🥵 Hot Enough for the History Books

Billings made weather history on Saturday when the mercury soared to 102 degrees, breaking a record that had stood since 1934. Even more remarkable, July 25 became the last day of the month ever to hit 100 degrees in the city's recorded history. As the heat settled in, locals cooled off at splash parks, browsed flea markets, and lined up at a new dessert shop in the Heights while meteorologists celebrated the unusual milestone.

🌡️ Since It's Been So Hot...

It was so hot in Billings...
...I saw two trees fighting over a dog.

🍎 Local Neighbor Spotlight: Seventy homemade pies. One home kitchen. Countless happy customers.

We had the pleasure of meeting Ann Stahl, who makes the trip from the Roundup area every Saturday with a truck full of homemade pies—and when we say "truck full," we mean it. Ann brings about 70 fresh pies to market each week.

The surprising part? She bakes every single one of them the day before.

When I told her that sounded like an incredible amount of baking, she smiled and shared her secret. She uses a double pizza oven, which lets her bake about 20 pies at a time. It's a system she's perfected, turning out pie after pie from her home kitchen.

There's something special about knowing your dessert wasn't made in a factory or shipped across the country. These pies are handcrafted the old-fashioned way—mixed, rolled, filled, and baked with care before sunrise on market day.

Whether you're a fan of classic apple, berry, peach, or another seasonal favorite, stopping by Ann's booth isn't just a chance to pick up dessert—it's a chance to support a local baker who's putting in the work to keep homemade traditions alive.

So the next time you're at the Farmers Market on Saturday, look for Ann's Pies. You might leave with more than you planned—but that's just what happens when you smell fresh pie.

Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter has received a significant land donation that will make way for a permanent new home — a sprawling 26,000-square-foot facility built to better serve animals and the community.

The generous gift marks a major milestone for the shelter, which has long worked to find a stable, purpose-built space to expand its rescue and adoption operations.

With a dedicated site now secured, the shelter can move forward with plans for a modern space designed from the ground up to care for animals in need across the Yellowstone Valley region.

🚧 Traffic Report

The fact that there’s a highway to hell and only a stairway to heaven says a lot about the anticipated traffic numbers.

The Happiest Man in the Room

A therapist has a theory that couples who make love once a day are the happiest. So he tests it at a seminar by asking, “How many people here make love once a day?” Half the people raise their hands, grinning widely. “Once a week?” A third of the audience members raise their hands, their grins a bit less vibrant.  “Once a month?” A few hands tepidly go up. Then he asks, “OK, how about once a year?” 

     One man in the back jumps up and down, jubilantly waving his hands. The therapist is shocked –this disproves his theory. “If you make love only once a year,” he asks, “why are you so happy?”

    The man yells, “Because today’s the day.

Skip the Crowds at Pictograph Cave — Go in Late Afternoon Light

Most visitors to Pictograph Cave State Park near Billings show up mid-morning and squint at the ancient rock art in flat, washed-out light. The insider move is to arrive about 90 minutes before sunset, when the low-angle golden light rakes across the cave walls at just the right angle to make the ochre and charcoal pictographs practically leap off the stone. Details that are nearly invisible at noon — faint animal figures, overlapping layers of art from different eras — suddenly reveal themselves without any special equipment or filters.

The late-afternoon crowd thins out dramatically because most tourists have already moved on, so you often get the caves nearly to yourself. Bring a pair of cheap binoculars rather than relying solely on the viewing platform; the elevated angle lets you spot secondary figures tucked into the upper ledges that the interpretive signs don't even mention.