Thinkin' 'bout Wyoming...

What, what??!! This I hadn't heard. You serious??

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Emily Dixon
Ozark Jewels
Nubians & Lamanchas
www.ozarkjewels.net

"Remember, no man is a failure, who has friends" -Clarence

I think we have covered gardening, but what about raising livestock, or hunting/foraging?

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http://www.lindsayfarmonsilvercreek.blogspot.com/

We were reading about the Free State Project, and were just wondering about it.

From the looks of it, there's no way in the world that I would be able to handle the harsh winters and unique gardening situation.

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Je ne suis pas Alice

http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

You either have to have lots on money or like the color brown to live in Wyoming. Anyplace that gets enough water to be green will cost you big time. Everything else is brown except for the 2 days of spring.

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If the grass looks greener it is probably over the septic tank. - troy n sarah tx

Our existance here is soley for the expoitation of CMG

Pony:

I think cement overshoes were invented to keep folks in Wyoming from blowing away! Think "milder winters = more growing season."

Livestock: great country for livestock but think (in most places where there is no irrigation) 20 acres for a cow/calf pair for adequate SUMMER pasture (which is May to October there). The rest of the time you feed hay.

Hunting: Good hunting area. Mule deer everywhere, antelope in many places and in some places whitetail and elk. I was raised on deer on the MT ranch, cattle were our 'cash crop' and we couldn't afford to eat them. Pheasant, quail, ducks, geese are abundant in some areas and at some times of the year. Fishing is good, trout in the mountains, perch, sunfish and other warmer water fish in the dams not in the mountains.

Foraging: Lots of wild plum and chokecherry, we never bought jelly or jam. Otherwise I'm not sure.

Figure on 75 to 80 frost free days per year most years.

Was discussing the Wind in Arizona with a coupla ole cowboys once, i remarked that it was quite a bother. "WIND" sez this one ole cowboy, "Why sonny I remember one winter in Wyoming when we had to hang a sheepskin over the keyhole inna door ta keep it from blowing the fire out in the stove."

Oh my....where do I start? I lived there for four years during High School and beyond. The wind there would take my fine hair and if it was not tied back....a comb or brush through it would be caked in dirt. If I opened my mouth in any wind outdoors, my teeth would get grit between them. My skin was so dry, my heels cracked, my lips had to be covered in chapstick all day. I bathed in lotions, inhaled water, it was hot in the summer with drought like weather and bone chilling cold in the winter with heavy snows. I recall the stories of the elderly dying in their homes when they lost electricity there. Winter was cold....it hit over 30 below zero temps the last winter I was there. Now that was record lows but still...... I woke up every two hours to start my car, kept an engine warmer on it..... I was on foot in blizzard conditions once before I got a car, where I could not see my own feet and had to count my steps to get home. I remember stopping my car I had later due to not being able to see beyond the front end. Where in Wyoming did you have in mind? That matters a lot. There are some pretty areas with trees and green...but you will pay more for them. I lived in Casper, where I graduated.... I just drove through there the other day and it looks about the same. It was windy, hot and dry..dry...dry. Gardening there would be a unique challenge.....

I just went to Colorado by car through the bright green areas here with snow covered mountains and went through some very scenic areas of Idaho, spectacular areas of Montana and Colorado although beautiful, pine beetles have ruined a lot of trees there in the mountains. I was in Montana two days ago and I loved the beauty there, wide open spaces, mountains, rolling green hills and healthy trees with a lot of affordable spreads for sale. The lakes and streams....sigh. We went camping in Montana last summer and it was awesome.

Wyoming....mmmmm why? Jobs are not good there from what I heard...

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Thank you kindly,

Romy "Island Girl"
[URL="http://www.romysrealm.blogspot.com"]

You know, western Oregon has 85 degree summers, 30 degree winters, plenty of water and not too much wind as long as you stay out of the middle of the valley and off the coast, just sayin'. We also have bigger mountains and an ocean.

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"I am not absentminded. It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else."
- G. K. Chesterton

After reading all these posts, I am assuming Wyoming is covered with wind farms...

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http://www.lindsayfarmonsilvercreek.blogspot.com/

And I thought feeding hay December to March was a pain enough!

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I'm an environmentalist, left wing, Ron Paul loving Prius driver with a farm. If you have a problem with that, kindly go take a leap.

The problem with most areas that are very windy is they're far away from civilization centers.... windfarms are great, but the transmission lines are generally lacking.

side note: I see the convoys of trucks carrying the ~100' long wind blades north several times a week. I hear they make them in the midwest, float em down the Mississip over to Houston, and then truck em to the western edge of the midwest! Last week, I saw a convoy headed South?????? Can't imagine why?

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

Maybe they're migratory.

There are probably others I am not aware of but there is a wind farm just outside of Livingston, MT ... has been there for years ... I remember first seeing it there in the 1980s and it may have been there before that.

But that is quite a place ... basic natural wind tunnel. There is a pass in the mountain range between Bozeman and Livingston and any breeze coming from the west gets compressed and shoots through that pass, right down the ridge where the wind generators are.

The most vivid memory I have of Bozeman Pass is going west one late fall from Livingston to pick up horses, climbing up the pass with a winter storm starting. Had 4x4 3/4 T Dodge diesel and pulling an empty 28' gooseneck horsetrailer. Highway was dry east of Livingston, enough wet snow on the highway in the pass to make it slick and the wind was coming from the front/side on the driver's side ... hard enough that it was actually sliding the rig slightly sideways on the snowpack, towards the guard rail. I stopped to put the pickup in 4-wheel drive (had to lock hubs). Could NOT get the driver's side door open against the wind, had to get out the passenger side.

Definitely a natural geological wind tunnel.

The problem with creating electricity, by either coal or wind, in a remote location, is that it has to be transmitted and used elsewhere - a long distance away.

A very large percentage of electrical power is lost, in the natural resistance, of the transmitting power lines. The longer the lines, the more loss.

There are now thousands of huge wind generators in West central IN and East central IL. Presubably, they are closer to where the electricity will be used.

I remember seeing the WY wind farms, when those and the one's in CA, were about the only wind generators in the U.S.

Times have sure changed.

Are you suggesting windmills migrate?

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Je ne suis pas Alice

http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

You got that right. We do have a few windfarms but ran out of transmission lines. It takes a lot longer to get through the process of building transmission than wind farms.

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If the grass looks greener it is probably over the septic tank. - troy n sarah tx

Our existance here is soley for the expoitation of CMG

Not at all, they could be carried.

I lived there once..I found nothing beautiful where we were and the town was one of the worst I ever lived in. Wind, blowing dirt, rude people and wind. It was worse than living in the 'hood in Aurora Colorado by far. I don't even drive through if I can avoid it now. I hate wind, can you tell? lol. On the other hand..the school was the best my kids were ever in, they loved it and were very upset when we moved. Finding a job was impossible and the rent had to be paid. It was one time when following a hunch was not a good idea.