My Life in Montana

“That sounds like a movie,” said the woman sitting next to me on a flight from Billings to Denver when I told her I was leaving my high-powered corporate job to be a marketing professor at Montana State University in Billings.

In 2003, I moved west so I could have land for my horses and live closer to a ski mountain.  At first the horses lived better than I did. After paying for the moving van, my money went to automatic horse troughs and fencing.  The horses had three beautiful pastures of native grass, a barn and corral with a round pen and hay for winter.  I lived in the small 50-year-old log cabin with dusty base board electric heat, a huge canyon rock fireplace, drafty windows, and a severely in need of remodeling kitchen and bathroom.  Six years later when I earned tenure as a professor,  I built my new log home up on the hill in the back of the canyon.

My acreage just northwest of the town of Laurel is in a box canyon lined with ponderosa pines.  It’s a healthy canyon where I maintain over 14 varieties of native grasses including sweet grass and western wheat grass. The ponderosa pine stands are some of the healthiest in the state. Deer, turkey, cougar, and coyote feel at home here.  Occasionally, even an elk will visit. Birds sing through the seasons. A gulch runs for about 4 months every year, filling up my four ponds.

I count the hours when I leave, until I return.  When I close the gate of the house fence behind me, I look back to Benny and Nala, my Great Pyrenees dogs.  I say, “Stay.  I’ll be back in 5 hours.” They sit calmly, smiling, as if they’re waving goodbye, telling me to have a good day.

Normally, I will have only gone to campus to teach onsite class.  But sometimes I take time to enjoy the beauty of Montana for a day or more.  My favorite adventure is the Crow Indian Reservation, southeast of Billings.  I was blessed to be the adviser to the American Indian Business Leaders at MSU Billings.  My friendships with students who have graduated and their families often draws me to the Crow Fair or the Big Horn Battlefield.  The colors of the big sky, the stormy weather, and the never-ending fields of grasses on the reservation can never quite be captured with photography or paintings.  You must see them for yourself. 

I’ll often spend a day in the Red Lodge area with my horse, Drummer Boy, and we’ll ride through the aspens on Aspen Ridge Ranch.  As we climb higher in the foothills of the Beartooth, we can look out to inhale the Crazies, Big Snowy and Pryor Mountains.  Deep breaths. 

In the spring, I love to head to Yellowstone National Park to see the adorable newborns – bison, bighorn sheep, elk, osprey, and bears.  I head west every other summer to see Glacier National Park and Flathead Lake because they are the most beautiful parts of Montana. The National Bison Range, recently returned to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, is just south of the lake. Twice I have travelled north past the Missouri Breaks with its sprawling river and rugged wilderness. I never imagined that my new home could have this much drama and beauty. 

What I love most about Montana are the four seasons. Fall is when the aspens turn to gold and red. Winter is when I have a blanket of white covering my pastures and pine trees. In spring, the birds and flowers come back to full color. In summer, my lilies are in bloom and the grapes, raspberries and apples are alive with flavor.

I am in a movie. A home movie. My home.