The Rascal Fair, Vol. 6

As the Billings Gazette's promising series Unsettling Times wonders where East ends and West begins, this week's Rascal Fair features the rededication of the Montana Blogmap.  We'll start with a request and end with a challenge.  Our request:  Figure out where you are, e-mail us with your blogmap location, and we'll get you on the map.  (Oh, and let us know if you have any idea of how to actually code this into a map.)

As a Scotch Helenan I have to love anything named after a book that begins with "Scotland and Helena," so let's get started with the Rascal Fair:

Over on the Columbia River side of the continental divide, in the Middle Clark Fork, Sharon at Watermark gives us one more reason to be happy Spring is here:  her stunning garden photography, accompanied by the original Mother's Day proclamation.  While we sometimes curse our short growing season over the pass here, we are grateful that there is almost always something in bloom in Sharon's garden, and that she has such a talent for sharing it with us.

Another Montana blogger who came to the Rascal Fair from that side of the divide is Troy from Goatopolis, where he debuts Part I of his "Life of a Goat" serial story.  It's about the kind of Friday that could begin either the best or the worst weekend ever. But unlike serials of yore, you needn't wait for the next installment: he's already got Part II, Part III, and Part IV posted too.  Troy also appears to have roots in the Middle Clark Fork, though he now blogs from the drier Lower Colorado watershed, in the aptly named Lower Salt.

And we can't forget Middle Clark Fork resident (I think) and Rascal Fair cofounder Matt at Left In the West, the site for fresh (and we mean  ten-posts-a-day fresh) commentary on Montana politics.  He's taking the pro-Yalta realist side against the President, and he's not alone.  Even better, he's quoting his (lawyer?) father:  "In the field of law a good judge is one who tries to find a solution in a case, rather than trying to solve the law."  Timely advice just before I take a late Law Day foray into a couple of local classrooms.  Thanks Matt!

Over here in Missouri country, well, there's not much to report either upstream or downstream.  Not even anyone from around Ivan Doig's Scotch Heaven.  Where are you Kim, Wulfgar, and Dave?

So, on to the Yellowstone, where we begin in the Stillwater drainage.  There, Pandora at An Offering of Myself to the World visited Gallatin country where she has someone to celebrate:  Her son Matty took a chemical engineering B.S. from MSU (Go 'Cats!) with honors this weekend.  Congratulations to mother and son!

On the Clark's Fork Yellowstone, Karen at Karbon Kounty Moos posts some hair-raising photos.  We used to neighbor Karen's original hometown East River watershed when we lived on the Lower Hudson, and have become big fans of her colorful tales of farm life now and in times past.

Next stop is the bustling Upper Yellowstone - Lake Basin watershed, where Randy at A Secular Franciscan Life gives us a sign, or two, or fifty.  (Randy, remind me to get a scanner and send you a photo of the "No Defecating on Platform" sign I found in the Beijing subway.)

Also on the banks of the Yellowstone, Dave, a relatively new Montana Blogger at A Different Lemming, suggests one solution to the energy problem is to think global, act local.

And we can't forget our MSM (and crypto-Helenan) friend Ed at City Lights, who is following a lively discussion on the music scene in Billings with a concert review from downtown Rockvale.  From the looks of the comments, those Billingsians might be taking their music scene for granted: Casey's may not be what it once was, but when I lived there Dylan played a small gym at the Shrine Auditorium, and down the road Jimmy Cliff played in a big gym at Hardin.  Helenans dream of such gigs.

Finally, our winner for the farthest-downstream Montana blogger is a man whose  talent for finding the perfect quote to close his posts astounds us.  From down around the Bighorn-Rosebud divide, our favorite ranch-blogger Sarpy Sam at Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere asks if that's a veto in the Governor's pocket or is he just . . . well, you better just check it out for yourself.

If Ed had asked us about the East-West Montana border, we'd draw the line at where the Upper Missouri ends at the confluence of the Marias (at Loma), and where the Upper Yellowstone ends at the confluence of the Bighorn (at Bighorn).  That's where the rivers run out of sight from the big mountain ranges and into the breaks and badlands and plains, and it comes pretty close to the line Larry Swanson draws in Ed's article.

Now the challenge:  Aside from the one-of-a-kind Sarpy Sam, who is right on the borderline, are there any Montana Bloggers from Eastern (aka Lower or Downstream) Montana?  Anyone at all from the Milk, Musselshell, Tongue, or Powder?

Comments

[goat]

Great Job!! I always look forward to Tuesday's now to read the next Rascal Fair. Another wonderful job.

I do have one correction though. I am originally from the Lower Yellowstone region in Dawson County. (Bloomfield).

-- Troy

[Mike]

From the Milk River drainage (Havre)for the next few weeks. Groovy idea BTW.
Mike

[Randy]

Send me that Beijing photo, I'll scan it for you and mail it back. That sounds like a sign I NEED for my collection! :-D

[Pandora]

Good job! That was very original and interesting. I have been impressed by the creativity of the Rascal Fairs so far.

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