It's raining, it's pouring...

Well, it was, a little bit ago anyway. This has been one of, if not the wettest July I can recall. It's absolutely sucked for haying weather, although aside from that the precip is welcome. Haying has definitely been problematic, though (which seems to be part of the definition of the word). A lot of hay that was laid down early, in the latter days of June/early July was rained on over, and over, and over again. My son Cody is haying with 87 year old Leonard Reed again, and they had to rake some of their early stuff five times! Of course after being rained on repeatedly like that, the quality is zilch. In fact, good quality hay is going to be in short supply around the Gallatin this year.

Things are a bit behind normal around here (we're talking plant development, although bookwork among other things fit the criteria also). Last year I'd decided the old adage about "don't hay until after the 4th of July" was getting outdated, but that was then, this is now...

So shortly after the 4th, I got just enough of my own hay put up inbetween storms to realize the yields are atrociously low. Last year I had the best hay I've cut in this neighborhood, and this year it's basically not worth cutting. Other reports from around the neighborhood concur; yields on dryland hay that normally does reasonably well are 1/4 or less of normal. Odd, as it's been generally cool and wet, except for in mid to late May when we went from winter to summer in a week! That brief hot & dry spell seemed to really hurt the grass, some of it at least.

And then of course my baler, the renowned Ten Dollar Baler broke. This sort of thing is not limited to aged equipment, as long-time neighbor Tom LeProwse graciously agreed to pick up the slack. I'd done a bit of baling for him a few years back, when his baler broke. This time, he pulled into the field, went about fifteen yards, and his baler main input shaft broke! And then it rained...

What is it with haying equipment? Doesn't seem to matter how new or old it is, it breaks! And now, my main haying tractor, the heirloom Massey has suffered a serious malfunction also, it looks like the hydraulic pump may be kaput. Fortunately, perhaps the only upside to all this is we've thankfully been referred to an experienced independent mechanic who grew up around haying machinery. He works for a truck service place, but moonlights on his own and would like to develop a clientele of farmers. Has reasonable rates, is open to barter, comes well recommended, and so at least that's a relief. I sure miss having a mechanic next door...

Further adding to stress levels, the tractor broke down right before we were leaving on a long-awaited "vacation". We'd long been planning on attending the Alternative Energy Resource Organization's tour of organic pioneer Bob Quinn's farm near Big Sandy. We had the prior weekend "off" as there was no Saturday Farmer's Market due to the fair. We'd originally planned to make a loop through the Flathead first, dropping off numerous buffalo robes and skulls and visiting friends, as well as our old stomping grounds in Glacier Park. The aforementioned breakdowns and delays reversed the order, though. And yes, we could have bagged it altogether, stayed home and turned wrenches, gnashed our teeth and flailed our limbs, but no...

Both Kim and I had been working continuously for months, if not years, and were getting a little frayed around the edges. We both spent significant portions of our childhoods in Glacier Park, and hadn't been there in five, going on six years! In fact the idea of taking time "off", much less a vacation, had started to seem like a foreign concept. Tsk... Well, not counting the odd hunting trip, but those tend to be more work than "work", so that doesn't count. So when the tractor broke right before our planned departure, it didn't take long to decide that if we bagged it & stayed home, one or both of us was likely to snap, or at least become extremely crabby, so to heck with it... (plus it rained while we were gone, so we didn't miss much).

And, it was time very well spent. The Quinn tour was fascinating, not to mention an extremely good networking opportunity. Bob Quinn is truly a pioneer, and has been organic farming for twenty some odd years now, way before the recent levels of interest. His operation stresses crop rotations, genetic diversity, legume cover crops, and direct marketing to consumers. The tour was well attended, although I was kind of surprised there weren't more farmers there. In fact a show of hands indicated more agency and academic types than producers. The Montana Department of Agriculture was well represented, as well as numerous researchers from MSU and the Extension Service.

Quinn's style of operation couldn't hardly be more diametrically opposed to the conventional industrialized ag model, so it was refreshing to see the Powers That Be there, and more than that endorsing his practices and offering their input on it. The times, they are a'changing...

Fortunately, not everything is changing, though. We got out of Quinn's in time to make it to East Glacier that night, and enjoyed the best Mexican food we'd had in quite a while at Serrano's. Luckily we'd called ahead and managed to snag one of the few remaining motel rooms, at the Mountain Pine Motel. Visitation in Glacier is notably up, oddly enough (given the economy), and lodging was in tight supply. Luckily we'd also reserved one of our favorite campsites at Fish Creek Campground for the next night. Since this was kind of a "second honeymoon" in a way, we'd also reserved a room at the Outlaw Inn in Kalispell for the following night, where we spent our wedding night 27 years ago.

I thought about basing this column on a "motel review" theme, as there's certainly plenty of material just on that note. We were kind of wondering about our arrangements for the first night, the only motel in Big Sandy, Q's. It appeared kind of aged from the photos we'd seen, and as I've noted before those aged small-town motels can range from fine to frightening. The owners didn't have the best phone skills, and so we were a bit apprehensive, but...

In person, the owners were fine, quite nice in fact, and the room was completely acceptable. In fact, in some ways it was the best one we had on the trip. The next night, we were just glad to get a room in East Glacier, but I swear, you could hear the people in the next room if they took a deep breath. Our tent the next night just about offered more privacy!

And then Outlaw Inn in Kalispell used to be the place, but it's getting to be a little rough around the edges, and friends in the area said we should have checked with them first. Oh, well, it was still fun. In fact the whole Glacier portion of the trip stirred up all kinds of memories. Kim's clan camped at Two Medicine during her youth, and my surrogate grandparents (Art and June Madsen) spent their summers at Many Glacier, and I'm eternally grateful that I got to stay with them for extended periods. That was the start of my outdoor experiences, and they were great mentors. I still plainly recall listening to bears walk about outside their tent during the night. It didn't seem to unduly concern the Madsen's, though. But then of course they were careful about food odors and such, and kept any temptations locked up in the vehicle. This was years prior to the "Night of the Grizzlies", and after that even June & Art got a hard-sided camper.

Anymore, though, tent camping is back in vogue. In fact we were struck by the change in visitor demographics. You don't see very many motor homes anymore. In fact most of the visitors are in smaller, newer fuel-efficient cars. We'd been noticing that around the Bozone also. It wasn't long ago that there were all sorts of motor homes towing a second vehicle going up & down the roads, but not anymore...

Another thing that really struck me, is the condition of the forests. We took the back roads when possible, starting off the trip with dropping off a buffalo skull at the Ringling Bar. Even the east side of the Bridgers shows quite a few more dead trees than here on the west side. Same with the Little Belts, as we went over King's Hill pass on our way to Great Falls and points north. And then, the forest particularly on the east side of Glacier is looking pretty rough. I asked a ranger at the top of Logan Pass, and he said that wasn't even the (getting-to-be) commonplace damage from pine beetles, but spruce budworms. Things looked a little better in the Flathead, but then we took the back roads on the final leg, going over Pipestone Pass southeast of Butte, and wow! I'd heard things looked bad in that area, and they're getting worse. In fact give it another year or two, and mercy... There are some huge fires coming down the pike, one of these years.

Fortunately it was nice and green in most areas (barring dying trees), and fire danger remains low in much of Montana, for the time being at least. And now, it looks like it's getting ready to rain again...