Week One

Holy frozen face Batman!
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Our first week in Miles City was filled w/ getting our home set up, figuring out where the grocery store, post office, Walmart and of course where to buy hunting licenses. Miles City prides itself on it's historic military roots to it's cowboy heritage. Some of the old buildings still line main st., which in my opinion is the quaint part of town. The town was discovered in 1876, by Col. Nelson A. Miles and served as a base for battle against "hostile" Indians around eastern Montana. By 1879, bulk trail drives were coming through from Texas and summering cattle in the community. In 1881 came the railroads, which really helped build the community and the economy.  The railroad has always been a part of Miles City and although not as important in the economy today, freight trains running to the east and the west still run through the city on a daily basis. Miles City is perhaps best known for the World Famous Miles City Bucking Horse Sale(www.buckinghorsesale.com) held every year in mid May. (We've heard it to be a real party time) We will be fortunate enough to enjoy this multiday festival.

What a beautiful face, check out the calf alongside her.
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Our turkey hunting has produced nothing as of yet, but over the past weekend, we went out 2 days. Heard some, saw some a great distance away but were unable to get them to come in close. Yesterday, we all took a drive down to a public access state land called the Tongue River Ranch. This 22,000 acre ranch, located about 30 miles southwest of here, was purchased by the state and allows car travel, foot travel, camping and hunting. Unfortunately, yesterday the weather turned Bitter cold and windy. It wasn't much for turkey hunting. As you can see in the photos, the wind is practically blowing Dee over, but her trusted sled team was able to lead the way. Throughout the ranch are herds of cattle, which graze, rest, walk right alongside the dirt roads throughout the ranch. This terrorized Scooby and Bear. It is calving time, so the little ones kept jumping up as we drove by but it was probably because of the barking. Rich said,"those cows probably think the coyotes are coming w/ all the barking and noise." The area is BEAUTIFUL and will probably look more beautiful on a sunny day. We've scoped out where we will camp and hunt and will go back in a few weeks when the temps warm up. Yesterday the outside temp was 27 degrees while we were driving around at 5:43PM. (For you east coasters, yeah, yeah, we heard it's been 70-80 degrees for the past week, you don't need to rub it in.) In fact, last night we rec'd a dusting of snow, but that was all gone today as the sun came back & the temps rose into the 50's.

Some of the landscape in the Tongue River Ranch
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Will see you next entry.

D, R, S & B.