MT Declares Drought Emergency

"HELENA, Mont. — Gov. Greg Gianforte has declared a statewide drought emergency as more than 92% of Montana faces abnormally dry conditions.

The declaration issued Thursday directs the state departments of agriculture, livestock, natural resources and conservation to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to secure federal funding to address the fallout.

The order also suspends some regulations for motor vehicles providing drought-related support.

A report released by the state Wednesday predicts drought conditions will worsen in the next two months.

Drought metrics are significantly worse than they were at this time last year, when just under half of the state confronted similar dryness.

The following was sent out by the Office of Governor Gianforte:

Governor Greg Gianforte today issued an executive order declaring a statewide drought emergency in Montana.

“Every region of the state faces severe to extreme drought conditions, and the situation is getting worse. These alarming drought conditions are devastating our ag producers, challenging our tourism industry, and could bring a severe wildfire season,” Gov. Gianforte said. “This emergency order makes available all necessary state government resources to mitigate the impacts of this drought and protect Montanans.”

Executive Order 11-2021 directs the Departments of Agriculture, Livestock, and Natural Resources and Conservation to provide maximum assistance to the U.S. Department of Agriculture on drought-related activities to secure timely economic assistance from the federal government.

It also suspends regulations for motor carriers and persons operating commercial vehicles while they provide direct drought-related support.

According to data in the Summer 2021 Montana Drought Forecast Report released yesterday, the U.S. Drought Monitor indicates approximately 91 percent of Montana faces abnormally dry to extreme drought conditions as of June 22.

Drought conditions at this point in 2021 are substantially worse than at the same time last year when approximately 52 percent of the state confronted similar conditions.

The July forecast projects below-normal precipitation throughout the state and a 40 to 50 percent chance of above-normal temperatures across much of Montana.

The governor’s executive order declaring a statewide drought emergency is effective immediately and can be viewed here."





https://nbcmontana.com/news/local/gianforte-declares-drought-emergency




I guess showering is now out in MT, you guys better stay away.

Don't need no damned shower.

Better to keep water than send it to California so they can dump it in the ocean.

5 gallon bucket o' water should do the whole famdamily!

And where does Montana water eventually end up?

depends.

At the top of Marius pass south of glacier park is spot where you can pee in circle and hit three watersheds , flathead -> Columbia to the Pacific, The Missouri to the gulf, and Canada to the Hudson bay. So all you fugers downstream enjoy!

LOL

Next place is going to be Philippine style (albeit cold as F). A hose, a bucket and a scoop. That fancy stuff is too expensive!

Musta finally got a teensey bit hot and dry over west.

Calitana folks don't like discomfort.

The very pinnacle of distribution.

It surely looks dry to the east, like Alzeda....

Drought observations.

SE Idaho dry as Hell's half acre.

N Central Colorado - verdant. Ponds overflowing. Tall green grass in abundance. It appears to make Denver expand northward.

Central Northern AZ. Nearly half of the juniper is red at 6000'. It's a dry heat.

Phoenix. Pavementy with patches of concrete.

Yep, been to the top of Triple Divide peak and did that very thing, ...

.....satisfying!

Bought some net wrap from a friend this morning.


He is selling half his herd to a rancher in Colorado. We cant produce or buy enough forage to winter our livestock up here.

Y'all some incontinent types, eh?

Sorry to hear it Jim.

Thought you asked what you smelled like.

We're in a drought too. If not there, our section of the Modoc is heading towards "exception" soon.

So, every once in awhile a shower gets forgotten so I can water the taters an scheidt.

I may not smell like "depends", prolly closer to "livestock".

Was up at Haugan this week. Monday and Tuesday it was over 100, but still green and a lot more water in the creeks and rivers than on the east side. I did go through a hellatious storm west of Simms though last Thursday.

lol

Chit, I didn't know it was dry over there. The hay crop doesn't horrible over here from what I can see, but they are just starting to bail.

I'm sorry to hear that. Wish we could send some of our grass up there. There have been times we've been dry as a desert here 150 miles from the Gulf of Mexico but not this year. We are now having to cut the grass down to let the cows catch up with it. I remember in 1986 I was feeding hay in June. 1980 and 1998 caused a lot of folks to sell out.

Not this year. It won't move an inch before it's dry.

Blow dryer here today.

100F and 25mph, good hay drying weather....lol



Unless we get a rain in the next week our wheat is officially toast.

Hay barley is already toast, might average a ton/acre.


Hauled out 20 pair this morning to a little local pasture.

Talk about late, don't think we've ever held off until July.



Our saving grace might be some retired CRP that we are going to hay. Gotta get pumps going and start flooding corn and alfalfa first.


Anyone wanna come cut hay for week?!

Can I bring my own tractor?

Sam, hit me up next summer if you need help.

I won’t have much to do, besides fish this time of year.

Beers are on you brotha...

🦫🤣

Can you drive on a road without Flave’s help ?

Laffin, snork,

🦫

At least flip me the bird on your way past

Of course!


Self propelled windrower here for you though.

Might take me a bit to drive it over.

Beaver, operators get all the booze they want!


Not in the machine though, okay maybe a few Claws...




Gruff, did you hear, White Claws!

I have 43,000 pounds of White Claw on board headed for Montana. Boulder City NV for the night. Chilling.

Copy dat, Heffe.

White Claws only on the machine....I get Gruff’s ration.

🦫

PS

I call shotgun, if I’m too boozed to run the tractor.

That will last Gruff through August.

🦫

You misspelled July.

LMAO 😂

🦫

laughing

Well hay is going to be a big deal here too this year. Prices are going through the roof, and availability is going to be bad. Lots of hungry stock and shidt going up for sale I bet.

Lol.

Not sure what it's going to be like here. Rancher neighbor is just got his second cutting of alfalfa done. Fields looked sorta poor before being cut both times. Usually he sells some, but I'm not sure about this year as all the grazing pastures he has are in bad shape. He's already moved cows to some irrigated areas. Not normal.

Betting the folks here that mostly grow for shipment out will be happy......................and richer.

We finished hay barley this morning.

Last year I think we made about 300 ton, this year maybe 75.

It was hot and dry early and stunted out before the thunderstorms could save it. Disappointing to say the least.


Our wheat is about a foot tall and headed out.

Calling for +100F the next 6-7 days, just what we don't need.

But it could be worse, some areas are in way tougher shape than us.

You will be happy to know that the USDA has already written off your spring grain crop Sam.


That and everyone else in the northern great plains.

The farm game...

Wheats what, over $8 now.

Could make $10 by harvest?

Probably gonna bale mine.


Lots of wheat in round bales here.

Things we must go through, in order to make it on to the next day.

Hammer, I'm tired of worrying about the weather.

Jim, I guess Wyoming is rough, story I heard today was a rancher came up here and offered a farmer $300/acre to hay his winter wheat.


I bolted another fire extinguisher on the big swather today.

Gonna move north early tomorrow and start in on the dryland.

Should be irrigating but they dropped the river and we're waiting on a guy with a big excavator to dig out both pump sites.


Hope the corn can wait a few more days for a drink!

Your dryland is still worth haying??

Thats good!

Ours should have been hayed a month ago.

Haven't been up there in a few weeks, kinda nervous!


They caught a couple storms that missed us, hoping it's still a little green. Might have to make a vid tomorrow.


Hang in there cuzzin!

All it does is rain every damn day here. Got a frog livin in the puddle in the driveway now.

I was heading up 15 north of GFs yesterday on my way to Valier and a guy passed me making about 80 mph pulling a flatbed loaded with about 3 or 4 thousand feet of 2 inch HDPE.
Looked like he was in a hurry to move some irrigation water somewhere.
Don't know nuttin about wheat but this is what it's looking like where I'm sitting this morning.



Looks pretty green here to me, it's pushing 30 inches tall.
Is that good, bad or ugly for this time of year here?

Wished we could send y’all some.

We’re now at 3 times normal for this time of the year. Almost daily.

As with MT...Utah is begging for rain....trouble is usually comes down fast & hard

SW Utah getting slammed again with big T/storms & flash floods

Planning a trip to Zion NP ? Be prepared for the monsoon storms

Usually comes up from AZ where they need it too

https://www.ksl.com/article/5020498...rstorm-warnings-issued-for-southern-utah

That's Arizona and Florida.

That doesnt look too bad Jeff.


They are not near as dry over there as we are out east here.

One guy here is telling me it's stressed and the heads opened too soon but he's a carpenter.
I'm setting on the shore of Lake Francis, opposite end of the lake from Valier.

Their telling me this crop isn't irrigated.

Any reports from the Sunburst, MT area?

Jeff, the million dollar question around here is, will the heads fill?


I'm not optimistic.


Moved our machine north and started swathing. The fields look like they do on mid August.




On an upbeat note, opening round on the first field was 2 miles.

Jumped about 20 sharptail chick's, same for pheasants.

3-4 big fawns.

Prolific wildlife.

Hot and dry here and having a clear wing hopper outbreak. A 2 or 3 year drier than average window seems to favor the hoppers, and they can remove a lot of standing herbage reserved for fall cattle use. A run exceeding about 50 mph through our traditionally wet meadow country will leave ones rig with a nice front end layer of hopper bodies. Park here in town and the local English Sparrows start working ones grill.

We have August smoke now in the NW, it’s really dry in the woods. I expect logging will go night owl in the next week.

We are completely fugcked here.

Damnit all. Sorry to hear how bad it is for the growers.

Farming

If it was easy everybody would be doing it

I wish we could share. It's rained twice this summer. Once for 17 days and again for 28 days.

At least we're all suffering one way or another.

This year is unusually wet for MS.

We get some type of rain almost daily.

Maybe 5 mins. Maybe a. Hour.


Typically by now its faired off and dry.

Yeah...your hay field is too far from the CoOp?

Now you're making me think.


18 miles from town.



It's crispy but at least there is a windrow.

Old crop hay. Stuff we hayed last year isn't worth doing.

I'm by Glendive, and we're dry.....and the one good rain we had brought hail. Most of our grass and hay got pounded hard.

$11 spring wheat by September...




Hail took out a bunch of irrigated wheat here.

And alfalfa.



Talk about chitty luck.



Sky high prices and whammo.

Yeah, my only hay this year was stuff we grazed last year, not hayed. We were saving it for winter grazing and most of it got flatened by the early snow we got.

LOTS of dead stuff to rake up.

We used a 21 foot draper and raked them together. The windrows still didn't touch.


It made about 1000 pounds an acre.

Been some terrible hail around this year.



My dad got hailed out in the 70's once. Killed all the birds and stripped all the leaves.


He said it was silent after that. Not a singe chirp or anything.

Jim, I saw some mature sharptails after the hailstorm....but no young ones since. Don't think they made it. Trees aren't stripped, but leaves are a lot tbinner.

Yep. It got the little ones then. That sucks.


We were really worried about some of those storms. I reckon we would have to hustle out there and bring in the sheep.


I think a bad hail storm would be tough on lambs.

Western colorado is dust. We got some decent rain a few nights ago, but not enough...

Ouch.


Sounds like our hay barley.



Windrow so thin the pickup reel wouldn't pick it up unless there was dew. Slow down, RPM up, still nothing.


Dry it would slip right through.





Hail killed a couple calves and knocked the eye out of horse. Not my critters.


Knocked every fricken window and light.


Bad storm for a local guy.

Jim

That sums it up here as well

We are pretty close to you,north of the Medicine Line and east a bit

Did you guys get a couple of those really nasty looking storms a week or so ago?

If I do combine some wheat this year, I am going to put my straw saver attachment back on the 9600.


Under the right conditions.....the cattle do really well on straw bunches.

Dangit.


Its been a hateful year.




We have missed the hail so far.

On the upbeat.

Might be hot and dry here but the Walleye are hitting in Lake Francis.



Looks like I'll be here for another week or so, suppose to be getting a electrical project up and running here but my crew won't be here until late tonight.

The fishing here will give my sumtin to bide my time while they work.

Was in E WA a couple weeks ago. Looked dry. Saw 3 good size fires. One just outside of Spokane was causing evacuations.

I don’t know what typical wheat harvests are but fella on the radio said they’d be lucky to average 50 bushel an acre.


Pretty sure we had a above average snowpack this year.

Yep, hail here Sunday night, broke some windows, siding. Mostly pea sized but a mixture with a few bigger than golf balls. Worse east of us 10-12 miles

Narrow strip flattened some crop that was done. Not a lot of damage to hay , it’s done

Grass fire south 10 miles on Monday, lucky to get it out quick

Not sure where you are but we watched a nasty one about that time. The entire cloud was flashing orange.


I would guess it was somewhere around Frontier.....give or take a hundred miles!

In the 80s we fed quite a bit of straw. Winter wheat straw mostly. Good feed of pellets with it for protein
We saved the hay we had for close to calving and through calving. It worked pretty well.

Shiit she’s dry over on the west side buddy… the drought ain’t a joke. The north fork of the newaukum is the lowest I’ve seen in 20 years I’ve lived on it. It’s early September levels already

Dad dry lotted his cows once in the 80's on 10 pounds of really, really good valley hay and all the straw they would eat.


It WAS NOT this nasty burnt up hay we put up!


We are going to order 25 ton of cake tomorrow. Hoping that if we sell down a bit, we will be able to get by with straw, grazing, cake and what little hay we have.


We could sell lots of stock and not buy any cake....but we still need to be in business next year and doubt re-stocking will be terribly affordable.


We have never fed cake before, ever. But we have a cake feeder that I feed safflower and barley with.







Looking into trying to get the claves up to 450 as early as possible. Anything under that and they are going for 400 to 500 bucks.


Wondering if creep feeding them would pay this year?

Jim

Straight east in Mankota.

It’s drier west, Val Marie & Bracken , probably Frontier.

My hay was 1/3 last year which was no screaming hell. And mine was better than most because it’s newer ...

My dryland hay stands are all ten years old or so.


Thinking that they should be pastures now.....and switch to farming for the livestock. Buy more sheep and run more yearlings or something.


Grow more grazing corn and sorghum sudangrass for stockpiled winter forage.


Plant winter triticale or forage winter wheat for hay. Fertilize for a stand.



I think that down here in the 10 inch precip range, fertilizing a planted forage crop might be more cost effective than spreading fertilizer on dryland hay.

My hay is only 4 or 5 years old . I don’t make my living at it , it’s family land.

Lots more of that going on here, especially corn. We don’t see much sorghum or winter triticale though. I’ve used triticale as a cover crop and a green feed, nice mix with oaths

I think you are correct,fertilizers on crop seems to work better here than on dry land hay

That cake/range pellet sure stretches the forage.

Your approach seems to work pretty well. When that stuff doesn’t fall out of the sky it’s a tough go😟

Damn, appears to swing like oil and gas.

That would piss this fellow off mightily.

Sorry to hear that.

Might be I should tell the wife to stock up on flour for our baking needs over the winter?

It wasn't our crop Geno, we lucked out!

How’s the grasshopper problem out your way, Sam

They are working the edges.

Not real bad, yet.

That always depends on the price of creep and tbe price of calves. Works great when first one is low and 2nd one 9s high! We've never creeped the calves, did supplement the cows with protein blocks in 1980. Thinking we may have to do something this year to get through. Right now we are grazing some crp that came out last year. That was good timing.

Hoppers are bad in Phillips. Went south of Malta with the extension agent, some spring wheat that had failed and was going to be hayed. Nope, hoppers slicked it off, there were four inch stems only, no moisture within. I pulled a couple, tried to chew them for some kind of idea on how dry, couldn't feel or smell anything resembling water. Wish this bubble would break. Really is an emergency.

This was a couple hours ago.

I'm gonna wrap it up here soon in another hour.

Hordes of hoppers in that green patch.

That's pretty sad looking hay Sam. At first I was like, there is a little hay there at least, then you got out of the low spot and there wasn't chit! If anyone is looking for hay to import from the NW side, let me know. I know a few hay farmers, but I'm not sure what they have still available.

Damn Sam!

For the year....that looks pretty good!

That is pretty brutal. Hope you dudes can get enough moisture to matter, soon! These farmers around here have no idea how good they have it, even in a dry spell!

Well, there's some "good news".................


I guess.

Coupla fellas I met up on the Palouse will be happy if they have wheat to sell at that price. REAL happy.

Well gentlemen, we have about 25 acres baled up so far this morning and according to my calculations...

It's running right around 1.25 ton/acre.


But I don't think the rest of it will be that good.

This 160 is probably the heaviest.



Back to the weather, it was 82F at 3:30 this morning.

Cooled down to 72 by 5AM. Nice smoky haze in the air to help tame down the sun.

My best stuff ran 1000 pounds an acre.


You need help Sam???


I could help haul hay. One load for you.....two for me.....


Two for you....four for me...

Its a real soul smasher this year.

Never worked so hard and had nothing to show for it....or incurred more debt.



Its one thing to work hard and break even.....but to watch everyone work so hard and sacrifice so much.....and go backwards? Thats difficult.



Wonder if I could get Biden to invade New Zealand? They probably have WMD's.

Cuzzin, wish we could spare some hay.


Finances aside it is depressing.

Are you guys gonna get irrigation water again?

You must have good BOR rights?

Any crop insurance on hay?

We don't have it on hay.

It's bad here too. I thought it was getting pricey and lean here because it was all being trucked out, but that's not the case. Just picked up my load of small squares today, normally he's got tons. He's short 20-25%, said it was too dry, then too wet too late. He's hoping he'll get enough on his second cutting to fill his orders, Normally I get 8-10 ton from him but only got 3 this year. The guy I get my big rounds from isn't a farmer, just a hay middle man. Can ALWAYS go there to get a round or big square if I need it. He's having trouble sourcing hay too. I still need a couple more ton to make sure I'm good till next year, but at least I got enough right now to see me through if I had to. And I'm just buying for pets. The guys needing hay for their real stock, man it's bad.

FWIW as of this week, I paid $175 per for excellent alfalfa/grass idiot squares. Over $200 ton for small (4x4) grass rounds. Saw on FB a guy advertising $400 per, + $3 a mile delivery for small squares. He was out of Dupuyer. That's not going to make you any friends.

Most of our rights are old, I'm honestly not sure how it all works but we should be okay.


Just got our first cutting alfalfa hauled off last week.

Went to put pumps in and the river was low.

Big excavator showed up yesterday and dug.

When we get done baling we have to run back home and start back on the pump work.

That river bottom is nice but damn it's alot of work!

My friends that pump out of the river get to pump when they can.


The guys on the canal have to watch all the water go by so the rez can watch it go by.

At least when it's dry.

BGG, what is hay per ton for big rounds out there?


I haven't heard any local prices.

All the big ranchers around here have had valley ground at one time or another. For a hay base.


They dont last. They never worked so hard before.

Rounds selling for 225 to 250 a ton here.

Idaho selling hay for 265.

Heard where Goggins will pay 300 delivered.

Not sure, the hay dude I get my rounds from only has the small ones right now, he wasn't sure when he'd be able to get any big ones. I like him, he's a little higher than trying to source it from someone direct, but he tests all his hay for protein/suger/moisture and stands behind it.

220 per ton. That’s what I heard, I don’t really know where though. The guy that told me is from milescity.

Far as I know we can pump whenever we want.


Knock on wood...

This may be the year that we experience another 1910 “Big Burn” in the northern Rockies. The fuel conditions throughout the region have already become universally fire-critical, and the current wildfires are soaking up a lot of the nation’s wildfire firefighting capacity. So, with the inevitable dry lighting storms that will be upon us shortly, we all stand a good chance of breathing smoke until the snow flys.

Yeah....must be BOR rights.


Thats good.

Our current plan is to hay the spring wheat that the hoppers didn't get.

We have a load of cake ordered. Hoping that we can stretch our hay with that.


Have never fed cake before.

Its about 330 a ton delivered right now. Seems like a good deal compared to 250 dollar hay?

We will sell animals too.

Good lord, I feel bad for you. Fescue is $15-20, mixed alfalfa $60-75

Have they quite watering lawns and golf courses?

Couple minutes ago.

Called it now, getting too dry.

Get back to you guys later.

I’ve been out south of Brockton and Poplar area, my gosh it is dry in that country. The grasshoppers are crazy thick too.

Just had a lightning caused fire pop up a couple miles across the valley, The lightning storm was three nights ago. With the wind today I was a bit worried but they got on it quick. Busy firefighters this year.

You speaking of the fire off Ashley Lake Road?

Assload of fires.

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/?state=27

Bump

My wife and I and all of our kids and grandkids just got back from a week at Lake Sakakawea in ND. North Dakota is just greener than hell. Even the badlands are green .
We went out on I 94 and came back from Garrison into Montana at Fairview. The country turned brown as soon as we entered Montana.
Also, the temp. was under 90 degrees most of the time and smoky of course. It hasn't been under 90 here for around two weeks. No rain of course.

We are surrounded by fires like the rest of the towns in MT and August is coming up-----help!!

Most of the residents of the subdivisions are hauling water daily and it is fun to watch-----no locals would even think of living in the hills without water.

Yeah but it's a dry heat.....lol

6am.

#toxicsweat

Yes, it’s a bit west of there off granite ridge. It looks like got it stopped at 20 acres, just mop up today.

#sexybeast

You guys should ask calldum to spit.

Gotta be good for at least a couple gallons.

LOL

Thanks for the reply.
I figured you were looking right at it from where you sit.

I have a rental property sitting on some heavily timbered acreage close to where it started. The Interlake posted about it when it started and didn't follow up on the story.
Called my renters and they are out if state on vacation, I'm sitting on the east side working on a project near Valier.

A little nerve wracking not knowing the status.

Interlake finally followed up on it later yesterday but put it at the bottom of a story titled "Public meeting Saturday for Hay Creek Fire near Polebridge" that was real thoughtful of them.

Here is what they had to say.

STATE FIRE officials are reporting the Boorman Creek Fire is 50% contained and full containment is expected later on Friday.

The lightning-caused blaze was reported at about 12:45 p.m. Thursday and is still listed at 3.7 acres. It is located southwest of Ashley Lake, just above Conrad Ranch Road and had burned within 1 mile of the now-closed Summit Preparatory School.

Fire crews from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and Smith Valley Fire Department used seven engines, a bulldozer, a helicopter and a single engine air tanker on the fire.

Crews worked late into the night and were able to establish a dozer line around the fire and stop its forward spread.

Officials said crews will remain on the scene for the next several days, patrolling the fire. Some smoke may still be visible from tree stumps for the next few days.

People are asked to avoid the fire area to allow the firefighters to do their job.

She's a bit dry yet.

dang Sam one spark and I am thinking that hayfield goes up in smoke !!

Sammo, talked to the pard the other day bout the grasshoppers, he said they’re for real!! Haha hope shiit turns out good for you guys over there brother. We’ll be headed over bout November 7th, not expecting to see many whitetail, bet blue tongue is gonna hammer em

Crazy, to me at least, seems to green up just east of Montana, roughly. Get over to Iowa and especially Missouri, it's lush like a jungle. Colorado too but been a few weeks since I saw it.

Lucky fuggers!

It did, that and a chunk of the neighbor's wheat.


We didn't lose much but when I saw the smoke it was a sick feeling.

Talk to you guys later, heading to go move water.

Damn man, glad it didn't go nuclear. Hope all's well as can be.

You get used to it after while. Starting fires that is.

Highway 13?

Yep, about 5 miles off the highway.


Just enough breeze up there to push it.


Dead calm here on the bottom.


That fire would jump.

Little fire pop up outta nowhere.

I was wondering if birds caught on fire but one of the fireman said it was probably grasshoppers.

All kidding aside, glad it wasn't worse Sam.

Couple things I do is always have my fire truck...and cut fields down to make as short of runs as possible.

We have started a bunch of fires over the years. It happens.

The only way to never start a fire is to never do anything.

Could be.

I have seen fire run across the ground like millions of little fire cracker fuses.


Just burning up litter and dust.

We are setting up our 300 gallon tank and pump tomorrow.

Had 5 of those little 2.5 gallon cans but it was too big.


Obviously should have had the tank and pump today.


We also shorten up runs, this was actually a short run on the field but I was so distracted trying to work on the header I wasn't paying attention.

After Biden drinks it?

Bb

Its hard to do.......pay attention. Especially day after day...week after week.


I made like 8 straw bales over the course of a quarter mile once.....that were all on fire.


Thats why I always liked to bale straw with a loader tractor. You could build fire lines in stubble fields with a smooth bucket.

Glad it wasn't worse Sam, chit happens sometimes no matter what you do. Most of the west side is on stage two and logging is hoot owl, 1AM until 1PM with a two hour fire watch.

You still thinking about abandoning ship, Norman?

https://billingsgazette.com/news/st...1335.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

Its a pisser.

Probably out of the Flathead anyway, ID, MT, WY are about the only choices. Anyplace that looked interesting is being flooded with California refugees and housing prices are crazy. The Flathead is now over loved and over crowded, I guess Bozangelas is even worse.

Sam, it there insurance or something that covers any related losses with a fire like that?

Fire way across the lake from us has jumped the ridge threatening the homesteads. Damned thing's been going for weeks.


https://www.kxlh.com/weather/fire-watch/mandatory-evacuations-issued-for-woods-creek-fire

So, do you think it's ever going to rain again enough out there to the point you can relax a bit at the wheel. We need happy-go-lucky sammo and lots of dessert coffee vids....not down in the dumper duck.....does insurance come into play in any of this?

Its complicated.

I'm sure it is Jim.

What a difference two weeks makes with these wheat fields when it's hot and dry.

July 15th


July 29th

Jeff, I met with our insurance (liability) adjuster this morning.

We only lost 1 bale and maybe 10 acres, didn't amount to anything. But it did burn maybe 130-140 acres of the neighbor's wheat. Neighbor's were cool about it, hopefully no problems.

My mom is adding extra coverage under an umbrella policy.


And speaking of neighbors, they showed up in droves to help out. Really something to see close to a dozen pickups with tanks and 3 big tractors with disks roll in.



SC, trying to stay upbeat!

There are a bunch of guys in way worse shape than us.

We have a bunch of stuff available to hay, not to mention diversified with our irrigated river bottom.

The strictly dryland guys with a limited hay base are hurting.

Thanks for the reply Sam, I was curious.

After your video post of the fire they started harvesting some of this wheat around me. (Not the one I've been photographing)

Kept me on my toes watching for smoke.

We have 3 RV'S sitting just a few feet from these now dried out wheat fields where we were working on this project for the last two weeks near Valier.

We pulled out yesterday after completing what we came to do.
I dropped down to Great Falls to help a elderly couple re-hab a old house they bought near Sand Coulee, all hay fields around me now that have recently been cut.

Best of luck with the rest of the harvest

Sorry that you guys can't have our above normal rainfall. Were still green herein in southwest Missouri with grass still growing. Best first cutting here in last few years. GW

E SD

NE MT, hauling alfalfa that was baled this morning so we can start soaking er down in a few hours.

She's a warm one in this old truck!

a few spots got lucky , but most of us only ended up with a trace out of the deal


it tries to rain , but never quite makes it

Not a breath of wind here right now, might make 100. And it's a dry heat. "My" loggers are on a task force on the Hay Creek fire, good progress brushing out a road and getting the east side fireline in, so Polebridge might still be there come winter.

Some bitch it rained hard west from somewhere in Iowa, but tapered off by Mitchell, my home away from home for the night.

Hard to believe just 5 or 6 weeks ago I was camping at Upper Whitefish Lake and baja'ed my bike over 2 feet of snow to get up to Red Meadow Lake to find the campsites there still holding 6 ft of snow..

Now it's at risk of burning, WTF!

It's gonna be a long fire season.

Totally different scenario but I will be very happy when we are done dry land haying, and the hay and machinery are home!

I think early next week we could see rain and change everything. I have a feeling it’s going to suck until fall though.

I like to hangout and kayak red meadow this time of year, it’s usually cool and not crowded.

I bet Sam.
Get it done and get that equipment home safe and sound.

I been hanging out on the east side hiding from the smoke on the west side of the divide.
Yesterday as I was rolling south on 15 about 10 miles outside of Great Falls I could see a mild blanket of smoke laying in the GF's valley. About double the daily smoke we were experiencing in Valier.

A couple of the guys helping me on these projects I've taken on just left the Flathead Valley this afternoon said the smoke was really dense there compared to here.

It's like late August or early September fire conditions in July.

And you can catch a hundred little Grayling a day 🙂

Not MT - dramaic nonetheless.
Oroville CA.

Yay... we just had the hardest rain I have seen this year. Would have been better as a slow, steady drencher, but I'll take it. Rained hard for over an hour here in Johnson County, WY.
This morning I went fly fishing at one of my favorite lakes for big trout. Fished it with a buddy less than a month ago and it was full. Ranchers have it drawn down to where you have to walk 50 yards from the original shoreline to get to the water.

Just a hint of smoke here today.


Fairly fresh air.





Boomer, that is crazy.

That's sickening!

Forgot to add the dates, for the Oroville pictures.

2018
April 2021
July 2021


It'll really put the screws to things if it continues long-term. Don't want to see that.

Didn't they drain it to fix the spillway or something?

Is that the one that was about to pop?

Recently? No idea.

I believe so.

Hey, it's dramatic. Lake Mead and Powell are pretty darn low too. Hmmm.

Still at it.

(warning, 5 minutes of your life gone)

Smoke you say?

Almost two weeks ago:



5PM yesterday:



A little bit ago we got a break. Wind from the WSW is blowing this plume, from the fires to our south, to our east:



But not to worry, in the past week we've had some fires start aways to our west, so the plume on the horizon is arriving as I type.The light is turning orange again. 3 hr break maybe? It's getting tiresome.

Been 3 or so years maybe. Didn't have to drain it, just drew it down to get the repairs done.

The big fire I mentioned in my post above that's to our south is burning in the headwaters of the river that feeds that lake. "When" we get rain again, there'll likely be a lot of runoff from the fire scar. Maybe it'll fill faster that way?

I was up to Froid Montana today, it looks crispy all over that country.

Another 90+ day here in Columbus. Smoky and no breeze. Two days ago a storm missed here and drenched Billings with .63" of rain in about a half hour. We didn't get a drop. I see tomorrow there is a 40-70 % chance of rain and much cooler (upper 80's).
Tonight, I swear I could see stars---something we haven't see for a month two.
On the bright side, we are setting records every day!

Geno, ahh yes, second hand smoke.


It does block sun's rays which can be nice. And if not too thick uuber sweet sun rise/set.

Gives me a headache though..



Went and looked at our spring wheat yesterday afternoon.

Worse than I anticipated, might have had 8-10 bushel wheat but the hoppers knocked 25-30% of the heads down.


A friend called yesterday and said he gave up combining a field of lentils. Moved over to some wheat and it ran 5 bushel. Said he had one combine going and could cut 300 acres a day...



It's sad.



I don't think the wheat traders back east realize how bad it is.