It feels like we’re pitching down to zero again tonight. The stars are bright enough to see by. Our high altitude country, far away from smog and cityscapes enables us to experience truly countless stars in the cold night sky. The horses can be heard in the thick night air, nickering to each other and crunching as they walk on the frozen snow. Coyotes punctuate the silence raising their chorale to the stars. The glow we see to the north on many nights tells us that the Northern Lights may make an appearance.
Indeed, silence is one thing we do get to appreciate. As it gets later in the evening, you hear absolutely nothing of humanity. I have to go up late tonight and check an old girl heavy with calf and make sure she’s ok. It almost feels like we are violating the silence when we move on nights like this. Ever still, the animals don’t stir when I walk among them at night. They know by my scent that there is no harm in me.
Caryl and I have to head up to Bozeman, Montana early next week. It’s about 5 hours on winter roads to one of the stores that we partner with on our beef. We don’t mind the drive because there is rarely anyone else on the road at this time of year. I can recall many night trips up there, cruising along on paved highways, where I never saw another car for over 3 hours of driving. A blessing, I guess. A curse if you break down. One of my old meat cutters went off the road along the Montana line and stayed there for 2 days with his family until the snowplow came.
The remoteness of our country is exactly why our beef is good. Our valley is still remote enough (and cold enough) that the heavy chemical use by row crop agriculture has not hit here (I hope it never will). Much of the country is still wilderness.
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