Glogster - A Story In Pictures, Slice #8 of 31

http://librarydragon7.edu.glogster.com/ruth-ferris-page


This is the page I made for an online class I am taking.  Glogster lets you make links.  It took me a while to figure it out.  I watched a YouTube tutorial and went on-line to read some tutorials.  I would recommend making some examples before having your kids use it for a project.

http://glogsterblog.blogspot.com/  Tutorial

http://www.glogster.com/       Glogster.com


I can think of many different classroom applications.  Writing - biographies - Geography - Social Studies.  School Orientation.

Molt - Breakfast at the Prairie Winds, Slice 7 of 31

Saturday morning we drove 20 miles to have breakfast at the Prairie Winds Cafe.  It opens at 7:00 am.  We arrived at 9:15 to standing room only.   The cafe seats 56 which according to Parade Magazine is 4 times the town's population.  There are only 5 houses in the town proper.

The Pairie Winds Cafe is in the old Mercantile building which at one time had also been the post office.  The current post office is next door.  Molt sits on the prairie and has more antelope than people.

The old Mercantile shelves are lined with antiques.  From my chair I saw an old Cracker Jack tin and an extra large tin that once contained Baking Powder.  An assortment of milk glass and carnival glass graced other shelves.

According to their guest book people come from miles around, every state, and 42 foreign countries to have breakfast Saturday mornings.  So what draws the crowd?  It's the live music that plays from 9:00 - 12:00.  They call it Bluegrass Saturday Breakfast.  Each weekend is a different band.  They play for tips and the owners feed them breakfast and lunch.

Next time we'll be there early.

Thunder Snow - Slice 6 of 31

Sammi quickly came to me - scared and shaking.  She is terrified of thunder.  I got her to go under the table where I had been sewing.  If I can plan at least a couple hours ahead of time I can give her some anxiety pills.  But she always wakes up looking like she is recovering from a big hangover.  Sunday I was not expecting to hear thunder.


Have you ever heard thunder during a snow storm?  Sunday the wind had been blowing.  It sounded like someone throwing pebbles on the sidewalk and roof.  As I looked out our door it looked like hail or at the least chunks of frozen sleets bouncing on the ground.  It was then that I heard the first  clap of thunder.    The claps were loud and startling.

My sister-in-law called to see if our power was out.  We still had power but the power was out at their house.  The news reported about 4000 people had no power (between both electric companies).  Monday the computers at school were acting out evidently after effects of the storm and our server.

I didn't see any lightning myself.  When I searched YouTube there were clips from a Thundersnow storm in Baltimore complete with lightning.  A friend explained that Sunday it was about 45 degrees just below the clouds the precipitation started out as rain about 100 feet above the ground it hit air so cold that it turned to snow and ice.

A friend of mine videoed the storm.  I hope she puts it on YouTube.

The Car was Coming Up Behind Me, Slice 5 of 31

The air was crisp and I could feel the air cooling.  Our usually blue sky was grey and getting darker.  I watched the car approach in my rear view mirror. My Prius's back window gave me a great view.   I watched the brown 4 door sedan behind me.  I don't know the make and model,  It did have a sun roof though.

I could see two people in the front seat.  And I could see him in the middle of the back seat, head sticking out the sun roof.  Front feet on the console between the seats, bottom on the back seat.

The head is what caught my attention.  He looked like a tank driver with his head sticking out the opening.  He moved his head watching the surroundings.  As the car came up behind me I got a better look.  He was mostly brown, a little white on his chest and toes.  He would tilt his head and put his nose higher in the air.  As I watched I wondered if his parentage was mixed or if he was a full blood.

As the car passed he appeared to be savoring the wind as his head continued to stick out the sun roof.  He looked like a happy hound.  He looked like a very loved Great Dane.  

White Sulphur Springs, Slice 4 of 31

White Sulphur Springs Post Office

Where is White Sulphur Springs?  Its on Highway 12 and Highway 89.    It is the county seat of Meagher county.  You can see the Big Belt Mountains from main street.  According to 2010 census there are 939 people who live there.

According MT Place Names From Alzada to Zortman
"White Sulphur Springs
White Sulphur Springs was originally called Brewers Springs, after James Scott Brewer, who laid claim to the thermal springs in 1866. In 1876, postmaster Henry Brainerd requested that postal officials change the name to White Sulphur Springs, for the white deposits found around the springs. Brewer sold the springs in 1877 to Dr. William Parberry, who laid out the townsite a year later, and in 1880 White Sulphur Springs won the Meagher County seat from Diamond City. Mining boomed in the nearby Castle Mountains during the 1880s, but tapered off in the 1890s, when the timber industry began to develop. According to Mountains of Gold, Hills of Grass, 3,000 residents lived in White Sulphur Springs during the peak of the timber industry."


It is also home to some folks you may have heard of: Ivan Doig the writer was born here.  He wrote "This House of Sky". Dirk Benedict, actor - is from here.  Emmanuel Taylor Gordon, singer associated with the Harlem Renaissance - He was born and raised in White Sulphur Springs.  As a youth he moved away but returned in 1959 and remained until his death in 1971. http://www.greatfallstribune.com/multimedia/125newsmakers1/gordon.html

White Sulphur Springs influenced another great writer - F Scott Fitzgerald http://www.wildriverreview.com/node/262 .  He spent a summer in the White Sulphur Springs area.  He came to visit the Castle Mountain Livestock Company that was owned by his college chum - Charles Donahoe's family.  This Donahoe Manor at White Sulphur Springs, MT. His masterpiece the "Great Gatsby" was influenced by his stay in Montana.

White Sulphur Springs is also the home to Susan (the lady who gave us directions and had the barn with writing on the roof).  Susan is the local rural mail carrier - she travels a 126 mile circuit each day delivering mail.  That doesn't count the miles to and from their ranch. 

The roof on Susan's barn intrigues me.  I want to learn more about her barn and the early barnstormers.

A Boys Observation - Slice 3 of 31

Friday the Orchestra Honor Students (6th-12th) were touring the elementary schools.  The music was picked to spotlight individual instruments.  It was meant to entice young want-to-be musicians to join Orchestra and learn the foundations.  The kids did a marvelous job.

When we returned to the library I had my 3/4 combination write about their favorite instrument.  One of my favorite responses was from a young boy.

"My favorite was the Bass.  I liked the low sounds it made when they wiped the stick across it.  You could feel the low sounds vibrate through the floor."

This description made me stop and think.  He saw the bow move across the instrument, he heard the music and felt the vibrations.  How is this a great analogy to writing?  In the music they are unaware of the hours of practice.  The amount of effort that goes into correct fingering.  They hear the music after hours of work and practice.  It looks effortless - so they become frustrated when their first attempts are not at the master level.

I watch my young authors as they slap down a few sentences and then turn to me and say I'm done.   I struggle to find new ways to teach them the importance of revising their work.  As I reflected on the short description of a young boy's observation.  I realized why we need to model our efforts.  They need to see our struggles.  They need to see that our writing does not magically materialize from a single attempt.

They need to see us write.

Barnstormers & Mountain Roads

My hubby hasn't met a back road he didn't love.  He loves the twist,  dirt roads with hairpin curves.  You know - the ones that lead to the middle of the "Great Unknown".   The ones that are narrow and climb to the top of the world.  Me not so much.

We compromise.  Good truck, lots of prayers and closed eyes when warranted.

Sunday we left for Helena, MT to the 7th Annual Indian Education for All Best Practices Conference.    Dear Hubby had been looking at the Delorme Atlas & Gazetteer for Montana.  It has detailed topographic maps.  It even advertises maps of "Back Roads".  It is a vintage 2011 edition. 

He had been talking about taking the back way to White Sulfur, from there he planned to take a back road to Canyon Ferry Lake and then to Helena, MT.   There was a small hitch in his plan - he forgot his map.

As we left White Sulfur, we discussed the next leg of our journey.  He was all for going forward.  We came to a fork in the road the one with a sign said Townsend.  I brought that to his attention - he said he didn't want to go that way.  

Shortly a little Prius could be seen on this dirt road.  Dear Hubby asked the two teenage males about the road ahead.  The young driver timidly stated he "sorta knew the road".  As I heard this disclaimer - I thought to myself - this is not a reliable source for directions.  But - we go forward, following the youth’s assurance that this WAS the road.

As we traveled on I am silently thinking we should just turn around and use one of those modern two-lane highfalutin paved roads, to get to our destination.  Our discussion continues as proof that the land is inhabited comes into view.  I suggest we stop and ask directions.

Dear Hubby, “I’m not lost.”

“Honey, why don’t we stop and we can ask which is the way to Canyon Ferry.  They will probably tell you that you’re right.  And you will prove that I was wrong.”

As we get closer there is a building – on the roof is faded yellow paint with a big arrow.  Helena is painted inside the arrow.  Beside the arrow are coordinates.

Me, “We’re going in the wrong direction!”

DH, “What makes you say that?”

Me, “The roof – it says Helena that way.”

DH, “Why is it on the roof?”

Me, “Looks like its for a plane.  The writing is very large so they can see it from the sky."

I should have taken pictures of the roof then.  The light was just right.  But I didn’t, I waited.

We turned in at the driveway and drove up to the house.  As I got out,  the front door opened and a worried lady asks, “Are the twins ok?”

I was a bit perplexed and unsure what she was referring to when she continued, “Our cow had twins this morning, and they are down by the barn.  We saw you slow down as you looked in the corral.  Are the twins ok?”

Comprehension telegraphed, “Cows – twins – ranch- livelihood.”

“I didn’t notice the twins, we were looking at the roof.”

She laughed, “That was from the barnstorming days.  I need to contact the Historical Society to see if there are grants to help preserve it.  I don’t know who to call though.”

In my mind I thought "Got that one covered.  Out loud I stated “I can help with that.” 

I gave her a name and number, exchanged email addresses and told her I would find out.  I figured she must have been thinking hard about this problem.  You see it has been my good fortune to work as a freelance writer for one of their departments for the last couple of years.  I am always amazed with synchronicity.   

We go inside, she asks me if we were going ice fishing because they have a pond and we wouldn’t have to go all the way to Canyon Ferry.

I explained that we were on the way to a conference where I would be presenting.  She secured a topographic map and started to explain about the roads.  I heard “Confederate Gulch” and knew this was not a road I was going to like.  I asked her to explain the roads to my husband.  So outside we went. 

Susan explained that the roads aren’t maintained in winter and they go over the mountain but with 4-Wheel drive and chains we might be able to make it.  She encouraged us to come back this summer when the roads would be passable.

Dear Hubby is salivating at the thought of going over those mountains on twisty, hairpin - dirt roads.  

I guess I’ll buy him a new map.