Rainbow Apology, Central Montana

“Rainbows apologize for angry skies.”
― Sylvia Voirol

Rocky Ground, Missoula, Montana

“We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground…
There's a new day coming…”
Bruce Springsteen, from Rocky Ground, on the album “Wrecking Ball”

“For the longest time, I've felt like I inherited a plot of land of rocky soil and was required, for my survival and my livelihood, to farm it alone. The image is so clear I can see it….but no matter how hard I tried to bust the rocks, …there were more rocks underneath the rocks. And you know what happens with rocky soil - nothing really grows in it. So, in my mind, I stopped going out to try to bust the rocks with a hoe. …And one at a time, I remove the rocks with my hands and make a pile by the side of the field. Soon I can start constructing a stone-and-mortar foundation… I can see that house and chimney growing, clearly, as well. It's beautiful and rustic and rough, but rough in a pleasing way.

So I take out a few rocks at a time and I work on just one row of the field at a time. There's still nothing growing in the field, but something keeps telling me, "The time for the harvest is not now. Keep working the soil and preparing your foundation." “ - from on-line discussion “
Farming the rocky soil” at Ojar.com

Cross Purposes, Ulm, Montana

In Montana, the ground often varies intimately between soil and solid rock, so fencelines may shift from a vertical post to two x-crossed posts supporting the wire. Seeing these fences stretch for miles across Montana's rolling rangeland reminds me of the adaptable spirit so characteristic of people who love this landscape.