Well, gang, here we are mid-winter and I thought I would give you both a pictorial and written update as to the state of affairs in Montana early this 2017.
As you can see from the attached photos of Headquarters (taken by our Caretaker Extraordinaire Peanut just yesterday), winter is still in full swing in Montanaland with a nice cumulation of snow still hanging out on the grounds and with temperatures this week still circling the freezing range, with temps to be soaring all the way to a high of 38 next week with lows dipping into the teens. Yep, Mother Nature is still in hibernation and the gaggle of new lilacs (50 of them to be exact) and aspens (24 of those) that we planted last fall are so far nicely surviving the ordeal.
Here in California, as you no doubt have either experienced first-hand or read bout in the national news, things are a bit different. So far in the last month I have emptied over 30" of new rainfall from the spiffy new rain gauge that now resides in our backyard— an amount equal to 150% of the average annual rainfall in this neck of the woods. The story in Montana, however, is not one of extremes like here but, rather, is one of averages. To date, the Bitterroot River Basis and the Clark Fork River Basin have each received 100% of twenty year average precipitation and the snow water equivalent of that snowfall (i.e., the amount of runoff the snow melt will create) is now edging up to the high 90's of twenty year norms…and that is just fantastic news for us, folks!!
As to getting ready for our collective and individual travels to Montana in now just four short months (I will ge going next month to get my first fishing in, btw, and will be able to give you an on-site report at that time), I just completed a business swing through the southeastern portion of the US and had the wonderful opportunity to be and spend time with our southern contingency that will constitute the majority of Group Three—heck, the folks from North Carolina, South Carolina and Louisiana combined will make up eleven (count 'em) of the sixteen members of that wonderful group—and I can tell you first hand and for sure that, come June 24th with the arrival of Dem Threes, "The South is Gonna Rise Again"!! Visualize a southern based menu, Dixie at every turn of the road and bend of the river and more southern bourbon than any group could/should intelligently imbibe and you get the picture. What fun this will be and, on my "to do" list is to reach out to MT's governor Steve Bullock (who, again, wants to join in the fray of E-17 as he did so well during E-17's Group Two) to see (now that he has been re-elected and is subject to term limits) wants to be part of this unruly rebellion.
Meanwhile, all, rest assured that preparations are well under way for your imminent arrival on the scene of it all. Not a day goes by without further pick ups and confirmations of the multiple goodies that will bestowed upon you when you arrive for our fifteenth annual foray into the wilds, flora and fauna of western Montana, Ritz-Carlton style, that is!
Keep warm and dry, all, and know that your time to be spent in Extravaganzaland rapidly looms on the horizon.
Best to all mid-preparation for it all,
Rock Creek Ron
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