The city of Missoula will hire a local firm to help it go green by turning to solar energy, moving the Garden City closer to its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2025.

On a unanimous vote, the City Council’s Administration and Finance Committee this week approved a $14,280 contract with Solar Plexus. The local company will create a “solar roadmap” to expand the city’s use of clean energy as it powers its municipal operations.

“The goal is to inform the city on the most cost-effective path to maximize solar generation on city buildings,” said Chase Jones, the city’s energy conservation coordinator. “It allows us to reduce our energy consumption, which in turn reduces the cost of purchased electricity in city operations.”

The roadmap will include a site assessment of 14 municipal facilities, including City Hall, Splash Montana and each of the five fire stations. It will also rank the proposed sites and help identify grants and other funding opportunities.

MORE>>>The Missoulian

SuzAnne Miller is the owner of Dunrovin Ranch. A fourth-generation Montanan, SuzAnne grew up roaming the mountains and fishing the streams of western Montana. Her love of nature, animals, science, and education prompted her to create the world’s first cyber ranch where live web cameras bring Dunrovin’s wildlife and ranch life to internet users across the globe.

Our Lovely Lady Lonza stands out in any herd. Her apricot champagne coat is much like that of a fawn – golden with a hint of red. She is big and demanding; the entire herd knows when she is present. In fact, on the trail, if Lady Lonza is in the group, the geldings all keep track of her presence, looking over their shoulders to be sure to give her enough room. Her personal bubble is big and she immediately corrects any who dare to violate it.

Lady Lonza’s relationships with people are complex. She sizes up her human companions quickly; and if she senses weaknesses, she can be willful and disrespectful. She is never dangerous; but she can be pushy and uncooperative if she thinks she can get away with it. She likes being in charge; and she can adopt the aloof and superior stance of royalty. However, once you do establish yourself as the leader and as a trusted partner, she turns on her many charms and welcomes you into her world.

Thus far in her life, Lady Lonza has had two beautiful foals: Sona in 2008 and Serena in 2011. Lonza is now 13 years old and is in prime condition to become pregnant and have a third foal. Breeding Lonza is a big and very considered decision. Dunrovin will not contribute to the overstock of unwanted horses that end up in rescue facilities or face worse fates. We must be very confident that Lonza’s foal will enter the world with a certain future of loving care and support. Luckily, we are in a position to make that commitment and we want to again experience the sheer delight and mystery of birthing a foal and welcoming it into our lives and our home – an utterly new being to nurture, know, train, and love.

My good friends Jan and Kate Sousa of the Lazy Sousa Ranch in Montana’s beautiful Nine Mile Valley (about 40 miles north of Missoula, Montana) has the perfect stallion to service Lonza. Dreamin’ of Luxury (Lux for short) is a handsome, well built, and very personable dark palomino Tennessee Walking Horse with a fast and smooth natural gait. Jan and Kate are an incomparable mother/daughter team that have an outstanding breeding and training facility. Dunrovin already owns two “Sousa” horses, including Whiskey and Rocket; and their other stallion, Buddy, serviced Lonza to produce Serena in 2011. It is a great pleasure to enter into this magical process of breeding and raising a foal with the assistance of two such competent and lovely people.

Most importantly, Lux has produced some wonderful, strong, healthy, and beautiful foals. Lux’s offspring are all intelligent, kind, and naturally gaited – all caharactistics that we want to reproduce with Lady Lonza. As you can see from the foals pictured below, he throws foals of many different colors depending on the dame.

Kate Sousa prepared the chart below to outline the probability of different colors for Lux’s offspring. If Lonza does become pregnant with Lux’s foal, Kate has agreed to bring Lux to Dunrovin Ranch for a live web-session regarding horse breeding, the genetics of color in horses, and caring for stallions.

So, today (September 9, 2015), I (SuzAnne) and three Dunrovin Equestrian Club members will load the trailer with Lonza and three other horses for a trail ride in the mountains surrounding that Nine Mile Valley and complete their trip by dropping off Lady Lonza at the Lazy Sousa Ranch to be pastured with Lux and let nature take its course. If we are calculating things correctly, she will come into season within the next ten days and Lux is certain to be more than happy to “do the job.” Let’s keep our finger crossed! Hopefully, we can expect the birth of a foal in August of 2016. Stay with us to watch the story unfold!

 See and Read MORE of Suzanne Miller at Days at Dunrovin.

Yellowstone National Park remains on track to have one of its highest number of annual visitor counts on record.

The park has already surpassed the 3 million mark through August, with four months left in the calendar year.

Yellowstone saw more thn 854,000 recreational visits in August, an increase of 10 percent over August 2014.

The running total of 3.1 million recreational visits in the first eight months of this year is 15 percent over 2014.

Each of the park's five entrances saw an increase in vehicles for the month of August compared to 2014 levels.

Neighboring Grand Teton National Park and other national parks in the Northern Rockies also report visitation numbers ahead of last year.

MORE>>>NBC Montana

Kristen Berube lives a crazy, laugh-filled life with her outdoorsman husband Remi and their three camo-clad children in Missoula, Montana. A graduate of Montana State University and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, she loves being a mom and enjoys hiking, fishing, and camping. “Confessions of a Camo Queen: Living with an Outdoorsman” is her first book.

I wish there were something that made me as giddy as a school girl on a daily basis as hunting and fishing does for him. Yes, I have hobbies I love. I even enjoy going fishing and camping. I have to admit though, there’s nothing I would repeatedly get up for every weekend at 4 a.m., freeze to death, rub my body down in estrus stink, snort and snuffle like a wild animal in public, spend every spare cent I have on a new camouflage pattern, or be willing to eat gas station corn dogs day in, day out. Hunting and fishing are his passion and I am grateful for them, but I just gotta share the crazy little nuances that make up an outdoorsman.

If you have an outdoorsman in your life, you’ll likely appreciate knowing that you are not alone! There is a special club that all of us belong to. This elite, women-only club is called the Camo Queens. This year-round club becomes extremely active as soon as the calendar rolls around to September and the outdoorsmen turn their attention to bows and arrows. Our credit cards have been impatiently waiting for a work out while the outdoorsmen froth at the mouth, lusting for hunting season to begin once again. Yes, throughout the summer they go fishing and hiking, but nothing compares to the hell-bent fury that overwhelms outdoorsmen when they know that it is now big-game season. God help us all.

I am grateful for the encouragement and giggling my outdoorsman has given me while writing this book. When I read him a new chapter, he laughs and hides his face in his hands. He loves to hear how I see the crazy antics that he considers just plain normal. Wait, what part of rubbing elk estrus all over you is normal? As I was writing this book, he read along, remarking on his favorite sections. He even pretended to act embarrassed about some of it. Of course, he loves the camouflage lingerie chapter the best because it gets him thinking about women and underwear. Men!

Jenna Caplette migrated from California to Montana in the early 1970s, first living on the Crow Indian reservation. A Healing Arts Practitioner, she owns Bozeman BodyTalk & Integrative Healthcare. She says, " Health is resiliency, a zest for the journey. It’s about coming awake to the joy of being alive. As a practitioner, its a privilege to facilitate that healing process, to help weave new patterns of health & well-being. “ And by the way, healthier, happier people help create a healthier, happier world.

Is the grass not green enough on the other side? Are pale skies making you blue? Do reflections scare you? Don't fret! When you pack your camera bag for summer outdoor adventures, check your filter collection to be sure it includes a polarizing filter.

Commonly used for landscape pictures, a polarizing filter makes the blues of Montana’s big sky “pop." In fact, it increases the color saturation of your picture so that all your colors will be more vivid. Use it to control reflections on water or high mountain snowbanks. Like a fisherman’s polarized sun glasses, this filter allows you to see and photograph objects (like fish) just below the water’s surface.

A little trick? Rotate the filter before you attach it to your lens to see if you like what you see. If you have polarized sunglasses, tilt your head to the side (you will look weird doing this but it works) and see if you like how your polarized lenses change the scene.

A couple cautions: a polarizer won’t work when directly facing or turned away from the scene’s light source. Be sure to work at a 90 degreee angle to that light source.

Another great filter to have on hand is a graduated neutral density filter. Think of it as sunglasses for the top half of your image. It allows you to reduce the exposure reaching a specific part of your picture. For example, if the sky is too bright and is going to be washed out, a graduated neutral density filter allows you to reduce the brightness of the sky without affecting the tone of the foreground. Rotate the filter 180° and it will reduce the glittering brightness of snow in the bottom of your image, allowing you to retain details and textures that might otherwise be lost.

A Variable Neutral Density Filter has multiple stops to help in long exposures during the day, and it helps to blur movement. Capture the silky, slow movement of a waterfall or cotton-candy clouds even when you are out at high noon. Another advantage? It's an all-in-one so you don't have to carry around multiple SINGLE neutral density filters.

Ultimately, the best way to learn what imaging accessories will help you get the quality of pictures you want is to take pictures. When something doesn’t work, go back to your camera store or camera club to find a solution that will get you past that particular problem. Experimentation is the best teacher. So, head on outside, with your camera and lenses ready to go, and keep taking pictures.