What's Up with What's Up?

So many of us look to the sky in awe. And at no time is that more true than when the heavens put on a light show when it's supposed to be dark.

Living in the northern part of the United States offers some unique and enlightening late night experiences. We have had several vibrant appearances in Montana's Big Sky country this summer and fall by the Northern Lights. Also called aurora borealis, NASA describes it as "colorful, dynamic and often visually delicate displays of an intricate dance of particles and magnetism between the Sun and Earth called space weather. When energetic particles from space collide with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, they can cause the colorful glow that we call auroras."

"Science!" as Thomas Dolby belted out in the 1982 pop hit, "She Blinded Me with Science." 

To me, there are two kinds of scientific Northern Lights displays. One of them is barely visible to the naked eye when it looks like there's kind of haze among the stars. On such occasions, a camera captures the color we cannot see. The other is when the northern lights are visible to the naked eye. In that case, a photo captures even more vibrant hues of red, pink, purple, green and/or blue. 

Both of those instances happened several times on our property this year. And a reminder that it was practically pitch black outside when I took the photos below.

Can you say "bacon?"

My house

A Dustup in Big Sky Country

One second I'm painting and the next, I'm flying through the air not exactly sure where I would fall. And the thing is, it wasn't the first time either.

Not the dust devil I experienced
(Photo credit: NASA)

Maybe it's because I grew up in the heart of tornado alley in Kansas. I've always had this thing for dust devils. You now, those miniature cyclone-like windstorms that dance their way across open fields with a funnel of dirt and debris shooting up high into the sky? I've seen them off and on over the years including near my Grandpa Vern's place in southern Utah, but I have never been that close and always wondered what it would be like to be in the middle of one. Little did I know that it would happen - TWICE - in the same spot over a one-week period. And that it would be in the Northern Rockies.

It was the summer of 2025 and I was caulking and painting a house for a friend of mine in the Mission Valley of western Montana. I was at the front of the dwelling under a covered, wrap-around porch doing some intricate trim work around a door. I actually had my back to the action when I felt the wind kick up a little. It got stronger and stronger until it blew over some patio furniture we had to move from where I was painting. I turned around and the wind was whipping up dust and much more. A friend of mine was standing by his car just out front of the house but his head was inside like he was looking for something. I walked over and pointed to the left. He popped his head and we saw it. "Wow," he said. A dandy of a dust devil was full of swirling tumbleweeds that had to stretch 60 to 80 feet up into the sky. At its base were dozens of more tumbleweeds, cardboard boxes and other debris from the construction site where I was painting. We both watched as it passed behind the home being built right next to us, across a large field, jumped a dirt road and kept on going and going. 

Fast forward to one week later. There I was again with a paint brush in my right hand and a small container of paint in the other. This time I was 12 to 14 feet off the ground on an extension ladder. Unlike a week earlier, it was already a little breezy. And thank goodness for that. Otherwise, it would have been pretty toasty. So, one second I'm painting trim on the side of a sloped patio roof and the next, I'm flying through the air not exactly sure where I would fall. What I thought was a huge, out-of-nowhere wind gust came right in my face. In a split second, I raised my eyes from the trim work to look to the house being built next door. I thought my friend, Doug, was atop a raised platform working on his roof but luckily he was not. At that moment, the wind captured a three-person, covered patio swing that was immediately below me, tossed it into the ladder which stood it upright and then I started to go over backwards. 

Luckily, I've been known to have some kind of cat-like reflexes. As the ladder started to fall, I leaped off it backwards and landed on my feet in the tall grass and weeds beyond the sodded yard. And I did so with my paint brush still in my right hand and the paint still in my left. Turns out it was yet another dust devil! This time, I was right in the heart of it. Dirt, construction site debris and tumbleweeds were swirling. It was hard to see anything. I ran up behind the house and put my hands on each side of my face to protect it. I snuck a peek here and there but really wanted to protect my eyes and face. The winds were surprisingly forceful and strong. Some 15 to 20 seconds later, the brunt of it passed. I turned and watch it cross the backyard, jump over a berm and continue off to the east. 

I walked back to the edge of the porch and it was a mess. The top of the ladder was about 20 feet from where I had been painting. The covered swing was upside down right next to it. A large potted plant was on its side. I took a quick photo. 

The incident was eerily similar to something that happened more than a decade earlier. I was in Lolo helping decorate for a New Year's Eve dance for the youth from our church in the Bitterroot Valley. My friend Kevin and I were high atop a ladder where we had attached a tarp to the top of the gym ceiling. We had a string hooked to it that we would pull at midnight for a balloon drop. All we needed to do was to fill it with balloons. Kevin was at the top. He had to be about 16 to 18 feet above the wooden floor below and I was immediately below him. We had an assembly line of teens handing us balloons which Kevin ultimately placed in the tarp. We nearly had it full when something was a little off. I could feel the ladder slowly starting to lean and fall to the right. I didn't wait to take action. Instinctively (I guess that's what it was), I leaped toward the stage over the two teenagers that were below me. One of them later said it looked like a ninja. I landed on my feet but the momentum of the long jump continued onto my right knee and then I did a somersault and popped back up on my feet. Unfortunately for Kevin, it was much, much worse. He fell with the ladder and slammed onto the floor on his right shoulder. Almost immediately, he turned white and was in shock. His wife was there and we got him into the car and off to the ER they went. 

The dance went on. Amazingly, Kevin walked back into the gym some three hours later, a sling holding his right arm, at about 11:30 p.m. He separated his right shoulder but was in really good spirits. With a wry smile on his face, he said he wanted to join the celebration. Though there was no balloon drop at midnight, the kids had a great time. I'm just glad Kevin (and I) lived to tell about it.

'Talking about Caulking'

In the August of 2025, the five members of the Ronan Montana Stake Presidency were each asked to give a six to seven-minute talk in the Mission Valley Young Single Adult Branch. I used bullet points for my address so I wrote out below basically what I said that day.

I would like to do some talking about caulking. 

Earlier this year after a stake presidency meeting, I asked President Doug Lundell if he could stay after for a few minutes. Once we sat down I said, "I've got a proposal for you. We are flipping our shop into a living space. And you are living in your shop while you build a new house. I need someone to do the tile work for our shower and bathtub. You need someone to paint your shop. And I know you do not like painting. What if you come to my place to do the tile work and I go to your place to paint? That way, each of us get something done that needs to get done, plus we'll each save several thousand dollars in labor?"

Doug's response was "Where do I sign the contract? You've got a deal." And we shook on it.

So, what is caulking? It's a waterproof filler and sealant that’s a flexible polymer, most commonly acrylic, latex or silicone. 

Why is caulking even needed? The main purpose of caulking is to seal gaps, cracks and joints between building materials like siding and window and door frames. It prevents the penetration of air, water and other elements to improve energy efficiency, prevent water damage and keeps pests from entering a home. (Although you can ask President Lundell about his woodpecker problem.)

How do you caulk? It comes in tubes so you use a caulking gun, leave a long bead where needed, and then use your finger to help press it into the gap and any corners. 

Fast forward to a week ago yesterday, I headed to his place to do some caulking.. The building is two stories in the front but one in the back so it's a sloped roof. I went up on the roof on the side of the house which is tiered and hangs over a patio.

For me, the best way to caulk is to leave a long bead of caulk while slowly walking backwards. Then I return to where I stared laying that bead and use a finger to gently press the calking into the gap, again while walking backwards. As I did so, I stepped off the tiered roof onto nothing for a half-second until my foot landed on the lower roof. I felt my heart skip a beat as that happened for fear I had stepped off the roof, so I stopped for a second and said, “Okay Mark, be more aware of your surroundings.”

After getting back down on the ground, I put up the extension ladder to caulk near the top of the building. I couldn't comfortably reach the very top so I went to the side of the structure where I climbed onto the main roof, which is also tiered. So I hung over edge to do what I couldn’t reach while on the ladder and then noticed some weathered joints that ran the width of the structure that needed caulking.

Again, I slowly talked backwards and left a long bead of caulk. But again, I focused too much on caulking and not enough on my surroundings. I stepped off the main roof. This time, I rolled over backwards, scraped up my left arm and elbow on the metal roofing but popped right back up. I checked my arm and went right back to work. Five minutes and another tube of caulking later, I was done up top, finished some caulking at ground level, got the garden hose, rinsed off my arm and headed for home.

As I pondered about my caulking adventure, here’s what I learned: caulking a building can be and is a lot like my and your individual gospel journey. Here are some keys to consider:

1.      Know what’s required and do what needs to be done to accomplish it

2.      Be acutely aware of your surroundings

3.      Stuff will happen so face it, overcome it and finish the job

As per our gospel journey…

1. Know what’s required and do what needs to be done to accomplish it

What is our goal? Return to Heavenly Father. How do we do that?

There are the everyday Sunday school answers of pray, read your scriptures and go to church but perhaps that may also mean serving a full-time mission, getting married in the temple, going to college and getting a job, raising children and helping others.

2. Be acutely aware of your surroundings

You can’t always control your surroundings or things that happen but don’t put yourself where you don’t need to be. Years ago in a previous career I was a television sportscaster in Topeka, Kansas, where we put together the Fighting 49ers, a basketball team of on-air personalities and behind-the-scenes TV station folks. Schools and other organizations would invite us to their communities to help them raise funds for their causes. One evening after a game, we stopped at a bar/eatery on the way home. Everyone, except me, got some post-game alcohol. Nobody was drunk or anything like that but they had been drinking, including the driver. When the time came to leave, I asked if I could drive and was told "no," so seven of us piled into an RX-7, a small sportscar that holds four people at the most. 

As we drove home I was thinking, "Just make it home. Just make it home." I had a wife and two young children at home. I just wanted to make it there. I also promised myself during that drive back to Topeka, to the best of my ability anyway, that I would never put myself in a situation where I am not in better control of my surroundings. 

3. Stuff will happen so face it, overcome it and finish the job

In 2 Nephi 2:11 of the Book of Mormon, Lehi addresses his young son Jacob: “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so…righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad.”

Translation: temptations and obstacles will happen. You can bank on it. And as you face and overcome them, you’ll become stronger. But what if you don’t feel strong or strong enough? What if you feel weak?

In Either 12:27, also in the Boof of Mormon says, "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

So, pray to Heavenly Father, ask for help, be grateful, learn, grow and when you stub your tow (or when you fall off that tiered roof), get right back up and keep going. You’ll be blessed for it.

Doug working in the tub

Doug's finished tile work in our shower

Doug's finished tile work in our bathtub

My finished paint job at Doug's place

Hanging with a Hockey Legend

He stepped to the microphone to announce the final pick of the first round at the 2025 National Hockey League Draft. Any hockey fan who knows his or her hockey history knew exactly who it was. If nothing else, the 'stache gave him away.

NHL legend Lanny McDonald took to the microphone with these words of wisdom: "I want to say congratulations to all 31 players picked in the first round. To the players who have not been picked and believed they were going to be in that first round, I say, come with the best attitude you possibly can tomorrow and prove them all wrong. I would also like to say, make sure you thank you billets (host families) and especially your family. You cannot get here without them."

What a class act. McDonald played 16 years in the NHL for three different teams and led the Calgary Flames to their only Stanley Cup championship at the end of the 1988-89 season, his final season playing professional hockey.

Fast forward to sometime around 2009 or 2010. At the time, I was a news anchor/reporter at CBS affiliate KPAX-TV in Missoula but whenever the local junior hockey team, the Missoula Maulers, had a home game, I volunteered to shoot video for the late night news. Why? Because I've loved hockey ever since I lived in Calgary for grades five through seven, and later took up the game myself in 2003.  

It was a typical home game for the Maulers. I showed up early, as per usual, looked across the way and there he was. It was Lanny McDonald standing in Maulers bench area. I found out later that he owns a couple of restaurants in Montana - one of them in Missoula. Since we had some time before the game started and nobody was with him, I walked through the barricades to the far side of the ice and walked into the bench with my camera, shook his hand and introduced myself. 

I don't remember exactly what we talked about except that I said something like, "So, how did you like your time with the Calgary Centennials?" That took him a little off guard. He's known as a Calgary Flames legend who became the first player to have his number retired by the team. He also played with the Toronto Maple Leafs and is the only member of the old Colorado Rockies enshrined into the Hockey Hall of Fame. In his pre-NHL days, he played two years in Lethbridge and two more in Medicine Hat but only six games for the Centennials during the 1970-71 season. "How did you know that?" he asked. I told him I'd visited the Stampede Corral in Calgary several times when I was a kid and knew of his hockey lore, including his days with the Centennials.

After a five-minute chat or so, it was game time - time for me to claim a spot along the board to shoot and for him to walk out on the ice for the ceremonial puck drop. A great guy and ambassador for the game, it was an honor to meet and spend a few minutes with him. Thanks Lanny!

N-B-A = B-A-D Basketball

"It's a different brand of basketball." Those words came from my son-in-law as we watched an NBA playoff game, my first time watching an entire NBA game in several years. He's right.

No motion. No passing. Just clear out, jab step, crossover dribble, step up, step back, push off, forced contact, 1-on-1, 1-on-2, 1-on-whoever and on and on and on. It didn't matter which team had possession of the basketball either. 

Apparently, gone are the days of working the ball inside, driving strong to the hoop, utilizing the pick-and-roll and setting screens. What blatantly and obviously stood out the most to me was the lack of offense or really anybody in the key. And that offensive philosophy was the same for both teams. Teammates space themselves out beyond the three-point line and look to launch, often forcing, long, ugly forced three-point shots. 

Nobody in the key...n-o-b-o-d-y!

Breaking news: an NBA player (okay, he's a defender) is spotted in the key

It's just not the basketball I grew up playing and watching on the collegiate level or even in the NBA. If I had try to force the modern NBA way back with my first organized team, as a young elementary-age recreational league or junior high school player, I'd be on the bench. Back then, even with kids just learning the team game, it was about passing, teamwork, creating good shots and going to the basketball. The closer, the better.

Today's NBA is almost solely about long-distance shooting including logo three-pointers. When it's not, it's about one guy holding the ball for 6, 8, 12 seconds and then chucking it up. It's ugly. 

Some would say I'm just grumpy. Okay, I get it, I'm an old guy. The game is different. But I'm not alone in my criticism either. Charles Barkley, a fellow old guy and one recognized as a top-50 all-time professional player, criticizes today's NBA for a lack of team play and an overreliance on individuals forcing things. He's not wrong.

Oh well, there's always the college game or high school or even junior high. I do love the game. I played organized or pick up for the majority of my 60-plus years. I'll just swallow hard and accept it for what it is - a different brand of basketball.

Beautifying an Ugly View

Looking out, the view is beautiful. Looking up, not so much. 

What we wanted to do was beautify, or at least make it not as ugly, so the porch of the shop house was more inviting. The question was how? With our financial focus on the inside of the structure, money was tight. We didn't have enough old fir flooring when we rebuilt our home after the fire eight years earlier so we needed another solution to cover it up. 

One day, we noticed a bunch of bundles of long wooden strips on our neighbor's property. Then, while surfing on Facebook Marketplace, I saw a posting for "free kindling." It was obviously the same place where he found his wood. I sent a Facebook message seeking information. The response directed me to set a date, time and then show up at the old lumber mill in Bonner, just the other side of Missoula. I asked to borrow my son-in-law Kenny's long trailer and I was good to go on a weekday during my lunch break. 

Upon arrival, the forklift driver told me to pick out a bundle or two and he would load them. I chose one large bundle of 12-foot and 16-foot pine strips, plus another bundle of long, slender planks. It was obvious the wood was not sellable because it was warped and of different widths. But hey, free is free, right? After getting loaded, I strapped it down and drove back to work. 

Later that evening, the question was how to get it off the trailer. Lori and I could not move it at all. I texted the Redneck Master, Kenny, who came to the rescue. Since I already had straps around the bundles, he attached another and used the winch on the old Parowan farm truck, now his plow truck, to carefully roll the bundle off the trailer, without damaging the railing. It was yet another nod to his redneck brilliance.

With that task checked off, Lori and I spent the next several evenings using the chop saw and nail gun to cut and attach the wood strips and planks to the beams of the 8-foot by 20-foot ceiling. Since all of the boards were warped, some much worse than others, we used the saw to chop some of the warp out of them. It was a tedious process, but a fun project to do together. Again, like when we laid flooring in the house, Lori showed off her ability to use the chop saw and now, the nail gun. Like she exclaimed several times, "If my Dad could only see me now!"

After lots of measuring, cutting and nailing over several days, we had an almost finished product. All that was left to do was to stain it. As a guy who has enjoyed painting or staining 15 to 18 houses over my lifetime, staining is not for the weak hearted. Let me clarify. Staining a house isn't that bad at all. I've stained six of them. But this project called for staining a ceiling above our heads instead of the side of a building. It was messy and sticky and just plain no fun. However, in the end, we had ourselves a good-looking, dark walnut final product, similar in color to the deck posts and building trim. And more importantly, it no longer detracted from the view looking out into the Ponderosa pine forest.

Turning the Page

May-June 2025 Bugle
masthead

July-August 2025
Bugle

The July-August issue of Bugle magazine landed on my desk on a late spring morning. I thumbed through it, as I had some so many times before, looking over the table of contents, headlines, photo essay, feature stories, ads, coloring of the images and graphics, and then flipped to the masthead, which lists the editors and organizational leadership. For the first time in 13 years, my name was not included.

The turning of the page of my Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) career began in early 2025. While working at my desk late in the afternoon, the CEO poked in his head and asked if I could join him in his office. Over the next 50 minutes, he laid out his vision to expand our advocacy work and boost its public outreach. Then, citing my background as a broadcast journalist for 24 years, he basically offered me a new position basically said, "You would be good at this." He asked that I take the weekend to discuss it with my wife and get back to him the following Monday.

I began working at RMEF in May 2012. I walked into headquarters on a Thursday morning at 8 o'clock, some nine hours after anchoring the final KPAX-TV 10 o'clock newscast of the television ratings period. It was the final newscast of my TV career. My new title at RMEF was director of public relations. When my six-month probation came to an end, my supervisor asked that I take on a new responsibility and the new title of director of communications. With it came supervision of the Bugle magazine staff. 

So, for the next 13 years I worked with the four editors, executive team leadership and members of other departments, RMEF members and volunteers to help produce the bimonthly magazine. It was a great learning experience to work with talented editors, freelancer writers and photographers, and others. Over that time, I had other duties added to my plate and several other titles and office locations. 

All of the Bugle magazines produced during my 13 years working with the magazine staff

Back to 2025 and the decision-making process about the new position. When I got home from work, I stood in our kitchen talking to Lori. I told her about my meeting with Kyle, his vision, the new position and what its future could look like. The more I rehashed our conversation, the more excited I became. By the time I was done explaining, it was done deal. I was ready to turn the page and transition into new duties. I told Kyle exactly that the following Monday morning.

While I still attend Bugle planning meetings as my schedule permits, the Bugle staff has a new supervisor. Now, my focus is on state and federal legislation, state wildlife commission meetings, conferences, legal happenings and court cases, and other issues that impact our mission. New initiatives and working orders are to come. I'm both grateful and excited for what lies ahead.