Baby, It’s Cold Outside!

No doubt about it. The weather outside is frightful. The National Weather Service is calling for a windchill of -52 in Polebridge,  so we're all hoping that the wind won't blow. Then it's only -30. Still, that's muscle-cramping, teeth-chattering, car-don't-start cold. The kind of cold that makes your eyes water, your nose hairs freeze, and…

What We Did This Summer

A Note from Chris: As the season ends, and Monica is too busy with the final harvest to write a blog post, I'll share an essay with you.We hiked (a lot), dug a sand point well, tended a garden, defended ourselves against grasshopper swarms, stared at aspen groves, did some yurt-improvement projects, befriended (and then…

Pride Goeth Before the Fall

I’m glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. —Chris G. Fall is here. The tourists are gone, the saloon is closed, and most of the locals have left for the season. All is quiet on the North Fork—or so it would seem for now. Old Man Winter is on his way. Here at…

All the Pretty Gills

A Note from Chris: Fly fishing for trout: for me it's not about catching a lot of, or big, fish. It's about so much more. Standing hip deep in gin-clear water produced from glacial melt high in the Rockies, surrounded by unspoiled wilderness, absolute solitude (with the exception of the bald eagle skimming the water…

Butter-and-eggs

Flowers are the earth laughing.  —Ralph Waldo Emerson As the undisputed “Crown of the Continent,” Glacier National Park is grand, with its expansive views, mammoth glaciers, towering Continental Divide, historic lodges, hulking grizzlies, and, of course, big sky. But it’s the little things that make the park and its surrounding areas memorable on a personal…

Horses and Courses

A Note from Chris: Finally, a toilet. We are so excited that we have a composting commode installed that we just have to share. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I finally read the operating instructions, and it turns out this contraption requires constant daily maintenance, so we're still debating the separation…

Gangs and Sneaks

Well, it’s not as exciting as the mystery of Bo and Deb, but life at the yurt continues at its own mercurial pace. Living in Montana is sometimes like living in Mexico, or, as Chris says, Anguilla. When we order anything through the Internet, it rarely arrives by the estimated delivery date, if it gets…