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Mountains or praire?

Jinglebob

Well-known member
After reading what Tap wrote to nicky, it got me to thinking. I decided the other day that I prefer the rolling praire to the tree covered Black Hills.

I like to be able to see a long waqys and see some variety. And maybe one of the reasons I like the praire better is the fact that it has less people.

Don't get me wrong, I like to visit them other kinds of country, but I sure don't want to live anywhere else.

How does everybody else feel?

I read that most people want a rolling type savvanah with small islands of trees. It sure works for me. :D

I do think I could move into the sparsley covered, ceder tree breaks, along one of our rivers, tho'. Especially when I was wintering cows! :wink:
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
I've lived in the open flat country, and put up with the never ending wind. NO THANK YOU!!!! I love where I"m at now, even tho sometimes we'd sure love to have a lil wind....ya know..the kind that ya call a breeze. But I love all the trees that surround me.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
I spent a year in the mountains up the Gallatin River-- beautiful country but I got to feeling like the trees and mountains were closing in on me- never could see where you were going or where you been-- seemed like by the time the sun got high enough you could see it, it was already setting.....Then it snowed every month of the year... Thats when I decided I had to get back to the Great American desert and the plains, even if I did have to take the seemingly everyday wind...
 

Tap

Well-known member
I really like the wide open sagebrush country ( lots of hills too), with mountains as a backdrop the best. Something about the smell that new sage gives off in the spring that makes me feel alive after winter is over.

Other than that, the mixed prairie and pine hill country of SE Montana, or parts of our area really grabs my attention.

Hey Jinglebob, ever hear Waddie Mitchell's poem called Commutin'? I think of that poem every time I think of that Great Basin sage country. I would like to have a copy of that poem.
 

Silver

Well-known member
Well, I am biased, but I can't imagine anyplace nicer to be than the hills of the Mighty Peace, foothills to the Rockies. Beautiful rolling hills, creeks at the bottoms of every one, everything from thick timber to big pastures. Heat wont kill you, usually a breeze but seldom windy, flies never a problem. Lotsa scenery, and best of all.... few people.
Open praire allways bothers me, makes me feel like I'm gonna fall off the earth. Makes me feel too exposed. (My guilty conciense?). Steep mountains are beautiful, but like OT says the sun just gets into view and then it's gone.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
We have lived in the mountains and on the plains and half way in-between. There are good things about both. There are things I missed
about the prairie when we were in the mountains and things I
missed about the mountains when we moved to the plains.
(Wind isn't one of them. My gosh, the wind has blown a lot this spring!!
I'm truly sick of it.)


I like clear running streams and trees along a creekbank.

I like the smell of sagebrush in the spring.

I like green grass on the hillsides.

I like riding through an irrigated field on horseback and looking
at the water.

I like watching the sage hens do their mating dance.

I like seeing a resevoir in the middle of vastness.

Yep, there is beauty in all. And if you think one place is better
than the other, well, I can tell you that there is just different set of problems.

Having grown up in the plains mostly, we lived 5 or 6 miles
out on Clear Creek, east of Buffalo, Wyoming when we were first
married. In that area, you have both mountains and prairie. I
enjoyed living there, but now so does most of the population from
somewhere else.

When we moved to W. Montana it took me quite awhile to get
used to all those mountains. When we travelled back to Wyoming,
I was always glad to get back to Columbus, where you could SEE
again!!! But the mountains grew on me and I especially liked the
weather. Lots of nice days there that we don't get here. But you
appreciate the nice days here more... :wink:
 

feeder

Well-known member
I'm with FH, I like somethings in each place. But I pick wherever I can see the sky for miles and miles, especially the stars.
 

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
Yup,lots of beautiful places on ole mother earth,the TX Hill country is one of them,I like to get high in these hills, sitting in a deer blind in the fall waiting for the sun to come up over a ridge in early morning,then poke along the creek bottoms looking for arrow points while checking cattle..............good luck
 

Jinglebob

Well-known member
Some of whats been writin' here is poetry.

I like that poem to Tap. It's a gang goodun'!.

Keep this goin'. Heck, maybe I ought to take it over to th politics site and see if we can get a fight goin'.

I like something in everything also, but if you only had one place to live, where is it, mountains praire plains?

And you never appreciate the wiond until it does the work of watering dry drought country. Sure feels good on a hot day.
:wink:
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
I love the wide open spaces of the West and have spent and do spend a lot of time there IN THE SUMMER TIME!! After LABOR DAY...this Southern chick is outta there!! The cold kills me and to be COLD is 40 ABOVE zero!!

The wind literally picks me up off my feet....not liking that at all...

And it's SO easy for me to get lost out there in WY and SD.. I know..it's all a straight line....but.... I'm used to directions where you " turn left"..." turn right"...' turn at the oak tree next to the red mail box"...etc.

This Western style of "go North then East a bit...then back to the North"...it all looks the same to me!!!! But I do get quiet the scenic tour sometimes!!!!

I'll stay here in the hills of GA....where winter cold is only about 48 ABOVE or so!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
The common thread in all of these posts, is that people tend to favor the terrain of their birthplace. Guess it is natural instinct, and that is good. It keeps everybody from all moving to the same place.

I am glad my ancestors settled in the Sandhills. I will admit, there was a time in my life that I was wishing they had moved 550 miles further west and picked Jackson Hole, Wyoming, instead. That is the prettiest place in the world, in my book. There are lots of pretty mountains all across this great earth, but there is only one set of Tetons. Any picture of the Tetons can never be "mistaken" for any other range of mountains. They are distiguishable and very beautiful. The trouble is, too many people now know this. That area is getting cluttered and over-populated with these same "too many people". In 1970, when I first spent the summer there, quite a bit of early day primitive charm still existed. Those days are gone forever.

I appreciate the Sandhills, because it is still basically wide open spaces and great cattle country, even when it's droughty. The wind does get "mentioned" a lot, either because it blows too much or doesn't blow enough to keep the windmills turning. I love the fresh air, good water, and plenty of elbow room. The Sandhills will always be home to me.
 

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
Jinglebob said:
Some of whats been writin' here is poetry.

I like that poem to Tap. It's a gang goodun'!.

Keep this goin'. Heck, maybe I ought to take it over to th politics site and see if we can get a fight goin'.

I like something in everything also, but if you only had one place to live, where is it, mountains praire plains?

And you never appreciate the wiond until it does the work of watering dry drought country. Sure feels good on a hot day.
:wink:


Can anyone think of anything,that feels better than standing in the rain,that is ending a long dry spell ?..............good luck
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
HAY MAKER said:
Can anyone think of anything,that feels better than standing in the rain,that is ending a long dry spell ?..............good luck

You are right, HAY MAKER, that is about as good as it gets. :)
 

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
The weather folks have got us at 30% rain this saturday,I was planning on cuttin some more of these skimpy hay fields around here but I better wait,they aint worth cuttin as it is,get rain on down hay and I sure would'nt have anything,guess I'll piddle in the shop and play on the computer.........good luck
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
For sure.

Add one more little detail to that..."WITH NO WIND!!!"

Blowing like crazy again here today.
I know why those pioneer women went out of their minds years ago
with nothing else to listen to...

But we'll sure enjoy it when it stops! :wink: :D
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
The wind actually STOPS!!!!! Pleeeeease tell me when that happens and I'll reschedule my trips!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

I do despise that wind....one yr it totally blew away my tent! I was on a ranch in SD and near a border fence with the neighbors buffalo herd...and my tent got tossed into the buffalo! Oh my...that bull had a field day with it...all I could do was watch!!!!
 

Been There

Well-known member
New Beginning

The withered brown winter grass
sparkles with early morning frost..
The trees stand stark and bare,
victims to winter’s long cold cost.

The land lies still and dormant,
under harsh winter’s icy chill.
then a bit of green can be seen,
peeking from the side of a hill.

It bursts in panoramic grandeur.
a wondrous carpet of new grass.
A resurrection of new beginning,
as the trying times of winter pass.

The trees regain their stately beauty,
and melodious bird songs fill the air.
On one of the ponds in the meadow, geese are floating… a mating pair.

The clear sky goes on forever,
life is geared to rhythm of the land.
Sunshine is gaining strength,
warming the many hills of sand.

Nature is awakening renewed,
bestowing her flowers and frills.
A carpet of serenity and beauty,
across Nebraska’s vast Sandhills.
 

Clarence

Well-known member
While I have not done a great deal of traveling or been in many places, I really can't say there was anyplace I disliked. I am not sure I could live in heavily populated or crowded places or where traffic is heavy. Just traveling through is different than living, or spending much time there. When I was in the service I was stationed in several different places. I took basic in Virginia, (Fort Eustis) No one liked it there, but I found some things interesting about it, but a little to damp, dark, and dreary. I was stationed for a time in Oklahoma, Georgia, and North Carolina, some things about these places appealed to me then, To much development in some of these places today. Even spent a month and a half on manouvers in upstate New York. Where I was at in Georgia I felt I was a little to hemed in by pine trees.

While I was growing up here during the 1930's and early 40's, I guess I felt we lived in a remote place where there was nothing. Now I appreciate the things that we do have and realize there are people who even envy us. I suppose that is the reason I feel it is important to call attention to what we do have here.
 

Clarence

Well-known member
While I have not done a great deal of traveling or been in many places, I really can't say there was anyplace I disliked. I am not sure I could live in heavily populated or crowded places or where traffic is heavy. Just traveling through is different than living, or spending much time there. When I was in the service I was stationed in several different places. I took basic in Virginia, (Fort Eustis) No one liked it there, but I found some things interesting about it, but a little to damp, dark, and dreary. I was stationed for a time in Oklahoma, Georgia, and North Carolina, some things about these places appealed to me then, To much development in some of these places today. Even spent a month and a half on manouvers in upstate New York. Where I was at in Georgia I felt I was a little to hemed in by pine trees.

While I was growing up here during the 1930's and early 40's, I guess I felt we lived in a remote place where there was nothing. Now I appreciate the things that we do have and realize there are people who even envy us. I suppose that is the reason I feel it is important to call attention to what we do have here.
 
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