Why do you live where you do?

[Doug Thorson]

In 1890 my Great Grandfather was part of a wagon train bound for Cheyenne and his ox got sore footed and the train had to leave him. There has been Thorsons here since. I am not sure if we are too dumb to move or just still trying to put together enough money to get out but here we are. I signed a 40 year note on land last May so I guess it may be a while before this part of the world rids itself of us.

[leanin' H]

Been out here for five generations. The joke goes that our ancestors stopped and decided not to break camp til the wind quit blowing and it rained. We are still here and i am pretty sure i will get planted someday here in this valley. It's a beautiful desert and my fellow men are scattered some, just the way i like it. If i ever move, it would only to get farther from civilization.

[Chickshunt2]

Hummm why do I live here.....I guess in my case it has pretty much turned into, Why not live here.

I came to ND to visit some friends about 9-10 years ago. I spent 2 weeks here and loved it. I loved the open space, the much slower lifestyle, the people, just everything! I got back home, got bored, found the nd job web site, applied for a job I should have had no chance in hell at getting( I didnt have half of what they wanted for schooling but I had years of exp) and by 9 am the next day they were calling me to see if I wanted the job. Thing was I had to start on Mon. morning...it was friday morning when they called, I had been back home less than 24 hours and I packed up my car and headed back to ND. Been here ever since. I have lived in Wahpeton and now in Valley City, there is really nothing "holding" me here. At times I think about moving back to Mich to be closer to my family but I really do love my life out here. I was never much on the idea of city living and now I know full well I could never go back to it. Now if I could just find a "other half" to grow old with ND would be perfect!

[andybob]

Lost my home country when the communist government took over, lived in the USA for 5 1/2 years, but my employers forgot to send in my green card application, so I am presently stuck in England as I have ancestoral right of abode. Would love to get back to a decent hot climate or desert!!

[gcreekrch]

This area is full of misfits, I guess that's why I belong here!

Debbie is second generation here and we bought the ranch from her parents in 1991. Land is fairly cheap compared to other areas, country is tough but we'll probably be here until it gets too much to handle.

As I like my fellow man better when he is scattered some and there is nothing here to bring more in it is the best place for me at this time of my life.

[C Thompson]

I went to work on ranches out west in Gcreekrch's country when I was asked to leave school property at 15 years old in a small coastal town even further west. Both parents had a history in that country so I was drawn to it and 35 years ago it was a whole day from town instead of the 4 hours it is now.I eventually drifted the 200 miles further east to town to pump gas and pull wrenches and even got my ticket but would still go to the odd spring branding and met my wife there. She is second generation on a ranch her folks bought in the late 1940s and paid for in two years with a few hundred head of sheep. We got the opportunity to buy about 1/3 of the original ranch which includes the home place but still have a mortgage to pay and have found the learning curve quite steep. Without things like Pratts Ranching For Profit School, Low input philosophies taught by folks like Jim Gerrish and Kit Pharo to name only a few, revolutionized electric fencing methods and equipment and sites like this one full of good ideas and opinions we likely would still be paying for it at retirement age if we were able to hang onto it at all. This is good cattle country but it is also quite ornamental to the retirement crowd and therefore makes it too valuable to afford the next generation a chance at it unless they can run it lean enough to be able to buy it from us. If we were still doing things the traditional way this would sound a little depressing but we are confident that as long as we keep learning and changing and challenging ourselves we will be able to pass it on to the next generation debt free and have them actually pay for it too. I guess there is even room to expand here too since God is apparently living in Colorado.

[lefty]

George forgot to tell you the summers are very hot & sticky & mud grows all winter in Indiana . My family found it way to easy to make a livin there . So in 1976 we sold out & bought a place in poverty nob MN. We put 100 pairs on pots & headed north . At that time Minnesota had cheap land & big deer & fish & timber . And not to many people .Minnesota has been good to me , We have goood grass . The bad part of this country is the 8 months of winter & 4 months of tough sledding .

[Haytrucker]

I've tried about 11 different ranch countries in three states, before I settled on here. Good winter country, and not to far to grass, until it quits raining again.
Loomixguy; I'd recomend New Raymer for that highway 14 stretch, it almost never rains at Briggsdale, and it's windier.
To the origional question: this is as close to home as I found, only the people here are easier to get along with, so far, I've only been here 22 years.

[Big Muddy rancher]

[Haytrucker]

Box Butte County, NEBRASKA origionally Frontier County in the Husker State

[loomixguy]

My nephew lives in Alliance, & works for Parker.

An old college roommate lives in the Wellfleet/Maywood area.

Could be worse.

[jigs]

ours is a story of young ambition and dumb luck.
when I was in Jr High in the early 80's, I watched my grandfathers dairy go broke and saw the bank sell him out.I figured my ag dream was dead. I started working for a neighbor. worked there for 20 years. and as I started renting a few pieces of ground, I used his equipment, and traded it for labor. I got offered a job managing 1000 acres and 250 cows, got there, harvested the crop, weaned the calves and got fired. 3 month job. lady was just looking to get things finished up before selling out. moved back home, and first night, our house burned to the ground...... so as luck would have it, an 82 year old man was going to retire, and offered his irrigated 1/4 and home to us and a rediculously low price. said he wanted a family on the place. everyone else would doze it in and put up a pivot.

now we have added a bunch more acres, and in this country it is hard to run cows, everyone wants to tear up grass and plant corn, so we look like the fool planting irrigated grass to mob graze cows! but I agree with Loomix, it is hard to beat the Republican river valley.