2019 will be remembered as one of the worst harvest years for a long time to come. Following a few nice days in the beginning of August the weather turned cold and wet and prevented harvest from taking place all over North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana. On our farm in ND we were lucky to get our barley acres off early in August, but struggled with wheat, edible beans, and soybeans. 
With all the air bins full of barley and no cooperation from the weather, we had to invest in and set up a new dryer system in order to make any progress with wheat harvest. We have been fortunate that since the major flooding of 2011, we have not needed the 8000 bushel bin dryer located on my uncles farm. When Devils Lake flood waters peaked in 2011, this dryer site was rendered unusable. Then with the water receding the past few years allowing access, vandals came in and stole the control panels and the fan for the dryer. 
Bagging grain at harvest is a relatively new concept. We started bagging a few years ago out of necessity because we couldn’t transport grain loads in harvest and had to wait till the ground was frozen. This year we bagged a substantial amount of wet wheat. Theoretically the grain in these bags is in a anaerobic condition and will keep for a period of time until it can be dried to suitable moisture. 
We finally finished bean harvest in November, after many rainfall events and a major snowstorm. With just corn left and Steve and Kenton getting prepared for this, I took off for Montana to start working horses and getting them ready for a planned elk hunting trip. Normally these guys would be in pretty good shape, but with this abnormally long difficult harvest it’s been 3 months since they have been worked significantly.
Connie joined me to help on one of the trips up Mcginnes creek. We only have 10 days to get these boys ready. Fortunately we live on a mountain so our horses are acclimated to all the wild smells and terrain, we just have to try to improve their legs. Obviously 10 days is not sufficient time for conditioning, but hopefully we will get them back into workable shape.
Red and I found a game trail heading up on a mountain ridge allowing us to ride up for a great vantage point.
Tanner and I took a route traversing a few mountain ridges and meeting up with the trail to standard peak. We covered a lot of beautiful country without seeing much game. Elk and deer hunting in this area seems very difficult. 
On the ridge below standard peak we heard voices coming down the trail, Tanner was on high alert.
Next week we head for the Gallatin!