Well, the first month of twenty ten wasn't too bad, for January in Montana. Except wait, people in Havre and numerous other burgs might disagree. If they've thawed out enough to move by now. The weather has been brutal up there...

But speaking of Havre, it's been suggested we change the name to Favre, after Brett Favre, the NFL quarterback. This was proposed (tongue-in-cheek, kinda) as way to boost the economy, assuming Favre would move to Havre, and pay taxes there. Except this would ruin the "you can have 'er" joke, but aside from that sounds like a bully idea! Long as he doesn't visit in January.

It got kinda cold here a time or two, but Thank God we don't get much wind here. Except wait, I even reserve the right to change my opinion about wind. Turns out our old farming haunts on the Hi-Line are high on the list of proposed wind energy developments. Like real high.

There's already a significant wind "farm" by Ethridge, and it appears the next one just might be right up the road there under the rimrocks, where I spent significant parts of my life going round and round on a tractor. Well, I did also spend quite a bit of time exploring, first on horseback and later mostly by motorcycle. Judging by the number of buffalo jumps and teepee rings, I wasn't the first one who'd found the area interesting.

In fact I have little doubt it was better suited to that, than grain farming. Although, we're even more glad now that my Grandpa Mink saw potential up there all those years ago, and that my folks gave it a go. It's not exactly the Garden of Eden, which brings up a memory that's always made me smile, even moreso now.

I was just a kid, high-school age probably, & had stopped in the Derrick bar in Kevin to pick up a Sunday newspaper. The usual contingent of farmers and oilfield folks were there, and our neighbor Archie McLean had just read the yield results from the ag research test plots scattered around the state. As usual, the ones down by Conrad just completely eclipsed the yields in our neighborhood, nearly double in a lot of cases. Archie rattled off a few numbers, and with an ironic grin said "but for 50 miles we'd all be rich!"

Archie got cancer a few years later and passed away, way too young. I hope he's grinning up there somewhere now...

We still have the property up there, although we're farming similarly poor and rocky (if quite scenic) ground now here in the "Valley of the Flowers". Destiny or something, I guess...

At least it kinda forces you to explore doing it different; alternative crops and marketing venues, so maybe it's good. That was certainly the vibe at the Winter Farmer's Market here in Bozeman yesterday. The movie Food, Inc. had shown in the same building, the Emerson Cultural Center Thursday evening. Turnout was reportedly outstanding; ~600 people, with a couple hundred staying for the panel discussion afterward. Alas, Kim and I didn't make it (although we've seen the movie, and yes, it's horrifying). Traffic and sales were good yesterday, and it's more than refreshing to deal with folks who're looking for a different model.

I've said it before, but am becoming more convinced all the time. Once you start eating healthy, there's no going back. After a while you can tell, almost instantly whether food has nutrition in it, or whether it's just "empty" calories. One of many conversations yesterday was with a guy who had lost ~180 pounds since he started eating healthy. The other stuff; there's basically nothing there, and so your body keeps telling you "feed me!!", and you keep eating. Healthy food, it doesn't take near as much to satisfy. We've been buying (or rather, often bartering or trading) a significant portion of our produce from other vendors at the market. I'm telling ya... there's no comparison.

And, we just recently finished cutting up our buffalo, a scrumptious yearling, and oh...! It's off the scale. Tender, but way more than that, it's just loaded with nutrition. Real Meat, indeed...

Speaking of which, buffalo skinning and related labors ate up a significant portion of January, so to speak. That wound up for the season last weekend, though. It's nice to catch a "breather", although I am going to kinda miss the income.

Time to get rolling on cleaning our malt barley and peddling it to breweries. Plus of course it's bookwork season. Bookwork and bookings, barley and beer breweries, buffalo skulls and robes and hmmm... clearly I need to delve further into the alphabet. Just think of the potential...