The Montana Department of Agriculture is now accepting applications for the Food and Agriculture Development Center (FADC) Grant Program.
Approximately $1,100,000 in funds are available for the two-year period of this grant; MDA plans to award multiple grants from these funds.
Activities must develop Montana’s food processing infrastructure, support emerging agriculture technologies, or enhance opportunities to expand Montana’s agricultural economy.
Please visit the Food and Agriculture Development Network page for a complete list of funding opportunity guidelines and eligibility requirements.
The deadline for applications is May 1, 2023, at 5pm. To apply on funding.mt.gov, please visit https://funding.mt.gov/index.do to register or login.
The FADC Network helps Montanans innovate and grow businesses that produce and commercialize food, agricultural and renewable energy products, and processes, creating wealth and jobs in our communities and on our farms and ranches.
The centers – located throughout Montana – operate as a statewide network serving community-based businesses.
The Montana Department of Agriculture is serving Montana Agriculture and growing prosperity under the Big Sky.
For more information on department programs and services, visit agr.mt.gov.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has released a Decision Notice to repair and preserve two structures at Chief Plenty Coups State Park on the Crow Indian Reservation in Big Horn County. The park is a National Historic Landmark. Public comments were accepted from Feb. 3, 2023 to midnight on March 6, 2023, but no comments were received.
FWP proposes to fully stabilize the foundations of the Chief’s House and Store, stabilize the House porch and replace decking, survey and repair log rot, replace all chinking and daubing, and repair windows and trim on both structures. The roof on the House may be fully replaced if funds allow under the planned contract or in the next 5 years if additional funds are necessary and successfully secured. All work will follow government historic preservation protocols.
Chief Plenty Coups Painting by Dave Holman (tap or click image to enlarge)
Chief Plenty Coups (1848 – 1932) was the principal chief of the Crow Nation (“Apsáalooke”) and a visionary leader.
He allied the Crow with the whites when the war for the West was being fought because the Sioux and Cheyenne (who opposed white settlement of the area) were the traditional enemies of the Crow.
Chief Plenty Coups had also experienced a vision when he was very young that non-Native American people would ultimately take control of his homeland (Montana), so he always felt that cooperation would benefit his people much more than opposition.
He very much wanted the Crow to survive as a people and their customs and spiritual beliefs to carry on. His efforts on their behalf ensured that this happened, and he led his people peacefully into the 20th century.
Chief Plenty Coups was born into the Crow tribe in 1848 at the-cliffs-that-have-no-name (possibly near Billings, Montana), to his father Medicine-Bird and his mother Otter-woman. He was originally given the birth name Chíilaphuchissaaleesh, or “Buffalo Bull Facing The Wind”.
Chief Plenty Coups State Park
Situated within the Crow Indian Reservation in south-central Montana, 40 minutes south of Billings, this day-use park preserves the log home, sacred spring, and farmstead of Chief Plenty Coups. This state park is a National Historic Landmark.
To learn more about Chief Plenty Coups State Park you can either call or write:
The last time I voted at an in-person voting location was in 2000 at North Middle School.
Every voting cycle since then I’ve voted absentee. The Cascade County elections office sends me my ballot through the mail, I vote, and then I drop the ballot off in-person.
During election times in Cascade County I’ve always understood that I had the option to receive an absentee mail ballot or to do in-person voting. I chose the absentee voting option because it’s much more convenient for me and I drop off in-person because sometimes I might not have a whole lot of faith in the postal service.
Lately there seems to be some sort of a kerfuffle going on about how our elections systems/processes are being handled at the local level here in Cascade County.
It’s usually always best to wait and see what actually happens instead of having to worry about changing your headline later because you jumped the gun … also, Jane Weber needs to settle down and eat some fruit or something.
Being since I received my ballot on the 18th, I would tend to error on the side of caution here and give KRTV it’s due accolades on being correct with it’s reporting. As a side note, it’s been years since I’ve seen the postal service here in Great Falls deliver mail cross-town in only a day (they must be improving).
When people start to politicize a process things can get murky in a hurry. This whole “he said she said” crap doesn’t really fly around here. I don’t ever recall “everybody” liking whoever gets elected and this whole elections deal here in Cascade County is no exception … it’s all just the usual politics.
The recent story on KRTV that talked about some folks getting more than one ballot for the same thing is also something that could easily be blown out of proportion. Regular normal mistakes can be made on any day of the week, but when you start to politicize the process, those regular mistakes are made out to be something akin to the sky falling. Chances are good that mistakes can be made when you’ve got a bunch of political near-do-wells breathing down your neck when you’re trying to do your job.
Settle down folks … the sky isn’t falling … this is all just politics as usual. All we have is a bunch of people not liking a bunch of other people here in Cascade County because somebody won or lost an election. That’s it.
When my wife went to University over in western Washington state she was required, by Washington state law, to obtain a Washington drivers license due to the length of time she was there. Fair enough I suppose, but in Washington, you get registered to vote automatically when you get your drivers license.
It’s really a rather interesting story actually, in that my wife never voted in Washington and that upon after returning to Montana she got Washington state election ballots in the mail that covered not one, but two election cycles in that state.
She didn’t immediately jump up and call KRTV or KOMO about it and she didn’t go off on any rants about how the state of Washington was stumping for out of state non-resident votes. When she couldn’t get anywhere with the county elections office over there, she contacted the elections commission in Olympia and so far she hasn’t received any other mailings.
I vote, and sometimes my guy wins, and sometimes my guy loses … it’s a fact of life. If my guy loses, I don’t go all off-the-cuff and get my nose out of joint over it.
At any rate, we work with what we’ve got and for all of the political posers, trolls, and grifters we’ve got out there it’s not an easy job. I’ve found that it’s always best to not jump to any conclusions because somebody else might be having a political angst over something.
I received my ballot in a timely manor, just like “always”, so I’ll resign myself to voting for who I think might be best suited to doing the job.
sourced:The Electric (original reference link – https://theelectricgf.com/2023/04/17/ballots-not-mailed-on-april-17-county-staff-volunteers-spent-week-stuffing-envelopes/)
We’ve all seen the flyers showing all of our wide open spaces and the very sparsely populated interstates with majestic mountains as a backdrop I’m sure, but once you get into the Montana towns that have seemingly grown up too fast over the past 40 some odd years, you might want to take another look at the wide open space mantra that we’ve become so used to hearing.
Poor city planning and explosive growth have both teamed up to give Missoula the dubious distinction of being first place in Montana as having the worst traffic, according to INRIX, a traffic data and analytics company.
Montana is growing, and all of those sleepy little towns in western Montana that were once filled with plaid shirts and Elmer Fudd hats are taking the brunt of that growth. Small valleys in the west are bursting to the brim with literally everybody and anybody that bought into that whole wide open spaces deal that our flyers are so known for.
Clark Fork River, Missoula Valley (tap or click image to enlarge)
The Missoula valley is small and tight as far as valleys go, so it’s no wonder that all of the surrounding hills are full of houses. Streets are narrow, congested, and were seemingly built by those who thought it would be great to follow that cow around the pasture.
Travel farther east to Bozeman and you’ll see a lot of the same thing. The core of these towns were built back in the by-gone era of the horse drawn model T with no thought to any possible future growth or development. It was only in the mid to late 80’s that folks in these towns started to wake up to what might lay ahead in the fanatical growth department. Being proactive (with regard to growth) wasn’t a term that had ever existed in the western Montana city planner lexicon until the mid to late 90’s. By then, it was too late. The gnarly wait times at un-synchronized traffic lights on the narrow streets were now a thing.
Central Avenue, downtown Great Falls, Montana (tap or click image to enlarge)
Enter Great Falls, Montana. The only known to be planned city in the entire state. With Missoula being stuck with all of it’s tiny 1 foot approach transitions, Great Falls sports it’s 5 foot approach transitions (street construction speak). I’ve built approaches in both Missoula and Great Falls. Great Falls is literally the very definition of what it might be like to live in a land with all of those wide open spaces. Even the downtown core, minus Central Ave, is spacious with plenty of room to park. Central Ave. in Great Falls was FUBAR’ED into some quasi-quaint little something or ‘ruther throwback to what Missoula’s core functions are like today for some reason that defies any and all explanation and it’s about as tough to get around on too.
Being stuck in Montana traffic is more of a thing these days in western Montana than it is in eastern Montana. Missoula’s traffic woes have even gone so far as to include the near entirety of the US93 corridor, from Eureka to Sula.
The air quality in our western Montana valleys is atrocious. People sitting, idling, waiting, sometimes for seeming eternities, burning all of the fuel that ads to the already saturated valley inversions that western Montana is so known for. Doesn’t anyone find it odd that most of our state’s environmentalists have chosen to live in the areas of our state that are the most polluted?
But I digress — The problem here is traffic.
Bozeman, Montana main street (tap or click image to enlarge)
Have I ever been stuck in Montana traffic? Of course I have. Way back in the far reaches of my brain, I can recall having to sit at the now infamous malfunction junction in Missoula. I remember driving Reserve St. from Brooks to the interstate in a record time of 50 minutes back when Reserve St was only two lanes (was normally one hour and 20 to drive it).
Long wait times in Montana traffic can only be measured in local terms statewide because I’ve driven areas much worse. It’s going to be all about a certain perspective.
I used to bitch about Seattle traffic, that is, until I drove Houston.
When I worked the FEMA houses after hurricane Ike in southeast Texas, it was normal to spend 20 hours a week on the interstate. I think about those days in Texas, from Sugarland to Bay Town to Galveston to Beaumont as they might relate to my Montana driving experiences, and these days, places like Missoula gets a nod and a wink from me with regard to it’s traffic.
Of all 280 U.S. cities covered in the INRIX report, Missoula ranks 63rd for traffic delays.
National polls are what they are and sometimes are fun to read because of their entertainment value. The poll with regard to Montana commute times, what with all of their best city/worst city case scenarios only hits the mark when making reference to Missoula.
I’m guessing that if the poll was taken today, we might be seeing Kalispell included in the mix somewhere along the line. To go even a step further with the whole poll deal, I’d like to see fuel consumption rates included for our western Montana friends as it might relate to the commute times.
The reason why I might mention fuel here is because I use less fuel driving from Vaughn to Malmstrom than I do driving from Broadway to Lolo on average — fuel consumption can say a lot with regard to the difficulty of any commute as far as I’m concerned. I’d be interested in looking at the stats from some back east poll service that would have natural resources factored into the commute. Time is pretty easy to calculate, adding fuel consumption into the mix might mean that poll researchers would actually have to come to Montana to get the real numbers.
Mentioning actual time lost being stuck in Montana traffic is all just fine and dandy and all, but what would really drive the point home, and make the polling a bit more useful on these so-called long commutes would be if they included the actual real cost of the fuel, and the carbon footprint that might be involved whilst sitting at light after light after light.
The traditional Maori Haka dance is a powerful and captivating performance that has been a part of Maori culture for centuries.
This ancient dance form originated from the indigenous people of New Zealand, the Maori, and holds deep cultural and historical significance. The Haka is a unique expression of the Maori people’s identity, strength, and pride.
The origins of the Haka can be traced back to the early Polynesian settlers who arrived in New Zealand around 1,000 years ago. These settlers brought with them their customs, traditions, and rituals, including various forms of dance.
Over time, the Maori people developed their own distinct style of dance, which eventually evolved into what is now known as the Haka.
Schools across New Zealand play a vital role in preserving this rich cultural heritage. Many schools teach the Haka as part of the curriculum, thereby ensuring that younger generations understand and value this aspect of their cultural identity.
The Haka is a profound expression of New Zealand’s Maori heritage, a resonant echo of historical warrior traditions that has seamlessly found its place in the modern world. This powerful performance is not just a pre-game ritual or a ceremonial dance; it is a living, breathing testament to the resilience and vitality of Maori culture.
Even as it evolves to fit contemporary contexts, the core elements of the Haka – unity, strength, and pride – remain unchanged.
The haka can be an important cultural ritual that is used to honor people on important occasions such as weddings and funerals.
At wedding ceremonies, the Haka becomes an expression of joy, respect, and unity, deeply touching not only the couple but everyone present. This transition from battlefield to wedding venue speaks to the Haka’s versatility as a medium of expression – capable of embodying a wide range of emotions, from the fierceness of warriors to the joy of a newly married couple.
When Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022, a group of young New Zealanders were filmed performing the haka to pay their respects to the late monarch.
New Zealand’s official tourism website says that non-Maori people are welcome to learn the dance as long as they respect the culture and traditions behind it.
“Learn the words and make sure you understand the meanings behind the chants, the significance of a particular haka and what you are trying to express when performing it,” the site advises.
The Haka has a universal appeal, captivating audiences with its energy, passion, and unique cultural elements. It is a way for people from different backgrounds to connect with Maori culture and gain a deeper understanding of its significance.
