Organic material can ignite spontaneously due to biological activity at moisture contents between 26 to 46% if the temperature exceeds 200 degrees F. These high temperatures only occur with restricted air flow and piles exceeding a height of seven feet.
http://www.chemfreelawns.com/html/articles/compost_maintenance.htm

As we approached Bozeman, the weather was cold and wet; in fact, the Bridgers got quite a bit of snow. The gravel had not been applied to the driveway yet and was so muddy that we could not even start to drive up it. This weather had also delayed other work, so we're starting to think that the Carriage House will be finished in early winter of 2004.

We spent the first bad weather days in a hotel and did much of the work of making selections and reviewing plans.

The weather soon turned hot and dry so we could set up camp just above the Carriage House site on the old road. Neko enjoyed this part of the trip more than anyone; here, she finds a bit of shade to relax after a hard day of chasing ground squirrels, grouse and deer. She lost several pounds during the trip!

One of our projects for the trip was to obtain a vehicle we could leave in Bozeman and use to do work around the property. We settled on a used '94 Mazda 4x4 pickup. It is pictured here next to Kendal and Arthur's tent at the campsite.

We got quite used to camping out, but we did indulge ourselves with several trips to Bozeman Hot Springs to relax and get clean. We also took some invigorating splashes in Place Creek.

We saw quite a bit of wildlife while camping. Gary had warned everyone that there might be bears and we were on the lookout. Pauline thought she saw a black shape in the bushes once, but it turned out to be some black cows (left). Eventually, all got tired of Gary's constant reminders to keep the campsite clean and put away all food at night. Then, upon arising to take care of early morning business at a discrete distance from camp, Gary saw rustling in some bushes about 100' away; he banged a shovel to make some noise and spied the backside of a black bear lumbering off. Returning to camp, he roused the others, but they were not quick enough to see the bear had followed to within 50' of camp to check us out. They did see him scrambling away through the bushes on the other side of the creek, however. After that, camp cleanliness was carefully practiced by all, and we invested in some pepper spray. We also hiked around the areas the bear had been, making lots of noise; we never saw him again.

One of our goals was to do some fire danger mitigation work near the Main House site. Here, Kendal, Arthur and Pauline work on removing the low hanging branches on the tree at Attila's Throne. The idea is that by removing the low branches, a grass fire will not spread into the trees and become a forest fire. The danger of this has been greatly increased by the combination of a lot of spring rain and lack of cattle grazing; the grass is abundant and high now. The wildlife will appreciate this later in the year, but we hope it does not create a problem if there is a fire.

We worked very hard for several days, and managed to convince ourselves that 196 acres is more than we can do without some help!

Here is what the area looks like after a bit of work. The area is much more pleasant, since one can walk around without banging into or tripping over branches. Some of the debris we cleaned up can be seen at the lower left of the picture; this should be burned on a calm day soon after the first snow.

While doing the fire danger mitigation work one day, we saw smoke coming from the vicinity of the lower property. Even though things were very damp and green, we were concerned that there might be a fire at the highway and ran down to investigate. It turned out that a large pile of hay bales at Christie's farm had caught fire. It is assumed that the combination of wet hay starting to compost and the sudden onset of hot weather made the hay susceptible to fire. This theory is supported by the fact that the fire continued to smolder for almost two complete days after the fire department left: there must have been a lot of heat internal to the pile. Once the fire went out, there was almost nothing left of the pile.

This picture does not do justice to the beautiful splash of purple flowers leading up from the SE corner of the 1/4 section toward the Main House site. Wildflowers were in abundance everywhere.

Kendal can be seen walking up along the fence. We made several trips around the fence (a 3 mile journey, with many ups and downs) during our stay, assessing the places that may need some repair and deciding where to place "No Hunting" signs.

In the early morning the day before we returned, Gary and Kendal made a quick trip around the entire fence line (about 3 miles). As we approached the NW corner, we spied a few elk that ran off. We soon heard noises like truncated elk bugling, and when we came over the ridge, saw a large herd of elk moving away from us. Gary caught about 45 of them in this picture. There appear to be a number of new calves in the herd.

During our wanderings, we found many bones of elk, deer and cattle, which Neko helped herself to. We also found insulators for electric fences and a rusty old leghold trap that we will keep as artifacts of the land's history.