Let's visit on the Porch II (Helena, Three Forks: marble, swim, hurricane)

[Threerun]

Originally Posted by DontLookPhoto

Yes we've been to those towns many times in our travels and each one has it own brand of Montana character.

Did you visit the bronze of Ol' Shep at Fort Benton ? Fort Benton was as far as the freight steam paddle wheelers could make it up the Missouri River so freight was transferred to big freight wagons for the rest of the way to the coast.
So much good history all over.

Unfortunately no sightseeing for me as this trip was all business. I do plan to take the family on long weekend vacations to visit CM Russell country, the High Line to Westby and down to Miles City. We'll hit the west side later in the summer.

[Reziac]

Here's a fun article on modern do-it-yerselfers:

What is a Maker? What it really means to be a "Maker" :: TweakTown

Click on the neat vehicle pic near the bottom for a larger view.

[jasper12]

Now that the roads are good, I have been out and about every week, can't get a better job than I have, drive all over Montana for work in the Spring.

[MaBonnema]

Just thought I'd drop in and say howdy and wish everyone a Happy Easter.
Hope everyone is doing well.
I've been busy packing up things and getting rid of things we dont use or need. Managed to get some stuff hauled off to the dump too.
Dont know exactly when we will be moving but I know one thing... I will be ready.
Anyway...
HAVE A HAPPY & BLESSED EASTER
hugs,
Val

[ElkHunter]

Last night, while outside I smelled the unmistakeable scent of skunk. It reminded me that it's that time of year that critters are starting to get out and about.

It's that time that we should be thinking of our pets. Are rabies vac's due? Annual rattle snake shots are due. We don't have a rattle snake problem, but I take Timber in every year.

Happy Easter everyone! Coffee's on, somebody bring some bear sign.

[bongo]

First rain Friday night here. Luckily, for the ski area it was 6 inches of snow for the last week of skiing.

Enjoy this spring day!

[Threerun]

We could use some of that in Helena.

So the wife and kids are off to NYC for spring break. The school bands orchestrated (pun intended) a field trip to NYC. One day is spent at the Met to see an opera and go back stage with musicians and such. Gone for a week.

They met at the school at 2a.m. this morning, bussed to Missoula and caught a flight to Minneapolis then off to NYC. I stayed up to make sure they got off on time, so I'm pooped. We had Easter dinner last night and I just finished up vacuum sealing the rest of the ham and freezing it.

Little Schnitzel is doing extremely well. He sleeps through the night and he has gone to the door several times to let us know 'it's time'. Not bad for a 9 week old puppy that's been with us less than a week! Our two other girls tolerate him well. The basenji seems to have taken a liking to the boy. That will help a lot. She's the Alpha and she lets him know when enough is enough. This is a good thing- in about 6 months he will be double her size and in a year or so he should be around 80-85lbs. His dad was 90lbs and mom weighed 75-ish. He's gonna be a big boy!

[DontLookPhoto]

We saw fish but we didn't catch any. Did we skunk ? I think not because we really don't go fishing just to try to catch fish.
We got outdoors with our best friend, a Kootenai tribal member and we went to a place he use to fish as a kid, it was a fun day. He's going to be building a place on an allotment on a local lake and I'm expecting to help out if I can. It might be awhile as we are on "Reservation time" here !

The parade of insect hatches has begun and folks are already doing river floats. Right now we're in that "window" after ice-out and before the melt-out blow up with muddy water not conducive to fishing.
It's a short window most years but Flathead Lake is particularly low this year so I expect Glacier Park, the Flathead Range, Swan, and the Missions must have some degree of decent snowpack.
It may not look like much but it may be really wet snow. We'll see.

We had a day-campfire ready to cook up fresh fish in case we got lucky. We didn't catch fish but we didn't really "skunk". We had a nice day with the parrot, the dog, and our best friend who we don't often go out with much.
We'll take the little boats out soon on a lake or river soon.

Photos below are from today's outing on the bank of The Clark Fork River.


We tried here.


We tried here.


I took a walk up onto the tracks. The Ferry Landing Boat Ramp is hidden by the highway.


We tried off this sand point.


We enjoyed the fire and we put it dead out before we left.


No we didn't skunk, we came home with photos and memories. ~♥~

[Canonind]

I don't see any lightning but I can't resist.....everybody...altogether now....and there's fire on the mountainn-n-n... lightning in the air-r-r-...gold in them hills-s-s...and it's waiting for me there-r-r-r...

[DontLookPhoto]

Originally Posted by Canonind

I don't see any lightning but I can't resist.....everybody...altogether now....and there's fire on the mountainn-n-n... lightning in the air-r-r-...gold in them hills-s-s...and it's waiting for me there-r-r-r...

Yup there is gold in them hills. The Cabinet range is loaded with gold but one needs to own or lease a mining claim to get the gold.
The claims along the Vermilion River are being worked but it takes large equipment to get at the pay gravels.
Near Libby there is a public gold panning area. Contact the Kootenai National Forest for the details on that.

If someone ever invents a magnet for gold only they will be soooo wealthy soooo fast.
When I had my small (30') yacht I was a "Gold Digger" magnet.
My oh my were those ever "The Days", I never skunked out back in the day. ~♥~

I did "skank out" once in a while though.