Hey Joe,
Talk about luck, you should have been here yesterday, Judy and I we invited over to a friend of hers for lunch. I had never benn there before and it turned out pretty neat. After a nice lunch of home made "Cowboy beans and Cornbread" Bill showed me around his acre place on Allen Creek (15 miles from here) and showed me his acre of newly planted blue berries, his big work shop, etc. Then we walked out to his pond, I could see catfish feeding on the surface eleboe to elbow with bluegill and crappie.
He asked me if I had channel catfish in my pond? When I said no he said wait here, he walked back to his shop and returned with two fishing rods and some worms. An 1/2 hour later we had 32 channel cats in a big ice chest half full of water. Meanwhile his wife Rita had dug up and given Judy a whole mess of flower and plant starts.
Bill was born in born in Helena, Montana. His grandfather was quite a character and when the mining boom hit Montana he headed there. He hit it big in Cold Springs Gulch just west of Townsend, MT.
The hard rock mine was rich and Bill's granddad had over 50 men working for him. He figgured the best way to make more money was to open a Saloon. He opened the fisrt Saloon in Townsend. Bill said his grandad would pay his crew on friday and by friday nite he was down running his Saloon get his money back from his crew!
Bill said that when he was young, he and his dad worked up at the mine too. Now Bill is the ownere of the mine and all the land around it that his grandad bought over the years. The mine was eventually closed down and now he says all that is there is trout his granfater stocked in the streams years ago and the deer, elk and bighorn sheep. Bill wants Judy and I to go there and see the place with them and camp for a few days.
Bill also talked me into taking home 4 gallons of pond weed herbecide fro my ponds. It didn't take long for me to accept his offer, I have been paying $47.95 a QUART for it every year.
So now we have 32 channel cats in the big pond and this morning I treated part of the pond with the weed juice. The bad news is....that a bear tore down my traiil cam last night up behinde the shop (but only got the camera dirty) and at 3 o'clock this morning Judy said she head a racket on the back patio, but decided not to wake me. This morning I saw where a bear had come onto the patio and grabbed a five gallong plastic bucket (with lid) that was full of pheasant starter food and dragged it up the mountain about 40 yards where he stopped and chewed the lid until it opened. He ate 1/2 the pheasant starter feed and left. When I went out to clean the mess up there was a Jackrabbit sitting there eating it! Crazy!
Never a dull moment around here, I'll be glad when we move to Montana where all I have to worry about is Bugs Boys & Buffalo crapping in my front yard!
Take to you soon,
Dave
