Return to MT

Sunday Tammy and I drove back to Montana.  It had rained overnight, and between the sound of the rain (especially hitting the downspout), the train whistles in the valley, the birds chattering, and her restless legs, Tammy didn't sleep much during the night.  I drove the entire distance so she was able to sleep with her snuggie and favorite pillow several times during the drive.

It wasn't raining in the morning when we left but as you can see we were headed for rain.

The rain wasn't heavy and it ended by the time we got to Montana.  I had tightened the screw for the windshield wipers on Tammy's minivan and this tightening held all the way home so we didn't have any wiper problems this trip.


Lots of man-camp buildings along the road.

Man-camp type of buildings are even located next to rundown buildings along the highway.

Target Logistics are big builder and operator of man-camps.

Lots of oil wells along the highway.

Oil drilling.

One of many trucks.

I took the new highway bypass around Williston.  Tammy's GPS Garmin insisted I turn around as it had no clue the highway existed.  It thought I was driving across a field.

In addition to the many mancamps, there were lots of places whose purpose was to park trucks when not running, even if it was the middle of nowhere.

Montana.   This photo was taken 10 minutes after I cleaned the windows during our one gas stop.  Naturally a big fat bug committed suicide right in my field of vision.  I had to stop and clean it off because it was too distracting.

Bug splat

I saw bicyclists only in Montana.  I counted 10 bicyclists heading east, one bicyclist heading west, and two fully loaded bicycles parked against a bar in a small small town in Montana.

Scattered shower

An old church on the Fort Belnap reservation.

Bear Paw Mountains

Rocky Mountains...

With no problems, and less traffic on the road, we made good time and did the trip in 10 1/2 hours, an hour less than when we drove to North Dakota.

Once we reached the ranch I saw four cattle in the hayfield.  After parking at the house I went out to herd the cattle back into the pasture.

The four cattle were: Momma, Baby, one of my heifers, and #19 yellow tag.  I saw a broken top fence wire and figured that was how the cattle got into the hayfield.  Momma, then the other cattle easily followed me back to the pasture through the gate.

I shut the gate and then the other cattle came from the second pasture to join us.  Once they got bored Momma and others wandered off to the fence.  Not where I saw the broken wire.  A few minutes later I saw Momma on the hayfield side of the fence with a half dozen or more cattle on the pasture side of the fence.

What?! 

I found the fence had a gap.  The second wire was broken and the third wire was not fastened to a post and was drooping.  Momma did the limbo and walked through the fence.

Momma was now wise to me, and the other cattle wanted to join Momma, so I had to get Tammy to help me by handling the gate while I herded Momma.   Momma was now in an excited mood and ran around.  She eventually ran through the gate to join the other cattle and they then all ran off kicking their back legs up as they ran.

I went to work on fixing the fence and by the time I was done the cattle returned to see what I was doing.  My repair job has kept the cattle in the pasture.  It's not like the cattle don't have grass to eat, but you know... "The grass is greener on the other side of the fence."

A 1:05 video of the cattle after the fence was fixed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_ziZyM_IMo


I also found that the rain gutter on the tool shed came down while I was away.  I took the rest of it down until I can re-shingle the roof and put up a proper rain gutter where I - and my uncles - don't hit their head on the gutter when they enter the tool shed.