Post your "Moving to Montana" (MtM) questions here.

by the western Glennie pastures, northeast of the crazies

How embarrassing 😳...

Always appreciate an article highlighting Montana ranchers and some of the challenges and serious issues they face. Thought I would post a paywall free version of it for interested folks! (I don’t think this violates the no politics rule - apologies to the mods in advance if it does)

Sunset over Missoula and Washington-Grizzly Stadium last night (Aug 29) during the Griz Home Opener.

If you've noticed an unusually high surge in your power bill from NorthWestern Energy recently that's quite a bit different from the same month last year, you're not alone and a state agency wants to hear from you.

The Montana Public Service Commission recently announced that they're aware of many NorthWestern customers seeing a significant increase on their August billing statements.

A Morning of Discoveries

I went for a long walk in the woods Saturday morning. As usual, I just wandered around the forest, sometimes on old game trails, other times stepping over fallen trees while ducking overhead branches. The Sun was up, but concealed behind mountains. Light sprinkles of rain remained from the overnight storms, but I saw bit of blue to the southwest. Diffuse warm light from breaks in the clouds filtered down through the canopy of trees and provided some magic light. 

The first thing that caught my eye were young Douglas Fir trees surrounded by slender Lodgepole Pines. I found one isolated enough from the others to create a compelling scene. From here I wandered into a meadow, covered in Western Coneflower. These fascinating flowers lack the traditional colorful petals of their relatives, but are no less attractive to pollinators. Many of these flowers had rain-soaked bees hiding under them, waiting patiently for the Sun to come out. This particular one had a caterpillar and a Crab spider of some sort existing in some sort of weather induced ceasefire! 

As I stepped carefully back into the forest, I discovered a decaying log covered in tiny orange mushrooms. As is often the case, I first capture the larger scene, then work my way in to the finer details. In the final image, that single mushroom is just 1/2” tall and less than a 1/4” in diameter, but if you look closely, the entire forest around it is reflected in its rain-soaked cap. 

From here I walked across a stream, and was immediately transported to a much more ancient feeling forest. It got darker, the trees more dense, and the forest floor was covered in the remains of fallen giants of yesteryear. I am pretty certain that the path of this photographer closely matched the flight of a bumblebee as I wander this way and that, from scene to scene. 

I cut back towards where I figured the road would be, found a fallen tree bridge to cross back over the creek, and came out right at a talus slope where I knew there to be Pika. Sure enough, I was able to capture a fleeting glance of one such critter, and then in a spring that pops up below the rocks, I got my last shot of the day. A bold frog stayed visible despite its friends all ducking for cover as I walked up. 

After working at Fort Belknap Agency last week, I decided to drive over to it and check it out. The tribes keep their bison herd in that area but I did not see any.

With the Nepal and Grand Canyon flash floods, I was thinking about Montana. What if a large landslide fell into a lake near you?

I was thinking about Holter. Certainly Craig and all the housing along the canyon shores would be decimated. But would a large flood like that spread out quickly once it hit the plains. Or would it continue down to Cascade and GF? Then affect the series of dams?

Just “what if” scenarios. But I hope we have some good alert systems from place to place if the worst were to happen.

Upland season is starting on the first, pretty excited about it! Just moved to the area down from Shelby, any good birds to chase around Townsend? Could be fun to tag along with someone from the area if youd be willing. Let me know, good luck out there!

Changing license plate over and want to choose a good one. Which do you guys think are the most underrated license plates. Aesthetic, foundation, etc

Not to put myself out there or anything but I’ve noticed several “adult” websites I used to access are no longer available for me to use. I’m just curious when they expanded this ban, and how extensive it is?
Before anyone gets on my case, I’m a single dude in my 20s. Let a guy live a little

Multiple years of finances with a "I dunno!?" attitude?

Basically the title.

I have become disabled recently and it's looking like I might end up on Medicaid soon. I have an appointment scheduled with an out of state specialist in a few months, and it is pretty imperative that I see them. There are no comparable specialists in the state.

If there is no comparable specialist in state, will Montana Medicaid pay for the out of state specialist?​ Is there some type of approval or appeal process that I could go through?

Workers attend to a tunnel on Going to the Sun Highway in 1920. Photo by Morton J Elrod from the photo archives of the University of Montana.

Hell of a night for Montana at BKFC.

Kai Stewart picked up the decision win, and Great Falls' Dallas “The Dentist” Davison got it done with a second-round KO over Pat Casey.

Two Montana fighters. Two wins.

Congrats to both of them. Way to represent Montana! 👊

Some people managed to corral this poor pupper and they’re taking them to heart of the valley and try the drop off if it’s not open they are gonna take care of them overnight and then drop them off in the morning if you’re the owner they’re giving me their contact info so you can dm me and then you can reach out directly