A Note on Teaching Electrical Code

When reciting a particularly difficult section of electrical code, concluding with the phrase “and blah, blah, blah” is acceptable.

—Mitchell Hegman  

The Other Side

Desiree and I are in Colstrip, in the eastern half of Montana.  I am teaching for two days at the power plant here.

I often call Eastern Montana the “other half” of the state.  This is by no mean derogatory on my part.  I enjoy Eastern Montana.  The sky is bigger.  Way bigger.  And this time of year, the tended fields and the open plains are plenty green.   

The drive to reach Colstrip took something near 5½ hours.  That time included a few stops to gawk around.  At one point, we also diverted onto a country road and climbed up a hill to assess the “Big Open.”

Posted are a few photographs from the drive across Montana.

Deep Creek Canyon

Sun Coulee Ranch

Open Road

From Here You Can See Forever

—Mitchell Hegman  

The Treasure State (At Work)

It’s no accident Montana carries the nickname the “Treasure State.”  In addition to precious metals, Montana is the only state in the U.S. with viable sapphire mines.  My house is not only surrounded by some of those sapphire mines, it sits on a deposit of sapphires.

The largest sapphire I have ever found, I pulled from a pile of rocks and gravel scooped out of the hillside to accommodate my home’s foundation.  Following a heavy rain, the glinting gemstone caught my eye as I strode near the pile to fetch a board while framing my house.

Philipsburg, Montana, is also famous for sapphires.  For several months now, two bags of sapphire gravel purchased from a shop in Philipsburg have been collecting dust in my garage.

“We need to look for some sapphires,” I informed Desiree.  “I have a couple bags of good dirt to go through.  You can’t be here in sapphire country and not find a sapphire.  Let’s set up shop in the sunroom and see what we can find.”

After spreading a waterproof cover on the floor, I fetched the bags from the garage.  Desiree and I soon processed through the gravel and fines.  Within a few seconds of washing down the first batch, she plucked out her first sapphire.

Instantly hooked.

After we finished gleaning through the gravel—finding over a dozen sapphires—I asked Desiree if she enjoyed the process.  “Yes,” she said.  “I want big sapphires.”

Welcome to the club.

 

A Bag of Sapphire Gravel

Findings

Our Sapphire Haul

—Mitchell Hegman

The Ballad of Lefty Brown

Maiah Wynne is a young songwriter and musician from Missoula, Montana.  I first heard her music while watching The Ballad of Lefty Brown, a movie filmed here in Montana.  The film also stars Bill Pullman, an actor who has for many years co-owned (with his brother) a working ranch here in Montana.

After watching the movie, I enjoyed the title song so much I downloaded it to my collection.  I have since downloaded several more songs by Maiah Wynne.

Here is The Ballad of Lefty Brown. 

—Mitchell Hegman

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlR-2hTB1h0

From Manila to Sculpture in the Wild

Amazingly, Desiree knew about Sculpture in the Wild while still in Manila.  She chanced upon some photographs of the sculptures and the park on the Montanica! Facebook page.   She later asked me if I knew anything about the park.

“I sure do,” I told her.  The park is less than ten miles down the road from my cabin.”

Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild International Sculpture Park celebrates the environmental and industrial heritage of the Blackfoot Valley.  On a warm and sunny afternoon during our second trip to my cabin, Desiree and I walked through the sculpture park.

Although I have trekked through the park many times, I never tire of walking the paths and seeing the sculptures emerge from the surrounding forest.

Desiree loved the park.

I am sharing a few photographs of Desiree and her favorite sculptures.

    

Picture Frame (by Jaakko Permu)

A Place is a Place (by Stuart Ian Frost)

Tree Circus (by Patrick Dougherty)

Ponderosa Whirlpool (by Chris Drury)

Clearing (by Alison Stigora)

Me with Desiree  

—Mitchell Hegman

Bullsnake Rescue

The largest snake found in Montana is the bullsnake (sometimes referred to as a gophersnake).  Bullsnakes commonly range between three and five feet in length.  Many people consider them beneficial because they subsist largely by hunting and eating rodents.

My neighbor, Kevin, and I are protective of our local bullsnake population.  For several years we made certain a five- or six-foot snake living along our lakeshore remained unmolested by anyone visiting us.

The other day, on a drive to town, I found a rather beefy-looking four-foot bullsnake stretched out on the road, sunning.  The snake did not move when I swerved around him and stopped.  I immediately realized the next car might unwittingly or purposely run over him.

When I trotted back to shoo the snake of the road, the snake coiled up and hissed, sounding somewhat like a rattler, a common defense mechanism for bullsnakes.

The snake displayed zero interest in leaving the road and struck in my direction a couple times.  After a lot of space dancing and poking around the snake on my part, I failed to inspire any movement.

I next went hunting for a long stick to use for nudging the snake off the road.  Eventually, I pried a dead branch from a nearby flourish of sagebrush.  Using the branch, I shoveled the snake off the road and nudged it partway down an embankment.

I am hoping the snake will stay clear of the road for the rest of the season.

The Bullsnake Standing its Ground the Road

On the Embankment After Release

—Mitchell Hegman

Suds

Something about my upright clothes washer caught my eye.  Too much white, I thought when I glanced though the washer’s glass door.

A few minutes earlier, Desiree had tossed a pair of pair of padded covers for our outdoor deck chairs into the machine.  To confirm what I suspected I was seeing, I fished my smarter-than-me-phone from my pocket, tapped the flashlight icon, and swept a beam of light into the washer.

The washer was overfilled with a churning ball of fine white foam.

“Desiree,” I called out, “what kind of soap did you use in the washer?”

She had originally scrubbed the covers outside on the deck using a hose and various cleaning agents. 

Desiree soon appeared beside me. “Did you use dishwashing soap in the clothes washer?” I asked.   I trained my flashlight on the spinning mass of suds inside the machine one more time.

Her eyes widened.   “I was using dishwashing soap outside because laundry soap wasn’t making suds,” she admitted.

I laughed.   “Well, it makes too many suds in the washer.  I made the same mistake once.”

Many years ago, while living my bachelor life, I tried dishwashing soap in the clothes washer.   At the time, my roomy and I were out of laundry soap and I subscribed to the theory a lot of dish soap would be required to wash a big batch of clothes.

When I went to pull my clothes from the washer after a half-hour or so, I found suds piled on top of and all around the machine.  Not a few suds.  A lot of suds.

Thinking about my own misadventure with dishwashing soap, I hugged Desiree.  “We have all been there, dear,” I assured her.  “At least it’s a clean mistake.” 

   

Suds Remaining After the Full Wash and Spin Cycle

—Mitchell Hegman