Chief's New Coat

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Last weekend we wallowed in one last blast of summer. Sunshine. Temperatures in the eighties. Almost too hot for this time of year, because when the cold weather hits the change tends to be dramatic and the horses and cattle aren't acclimated. Sure enough, Tuesday night the clouds started to roll in, which made for some great photo ops at sunset.

As pretty as the views were, when the clouds start to pile up behind the mountains we know we're in for a change in the weather. 

The rain hit Wednesday afternoon right as our crew finished gathering the cows to pregnancy test, which gave them a solid three hours of working out in the cold fall rain. The rain was nearly continuous from then until late last night, a total of over three inches, temperatures in the forties and fifties. I expect we'll have a few sick calves, going from hot to cold and wet so fast, but most of them are big enough now to take the stress. 

First thing this morning the sun cracked through and as expected, Chief Mountain has his first shiny new coat of snow. Pretty, yes, but all I can think is "Here we go again." 

Scenic View Ahead

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Today you get pictures, because my cousin sent me some fabulous new ones that I have to share. This is our ranch, looking west and slightly north. Those are the Rocky Mountains, of course, with the big square one being Chief Mountain. The Canadian border runs just to the right, along his base, so Chief and everything left of him in the photo are in Glacier National Park, and everything right of him is Waterton Park in Alberta, Canada.

See the hills in the foreground, between our ranch and the mountains? That ridge is part of the Hudson's Bay Divide. It angles to the north and east, almost parallel to the Canadian border. Rain and snow melt beyond that ridge but east of the Rockies runs into the St. Mary's river, which goes north. All that moisture will get carried clear across Canada and dumped into the Hudson's Bay. Rain that falls on our side of the ridge drains into the Milk River, which dumps into the Missouri, which dumps into the Mississippi, which dumps into the Gulf of Mexico.What a difference a mile makes, huh?

Here's a slightly closer view of the home place. You can clearly see two of our most prized possessions. The first is the big red thing to the right. That's our indoor arena. Almost a must if you're serious about training horses or roping in this part of the world.

The second is the trees. Look at both pictures again. Notice how many trees you see besides the ones right behind our house. Yeah. Precious commodities out here on the barren, windswept plains. Emphasis on the windswept. It works up quite a head of steam rolling down off that mountain front. There is no quicker way to  get yourself in big trouble around here than to mess with the trees.

Just ask the porcupines. 

And in case you get the impression from these pictures that we live on a big flat plain, here's a view of the place looking south and east. It's a gain of two hundred feet in altitude from our house to that little black spot in the upper left corner of the picture, which is a pair of granaries. This ridge is the edge of a large plateau about three miles in diameter. My cousin was standing on top of it to take the first two pictures. 

So there you go...the lay of the land. 

Chief Struts His Stuff

Now this is more like it. Easy to see why the Blackfeet consider him sacred, isn't it? Had to go begging for good pictures from my cousin who has a camera that's up to the task. Happily, the snow in the foothills is mostly gone now.

Chief is on the Warpath

Hard to imagine that this blog has been in existence for nearly two months and this is the first picture of Chief Mountain I've posted. Chief is the square one in the center of the picture. Together with his neighbors, he forms the eastern face of Glacier National Park. I wish my camera did it justice. When you're standing where I was standing, the mountains are about twice as close as they look in this picture. Then again, when you're standing where I was standing and Chief Mountain looks like this, you'd better have a firm hold on your hat. And maybe a fence post. We call those wind clouds. And take note of the wispier stuff around the mountains themselves. Those aren't clouds, folks. That's blowing snow.