Of All the Places to Love........

The above two paneled painting is hanging on our living room wall. Since I scared everyone with the bison head boiling post, I thought I ought to post something pleasant for all of you about bison and the ranch.

A dear friend of ours, Scott Paul, is a painter who is an artist. Among other things, he paints unique finishes in high end custom homes - last year, on a job, he painted the outlets and other wall "things" in a bedroom to match a custom birch bark wall (literally, a wall made out of birch bark). The switches matched so well that they couldn't find them.

Scott has been to the ranch numerous times to help "harvest" bison (a little happy terminology for our CA friends) and has also has gone out with Brad at times during the winter so that Brad didn't have to be out in the remote recesses of Montana all alone. Scott is from Montana and is a true outdoorsman - he is a fisherman, hunter, and bison-harvester extraordinaire. He loves the eastern front and appreciates the beauty of the ranch as much as we do. As a surprise gift to Brad this year, he painted the above. It is truly a treasure. I wish you could see the detail.

This is a photo that I just took on Saturday from the same view of the ranch as the painting (a little farther away). Scott had to tweak things a little to get them to fit, but isn't it beautiful? Truly, it is the most amazing gift. Not only did a dear friend paint it for us (and choose to give it to us instead of selling it for oodles of money!), but it is of our favorite view of our favorite place in the world. Of all the places to love, the ranch is MY favorite. Where else do enormous looming glaciers, tall stands of prairie grass and free roaming bison make all the difference?