The unusually warm days of December have us fooled into thinking autumn might last forever. Scooter still thinks it’s good weather for a swim in Coulee Creek, although he doesn’t linger in the water as he did back in August.

When daylight doesn’t spread across the land until after 7am, and the sun tucks away behind the horizon well before 5pm, there is no mistaking that we are close to the Winter Solstice. In the evening, the hen house is dimly lit with a string of solar-powered Christmas lights. We can fool a few of the younger chickens to continue laying eggs. Some of our hens are well past their prime, but busyness mixed with a dash of sentimentality (especially for the little grandma bantam hen) means they will be around for awhile longer.

Oliver the cat showed up in our barnyard back in October, and slunk around on the periphery for awhile. We’d see him down at the garden before bolting up the hill into the pines as we approached on the driveway. Or he’d be perched on the sandstone cliff behind the house momentarily before disappearing behind a boulder. Finally one morning I caught him in the shed on the cat shelf cleaning up the kibble that Bear and Suzie had left behind. He was skittish, but curious and talkative. After a few days he cautiously climbed into my lap. A week later and we are pals. Welcome to the barnyard community, Oliver!

We are looking forward to gathering with friends and customers at the Audubon Center’s third annual Holiday Market on Saturday 12/9 from 10-2. Come down to pick up a few stocking stuffers (beef snack sticks for the lucky ones on your list!) or a summer sausage for your charcuterie tray. We’ll also have a few steaks, meaty soup bones and some cuts of lamb on hand. The other vendors always have an impressive array of quality goods, and I manage to accomplish much of my holiday shopping in one convenient stop. We hope to see you there!

Today we are feeling especially grateful for our community of customers, friends, and family. With your support, we are able to take care of this little piece of prairie and all of its residents while raising grassfed beef and living out our values. Thank you for all you do to cheer us on. We appreciate you dear community!

My oh my, October did sure fly by! It is well past time for some more Scenes from the Ranch.

We moonlighted as a couple of munchkins on Halloween, joining the Lehfeldt family’s Wizard of Oz crew. The town of Lavina on Halloween is a great place to be for some good old fashioned trick or treating fun! Plans are already in the works for a next year’s theme.

After a brief, strong blast of winter weather mid-month, blue skies and mild days have returned. We rode out on a calm Saturday afternoon to gather our cows in order to wean the calves. We fence line wean so the cows can visit their calves for a few days until they realize they’d rather be out grazing. Calves will stay on our place grazing grass for a couple of years before butchering.

Suzie! This silver-necked sweetheart loves to tag along on barnyard chores. Usually she is up on fenceposts safely away from the intent stares of Maverick.

Meet Revna, a 6-month old Brabant filly. She is one of two new additions to our barnyard this fall. We’ll be training them up over the next few years to work alongside Jack and Jill. Stay tuned for photos of her partner in the next Scenes posts.

I wrote the following this past spring during the Field Notes Writing Workshop at the Montana Natural History Center. You can hear me read it for Montana Public Radio on the MNHC website here.

Hiking across the expanse of central Montana prairie that I call home, I can see at least three mountain ranges in the distance at all times. On the horizon to the north are the Snowy Mountains, a low range blanketed in white that holds fond memories of summertime retreats from the heat of the high plains. To the west are the Crazies, jagged and powerful, the epitome of majestic mountains. Far to the south the Beartooth front appears diminutive, although I know from experience the true heft of their uplift from the Yellowstone Valley far below. And to the east, the forested ridges of the Bull Mountains loom close and familiar. In comparison with these formidable landforms, the rolling prairie may seem uninspiring and monotonous. But I know that this prairie holds a secret. This is coulee country, a landscape peppered with gullies waiting to be explored. 

When I moved to the banks of Big Coulee Creek, I didn’t realize the significance of this name. I had become accustomed to it through my growing familiarity with my husband’s nearby hometown of Lavina and had to chuckle when my sister sent me an NPR article titled “Do We Talk Funny? 51 American Colloquialisms.” According to the author, the main regionalism heard across Montana is – you guessed it – coulee. Turns out this isn’t just the name of the creek where we live, but it is a name applied more broadly across the region to these distinct features of the landscape, the steep-sided valleys carved by intermittent flowing water. It derives from the French verb “couler,” to flow. Before moving here, I had heard of ravines, draws, and gulches, but I was unfamiliar with coulees. Now I found myself surrounded by them: Pine Coulee, Twin Coulee, and Sand Coulee, to name a few. 

The creek that runs by our home starts in the Big Coulee twenty-five miles southwest of us. My favorite hiking path takes me across the prairie to the edge of the cliffs above Big Coulee Creek.  Here the prairie was never disturbed by farming and a diverse suite of native grasses thrives: three awn, bluebunch wheatgrass, blue grama, and my personal favorite, Indian ricegrass, whose open panicles wave in the breeze like tiny chandeliers. I descend into a small coulee that will thread me down to the creek bottom and I immediately feel a drop in temperature. Here I enter a microclimate where the moisture is great enough for the ponderosa pines, which grow short and stocky on the rims above, to become towering trees more typical of the forests in the wetter western part of Montana. 

The edges of the coulee around me are rimmed with sandstone slabs jutting out in angular shapes of various sizes and in various states of decay. Occasionally I’ve grabbed a piece of rock and looked down to find the imprint of a bivalve shell, remnants of life from an inland ocean that covered much of the interior of North America. Underneath the sandstone ledges, piles of animal scat have accumulated over the years. Residents that take shelter here include the bushy-tailed woodrat and the porcupine, who makes its dens in the bigger cave-like crevices. Where the coulee opens up above the shores of the creek, swallow nests dot the cliffs and one large pile of sticks marks the nest site of a hawk high on a sheltered ledge.

Coulee country is indeed home to many discoveries if you slow down to listen to the whispers of the secrets held in this landscape. Treasures await in the cool, protected depths of these coulees etched into the prairie across Montana. 

Sunday Surrey ride! We enjoyed an unusually cool August day with a ride up the county road to Belmont. The gentle movement and peace of the prairie eventually lulled Maverick to sleep. I wasn’t too far behind.

A couple of weekends ago, it was incredibly hot and so we spent my birthday floating on the Yellowstone. We are truly lucky to live so close to this amazing river. The float from Duck Creek to Blue Creek took us through cottonwood galleries full of songbirds. On one rocky shore, we even saw three young river otters.

Susie – a one year old cat we acquired from the neighbors – loves to follow me around the barnyard while I do chores. She is spunky and inquisitive. She is also perfectly content to sit on my lap on the porch in the morning as I enjoy my coffee and greet the day. I never suspected that I was a cat person, but she, Bear, Walter and Jasmine have proved me wrong!

Simple summer suppers include fresh garden greens, sourdough cornbread and steaks on the grill. Perfection.

We’ve had some lovely weather for riding and checking on the cows. Seventy degrees is my idea of perfect! Jack and I are getting along well as I regain my confidence and seat in the saddle. Meanwhile, I’m doing groundwork with Ruby to strengthen our relationship with hopes of future rides.

One evening we had bluebird skies here in Lavina, but a storm was brewing to the south over Billings. The clouds were magical.

Bear, the porch cat, lounging in style and with character as always.

Bart working with Jack and Jill to spread organic soil amendments with our new horse-drawn sprayer. Sign up for our quarterly e-newsletter to learn more about this exciting project! The next edition of the newsletter comes out tomorrow, Wednesday 7/19. Sign up for the e-newsletter using this form. Please note: the quarterly e-newsletter is different from these bi-weekly(ish) blog posts so make sure to get signed up for it if you aren’t already!

We’ve restocked our 8th beef boxes! Each box comes with steaks, roasts and ground beef. Order while they last for weekly delivery to Billings! Or visit us at the Yellowstone Valley Farmers Market on Saturdays to buy beef by the cut. We have a full selection of steaks, brats, roasts, snack sticks and more in stock. Our booth is located on Broadway and 3rd Ave N. in Billings, and we’re there almost every Saturday from 8am – 12pm.

We had the immense good fortune to float the Smith River with a great group of friends last week. It was the first time we got away together in many years, and was made possible thanks to help from friends who took care of the animals while we were gone. It was relaxing, beautiful, and so much fun.

The little chickens have grown their feathers! Here they are lining up at the door of the coop on the first day I let them out into the run. They took their sweet time going out after the hens, who kept clucking and calling them. Now every morning they fly out the door as soon as it opens! They’ll stay in the fenced-in run until they are a bit bigger and able to fend for themselves. Then they’ll join our other free-ranging hens who have the run of the whole place.

June has been a month of moisture and the swollen Musselshell River barely stayed in its banks. It’s the last day of June and the skies are dark so perhaps it’s early for a total, but we are at 8.5 inches already!

No matter your size, teamwork makes the dreamwork. These dung beetles work together to roll a carefully crafted ball of manure across the prairie. I’m thrilled to see these little decomposers at work!

**Mark your calendars** The Yellowstone Valley Farmers Market starts on Saturday July 15th in downtown Billings! We’ve restocked our freezers with assorted cuts of grassfed beef and lamb – as well as customer favorites like brats, summer sausage and snack sticks. We look forward to seeing you there!

Wildflowers are in the spotlight for this week’s Scenes from the Ranch:

On a short jaunt from the house this morning I found White Beardtongue. Note the two petals up and three down that is characteristic of the penstemon genus.

Thread-leaf Phacelia with it’s delightful pink-purple blossoms

Scarlet Gaura (also known as Beeblossom) a member of the evening primrose family. There is yellow sweet clover in the background, and plenty of it everywhere this spring!

The June moisture and 70-degree days have felt perfect. It is great front porch weather, something all creatures seem to agree upon!

Time for our Scenes from the Ranch. On this soggy Friday we have gotten three inches of rain! And I thought it was green already.

Chicks! On Sunday 14 healthy chicks hatched in the barnyard. The two broody hens were Arcana chickens that are proving to be good, protective mamas.

After a couple days of bottle-feeding, Hot Lips’ calf quickly took to Bossie, our friends’ Holstein cross. She is a champ. I am so grateful for good cows and good friends.

Did I mention it is green as far as the eye can see?

Down by the river, Jack and I admired the blooming choke cherries while Bart checked on the irrigation pump. The weather has been truly delightful lately. Everything is in bloom!

It is with a heavy heart that I share this week’s Scenes from the Ranch. Our sweet Jersey cow Hot Lips died this week. Despite our best efforts, we were unable to save her following complications from milk fever. I miss her calm presence in the barnyard, the licks from her rough tongue when I fed her treats, the hollow spot behind her top knot where she loved to be scratched, her beautiful big brown eyes, and her wonderful mothering nature. There is a hole in my heart and a palpable emptiness in the barnyard. Thank you Hot Lips for always bringing a smile to my face and for sharing the bounty of your delicious milk with us these past few years. You are sorely missed.

Bear the barn cat makes himself at home on the patio every morning and evening. He waits for me to sit on the porch, and then swiftly jumps up on my lap for some snuggles. His constant purring helps to cheer me up a bit.

Amidst grief and loss, new life emerges. The prairie golden bean is in full bloom, decorating the prairie with bright splashes of color. Most evenings this week we’ve gotten some rain. It is a relief to see that the landscape is greener than it has been in a few years.

Maverick tags along when we irrigate. He quickly gets bored and seeks out a patch of shade to snooze while we work.