Old town of Avon: Montana tradition alive and well

In the winter, Bill and Jill McIntosh still feed the sheep and cattle on their Avon ranch the old-fashioned way, using a bobsleigh and a team of Percheron draft horses. “You get to 50 below zero and your tractor won’t start, you can’t get hay to your cattle,” says Bill. “With a bobsleigh and a pull-team, I can pitch on a load and get ’em fed.”

Sometimes it feels like the old Montana is going to disappear in a sea of scrunched-up condos, traffic jams, big box stores and five-acre “ranches,” but in a bitter cold December wind, Avon ranchers Bill and Jill McIntosh are preserving their past.

By VINCE DEVLIN of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/articles/2006/12/21/news/local/news02.txt