Let's visit on the Porch II (Helena, Whitehall: consignment, Scottish, agreements)

[jasper12]

Here is a picture of a critter in my yard. I took it with my cell phone.

[hymnsinger]

Thanks Silvertip!

That is some valuable insight on the Church. I will remember it.

As for weather, I will take your advice to heart. I do live in a windy region, but not that windy! At nearly 6000' Grandfather Mountain routinely measures hurricane force winds, especially in the winter. In the town of Blowing Rock, where I have worked for 6 years, the wind starts blowing in October and doesn't stop until April! Usually it's blowing 15 to 25 mph, but gusts up to 50mph are common just before and after frontal passage. That leads to wind chills in the negative teens, pretty chilly for our latitude. I've only seen -22 WC once in 12 years. The winters here at 3500 to 4000' are comparable to Maryland or Missouri winters. Our avg for snow is 40" but last year we got about 10" and the year before we got 110!! My home is at 1800' and we didn't get any snow at all last winter.

I have sent my resume to a place near Livingston, but I think it's outside of the "wind tunnel!" Cold and wind are to be expected pretty much anywhere. I am certainly going to be prepared . . . at least physically! Mentally . . . we'll see!

Tracey

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by hymnsinger

Thanks Silvertip!

That is some valuable insight on the Church. I will remember it.

As for weather, I will take your advice to heart. I do live in a windy region, but not that windy! At nearly 6000' Grandfather Mountain routinely measures hurricane force winds, especially in the winter. In the town of Blowing Rock, where I have worked for 6 years, the wind starts blowing in October and doesn't stop until April! Usually it's blowing 15 to 25 mph, but gusts up to 50mph are common just before and after frontal passage. That leads to wind chills in the negative teens, pretty chilly for our latitude. I've only seen -22 WC once in 12 years. The winters here at 3500 to 4000' are comparable to Maryland or Missouri winters. Our avg for snow is 40" but last year we got about 10" and the year before we got 110!! My home is at 1800' and we didn't get any snow at all last winter.

I have sent my resume to a place near Livingston, but I think it's outside of the "wind tunnel!" Cold and wind are to be expected pretty much anywhere. I am certainly going to be prepared . . . at least physically! Mentally . . . we'll see!

Tracey

Well, now you will be looking at negative teens as the winter temp, not counting wind chill. That's ok though, wind chill is how the temp feels on bare skin, so just don't run around nekked.

Here's a link that you can select the area you want and it will show a long history of that area. Moisture, snow, winds, temps, etc. UNITED STATES CLIMATE NORMALS 1981-2010

Also, you can do a search of the Montana Forum for Winter Weather. You'll notice at the top there is a sticky of Summer Weather Alerts. I've been posting weather alerts for about 3 years now. It's not all inclusive as I often miss some of the alerts. It's not meant to give minute by minute weather alerts, it's more designed to give folks like you, a chance to see some of the weather alerts that hit.

[ElkHunter]

For those of you that were wondering, the paver is unstuck. haha This morning, when the big city dump truck got here, we backed him up to the paver while he was still loaded with dirt and we hooked 3 chains to the front of the paver. That big dump truck didn't even grunt hard and the paver came out of the hole.

33 loads on Friday. Yesterday it rained off and on, This morning, they started hauling dirt in again.

[Wurzig]

Just stoppin' by to say hi to all!

We went to the New England area for 10 days...part business, part fun.....everything is so green......used umbrellas a lot.

Been doing a lot of gardening...(dang those weeds.....I wasn't gone THAT long!!!!!).....it's too hot here for this time of year.......and we see (and depending on the wind, smell), the fire by Fort Collins..it's HUGE and now they say it won't be out until it snows.....so depressing....have to keep the windows shut or else the house smells like smoke at times....

[ElkHunter]

Allright, who did it? I know one of you did. Put it back, it's not nice to steal summer in late June.

I woke up early this morning, about 4am. Jumped in the shower and when I got dressed, I put on a t-shirt, shorts and tenny runners. Now, it's 10am and it's only 53 degrees. Wind is blowing at 20-25 mph and it's completely overcast.

I don't know for sure, but I'll bet they are getting snow up on top. A few years back, my cousin came up for a visit so we loaded up and went up on top camping. Took our 4 wheelers and had a blast. We had set up our tent and put together a fire ring and cooked a great supper. Hell, when your camping, a burnt weenie tastes like a gormet meal. Woke up in the morning and it was snowing and 29 degrees. Believe you me, it didn't take long to get a fire going in that fire ring and have that coffee pot stuffed in the coals right along side of that cast iron frying pan with a pound of bacon and a pound of hot sausages. That was on August 22.

We got robbed of a decent winter and all we got was a mild winter with little snow. Now we're getting robbed of summer. Who'd a thunk it?

[bongo]

Just got home from 11 days tent camping/hiking in Yellowstone. Woke up to snow & lots of low 20F mornings. & wind chill. But the plus was not a lot of crowds of people or skeeters! Saw lots of wildlife to boot.

[jasper12]

Wow. It is chilly here...still! I had the heat on last night. Comforter still on the bed. Alive at Five was fun tonight....Little Elmo and the Mamba Kings. Helena music Festival this weekend...

[ElkHunter]

Good morning everyone. Does anybody get the "Western Ag Reporter"? Fantastic paper that comes out from Billings that will keep you abreast of all the Agriculture related Topics.

Reading the Thrusday, June 7, 2012 article about "When does your brand expire? Missing the deadline can be very expensive!" reall kind of ticked me off.

I can't post the link because you have to subscribe, so I will paraphrase.

It seems that a ranch, down here in Wyoming took some cattle to St Onge South Dakota for sale. The South Dakota brand inspector, at the sale, pointed out, "Those are not your cattle." The owner said, "What? I've been selling cattle here for years." The Brand inspector said, "Well, that's not your brand." The owner said, "That brand has been in our family for 80 years, what are you talking about?"

It seems that the brand had expired and they had sent out two notices. They had no response so they resold the brand. They said that sometime a while back, somebody changed the address and the new address is where we sent the notices and they were returned for insufficient address. The owner said, "Why would we change the address, we haven't moved. Our family has been in the same house for 65 years." It seems that somebody had put in an address change to an address that did not exist. The brand was now under new ownership. The new owner was Casey Cunningham of Sheridan. He is a Wyoming Livestock Investigator. When the owners wanted to buy it back, they offered Casey $5000. and he refused. When they finally offered $10,000. , he gave the brand back and made them pay transfer fees.

They didn't realize the brand had expired. Some time ago Wyoming changed to staggered renewals and the owners thought that all of their brands feel under the same catagory and would renew at the same time. Not so.

They sold cattle 12 times after the brand expired and the brand inspector gave them a G form to allow them to take cattle out of the state for sale.

Who changed the address? Why didn't Mr Cunningham do the right thing? The brand is one of the last remaining "single Iron" brands. The brand is the "Mule Shoe".

[MTSilvertip]

Very true Elkhunter! Good Post!

In Montana you renew your brand every 10 years, and it costs $200/brand. The deadline to renew was December 1, 2011 so there are a lot of available brands out there right now. Last I heard there were over 3000 brands from Montana alone that expired.

I have my Grandfather's brand that has been in the family for over 100 years. It is also a single iron brand, and I am not giving it up for any reason!!

Kind of funny, there were 10 kids, I was the 27th Grandchild, and there are several after me. My Grandfather passed away in 1947, but I was the only one that wanted the brand when I spoke to my Grandmother in 1980, and she was happy to sign it over to me.
I am very proud of that brand and it is displayed on most of my tools as well as my livestock.

I go into the brand office every 10 years, the year before the renewal, and make sure that they have the proper address for me, and I pay the renewal as soon as it becomes due because I will never relinquish that piece of family history. Far too precious to me to ever lose due to my own incompetence.

Currently my parents are trying to sell a single iron brand that belonged to my Uncle who passed away. That brand is exactly 100 years old. It seems that in looking at the prices of other similar brands that the going rate in Montana is $5000-$10,000 bucks, so the story you quoted isn't really out of line, but I agree the guy could have been nicer about transferring it back to them.

Get your dirt work done yet? Been building a garage for my folks starting this past weekend, and while I have been doing concrete work for over 30 years, it still stinks and my back is completely broken again
Not as young as I used to be