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Montana Trip

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PureCountry

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Edgewood, BC, moving to Hardisty, AB
Sorry I didn't look any of you up on my trip this week. I planned to, until I got to the border. Had all my paperwork in order for the USDA vet and state ag folks, then I met the Customs and Border Protection Agency. My, my, they are a sweet bunch.

In 2 months of bloodwork, paperwork and prepwork, not one person on either side of the border mentioned going through a "broker" to sell bulls to American citizens. The fine folks at Customs and Border Protection informed me when I reached the border at noon on Wednesday, and by 6 o'clock that night not one of them could still explain to me why it's the law, other than to say, "It's the law." So $500 later I had an account set up with UPS as my broker, and the vet was good enough to stay late and check the bulls for me so I could carry on to Harrison. Thanks again to Dr. Jim Becker, USDA vet at Sweetgrass. Great guy.

Also many thanks to Rick and Lori Edmundson for putting me up after my ordeal, and gracing them with my presence at midnight. Great folks, great scenery, and man was it nice to drive through so much green country. I have never seen Montana so pretty. I had to stop and see my great-great-Grandad in the cemetery at Avon, what a neat place that was.

Anyway, from then on my trip was rushed, so maybe we'll get to meet some of you Montanans down the road on another trip.
 
That sounds like quite an ordeal. Glad you made it there and
back safely, if not swiftly.

Your relative is buried in the Avon cemetary? I'd really enjoying
hearing that story sometime. Avon is quite a little place and so beautiful.
Some nice folks live there, for sure.

If you went through the Avon valley in daylight, did you get to see
the overshot stackers?
 
Yeah it was daylight, can't say I'm brave enough to visit a cemetery in the dark. lol

Those beaverslide stackers are pretty neat. There were haystacks from last year still standing in a meadow on one outfit. Had to stop and read the "Historical Point" sign that tells the story of the "Valley of a Thousand Haystacks". It's one of the prettiest valleys I've ever seen driving up there to Avon. I can see why Gr-Gr-Grandad Bandy went back there. I'll have to get the whole story from my Grandad to relay it and do it any justice.
 
PureCounty, Be sure you do get that story from your grandfather and any other stories he cares to tell you. The older you get the more interesting and important some of those old family stories become Now that my grandparents and parents are all gone I think about questions every so often that I wish I had asked but it didn't seem that important at the time. Do take the time to learn those stories while your grandfather is still here. It's time well spent.
 
those guys always say you need a broker but i have never used one going north - you can do it all yourself and it only takes maybe 1/2 hour of paperwork.
 
They told me US citizens don't need one to sell to Canadians, it's the other way around. I asked what would happen if the US buyer had driven 10 miles into Canada, met me for the bull and tried to take him back. THey said he would have had to get his own account through a broker in order to buy a Canadian bull.

I spent 2 hours in the parking lot of customs phoning everyone I could think of, from our CFIA to Alberta Regulatory Services to my boss at LIS to the Montana State Ag Dept to the USDA Vet at the border. They all ended up saying the same thing, "What Customs says, goes." And Customs was not letting me or 2 bulls into Montana without going through a broker. It still makes no friggin sense to me, other than it's a cash-grab. I know what you mean about the paperwork, what I paid a good chunk of change for at the UPS office I could have filled out in 10 minutes and taken back to Customs myself. Oh well.
 
DID I CATCH YOU RIGHT....YOU WERE IN HARRISON??? HECK, JUST UP THE ROAD FROM MY LITTLE FAMILY!!! AVON IS JUST A PLAIN PRETTY LITTLE TOWN WITH DOWNRIGHT GOOD PEOPLE!! GREW UP AND WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL WITH SOME OF THE NICEST KIDS FROM THERE...ALL GOOD HARD WORKERS WITH ETHICS AND VALUES!!
 
I had to stop and check out the renovated store in Avon. The lady who owns it said she and her husband ranch 6 miles north of Avon. She makes some of the prettiest quilts I've ever seen and sells them in the store. I've seen lots of the world, very few places look as good as home. That valley is a place I could relocate to though.
 
PureCountry said:
I had to stop and check out the renovated store in Avon. The lady who owns it said she and her husband ranch 6 miles north of Avon. She makes some of the prettiest quilts I've ever seen and sells them in the store. I've seen lots of the world, very few places look as good as home. That valley is a place I could relocate to though.

ditto....no place like home!!! :D
 

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