The ANTecdote
This House of Sky
Winter in Montana is close at hand: the snow is falling on the valley floor, the mountain peaks are solid white and each morning this week, public radio has announced a winter weather warning for much of Montana. Fall gives way to snowflakes. Our winter season is long-lasting and we thought we’d share with you just one way (besides playing in the snow) we like to spend our shorter days, inside, nestled by the fire: reading. There’s one very special book that prompted Sarah to pay a visit to White Sulphur Springs and eventually fall in love with this small ranching town and make it her home. So, if you’re up for a great read and want a more intimate glimpse at life in White Sulphur Springs, Red Ants Pants brings you our falling into winter book recommendation: This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind by Ivan Doig. This House of Sky is Doig’s powerful and haunting memoir of growing up in White Sulphur Springs, among sheep herders, small ranches, and the many bars that line Main Street. Written in the late 1970s, Doig chronicles his life growing up in the small Montana town, of his life spent with his restless sheep herding father and his relationship with his grandmother, Bessie. This House of Sky is a beautifully written story: not only does it describe the wildness and remoteness of life in White Sulphur Springs in the late 30s and 40s but also is an exploration into a bond that ties father, son, and grandmother together among ranching jobs, bad marriages, falling in love, and how the sense of landscape shapes and guides a person. Doig is considered one of Montana’s finest writers and honestly, a fine American novelist. We suggest you start with his memoir and then continue to fall into his other books that celebrate and explore the lives of Montanans and life amongst the peaks of the Rocky Mountain Front . If I have any creed that I wish you as readers, necessary accomplices in this flirtatious ceremony of writing and reading, will take with you from my pages, it’d be this belief of mine that writers of caliber can ground their work in specific land and lingo and yet be writing of that larger country: life. –Ivan Doig We encourage you this winter to discover White Sulphur Springs through the pages of This House of Sky. Happy reading! And…tell us what books are on your shelf during the holiday season!
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Unleash Your Inner-TARTress
The very beautiful ladies of Tart! The final stop on Tour de Pants landed us in Bozeman at TART, an incredible contemporary art gallery and boutique (or TARTique as they prefer to be called!) on Friday October 22nd. All of the incredibly gorgeous handmade artwork, stunning jewelry, ceramics, sassy note cards, funky hats and clothing, and much more is all crafted from the hands of Montanans! The open house for Red Ants Pants was all in the hands of the Tartress Herself, Anna Visscher, and the evening was an incredible success. Although we were feeling a bit road weary from a long drive north on I-25 from Denver to Montana that included a lengthy shopping session at an outdoor outlet store in Wyoming (we Montana ladies never pass up a good deal on wool long underwear!) and sadly Sarah tagged her first deer of the season. Why sadly you ask? Well, it was the mighty Chevy and not Sarah’s riffle that claimed a deer outside Sheridan, WY. Consider how severe the consequences could have been: an all too quick of a reaction resulting in a swerving truck and Anthill screaming down the Interstate at night in traffic; the truck, Anthill, Sarah and Maggie came through unscathed with the exception of a slightly dented front bumper. However, the deer didn’t fare so well. Considering the thousands and thousands of miles Tour de Pants has danced across the country, for this to be the first animal-vehicle encounter, we feel lucky. Now, who wouldn't want to get into these pants?!? Road kill aside, our arrival back in our home state was nothing short of gorgeous! Sunshine and warm temps greeted our cheeks as we strolled through leaf-padded streets to the Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture where the fabulous Tart resides. Our host Anna and her crew did an incredible job of serving guests ants on the log, cold beers from Big Sky Brewery, and cheesecake with red ant frosting. And it didn’t take long for all of our RAP fans, some old and new, to cram into the gallery and try on pants and gush over stunning silver hoop earrings, laugh at the array of nutty holiday cards, and check out the two new samples styles of our soon-to-be-launched USA-made Red Ants Pants hats! Many thanks to the women of Tart and their lovely artists for hosting such an incredible event. Plus, both Sarah and Maggie and many other guests were able to stock up on unique and funky presents for the holidays! Anna offered a 15% discount on any item in her store for those wearing their old or new RAPs. What a deal, ladies! And with our final event in Bozeman behind us, we take with us the wonderful memories of our fall tour. Our most heartfelt appreciation and gratitude to our Denver party hosts Gwen and Trinity, the women of Chelely Colorado Camps, Erin Howe and her husband Mark for letting us crash at their home in Colorado, Shanan at Abbondanza Organic Seeds and Produce, and Anna and her Tart crew. Also, we can’t possibly do a Tour de Pants without our wonderful customers and supporters! Thank you, thank you! Sarah fitting a customer into her second pair of RAPs As quickly as the beautiful weather turned to gray and snow in the mountains, Tour de Pants has come to a close. Sarah’s off to play hunting guide to her visiting cousins and when she’s not stalking wild game through the woods, she’ll be sewing her very special Halloween costume (let’s hope there will be pictures!). Maggie’s ready to stretch her legs and get her quads in shape for the upcoming ski season–she was just nominated to the United States Telemark Regional Ski Team! Happy Fall to our Red Ants Pants family. Stay posted for more fun from Montana and learn about some very exciting upcoming events (hint: you might want to visit to White Sulphur Springs in July!).
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Living in Abundance
The beautiful Abbondanza farm On what felt much more like an Indian summer day then late October, our Tuesday party at Abbondanza Organic Seeds and Produce was a glorious evening spent under Colorado’s Front Range. Abbondanza is a small, family run operation in Longmont, Colorado and our party host, Shanan, graciously opened her home and farm to us for an evening of Red Ants Pants, Big Sky beer, horse drawn hayrides and unbelievable wood-oven fired pizzas served al fresco. Abbondanza comes from the Italian word abundance and one strong guiding principle at this organic farm. Shanan’s parter and co-farmer Rich’s mother’s maiden name was Abbondanza and he’s always wanted a farm in her namesake. While the farm was recently hit was a devastating fall crop loss due to spotting just two weeks ago, we’re more than touched that Shanan and Rich offered to host a Tour de Pants party during this extremely difficult time at their farm. However, a loss of their fall crop didn’t, in any way, diminish their abundance for a good life and good friends. We are very honored that we were able to witness their lives as abundant farmers. The ant label goes for a hayride With the farm bathed in sunlight, our pants party goers, including veterinarians, farmers, toddlers, mothers, and high school friends, enjoyed a horse drawn hayride through the fields and the best pizza you haven’t tasted. Shanan’s daughter took the reigns of this pizza operation and cooked up many a fine pizza in the open air wood fired oven. Such goodness! Elise and Sarah catch up and bask in the sun We were able to connect with current customers who proudly wore their well worn RAPs to the party and made new RAP connections, something we’re so thankful for, each and every time. And even Sarah’s high school friends came and joined the late night fun at the farm. Red Ants Pants just keeps connecting all different types of people from all different backgrounds all in a celebration of workpants for women and in working hard. All different bodies fit beautifully in RAPs! Our most sincere thanks to Shanan and her family for hosting such a stunningly beautiful event. We hope to spend some more blissful days at your farm. And with our last party in Colorado, we roll north to Bozeman for a Friday night party at Tart. Come join us on the fall edition of Tour de Pants! Our handmade ant belt goes very well with our pants
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You're a Camper for Life
Erin and Amanda look for a match Part Red Ants Pants house party, part Cheley Colorado Camps reunion, our Monday night party in Denver was not just about the best damn workpants for women but also another beautiful example of how one small Montana company can gather a group of women in a living room for a night of laughs, hugs, and a celebration of summer camp memories. The hosts of our party were both part of the Cheley Colorado Camp clan and Sarah proudly joins their tribe. When Sarah was nineteen years old, she left her home in Connecticut for the summer and took a job as a camp counselor in Estes Park, CO. It was her first experience in the American west: mountain peaks, cowboys, clear blue streams, and high altitude adventures. Needless to say, our Chief of Workpants was hooked on the rugged landscape west of the Mississippi River. Although her stint at Cheley was just for one summer, her connections to her other counselors and young campers has remained strong. Great thanks to co-hosts, Gwen and Trinity, for gathering the women of Cheley and also their friends to attend a house party on a cool Colorado fall evening. Sarah was able to reconnect with some of her former campers, many of whom she hasn’t seen since her first summer in the mountains. And many of these campers have transitioned to counselors for their beloved camp. Sisters that wear Red Ants Pants together, stick together Per usual of RAP house parties, there was a lot of laughter throughout the slide show, and the dropping of pants in the middle of the living room to find the perfect RAP fit. Once the women were connected with their best fit, they couldn’t wait to search for their ant label in hopes to find a match at the party. While no matches at the party, we’re all quite confident the sisterhood of the Red Ants Pants will continue to connect many other women in Colorado and beyond by their matching ant label. Again, thank you kindly to Gwen and Trinity for the party and to their great friends for their support! Sarah and Terry sample pants and Big Sky beer Tour de Pants rolls north to Longmont, CO for a farm party at Abbondanza Organic Seeds and Produce to relish in this spectacular fall weather! There might even be a hay ride for party guests tonight too!
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And We're Off!
Early morning on the road As you might know from reading recent blog posts, Tour de Pants is ready to hit the mountain highways and head south to Colorado. Fall is a perfect time to hitch the Anthill to the pickup truck, load our pants into the back of the red truck, and of course, pack cases of tasty beer from our marvelous beer sponsor, Big Sky Brewery. This fall’s edition of Tour de Pants will be in Colorado for the week and then capping off the tour in Bozeman, MT. So, let us announce our Tour de Pants details in hopes you and your friends can take part! Our first event is this Monday, the 18th, and is a house party for Cheley Colorado Camps alumni–although one doesn’t have to be an alumni of this camp to attend! All are welcome and the pants party begins at 7pm. Sarah, in her distant pre-red-ant-past was once a counselor at this camp and she’s so thrilled to reconnect with other camp counselors and some of her former campers. On Tuesday, we’ll head outside of Denver to Longmont for a party at Abbondanza Organic Seeds and Produce. The party includes a hay ride (weather permitting) and pizza and of course, your favorite workpants to garden in! Please check out their wonderful website for more information: http://www.eatabbo.org/. We’ll spend the rest of the week taking care of behind the scenes Red Ants Pants business stuff (hint: partnering with another American company to manufacture our USA-made RAP hats!) and then we’ll steer the Anthill north to Bozeman. On Friday October 22nd from 7-9pm, the lovely boutique and contemporary art gallery Tart is hosting a RAP party and open house! Tart is a super fun store located within the Emerson Center for Arts and Culture and features arts and crafts by local and regional artists, or called “Tartists” by owner Anna Visscher. Join us for an evening of RAP’s, food and Big Sky beer. Also, if you come wearing your well loved Red Ants Pants or purchase a pair of pants, the lovely Anna will give you 15% off anything you buy in her store (it’s the most perfect place to find funky handmade Christmas presents or jewelery for yourself!). Toasting another beautiful fall day with good friends and good food If you’re like us and are welcoming the change of seasons, embracing the new fall colors of the larch trees, and are busy spending your days stacking firewood and ending your day with a glass of wine by the fire with a book, we hope you too are relishing in the season of change. Not only does fall spark our inner-baker (breads, pies, scones, yum!) but we here at RAP also tend to do a bit of self-reflection during the season where the days grow shorter and we welcome our sweaters in exchange for sandals. Last fall we cruised through the Midwest, spending November in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois. We met so many wonderful men and women on our journey and enjoyed memorable nights by a bonfire in the woods of northern Wisconsin and a boat ride to a remote island in Michigan’s Lake Huron. If you’d like to reconnect with last year’s fall memories, including a slight issue with a broken Anthill door (all Maggie’s failure to understand the physics of a bungee cord), spend some time with our old tour blog. And on this frosty overcast Saturday morning in White Sulphur Springs, we’re putting the last boxes of RAP goodies in the truck, packing an extra layer for cold nights in the Anthill, and off on the road. We’ll see you in Colorado and Bozeman! If you need more information on party details like locations and if you can bring a friend (of course you can!), please follow our updates on either Twitter @redantpants or Facebook: Red Ants Pants. Or, hell, even better is to just give Sarah a phone call: 406.600.3986.
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Firewood, Beartooths, and Dinosaur Eggs
We had our first hard frost last night here in central Montana. It’s the time of year when nothing makes me happier than gazing at my firewood pile as it grows. My chain saw is cutting well and thanks to all the beetle kill, dead trees are plentiful around here. Recently a couple by the name of Kelly and Elaine dropped by my shop. They ended up staying for dinner, camping in our Airstream and actually spent an entire Sunday helping me get wood. We love all of our customers here at Red Ants Pants, but these types are my personal favorite, at least at this time of year. Out cutting wood with new customers and friends It's gonna be a warm winter! It’s been a great season for fall color, and this Indian summer can’t be beat. My buddy Kris and I took advantage of the warm temps and went backpacking in the Beartooths last weekend. Hiking in tank tops in mid October, in Montana, at 11,000 feet? Seriously! If you haven’t driven the Beartooth Highway, it’s well worth it. Make sure to stop in at Sam’s Taproom in Red Lodge on your way, home of Red Lodge Ales. http://www.redlodgeales.com/. YUM! Long time customer and local farmer Kris hiking in her RAPs. We’re packing up this week to hit the road again with Tour de Pants. We’re heading to Colorado to celebrate some of this farm harvest season. See side bar for schedule details. Come join us! And in other breaking news, I swear one of my chickens is part dinosaur. Would you look at the size of this egg??!! The best part is this was literally the 6th egg she has ever laid! I can’t even come close to closing the egg carton! I’ll leave you with that and some images from our lovely fall around these parts. Dinosaur Egg! Bridgers with aspens Fall in the Beartooths White Sulphur evening glow
Learn moreButte, America and Red Ants Pants
Two weeks ago, Sarah and Maggie reunited from the summer hiatus and made a trip to Butte, MT or honestly, it should be referred to as Butte, America. What’s so special about Butte? Butte is located in central Montana and has a long and interesting history in the state with its birth in mining. Butte was once called the “Richest Hill on Earth” for its abundance in copper and became a mining boom town. Butte’s history is steeped in mining culture, labor wars, Copper Kings, and also environmental catastrophe. But the historic town, which has seen mining decline over the years, also knows how to show folks one heck of a good time. Any would anyone expect anything less from a town where Evil Knievel was born? Between the party on St. Patrick’s Day, playing host to the National Folk Festival and just being a general good town filled with down to earth folks, one can find some fun in this old mining town. It wasn’t just good times that brought RAP to Butte. Sarah was invited to speak on a panel at the Montana Economic Development Summit. This, Maggie must brag, is a very big deal. The Montana Economic Development Summit is held every three years in the state and is hosted by US Senator Max Baucus. It’s an opportunity for Montana businesses to connect with their elected leaders, to network with major corporations, and to share with other colleagues and friends their troubles and triumphs in the world of business. And if you know anything about business in Montana, there were far more cowboy boots than suits in the crowd during the two day conference. Sarah’s panel was “Thinking Outside the Box: Innovative Ideas and Ways to Grow” and she was joined by four other businessmen about how they’ve done things a little bit differently with their businesses and how, especially for Red Ants Pants, it’s worked to think outside the box. Sarah, the lone woman on the panel, was joined by friends from great and important Montana-based companies, Simms Fishing Products, HabiHut, and Floating Islands International to talk about how each of them and their companies have forgone the mass-distribution route and paved a way to connect directly with their customers without sacrificing their business practices or product quality. And for RAP, it’s been important to always keep the company connecting directly to our customers and friends. Plus, who could honestly turn down an opportunity to travel all across America in a ’64 Airstream? Not only was the summit an incredible opportunity to talk about RAP and show off our wonderful customer photos (mostly sans pants of any kind) but a memorable and inspiring way to listen to some very, very successful global business leaders like Warren Buffet, Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Jeff Immelt of GE, and several other world-class industry leaders and government officials. Part motivational speech, part rally the troops, this summit was aimed to inspire and for a young and upcoming small business, an opportunity to hear from the great, the smart, and the optimistic. And while we hung on to Warren Buffet’s kind words and sage advice, we also connected with other small and just-starting-out businesses, like our new but what feels like old friends John Milanovich of Right PSI and Tim Mulholland of Headwaters Floating Island. We, as young business leaders, are rising to the call to move business forward but also by doing it right-right to our customers and to our workers. Perhaps the old model of business has changed, and perhaps some of it needs to change, and we can’t help but feel the powerful shift and know that we’ve had incredible sincere and genuine support in thinking outside the box: in making pants that fit all body sizes and types, by honoring American workers, by forgoing mass production and mass retailers and staying local, and by honoring the working woman, no matter if you work on a ranch in Montana, on the ice in Antarctica, or drive piles on the California coast. Of course we’re thinking outside the box at Red Ants Pants because you simply cannot contain curves in boxes. Period.
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Helena Rocks!
Back in the end of August we did a pants party at the home of Kris Larson in Helena, MT. We met Kris at a previous party this past spring and couldn’t get enough of her. She hosted a party in her lovely and festive carport, complete with a larger than life paper mache drinkin’ man…but of course! Bethany posing with the paper mache man, we'll call him 'Fred'. The party kicked off with dozens of vibrant and enthusiastic leading ladies of Helena rolling in, welcomed with hugs and kisses. What a phenomenal community of women!! The crowd sang along to the slideshow, hooting and hollering throughout. Then the fun really began as all 25 women dropped their drawers in Kris’s colorful living room. That’s right fellas, these gals know how to party! Not sure how we fit everyone in but we did! The laughter started and couldn’t be stopped. Bethany, our very helpful and generous friend from White Sulphur who came along to help with sales couldn’t even hear herself think over the gales of laughter! Turns out two sisters in particular (I won’t name any names) were developing a new line of pants that feature….well, actually what happens at a Red Ants Pants party stays at a Red Ants Pants party. I’d better keep it to that! Happy Pants Customers Needless to say, we had an absolute blast, and completely blew our own record of pant sales out of the water!! And, I’m proud to announce, we had our very first wife and husband matching ant! Huge thanks to Jane for her continued support. She too is a two timin’ pants party attendee, but this time she brought her husband…who wisely (or perhaps not so wisely) snuck in and out early before the pants started hitting the floor! Huge, huge thanks to Kris, Bethany, and all you wonderfully supportive ladies of Helena. We look forward to seeing you at the Blackfoot Brewery, Farmers Market, Great Divide Cyclery and No Sweat Cafe! Yeeee Hawwww! The last women standing...and STILL laughing!!
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Backyard Excitement
The only way I can figure out how to get anything done in my backyard is to throw a party. When there are 100 people coming over for a pig roast, things get done pretty quickly around here. Earlier this summer I began to expand my yard which involved: building a fence, building a deck, building a chicken coop, putting in a bonfire pit, and of course the mason jar candle lighting. The only problem was the majority of this didn’t get done until the evening before, and the day of, the party. Calhoun doing some last minute deck building Fortunately many hands make light work (Thank you Nick, Caroline, Anna, Elton, Jake, Bethany, Ted and Karrin!) And we pulled it off. Peter Brown and my favorite new keg holder. The pig hit the spit at 7am, the kegs went on ice in the clawfoot by 3pm, and the fun really began when Rabbit Stew, our very favorite band out of Dillon, MT (and infamous pants party hosts!) began to tune up their fiddle and bass. Rabbit Stew warming up on the new stage! So glad the fine carpentry work that went into the deck held up as a backyard stage. A very good time was had by all. The rain pushed us in for more dancing in the Red Ants Pants shop. This picture shows the wreckage at 3am when folks finally started to head to bed/deck/shop floor/airstream/yard and collapse into the beds of many pick up trucks. Sign of a good party. Our good friend Evan was even put to bed. As if this wasn’t enough excitement, I found my very first chicken egg the following week. It’s just amazing what a perfect round little beauty can come out of a chickens butt! My very first egg! Thank you lovely chickens!
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