Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Saturday, January 19. 2008

Freezeout Lake

Our piece on the strange Salton Sea reminded me of western Montana's not-strange but wonderful 1500-acre Freezeout Lake WMA (Wildlife Management Area) between Great Falls and Choteau, on the Rocky Mountain front. I have visited it twice, birding - not hunting. It's a small WMA, but packed with life.

I have only been there in June, but during migration the shallow lake harbors over 300,000 Snow Geese and 10,000 Tundra Swans, not to mention everything else. Here's one guy's report of the geese.

When I went, the birds that stood out were the Western Grebes dancing, the Avocets, the Phalaropes, and the Short-Eared Owls. Tons of breeding ducks.

This place looks like a good place to stay, near the lake. Nice view of a cute butte. When I have been out that way for a week, I have stayed at the excellent, Nature Conservancy-run Pine Butte Guest Ranch. 

Photo above: Snow Geese over Freezeout, from this Snow Goose site

Posted by Bird Dog in Natural History and Conservation, Our Essays at 10:00 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

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Montana is ok , but for sheer enjoyment, tranquility, and friendly folk I'd put my money on Dripping Springs, Texas.

Close to Lake Travis, Dripping Springs offer some of the finest views in the Lone Star State, along with delicious white gravy and biscuits and Texas size barbecue. Ya'll come.

Till Mathis, wrangler
#1 Till Mathis on 2008-01-19 10:52 (Reply)
The drive down over the top toward CHoteau. That place where you begin to run alongside of the front itself--there, that place is my only Cathedral. The Fem/Nazis having destroyed any that the Episcopal Church used to use for worship. ENJOY this!

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rockymountainfront.com/RMF-9.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.rockymountainfront.com/B-Pictures.htm&h=657&w=993&sz=45&hl=en&start=19&tbnid=7CqASPsxZunwuM:&tbnh=99&tbnw=149&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522Rocky%2BMountain%2522%252B%2B%2522Front%2522%252B%2522Montana%2522%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG
#2 ap on 2008-01-19 11:56 (Reply)
That shot, if it included some greenery in the foreground and added a part of the Missouri River would look so similar to the view from my Montana property that it's uncanny.

The distance to the mountains is about the same and even the peaks of the mountains are similar to those of the Big Belts I look at.

It's a darn nice view. Thanks for the picture.
#2.1 Habu on 2008-01-19 13:01 (Reply)
that is one helluva photo -- hits you with the vastness of time. you can see the formation of continents and feel those hundreds of millions of years, and in the foreground in flight are the ephemeral birds, in their short time scale, with their bird-brained preoccupations, in high energy flight, for almost no time at all.

BYW, pay no attention to that wrangler. i know some wranglers, and they don't nothin about Dripping Springs, how there is an undercurrent of rough raillery against out-of-staters and Floridians in particular that is right there under the surface and could break out any day now.
#3 buddy larsen on 2008-01-19 13:58 (Reply)
THE CHICKEN BUSINESS

John the farmer was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers (hens), called "pullets", and ten roosters, whose job it was to fertilize the eggs.

The farmer kept records and any rooster that didn't perform went into the soup pot and was replaced. That took an awful lot of his time, so he bought a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone so John could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening to the bells.


The farmer's favorite rooster was old Butch, a very fine specimen he was, too. But on this particular morning John noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all!


John went to investigate.


The other roosters were chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing. The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover.

But to Farmer John's amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one. John was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the
Renfrew County Fair and he became an overnight sensation among the judges.

The result...The judges not only awarded old Butch the No Bell Piece Prize but they also awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well.

Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making: who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by

being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention.




Vote carefully...the bells are not always audible!!!
#4 Rupert on 2008-01-19 14:04 (Reply)
Great story Rupert... you can't always hear it coming, that's for sure... but you always know it when it gets there.
#5 Luther McLeod on 2008-01-19 20:44 (Reply)
had a dinner date once, she said she really wanted chicken. "Pullet?" I asked. "Well, maybe after dinner" she answered.
#6 buddy larsen on 2008-01-19 22:46 (Reply)
That Freezeout Lake picture is striking. The entire Front Range of the Rockies is beautiful. Dripping Springs Texas is a really nice, and friendly place also.
#7 TomR on 2008-01-20 14:02 (Reply)

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