Awe, Nice!

Welcome to Awe, Nice! , where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. We're on the radio and we're also on podcast platforms. And you can check us out at awenice.com.  This week, I talked with Alex Marienthal from Montana. After high school, Alex left Boulder, Colorado, for Montana State University where he studied snow science as an undergraduate and then as a graduate student. Bef...

Welcome to Awe, Nice! , where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. We're on the radio and we're also on podcast platforms. And you can check us out here .  This week, I interviewed Kyler Brown. Apart from the stink, or, maybe because of the stink, that was a fantastic encounter! I asked Kyler how he first learned to ride. He said his rabbi, back in Missouri, first taught him. Who...

  Welcome to Awe, Nice! , where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. We're on the radio and we're also on podcast platforms. And you can check us out at here . In this segment, we return to visit with Alex Marienthal, who works in Montana as an avalanche forecaster. Here, Alex shares a near-miss moment. It happened during an intense and extended winter storm which brought more th...

Welcome to Awe, Nice!, where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. We're on the radio and we're also on podcast platforms. And you can check us out here .  My name is Maddy Butcher, I'm the creator and producer of Awe, Nice! and we are entering our second season of this novel radio segment. Lined up, I have interviews with ranchers, an avalanche researcher, a farmer, a working cow...

Welcome to Awe Nice , where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. We're on the radio and we're also on podcast platforms. And you can check us out here.   This week I visited with Allana Salmon from Ohio. Allana teaches horsemanship and rock climbing, but it was on a trek with friends toward a climb called Listerine Girl, in the Red River Gorge, when she experienced what she wante...

Welcome to Awe Nice , where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. We're on the radio and we're also on podcast platforms.  This week we wrap up our short visit with rancher Joe Morris from California. Joe thinks deeply about his work, literally and figuratively. While many of us are looking at what's in front of us, Joe has learned to see beyond.  Awe, Nice! welcomes interviewees....

Welcome to Awe Nice , where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. This week, I visited with Cooper Hibbard from Montana. Cooper runs the Sieben Livestock Company, which is part of the Old Salt Co-op in Helena, Montana. The Co-op, with has beef, lamb, and other offerings from five central Montana ranches, is committed to transforming the status quo of beef production to a more rege...

 Welcome to Awe Nice , where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. We're on the radio and we're also on podcast platforms. And you can check us out at awenice.com.  This week we have another visit with Joe Morris from California. Joe runs Morris Grassfed Beef and is an award-winning leader of environmental stewardship and regenerative ag. This second moment involves the cattle.  T...

  Welcome to A we Nice !, where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. We're on the radio and we're also on podcast platforms.  This week, I visited again with Carol Von Michaelis from Arvada, Colorado. Carol runs The Community Farm which seeks to bridge the gap between agriculture, the outdoors, and urban residents. Lots of people visit and when they do, they are likely greeted by...

Welcome to  Awe Nice , where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. We're on the radio and we're also on podcast platforms.  This week I interviewed Joe Morris from California. Joe is a horseman raised in the vaquero tradition and part of an accomplished, multi-generational line of ranching in his family. He learned holistic management practices from Allan Savory , who many say pio...

  Welcome to Awe Nice , where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. We're on the radio and we're also on podcast platforms. And you can check us out at awenice.com.  This week I interviewed Erin Nissen from Mosca, Colorado. Erin farms in the San Luis Valley which is known many things, but in our case, potatoes. Idaho may lead the nation in production, but the Valley still contribu...

  Welcome to Awe Nice , where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. We're on the radio and we're also on podcast platforms. And you can check us out at awenice.com. That's a-w-e-n-i-c-e This week, I visited with Carol Von Michaelis mc haylis from Arvada. Carol grew up around Golden and it was there as a high school student that she volunteered for the local ambulance. That work ev...

  Welcome to Awe, Nice! where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. My name is Maddy Butcher and this week we are giving another nod to the 2026 Lunar New Year, the Year of the Horse. I interviewed Robert Eversole, also known as the TrailMeister for his expansive horse camping and trail riding website and for his many clinics he holds on traveling safely with equines. Robert and h...

  Welcome to Awe, Nice! where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. My name is Maddy Butcher and this week we are giving a nod to the 2026 Lunar New Year. It's the Year of the Horse. Jeremie Forman returns with a story that's fitting to the celebration. Aside from his work in law enforcement and his running a horse facility, Jeremie is mayor of the small town of Francis, Utah. Pop...

  Welcome to Awe, Nice! where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. My name is Maddy Butcher and we are fast approaching our first year anniversary of being on the air. I want to thank KSJD for taking a chance with me as well as Kershaw knives and Redmond Salt for extending some help with sponsorship.   This week, we return to a recollection with Jeremie Forman of Utah. Aside from...

  Welcome to Awe, Nice! where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. This is our 40 th segment since this little project started last year. This week, I talked with Jeremie Forman of Francis, Utah. Francis, population around 1,800, is 50 miles east of Salt Lake City and sits near the foot of the Uinta Mountains. The Uintas are unusual because they run east-west while most mountain...

Welcome to A we Nice ! , where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors.  My name is Maddy Butcher, I'm the creator and producer of awenice and it's time for another segment that I call, Mini-Awe-Polis , a collection of observations, like hay in my jacket pockets.  If you've been listening to lately, you know that we have dedicated several segments to wildland fire fighting, specifica...

  Welcome to Awe, Nice! where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. This week, I'm airing another moment recounted by Steve Nicholson, a division supervisor on the Stoner Mesa fire, here in southwestern Colorado. Steve was able to get away from fire work for a while and was spending time back home in Montana. It was a hot fall, with temperatures approaching 90, and the woods, he s...

  Welcome to Awe, Nice! where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. This week, we have another interview with a wildland fire fighter. I met Jamie Carpenter on the Stoner Mesa fire this summer. Jamie was on the Cal-Wood fire five years ago, during another history-making fire season, this time complicated by the pandemic. Ten million acres burned across the western US. Thousands of...

Welcome to Awe, Nice! where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. This week, we return to a moment recalled by Doug Falconi. It's part of a bigger focus on recollections from wildland fire fighters. In the first segment, Doug describes a moment as part of the Bitterroot Hotshot crew, on the Ash Creek Fire in 2012. On the day they arrived, it literally blew up. Each day, he said, i...

  Welcome to Awe, Nice! where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. I've been turning my attention to wildland firefighters, several of whom I met this summer on the Stoner Mesa fire, which burned over 10,000 acres north of Dolores. I work as a hand up there on a grazing allotment. One of the people I met was Steve Nicholson. Here, Steve shares an anecdote from the 2012 fire seaso...

Welcome to Awe, Nice! where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. Sometimes I think I should call this show, Oh, No! For many, the moments they recall have excitement and wonder, but also scary predicaments. Over the next few weeks, I'm turning attention to wildland firefighters. This is partly because they deserve attention and partly because I met several this summer on the Ston...

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...

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...

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 trap...