Sunday: Testing Montana Grounds...

November 21, 2010

It's so weird thinking I'm IN Montana right now. We woke up around 7:00, and Macy (our outfitter) was back with our hunting stuff. It was freezing because it had been kept in an outside storage facility. So, after putting my hunting clothes on, and thawing out (sort of) we were off to see what we could see.

I thought the snow was pretty yesterday.

Walking outside was like walking into a pool of diamonds and crystals. Everything, even the cows, were laden with snow.

As I walked to the truck, I made a mental note of the sound of snow crunching underneath my boots like I do whenever I'm at home, so that I won't forget the sound, the feeling. Although, I remind myself that I have plenty of time to let this sound sink in, after all, we'll be here all week.

We hopped in the truck and headed towards town. The town of Glasgow is a lot like Macon. They have no wal-mart (the nearest one is 50 miles away), and no where (other than Dairy Queen and McDonald's) to eat. There are lots of old businesses, and their houses are in the mix of town as well. 

We were going into town to cross over & try out my gun at the rifle range to make sure it had made it through the traveling all right. 

It had.

So, onto scouting out some whitetails!

The first corner we rounded there were 3 does & a buck was bedded down among them. He was a nice 8 or 10 point, with a decent amount of mass. Across the field from him was the same scenario, except this deer didn't have nearly the mass as the one we had just seen. 

Does were everywhere. It was neat to see them react to the truck because they weren't reacting at all, really.

We are scouting/hunting out of the truck because Macy owns the land and he is a cattle farmer. So, we can either go anywhere on his land, or we can go places that he has been given permission to hunt. We saw some pretty mule deer, and I can't even count how many nice whitetails we saw.

The deer here have an entirely different look and attitude. They look nearly double in body weight due to their winter coats (which obviously are a tad thicker due to the harsher winters they have there), and they're right in the middle of rutting & the does makes them CRAZY.

Their attitudes are different just because they see a vehicle, and for the most part, go back to whatever they were doing before. They may trot a few steps away, but they don't totally freak out like our deer here.

We went down to the top of the Milk River Bank, and found a nice 10 point. He had a doe on his mind, but Macy tried rattling (yes, rattling, from the truck) him back towards us. 

No such luck; although, 4 NEW bucks made their way down the bank to see what the racket was all about.

The landscaping here is all very open with few trees. Deer often flee to the riverbank or ditches to escape the winds. The cows also flee to the ditches, but they have barns they can use as shelter from the winds. It's cold, ya'll. Us southern people only think we're cold when it's 25 degrees, but I learned a whole new meaning of cold today... I can't imagine what it will be like when the sun isn't shining.

Other things I saw today include: 

a bald eagle... 

& 

pheasants...

Toby, Macy's wife, made sloppy joe's for lunch and 5 bean chili for supper. I haven't ever had chili like that, but I loved it! That's her normal way of cooking is, so when we told her that we only had one - she thought that was crazy.

A little about our outfitter & his family...

Macy & Toby live in a ranch house that was built before Toby was born. She's grown up on the house. 

Her parent's moved up the hill (not even a 1/2 mile away) into a home they built, while Macy & Toby started their family in the ranch house. He took over the ranch, and has around 500 head of cattle to tend to now. 

Toby is a kindergarten school teacher, and she is also a very generous and sweet woman! 

Their kids, Randi Jo & Trevor are also sweet. They are both in elementary school.

They're into rodeoing, and they love video games! 

They have a Wii in the living area, and earlier Randi, Trevor and their cousin, Flint, were playing.

It was fun to hear them talk amongst themselves about the game.

Cottonwood trees are in the majority here, if there can be a majority. 

Obviously the timber business isn't too prominent in this area. 

=)