It’s Just the Place That Changes, the Rest Is Still the Same

We are moving! It’s taken over six years but we finally bought a house.

We’ve been in our current home, which we rent, since we first moved to Montana in September 2014. It’s been…decent. We’ve made this place as much ours as is possible with a rental. We repaired fences and transformed the outbuilding for goats. We’ve built a pretty amazing garden. We’ve also improved a lot inside. It’ll be sad to leave it, especially since we’ve both lived here longer than we’ve ever lived anywhere else. I’ll also greatly miss the area. There are wide open fields with the rocky mountains in the distance, an abundance of cottonwood trees, sagebrush, and the Russian olive shrub/tree that everyone hates but which I find rather pretty. I will miss the sound of the train in the distance and the birds I’ve come to expect every year — magpies, various finches, robins, chickadees, and grackles. I will also miss living near grizzly bears and wolves. I know it’s not for everyone but I enjoy the wildlife.

Where we are moving the land is rugged. There are some open spaces but they’re not near us. Once you turn off one of the only roads through the mountains, you’re in, well, the mountains, surrounded by ponderosa pines and junipers. I will definitely miss watching the leaves of the cottonwoods turn gold in the fall and slowly tint green in the late spring. While I think junipers are interesting, I also think they smell of cat pee. It’s quite the trade. We won’t have grizzlies or wolves, but we’ll still be near mountain lions, black bears, and elk. Plus there are pronghorns nearby as well! Brian said he saw a mountain bluebird at the house, which I’ve never seen here. There are also a lot of owls, apparently. So while there are plenty of things to miss, there are plenty of new things to appreciate.

Note:  The photo is that of a pronghorn from our time in Wyoming in 2014. If I recall correctly, this was taken east of Glenrock, off Tank Farm Road. You can visit but it seems unlikely he’ll still be there.

Title From:
No Roots
by Alice Merton