Fish and Game will accept applications for a 2018 grizzly bear tag starting Friday, and the deadline to apply is July 15. The drawing is limited to Idaho residents with a valid Idaho hunting license.Hunters can apply at any Fish and Game license vendor…
One of the biggest hurdles for people who are trying to store food for emergencies is tackling the questions, “What do I store?” and “How do I know if an expired can is still edible?”
This can be very frustrating. One of the most interesting facts that not many people know is there are items that will never expire and can be used for food. Of course there are extenuating circumstances, but if properly stored, these items will last indefinitely.
• Apple cider vinegar: This has many health benefits, works well with cooking and can last indefinitely as long as it stays sealed.
• Boullion cubes: If kept dry, these cubes will last. Seasoning food in an emergency is tough; these cubes can help with that.
• Corn starch: If corn starch remains dry, it can last indefinitely. However if mites get to it in the box, it can go bad very quickly. It is recommended to reseal in a food-grade plastic. Foodsaver sealers are great.
• Corn syrup: Is a great substitute for sugar. It may crystallize but will still retain its use.
• Ghee: Is an interesting butter substitute that has all moisture taken out. It can last forever.
• Hard liquor: This has numerous uses for disinfecting wounds and taking away pain. It can also be used to bargain with others. It never goes bad.
• Hardtack: This was a popular cracker during the Civil War. It is easy to make with flour and water and can last forever. It will keep you going even if it doesn’t taste great.
• Honey: This can be used to sweeten any dish. It will crystallize over time, but when heated up a little bit and stirred, it will go back to its regular consistency. It is a great thing to have in any kit.
• Maple syrup: Just like corn syrup and honey, it will crystallize but still be useful. Any one of the three would be great in a food storage.
• Salt: Any type of salt whether sea or table salt is extremely useful for food storage. It can cure meats, disinfect wounds and of course season any meal. Regular salt will last indefinitely as long as it doesn’t get wet. Seasoned salt, however, only lasts for one year.
• Sugar: All different types of sugar last indefinitely (again as long as they do not get wet). It will harden over time but can be broken into chunks to use.
• Pure vanilla extract: This will last indefinitely because of the way it is processed. It will not go bad like imitation extract. You can make your own with liquor or buy it from the store. It is a little more expensive, but worth it.
• Rice (except brown): Rice will keep forever if stored properly. Keeping it dry and away from creepy crawlies (preferably a 5-gallon bucket, with a moisture barrier packet) will keep it fresh.
• White vinegar: This is great for deodorizing and cleaning and can be used for cooking. If kept sealed from the elements, it would be a great addition.
• Baking soda: This is an essential item in any bug-out bag. It has so many uses in an emergency (check my next article) and should be stockpiled.
• Dry beans: Any type of dried bean can be stored for decades. It needs to be in a completely dry, airtight bag, in airtight containers, in a cool dark place. Even if they are older in the shelf life, they can still be used if you know how to reconstitute them.
There are a lot of options to add to your food storage and bug-out bag to survive an emergency. These items are relatively inexpensive and when properly cared for, can be used when times are tough. A food storage doesn’t have to be for an emergency. If you lose your job or see reduction in money, you can dip into one’s food storage to ride out the lack. You can have the peace of mind knowing there will always be something for your family to eat.
Emily Thornton is currently working on her masters in communication at Idaho State University. She enjoys writing, racing after her son and playing games with her husband.
Father’s Day is just around the corner and sometimes it can be hard to figure out what to buy your dad. Even though my dad has been dead for quite a few years, I think back to how hard it was to figure out what to buy him. All he’d ever give me for suggestions were leather gloves to work on the farm.
Seems like he didn’t want or need much. Or maybe I just wasn’t creative enough. Or maybe there are just a lot more cool items on the market nowadays for the outdoorsy dad. Either way, I’m going to throw out some suggestions to help you pick your dad some cool gifts this Father’s Day.
Are my motives pure or am I just hoping that my wife and daughters read this article and buy me some of the cool items on this list? I’m going to list out some smaller, cheaper items on up to more expensive ones.
OK, here’s a chance to win the best son/daughter award by buying him one of the following items:
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana.
CASCADE (AP) — Authorities say a North Las Vegas man died during a rafting incident in the central Idaho wilderness.
KTVB-TV reported Tuesday that the Valley County sheriff’s office says 53-year-old David Glenn died Saturday afternoon in an incident on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.
The sheriff’s office says Glenn and his son were in a raft that overturned in rapids. Glenn floated through another rapid before he was pulled out of the water.
An unsuccessful CPR attempt was performed on Glenn.
Authorities say Glenn was wearing a life jacket, but it was loose, causing him to ride low in the water.
The Valley County coroner’s office will determine Glenn’s exact cause of death.
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Information from: KTVB-TV, http://www.ktvb.com/
FARMINGTON — A man died after falling 100 feet in a UTV near the top of Farmington Canyon north of Salt Lake City on Tuesday, officials said.
A 61-year-old West Valley City man fell over an edge on Skyline Drive in the canyon, Davis County sheriff’s detective Ty Berger said. The man later died from his injuries while still on the mountain.
A medical helicopter had been called out to hoist the man’s body out of the canyon, Berger said. The man’s body was about 250 feet off the road, and officials were still working to recover the body as of 10:30 p.m., Berger added.
No alcohol or drug impairment is suspected to be a factor in the crash, he said.
The man was with a group but was the only person in the UTV, Berger said. He did not identify the man. Several of the man’s family members witnessed the accident, Berger said.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A new superintendent was named Wednesday to Yellowstone National Park, one of the crown jewels of the park system, after his predecessor said he was being forced out by the Trump administration following a dispute over bison.
Cameron “Cam” Sholly will replace Dan Wenk, who has been superintendent since 2011, according to the Department of Interior.
Wenk planned to retire next March but was told last week he would be gone by August. He said his ouster followed disagreements with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke over the size of the park’s world-famous bison herds.
Ranchers and state livestock officials in neighboring Montana, where Zinke served as a U.S. representative before he became Interior secretary, have long pushed to reduce the size of the herds because of concerns over the disease brucellosis. About half of Yellowstone’s bison test positive for the disease, which can cause animals to prematurely abort their young.
Park biologists contend the population of more than 4,000 bison is sustainable. But Zinke and his staff have said the number is too high, Wenk said, and have raised concerns that Yellowstone’s scenic Lamar Valley is being damaged by overgrazing.
The Interior Department has not commented on Wenk’s claims.
Sholly served as Midwest regional director for the park service since 2015, where he was involved in reintroducing wolves to Isle Royale National Park, oversaw a $380 million renovation of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and worked to improve relations with American Indian tribes, according to the Interior Department.
Sholly could not be reached immediately for comment. In a statement put out by the Interior Department, he said he was honored to have the chance to work at Yellowstone, established in 1872 as the first national park.
Yellowstone covers 3,400 square miles straddling the borders of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Its erupting geysers, cascading waterfalls and abundant wildlife attract tourists from around the world.
More than 4 million people visited in each of the past three years and last month was the park’s busiest May on record. That’s put an increasing strain on its natural resources and led to frequent conflicts between people and wildlife, including visitors injured by grizzly bears, bison, elk and other animals.
Sholly is a third-generation park service employee and went to high school just north of Yellowstone in Gardiner, Montana, when his father was assigned to Yellowstone, said Alex Picavet, chief of communications for the park service’s Midwest region.
His first job for the park service was in Yellowstone in 1990, as a seasonal worker in the park’s maintenance division, Picavet said. Sholly, an Army veteran who was deployed to the Gulf War, later served as chief of ranger operations for Yosemite National Park and superintendent of Natchez Trace Parkway, a scenic byway that runs through Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama.
Wenk said in a recent interview that Sholly would be a “really good fit for Yellowstone” given his variety of experiences in the park service.
At Yellowstone, he’ll oversee an 800-person staff and an annual budget of more than $60 million.
“The Midwest region is very sad to have him leave,” Picavet said. “He’s a strong leader who has brought amazing change and opportunity to the Midwest region.”
Sholly’s start date is yet to be determined, said Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift.
During the Second Matabele War of 1896-97, a very resourceful British general held the strategic town of Mafeking for 217 days against a much larger force until another army group broke through the Boer lines and relieved him and his men. His name was Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell.
Baden-Powell retired from the army shortly afterward and returned to England as the greatest hero of the Boer War. He decided to make use of his fame by helping British boys become better men.
He slowly developed his ideas and in 1907 he held the first Boy Scout camp on the British island of Brownsea to test his ideas. Out of this test came a book called “Scouting for Boys.”
One of his early teachings was for every scout to do a good turn daily by helping someone else.
One day in 1909, an American, William D. Boyce, was in England looking for an address. Out of the fog, a boy approached him and asked if he could help. Boyce replied, “You sure can, I’m looking for this address.”
The boy looked at the address and said, “I’ll take you there.” When they got to the destination, Boyce reached into his pocket to pay the boy for his service, but the boy refused.
“No thank you sir. I am a Boy Scout. I can’t take anything for helping.”
“A Scout? And what might that be?” Boyce asked. So the boy told Boyce about himself and his brother Scouts. Boyce became very interested. After finishing his errand, he had the boy take him to the British Scout Office.
At the office, Boyce met Baden-Powell, the famous British general who had founded the Scouting movement. Boyce was so impressed with what he learned that he decided to bring Scouting home with him.
On Feb. 8, 1910, in Washington, D.C., Boyce along with other outstanding men founded the Boy Scouts of America. From that time on, Feb. 8 has been known as the birthday of Scouting in the United States.
No one knows the identity of the boy who so impressed William D. Boyce. He was never heard from again. He simply did his good turn and went home, but that good turn to Boyce became a good turn to millions of American boys. One can never imagine the power of one good turn to another.
I became a Cub Scout in the 1950s and a Boy Scout in 1957. My leaders tried hard to engrain the Scout Oath and Scout Law into me as I progressed through the program. I think my biggest mistake was to be so focused on showing and training horses for my father’s Arabian horse ranch that I didn’t ever get my Eagle Scout rank.
However, that lesson wasn’t lost on me when my son became a Cub Scout and progressed through the Scouting program. I encouraged him to not let anything stop him from getting his Order of the Arrow and finally becoming an Eagle Scout.
The principles and skills learned in the Scouting program set the way both my son and I have responded to challenges as adults. The confidence to do whatever needs to be done and to be of service to others has become an important part of our lives.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started sponsoring Boy Scout Troops in 1913 and held a celebration commemorating 100 years of partnership with the Boy Scouts of America in 2013.
For a little more than 100 years, the Boy Scouts of America has been a critical part of our young men’s program, and our church is currently the largest sponsor of Boy Scout Troops in America. That relationship and partnership with the Boy Scouts of America will end in 2020.
It is tough to dissolve our relationship with the BSA, but the church has more members in countries outside of the United States than it does in the U.S. Our leaders have been working for several years to design a youth program that is consistent globally, and that youth program will be implemented in 2020.
Personally, I understand the need to redesign our youth program to better serve a globally expanding membership. I know that the loss of almost 20 percent of the BSA’s scout troops will hurt the program initially, but I wish the Boy Scouts of America well.
I also hope that the new youth program to be implemented in 2020 by our church will incorporate those important aspects of the BSA that we have been using for 100 years. It was an outstanding and mutually beneficial partnership.
Smokey Merkley was raised in Idaho and has been hunting since he was 10 years old. He was a member of the faculty of Texas A&M University for 25 years. There he taught orienteering, marksmanship, self-defense, fencing, scuba diving and boxing. He was among the first DPS-certified Texas Concealed Handgun Instructors. He can be contacted at mokeydo41245@hotmail.com.
BILLINGS, Montana (AP) — Yellowstone National Park administrators are telling visitors to honk their horn and drive away if a bear approaches and touches their vehicle after two cases of bears approaching cars.
Park spokeswoman Morgan Warthin said Tuesday that a grizzly bear near Yellowstone Lake came up to a car and started playing with its antenna in late May.
Also in May, Warthin says, a black bear previously fed by people in the Mammoth Hot Springs area approached a vehicle, put its paws on a door and looked into the vehicle’s windows.
Bears that get accustomed to people and view humans as a food source can become a public safety threat and are sometimes killed as a precaution.
Warthin says honking a car horn helps discourage such behavior.
At the ninth annual Pocatello Pedal Fest, which was held Saturday at City Creek, Bart and George Flynn saw yet another victory.
The twins from Jackson, Wyoming, have raced in five Pedal Fests and have almost always both placed within the top five. This year, Bart came in first overall with a time of 2:15:38 and earned a $500 cash prize. George came in third with a time of 2:19:10.
The two brothers don’t compete in many races, as they are kept busy managing the Fitzgerald’s Bicycles store in Jackson. However, they said they always try to make it to Pedal Fest.
“It’s been a priority for a few reasons,” Bart said, “one of them being the sick party afterward.”
After Pedal Fest, racers are treated to a free dinner, free beer and a raffle.
“There’s a lot of races where the race is over, and everyone just peaces out,” George said. “This has a good gathering afterward.”
The brothers said they also appreciate the people and the atmosphere surrounding the race.
“The people here are really nice,” Bart said. “It’s different than Jackson. Jackson people can be a little stuffy.”
“People aren’t taking themselves that seriously,” George added.
Additionally, the Flynns said they enjoyed the course, and while Pedal Fest is the only Idaho race they consistently participate in, they often make the trip to Pocatello to ride the trails, particularly in the spring.
“It’s a true mountain bike course,” Bart said.
All the proceeds from Pedal Fest go toward the Pocatello trail system. According the race’s website, their mission is to “provide resources (money and labor) to help promote, maintain, and improve all trails in the greater Pocatello area,” and their vision is for “all community members to have ample opportunity to participate in a healthy, vibrant, and sustainable outdoor recreational lifestyle through the use of a safe and well-maintained Pocatello trail system.”
In the past, proceeds from the race have gone toward purchasing new signs for the trails and a bike bridge for the Portneuf Health Complex bike park.
Amber Tingey, who was the first overall female finisher with a time of 3:00:52, also took home $500, said she too enjoys Pedal Fest because of the course.
“I love the trails here, and it’s fun every year,” she said. “It’s just fun.”
Tingey said she has been mountain biking since she moved to Pocatello 11 years ago but has only been racing for five years.
“I’m a competitive person, so I figured I had put in all this time biking, I might as well see how I do,” Tingey said. “And I love this race, and I love the trails here, so I’ll keep doing it as long as they have it.”
According to Corey Wight, a communications director for the race, there were about 120 participants this year, including around 40 competitors from out of state and around 60 competitors from Pocatello.
The race features an Open Pro class that is 27 miles, an Expert class that is 27 miles, a Sport class that is 17 miles, a Beginner class that is 12 miles and a Junior class that is 3 miles. The top three male and female finishers in the open class received cash prizes, and the male and female finishers within each age group received medals.
Calvin Kunz, 77, of Preston, died Saturday afternoon while hiking in the Franklin Basin area. He was attempting to cross a river when he fell and struck his head, said Cache County sheriff’s Lt. Mikelshan Bartschi
Kunz was hiking with family from Tony’s Grove to Franklin Basin. Known in his neighborhood for keeping the roadside clean of trash, Kunz did the same as he hiked and had collected some garbage that had been left behind by other hikers.
Witnesses told deputies that Kunz attempted to pass some of the garbage to another person while crossing a river. In doing so, he lost his balance, fell back and struck his head. The impact knocked him unconscious.
Kunz was retrieved from the river and CPR started when an off-duty Roy police officer and his wife, who also had emergency medical training, came by and attempted to revive Kunz.
A local physician also arrived on the scene after the incident and used his satellite phone to call 911 at 4 p.m., said Bartschi. Despite their efforts, Kunz never regained consciousness.
Bartschi said the sheriff’s office wished to share their condolences with the family and all those involved in the accident.