Hints and tips:
...Within the ranch lie more than 7,000 acres of corner-locked public land....
...Island boomtime coincided with the hyperinflation of US domestic interiors, the moment in which the Dallas-style ranch begat the suburban McMansion....
...When I reached Montana, I fell in love: with the landscape, the sense of openness, the trout, the dive bars....
...When a friend of a friend suggested an open-minded ranch owner, a lease was signed and Bluebird took flight....
...The path up is rocky, dusty and lined with mountain mahogany, pinyon pine, the charred remains of lightning-struck trees and low shrubs dotted with tiny yellow, blue, pink and purple flowers....
...The sun rose, the snow sparkled, red squirrels scampered about the stands of spruce and lodgepole pine....
...The whole room, with its log walls and wood ceiling, made of a particular shade of caramel-coloured pine, is like a golden cave....
...set into the bar counter....
...There is a small bulldozer just off the trail, where the pine trees have been cleared. And, although the machine’s motor is off, the horse is spooked. It is something he will have to get used to....
...The 1950s ranch-style property in the township that he and his former wife bought in 1994 for $200,000 is now worth about $500,000....
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