Nina Hance, II
Awe, Nice!
Welcome to Awe Nice, where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. This week, we return to a conversation with Nina Hance, the backcountry guide from Montana. Nina and her husband have had several encounters with grizzlies. Once they were mountain biking and were bluff-charged. She estimates the sow, who had cubs with her, was 500 pounds or so. While the incident was short, it had a lasting impact on her psyche, including regular nightmares. Another time, she and Alex were hunting and were chased off while field dressing a deer. Because of these events and others, she tends...
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Nina Hance, I
Awe, Nice!
Welcome to Awe Nice, where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. This week, I talked with Nina Hance. Nina is a backcountry guide certified by the American Mountain Guides Association. In the winter, she works for Beartooth Powder Guides as a lead guide. Nina shared two events. Her first moment was during a guiding trip outside of Cook City. Cook City (population about 70) is near the entrance to Yellowstone National Park and not far from the Wyoming border. She takes us to Woody Creek Cabin, a 20 x 24 foot, single room cabin which served as the group’s base camp. ...
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Jon Tanguay, II
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We’re featuring another moment with Maine lobsterman Jon Tanguay. It occurred around this time of year, early winter-late fall, when his traps were all dozens of miles offshore, taking several hours to get to them and to get back home. Some shorthand for a few things he mentions: At the time of this event, the strings laid down between two buoys consisted of 20 traps. Four strings would be 80 traps and it would take about an hour and 20 minutes to get through those 80 traps. Also, when he mentions hauling out, that is to say to bring his boat out of the water for maintenance. ...
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Jon Tanguay, I
Awe, Nice!
This week, I interviewed Jon Tanguay, for another segment from my native state. Jon lives in Harpswell, Maine. He’s been lobstering his whole life, since he was going out with his uncle at age three. He said his parents told him his first word as a baby was “boat.” He was lobstering on his own by age nine. Many lobstermen pick up their traps in the winter, but Jon has been lobstering year-round since about 1998. In colder months, lobster move off shore and lobstering becomes tougher, more expensive, more dangerous. Regarding terminology, steaming is when you’re headed to your...
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Terence Kenney
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This week, I interviewed Terence Kenney. Terence has lived his life in Harpswell, Maine, and is the third of what I hope will be regular interviewees from my home state. This is the first segment talking with someone who works on the water. Terence recounts a rough scalloping trip to Gouldsboro, up the coast from Harpswell by about 150 miles if you’re driving. It’s theoretically less if you’re traveling by boat, but remember, there are 4,600 islands off the coast of Maine. If you’re captaining a 40-foot boat, in a big storm, in the dark, that number can be pretty daunting. ...
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Mini-Awe-Polis 5
Awe, Nice!
It’s time for another Mini-Awe-Polis, a collection of observations, like hay in my jacket pockets. Lately, after more than two dozen successfully recorded moments for Awe, Nice! I have been having some short and stilted conversations with people who work outside, who spend their lives outside. These are folks who have done incredible feats, witnessed cool weather events, been part of amazing wildlife encounters. Yet, they struggle to identify and articulate a specific moment of wonder. I get it. As a young adult, I remember thinking Maine was pretty ho-hum. Nice ocean. Nice...
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Matt Barnes, II
Awe, Nice!
This week, we return to a conversation I had with Matt Barnes. Matt lives here in southwest Colorado. He’s been a rangeland scientist for years and has also worked as a ranch manager. In fact, this moment that we recorded is from a time several years ago when he was up in the mountains, working with cattle. Between a close encounter with a grizzly bear (which we hear about a few segments ago) and this one, I can say, “Matt, I’m glad you’re still here, man!” Matt told me he got Lichtenberg figures on his thigh from the lightning strike – these are weird, feathering or...
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Vicki Taussig
Awe, Nice!
This week, I interviewed Vicki Taussig. Vicki lives in Kremmling, Colorado. She narrated which is a short documentary directed by Beau Gaughran. I served as writer and a producer. We just learned it will be part of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour next year, which is pretty exciting. Vicki ranches with her daughter, , who was my first interviewee for Awe Nice. Here, Vicki shares a moment with her draft horse team of Push and Pull, two big beautiful Percherons. The pair spent their whole lives together and helped the Taussigs haul hay out to their livestock every...
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Matt Barnes
Awe, Nice!
Welcome to Awe Nice, that’s a-w-e-n-i-c-e, where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. This week, I interviewed . Like me, Matt lives here in southwestern Colorado. He’s been a rangeland scientist for years and has also worked as a ranch manager. His focus, as he mentions briefly and as has been shaped by his observations and experiences, has been hewn to how can we all get along on this planet. Specifically, how can us humans, especially those working the land, coexist with wildlife and choose practices that benefit not just us as well as domestic animals, but the land...
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Forrest Van Tuyl on Rock Jacks
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This week is a bit of a one-off as I’m sharing a few minutes with again. Forrest wrote the song Rock Jack and he sent the instrumental version to me for the intro and outro. In this segment, he talks about that song and the old-time and time-tested ranch structure that inspired it. Here is an excerpt of lyrics from the song: Fall settles in and the good work begins The gather the harvest the gleaning The day is shortening but the moon illumines the empty allotment you’re leaving Rimrock and red ponderosas live til you learn what you’re ‘sposed to Eat while there’s grass...
info_outlineThis week, I interviewed Sisto Hernandez. Sisto lives in Arizona and I met him at a training for range riders. Range riding is a successful strategy for deterring wolves from predating on cattle and Sisto was teaching, sharing his insights from work with the reintroduced Mexican wolves.
A few notes on some things Sisto mentions:
- Traps aren’t metal contraptions, they’re fenced off areas of between five to twenty acres, built for holding cattle.
- Tapaderos are leather fittings, sometimes rawhide, over stirrups that keep anything from getting wedged in your stirrup. That's a scenario which can be pretty dangerous for you and your horse.
- The Mogollon Rim forms the southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau and features big sandstone and limestone cliffs. As you might imagine, it is a significant natural boundary for flora and fauna.
- The Rodeo-Chediski Fire burned nearly a half million acres in 2002. At the time, it was the biggest fire in Arizona history.
That country that I've seen on or abutting the Grasshopper Livestock Association acreage (which itself covers nearly 200 square miles) is everything he describes. Beautiful and sometimes treacherous. Hopefully you can check it out. At least by taking a drive down Highway 77, which runs through reservations, National Forest, and Salt River Canyon.
I did a little research and learned that aside from his work on the land, Sisto was an accomplished saddle bronc rider, competing for years at the national level. Brain and brawn.
AweNice welcomes interviewees. If you have a moment you experienced while working outside and would like to share it, contact us here.
Our music is by my friend, Forrest Van Tuyl.
If you’d like to donate, find the link here and thank you.
Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open. Until next time.