Our Mountain Retreat

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In the midst of getting the B&B up and running, Hunter joined the local volunteer fire department and learned how to selectively harvest our larch, pine and birch trees for wildfire protection. Selectively cutting our six acres of forest provides strenuous outdoor exercise and produces enough firewood to heat the entire inn throughout the long Montana winters. Right now, we are on the electric grid, but we’d rather power the house with renewable energy. Being off the grid is definitely in our future, as is a log cabin.

We serve a lot of organic food, which can get expensive. To cut down on our food bill, I work a few afternoons each week at a local organic health food market. This allows us to buy our food and supplies wholesale, and to support local organic growers and producers. All our eggs come from a neighboring farm and are delivered fresh to our door once a week.

Hunter works a few evenings each week as a bartender at a restaurant in nearby Whitefish, and he also does some catering on the side. The original plan was to “quit working” and just run the inn, but we both really enjoy our part-time jobs and will probably stick with them.

Gardening and Cold Weather

Our house’s previous owner was an enthusiastic gardener. The yard was under snow when we bought it, so we had no idea what would pop up in the spring. Holy moly! There were so many garden beds that we had to abandon a few of them. We still have a 50-by-50 foot garden with perennials, herbs and vegetables that keeps us busy throughout the growing season.

The property is very rocky. To enrich the garden’s soil, we trucked in topsoil from a fertile growing area in Flathead Valley. Having never met the house’s previous owners, I don’t know if they used organic methods or not, but they left us a fully developed compost pile and a lovely pile of aged manure that we have continued to use.

The growing season is extremely short and challenging. We can’t plant seedlings outdoors until June, and the growing season lasts only three months before the first frost. Days are hot and dry, and nights are in the mid-50s all summer. I am still learning what grows well here and have had a few failures. Last year, deer ate all my broccoli, and hop vines more or less took over the entire garden before I knew what happened. But we have had some great successes. We have harvested tomatoes, onions, strawberries, kale, beans, radishes, cabbage and salad greens. This year, I also planted asparagus and several berry and grape varieties.

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