Working
Architect's gems renovated for sale
Times of change: UM law school dean announces plans to retire as new building takes shape
By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian
These are busy days for the University of Montana School of Law.
Construction workers are steadily working toward completion of the school's $13 million addition and expansion - which means fall semester law school classes will be farmed out to six different buildings across campus.
Navigating the upheaval began Wednesday, when faculty welcomed UM first-year law students with a convocation ceremony and a talk by Montana Supreme Court Justice Brian Morris.
Flight of the pigeons: Rich Hayes’ Birmingham rollers are best in the world
By VINCE DEVLIN of the Missoulian/Photographed by MICHAEL GALLACHER of the Missoulian
POLSON - If you happen upon a certain flock of birds flying west of Pablo Reservoir around 6:30 in the morning, your first reaction may be, “What in the heck is wrong with them?”
The answer: Nothing.
Sure, they may seem to come to a screeching halt in mid-flight and start doing backward somersaults as they twist toward the earth like a spinning yo-yo, and sure, you won’t catch anything from an eagle to a sea gull doing anything so preposterous.
Old T’s, new skirts - Missoula Saturday Market vendor recycles well-worn shirts
By PAMELA J. PODGER of the Missoulian
Old T-shirts are given a new life as skirts in Carol Lynn Lapotka’s fledgling business.
Recycled materials are in vogue these days in everything from construction materials to carpets to couches – and now clothing.
Lapotka, 31, said she’s been working 70 to 75 hours each week sewing skirts, shopping for materials at Goodwill and other thrift stores and staffing her booth at the Missoula Saturday Market downtown.
Bravely bidding adieu: 4-H, FFA kids auction off livestock they've lovingly raised
Inspector on wheels: Norm Verworn sees his biking habit as the ethical thing to do - plus, it's good training for this triathlet
By KEILA SZPALLER of the Missoulian
Norm Verworn is building up strong legs for himself and a small savings for the Missoula Housing Authority.
Verworn, a housing inspector and triathlete, makes his rounds by bicycle, and has logged more than 1,000 cycling miles since April.
The bike trips have proved practical for Verworn, but they're also an example of how the public housing agency is advancing a green ethic to save money and shrink its carbon footprint.
Bottom-line boost: Oil boom, exports and drought helping Montana hay growers
By PAMELA J. PODGER of the Missoulian
Stopping his tractor to chat, Kale Gardner said his custom-haying operation around Arlee has fared well, given this year's unprecedented hay prices.
He'll start cutting his second harvest of alfalfa-grass hay this week and, even before it's baled, Gardner has it presold at $140 a ton.
Hay prices, which have risen gradually in the past, have soared recently and helped growers' bottom line after years of selling small bales for a few dollars each.
Stimson pledges to find industrial buyer
Stimson pledges to find industrial buyer -
Company says it will clear any environmental waste
By PAMELA J. PODGER
of the Missoulian
A representative of Stimson Lumber Co. sought to reassure the community Monday they would work diligently to find an industrial buyer for the defunct Bonner sawmill.
Stimson also will clean up any environmental issues on the property before a sale, in part to reduce the company’s liability, said Don Moody, vice president of the commercial real estate firm C.B. Richard Ellis in Tacoma, Wash.
Unlikely aroma: Man's business sells dried moose droppings as rustic-smelling incense
Path to enlightenment - Buddhist monk, wife to open Little Zen Museum
By CHELSI MOY / Photographed by ASHLEY McKEE of the Missoulian
VICTOR - In a recently published guide to cultural attractions in western Montana, there’s a small advertisement.
It touts “a simple rustic space to preserve and explore Zen aesthetics as living art.”
The Little Zen Museum in Victor is not actually a museum at all. Not yet, anyway.
But inside the Rev. Genki Takabayashi’s and Leslie Gannon’s blue house with the unassuming exterior are valuables suitable for preservation behind glass cases or locked inside ancient temples.
