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The Moccasin Telegraph
 he phrase "Moccasin Telegraph"
dates back to the frontier days, around the time the telegraph
lines were being strung along the railroads. The standing joke
was that news spread much faster via the person-to-person grapevine
gossip channels, especially since the bison found the new telegraph
poles made superb scratching posts and the lines were often down.
Phone service is arguably somewhat more reliable these days, but
the grapevine functions just as well as ever. It's
how we find out a lot of interesting stuff, a lot of which you
just won't find through conventional channels. So, from time to
time we're going to pass along some tidbits we think you might
find interesting. The old frontier is dead, but we like to think
we're on the new frontier of the information age, and we're glad
to report the Moccasin Telegraph is alive and well. |
| 4/30/08 |
April has been and remains highly variable,
if nothing else. Although there was plenty else,
and so for a change we could have no end of gossip, news,
and perhaps even hot tips!
Except I've given up attempting to predict the future. Well
maybe not altogether, but it's been one surprise after another
here lately so you roll with it, right?
One
recent surprise quite literally cropped up in our fields.
I know, some people think farming is dull, but not long after
tax day we became aware we had a heck of a stand of camelina
going. This was on the stuff where it "failed" last
year. But lo and behold, it didn't quite fail completely,
but seeded itself back to a near-perfect stand which recently
emerged when the glacier melted. But then the ice age returned,
and melted again, exposing the baby camelina to 15 degree
temperatures, which accounts for some of the yellowish leaves
in the photo, but it's pretty tough stuff it seems.
It's really a heck of a deal. My horses had access to a field
destined for summerfallow (or so I thought). Thirty year old
Bo, the last of my Blackfoot Indian horses and not quite retired
yet, seemed taken with something growing there in brief intervals
between snowstorms. I'd interseeded red clover last year,
for a nitrogen boost. It'd taken hold, is set to get serious
this year, and is known to not be good for horses. But still,
the clover was just tiny, and there was all this other little
green stuff which I initially thought was fanweed, the prior
resident winter annual.
But no, the plants grew like mad during the couple of days
of sunshine and warm temps inbetween blizzards, and we discovered
it was camelina! Old Bo clearly has good taste, or knows a
healthy snack on sight.
To our flaggergastment, the Montana Department of Agriculture
isn't so sure. In fact, instead of approving camelina oil
and meal for human or animal consumption, they've put the
brakes on. Temporarily, one hopes. Because yes, there is evidence
that too much of a good thing can be bad.
No...! Oh, gosh, the possibilities...
So this matter is being researched. Speaking of researchers,
this camelina fluke of ours is sufficiently unusual that one
of the best came out today, Alice Pilgeram. She's co-director
of the Biobased Institute at MSU. In yet more small-world
circles it turns out she grew up adjacent to our old Hi-Line
haunts. So she's been around Bo's type before, and thinks
the old-timer probably knows enough not to eat too much. He
does just kind of snack on it for a bit, is still quite taken
with the full diet of hay he gets, and I swear, a big part
of the reason he's lived this long is anticipation of his
daily winter ration of pellets or grain. He may have a refined
palate, but he's a tough old codger, only recently bumped
down to #2 in the pecking order, and remains the only one
of my horses who's bucked me off. Twice.
The most recent was only a couple of summers ago, and still
gives me a grin. I've had Bo since he was
eight. A Morgan/Quarter cross, he already had a good bit of
packing and mountain experience due to time spent with the
best outfitter in those parts, who later tragically died in
a horse wreck. At least since I've known him, Bo has viewed
humans with suspicion at best. That's not unheard of with
horses, some have never forgiven us for "domesticating"
them.
Bo's getting to be an old man, though, and while I'd never
describe him as friendly I'd like to think he'd at least give
me a positive review. So it was a nice summer afternoon, I
wanted to gather up the horses for some reason, and came on
Bo first who was uncharacteristically separated from the others.
Not only that he didn't even attempt to evade me, or at least
made only a token effort. Catching a horse is usually a mental
chess game to some degree.
I'd never been tempted to ride him bareback before, but here
I had him caught, he was being so docile, and it'd be fun
to ride the old boy & gather the others. He even stood
there while I grabbed a handful of mane and momentarily psyched
up for the leap aboard. I made it, too, for at least a couple
of seconds before he hit the eject button! And then, the old
boy only ran off about twenty yards and stopped. I swear,
he was almost contrite, and everything about him said "nothing
personal, but that's over the line".
I may even have to put a bit of camelina meal in with his
dessert. Of course as it stands that might be illegal, except
I'm not selling it for such a purpose, it's my own production
and Bo is, shall we say, not destined for consumption. No,
he gets to live out his days here. Besides, it appears camelina
meal is kind of self-limiting in a diet, as if animals get
too much they tend to go off their feed. That's right, it
might be viewed as a natural appetite suppressant!
Hmmm...
Plenty of things are bad for you if consumed in excess, but
it appears we already have some pretty good numbers on camelina,
and so one would hope the wheels of bureaucracy wouldn't lock
up and slide us into the ditch, or at least the slow lane.
Recent experience runs contrary, though. This has been an
intense week so far, but in seemingly unrelated exchanges
I've ran into FIVE separate instances where bureaucratic administration
is stalemating progress. Good grief, if I wrote all that down
it'd probably ensure I could never work in this state again!
On the other hand you have people like Alice, down in the
trenches as it were doing just incredible work on
agricultural alternatives for Montana, discovering new uses
for alternative crops that could create huge new markets,
so I'm not painting with too broad of brush here, but come
on guys, it's time to get out the (red) tape cutters.
Aside from that, at least here in the Gallatin spring has
barely teased us, and in fact we woke up to several inches
of white again this morning. We're back to green by sunset,
but I doubt anyone's sunbathing out there. We did a bit of
grass seeding a couple of days ago, and stuck the air seeder
in the ground yesterday far enough to verify it was still
borderline mud. Otherwise I don't think anyone's turned a
wheel in the immediate neighborhood, and now likely won't
again for a bit. Makes "volunteer" camelina look
even better!
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| 3/30/08 |
Global warming seemed like a dubious
concept here in the “Valley of the Flowers” this morning,
when we awoke to a thermometer reading of 9 degrees. Even
that was perhaps balmy in comparison to our old digs up in
Cut
Bank, where they recorded a daunting +1. There’s a winter
storm watch for tonight and tomorrow, so I guess we’ll see
if March goes out like a lion. Feels more like a penguin to
me.
In spite of all that, I’ve had the farming bug for a while
now. We’re
planning to raise camelina
again, which should be seeded the earlier the better. Last
year I definitely got it in way too late, and suffered a pretty
visible crop failure as a result. Oh, well... If you mess
with alternative crops that kind of thing will happen. It
wasn’t my first wreck, and while my generally positive outlook
almost prevents me from saying so, it probably won’t be the
last. Anyway, early seeding is a moot concept at the moment,
in our case at least, as the fields are still covered with
something resembling an ice cap, and even though it’s technically
spring, the outlook for this week is downright wintry.
At least now we have machinery
that will allow us to cover the acres hasta pronto when it
does warm up. Besides camelina, we’re planning on putting
in lentils and golden flax, and yes, maybe even some wheat
and barley. I’d like to plant some mustard also, but am having
a bit of a time tracking down seed. In my previous
incarnation as a Hi-Line farmer we raised mustard a few
times, and usually got seed out of Canada. Now my son’s the
only family member with a passport, due to his recent trip
to Mexico, but his other commitments likely preclude him joining
me on a trip to the north country this week. Fortunately my
other seed connections may be able to come through, so we’ll
see…
Seed availability is extremely tight this spring (except for
camelina and flax, in our case). A lot of winter wheat went
in last fall around Montana, and its survival prospects are
still up in the air. If substantial amounts have to be re-seeded
to spring crops, things might get really interesting, as from
all indications the seed just isn’t out there. Not many farmers
could resist prices of $10-12/bushel, and emptied their bins.
That was before it went to $20, though, and I recently ran
into the Belgrade elevator manager who told me they even hit
$24 for a time! Mind-boggling… Especially since Belgrade
is not exactly one of the modern 100+ car shuttle loading
facilities the railroads insist on anymore. No, they still
load railroad cars the old-fashioned one-at-a-time method,
with some of the lowest freight rates in the state in spite
of it.
Incomprehensible as it’s been in my lifetime, it appears that
stratospheric ag commodity prices just might become the norm
in the foreseeable future. Stocks of most commodities are
extremely tight worldwide, with just no margin for error or
weather related production problems. Hahahaha! Sorry,
I can’t help but laugh at that statement. Weather issues are
a given, in my experience. Plus, it appears quite a bit of
investment funds are flowing into commodity markets. I suppose
that’s predictable enough. Let’s see, in recent memory… when
the tech boom went bust those funds went into the stock market,
and then more recently real estate, and now they’re looking
for the next big thing.
I was intrigued with commodity futures markets in my college
days, and dabbled in them a bit after graduation before I
quickly realized they make poker look like a sure thing. I
don’t recall the stats offhand, but even the “experts” lose
more often than they win, quickly learn to rapidly bail on
losing positions, and maximize their winners. I doubt your
average investor has that kind of knowledge or discipline,
and various shark analogies come to mind.
No, I believe I’ll continue to avoid the futures markets,
as the actual
tangible commodity markets should be plenty interesting. With
relatively foolproof crops like corn, wheat, and soybeans
at record price levels there’s not a great deal of interest
in planting oddball alternative crops. One of my favorite
market analysts, John Duvenaud of the Wild
Oats Grain Market Advisory says stocks of most alternative
crops are already extremely tight, to the point they make
wheat look plentiful, and if any production blips come down
the pike (a given, IMO); look out!
In any case, I’d like to think we’re on the verge of the sort
of ag profitability not seen since the 70’s, when my parents
were able to sock away a small fortune. Of course, production
expenses are astronomically higher now. Unless… you’re making
your own fuel and getting your nitrogen fertilizer out of
the air via legumes, versus out of the ground via “natural”
gas. Of course, with alternative crops you don’t just haul
it to the elevator and collect a check, you have to hustle
your own markets. Our ongoing packaging and labeling projects
are getting there, though, we’ve recently become aware of
some extremely promising uses for the byproducts like camelina
meal, and I remain incurably optimistic.

On a completely different note, at least this lingering wintry
weather has had an upside besides the welcome moisture prospects.
I finally got around to breaking out my Randonee
ski gear for a couple of backcountry ventures, more or less
in our back yard here in the Bridgers. As I’ve mentioned off
and on, over the past couple of years I’d scrounged some decent
Alpine Touring gear, where you can free-heel on the way up,
and lock down for the descent. First I scored an irresistible
bargain on some high end Scarpa
Denali boots. Bindings took longer, though. I don’t know
whether to blame my frugal homesteader ancestry or just what,
but I seldom pay full retail, and find the idea of shelling
out $400 or more just for a pair of bindings somewhat offensive.
I was beginning to wonder, as a couple of winters monitoring
eBay hadn’t produced
anything approaching a bargain on something like a pair of
Fritschi
Freerides, so I eventually settled for their predecessors,
some Swiss military surplus versions. Aside from being a real
pain to put back on in deep snow if you biff it and eject,
they suffice nicely. Skis were the easy part, and I’m pleased
with my ski swap score; some apparently one-of-a-kind Hart
all-mountain skis constructed of honeycomb aluminum, like
the old Hexcel’s I used in my ski patrol days. They’re light
as feathers, and ideally suited to off-trail backcountry touring.
Chained up with a set of climbing skins, you can all but climb
trees with them!
I’ve long been wanting to ski one of my favorite places here
on the west slope, my sure-fire deer spot. Before I learned
to find elk on a consistent basis, a particular bowl I’d stumbled
into on an exploratory hike in the early 80’s produced a significant
portion of our protein diet. True to form, on the descent
I discovered the very well-hidden trail that provides practical
access. It crosses a bit of private land, and I’m told I was
the only person who ever requested access permission. I believe
to this day it’s not widely known, especially since now you
have to draw a special tag to hunt buck deer in the Bridgers
and hunting pressure is greatly reduced. This would not appear
to bear on
backcountry skiing, except now it seems I all but have my
own private ski area!! Yes, I believe the boards will
be seeing more use in coming winters. I’d kind of maxed on
resort skiing, in fact I recall firmly planting foot in mouth
yet again with a couple of buffalo clients on this issue.
We were discussing skiing while skinning their buffalo, and
I compared resort skiing to masturbation. I thought this was
a hilarious analogy, but then they mentioned they ski pretty
much daily at a resort in Idaho, and oops…
Bad jokes aside, I skied so much at Bridger
Bowl back in the day that I just can’t get excited about
it, and shelling out most of a C-note for a lift ticket at
Big
Sky runs counter to these tightwad tendencies I keep mentioning,
but now…! My “secret” bowl offers about a 2200’ vertical drop,
with no end of possible lines. Thus far I’ve only skied the
“trail” down, the same route I use going up. I packed so many
deer out of there on horseback, not to mention hiking it,
that flying along on a pair of skis is beyond exhilarating,
and I literally laughed out loud from sheer joy a few times!
It’s been a while since that happened at a resort. Not least,
I’d venture the avalanche danger is all but nil. The trail
is mostly timbered, not doghair stuff, just nicely spaced
old growth. The bowl itself has a mostly southern exposure,
and consequent sunshine tends to solidify the snowpack. Not
to mention, it has just enough scattered timber, and a nice
stand of sagebrush. I seriously doubt it’s ever slid, certainly
not since we’ve lived here. I know, never say never,
but avalanche conditions would have to be just off the scale.
I’m not completely stupid in these matters, even though I
do press the envelope a bit with solo ventures. None of my
buds have AT gear, although I about have Cody talked into
snowshoeing up, a necessity for snowboarders (unless they
have a split board).
The only downside is I’ve discovered my own private ski area
just in time for spring, disregarding this week’s forecast.
Next year…
Hmmm, that’s a recurrent theme in farming too. That’s OK.
A fella needs something to look forward to, right?
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