I suppose first off I should apologize to everyone I haven't gotten a Christmas card off to yet. Rest assured, it's all of you. But then we're just celebrating Christmas today and tomorrow, an official family decision as we just weren't ready back on the 25th, calendars be damned!

My wife's been working 60-70 hours/week, and I don't even attempt to keep track myself, although it's slowed a bit. She just called and is off early, just in time to wrap up some shopping. Because no, we aren't done with that either. The bargains are to be had here post-peak, though, and I'm liking the idea better right along! I've long lobbied we should celebrate Christmas about mid-February. Back in the game processing days, things were still pretty gonzo in late December. Anyone else recall late seasons and lots of elk in the back of pickups? Now it's still buffalo season, which is perhaps only slightly less hectic, but hey, I must abandon this Scroogish line of thought, as society clearly outvotes me on the matter.

Besides, I do have a lot of cause for Christmas cheer. New Years; perhaps even more so! 2007 was pretty dang interesting, and I expect '08 to be even more. So a heartfelt Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you!

There, that was so much better than stamping all those envelopes, although we really appreciate the cards we get, and you're all on our minds.

It's not like we've been completely ignoring the season, my son's been up to Bridger Bowl pretty regularly during the break, and reports "epic" conditions. They've been catching every cloud that comes along. Here across the range from Bridger, we've had one good dump (which melted). It's a White Christmas, but marginal for cross-country skiing here on the Rockpile Ranch. I've been wanting to hit the backcountry, and just might have to tomorrow. Probably will spend a bit of time on the Avalanche Center site first, but I have some places in mind over in my favorite Madison haunts. I expect the issue will be having enough snow to ski on, versus avalanche danger. That's OK, as I'm risk-averse in that area, among others.

About the most fun I've had in recent days was a surprise free concert by John Bohlinger. Against all odds, I was in town shopping, and heard notice of this outstanding opportunity on the Moose. In this case, it's not Montana's Lieutenant Governor, (who I'm pleased to learn is a notable musician in his own right) but his son, who is among other things bandleader for the Nashville Star television series. This was taking place on short notice at the 317 Pub in the historic Bozeman Hotel, at the eminently reasonable hour (for a guy my age) of 7:00, and struck me as something not to be missed. Kim was tired, but daughter Kristen is now 21, and agreed this was worth checking out.

And was it ever!! The music was astounding, but beyond that it's kind of a small place and we had choice seats up front on a bench along the wall, as it turned out next to neighborhood recording studio owner Dave Goodwin, who it was nice to finally meet. There's been some top names in the music biz recording at his place north of Bozeman, right here in fabulous Springhill, but IMO I doubt any hotter guitar players than John. I'm somewhat of a picker myself, and was dazzled. Bohlinger, Sr. was also there, I'd introduced myself and in the course of congratulations mentioned I play, and my daughter later noticed a couple of times when John, Jr. would lay down some particularly blistering lick and Sr. would look over to see if this was lost on me.

Far from it! I don't make it out for much live music anymore, what with concert ticket prices and all, but this was as good as it gets for free. John played with a local drummer, a guy who works at Music Villa whose name got away on me, and his Nashville Star bandmate Megan Mullins on fiddle, vocals, and guitar (no big surprise, it turns out she plays nearly everything else also!). They pretty well covered the spectrum, from Patsy Cline to bluegrass, rock, jazz... Well, they ended with as hot of version of the Orange Blossom Special as I've heard, and encored with the Beatles' Get Back, one of my all-time top ten favorites. Yep, it was as good as it gets...

Some other good stuff has been happening too, which is only beginning to unfold, and is a big part of the reason I'm looking forward to '08. In past columns I've mentioned our oilseed ventures, and we recently were tickled pink to see a draft report Joel Lindstrom produced summarizing his research on an alternative fuel project for the Department of Defense. I'd be pleased for nothing other than the knowledge a photo of mine will be going pretty far up the chain, but since his research was based on camelina produced by the Flying D Ranch and myself, we both get noticeable mention throughout, and hey, I don't really see a downside to all this! I can't spill beans, or seed pods in this case, but Joel's onto something here.

Especially since... OK, I'm going to go out on a limb and offer a New Year's prediction. As limbs go, this is a big sturdy one, and so I'm pretty confident we're going to see some big changes in '08. Not for the better, in many, perhaps most cases, but change creates opportunity also, it's said.

Hmmm, this is giving me flashbacks to last spring, when I was negotiating with a purported ag banker. I recall looking out his window at yet another burst of construction traffic on Jackrabbit Lane, and saying I couldn't think of a better field to be in than alternative fuels and healthy eating. I don't recall his response, probably the same weasel smile I later learned to see through, but now I'm more solid on that stance than ever.

Not to mention glad I'm not a banker, as things might get ugly. We've only but begun to see the fallout from the subprime mortgage meltdown, and as this article I'm linking points out, the entire global banking system is out on a very, very shaky limb, and hey, what's that cracking noise...?

I studied economics in college under some brilliant professors like Gail Cramer, who taught me things are rarely as simple as that, and maybe the aforementioned website is ran by crackpot alarmists, and yes, it's kind of an extremist viewpoint, but I guess we'll see.

One guy I know isn't an extremist is just up the road in Billings, Montana. Longtime and top-notch Gazette reporter Jim Gransbery's final Barbed Wire column says we've seen the last of cheap food in the US. And yes, I've been complaining about our grocery bill for a while now, and maybe Kim's chickens aren't so bad after all. On the flip-side; it appears maybe agriculture is in for some long-overdue price adjustments. I recently saw spring wheat prices here in Montana are around $10.65/bushel, as opposed to where it's hung (around $3) for decades!

Of course, if you're pouring peak oil in the tank, not to mention using vast amounts of nitrogen fertilizer produced from natural gas, it still might not pencil. But let's say you've kissed off that whole scenario, or are about to...

When you add soaring energy costs to this trifecta, it seems I'm not the only one who thinks we're going to see some economic chaos in '08. Mercy, and our fearless leader thinks he has problems now..!?

In our case, last month between electricity, propane, and fuel, we spent over a thousand dollars. We do have a meat plant with a largish cooler, our newish window and door gaskets leak like sieves (which must be rectified), we have a hide drying facility going and a few other current draws, but still, it's not like we're Al Gore or something! Even at this rate a biofuel generator starts making really a lot of sense, pencils about as quick as anything I've seen lately, and yes, the times, they are a...'changing.

One striking quote I recently saw in a biofuel book said "it doesn't attract capitalists, because it doesn't require capital".

Hmmm, now that could be right down my alley! I disagree to some extent on both counts, but still, it's a good line. Reminds me of one I coined about our wild bison suggestions, that the main thing wrong with them is they don't cost hardly anything!

So I'll end on that chuckle and a sincere wish that '07 was half as kind to you as it was to us. These are interesting times we live in, and really, what more can you ask?

Happy New Year!