Wish you were here

Our north pasture (elevation 4,770 feet) was so gorgeous yesterday evening I had to send you a postcard.  Sacajawea Peak just right of the center, is the highest mountain in The Bridgers, 9,665 feet. You can walk to the top in the summer. Click on the picture to enlarge

Montana Birds of Spring

Hard to tell when spring arrives in Montana. Sunny and warm one day, blizzard the next.  So we look to the birds to tell us when spring arrives. Old Gnarly here was 20 yards away and looked like he was waiting for the dog to come out the front door.

These ring-neck turtle doves beneath the eagle's tree were another possible target. Like so many recent arrivals, they are native to LA and their prospects are not good.

Always a good sign when the Sandhill Cranes arrive with their goofy dignified walk. Sandhill Cranes have been around longer than the Gallatin River and have a pre-historic call. Foxes fear them. This was a sunny yesterday . . .

today it's cold and snowing and the Sandhill Cranes don't care at all. They live on the edge of winter and dance.

A Short Walk in the Double Ditch Kush.

 

The dog said, "get off the couch, Bob."

 

 

"There's tons of deer in the pasture.

 

 

Look in the river,



 

 

 

the trout are as big as aligators. Everwhere you look,

 

 

 

the colors are amazing."





Christmas Day Walk Along River Road

Christmas was warm and sunny, a good day for a walk along River Road where we live in Bozeman, Montana

Barkley needed a little reigning in at first

 

 

River Road follows the Gallatin River 

And runs along the pastures of the Kelly Ranch

 

There was a unicorn in the pasture by the stone house, looking for his lost horn

We walked five miles.  So we were glad to get back to the Double Ditch Ranch and build a fire in the fireplace

The Promise

The Gallatin River runs through it.  (Click to enlarge)

Kathryn grew up on her family’s ranch in Montana. So naturally that’s where she wanted to get married. It’s a beautiful ranch in a valley ringed by mountains. The Gallatin River runs through it for two miles and there’s a buffalo jump behind the old stone ranch house.



When we arrived for our wedding on Thursday there was three inches of snow on the ground. The snow melted (it was the end of May) but on the day of the wedding, the sky turned black. The ground was bone dry from years of drought so the ranchers had their hopes.


 

The log barn

Two horse drawn wagons ferried our guests across the pasture to an open tent on the river bank.


The wind picked up and Kathryn’s neighbor, Joe Axtell, third generation rancher looked at the mountain of black clouds dwarfing the mountains beneath them and said, “Well, I’ve learned to be reeeal careful about pree dictin’ the weather round here. But it sure looks like rain to me.”


The minister said, “in a world where all the corners have been explored and all of the wildernesses covered with maps, the last great adventure is two people sharing a life together.”


When we first got together Kathryn and I drove to the coast to watch a Pacific storm pound a deserted beach. “I will always be good to you,” she said.


I thought for awhile. It was a stupendous offer. Could I match it? After a long pause while I considered, I said, “I will always be good to you.”

After the ceremony, the guests hurried to the wagons and then to their cars. And the skies opened up in a deluge, South Western Montana’s first good soaking in five years.