicating with each other making sure everything was in sync for their arrival at the hospital.
Once at the hospital key information was exchanged with the emergency physicians, such as the EKG from the clinic they had with them, the medications administered, etc. Dr. Frakenberger’s main artery was completely blocked and two-thirds of his heart was not getting any blood, except what was supplied by lateral veins and arteries. He had surgery with angioplasty stints to open the artery. Today, just weeks later, Dr. Frakenberger is doing well and is expecting a full recovery.
“A lot of things happened that day that could have gone the wrong way, but they didn’t; they went the right way. I, for one, truly believe the ambulance guys saved my life that day.”
Dr. Frakenberger indeed attributes the speedy professional services of MDMH’s ambulance crew for saving his life. Even then, there are many forces “behind the scenes” that lead to that success story.
Serving a vast area of Ravalli County with outstanding competency is rather complex, but quite doable, with the capable assistance of MDMH’s Donna Rennaker, head of the Emergency Medical Services, and Tim Engberg, director of physicians.
“It’s our goal that ‘service is seamless,’ meaning communication doesn’t get dropped.” Engberg said. “We have a 24-hour state of readiness. You could have a situation - like this morning - where we got seven calls before 9 this morning; or, maybe nothing is called in until well after 3.”
It’s Donna Rennaker’s job to oversee her 27 full-time ambulance crew, and scores of on-call emergency response employees. That has been quite a leap from when she took rein in 2006 from 10 full-time employees. Nonetheless, Rennaker is profusely qualified: she’s been at the lifesaving business since 1975, when she made her mark as an EMT. Through the years, she’s been perfecting her skills and has been continuously giving back to the community.
It should be of great comfort to the Ravalli County community to know that if that “dreaded call” should ever have to take place that the expedient services of MDMH’s emergency services will be there in a jiffy.
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