Although wind gusts were not reported in Big Sandy, Sunday last, the National Weather says there were large gusts all around so consider the wind was at times topping 50 mph in Big Sandy as well. There were gusts of 53mph reported north of Loma, 68 mph reported east of Geraldine, and 55 mph in Havre.
Other notable gusts happening on Sunday were 81mph in East Glacier, 74 mph in Babb, 70 mph in Zortman, 69mph in Whitlash, 68mph in Geraldine and 83mph in Pendroy Sunday morning for the highest in Montana on Sunday. With a gust of 62mph at the top of Logan Pass, it was hardly anything but a mild day up there.
The National Weather Service said this week should be mild and cooler as the week moves along but there is little moisture reported anywhere into next week.
In Big Sandy Brad Moore reported that the Sunday winds blew his fence that separates his house from the football field blew down and there were many leaves and branches down around the town.
Reminds us at “The Mountaineer” of the poor woodcutter at Babb who, one spring, got the contract to supply 83 cords of wood to Glacier Park Lodge at East Glacier for their summer supply of wood.
It was a big contract and the woodcutter didn’t have a pickup that was adequate for the job so he went into the Chevy garage in Cutbank and rented a used pickup for his contract. The garage manager said he would only charge the woodcutter for mileage at 50 cents a mile. The woodcutter thought that was a great deal, took the pickup and started his project.
In the meantime, the woodcutter’s mother had died at Fort Peck. The woodcutter let the at East Glacier know the situation and went off to Fort Peck to grieve for his mother. But before he left he carefully put the truck on blocks, drained the oil, anti freeze and gasoline, and wrapped the entire truck in a protective wrap. It was only when all that was complete, did the woodcutter think about leaving.
In his grief, the woodcutter only did one thing wrong. His mistake was leaving the pickup in neutral instead of park. During the two weeks, he was gone, normal Babb winds ensued and when the woodcutter got back home, and he looked at his speedometer information, he saw that he had mistakenly put 82,780 miles on the pickup while he was gone.
Expensive wood gathering contracts can be had on the east front of our Rocky Mountains!
