Montana's Weather versus Pennsylvania's

We were discussing Montana's attitude toward rainfall in contrast to Pennsylvania's, my home state.

Montana likes to tease. While we tenants here below gaze skyward,  yearning for some of its hoped-for annual precip of 15 inches, we are treated to scenery. Montana weather tends to be a dilettante, dabbling, presenting a "no-show" nonchalance, more display than substance. Rather than making itself "Useful as well as Ornamental," it quits at "ornamental."

To be sure, Montana can produce dazzling, kaleidoscopic shades of gray or overcast horizons such as the image above.

In contrast, when Pennsylvania says "rain," it means it. It will rain. Often. And long. Or hard. Or both.

The scene is from our Livestock and Landscape collection, entitled Clouds & Cattle, 2.

Gelbvieh cousins in front of the Bitterroots

Gelbvieh calves in front of western Montana's Bitterroot Range. Calves Number 56 and 12 are posing out of curiosity and telling us life here today is good. What are Gelbvieh? They're a European breed introduced to the USA in the early 1970s through imports from Austria.

Over there, Gelbvieh were triple purpose bovines, bred for meat, milk, and yoked to the plow or wagon. Origins are thought to be from the Red Bavarian, the Swiss Brown, and the red and white Simmental. They became known as the German Yellow. Quite the "colorful" background, wouldn't you say?

In the early 1980s, Gelbvieh bulls and Brahman cows produced the Gelbray breed for semi-tropical environments.