Horse Pasture - Grantsdale, Montana

"But through all changes so far, the farm had endured. Its cycles of cropping and grazing, thought and work, were articulations of its wish to cohere and to last. The farm, so to speak, desired all of its lives to flourish.

Athey was not exactly, or not only, what is called a "landowner." He was the farm's farmer, but also its creature and belonging. He lived its life, and it lived his; he knew that, of the two lives, his was meant to be the smaller and the shorter."  

- Wendell Berry, from Jayber Crow

Apple Blossoms - Grantsdale, Montana

"...Green the grass-lawn stretched before them
While the apple blossoms white
Hung in rich profusion o’er them."

- from Apple Blossoms, by Will Carleton (1845-1912)

Elk Sightings, Grantsdale, Montana

Even after receiving a heads up about an elk herd at Grantsdale Cutoff, I turned the corner & said out loud - to myself - , “Whoa! They’re right there!”. And apparently are unconcerned about the frequent traffic on Skalkaho Road, which borders both sides of the pasture.
We figured the landowner got tired of repairing fence, seeing as how the gate was left wide open.