The ANTecdote
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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Montana Summer Living
Hard to believe it’s the final day of July. Summer has officially arrived in Montana–the temperatures are rising, the days are magnificently long, and our gardens are slowly producing food. Our days are spent with a strong desire to spend it outdoors–coffee taken in the backyard, walking barefoot in the garden, cutting fresh lettuce for tonight’s summer salad, and on days away from work our feet hit the ground and we’re off hiking in the mountains. Or paddling a canoe down the Smith River. Montana summers are magical, beautiful, and liberating. With our toes dipping in the cool mountain streams, fly rod resting on the shore, a cold beverage in one hand, we hold on tightly to our fleeting summer. How are you spending your summer? Hiking in Glacier National Park Remote cabin in Montana's Bob Marshall country Pulling a trout out of a high alpine lake Sunset on the mountains
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Busy as a Bee
Perhaps you, as our lovely and informed supporters and friends, know why our company is named Red Ants Pants? Or, perhaps not. Well, let’s refresh. Red Ants Pants is named for the the female ants in a red ant colony because they do all the work! Well, female red ants are not the only hard workers in the world of insects and we’re just tickled pink to introduce you to another hard worker insect, the honeybee and to the woman who takes care of the them on the eastern edge of Glacier National Park. Queen Bee Courtney Courtney Stone Fullerton, along with her husband, Greg, are the beekeepers of Glacier County Honey near Babb, Montana. Beekeeping is not her only profession. She’s also a lawyer with her own practice in Cut Bank. Not only does Courtney help Greg, a second generation beekeeper, with the extraction process – Glacier County Honey extracts about 125,000 pounds of honey each summer – she also manages the company’s books and the retail aspects of this new Montana company. While their company warehouse is under construction this summer, Courtney’s been making her beeswax products, including candles and Christmas ornaments, in her kitchen. In fact, two days after their July 2009 wedding, the newly weds went right to their “honeymoon” – extracting 125,000 pounds of honey! Their real honeymoon didn’t happen until all the honey was extracted and Courtney’s law practice was set up last September. According to Courtney, one in every three bites of food can be traced back to the honeybee. The Fullertons have a strong belief that bees are the backbone of agriculture. And their bees couldn’t be more lucky to have wildflowers to nourish them from Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Due to their incredible food sources, Glacier County Honey is light, pure and simply sweet! In fact, it is consistently awarded the USDA’s highest designation for honey. And to us, this honey is most delicious! Montana bees make the best honey! Glacier County Honey is a small operation with 1,000 hives and you can order their honey in either 1 lb/3 lb/ or 5 lb squeeze top bottles. Courtney is just so fabulous (and incredibly smart) that she packs her honey in this spill-proof squeeze top bottles that leave no honey dripping down the side of the bottle or left to leak all over a cupboard in Anthill (ahem, yes, we may have had a honey leakage problem on one of our past Tour de Pants. But not anymore!) Her beeswax products, which are 100% natural with no added fragrances or dyes, can be found at their website too. And if you enjoy reading about another small Montana business or of other beekeeping adventures we invite you to visit Courtney’s blog about all things Glacier County Honey and of her unique life in the remote northeast corner of Glacier National Park. Our attorney-beekeeper friend is also a talented writer! One thing’s for sure-Montana women can certainly do it all. Proudly showing Glacier County Honey's finest We know that the saying, “busy as a bee” is not just for the bees, but rings true for all of us. But after what we’ve seen when we visited Courtney and her bees at their Hillhouse property, we know it’s damn important to take time, like the honeybees do, to smell the wildflowers.
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Red Feathers and Red Ants
Pamela and Marilynn, the straw bale builders Red Ants Pants has teamed up with Red Feather Development Group, a phenomenal organization out of Bozeman, MT. Red Feather educates and empowers American Indian nations to create sustainable and replicable solutions to the severe housing crisis within reservation communities. Red Feather organizes volunteers, and, alongside tribal members, builds needed homes using sustainable materials and techniques. Red Ants Pants partnered with Red Feather by sponsoring their two female builders, Marilynn Cochran, from Arlee, MT, and Pamela Pauly, from Lopez Island, WA. Both of these women have been in construction for over 20 years, many of which have been focused on more sustainable building methods including straw bale construction. In June, Red Feather volunteers, alongside the new home owners, Albert McManus and Clara One Feather’s family, built a straw bale home on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Eastern Montana. Sarah Calhoun of Red Ants Pants joined them for 2 days to help with the final stages of the build which included lots of interior painting. “Meeting these inspiring women who are the leading experts in their industry is such an honor. Learning from them, working side by side, hearing their stories…that’s what it’s all about,” said Calhoun. When asked what she likes about straw bale construction, Cochran replied, “It brings the feminine back into building. The curves, the plasters, it’s kind of like your pants!” Huge thanks go out to Marilynn and Pamela for their partnership, as well as everyone at Red Feather, especially Mark Jensen for helping to coordinate this collaboration. Thank you all! Calhoun with Marilynn Cochran and Mark Jensen Marilynn and Pamela at the volunteer camp
Learn moreThe West & Open Spaces
Open Space, a film by Conservation Media and produced for the Sonoran Institute, is a short film about the issues of open space and development in the west. This beautiful film features several Montanans addressing the loss of open space for agriculture and wildlife habitat in Montana and one of the featured profiles is of Sarah and Red Ants Pants! Enjoy the film and our hats off to filmmaker Jeremy Roberts for his wonderful and poignant short film. And you also can take in the breathtaking landscapes of the Big Sky state.
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