I have allot of people ask me about moving to Montana and I usually repeat a phrase someone else came up with. Essentially Montana is a great way of life, but a poor living.

Montana may or may not need anymore people but there sure is an acute shortage of shooters in my area.

Recon,

Where are you and what type of shooter are you talking about? If you're a competitor, I'll send you some match programs. Lots of stuff going on.

Then again, if you're out among the prairie rats I'll visit YOU!

BTW, with a handle like Recon you wouldn't by chance be a Jarhead, now wouldja?

Redial

Redial, Explain Jarhead. You wouldn't perhaps be speaking of "Uncle Sams Misguided Children", purveyors of freedom and slayers of Americas enemies would you? That collection of brave and stalwart men among men who thrive on danger and defend your right to apple pie and the sanctity of motherhood? "God Bless" Em one and all! "Semper Fi"! Uraah!!

You didn't happen to spend any time "in country" did you? The fist time I heard same-same I wasn't in Kansas any more.

Aye lad, one and the same. You surely remember

U Suckers Miss Christmas
U Signed MF'ing Contract

and many other appropriate explanations of the acronym. A noble institution that taught me to order beer and puke in 9 distinct languages. Seems there's quite a number of us with threaded craniums up here, eh?

I wasn't in THAT country but in most of the neighboring ones, shortly thereafter.

Cheers!

Redial

Clark: I do not recall I-5 running through Montana? LOL! Are you trying with your post to decry the job opportunities and pay scales here in Montana. I am not sure. But if you are let me say this: I agree the best way to enjoy Montana is to be retired here with ones own batch of bucks! BUT! I have made the acquaintance of many transplanted new arrivals to Montana that are making a fine living - in PARADISE!
For instance one of my Big Game Hunting buddies moved here from Minnesota. He started with a Laundro-Mat! He now owns a construction business, a sewer business, a storage unit business, a porta-potty business, numerous residential rentals, numerous business rentals and this month he is deep sea fishing and vacationing in Costa Rica! Another Big Game Hunting buddy is employed by a phone company and has 4 children. He has good benefits and he and his wife and children revel in the Montana lifestyle! They do it all from horses to fishing to Hunting, hiking, camping, sight seeing, entertaining out of state friends and relatives etc etc etc. Their quality of life is so robust that the wife doesn't even complain anymore about leaving her surgical nurse cushy WELL PAID job back in the tri-cities area. Please let me continue. My new neighbors are heirs to the Cracker-Jack fortune. They could live anywhere in the world! And indeed they do have homes in the Florida Keys and Carmel, California (among others!) but they bought the place next door and are just as happy as clams!
Montana has its troubles but I have been around and I think it is one of the best places I have seen to raise children. Or entertain grand-children!
Let me list some of the sensational opportunities to make pleasing ones lifestyle here in Montana (moneyed up or not!) traditional valued neighbors (this feature of Montana is worth the price of admission by itself!), fantastic Big Sky views from a carefully chosen home, good schools, traditional valued political leaders (for the most part!), the ability to relax in non hectic and pick your pace surroundings, the ability to enjoy UNLIMITED hobbies and recreational activities (year round!) like astronomy (unparralled!) , rock collecting, fossil finding, arrowhead Hunting, photography (unparralled!), skiing, snowmobiling, cross country skiing, fishing (unparralled), Hunting (all types - unparralled), horse riding, river rafting, swimming, bird watching (unparralled!), mountain climbing, antique collecting, Gun collecting, family camping (unparralled), hiking and back country camping (year round!), sight seeing by car, wildlife viewing (unparralled anywhere in America!)... oh I could go on and on and will another time for sure. But I have learned one very valuable lesson in my 56 trips around the sun - money is not everything! This has been incredibly re-enforced since I moved to Montana 6 years ago.
I just returned from a 10 day visit to I-5 country and the hellacious and incredibly horrid traffic situation out there made my intestines bleed! I could go on and on! You can have I-5, if I can keep Montana! OK?
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Enjoy where you are and maximize your opportunities. I went out again today and shot about 40 more ground squirrels. It was in the low 50's with bright sunshine and I got three in a row right at 480 yards. I imagine that would be a little tougher to do right now in Montana.

Fjold, if the little suckers would come out right now we could do a little paintin in the snow. spring snowstorms are the best.

Fjold your too right, it would take a back hoe to hunt gophers today. It's 11 below right now and fix'n to get worse. Having traveled a bit I see great places every where in this wonderful country. Montanas my home and I wouldn't have it any other way, and like VarmintGuy big cities and traffic make my skin crawl. However his point about bringing the cash with you is well taken, this is a tough place to make a living. A couple years back the local paper printed an article that had the locals yukin it up good, a banker type from else where wrote a letter about how he was making $200,000.00 a year and he'd be willing to cut his pay in half to move to Montana. "Yeah Right"!!! How's 15 or 20 percent sound? Living in a university town it's amazing and depressing to watch all the capable young graduates have to leave the state whether they want to or not cause they can't make a living here. My son left Bozeman and went to Greeley Colo., same job on the same level, $8.40 an hour in Bozeman with no benifits $22.50 an hour in Greeley to start with full benifits and a 401K. Our teachers are some of the lowest paid in the country, skilled computer types working for the city start around $8.00 an hour. A two bedroom apartment in Bozeman in reasonable condition will run about $1,100.00 a month, utilities about $150.00, food-"HIGH". Do the math. Beautiful state but scenery makes weak soup.

Today I wish I was hunting in the desert around Tucson, maybe Utah , or down there with you Fjold hunting squirrels, a little snow bird action sounds good, a two weeks south two weeks north. All it takes is cash! Wonderful country, I love it all!

Your Montana kind of day has spilled over the Lolo Pass and down into The Good Old Boys valley. Right now its 3 degrees and dropping with about 6ins. of snow. Not Lewiston kind of weather at all. After all we're the banana belt of the N.W.

Jan 5th 2004 in the Capital City of the banana belt. Come on up and we can do some ice fishing on Holter lake.

[image][/image]

A pictures worth a thousand words, "WELL SAID BT100". We're having a heat wave, it's only 34 below here in Bozeman. How's the fishing up on Canyon Ferry?

Good work BT100 show it like it is.Another one of Varmint Guys glorious posts might push the population over a million.It was -38 here this AM my German shorthair was shivering so bad I let her in the mud room, w/regards

All: Yes it set a record low temperature for the date here today in Dillon at 29 below zero! And I have to admit my house lab Henry was walking on tiptoes when he went down my cement walk to pee in the bushes! He is 3 years old and this is by far the coldest temps he has seen! I walked out behind him in my T-shirt (being macho man) at 0800 this morning and 27 below. I nearly died when a gust of wind went right through me! I mean, it went THROUGH me! My nipples became hard and took nearly twenty minutes to dialate (or what ever they do when they diminish in size) once I was back in the house! I mean that gust of wind is forever in my mind! And I ran back toward the house creating another 7 MPH breeze as I moved and that caused my nose to freeze shut! Yikes!

Yeah I tend to agree working for "the man" here in MOntana is a tough row to hoe! But opportunities are here and waiting for a bright business or investor type! Rentals?

My dog Henry now peers out the door with a quizzed look on his face as if to say: what is that out there?

To better illustrate how profoundly cold 29 below zero is to ... lets say to someone that can shoot Ground Squirrels in January in 50+ degree weather - 29 below zero is 61 degrees below freezing! A 61 degree difference is like comparing 32 degrees to 93 degrees. Something like that has to be seen and felt to be believed! I have a whole new respect for the animals that make a living here in Montana out in this weather!

The logging industry has been hit hard but there is some logging going on and a fair amount also on private land. Log cabins are kinda big here also.

Don't forget the quality of living while you are eating your beans every night for dinner though!

I know several Montanans that are real poor and do not seem to mind. They cut their own firewood though to keep warm with the high energy prices and that is something you can't do later in life!

Hmm... tradeoffs!

Hold into the wind

VarmintGuy

gophershooter, as I mentioned above the weather is the great population balancer. If you look at Montanas population for the last bunch of years it's really quite stable, a lot of people move here and either starve out or freeze out and about the same number move out each year that moved in. Motana can be a tough lesson in economics in a hurry. The up side is they usually end up selling off a lot of their high dollar externals to get money to split on, go look at all the nice rifles in the pawnshops in the winter time. Sad but true. Good time to go shopping for used firearms.

I hate to admit this, but it was so cold that I let the cats inside last night. As soon as one of them came in it hunted down the first heat register it could, layed up against it and I don't think its moved since then.

Last year U of M's (Griz suck) Bureau of Business and Economic Research did a study on the population changes in MT.
http://www.bber.umt.edu/economicanalysis/econoutlooks.htm

Surprise: young people are leaving because they can't find work or, when they can its not enough to live on. Older, more conservative people are moving in and not having children. A few counties are experiencing population growth, most are either barely even or are losing people quickly (eastern MT). Result: high property prices and low wages in the service sector.

Those of us making a living wage in Montana are truely blessed by God. I try to say my thanks daily.

This is a little off base, but I am considering moving to Montana wihtin the next few years. Actualy around the Bozeman area, I love the area. Ok my question is how is the logging industy in that state? That is my job of choice for now, I will soon be going to Trinidad State in Colorado for gunsmithing and after that I was wanting to go to Montana.
Thanks
Anthony

antonio, don't get me wrong here cause there's always room for a good neighbor, but the logging industry in Montana especially here around Bozeman is on it's ass. Our last vestige was LP in Belgrade (9 miles from Bozeman) and it just went under. As to gunsmithing I'd be glad to give you the name of the ones I know (most of em in the area) by private e-mail and you could contact em.

Montdoug glad you liked the PIC. The ice is about a foot deep and fishing is slow at the Silo�s on Canyon Ferry. I like to fish but like the comforts of a boat and tend to enjoy beverages from coolers instead of a thermos, if you know what I mean.

Gophershooter you take care of that German Shorthair and she�ll take care of you this fall. It never got above minus 11 today.

Just protecting what we got guys. And we got what we got because the damn tourist and property taxes are so high and wages are so low here MT.

BTW...anybody want me to send them the 3 employment classified ads listed in today�s paper?????

I told you guys that my 30 below boots don�t keep my feet warm until July. You don�t want to know when I pull my long johns off....