And now this year we’d gone deer hunting in eastern Montana and likewise awoke Sunday morning to only about a foot or less of snow, but an ugly howling blizzard that again had sensible creatures burrowed in tight someplace out of the wind. At least it was a pleasure to wake up in a nice warm wall tent, on the only dry ground extant, because I’d originally planned on backpacking and camping near an Indian vision quest sight I found last fall. That would have not only been a lot more work, but coming out Sunday would have been just no fun at all if not downright dangerous. Certainly no more dangerous than driving home, though! At least we’d chained up the night before, as just getting back to a paved road wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Bitter experience has taught me that it’s incalculably better to chain up before you get stuck instead of after the fact.

This fact was lost on several truckers though, who’d spun out going up a little pass. That thing was a skating rink, but one of them (apparently in denial of some sort) tried to pass several other spun-out and chaining up semi’s and predictably spun out himself in the oncoming lane. We just barely squeaked by on the right, and would have had to chain up again ourselves if we’d stopped, but oncoming traffic was not so lucky and I bet total blockage was imminent.

But that wasn’t the only incident of moronic and dangerous driving by truckers I saw. One apparent flatlander barreled by a long string of cars in the snow-covered passing lane, blinding one and all for thirty seconds or so. It’s amazing he didn’t leave a trail of carnage behind (in fact I saw remarkably few wrecks). People like that should be publicly flogged, at a minimum!

And then, we arrived home about dark. I wouldn’t say we were just bursting with vigor, but had to rally anyway as the Bridgers once again caught the Big Dump! We had about 16" here, with reports from a couple feet (further north along the west slope) to four feet across the range in Bridger Canyon. My snowboarding son is beside himself!

The snow was preceded by rain, and I hope the resulting base layer is not the start of another ice age or something! The National Weather Service doesn’t think so, and continue to predict yet another mild winter, but I really think those guys should have to come out and shovel (or skin buffalo!) in the stuff. I dunno, it feels to me like we just might have a winter this year…

So anyway, instead of reclining by the fire upon return, what loomed was removal of the post pounder still mounted on the tractor (I had delusions of still getting a bit of fencing done). Last winter I never even had to chain the thing up, so had to excavate the tractor chains from whence they’d sank under other heavy items and put them on. Luckily I was able to handle that chore in the shed, though, because installing them in snow is a total immersion process. And then once the blade was mounted, plowed the driveway and towed sundry stuck vehicles by headlamp. Oh, yeah, it totally rocked!

This was necessary, however, as I had what I thought were two buffalo to pick up first thing Monday AM. They turned into eight, though, and so another brisk day of buffalo skinnage ensued, as did cumulative fatigue and a lingering case of The Crud, not to mention mountains of correspondence and holy cow, it’s the last day of the month again! So soon!!

But that’s OK, or it has to be, I guess. No, really, it is. We’re thankful for all the opportunities (even if they can grow tiring). Besides, as I heard Cody tell a friend the other night as they were walking back to the house after helping wrestle buffalo hides and heads about; "at least it’s never dull around here".

You presumably read these ramblings to glean some actual info or intel, or at least entertainment, not just a bunch of whimpering, though, and a common recent topic of conversation is what the hunting success was like from this past season. My sense is that overall the harvest was pretty decent, although I’m hearing not a few notable exceptions, so this matter is not statistically verified yet. I have a couple of meetings in upcoming days that will shed light on the situation, & will pass that along as I get it. Talking with game processors and hunters, though, quite a bit of venison wound up in people’s freezers. Although, from what I’ve seen it’s been more deer than elk. In fact, I’m real curious to get a handle on the elk harvest.

FWP continues to emphasize accomplishing harvest objectives in the 5-week general season, and mostly doing away with late seasons. I dunno about that…

My sense is that areas where elk are flourishing (just about everywhere except right by Yellowstone) the harvest isn’t making that much of a dent in the population. Again, wildlife tolerance levels are changing, and it can be argued that some of these management districts that are supposedly "over quota" might not be anymore. So it’s not like I’m saying we have too doggone many elk, but I do think there’s opportunity to increase particularly cow elk harvests. That’s something we’re working toward with the Madison Ranchlands Group, but the FWP emphasis is to get it done by the end of the general season.

Once again, though, the hunting  just got good. The day after the season closed! I personally think a 2-week extension for antlerless elk in at least some districts wouldn’t hurt a thing, except that I’d undoubtedly go which in conjunction with buffalo skinning just might be the final straw that leads to complete exhaustive collapse, but aside from that…

Montana already has some of the most liberal hunting seasons anywhere. You can hunt elk from early September till the end of November (plus a few remaining late seasons). I believe we can expand that, though, to perhaps a 7 or eight week general (rifle) season. Or, the existing 5-week situation plus flexibly scheduled extensions.

Wait! That’s what the new Elk Plan suggests. All right!

Let’s do it, guys…