Planting Seeds

Planting Seeds

Optimism is a characteristic of most ranchers. Even when we’re grumbling, we’re counting on Mother Nature to eventually be kind to us. When she isn’t kind and we find ourselves in year after year of drought, we try to plant a crop that depends more on sun than rain. We diversify and look to agri-tourism. All the while building relationships with people and groups of people who believe in us—building teams of people who can go from idea to reality.

It’s about planting seeds. Cultivating the seed bed carefully and then hoping that we’ve planted the seeds at the right season, praying for enough moisture to get the seeds sprouted. And then once the seeds have sprouted we’re right back to needing more water or more drought resistant seedstock. That’s how it is with marketing.

We’ve had some successes. Our familiarization tour for travel writers planted seeds and they have sprouted into magazine articles. On the eve of the publication of the Sunset article, we find that our website is a graphic instead of text. I’m not sure where to go next with this analogy … maybe it means that we bought the wrong kind of seed for one of our fields …very pretty but yielding little fruit. So we are frantically bouncing along with the dust a flying trying to get the infrastructure in place before the next rain and the sunrise/sunset that we know is coming. Consultants have been brought into the field and the website is taking on a new look. Mostly the changes are behind the scene—underground where the search engines crawl.

We’re building relationships with people who believe in us. Some people believe in us for what they have seen us do in past decades. For my part that means people in Livingston who watched me get things done in the health care field. I built relationships when I worked with a task force to get funding for our community health center thereby addressing the medical needs of low income residents. Sharon Walker was on my task force and she is now the chairperson for the Park County Alliance Development Corporation (PCADC). When she learned about our working ranch vacations, she put me in touch with the executive director of this economic development group and within a matter of days I was a member of their Agriculture Committee and spoke to that group at their meeting last Wednesday. This group is looking to find ways to make those of us in agriculture economically viable. PCADC is a think tank and they are scattering seeds all over the place. One idea is a plan to develop a county model for a state wide initiative based on the successes in Utah to promoting “Heritage Highway 89 from Yellowstone to Glacier.” Along with other celebrations of history and heritage, Montana Bunkhouses would be featured in that promotion.

Yesterday we spoke with Jeff Phillips on the phone. He believes in us. Our article will appear in Sunset in two weeks—a magazine that plans more than a year in advance will feature us twice in less than a year because he made it happen. He continues to read and enjoy the ranch reports and as a result he feels like he has spent the winter with us…he questioned Rick …when was he going to stop chasing coyotes with his car? and Rick’s ready reply was “when there are no more coyotes or when they stop making cars!” And as for writer’s block, he said “No fair!” At Sunset magazine they have agonizing annual issue planning sessions to come up with fresh new ideas…he says “it’s like cheating” because Karen has an unfair advantage--all she has to do is watch Rick and Rascal for inspiration.

That was when we learned that while Jeff was visiting Crazy Mountain Cattle Company last June, we were planting seeds for a bigger crop and we did not even know it. Jeff is very interested in the whole idea of the western family cattle ranch and sees us as an endangered species. And he understands that mad cow disease has put gasoline on the fire of people thinking more about where their food is coming from, where it is raised, and whether it was fed parts of other animals. He gets it. And while he realizes that the issue is more complex the more you look at it, he continues his case study regarding the future of the western ranch.

Sunset magazine and Jeff Phillips have for some time been looking at ranching in various parts of the west. Seeing how people are managing their land and resources trying to hold it together and find a way to pass it to the next generation. Everyone is diversifying their operations and he joked about our “rustlin’ tourists” in the hopes of remaining economically viable. He has been looking for a ranch that epitomizes the problems, issues, and concerns on a lot of different fronts. The search (in his words) has been for the “quintessential old fashioned 3rd, [4th or 5th]generation ranch that represents the issues that family ranches face.”

He believes he has found that ranch in Crazy Mountain Cattle Company. He sees the importance not only of the food/beef we raise, but the advantage of ranchers keeping lands open instead of having them subdivided. More importantly that he has found the ranch in a place with a sense of a bigger community--an agriculture community that is interconnected and working together to preserve our heritage and our way of life. That is how Montana Bunkhouses and Sweet Grass County ties into this.

At 4:00 am this morning it started raining. Since I started typing you all this report, it has continued to rain. The rain is most likely going to be the story of the day, watering our seeds. But there is anther story brewing. With our blessings, Jeff went in to his magazine’s planning session yesterday to propose a June visit to Big Timber and Crazy Mountain Cattle Company. He wants a story that will let his readers know what it is like to live and work on a cattle ranch. I can visualize myself dashing down the road in a sprint, throwing myself in to Jeff Phillips arms and giving him the most exuberant hug he has had in a long time. Thanking him for the opportunity we will have to put a face on agriculture.

Auction Sales with Lynn Sanders

Auction Sales with Lynn Sanders

Twenty years ago Lynn Sanders had an old late-40’s model International truck with a low-boy trailer. Lynn and Rick took off for an auction in Roundup and that thing never got over 35 miles per hour. They stopped and cleaned the carburetor and set the points; even so, could not get the darn thing to run well. But they made it to Roundup and Rick bought an old baler and a 3-bottom spinner plow. Could get the baler started but the drive belt was in bad shape so it did not have enough traction to drive it up into the trailer. They had two boomers and a half length of chain and worked until they could wench that thing up there one-quarter inch at a time until we had it on the trailer. Only Lynn and Rick would ever attempt anything like that.

It is the baler Rick uses to this day. Son-Jay was still in high school then and he is in his 30s now. Paid $2900 for it and then brought it home and put in another thousand dollars worth of belts. Six months later they went to another auction and Lynn bought the very same model baler. He paid $3000 for his in better shape and only twenty miles from home. Just got in it and drove it to his house. He is lucky that way.

For two decades Lynn and Rick have been going to auction sales and having a grand time buying stuff and then trying to decide how to use it. They’d drive down the road together and pretty soon they’d have everything figured out in the whole world. How to raise their kids and everybody else’s, make politics work and the economy go. They had it all under control. I don’t know how to explain it…they just really connected. Somehow ranching gave them a common bond; their philosophical bents were similar. They found it fascinating and fun to buy old equipment and then keep it running.

But those who know Lynn are drawn to more than simply his ingenuity …there is something about Lynn and his wife Julie that I call inherent goodness. That goodness is found in every one of their family members. It is hard to think of anyone with more fond thoughts than I have when thinking of Lynn and Julie Sanders.

It is a privilege to call the Sanders friends.

Undaunted Stewardship

Undaunted Stewardship

The coffee pot is on. We spent the afternoon sitting around the ranch house kitchen table discussing long term goals…talking about our role as good stewards of the land… to preserve and improve the land … the roots are deep and the conversation is serious. Rick is the 5th generation in his family to think about the next season’s challenges as he tries to make a living in production agriculture. Like his father before him, Rick ponders how he will be able to pass it on to the next generation.

Another cup of coffee and more paper work later…Rick proclaims in his usual no-bullshit manner: “The bottom line is the bottom line… You can’t starve a profit out of a cow and you must take care of the land if you expect it to take care of you.” That is his way of explaining his goals to remain economically viable … to follow ecologically sound practices and to leave the land in better shape than it was when he became responsible for it over 25 years ago.

It is as though all of a sudden…”we looked around and discovered that we are all on the same page.” It is unique because some of these groups have historically been on opposing sides and now they are coming together…historic, conservation and agricultural groups agreeing…we need to spread the word about good stewardship…And this program, the Undaunted Stewardship Program, is a way to recognize the Montana’s farm and ranch families who are preserving Montana’s open space and scenic beauty while producing food and fiber using agricultural practices that are environmentally sustainable.

Last summer a local Boy Scout Troup camped on our ranch near the old Duck Creek School House as they followed Clark’s trek along the Yellowstone. Montana is where the Corps of Discovery spent more time than anywhere else. Today thanks to generations of agricultural stewardship, these historic landscapes still look largely the same – more so than in any other state. Our goal: to keep them that way. Undaunted Stewardship Certification recognizes those who help keep them natural, productive – and agricultural.

Other Montana ranch families are having these same discussions. They want to tell their story… and ideas have progressed to reality resulting in the development of what has become one of the largest partnerships in the state…the Undaunted Stewardship Program. It is a partnership between Montana’s agricultural and conservation organizations and individual ranch families. Led by Montana State University, the Montana Stockgrowers Association, and the Bureau of Land Management … ranchers are working to preserve Montana’s history, environment, and rural communities by encouraging sustainable stewardship of private agricultural lands. Sixteen other organizations complete the public/private partnership … from CattleWomen, to Woolgrowers … from the Wilderness Association to the Grain Growers… from the Governor’s Office to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Office.

University’s Environmental Studies Program visited the ranch

Graduate students from the University’s Environmental Studies Program visited the ranch:


Senator John Esp, Professor Tom Roy and a number of his graduate students

In letters of thanks dated October 18, 2004, Professor Roy wrote:What we do as educators should enable students to become critical thinkers and I don’t know that I have had a richer experience in seeing students appreciate and utilize their thinking capacities than we did [at Crazy Mountain Cattle Company] in Big Timber.

I can say with certainty that each of us returned to Missoula with a much fuller and I hope deeper understanding of ranching-farming in Montana and I think I can safely say a common agreement with you and your neighbors that keeping agricultural land in production is essential to Montana’s future.

I know that we all came away with new perspectives on land conservation easements and the controversy surrounding reintroduction of the wolf into Yellowstone National Park. Indeed on our drive back to Missoula we spent the four hours discussing the wolf. I wish you could have been there. Among the five of us there were a range of opinions about what should be done and varying degrees of sympathy for ranchers and the wolf. But all agreed that ranchers had to have the tools to succeed in keeping their ranch operations viable. I don’t think we would have had that same conversation driving to Big Timber.

For me the most exciting part of our visit was the realization driving home that students were thinking independently…that they had listened and been open to new perspectives and had recognized the limitations of what they had presumed to know. When we got to Missoula I told them that the most important thing that they could do in the years ahead was remember these three days and our discussion and never forget to challenge accepted “wisdom” no matter from what side it came.

Two of the students came in today to ask if they could use a class period to share their experiences in Big Timber with those in the class who could not come. I said certainly and they shall focus upon their new understanding about land conservation, wolf reintroduction and noxious weed issues. I can assure you that the voice of the rancher will be heard in a way we have not articulated before.

I believe that what we are about in Environmental Studies is building healthy communities. The environment is one piece of such communities…as are jobs, good schools, a sound economy, adequate health care etc. I wish I was smart enough to know all that healthy communities require and how we insure such communities across Montana. I am not. But I do believe that meeting and spending time together as we did is the beginning of learning and figuring out how we can keep Montana a special place for all of us and I am going to propose to the university faculty that we plan a similar adventure to Big Timber for next year. I would like to think that our conversation has just begun.

The students join me in the sincerest thank you we can extend.

Appreciately, Tom Roy,
University of MontanaDirector Environmental Studies Program
Missoula, Montana

Montana ranchers offering paying guest bunkhouse hospitality

Montana ranchers offering paying guest bunkhouse hospitality

October 10, 2004

By Jeff WelschBozeman Chronicle Sports Editor

Rick Jarrett and life-partner Karen Searle call it "metamorphosing to something radically the same."
Fellow cattle ranchers Leo and Lois Cremer warily view it as a way to salvage a lifestyle dating back to the era when their families came to the sweet-grass country in wagons.

With similar skepticism, neighbors Kenny and Donna Laubach see it as a chance to put a favorable face on their culture while learning about other cultures they may never experience.

The three Sweet Grass County families, along with five others scattered among the hayfields and coulees, have undertaken a unique venture they hope will sustain a fading lifestyle for themselves, their children and grandchildren.

They're calling it Montana Bunkhouses, a co-op of eight vast spreads offering paying guests authentic ranching experiences.
· One has the classic cattle drive.
· Another has lambing and raises pheasants.
· Another has calving by day and trout fishing on the Yellowstone River by evening.

Still another combines the total ranching experience on 6,000 semi-arid acres with cabins tucked into remote corners of property overlooking the Boulder River valley.

"Each ranch is so unique," said Searle, who hatched the concept at an agriculture conference in Europe two years ago.

"It's, 'What would guests enjoy most?'"

If all goes as planned, guests eager to escape the rat race and reconnect with the land will call Searle, a.k.a. The Matchmaker, for the working vacation that suits them.

The selling point, one they're still not convinced will actually take root, is this: Montana Bunkhouses is not to be confused with dude ranches, where guests retreat in luxury, have guided fishing/hunting and ride "tail-to-head" on somnambulent horses.

"The intrigue is what we do is real," says Jarrett, a fifth-generation rancher who lives with Searle in a century-old home on 2,500 acres in the shadow of the Crazy Mountains on Duck Creek.

And their goal is, for them, a poignant one:

"Being in a position to pass it on to my kids," Leo Cremer said. "If I screw it up, my kids won't have the opportunity."

Tough times are not new for family ranches.

Even as beef prices reach all-time highs, operating costs have skyrocketed and ranch hands are nearly impossible to round up.

Government regulations seem to change hourly and the reintroduction of the wolf hangs over them, real or imagined, like an ominous cloud.

The seven-year drought has forced innovative and expensive searches for water.

Corporations and wealthy out-of-staters are gobbling up land as ranching families grudgingly sell increasingly valuable property they can't afford to inherit.

Searle was laid off from her job at the Livingston hospital. Lois Cremer and Donna Laubach were forced to seek 9-to-5 jobs in Big Timber to make ends meet.

"You look at the books at the end of the year and you scratch your head," Leo Cremer said. A

dds Kenny Laubach, who owns 3,000 acres with two miles of private access to the Yellowstone: "The banker does, too."

Hope surfaced when Searle traveled to Spain to promote a kids cow camp. A woman there, hearing Searle's story, asked why she hadn't considered a co-op similar to the popular European Farm Holiday model.

When Searle returned, she and Jarrett scribbled the concept on paper, determined to remain true to authenticity and to limit stays to one family or group.

Jarrett and Searle, an affable couple whose steady stream of hearty laughter belies their constant challenges, made a list of fellow ranchers they deemed suited for Montana Bunkhouses.

"We were real careful about who was doing it," Jarrett said. "We wanted a cohesive group."

The Laubachs and Cremers were skeptical, first about bringing the outside world into theirs and then about people paying to help out with ranch chores, wade to their hips in irrigation ditches and be up to their elbows in calf placentas -- possibly in sub-zero weather.

"You could get the wrong guests and say, 'why the heck am I doing this?'" said Laubach, brother-in-law of Montana State men's basketball coach Mick Durham.

Not even assurances from bunkhouse members Terry and Wyoma Terland, who for nine years have charged nearly $2,000 for summer cattle drives, allayed the early doubts.

"You guys will be surprised what people will pay to do," Wyoma Terland insisted. "There's so much romance and spirit. It's a life-altering experience for most people.

" Perspectives began to change when Travel Montana sent Montana Bunkhouses six travel writers, including one from Sunset Magazine who stayed with Jarrett and Searle.

The writer was eager, his wife wasn't. While he spent an entire day working on fencing and irrigation, she went antique shopping.

The next day, buoyed by his experience, he coaxed her into helping with the project.

She stayed all day.

"I never got on the four-wheeler without her after that," Jarrett said. "She loved it. It was an eye-opening experience for her and us. It gave us the confidence to go forward."

A television crew from Taiwan was similarly engrossed. And then came a family from the East and a 12-year-old boy who was on Cremer's heels like the family pet for nearly a week.

They have also had guests from Europe.

"You meet wonderful people and they become friends," Wyoma Terland said. "They don't leave as strangers.

"And we show people back East that we're not all out decimating the land or killing the wolf."

Thus far, business has been slow.

Montana Bunkhouses has a Web site, bought an advertisement and distributed brochures, but as lifelong ranchers treading new ground they're not even sure their pricing is right.

"We're kind of flying blind yet, really," Leo Cremer said.

Their hope, of course, is that the concept flourishes. Other ranchers around Montana have contacted them, but thus far there are fewer clients than bunkhouses.

At this point, at least, the ranchers are beginning to embrace the idea.

"I'm proud of our lifestyle," Donna Laubach said. "I wouldn't mind showing it off."

But the primary reason for this "metamorphosis to something radically the same" is heard through the voice of Jarrett's 8-year-old granddaughter, Jordan, who, along with 5-year-old brother Jess, clearly is at home on the range.

"Papa," she said to Jarrett recently, "I'm going to buy this land from you, just like your dad."

Montana Bunkhouses Working Ranch Vacations LLC

Ten Sweet Grass County ranch families work cooperatively to provide a unique vacation experience. Enjoy the opportunity to meet and get acquainted with authentic Montana ranch families. Montana ranch hospitality at its best. Ranch experiences vary by the season and include everything from riding the ditches with the irrigator to haying and fencing. Lambing and calving in the spring. Bird watching and hiking and photography in every season. Read a book in the shade of the tree next to the babbling brook or have another cup of coffee at the ranch house. See the Charlie Russell sunrise and experience the sunsets. Move cattle to summer pasture or be part of the fall round up. Live the old west ranch experience.

Lodging, meals and ranch activities are included in the working ranch vacation rates. Accommodations may vary from private bunkhouses or guest bedrooms in the ranch house to vacation home rentals. You can even choose to stay in a sheep wagon or a tipi. Ranch vacation rates vary from $150 to $200 per person per day based on availability of seasonal and family rates. Rates for vacation home rentals or a luxuriously furnished bed and breakfast (with or without the option of working ranch activities) vary from $50 to $200 per night. There is a three-day minimum stay for the working ranch vacation.

Contact Karen at Montana Bunkhouses Working Ranch Vacations, LLC, to request more information or to make a reservation with the ranch family most suited to your interests whether they be cattle, sheep, horses, farming, history, hiking, wildlife, fishing or hunting. Don't be confused by all of these options. Just call Karen, she knows what each ranch has to offer and she will help you find the ranch vacation that suits your interests and fits your budget. Email: Karen@montanabunkhouses.com or phone her in the office at 406/222-6101 or at the ranch 406/932-6719.

“The wolf is knocking at my door.”

“The wolf is knocking at my door.”

The wolf is knocking at my door...says he.
The wolf is knocking at my door ... says she.

That was the first verse.
Now we sing:
The wolf is in the kitchen eating my supper.
...........................................

Just about noon today the phone rang and it was the cowboy (Cort) who stays with the cattle at the grazing permit on Taylor's Fork.
He had been out moving a bunch of cattle and heard an awful racket.
Cattle bellerin.
He went on high to investigate and got there just in time to count 12 wolves.
They had the cattle all bunched up in a corner.
He fired a few warning rounds and the wolves left and the cows seemed ok.
but a closer look turned up a dead calf.
He headed for the closest spot that he could get cell phone coverage.
A three hour ride.

Rick told him to go back and tarp the animal to keep it from the ravens.
And he started making phone calls.
Within a half hour he had the district "wolf guys" headed to cow camp to verify the kill.
They had to drive from Helena and planned to meet Rick near Bozeman
...turns out they had just walked in the door from a trip to Deer Lodge where they were trapping problem wolves.

Saundra caught horses.
I packed the cooler with food.
Rick packed his 270.

More phone calls.
The wolf guy had to call the grizzly bear guy so they could get a helicopter to fly over and locate the grizz with her cub...
the one that most certainly was headed for the dead calf and would not appreciate Rick and his fellow investigators poking around her "dinner".
One of the state investigators had a saddle but no horse.

Saundra caught more horses.
I packed more food.
Rick calmly assessed the situation: Well...we've been lucky up until now.
But today we weren't so lucky.

In less than three hours Rick was out of cell phone range and i have nothing new to report on the wolves.
I'm home holding down the fort.
I called the horse shoer who dropped everything and drove to the ranch.
He just left after shoeing 4 more horses.
In order to keep the cattle safe...it will be a 24/7 effort.
More than one man or one horse will be up to...especially in this heat.

We depend on the mountain grass....to simply bring the cattle home before our 90 days of grazing are up would mean less winter feed here at the home place.
And the question looms....will we even be able to go to the mountains with the cattle next year.
Hard to say.
Hard to say.

And that is the ranch report.
Instead of going from the frying pan to the fire....
We went from the fire to the wolves.

Reconnect With Your Inner Cowboy in Montana

Reconnect with your inner cowboy in Montana!

Sunset Magazine Article, June 2004

Mountain States & Southwest Editions

By Jeff Phillips, Senior Travel Editor

The sun, barely up, cast long shadows over the 3,000-plus acres of the Crazy Mountain Cattle Company, just west of Big Timber, Montana. Rancher Rick Jarrett and I had headed out early to irrigate a hay field in much the same way his grandfather did when he settled here in 1908.

As we plunged our shovels deep into the banks of an irrigation ditch, clear, cold water spilled into the field of alfalfa that brushed our rubber-booted legs. Jarrett paused to reflect on the realities of modern ranching: "this is what cattle ranching in this part of Montana is all about.....I'm as much of a hay farmer as a cattle rancher. Hay is money in the bank. It keeps our cattle and us going through the winter."

That is, it helps. These days beef alone does not pay the bills. Which is why Jarrett, his wife, Karen Searle, and nine neighboring longtime ranchers started Montana Bunkhouses Working Ranch Vacations last year.

"Our co-op is not a dude ranch, and it's not for everyone," Searle says over a breakfast of eggs, elk sausage, and apple strudel French toast. "It's for families that want to experience first-hand what we feel is a romantic way of life that's rapidly vanishing from the West. Our hope is that guests will want to experience what real ranching is all about."

Visits aren't limited to just a single ranch. One morning my wife, Jill, went birding at a neighboring ranch while I fly-fished a private stretch of river. We met for a late-afternoon horseback ride, devoured a hearty dinner with Searle and Jarrett, then tumbled, deliciously tired, into bed.

After all, I needed to be up early. I would be saddling up at dawn with Jarrett to do the chores that keep a working ranch working.


"Working the range near Yellowstone."
The 10 ranches of Montana Bunkhouses Working Ranch Vacations are all in Sweet Grass County, just off I-90 near Big Timber, Montana. A vacation here can easily be combined with a visit to Yellowstone National Park (about 90 miles south) and an exploration of Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. The nearest airports are in Bozeman (61 miles west) and Billigns (81 miles east.)

Activities: Visits are custom-tailored to match guest's interests with activities at any of the member ranches. For example, you can help with the lambing in the spring, try summer haying, or join a fall cattle roundup--or you can just go horseback riding every day.

Accommodations: Bunkhouse ranchers limit guests to one family or small group at a time on each ranch. Lodgings range from comfortable private cottages and upgraded bunkhouses to ranch-house guest bedrooms, tepees, or even a sheepherder's wagon. There are also vacation-home rentals.

Cost: From $200 per adult per night (ask about family rates), including lodging, meals and activities; three-night minimum stay (reservations required).

Contact: www.montanaworkingranches.com or karen@montanabunkhouses.com