It’s been a very busy eventful spring at Apgar View Ranch. While I was still back in North Dakota for spring planting, Connie had some unexpected visitors. A sow grizzly and her large 2 yr old cubs decided to use our backyard for their personal playground. Somewhat unnerving for Connie and her visiting mother to have the bears that close and in our backyard twice that day. The bears did leave and were sighted about a mile down the mtn at different residences. Montana grizzly specialist was called and he investigated but didn’t take any action at that time, giving the bears a chance to move on. He did put up a game camera down by the barn to monitor any future activity.
The following week (the day I returned to the mtn) the bears also returned and spent the evening playing in a pile of manure and pine shavings that Connie had piled outside the barn. We had received about 4″ of precip and it was just to muddy for her to haul the manure out to our pasture. This time the younger bears were caught on video rolling, digging and frolicking in the pile. About 20 minutes of great grizzly video! 
The bears seemed to vacate our area after that and were seen frequently at residences down below, even sitting in someone’s lounge chair on their deck. They did get into garbage at one residence and were starting to become a concern for officials. The decision was made to attempt to trap and relocate, but at this time we have not heard of them being successful.
We decided to re-home Banjo, our beautiful bay horse who has been having some lameness issues. 
He is such a sweetheart, but just isn’t going to be able to make those long strenuous backcountry trips anymore. He’s heading for a dude ranch where he will get an easy job of working an hour or two per day on easy terrain. Trying to replace Banjo has been difficult. Good horses are at an all time premium price this year and it just isn’t feasible to spend the kind of money being asked. We elected to try to take on a project colt. He doesn’t have a name yet, and will stay with the sellers for the next year for training. We will get him as a 2 year old. Super good looking colt that we are excited about.
Another project we started at the ranch is site prep for a possible building location. We were hoping to construct a large building that will house a small shop and an indoor arena. When you live on a forested mountain excavating for such a large building is quite an undertaking. Our hope is to complete the site prep this year and wait until the construction chaos subsides before starting the building. 
Connie running the excavator
Although it’s been busy, we still have managed to get in a couple of good outings with the horses up the North Fork. It is so enjoyable to get out and give these guys some real work rather than just riding in the pasture. Dawson, our herd addition last year as a 4 yr old is working great. He has learned to handle the obstacles of mountain riding and is improving every time out.
The North Fork is an awesome place to ride early season. Numerous old logging roads that allow you to access high elevations without worrying about soggy sloppy trails.
Time to start heading out for the next adventure!