Montana Blooms

With snow each day on Memorial Day weekend, we went straight to Summer and skipped Spring.  That resulted in a bit of flower confusion- iris blooming on the same par with roses, lilac blooms in July, and general posy mayhem.

Once things get going, Montana makes up for lost time with flowers everywhere- even the weeds go crazy!  Below are a sampling of pretty petals that have been on the ranch in the last few weeks.  Dan has been responsible for many of them along with his crew (he did the planning, buying and some of the planting until his accident).  Enjoy!

 

Let's not forget the dandelions!  Pepper shows them off in her new

 summer cut.

What Dan Saw on His Trip to the Grocery Store

Here is a normal day/ normal trip to the grocery store in Gardiner.

What do you see when you go the the grocery?

Muddy roads.......

Buffalo by the side of the road.......

Cowboys chasing buffalo back into Yellowstone (that's called hazing, folks)...

Antelope roaming on the range.....

And mountain sheep taking a roam on the range as well.

All for a gallon of milk..... :)

Montana: Land of Big Sky and Big Equipment

Everyone's heard about Montana being the land of Big Sky.  There are wide vistas of blue sky and white clouds that seem to go on and on:

What I've come to realize is it's also a land of Big Equipment.  It takes a lot of machinery to keep this land productive.  There's the favorite John Deere line of products, the tractors, the haulers, the bale lifters and trailers, the long lines of irrigation sprinklers, the horse and cattle gates and trailers, the feeders.....

The list goes on and on.  The mountains and valleys are dotted with various forms of metal mechanical marvels, both new and old.

Oh, and did I mention the Big Trucks?  While the rest of the USA waffles over economy cars and hybrid vehicles, Montana is firmly committed to jumbo size, four wheel, gas and diesel spittin' high-rise trucks and SUV's that can pull lots of weight and climb up and down the hills, gulleys and dirt roads.  A machine of necessity.

Yee haw, yippee kiy yiy yay......  :)





Rainbows on the Ranch

Last night, while driving along on a ranch trail, the most beautiful double rainbow appeared:

Looking down the hillside, this was another good omen- the house with the green roof is our house.  It looks like the rainbow is almost touching it!

The weather and light is constantly changing.  We woke this morning to a heavy fog covering everything.  Dan was out early checking out another trail, and saw this:

If you look very carefully in the center of the photo, you'll see a nice male elk.  Here's a closeup:

And a couple of days ago, this was the sight off our deck as the sun rose:

Beautiful!

Pre Labor Day Grill Envy...

Dan got his grill last week.... and we revv'ed it up today.  Since we grill a lot, we're happy to be 'back in the saddle' again.... and the steaks were awesome!

This is big mountain country, and Dan now has a grill worthy of its surroundings.  We've got one side for grilling, one side for smoking and it's even got smokestacks!!  Yee-haw.

Yes.... what you're seeing is snow.  It was a drizzly day which turned into mothball-sized hail earlier in the day, and then snow.  While it won't likely stay, it's an interesting thought to see the precursor of winter on September 5.......

Here's another photo of the snow:

Have a wonderful Labor Day!

Meet Gerta, Our Ranch House

After Dan and I had been at our home for a few days, I felt we had to give the home a name.  It was definitely a 'she', and after some discussion we both felt the name 'Gerta' fit.

She's strong and sturdy.  A bit weather-worn, but she'll do nicely. She'll keep us warm and dry, and I think we'll be quite cozy here.  We'll get her spiffed up over time...

When you climb up the mountain and through the ravines, you finally see an upper valley/basin open up.  There is one spot where you can see our home; after that the road keeps going uphill, and you can't see her until you've turned the bend.  Here's what you'll view way across the basin:

The brown building to the left houses 2 apartments where the seasonal help stay. Here's a view of ole Gerta at the top of the road:

In the back of the house is a full deck with great views.  Below is a horse corral and a paddock area. She's basically a one-story ranch style house with a walk out basement, except for a bedroom in the front on the second level.

This is our morning view from our kitchen, which is at the front of the house:

I was rushing to snap a photo before the full moon disappeared behind the mountain! 

Here's a couple of views from the back of our deck:

Pretty, huh?

We're getting close to pulling our house together inside, and will take some inside photos once we're done.  Last Saturday, we went to Bozeman to stock up on food, get a few necessities, and buy a grill.  Here's a cowboy doing some serious grill study.....

This Labor Day weekend it will be fun to 'nest'.... Dan will be assembling our new grill, I'll be hanging curtains, and we'll be working at getting Dan's workshop set up.

Yippie  Kiy Yiy Yay!

Westward Ho….

I sent out an email right before I left and misspelled the title- the caption I sent was ‘Wetward Ho’. And it was prophetic…. When we left Friday night, it was pouring down rain with high winds and lightening. We drove north 2 hours to Mackinac City and stopped for the night.

The next morning it was still gray and drizzling when we over the Mackinac bridge. Over the next 2 days we drove through the Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana.

On the way, I realized a few things….

Not many people travel across the country on the northern route

There are way more acres of sunflowers in this country than anyone would ever realize

Big rolled bundles of wheat, straw and hay look like roly-poly sheep in the distance

North Dakota is a very harsh place when it’s 98 degrees and the hot winds hit you in the face

Mountains sneak up on you gradually and then pow!- they are all around you


I think we looked a bit like the Beverly Hillbillies as we passed the various states….

We’re now unpacking at our new home, and in closing I thought I’d share this last photo- this is called the Devil’s Slide, and is about 10 miles from our home. This is in the Yellowstone valley north of the town of Gardiner. Once upon a time, this nearly vertical stripe of land was horizontal…. pretty impressive, huh?

Transition

Moving - Ugh.  Need I say more?

But on to better things..... here's a photo of the view from the back deck of our new home:

And here's a family of elk Dan watched while drinking his morning coffee:

And.....a rainbow over the mountains.  I'm choosing to view this as a good sign. :)

Old Goodbye's and New Hello's

Welcome to a new page in our lives!  As they say, "Life is a Journey," and ours has been interesting, to say the least.

When we left central Ohio a year and a half ago and moved from 'large city' life to northwest upper Michigan life, we thought we had finally gotten it all figured out.  We loved the hills, the trees, our home, the softer pace of life, and the lakes.

But..... another famous saying is "Life is what happens when you're busy making plans."  And Life decided to whip us around to another direction, and gave us the time (whether we wanted it or not) to make new choices.  Time to move on.

So.... Up North Newbie has now transformed into a new blog, Montana Mountainview.  Dan and I are in the midst of a move to Gardiner, Montana for a Caretaker Couple job 7,000 feet up in the mountains for a private ranch.  It's close to Yellowstone, and the surroundings are beautiful.  We'll be living on the ranch and maintaining the property, inside and out.  You simply go 7.5 miles off the main road on a gravel/dirt road into the mountains, and you're there. :)

Some parts of Montana I wouldn't like to live in.  A lot of the land is 'high desert' country, and pretty barren.  It's lucky we'll be living in a pretty part- meadows, rolling fields, lots of trees, and mountaintop peaks above us.  We'll be sharing our lives with the local animals (horses, elk, black and grizzly bear, coyote, wolves, and other critters), enjoying LOTS of snow in the winter, and watching the fast and furious summer spill out on the land while it can.

I plan to keep in touch with family and friends on this blog, and share the adventures of our lives out West.  Stop by once in a while, and sip a cup of coffee or tea while you catch up.  It should be an adventure...... Yee haw!     Sondra

P.S.- to the right and below are photos of the surrounding country we'll be living in.  Enjoy!