Working

A.J. Gibson is likely Missoula's most famous architect, so perhaps it's fitting that some of his buildings are undergoing a renaissance of sorts. As condominiums. “I think that the people who will buy into these sorts of places are people who want some part of preserving a part of the past,” said Realtor Ed Coffman, who is selling condos in one of Gibson's buildings. Gibson, who designed the Missoula County Courthouse, the first five buildings built at the University of Montana and the Daly Mansion in Hamilton, was a prolific architect around the turn of the 20th century.

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.

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.

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.

If sheep could talk, Jack would be speechless. He's a striking and, it turns out, muscular steel-gray wether who just completed a dream week at the Western Montana Fair. “Now I have to let him go,” sighed Tiffany Woldstad, her voice cracking. “It'll be hard. He's my little grand champion boy.” Jack was the top lamb at the fair's 4-H show on Wednesday. On Saturday, he brought top dollar at the 4-H and FFA Livestock Sale among the wool and mutton set - a tidy $6.20 for each of his 151 pounds.

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.

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 -
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.

CONDON - Jerry Black's picky about poo. He's tromping through waist-high grass in a Swan Valley meadow searching for moose poop. But the ungulates are uncooperative on this outing and all he's finding are deer droppings and bear scat. Turns out, dried moose manure smells like willow, red dogwood trees and other woodsy smells.

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.