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March is around the corner and it is time to take a look at the goodies it brings.
I have ordered my books, have you?
Kings of the North
(Paladin's Legacy 2) by Elizabeth Moon (Orbit/Del Rey) Amazon US | UK
Oath of Fealty was one of the best books I read last year. Elizabeth Moon is a fantastic story teller with vivid hearty characters you can't help falling in love with, which she proved again with Oath of Fealty last year. It was a great start of a series and now it is time for part two.
Elizabeth Moon returns to the fantasy world of the paladin Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter—Paks for short—in this second volume of a new series filled with all the bold imaginative flights, meticulous world-building, realistic military action, and deft characterization that readers have come to expect from this award-winning author. In Kings of the North, Moon is working at the very height of her storytelling powers.
Peace and order have been restored to the kingdoms of Tsaia and Lyonya, thanks to the crowning of two kings: Mikeli of Tsaia and, in Lyonya, Kieri Phelan, a mercenary captain whose royal blood and half-elven heritage are resented by elves and humans alike.
On the surface, all is hope and promise. But underneath, trouble is brewing. Mikeli cannot sit safely on his throne as long as remnants of the evil Verrakaien magelords are at large. Kieri is being hounded to marry and provide the kingdom with an heir—but that is the least of his concerns. A strange rift has developed between him and his grandmother and co-ruler, the immortal elven queen known as the Lady. More problematic is the ex-pirate Alured, who schemes to seize Kieri's throne for himself—and Mikeli's, too, while he's at it. Meanwhile, to the north, the aggressive kingdom of Pargun seems poised to invade.
Now, as war threatens to erupt from without and within, the two kings are dangerously divided. Old alliances and the bonds of friendship are about to be tested as never before. And a shocking discovery will change everything.
The Kings of Eternity
by Eric Brown (Solaris) Amazon US | UK
Eric Brown master opus Kings of Eternity is another highly anticipated read for me this year. I enjoyed the Bengali Station Trilogy (Necropath, Xenopath, Cosmopath) and Guardians of the Phoenix a lot. Eric is strong on characters that are human and easy to love. This has every possibility to become my book of the year. This story about strange creatures and connections across time will be out in March.
1999, on the threshold of a new millennium, the novelist Daniel Langham lives a reclusive life on an idyllic Greek island, hiding away from humanity and the events of the past. All that changes, however, when he meets artist Caroline Platt and finds himself falling in love. But what is his secret, and what are the horrors that haunt him? 1935. Writer Jonathon Langham and Edward Vaughan are summoned from London by their editor friend Jasper Carnegie to help investigate strange goings on in Hopton Wood. What they discover there – no less than a strange creature from another world – will change their lives for ever. What they become, and their link to the novelist of the future, is the subject of Eric Brown's most ambitious novel to date. Almost ten years in the writing, The Kings of Eternity is a novel of vast scope and depth, full of the staple tropes of the genre and yet imbued with humanity and characters you'll come to love.
To the Galactic Rim: The John Grimes Saga
(Omnibus 1-4) by A. Bertram Chandler (Baen reprint) Amazon US | UK
To the Galactic Rim: The John Grimes Saga by A. Bertram Chandler is another reprint of of a long series (28 novels and a number of short stories) this time by Baen and in Omnibus form. The first volume about 'the Horatio Hornblower of science fiction' covers the three first novels and a collection of short stories. It will be out in March. I hope Baen will pump them out fairly quickly or I will have to try for ACE's series from the start of this century. The Flandry series suffered from horrible, horrible covers that they hopefully will avoid with this one, Pulp is okay but the homage to sleazy James Bond covers didn't do it for me in the Flandry case.
John Grimes will one day command his own starship, and change the course of Galactic history, but right now he's a wet-behind-the-ears junior officer who finds that he keeps running into problems which were never covered in his courses at the Academy.
- The Road to the Rim—meet Lieutenant John Grimes of the Federation Survey Service; fresh out of the Academy—and as green as they come.
- To Prime the Pump—El Dorado is a planet with a pressing problem: the men are infertile, cause unknown, and the women want someone to Do Something! Not quite the problem young John Grimes expected to deal with . . .
- The Hard Way Up—a collection of seven tales of John Grime's adventures, meeting danger and winning glory out at the rim of the Galaxy.
- The Broken Cycle—John Grimes never intended to get lost in space, let alone being lost with a very attractive policewoman who's all business. And he really never expected to run into an entity who claims to be a god and has a garden of Eden ready and waiting for the pair.
Three novels and a story collection, all in one attractively-priced volume of space adventure.
by Dan Abnett (Angry Robot) Amazon US | UK
I try to avoid franchise series and literature, because time is limited and I have other sub genres I want to cover. The only reason I haven't read anything by Dan Abnett before is because he mainly writes Warhammer 40k novels but this year he will be out with a story that has intrigued me since I first heard about it. Embedded that is due in March is about a reporter that is embedded in a chip on a soldier fighting a war on an alien planet. The soldier is killed so the reporter has to take over his body and get out alive by himself.
I read a review copy last week and it was mighty good. A review will be out closer to publishing.
HE'D DO ANYTHING TO GET A STORY. When journalist Lex Falk gets himself chipped into the brain of a combat soldier, he thinks he has the ultimate scoop – a report from the forbidden front line of a distant planetary war, live to the living rooms of Earth. When the soldier is killed, however, Lex has to take over the body and somehow get himself back to safety once more… broadcasting all the way.
Heart-stopping combat science fiction from the million-selling Warhammer 40,000 author.
File Under: Science Fiction [ Future Warefare | Chipped-In | Anything For a Story | Get Out Alive! ]
Up Against It
by M. J. Locke (Tor) Amazon US | UK
It is hard to pick out the debuts that you will enjoy from the media clutter. M. J. Locke debuts with Up Against It, a workplace drama action leaning towards a somewhat twisted scifi society from what I gather from the blurbs. Sounds like fun.
Geoff and his friends live in Phocaea, a distant asteroid colony on the Solar System's frontier. They're your basic high-spirited young adults, enjoying such pastimes as hacking matter compilers to produce dancing skeletons that prance through the low-gee communal areas, using their rocket-bikes to salvage methane ice shrapnel that flies away when the colony brings in a big (and vital) rock of the stuff, and figuring out how to avoid the ubiquitous surveillance motes that are the million eyes of 'Stroiders, a reality-TV show whose Earthside producers have paid handsomely for the privilege of spying on every detail of the Phocaeans' lives.
Life isn't as good as it seems, though. A mysterious act of sabotage kills Geoff's brother Carl and puts the entire colony at risk. And in short order, we discover that the whole thing may have been cooked up by the Martian mafia, as a means of executing a coup and turning Phocaea into a client-state. As if that wasn't bad enough, there's a rogue AI that was spawned during the industrial emergency and slipped through the distracted safeguards, and a giant x-factor in the form of the Viridians, a transhumanist cult that lives in Phocaea's bowels.
In addition to Geoff, our story revolves around Jane, the colony's resource manager — a bureaucrat engineer in charge of keeping the plumbing running on an artificial island of humanity poised on the knife-edge of hard vacuum and unforgiving space. She's more than a century old, and good at her job, but she is torn between the technical demands of the colony and the political realities of her situation, in which the fishbowl effect of 'Stroiders is compounded by a reputation economy that turns every person into a beauty contest competitor. Her manoeuverings to keep politics and engineering in harmony are the heart of the book.
Son of Heaven (Chung Kuo book 1)
by David Wingrove (Corvus) Amazon US | UK
Corvus is planing to reprint 20 rewritten Chung Kuo novels the upcoming years. The series is set in a future dominated by Chinese culture that goes to drastic steps to conquer and control the world. Son of Heaven is the first due in March. David Wingrove has the added value of being new to me. This looks like the type of scifi I know I am going to like. I get a bit of a Buck Rogers vibe of this, am I right?
The year is 2085, two decades after the great economic collapse that destroyed Western civilization. With its power broken and its cities ruined, life in the West continues in scattered communities. In rural Dorset Jake Reed lives with his 14-year-old son and memories of the great collapse. Back in '43, Jake was a rich, young futures broker, immersed in the datascape of the world's financial markets. He saw what was coming – and who was behind it. Forewarned, he was one of the few to escape the fall. For 22 years he has lived in fear of the future, and finally it is coming – quite literally – across the plain towards him. Chinese airships are in the skies and a strange, glacial structure has begun to dominate the horizon. Jake finds himself forcibly incorporated into the ever-expanding 'World of Levels' a global city of some 34 billion souls, where social status is reflected by how far above the ground you live. Here, under the rule of the mighty Tsao Ch'un, a resurgent China is seeking to abolish the past and bring about world peace through rigidly enforced order. But a civil war looms, and Jake will find himself at the heart of the struggle for the future.
Passion Model
by Megan Hart (Samhain) Amazon US | UK
I was thinking of trying some romantic scifi this year, again I should say. I tried it once before but where disgusted by how helpless and in need of help the supposedly formidable female protagonist was. This time I have my sights set on something more steamy Megan Hart's Passion Model reprinted in March.
Protect and Serve just took on a whole new meaning.
For Recreational Intercourse Operative Gemma, patrolling Newcity's Lovehuts and Pleasurebots isn't much of a pleasure. But it's work she clings to after an accident destroyed her marriage and left her with half her body made of replacement parts.
She keeps her head down and her mind on her job, waiting for the proverbial hammer to fall. The head of the ruling council is out to make those like her illegal. If anyone finds out she's mecho, she's toast.
A routine inspection of a Pleasurebot turns into a strictly forbidden—and mind-blowing—sexual encounter. Then she realizes it isn't an "it" at all. He's human, and despite the sweet-hot climaxes he gives her, she buries her report to save them both from the consequences.
Except he can't seem to stay away from her, and for a time life seems almost…normal. Until Gemma uncovers Declan's own deep, dark secret. A secret that could get her fired from R.I.O. Or both of them killed.
Warning: This book contains graphic depictions of sex with men, women, aliens and robots.
Resurrection Code
by Lyda Morehouse (Mad Norwegian Press 2011) Amazon US | UK
This prequel to AngeLINK novel series looks interesting and I am always looking for new authors.
North Africa is in ruins after the Aswan dams collapse and a massive flood reclaims the Nile valley. The privileged and the sane have long since abandoned Egypt to the scavengers and the dregs of society. Christian El-Aref is a street rat, living hand-to-mouth. His life is going nowhere fast. Then he stumbles over a dead body carrying revolutionary shareware tech. Now he's being hunted. And if he's not careful, the next dead body may be his own. This action-packed cyberpunk thriller weaves its way through the slums of a flooded Cairo, encountering murderous cults of eunuchs, an assassination plot perpetrated by angels, and an enigmatic street urchin who may or may not be the reincarnation of the prophet Mohammed. Lyda Morehouse tells the anticipated story of how Christian became the Mouse, the father of the underground Internet and the technological hope of the disenfranchised in a dystopian theocratic near-future, in this standalone prequel to her acclaimed AngeLINK novel series. Also included: Morehouse s AngeLINK-related short story, ishtartu, from the Lambda Award-nominated collection Periphery.


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Maddon excited to host family for holidays
ST. PETERSBURG -- Since becoming manager of the Rays prior to the 2006 season, Joe Maddon has brought his unique style to the position, and excellence has followed.
Maddon has twice won American League Manager of the Year honors, and after two losing seasons in his initial campaigns, the native of Hazleton, Pa., has led the team to six consecutive winning seasons, and playoff appearances in four of the last six seasons.
ST. PETERSBURG -- Since becoming manager of the Rays prior to the 2006 season, Joe Maddon has brought his unique style to the position, and excellence has followed.
Maddon has twice won American League Manager of the Year honors, and after two losing seasons in his initial campaigns, the native of Hazleton, Pa., has led the team to six consecutive winning seasons, and playoff appearances in four of the last six seasons.
Fun has been an integral component to Maddon's tenure, which is befitting of his personality.
In that vein, Maddon has instituted themed dress trips when the Rays go on the road. The team has experienced 28 such trips in eight years, including five in 2013.
He somehow managed to elevate the fun in the clubhouse this season to where, on any given night before the game, a DJ, a cockatoo, a magician, penguins, or even a python could be found.
And, for the second consecutive year, Maddon held "American Legion Week" during the Angels series at Tropicana Field from Aug. 26-29.
Maddon's explanation: "We call it American Legion to keep things loose. Most of us played Legion ball at some point, when we showed up 10 minutes before game time. We didn't need BP back then, just stretch and go. I wanted to give the guys a rest and get them off their feet."
Accordingly, the Rays hung the banner from Tampa Post 182 in the clubhouse all week and treated the members of the post to a night of free beer, pickled eggs and bar sausages.
"Some of it seemed silly at the time, but once you leave, you realize that's the kind of stuff that helps a team win and brings them closer and all that other stuff," former Rays outfielder Carl Crawford said. "What might look silly to other people is actually what's good for those guys."
MLB.com met with the Rays manager, who also is a doting grandfather, for the following holiday Q&A:
MLB.com: What plans do you have for the holidays?
Maddon: We're spending the holidays at our home in Tampa. We'll be flying in my kids -- Sarah and Joey -- and their spouses and our grandkids from Phoenix. One is going to arrive the day before Christmas, the other the day after. Normally, we're either in Hazelton or Long Beach, Calif. They've come out to Long Beach in the past. We've never had a Christmas in Tampa. This is a first.
MLB.com: You cook every year during your Thanksmas celebration for the Tampa Bay and Hazleton communities, so surely some cooking is involved, right?
Maddon: Definitely. We have a great kitchen in our house. I want to do a lot of cooking -- family-type meals.
MLB.com: What else is on the agenda?
Maddon: I definitely want to take everybody around, whether it's Busch Gardens, or different places in the area, because they've never really seen it here before. Joey's been here before, Sarah's never been here before. And the grandkids have not. So I just want to take them to different spots like the aquarium, Busch Gardens, maybe even Disney. I want to make it really fun for them, for sure."
MLB.com: Do you have any Christmas traditions?
Maddon: I love to go to midnight mass. I'm going to try and get that done this year.
MLB.com: Are there any favorite foods from the Maddon home?
Maddon: My mom makes these cookies, I don't know how to spell what they're called. It's like this sugar cookie. I crush those. Beanie [his mother] will make some of those and send them down.
MLB.com: What is your favorite Christmas movie?
Maddon: "It's a Wonderful Life" is tops. "The Sound of Music" is a close second, but "It's a Wonderful Life," I will watch that with the kids when they come out. That is my movie of choice, always.
MLB.com: What stands out as your all-time favorite Christmas present?
Maddon: Flexible-flier sled -- had a chrome bumper on the front. I had it for I don't know how many years. I can still see it standing there next to this wall. I might have been 8 or 9 at the time. I didn't know I was getting it. I said that I wanted it. But at that time you never knew what you were going to get. When I walked out and saw it against the wall, I knew Santa brought that.
MLB.com: Do you believe in Santa Claus?
Maddon: You bet. Of course I do.
Bill Chastain is a reporter for MLB.com.


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U.S. Army War College >> Strategic Studies Institute >> Publications >> Details
U.S. Security Strategies: Trade Policy Implications for Latin America
Edited by Dr. Max G. Manwaring.
Brief Synopsis
The Summit of the Americas Center and Latin American and Caribbean Center of Florida International University, and the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College held the first of a series of mini-conferences dealing with security issues in the Western Hemisphere in Miami, Florida, on February 26, 2004. The theme focused on "Security Implications of Poor Economic Performance in Latin America." About 40 business people, university faculty members, and military and diplomatic officers from the United States and Latin America attended. In the recent past, the security focus as it pertained to Latin America centered primarily on the Drug War, Colombia, and Plan Colombia. But, because of the hemispheric "spill-over" issues stemming from the Colombian crisis and the horrific events of 9/11, that set of concerns has broadened. The keynote presentation by Ambassador Paul D. Taylor, now at the U.S. Naval War College, and the dialogue of the panelists* and attendees revolved around two key issues: the linkages among security, the economy and trade, and effective sovereignty; and, the operational roadblocks to productive post-9/11 engagement in the Americas.
Also by the /Editor:
Venezuela as an Exporter of 4th Generation Warfare Instability
Ambassador Stephen Krasner's Orienting Principle for Foreign Policy (and Military Management)—Responsible Sovereignty
The Strategic Logic of the Contemporary Security Dilemma
Brazil's Security Strategy and Defense Doctrine
A New Chapter in Trans-American Engagement
A "New" Dynamic in the Western Hemisphere Security Environment: The Mexican Zetas and Other Private Armies
State and Nonstate Associated Gangs: Credible "Midwives of New Social Orders"
A Contemporary Challenge to State Sovereignty: Gangs and Other Illicit Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) in Central America, El Salvador, Mexico, Jamaica, and Brazil
Download it Now!
- Download Format: PDF
- PDF File Size: 0.82MB
- Study is: Available via Download Only
- For out of stock or digital only publications, refer to the new GPO on-demand site. For a small fee, receive many prior publications. Click here to visit.
- All materials on our website are available as a free download.


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Reid: 'I ate sh--' on nominees
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's threat to change filibuster rules is supposed to narrowly focus on presidential nominees to the executive branch.
But his potential move to invoke the "nuclear option" is raising a bigger and more sweeping question that could have huge consequences for future presidents of both parties: Is this the beginning of the end of the filibuster? If the filibuster goes, the Senate would lose a crucial check on majority rights — and it could start looking very much like the House, where the majority always gets its way.
Story Continued Below
For years, the filibuster has been increasingly used as a tool to block, delay and frustrate the will of the majority party to push through its agenda. While the filibuster has been changed periodically over the years, senators have never successfully made good on their threat to impose the "nuclear option" — changing Senate cloture rules by 51 votes, rather than 67 — for fear it would hurt them one day when they were back in the minority.
( PHOTOS: Longest filibusters in history)
But those days may now be over.
On Monday, Reid informed President Barack Obama about his intention to use the nuclear option if no deal is struck, sources said, and Obama signaled he would support the effort.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is trying to head off the high-stakes fight, privately reached out to Vice President Joe Biden, but it's expected that Biden would vote with Democrats in case there's a 50-50 tie.
The crisis could still be averted. Reid signaled that he would drop the threat of the nuclear option if Republicans ended their filibusters on pending Obama nominees .
But senators in both parties agreed Thursday that if Reid moves to change the rules by 51 votes, it would be used by the majority in the future to further weaken the filibuster, potentially eliminating the potent procedural weapon altogether one day. While Democrats said they were willing to roll the dice on the nuclear option, believing the GOP would go that route anyway when they get back in the majority, Republicans said Reid's move all but assured a continued weakening — and eventual demolition — of the filibuster.
( Also on POLITICO: Reid slams McConnell, ready for nuclear option)
But Reid said privately it is time to make a change.
In a closed-door caucus meeting Thursday, Reid began by apologizing to his colleagues for cutting bipartisan deals to avert the nuclear option, including at the beginning of this year. And the Nevada Democrat complained that he allowed votes on scores of conservative nominees under former President George W. Bush after a bipartisan coalition headed off the nuclear option in 2005. But Reid said it had been the right thing to do because Bush had won a second term in the White House.
Now, Reid argued, times have changed.
"I ate sh— on some of those nominees," Reid told his colleagues, according to sources who were present.
On Thursday, the Senate continued to inch closer to a battle that could have dramatic implications for the institution.
"I don't know how you open that door and not go to the next level. First, it's executive nominations, next thing it'll be judicial nominations, then it will be legislative filibusters," said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 3 Senate Republican. "The precedent they set here will be not only long-lasting but far-reaching."
( POLITICO podcast: Immigration reform & Obamacare setbacks)
Under Reid's proposal, the Senate would no longer need 60 votes to break a filibuster on executive branch positions, bringing down that threshold to 51 votes. Senators would face a 60-vote requirement to end filibusters on legislation and judicial nominees.
At the heart of the fight are a handful of nominees Reid has been pushing to confirm. On Thursday, he set up procedural votes on a slate of nominees, but Republicans are poised to block Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as well as nominees for the National Labor Relations Board. These nominees are at the center of an ongoing legal struggle over the legality of Obama's use of recess appointment power to place them at the agencies.


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The award information guide helps you interpret your financial aid award. Please direct any questions you may have to the Office of Student Financial Aid.
Alternative Loans are non-federal educational loans available from a variety of national lending institutions. Minimums and maximums vary for these loan programs but all require a satisfactory credit history. The following chart provides an alphabetical list of all lenders that Marquette students have used over the past 5 years. This list is in no way exclusive or exhaustive of all existing lenders. The Office of Student Financial Aid will honor requests to certify other alternative educational loans that do not appear on this list.
A Direct Parent PLUS Loan is a low-interest rate loan to help you pay for your child's education beyond high school. The U.S. Department of Education is the lender, not a bank or a credit union. Direct Parent PLUS Loan funds are usually applied directly to your child's school account. A Direct Parent PLUS Loan is not a grant or scholarship; therefore, you must repay the money received. You can borrow a Direct Parent PLUS Loan for your child if he or she is a "dependent student."
Applying for financial aid online can be daunting for students and parents. This guide will help you navigate through the electronic Financial Aid process.
We've assembled an excellent list of online financial aid resources for current and prospective students.
The Office of Student Financial Aid provides undergraduate and graduate students with resources about types of financial aid and student employment.
FAFSA School Code: 003863
Questions or for more information, contact the Office of Student Financial Aid


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Moderators: Susan Westemeyer, Red Rick
StyrbjornSterki wrote:Back in the late 70s, there was a pro motocrosser named Bob 'Hurricane' Hannah, who was setting the world on fire. Took his first of three US championships at age 19. I once read a story he'd written about a particular day when he'd gone out into the SoCal desert, to his remote and 'secret' test area, for a training ride. Before heading out on his tricked-out works Yamaha, he stopped by a small desert shop and eat-in to stock up on cheesy comestibles and fizzy drink before starting his day's work.
Also in the luncheon area was some grizzled old dinosaur wearing well-worn, old-fashioned leather mx riding kit (as opposed to the Hurricane's SOTA nylon garb) and having a sarnie and a Coke. Bob sussed him out and decided he must be the rider of the decrepit old Bultaco mx-er he'd passed leaned up against the front of the building as he entered, so he thought to follow the old codger when he left out, just to take a bit of the pizz out of him.
Or at least that was the plan. Before the Hurricane could overtake him, the old man heard him coming and twisted the tail on his antique motorbike, and he was suddenly "gone with the wind." Hannah pursued until nearly out of petrol, but he never was able to overtake him.
Back at the desert store, gobsmacked, Bob asked the clerk who the rider of the old Bultaco might have been.
"He's that movie actor fella. Comes in here all the time. McQueen, I think he is."
"Steve McQueen?"
"Yeah, he's the one."
And as if being outpaced by a rat bike wasn't insult enough, McQueen outweighed the Hurricane by a good 25 years.
Sue White wrote:Went out on a ride on the Burke Gilman Trail which is ok but I stopped off at Matthews beach park and these guys were giving me a hard time about my Garmin kit but I'm not sure they were not really just a bunch of drug addicts. It was a bit depressing for the rest of my ride.
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Despite the immigration issues making headlines, there is another, less-public immigration issue going on in the background. Immigrants seemingly earning their right to be in this country through service in the military are typically being deported following their service.
In 1863 Abraham Lincoln signed the 1st Enrollment Act following passage through Congress. The law required immigrants to make themselves available for the U.S. military draft. Green card carrying immigrants can still serve in the U.S. military. A 1996 law, however, changed the dynamic of that service.
The Immigrations Nationality Act essentially allowed the government to deport all immigrants, including those holding green cards, and including those who have served in this nation's military. Every veteran is treated as a foreign national and no option or concern is offered for military veterans.
The situation creates a strange dichotomy. Most immigrants are detained following their military service, and usually deported to their native country. Despite this, because of their military service to this country they still qualify for burial in National Cemeteries located on foreign soil, compete with their survivors being given an American flag.
Many of these immigrants return from combat with injuries, some of them very severe. People volunteering to give their life for this country are considered foreign nationals the minute they take off their uniform, despite many suffering debilitating injuries. Honorable discharges don't equate in U.S. citizenship.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, contact Veterans Help Group. You may be entitled to certain programs and benefits so contact our veterans disability rights firm today.


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If you were not an Orthodox Christian, which faith do you think you would be?
Total Members Voted: 144
Forum Upgrade Status Report - Major Upgrades Pending
In preparation for major software upgrades, we will be performing substantial maintenance and security upgrades nightly, beginning on Tuesday, July 16, 2019 and continuing through Wednesday, July 24, 2019. We will be doing most of the work between midnight and 8 AM, Eastern time. While we are working on the server, you may briefly be unable to connect, or see error messages. By now, many of you may have noticed that we do almost all maintenance without anyone noticing, so users should relax and use the forum normally.
A special alert will be given at least two hours before we do anything that might cause a service interruption lasting more than 15-20 minutes. And as always, the most intensive maintenance will be scheduled for late Saturday night and Sunday morning, to occur while most of our users are in church.
If you would like additional information on this maintenance, a thread has been posted by Alpha60 in Board News.
Total Members Voted: 144
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Lewis & Clark debaters win prestigious tournament
November 12, 2012
Lewis & Clark debaters Joe Hykan '13 and Benjamin Mann '14 recently won the Pat Kennedy Memorial Tournament, hosted by University of the Pacific and the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission.
The round robin tournament, open to only 12 of the top parliamentary debate teams in the nation, focused on topics of mass transportation and public transit. Among the topics debated were high-speed rail, self driving cars, emission reduction, and eminent domain.
Hykan and Mann won six of their seven debates, defeating teams from Pepperdine University, College of Idaho, and University of California at Los Angeles in early debates.
After defeating Concordia University in the semifinals, the Lewis & Clark duo debated a team from Southern Illinois University in the final round. Southern Illinois is consistently one of the top debate programs in the nation, and currently has the top team in the nation. In addition, the final debate was unique because it was judged by an audience of public citizens instead of debate professionals. Hykan and Mann connected well with the audience and won by a 55-35 margin.
Hykan, who is currently ranked on the eighth place team in the nation, was also named the third best individual speaker at the event.
"It is an incredible honor to win the Pat Kennedy Memorial Tournament," Joe Gantt, director of forensics, said of the victory. "The field of teams at that tournament is impressive, and it is a testament to Joe and Ben's hard work that they came out on top. I am especially proud of the fact that we were able to win debates in front of both an audience of debate judges as well as the broader audience of local community members."


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About ESA Moscow
ESA's Moscow Office, officially named 'ESA Permanent Mission in the Russian Federation', represents the Agency in Russia. It was established in 1995 by an agreement between ESA and the Russian Government. The office has diplomatic status and is located in the centre of Moscow.
Roles and responsibilities
The ESA Moscow Office represents ESA in Russia at all relevant levels and facilitates close cooperation between ESA and Russia. The Office follows up and reports to ESA about the development and implementation of Russia's space policy. Its primary objective is to foster cooperation between Europe and Russia in space at political and programme levels, as well as to ensure close links between ESA and Russian organisations at the technical level.
To this end, the Moscow Office maintains close working relations with Russian governmental bodies, with the representatives of ESA Member States in Russia, and with the Delegation of the European Commission.
The Moscow Office provides full logistics and project support to all ESA staff on mission in Russia. This includes visa and travel arrangements, customs support, and contributing to smooth communications between ESA and Russian industry and scientific institutions.
The team
The ESA Moscow Office reports to ESA's International Relations Department at the Agency's headquarters in Paris. René Pischel is the Head of the Office. The Office team is made up of local employees, who include engineers, administrative assistants, a translator, a customs officer and others.


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Thanks in part to record incentives, car sales in the United States are up, but that brings with it both good news and bad news. First the good news: consumers don't spend money on things like automobiles unless they have confidence in the economy, which could mean that the worst of the recession is behind us. Now the bad news: more car sales mean less incentives and discounts from manufacturers, especially since the excess inventory that's plagued the industry in recent years has been all but eliminated. Japanese manufacturers are still recovering from the March disasters in Japan, so inventory levels at most Japanese brands are just beginning to normalize. Flooding in Thailand has disrupted production of certain Japanese car brands (most notably Honda), but we're still a month or so away from seeing this in dealer showrooms. With foreign cars in short supply and domestic quality on the rise, consumers embraced U.S. automakers this year, lowering inventory levels at GM, Ford and Chrysler dealerships. Smartmoney tells us that Ford has reduced available incentives by 13 percent in October, and it's cutting rebates even further in November. Thanks to record low interest rates, buyers with exceptional credit can still find good deals on auto financing, and some manufacturers (like Audi, for example) are actively promoting low interest financing. If you're in the market for a new car, it may pay to put off a buying decision until December. Inventory levels aren't likely to improve, but manufacturers may be more inclined to deal in order to make year-end targets. This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Read more posts on The Car Connection »


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Aki: a new-ish Japanese restaurant on Makaloa
Aki's tan tan nabe
Rinka and Aki, two new Japanese restaurants on Makaloa, are just a few blocks from each other, on opposite sides of Keeaumoku. But apparently Aki is on the wrong side.
The two spots opened within months of each other. But while the wait at Rinka can be more than an hour most nights, Aki's long space feels desolate with only one or two tables occupied. Why? Does Rinka lure with a more exotic menu that includes abalone croquette and Tsukiji fish, versus Aki's menu of Japanese standbys such as yakitori and nabe? Or is it just that few venture to the Walmart side of Makaloa, where hostess bars beckon?
Whatever it is, more people should crossover. Aki is no less beautifully designed than Rinka, thanks to Isamu and Moco Kubota, the husband-and-wife team that opened Hale Macrobiotic in this space a few years ago (they now run Yuzu). Each successive tenant has had the benefit of the redesign, though none of them have lasted more than half a year.
Left: okonomiyaki, right: pork belly yakitori
The tan tan nabe ($18) is a must. It's thick and rich with sesame and peanut, coating the ribbons of pork belly, ground pork and mushrooms that simmer away in the pot. Two orders are the minimum order here, easily shared by three. The rest of the menu is street food and izakaya favorites, and all satisfy, from the okonomiyaki ($10) layered on the teppan grill, to the pork belly and chicken yakitori (though the tsukune, or chicken meatball, lacks seasoning). If roe and its concentrated fishiness is your thing, order the grilled cod roe ($7), perfect with a grilled musubi. Rinka has its highs and lows, while Aki, with its less sexy menu, delivers solid, even comfort.
Average check $15-20
Aki, 1427 Makaloa St.


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The organization that administers the law school admission test will pay $7.73 million to settle claims that it failed to accommodate exam takers with disabilities.
The settlement was announced on Tuesday by the Justice Department, which in 2012 intervened in a class action brought on behalf of test takers in California.
The lawsuit alleged that the Law School Admission Council routinely denied accommodation requests—even in cases where applicants had a permanent physical disability or had been afforded such testing accommodations since elementary school—and had engaged in widespread and systemic discrimination in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
LSAC did not admit guilt or liability in its agreement with the DOJ and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.
Under the terms of the agreement, #LSAC will pay $7.73 million to compensate the more than 6,000 individuals who over the past five years had requested accommodations such as extra time, which one litigant with dyslexia was allegedly denied despite extensive documentation of the diagnosis and his long history of testing accommodations on AP exams, the SAT and other tests.
The council will also reform its policies and stop flagging LSAT scores for people who receive extended time—a practice the lawsuit alleged was discriminatory because it identified to law schools that a test taker had a disability.
"The reforms will impact tens of thousands of test takers with disabilities for years to come," DOJ said in a statement on Tuesday.
For its part, LSAC said in a statement: "We decided to resolve this case not because we believe that we were wrong in our position, but because we do not think that continued litigation is in the best interests of our member schools or prospective law school students."
The council noted that DOJ had known of its practice of "annotating" accommodated test scores since at least 1986, and said "it would have been more appropriate, and more productive for all concerned," for the agency to have pursued the changes through "a traditional notice-and-comment rulemaking" instead of resorting to litigation.
This information should not be construed as "legal advice" for a particular set of facts or circumstances. It is intended only to be a practical guide for participants familiar with this subject. Users should seek appropriate legal advice tailored to address their specific situation.


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Want to hear more?
Have a question about IFS or our solutions?
Our contact form and local phone numbers can be found on the Contact Us page.
Having the right information about an asset at the point of repair and maintenance can improve technician productivity. The power of mobile maintenance solutions allow the engineer to be the origin of all data capture on a service event. They can easily inquire on asset history, record parts used or parts needed for repair, record labor hours, and expenses as they occur, and any notes of repairs performed. When coupled with Workforce Management tools, you can use IFS' mobile field service and maintenance management software to empower your technicians to be as effective as possible in the delivery of service.
Benefits for the user
Benefits for the business
With IFS Mobile Work Order, technicians are able to access vital information on-line or off-line as they need it, and when they need it. Mobile Work Order is built on best practices IFS has acquired; for a range of service and maintenance intensive industries. Built on the native Android operating platform, Mobile WorkOrder takes advantage of native device controls and features like GPS, signature capture and camera. It looks, feels, and behaves like other native Android based applications.
By streamlining the field service and maintenance process, you eliminate paperwork, communication delays and unbilled time, resulting in improved productivity, service profitability and customer satisfaction.
First thing in the morning flip open your laptop and get your routes for the day. Documents, work instructions and progress reports are intuitively visualized for added ease.
With the productive user interface, a large screen and keyboard, the service engineer knows that information is never more than a single click away. It's the better of two worlds – the main application process to access and report the job is designed to be intuitive and fast, but still, you have access to unlimited information in the business application, if you wish.
Have a question about IFS or our solutions?
Our contact form and local phone numbers can be found on the Contact Us page.
Asset management—where it all began. It's our legacy, and for more than 25 years, we have refined our skills and technology in this area we are proud to call our backyard.


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Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott, 50 Cent + More Pay Tribute to Chris Lighty at the 2012 BET Hip-Hop Awards
One of the most touching performances at the 2012 BET Hip-Hop Awards was the tribute to Chris Lighty, the visionary manager of hip-hop stars, who died from an apparent suicide in September. The tribute was a powerful display of unity among rappers rarely seen in the genre.
LL Cool J started off the tribute with a solemn speech of what Lighty meant to him and hip-hop. LL is known for being "hard as hell," but clearly he was still mourning the loss of his friend as his voice cracked ever so slightly. He kicked off the memorial stating, "Without Chris Lighty there wouldn't be music like this."
From there, A Tribe Called Quest performed 'Awards Tour,' one of the group's most well-known rap songs. Rapper Q-Tip demanded the crowd to raise their "L's" in the air in honor of their beloved manager, which they obliged. Then Busta Rhymes came out looking like a general in his Army coat as he performed 'Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See.' In the background, a video screen continuously flickered images of Chris Lighty.
Fat Joe came out to perform his chart-topping dance hit 'Lean Back' with Bussa-Buss giving him back up. Soon, Joey Crack had the entire audience leaning back in honor of Mr. Lighty.
Joe's performance was followed by Missy Elliott who came out and gave a hyped performance of 'Get Ur Freak On.' Dressed in an all-black jacket with a red "V" across her chest to signify Violator Entertainment, Lighty's management company, Missy was in rare form and was the most exciting performer out of the bunch.
Finally, 50 Cent came out to rock his get-money anthem 'I Get Money.' In the end, the audience raised their index and middle fingers up in the air to represent the "V," which also, appropriately, symbolizes the peace sign.
This memorable performance also marked the end of a long-standing feud between Fat Joe and 50 Cent. According to Joe, he and Fiddy shook hands backstage and agreed to squash their beef and keep peace in memory of Chris Lighty.
"It was hard for me. This was like Palestine, Israel, B," said Joe about his peace treaty with 50 Cent. "But we still chose the mature route and said, 'You know what, this beef ain't about nothing. So let's just move on, let's do it for Chris, and do it for hip-hop.'"


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Small window closing for snow funds
State and federal aid may be available to businesses and residents with snow damage
A new kind of snow crisis has been unfolding in Valdez the past week after the federal Small Business Administration (SBA) – under its own authority - declared the areas of Alaska affected by the December and January snow storms a disaster. The move came after a request was made by Gov. Sean Parnell on March 8. On Tuesday, March 13, the SBA announced it would open two Disaster Loan Outreach Centers, one in Valdez, the other in Cordova, to meet face-to-face with people and businesses that were adversely affected by the record-breaking snows.
According to Sheri Pierce, Valdez city clerk, the clock is ticking for business owners and the public at large who may be in need of financial assistance in the aftermath.
This is due to the fact the State of Alaska is planning an individual assistance program to help private citizens and businesses in need of financial assistance, but there is a hitch. In order to be eligible for state aid, applicants must first apply to the SBA for an emergency loan. Only applicants rejected by the SBA will be eligible for state aid. To add to the urgency, the state has imposed a March 30 deadline for the City of Valdez to collect damage assessments from citizens and businesses.
The city is collecting information from citizens with a damage assessment form applicants need to fill out in addition to the application to the SBA.
You do not have to be a business owner to apply for the SBA loans according to Tanjie Smith, the SBA field specialist who opened the outreach office in Valdez last Wednesday. Homeowners and renters may be eligible for low interest loans to repair snow load damages she said.
The outreach office opened in Valdez is located downstairs at the Valdez Consortium Library, but it closes for good Wednesday, March 21. However, applicants can still apply for loan assistance after the office closes. The forms and applications needed to apply are available at the SBA website or by calling its customer service center.
To make the process a little more confusing, applications for SBA loans to repair property damage does not close until May 14, 2012, but applicants still must apply to the SBA before March 30 to qualify for state aid if they are denied a federal SBA loan.
"Definitely apply before that deadline," Smith said from her temporary quarters at the library.
The deadline to apply for economic injury loans to businesses is December 13, 2012.
"Homeowners and renters are eligible for up to $40,000 to repair or replace damaged or destroyed personal property," the SBA said in a press release. "Businesses of any size and private, nonprofit organizations may borrow up to $2 million to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory, and other business assets."
SBA can also lend additional funds to both homeowners and businesses to make improvements that will "protect, prevent or minimize the same type of disaster damage," in the future the SBA said.
Loan amounts and terms are set by the SBA, based on individual financial conditions.
Pierce said the city is encouraging both business and private citizens to apply for both SBA and state assistance before March 30.
Additional information can be found by visiting or calling city hall or by accessing the city's website Pierce said.


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Artists of all ages and ability levels are invited to submit their impression of St. Augustine in this community-based art project.
The exhibit will first be hung throughout St. Johns County at all six library locations and in the St. Augustine Art Association. The exhibit will then be brought together to be showcased as a grand 450-piece mosaic.
The call to artists is now through April 15. Any medium that will fit on the supplied canvas is allowed. Registration is $10 for adults (18 and older), which includes a footing by 12-inch canvas.
Children (17 and younger) are eligible to receive a free 8-inch by 10-inch canvas, either distributed through participating St. Johns County Schools or to be picked up at City Hall/Lightner Building, 75 King St., in lobby C on the fourth floor.
If the child is interested in submitting his or her artwork into the Ancient City Mosaic project, then the cost to register is $5. All proceeds from Ancient City Mosaic will benefit the St. Johns County Education Foundation.
The first 100 people to register and pick up their canvas at Michaels Stores will receive a $10 gift card to Michaels Stores (one gift card per person).
To learn more, go to www.ancientcitymosaic.com, www.twitter.com/450mosaic, or call 904-825-1053.


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Vehicles sorted from highest to lowest price
Used Sedans Under $19000
Inventory Page 39 of 419
6 Photos
Clean title and excellent conditions!
1 Photo
Very good car, Owner maintained very well with a service log! No problems at all! I'm in need...
2 Photos
First owner Clean title Everything works Semi new tires and rims Gas saver Etc
1 Photo
S work very nice We finance
1 Photo
White Chrysler 300 for sale by owner near Baton Rouge LA for $7k. This 300 comes with 22"...
1 Photo
Clean tittle, smoged, safety check, car fax, no credit, challenged credit, easy financing,...
4 Photos
Clean tittle , smoged , safety check , car fax, no credit , challenged credit ,easy...
1 Photo
Leather seats clean title
12 Photos
2006 Cadillac DTS for sale with only 91000 miles, very good condition ,exceptionally...
- Finance Available
6 Photos
This is a 1-owner Impala with very low miles, only 88k. It comes equipped with the Sport...
- 1-Owner Vehicle
5 Photos
This is a good car in good condition and ready to go. We Specialize in helping good people...
- Finance Available
3 Photos
Seller has not specified any information about this Chevrolet Malibu, please get in touch using the contact form.


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Votes, Voters, & Voting Profiles in Sharon Hill, PAVoting predictions for the 2014 elections. All data is guaranteed to be a true and accurate description of the factual data known by the RealVoters verification method.
|All Sharon Hill Voters
|All Delaware County Voters
|All Pennsylvania Voters
|Prior Sharon Hill RealVoters
|Featured RealVoters
|Next Sharon Hill RealVoters


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Reviewed by Josiah S. (age 8)
I liked this book because it was scary and funny. This book has great descriptions like, "The candle light flickered and danced as the kids descended into the drafty basement." The descriptions help me see what's going on in the book. My favorite part was when the kid got startled. His reaction was really funny. My favorite character was the teacher because she wore a green light on her necklace. My mom's favorite color is green, so she kind of reminded me of my mom.
I recommend this book to kids and grownups that like Fantasies. I like this book because I like Fantasies. This book is a part of Bailey School Kids. It is a part of the real series. It's not like the skinny books, it's one of the big ones.


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Beach Retreat N Pool on the sand
Beach Retreat N Pool on the sand
New Private Hot Tub at this Spacious Beachside Home, One House back from the Beach with Gulf Views and a Shared Pool. Open concept main floor with living, dining, kitchen, laundry, 3 piece bath and twin bedroom. Upstairs 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and deck.
Estacionamiento gratuito en las instalaciones
No disponible: Detector de monóxido de carbono
El barrio
Cosas que debes tener en cuenta
Normas de la casa
You must be approved to rent this house. Please message before booking.
Rental Agreement for Sun Palace Vacations (Schedule A)
Sun Palace Vacations Inc. is a nationally accredited property management company operated by Ron Hemstreet and Judith Lee-Hemstreet of Fort Myers Beach, Florida. We either own or manage the properties listed on this website and have been in this business since (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) It is our sincerest wish that you have a wonderful vacation and we are here to help make that happen. If you have any questions about the terms and conditions listed, please call for an explanation. Our professional affiliations are listed on our website. (Website hidden by Airbnb) Terms, Conditions & Payments: By "Submitting" this form, You (herein after referred to as Guest) are confirming that you have read and agreed to the rules and regulations listed below. Acknowledgement of your reservation will be provided upon receipt of a non-refundable deposit of Thirty per cent (30%) of the total plus the cost of Travel Insurance, if purchased, and is payable by Visa, MasterCard or Discover Card. The balance is due 60 days prior to the arrival date and is payable by Debit Card, Credit Card, eCheck, paper check, postal money order, bank draft or bank wire transfer. It is your responsibility to make sure your payment arrives on time. If the balance remains unpaid at 45 days, we reserve the right to cancel your reservation and put the unit back on the market. (See Cancellations & Substitutions below). Reservations closer than 60 days must be paid in full by credit card when the booking is made. Your reservation will be confirmed subject to verification of price, receipt of payment, submission and approval of your guest list and the understanding that you will adhere to the regulations of the terms herein and of Sun Palace Vacations Inc. (Herein after referred to as SPVI.) To make this reservation, you must be at least Thirty Years old (30 yrs.) and occupy the unit for the entire time of the reservation. We do not rent to groups of singles under 30 or those under Twenty-one (21) years of age with chaperones - ever. The maximum occupancy of people over the age of Three years old (3 yrs.) is listed on the website for each unit and is strictly enforced. We reserve the right to determine the number of children under Twenty-one (21) years of age that may accompany a parent or guardian. Guest may not assign or transfer this agreement. All registered guests staying in the unit, and their ages, must be listed below. Outside guests are not permitted without approval. Local management will ask you to leave immediately with no refund if the reservation was made under false pretenses, you are underage or if there is evidence of outside, nonregistered guests. Please do not leave children under 18 alone in the unit. Cancellations & Substitutions You may cancel without penalty within Forty-eight hrs. (48 hrs.) of making your reservation. Any change or cancellation of reservation prior to the original scheduled arrival date will be subject to the loss of deposit and any advance payments. If the reservation has been paid in full and the house is re-rented you will receive a refund equal to the amount the house was re-rented for, minus a One Hundred Fifty dollar ($ (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) service charge which may be applied to a future reservation. If you have only paid a deposit and the house is rerented but the combined total does not cover the original rental rate, then there will be no refund or credit. Changes that result in a shortened stay will not result in any prorating, refunds, or reduction in rents. Late arrival or early departure does not warrant any refund or credit of rent. Despite our best efforts, some matters are beyond our control (for example plumbing, electrical, air conditioning, software problems or sale of unit) and the accommodation may not be available. If this occurs, we reserve the right to substitute an equivalent property at our discretion. If similar accommodations cannot be found, a full refund will be given to the guest.
If a similar location cannot be found, SPVI shall not be held responsible for any consequential or secondary circumstances, including but not limited to relocation expenses or additional travel expenses or any other loss. SPVI does not assume any liability for loss, damage or injury to any persons or their personal property. Neither does SPVI accept liability for any inconvenience arising from any temporary defects or stoppage in supply of water, gas and electricity, outside construction noise or plumbing. Nor will SPVI accept liability for any loss or damage caused by weather conditions, natural disasters, acts of God or other reasons beyond its control. This paragraph is not a substitute for Travel Insurance. (See next paragraph) Travel Insurance: We are pleased to offer the option of CSA Guest Protect Travel Insurance which covers trip cancellation, trip delay / interruption, rental car collision damage waiver, baggage delay, medical expense / emergency medical transportation, roadside assistance, concierge service, identity theft and more. The cost is a very reasonable 7.65% of your total booking and covers everyone on your guest list. We strongly recommend you purchase this valuable protection, which will reimburse you for pre-paid, non-refundable expenses due to certain unforeseeable circumstances. When making a reservation online, you have the option of selecting either Yes or No before the final amount is totaled. If you are traveling between June 1 and November 31 (Hurricane Season), or when there is a possibility of trip delay due to ice and snow or you and your family members could become ill, then insurance is highly recommended. In other words, don't let your family travel uninsured. There will be no refund or credit for any reason other than those covered in "Cancellations & Substitutions". For More Information Visit: (Website hidden by Airbnb) Coverage Questions? Call (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) Please note that CSA Travel Insurance is available for United States residents only. Property Protection Fee: A Non-refundable Property Protection Fee plus 11% tax will be included in the total price for booking and is based on the number of bedrooms: Efficiency and one bedroom homes are covered up to Five Hundred Dollars ($ (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) in accidental damages, 2 bedrooms and larger, the coverage is One Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($1, (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) in accidental damages. The rates are published on each house page and on our reservation documents. Any such accidental damage must be reported at the time it occurs or as soon as possible before departure. (This allows us to repair or replace damaged items before the next guest arrives.) Willful damage is not covered. The coverage will take effect upon your arrival and terminate upon your departure. Damages that exceed the limit, unreported and / or willful damages will be charged to your credit card. The guest agrees to be responsible for any damage caused by the guest's party or visitors. The property is inventoried upon each guest's departure. If you discover any deficiencies in the inventory or damage to the property, please inform SPVI. Please note that this fee does not cover damage caused by your pet(s), which will be charged to your credit card. Property: All units are privately owned. The guest shall hold the owner and SPVI harmless from all claims or causes of actions arising from the rental of the unit. The owner and SPVI are not responsible for any of the guest's items lost, missing or stolen. Check-in: Check-in time is after 4:00 p.m. Please notify everyone in your party. Occasionally, an early check-in or a late check-out may be purchased for an extra fee. It is only available if there is no one scheduled to occupy the home on the same day of your arrival or departure. Even if you buy an early arrival or late departure, it is not guaranteed and subject to change. In such a case, we will refund the payment but will not be responsible for consequential expenses or secondary circumstances incurred by you due to this cancellation. Check-out: • Check-out time is by 10:00 am. Please be on time, as our housekeepers need time to get the property ready for the next guest. Guests checking out between 10:01 am and 12:00 pm will be assessed 1/2-day's rate. If you are leaving early, please notify our office. • Place all dirty dishes in the dishwasher and turn it on. • Return all furniture to original locations. • We have a professional laundry service for the houses. Please leave used towels in the bathrooms and do not strip the beds. Check the instructions on the house refrigerator for more details.
• Tidy up pool area and make sure toys, coolers etc. are put away. • Garbage must be bagged and taken to the cans. Please recycle as much as possible: cardboard, paper, glass, plastic & aluminum all go in the blue container. • Please insure that there is no excessive cleaning required due to your visit. Empty the fridge and wipe down shelves. Cleaning staff will gratefully enjoy any unopened food you leave behind. • Leave us a note about any repairs that need to be done if you not mentioned already. • Please double check that you have all of your belongings; especially check outlets for phone and camera chargers. There is a charge to return items left behind. • Please turn off all fans and lights. • Lock all doors and windows, check them and if your home has the Point Central Smart Home system, key in your exit code (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) or return the key to the lockbox using your 4 digit code.
Weddings and Special Events: Weddings are limited to private ceremonies attended only by the occupants of the property and pre-approved. No outside guests are allowed.
Special Events, such as family reunions, must be pre-approved and are limited in scope to a few select properties. Please call our office for more information.
Failure to declare such a function may result in immediate eviction and forfeiture of all moneys paid.
Lost and Found: Items left in the unit are returned to our office and labeled with the date of departure and the house name. Due to privacy concerns, unless the item is of extreme importance (passport, plane tickets, etc.) we will not call you. There will be a charge to return items left behind. All items unclaimed after Thirty (30) days will be donated to charity. Turtle Season Beachfront Rules – May 1 to October 31: Fort Myers Beach is an environmentally sensitive barrier island with a protected population of Sea Turtles who visit our beach each year to lay eggs. To protect the nests and aid future generations of returning Sea Turtles, Lee County has a Sea Turtle Conservation Code which is strictly enforced. For information regarding lighting, or to report a lighting violation, please call the Town of Fort Myers Beach at (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) • Shut off or shield lights that are visible from the beach. Close drapes or blinds after dark. • Do Not use flashlights, lanterns or any other non-approved light source on the beach. Fires are not permitted at any time. • Do Not allow car headlights to shine on the beach after 9:00 pm. • Remove beach litter. Balloons, plastic bags, foam and other non-degradable pollutants cause the deaths of many sea turtles that mistake them for food. Convenient trash receptacles are provided by SPVI and by the Town of Fort Myers Beach; we want to make it easy for you to play a role in survival of this endangered animal. • Quietly observe a nesting turtle from a distance. Do not shine any lights on or around her -- she may abandon her effort to nest. No flash photography. Stay behind the turtle so that she cannot see you. • Do not harass a turtle by touching her or prodding her to move. Stay out of the way as she crawls back to the water. • Remove all beach furniture, boats, toys, tents, etc. by 9:00 pm every night and store them close to the house or landward of dune vegetation • Keep pets on a leash, away from sea turtles and their nests. • Leave sea turtle nest identification markers in place on the beach. • Leave nest sites undisturbed. If you find a hatchling wandering in daylight, place it on moist sand in a dry container, shade it and call Turtle Time, Inc. immediately: (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) Guests are responsible for all fines imposed for code violations
To report dead or injured sea turtles, or, if you have accidentally hooked a sea turtle that is small enough to rescue, contact: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) FWCC, or call Turtle Time, Inc (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) immediately.
Pets: Dogs are permitted in most but not all units so please inquire when booking. Some units have size and number restrictions. The following breeds are not allowed due to insurance liability: Pit Bulls (Also known as: American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, American Bully, and Staffordshire Bull Terrier and American Bulldog), Rottweiler's, Chows, Akitas, Wolf Hybrids, Staffordshire terriers, Beaucerons, and Dobermans, plus any mix of these breeds or any dog with a history of biting. If any of these breeds are found in your unit or on the premises, you will be asked to vacate immediately with no refund of any payments. Cats are not permitted except by written permission in only Three (3) of our houses. There is a non-refundable pet fee, which varies from One Hundred Dollars ($ (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) to Two Hundred Dollars ($ (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) depending on the size of the dog. If a pet fee has not been paid, but there is evidence of an animal in the house, your credit card will be charged Two Hundred dollars ($ (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) plus Fifty dollars ($ (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) extra for last minute administration. If any dogs or cats are found in a non-pet friendly unit or on the premises, you will be asked to vacate immediately with no refund of any payments.
Guest is responsible and liable for: a. any damage to any property or any item in any property caused the pet; b. any personal injuries to any person caused by the pet; c. removing all pet waste.
We are compliant the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as it applies to Service Dogs, who are trained to perform a service. Please note the ADA does not cover "Therapy Animals", so please do not bring critters other than dogs (or cats with written permission) to our properties. This includes, but is not limited to: birds, reptiles, pigs, ducks and monkeys. If a pet other than a dog (or cat with written permission) is found in your unit or on the premises, you will be asked to vacate immediately with no refund of any payments. The pet fee does not cover removing pet waste so please stoop & scoop. There are biodegradable bags at all Beach Accesses for this purpose. Pets are not allowed in the pool. You must keep your pet on a Five foot (5 foot) fixed leash and under control at all times. The owner of the house and SPVI shall be held harmless from all claims or causes of actions arising from but not limited to damage or physical injury caused by the pet. You are responsible to have your pet up to date on all shots and vaccinations including but not limited to rabies, bordetella and tick and flea treatment. Please do not leave pets home alone if you are expecting a service technician, as they will not enter the premises. Smoking: Smoking is not permitted in any unit. If there is evidence of smoking in the house, your credit card will be charged Two Hundred Fifty dollars ($ (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) plus the cost to remove all evidence of smoking. (This typically involves dry-cleaning of window treatments and bedspreads, shampooing the upholstery and carpets, and changing the air filters.) You will also be asked to vacate immediately with no refund of any payments. Please smoke outside and clean up all evidence of smoking. Boats, Vehicles and Structures: It is understood that RV's, boats, motor homes, trucks, motorcycles, trailers etc. are not permitted without specific approval and possible extra charges. It is also understood that, at no time, are boats or vehicles to be used for accommodation or connected in any way to utilities of the main home. Some of the homes have docks that may or may not have power or water. All houses have limits for the number of parking spaces which are stated on the property listing and strictly enforced. No structures larger than an 8 foot by 8 foot canopy are to be erected without permission. If you are planning such a structure please fill in the question at the bottom of this contract. Beach chairs, other equipment and structures are not allowed between the gulf and the seawall after sundown. If a non-authorized structure is found on site, you will be asked to remove it immediately. Please refer to the property listing for details.
Digital locks, Lock boxes & Remote Controls: Most of our properties now have the Point Central Smart Home digital keyless lock system. You will be issued a unique, time sensitive, six (6) digit code to access the property for the duration and time frame of your reservation. Some properties have a Schlage Digital lock and you will receive a 4 digit code for these. A small number of homes have special Hurricane doors which will only accept keys. If so equipped, one key will be in a lock box on the property, typically by the front door. Please do not remove the key from the keypad as there will be a Ten Dollar ($10.00) re-attachment fee. Leave the key in the lockbox if you are not in the house, in case one of our staff has to enter for emergency repairs. Lost keys will be charged at the rate of One Hundred dollars ($ (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) per lock to cover the cost re-keying.
In all cases, you will be provided with your code and Guest Package, by email, Seven (7) days prior to your arrival providing we have approved your guest list and have received final payment.
There will be a charge of One Hundred dollars ($ (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) for each lost TV remote control. Utilities, Services & Amenities: Local telephone Service is provided for your convenience. Many, but not all of our houses have free long distance in the USA and Canada only. All other long distance calls should be made on your cell phone, calling card or on a pre-paid phone card. Calls or services, including but not limited to Pay Per View, downloaded games or movies not billed to your own payment method will be charged to your credit card. Internet / WiFi access is supplied free of charge but is not guaranteed for functionality or performance. In the event of any equipment malfunction, please call SPVI, who will arrange to have the repair expedited as quickly as possible. However, no rent refund, credit or compensation will be paid for any nonperformance of appliances or equipment, including but not limited to pool equipment, appliances and Internet / WiFi access. Maid service is not included. If you would like additional cleaning services, this can be arranged, at your own expense. We give you starters of paper & soap products, i.e.: One (1) full roll for each toilet and one (1) roll of paper towels in the kitchen. Starter quantities of laundry detergent, dish soap, dishwasher soap and hand soap are also supplied. Swimming Pool and Pool Area: The pool is heated by an electric heat pump that is set at 86 deg. and is on approximately from 9 am and 6 pm between Columbus Day to Memorial Day. In the winter months, if the air is cold, the water temperature might not reach the set temperature. It is recommended that the solar blanket be used (if present) when the evening temperatures drop below 70 deg. or the pool is not in use. There is no guarantee as to the pool suitability or temperature. Use of the Swimming Pool is "at your own risk". All guests assume the risks of use and waive the right to file suit against the owner and / or SPVI for any loss, damage, injury or liability that should occur. NO DIVING. The guest assumes all responsibility for themselves and anyone that they allow to be in the pool area. There is no lifeguard on duty. • An adult ABSOLUTELY MUST supervise children at all times. The tragedy of child drowning occurs every year in Florida and is a nightmare we all must work to avoid. Our pools are gated or caged but you as the parent or guardian play a critical role – on vacation just as at home. • The pool is open from 9:00 am to sundown. • Only registered guests are allowed. • Pets are forbidden in the pool and pool area. • No glass or breakable objects. • Area must be kept in a clean and proper order. • Please do not throw anything heavier than a pool noodle in the screened pool area as the screens tend to get damaged. This is considered "Willful" damage and is NOT covered by your Property Protection Fee. • Please insure that young children wear swim diapers and not regular diapers. • No balloons poolside as they can cause expensive repairs that are not considered "accidental". Please obey rules and times of use that are posted at each pool. The pool is serviced regularly and has automatic cleaning and chlorinating systems. Please notify SPVI immediately if there are any problems or concerns; however, there will be no rent refund if the pool or spa is closed due to any circumstance. The gates and pool cage doors are to be kept closed and secured at all times.
Lounge Chairs and Towels: If you take lounge chairs and beach towels to the beach, please make sure they are all returned to the house each night. Replacement cost is Two Hundred dollars ($ (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) per lounge chair and Twenty-Five dollars ($25.00) per towel. Quiet times: SPVI takes the enjoyment of our guests very seriously. Quiet times between 9:00 p.m. (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) hrs.) and 9:00 a.m. (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) hrs.) are mandated by the Bylaws of Fort Myers Beach and must be respected. Please remember that noise carries very well close to water and that conversations are easily heard from balconies and pools. The neighbors have our emergency numbers and are asked to call us if there is a problem with our guests. Should continued, excessive noise persist, please be advised that the Sheriff will be called and your tenancy will be terminated immediately according to Florida Statue (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) and you will be billed for any damages. Your cooperation in helping us maintain a friendly relation with the neighbors is greatly appreciated. Please note that exterior speaker systems are not permitted. Errors, Omissions and Changes: Every effort is made by SPVI to insure that all information is as accurate and complete as possible on every website that we maintain but it is not guaranteed. SPVI is not responsible for any inadvertent errors or omissions or for recent changes by an owner to their property. Policies, descriptions, conditions, rates and amenities listed are subject to change without notice. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the parties and may not be changed orally, but only in writing. The laws of Florida govern this Agreement. By submitting this Guest List, I certify that I have read and agree to the Terms and Conditions above. Names of all persons who will be occupying the house during my stay: Your email addres (Website hidden by Airbnb) 1. Name____________________________ Age ____________ 2. Name____________________________ Age____________ 3. Name____________________________ Age____________ 4. Name____________________________ Age____________ 5. Name____________________________ Age____________ 6. Name____________________________ Age____________ 7. Name____________________________ Age____________ 8. Name____________________________ Age____________ 9. Name____________________________ Age____________ 10. Name____________________________ Age____________ 11. Name____________________________ Age____________ 12. Name____________________________ Age____________ 13. Name____________________________ Age____________ 14. Name____________________________ Age____________ 15. Name____________________________ Age____________ 16. Name____________________________ Age____________
Are you a smoker? Ye (Website hidden by Airbnb) N (Website hidden by Airbnb) Are you bringing a dog? Ye (Website hidden by Airbnb) N (Website hidden by Airbnb) Please refer to the property weight & number restrictions. Breed: ________________ Weight:_________ Age: ______ Name: __________________ Breed: ________________ Weight:_________ Age: ______ Name: __________________ Breed: ________________ Weight:_________ Age: ______ Name: __________________
Are you bringing an RV, boat, motor home, truck, motorcycle, or trailer or erecting a structure larger than an 8ft. by 8 ft. canopy? Ye (Website hidden by Airbnb) N (Website hidden by Airbnb) Please supply details: ___________________________________________ Are you coming for a wedding or Special Event? Ye (Website hidden by Airbnb) N (Website hidden by Airbnb) Please supply details: ___________________________________________ This is a true and accurate list of all guests, pets and vehicles that will be staying at this unit. Outside visitors are not permitted without permission.
Sun Palace Vacations Inc.


text:
Riding Out Another Season
Harsh isolation didn't deter homesteaders from making a life along northern Montana's Hi-Line. Their tight-knit descendants show no less resolve.
The earnest saga of farming and ranching in northern Montana began with a misconception that verged on a lie: free land, enough to feed your family! But the land wasn't quite free, and it was far from enough.
A law had been passed by Congress back in 1862, codifying the misconception as a national promise. In exchange for building a house on a chosen site, planting a crop, and maintaining five years of residence, you could "prove up" on 160 acres. That is, you would be granted a title. The offer applied to all unclaimed federal land, much of it west of the Mississippi River, including what we now call Montana. The northern third of the eventual state, stretching roughly a hundred miles down from the Canadian border and westward as far as the front of the Rockies, comprised about 26 million acres of landscape, mostly semiarid plains upholstered with shortgrass prairie and sagebrush. The government wanted those acres occupied by white settlers whose presence would gradually erase the thought of land claims by Blackfeet, Gros Ventre, Sioux, Crow, and other native peoples. James J. Hill, founder of the Great Northern Railway, wanted those acres occupied by customers whose material needs (farm implements, horse tack, household goods, seed grain) and whose produce (mainly wheat) would fill his boxcars outbound and back. People came from Minnesota, from Illinois, from Scotland, from Norway, and from points in between to accept the dare, tossing down their labor, their youth, and their hopes onto a craps table with long, empty horizons that were green in springtime, brown in summer, brown in autumn, and then implacably white. This was called homesteading.
Settlers arrived late to northern Montana, after the more easily farmable places had already been claimed. They followed the railroad, which Jim Hill's crews had completed in 1893. That rail line, in turn, had traced an old wagon trail across Indian lands. Congress updated the original Homestead Act in 1909, 1912, and 1916, shortening the residence requirement to three years and raising the allotted acreage to 320, or 640 for a cattle operation. Those changes, plus advertising hype from the railroad and misleading encouragement from the crackpot mavens of something called dry farming, brought plenty of aspirants into the region, though time would show that the acreages were still far too small. Between 1909 and 1923, settlers filed 114,620 homestead claims in Montana, many of those within a day's wagon ride of the Great Northern line, which crossed the state at about 48 degrees north latitude. Population and service businesses, if not rain, followed the plow.
And so towns grew along that line, some named for faraway places and things: Glasgow, Malta, Harlem, Havre, Inverness, Dunkirk, Kremlin. Some were named for people, such as Culbertson (a fur trader) and Shelby (a minion of Jim Hill). A few were more locally evocative: Cut Bank, Chinook, Poplar, Wolf Point. Eventually pavement as well as rails linked those communities, forming a portion of U.S. Highway 2, America's northernmost cross-country ribbon of blacktop. Within Montana, this stretch of road and railway and towns and surrounding landscape became known as the Hi-Line.
It's a part of the state that never appears in the Marlboro ads or the ski brochures. Its beauties are severe and subtle and horizontal, rather than soaring and picturesque. It's not for everybody. But the Hi-Line contains scenes, lives, and voices with dramatic force all their own. One of those voices belongs to Lloyd Kanning, a sturdy 76-year-old with a full head of white hair and pale blue eyes, who has been driving a tractor since the age of ten. "Farming," Kanning told me, as we sat in his living room in Shelby, "is like fighting a war."
He listed the categories of enemy. "You're fighting the weather to start with." You wait for the right moment, you put your seed in the ground—but if your tractor and other crucial pieces of machinery are old, you're fighting to keep them functional. Then diseases. Then bugs. Defeat all those, get a good stand of wheat grown and turning amber in the fall, "and along comes a hailstorm and beats it to the ground." Or if the hail doesn't find you, the wind does, whipping through your grain to cause "shelling" (kernels falling out of the heads) so bad you lose half your crop before you can cut it. But no, maybe it ripens fine, the hail and the wind spare you, the grasshoppers miss you, and you're ready to cut it—then comes a wet stretch of autumn days, sogging your harvest, forcing you to put damp wheat into the bin. Now you must aerate that bin and dry the grain, or at least keep it cool. "And then you've got to fight the price." If your wheat has low protein content, the buyer at the local elevator may discount you as much as a buck forty per bushel for every percentage point below scale. Say that high-protein wheat is selling at six dollars, and you're two points below; your crop might as well disappear.
"It does sound like war," I said.
"It is a war."
But these terms of engagement weren't apparent at first. Hopes ran high. A pamphlet issued in 1912 by the Great Northern Railway, titled "Montana Free Homestead Land," bragged that the state's climate was healthful, the winters "not severe because of the dry air," ha-ha, and the yields of winter wheat "phenomenal." Act now, urged the pamphlet. If you want a piece of this bounteous giveaway, it said, "you had better start for Montana at once."
Those good early years and dreamy expectations lasted through 1916. Then came a bad seven-year drought—not an extraordinary event, just a downward swing amid long-term cycles that the homestead promoters hadn't taken into account. The rains failed, and the formerly generous fields turned stingy. Lloyd Kanning remembers hearing of a wheat crop that his father planted in 1919. No rain fell that year, none, not to speak of, and the seed just lay unawakened in its rows. It sprouted in 1920, too late, adding insult to injury.
Elsewhere across the Hi-Line, conditions were equally grim. People did what was necessary to survive the hard times, scraping together some income from other sources, or else they just up and disappeared.
A young fellow from Minnesota named Henry Luken, who had homesteaded near Rudyard, which was a blip on the line, saw his wheat crop fail completely during one of the drought years. That winter he left the place, taking his only movable assets—four horses—and found work at a coal mine in the Bears Paw Mountains, about 50 miles away. With his saved wages, Luken bought feed for the horses, seed for another crop, and a summer's worth of supplies, then went back to his farm. Grasshoppers ate the second year's crop. He took his precious horses and returned to the coal mine for a second winter, worked hard again, saved, put all his wages once more into the farm. He also arranged a bank loan, for which his collateral was the horses. The third year, Luken grew a crop. He paid his debts and eventually bought more land—from other homesteaders, as they dried out and gave up—thereby enlarging his place enough to thrive in the good years and endure the next stretch of bad. That turned out to be one of the secrets of Hi-Line survival: Buy when you can, grow your place bigger, take the risks of expansion, not the risks of caution. I heard Luken's story from his grandnephew, Bob Toner, who owns a Tire Rama in Rudyard and still works that farm. Toner himself heard the tale many times from his father, who in 1934 came out from Minnesota to be Uncle Henry's hired man. The only reason Henry Luken managed to do what he did, he told Bob Toner's father, who told Bob, who told me, was that he had owned the four horses. What was the secret ingredient of character that allowed some folk to prosper—or anyway, to continue—while others failed and gave up? Was it intelligence? Was it daring? Was it prescience, or some sort of ineffable green thumb?
"Tenacity," Lloyd Kanning said.
Others agreed. Dana Darlington's grandfather, born in 1906, lived in a sod homesteader's house with his widowed mother in southern Chouteau County and, when he got old enough, earned some cash rounding up abandoned livestock for the local bank. "It was pretty harsh. Lot of people were leaving," Darlington said, as his own mother served us hot chocolate and peanut butter cookies at her place, 20 miles southeast of Big Sandy. "When people left, they just up and left their livestock, just let 'em go." His grandfather's job was to bring in those cattle and horses and mules before they starved or were eaten by cougars or wolves—collateral gone to waste. "It was pretty tough times, even before the Dust Bowl. The hoppers. The climate, dry. I think a lot of 'em that ended up staying just had a lot of luck on their side—and a lot of determination." Darlington himself, a solid, mid-fortyish man in a white-and-red flannel shirt and a blue silk neckerchief below his oval, browned face, exuded determination of his own. This was a cold day in November, with snow blowing like a grumbled warning, and he had just come in from feeding cows; the silk neckerchief, worn threadbare, was for warmth more than style. Four generations of family tradition will not end on his watch.
It wasn't just man against the elements. Quite a few of those original homesteaders were women, single or widowed, who made their way west and filed alone.
One among them was Vicki Olson's maternal grandmother, from Pennsylvania, who proved up on a place south of Malta in 1920, despite the drought. Meanwhile her brother and the man who would soon become her husband also filed and made good on their own homesteads nearby. During the late 1920s came some years of good rain, green rangeland for livestock, and high yields of wheat, which allowed some families to enlarge their holdings as vacated places became cheaply available. For Olson's paternal grandparents, sheep paid the bills, but it took much more than 640 acres to support a big flock. "Homestead days didn't work," she told me one afternoon at a Malta café, over the clink of spoons and forks against truck stop china. "This was hatched back East. Where they had all this fertile land. They didn't have a clue what the land was like here."
But some meliorating measures, too, were enacted back East, one of those being the Taylor Grazing Act, passed by Congress in 1934, which initiated the practice of leasing federal land to stock growers. Twelve years later, just after World War II, the U.S. Grazing Service became part of a newly created Bureau of Land Management, which nowadays continues to make western ranching possible by leasing public prairie for use by private cows. The terms and consequences of BLM leases can be debated heatedly for hours, but one result is that family cow-calf operations—at least some of them, the lucky and stalwart and adaptable few—have survived. The Double O Ranch, which Vicki Olson runs with her sister and their two husbands, encompasses acreage that their grandparents put together, partly by purchasing failed homesteads, partly by acquiring 10,000 acres of BLM leases. If you think that sounds like a scenario for cattle grandees in the vein of Ben Cartwright on his Ponderosa, you mistake the proud parsimony by which such family ranchers make ends meet.
Dick Iversen's grandmother was another independent woman who filed on a place of her own. She came from Sweden via Minnesota and California, working in restaurants along the way, and arrived in Montana as a single mother with a young daughter. She homesteaded on a 160 just up the road from here, Iversen told me as we sat in the kitchen of his neat, modern ranch house amid the rolling hills south of Culbertson. Marie Youngstrom was the grandmother's name. She met his grandfather—another Swede, who drove the stagecoach—and they married, but not before each filed a claim (one homestead per head of a household, said the law). "They had adjoining farms," Iversen said. "And to the day she died, it was his farm and her farm." She never ceased being head of a household.
I had left Wolf Point at 5:45 that morning, driving through the remnants of a blizzard at 18 below zero to be prompt for my 7:30 a.m. appointment. Ranchers rise early, and Dick Iversen had already finished spreading hay for the cows. His wife, Connie, had baked cinnamon cake, steaming and aromatic, which we ate as he talked about Grandma Marie. "She was kind of a matriarch-type person," he said. Marie's son eventually bought the father's farm, but she clung to hers. She and the son then shared a yard, and there was tension. "That's part of family farms that makes it difficult. The old farts don't quit."
He was speaking wryly, aware that he'll soon be an old fart himself, but Iversen had touched on a key issue, one that arose often during my talks with people up there: succession. How do you transfer your place to the next generation? How do you retire? It's not as easy as it sounds. Given that scale is crucial to economic viability, ranches and farms that have been patched together by tenacious parents and grandparents can't be broken into pieces for all the grown children. Nor can every son and daughter come home, with spouses and kids of their own, and rejoin the operation. There just isn't enough income to support multiple generations of an extended family. One reason the old farts don't quit is that they can't afford to.
"Other kids had skateboards," Buster Brown told me. "I had horses."
Buster and his wife, Helen, run a cattle ranch and quarter horse operation in the Sweet Grass Hills, just short of the Canadian border northeast of Shelby, in a wrinkle of landscape too rippled, steep, and gully-cut for planting grain. Black Angus beef is their main product; well-bred and well-broken quarter horses are a sideline, with its origins deep in Buster's childhood. When he was three, while his two older sisters attended a country school down at the corner of the section, his mother would send him out to hitch up his pony to a small wagon, ride down to the schoolhouse, and fetch his sisters home. The Browns' current line of equine stock goes back to cherished studs and mares with names such as Our Country Buck and Driftwood Doc. Buster and Helen's pair of strapping sons, B. J. and Jack, each inherited the equestrian talent and the passion. Both are rodeo athletes, riders and ropers, away at college during my visit but expected home for the holidays.
It was another chilly morning, ten below zero at dawn when I left Shelby, and now Helen's biscuits and gravy filled a place in my belly that the carryout latte and biscotti hadn't touched. As I sat at their kitchen bar, drinking black coffee, Buster spoke about his great-grandpa, John Brown, a blacksmith who worked on the trolley lines in Great Falls and then came up here to the Sweet Grass Hills and filed on a homestead around 1898. Elmer Brown was John's son, another blacksmith, who filed an adjacent claim of his own. John built a log house, Elmer built one of frame, and eventually Elmer put them together, driving his frame house to the site like a horse-drawn wagon, holding his reins from one of the bedroom windows. He covered the frame and logs with stucco. That's the house Buster was raised in.
From those beginnings, his family had gradually grown the place, from 320 acres to roughly 10,000. After four generations, despite that growth or because of it, the ranch still wasn't paid for, not quite. How can that be? he asked himself, and then answered: "There just ain't that much cash flow."
"You're asset rich," Helen added, "and very, very cash poor."
The assets include not just acreage but also intangibles—such things as liberty, family continuity, texture of daily life, and a sense of the landscape. A nosy visitor might ask these good folks, as I have: "How has your family managed to stick it out? And why?" The first of those questions—the how?—starts a long conversation about weather, hard times, deep values, ingenuity, luck, adaptability, concern for the land, sheer stubbornness, government policies (the hated ones and the depended-upon ones), global markets, and the protein content of wheat. The second question—the why?—is a conundrum to which responses tend to be poetic and terse.
Lloyd Kanning had mentioned tenacity. Bob Toner said, "It's an excellent way to raise kids." Craig French, from another old family, stood at the big windows of the house he has built on a rise 20 miles south of Malta, facing out over undulant prairie toward Beaver Creek. With his spotting scope on a tripod beside him, two pairs of binoculars nearby on end tables, he said: "I like getting up and looking at what I get to look at every morning." He meant the land, the elk, the mule deer, the pronghorn, and the golden eagles, not his own cows.
Karen and Murray Taylor, 20 miles north of Devon, took my two questions deeply to heart. Murray, a lean man in a Glacier Motors cap, touched his wife amiably on the arm as she spoke. Her grandfather, from Norway, had homesteaded here in 1909. Now she and Murray would like to retire. But they have no pension, no "investments" except their sweat equity in the farm. They call it the Circle 7, "because we have five kids, and we were a circle of seven, and we all built this place." They could struggle for the rest of their lives, she said, or sell out and retire in ease. She showed me the album of photos from their harvest last year, a family event with 18 people, sons and daughters-in-law and grandchildren gathered and grinning amid the combines, the lunch wagon, the grain trucks full of golden wheat. "We want to see it succeed as a legacy," Karen said. Any family farmers must feel the same way, she guessed, "or they wouldn't still be here." It's not just something you do, with or without a good reason. It becomes "a part of who you are," she said, then added simply: "Your identity." I thought about that as I drove back to Shelby in the dark and the cold.