March 03rd, 2019

​The last 7 days were crazy. I am now just trying to make sense of it all, and remember just how much happened while such remarkably terrible weather conditions complicated ever move made. Confident the ranch had everything under control, I left for Helena Saturday afternoon in hopes of joining the Open Circle Sangha on Sunday morning. Dangerous roads, compounded by blowing snow, forced me to turn back and return to the ranch. This decision turned out to be a good call, as Sunday morning brought predictions of more difficult weather for the remainder of the week. Ryan and I chose to move the young cows in NBW3 to Big Wall where water was good, and the cows would have better protection. This task went without a hitch, and by early afternoon I chose to head for Bozeman, where I had six meetings scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, in hopes of getting there before driving conditions worsened. That decision also proved fortunate, as I arrived in Bozeman easily before dark, before the forecasted storm arrived bringing bitter cold with over a foot of new snow. Monday brought miserable conditions across the state, and Bozeman was right in the thick of it. Despite the discomfort of getting around, I successfully attended four meeting over the course of the day-a meeting with American Prairie Refuge staff, hosting the Rangeland Monitoring Group conference call, speaking to thirty plus students in the MSU Holistic Management Class, and finishing the day with an evening dharma talk at the Bozeman Zen Sangha. After two more meetings on Tuesday morning, I left Bozeman mid-day for the ranch taking the interstate to Billings where traffic often crawled along at 30 mph due to poor visibility. I had learned the evening before that a portion of the Big Wall Group had drifted back home remixing with the older cows. I was anxious to get back to see what might be fixed before I tried to catch a flight to Colorado on Thursday morning. I got back home with enough light to get animals located while also getting stuck and helping other trying to help us, get stuck. In the end, everything turned out, and our neighbor left us with the best tow-rope the ranch has ever had-an unexpected and fun ‘prize’ for everyone’s efforts. In the morning Ryan and I made a quick calculation that the best decision would be to trail all the cows to Big Wall, for the same reasons, we had sent the earlier bunch. Last year, though intentionally, we also found ourselves combining cattle arising out of the need to simplify getting feed to the cows. Once done, I was off to Billings to spend the night at the Northern, as I needed to catch a plane for Denver at 5:00 am. A little fatigued I arrived at the meeting in Fort Collins before noon. Meeting was great, and certainly worth attending, though probably not so wise, with all that we were juggling, yet the organizers had paid for a $900 plane ticket to get there. I returned Friday night to the most brutal NE storm of the month, if that is possible, and had to stay with friends, as I could not drive to ranch, even if I tried due to drifted roads. Besides the next day (Saturday), Dana and I were committed to attend our grandson’s (Elliot) baptism in Bozeman. Luckily, oil field workers broke through the road to town, and Dana was able to get out, and pick me up on Billings with just enough time to reach Bozeman at 5:00 for the baptismal event.  Sunday we turned around and returned to the ranch, with just enough time and light to help Ryan get the calves and cows fed, as nothing received feed Saturday. As Ryan was double feeding, in anticipation of drifts, all the animals seemed in relatively good shape. Great was everyone’s relief as dusk fell, that despite the all the hardship and uncertainty of the past week, our obligations had been met, and the animals were no worse for the challenges faced.