Life on a farm .... (Great Falls, Bozeman: houses, school, horses)

[Funny_74]

Hi,
would like to know how real farm life is like. Does someone know if Kalispell is the right place to go to get some impression about it? Also, can tourists go there?

Thx

[rickers]

There is very limited farming and ranching in the Kalispell area. Western Montana is more about logging and mining. There are a few "dude ranches" in the Kalispell area but most are fairly touristy. You being from Germany may find it interesting to visit "The golden triangle" part of Montana. Here there are endless wheat fields as well as other small grains. This is where there are many Hutterite colonies. They will allow visits for the most part if pre-arranged. They speak a very interesting dialect of Austrian-Bavarian older German that sounds nothing like modern standard German. I think their language has some Slavic influence also. They are very interesting folks and it would be a shame to visit Montana without meeting some of these people.

The first picture below is a typical scene one would find in Western Montana. The second picture is taken from where the Great Plains meets the Rocky Mountain Front. I took the second picture from a point very near a Hutterite Colony.
My advise for anyone wanting to visit Montana would be to plan on spending a lot more time here to soak it all in. Montana is way larger than many people expect it to be and are sorry they didn't plan for more time here.
Remember that Montana is actually larger than Germany in area but there are less than one million people here. I think Germany has about 82 million.

[rangerider]

The Gallatin Valley around Bozeman has a pretty wide diversity of farming and farmers. Row crop, wide open wheat, potatoes, some truck crops, greenhouses...you get the picture.

I do know people that have small farms around Kalispell, one grows cherries and the other mint. Pretty specialized, obviously, not really the kind of farming I suspect you're looking for. There's lots of farming in the eastern side of the state, especially more towards the Sidney/Savage area. And what rickers said, the golden triangle, Big Sandy, Dutton, Conrad, areas north and east of Great Falls. I combined a lot of wheat in that territory back in my days of being on a harvest crew.

[Funny_74]

Thanks a lot for your recommendations. I'll extend my travel schedule then :-) The pictures are great!

[rickers]

Here is a Picasa picture album with a few of the pictures I've taken in Montana. You can click on pics to enlarge or view as a slideshow. If you have dial up they may take some time to load.

Picasa Web Albums - Rick - Montana

[seven of nine]

Rickers, our tour guide extraordinaire Always nice to see you spreading the beauty of the state. Nice work.

[rickers]

Well alrighty then, Just for that, here's whatcha get !
We tooled about a few of the less traveled roads on the Blackfeet Reservation trying to get accustomed to our new camera and we found this old Mission School. The first picture is the Info sign at the driveway entrance. The second pic is of the mission school.
We also saw a few dead horses and cows along the way but I figured you all didn't want to see any pics of that ! I guess winter kill or wolves did them in.

[seven of nine]

Wow, are those...Trees!!!! Very interesting. Wonder when this group of people will be suing the Diocese? Lots of years of tithing are now supporting every tom dick and harry who has some suppressed memory but I digress....

Not to worry. The dashies were too quiet yesterday in the early morning so I went out in the back yard to see what they were up to and there was a dead white tail, looked like it just dropped where it was. Been a hard one this winter. Seeing some bare ground now. Thanks for the photos.

[robertjohnson]

Please read 'Badland' by J. Rabin. ISBN : 0679759069. Homesteading in eastern Montana early last century.

[robertjohnson]

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