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 si...

 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 tr...

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 wild...

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 week, I interviewed Vicki Taussig. Vicki lives in Kremmling, Colorado. She narrated  A Brutal, Beautiful Life, 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, Caitlyn , who was my first interviewee for...

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 Matt Barnes . 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 al...

This week is a bit of a one-off as I'm sharing a few minutes with Forrest Van Tuyl 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...

This week, I interviewed Bob Bragg, of Cortez, Colorado. Bob grew up in the Midwest, went into the Army, went to college, rodeo'd, riding saddle broncs and backback. Ultimately, he settled in southwestern Colorado where he's been teaching in ag-related fields for decades. The man is 80 and as spry as a 40-year old.  Here, he shares an encounter from back a few decades ago that I think helped confi...

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. My name is Maddy Butcher. I live in southwestern Colorado and I've been a journalist for 40 years.  Thus far, w e've focused entirely on interviews with people working on the land, but soon we'll have segments from folks who work on the water. Fresh water, salt...

Welcome to Awe Nice, where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. This week, I interviewed Forrest Van Tuyl. Sound familiar? Forrest wrote Rockjack and he sent the instrumental version to me for the intro and outro. In a forthcoming segment, he's going to talk about that song and the ranch structure that inspired it. For this segment, he shared a moment when he was working in way e...

My name is Maddy Butcher. I live in southwestern Colorado and I've worked as a journalist for several decades.    I like to spend time outside and, thankfully, I have spent many years working outside, not just playing outside. I think it's important to distinguish between the two. In my experience, people's perspectives, experiences, and philosophies towards the outdoors is different depending on...

This week, I interviewed Rae Nickerson. Rae lives is persuing a PhD at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, but travels widely in the west. She studies large carnivores and specifically works on conflict reduction between wolves, grizzlies, and livestock.  Rae has had several encounters with bears, some scary, some hilarious, like when a bear was trying to get apples out of the back of her truck...

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 Beau Gaughran of Berwick, Maine. Beau directed A Brutal, Beautiful Life , a short documentary about ranching for which I served as writer and producer. It's done well at film festivals and is now online.  Almost all of Beau's work is outside, often in the backcountry. I'...

This week, I interviewed Kim Kerns. Kim is a fourth generation rancher in eastern Oregon. The country is remote. No Man's Land. Services are distant, which is why her family and their neighbors banded together to organize a rural fire fighting entity, which you'll hear about. I met Kim several months ago and we talked about dogs, mostly. Kim and her family have about a thousand sheep and hundreds...

This 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 betwe...

This week, I interviewed Sara Lowe. Sara lives in central Wyoming where she's a livestock investigator and a detective for Fremont County. Fremont is about 9,200 square miles, about the size of Vermont and has about 40,000 residents.  At a mental health forum last year, I got to hear Sara and a few other officers talk about the on-the-job stresses that bleed into their off hours. Sara's moment of...

This week, I interviewed Summer Peterson. Summer lives in Colorado now, but up to recently she's been in central Utah as a farmer, a horse vet, and a competitive rider.  By competitive, I mean, really accomplished. She was for years a semi-professional three-day eventer. Three-day eventing is dressage, cross country, and showjumping. The sport was originally conceived as a test for cavalry horses...

  We all are capable of experiencing moments of wonder. They are not reserved solely for creative or religious people. Moments of awe cross the political spectrum. They cross the livelihood spectrum. Awe is a positive force that can be felt by everyone.  Nonetheless, I carry a fair amount of skepticism around with me. It's a journalistic thing. Like. I tend to think moments of awe actually happen...

  I developed AweNice with the notion that we all are capable of experiencing moments of wonder. They are not reserved solely for creative or religious people. Moments of awe cross the political spectrum. They cross the livelihood spectrum. Awe is a positive force that can be felt by everyone. This project specifically seeks out interviews with those who work outside and work with animals, people...

This week, I interviewed Andrew Clements, of Cortez, Colorado. Drew works for the state, but the program also does work for the US Forest Service in Wyoming, New Mexico, and Utah. Here, he shares an encounter with a grizzly bear in the Yellowstone National Park, while he was part of a team collecting forest health data near the confluence of the Thorofare and Yellowstone Rivers.  Drew told me that...

Scotty Calhoun is a fourth generation horticulturalist, raised in Rochester, New York, now living in Cortez, Colorado. He talked with me about the knowledge he's gained from his forefathers. His great grandfather came over from Holland with seeds in his pockets. That man, then his son (Scott's grandfather), and Scott's father and, of course, Scott himself, all worked the farm in upstate New York....

  I interviewed Ben Longwell of Pendleton, Oregon. Ben grew up in Colorado, but has cowboyed all around the western US. For many years, he worked in New Zealand, where his wife, Natalie, was born and raised.  Here, Ben shares a moment way up in the Big Horn mountains of northern Wyoming and southern Montana. The Big Horns are remote and wondrous, but also daunting, with their own weather and terra...

Aidan Gaughran lives right here in Montezuma County, but for five years he worked in Panama. First, he was in the Peace Corps, then he returned to manage an eco-lodge. As a PCV, Aidan worked in the community environmental conservation sector on the Azuero Penisula and helped bring sustainable cook stoves to his community. He also helped develop a fruit orchard.  While his moment of awe stemmed fro...

This week, I interviewed Mike Ewing. While Mike doesn't work outside all the time, he's committed thousands of hours to service work on the Appalachian Trail, that's the legendary 2200-mile route that runs through 14 states, from Georgia and Maine. About 300 of those trail miles are in Maine.  I'm from Maine and, as a kid, I spent lots of time camping and hiking. The 8-, 10-, 12-year old me though...

Nina Fuller lives in my native state of Maine where she raises a small flock of sheep on her farm in Hollis. I grew up in Harpswell which is about 60 miles up the coast. In fact, she mentions Harpswell in this segment. Nina also is an accomplished photographer. Check out her brilliant work  here . Nina's is a true explorer and lifeling learner. Who gets into sheep farming in her 60's? Nina does. O...