Category Archives: Uncategorized

Not Just Problem Women Moving To North Dakota

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In a recent blog post, I wrote about crazy women moving to Western North Dakota, partly because they had ruined their employment opportunities where they came from, and partly because the employers here were not checking people’s backgrounds.

A few times in previous blog posts, I wrote that men who never learned a trade, developed any work skills, never performed any work competently, were moving to North Dakota expecting that they would get a high paying job. The truth was, they weren’t likely to get any job. That’s right, forget what the newspapers and television news were saying, if you had never been able to hold a job where you came from, you wouldn’t be able to hold a job in Dickinson either.

If you had a commercial drivers license, were a good welder, an electrician, a plumber, a good carpenter, or an experienced laborer, you could get a job in Dickinson. Example, if you said that you were a carpenter, and you went to work and cut a bunch of boards the wrong length, you were done, just like when you were back in Minnesota where you came from. If you said that you were a laborer, and you went to work digging for one hour, and then you couldn’t handle it any more, you were done, just like when you were back in Idaho.

A friend of mine from Dickinson has been poor most of his life. He is in his 50s. I paid him to help me in my self employed contracting work. I spotted a very nice looking vehicle at the house where we were working, that had been parked for quite a while. I explained to my friend who was working with me, that this was a very expensive high quality vehicle, and that if the extremely expensive all-time four wheel drive was not broken, this was a good vehicle. I bet that the homeowner just wants it out of here. I talked to my friend about it for several days, what could possibly be wrong with the vehicle, we researched it on the internet. The homeowner wanted to get rid of it, and accepted what I had paid my friend for his work, plus $250.

My friend did not have any money to spare, so he spent a lot of time on the internet researching every mechanical problem to see what it could be. He correctly diagnosed everything. He changed the water pump. He took apart the alternator and changed the brushes. He found why and where the transmission was leaking and fixed the seal. He took apart the dash to try to find why the ventilation controls weren’t working. He and I could not find what was wrong behind the dash, until it was my idea to stick a camera up in there like a gynecologist to see what was going on. He posted these pictures on the internet, to show others how to fix the dash controls.

Lastly, my friend took apart the exhaust, and went looking for used parts and a muffler. The used “Flowmaster Muffler” that he got for about $100 was the icing on the cake, the ribbon on the package, and the most expensive part he bought. The vehicle was completely repaired, everything worked. This was the nicest vehicle that he had ever owned, the nicest vehicle that anyone in his family had ever owned. The deep dark paint was in very good condition, there were no dents or scratches, the exterior looked really nice. The interior had nice leather seats. He and his family had never owned a vehicle with leather seats. I was happy for him.

I got a third job in Watford City. I arranged for my friend that I am talking about, to get hired to work with me. We sometimes stay overnight in an apartment that is rented by our employer. After a couple of months of staying in this apartment, a new tenant moved into the building. He is a man about our age, but he is a pussy. He has a slim build, and lacks musculature, he is almost effeminate. He has an out-of-state license plate from the West Coast. I could not imagine what such pussy thinks he is going to do for a living in Watford City. In Watford City, you had better be a truck driver, welder, electrician, plumber, mechanic, carpenter, or laborer if you want to get a job, because that’s all there is.

I said to my friend today, I haven’t seen that little guy that drives the Toyota, that just moved in here about a month ago, I haven’t seen him for about a week, have you seen him? My friend answered, “No, I haven’t seen him for about a week, but the last time I saw him, he complained about my vehicle exhaust being too loud.”.   I told my friend, you don’t worry about it, every diesel truck here is louder than your vehicle.

This made me very angry. This was the nicest vehicle my friend had ever owned. He worked so hard to get everything fixed on it. The “Flowmaster Muffler” is a high quality muffler, that doesn’t mute the engine completely, if you are proud of your 360 V-8 engine. Now, this complaint comes from some pussy guy from the West Coast, who just arrived here in North Dakota, who doesn’t know what the fuck is going on. This is an example of problem people moving to North Dakota.

North Dakota Could Be A Good Place To Live, If…

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North Dakota could be a good place to live.  I have lived in North Dakota for almost four years now.  I have had a lot of bad things to say about North Dakota, but I also know of some good, unique things about North Dakota, that nobody talks about.

I have lived in Florida, Virginia, Texas, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and Idaho.  In comparison, even to the sparsely populated states of Utah and Idaho, you can really, really be left alone in North Dakota.  Once you get on your own property in North Dakota, you are left alone like no other place I have been.  The place that I live on outside of Dickinson, is not even one acre, yet I have had less interference on this property than I have had on my rural five acres in Idaho.

Even if you are not on your own property, once you are driving around outside of the towns, whether it’s outside of Dickinson, or outside of Watford City, you are mostly on your own.  You are not being surveilled, watched, monitored, scrutinized, or spied on.  In Florida, Virginia, Colorado, and Texas, it was hard to get away from people, you can go to remote rural areas, and there is somebody there.  In North Dakota, you can really get away from people.

There is not a lot of crime in North Dakota.  In the cities, like Dickinson, Williston, and Bismarck, there is a small amount of theft due to piece of shit people from out of state bringing in illegal drugs, which result in addicts committing thefts.  In the rural areas, there is very little theft.  The rural areas are sparsely populated, people live on large pieces of property, there just aren’t people creeping around on other people’s property trying to steal someones laptop computer or DVD player.

I very much like that North Dakota is sparsely populated, you can be left alone, you can get away from people.  In your own home, you can be free from interference, noise, theft, and other crime.  Living in North Dakota can be very stress-free because of the reasons that I just mentioned, but also because of the slow pace of life in the rural areas where there is not a lot going on.

Doing some reading yesterday, I read some research that a North Dakota journalist had conducted in order to write an article.  The journalist questioned and surveyed out of state workers that had come to North Dakota during this past Oil Boom.  About 80% of the workers stated that they did not plan on living in North Dakota permanently.  The journalist was surprised to learn that the workers said it was not that there was no shopping, lack of restaurants, lack of entertainment, lack of things to do, or that it was cold, the workers said that they did not know where they could afford to live.

North Dakota probably has the most amount of undeveloped land of any state, much of it barren prairie.  How could it be that the out of state workers did not think that they would ever be able to afford a place to live?  90% of you already know why, and yes, I am going to start talking about the greedy, immoral, property managers, property developers, and property investors again, though just briefly.

Everybody listen up!  Many of the out of state workers that came to work in North Dakota during this last Oil Boom would have stayed, would have brought their families to live here permanently, because of the peace and quiet of the wide open spaces, being able to raise a family without interference on their own land, without having to deal with the stress of traffic, fear of drugs, gangs, and crime.  However, left unchecked, the greedy property managers, property developers, and property investors quickly quadrupled the cost of rent and housing, making all the workers believe that they could never afford to live in North Dakota.

North Dakota would have been tremendously better off, if it would have not allowed the greedy people here to mistreat the workers, and cause them to leave.

 

 

 

Are All Women Crazy?

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In the past couple of months, I wrote a blog post titled “Problem Women Moving To Dickinson, North Dakota”.  In that post, I explained that over the past several years living in Dickinson, I had gone to restaurants and had gotten to know the women who worked at these restaurants.  I came to believe that many of these women had had a hard time back in the state where they had come from, because they were crazy, and had acted crazy.  I believed that they were no longer able to obtain employment in the state where they came from, because of the way they had behaved, the trouble they had gotten into, and their employment/employer record and history.

Anywhere and everywhere in the United States, there are bartender jobs, waitress jobs, retail jobs, and hotel jobs.  Why would a woman move to the coldest, most desolate, and highest cost of living area in the United States to work in a bar, restaurant, store, or hotel?  Even during the recent Oil Boom, when bartender women could make $300 to $400 on some nights, the expense of living in Western North Dakota would have not allowed much financial gain.  The reason they moved here:  Unlike everywhere else, the shortage of workers in Western North Dakota, caused employers to not look into the background, behavior, and employment history of workers.

I am bringing up this subject of crazy women moving to Western North Dakota again, because of a recent experience.  There was a young lady that I liked, that I tried to get to know recently.  She was very pretty.  She is the manager of a bar and restaurant.  When no one was around, I would talk to her about where she came from, her family, her interests, where else she had lived, things she had done, things she wanted to do.  I liked her, I thought that she was intelligent.

As I got to know more and more about this young lady, I heard her talk about difficulties, which were normal, everybody has problems.  I listened to things she had done, places where she had travelled, things that she wanted to do, it was all normal.  Then one day, as she let her guard down around me, I suppose, she started to talk about doing some things lately that were kind of trashy.  Then, she started to show that she was very self-centered, narcisistic, and selfish.  What really surprised me, was that she appeared to be more self-centered than the most self-centered woman I had known, more narcisistic than the most narcisitic woman I had known, and more selfish than the most selfish woman I had known.  This scared me, I was scared, because I had known some bat-shit crazy women, and she was crazier.

You might think that she was just trying to scare me away.  Some older men, came and sat at the bar.  One was a nicely dressed, successful professional man in his fifties.  One was a successful blue collar boss in his fifties.  All of us men had been served, and were working on business/paperwork.  The young lady that I had liked, was talking to another young lady, she proceeded to talk for at least twenty minutes if not thirty minutes, about a fight that had begun last night with her boyfriend, because he did not turn on the dishwasher before he went to bed.  On and on and on she went, about the anger, the outrage, the problems, the distress, he had caused her by not turning the dishwasher on before he came to bed.  His explanation in the morning was not adequate or sufficient.  His explaining to her about all the things that he did around the house was irrelevant and unrelated to him not turning on the dishwasher, and only made her angrier.  His text messages later that day were “A fucking essay, that she didn’t want”, and nothing he had said or done forgave him, corrected, remedied, alleviated the harm, the anger, the damage, of him not turning on the dishwasher.

I thought, my God, she is crazy.  I am so glad that I don’t live with her.  That dishwasher wouldn’t exist any more if she kept on after me like that about not turning on the dishwasher.  Are all women crazy?  Is it just the ones that work in bars and restaurants?  I have got to get out of here.

 

Lies From Williston, North Dakota

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On April 26, 2016, someone showed me a news article from Williston, North Dakota, that was titled “Oil Boom Headed For North Dakota! (It’s About To Get Crazy Again) ”. This story was posted on the website “Oil Field Job Finder”.

This article had so many outrageous exaggerations, far-fetched scenarios, and misportrayals of what is currently happening in Williston, that the website would not allow any comments to be posted, and the author was not named. For people currently working in Western North Dakota, it is obvious that this article is a very desperate attempt to get people to move to Williston and invest in Williston.

Supposedly, the several sources for the information in the article were a former mayor of Williston, Ward Koeser, the president of the Williston Basin American Petroleum Institute, Ken Callahan, and Mr. Helms with the North Dakota Department of Natural Resources.

This news article stated that everyone in Williston needed to get ready for all the workers to come back to Williston in the next six months, because the price of oil was getting high enough for all the oil companies to proceed with drilling and fracking operations. All the drilling companies, fracking companies, and oil field service companies would need to become fully manned again.

So many people would be moving back to Williston, that construction companies would need to come back to Williston to start building more houses and apartments. The population of Williston would soon grow from 30,000 to 80,000.

I went and looked at the price of North Dakota oil the day that I read this article, it was $37 per barrel. What the hell were these people talking about? I know what they were trying to do, they were trying to lie to people and mislead people.

The website that I got the daily price of oil from, had several quotes from oil companies stating that, “The price of oil would have to get to $60 per barrel, and remain there for quite some time, before they would be willing to start drilling and fracking operations again.”. There were additional articles that explained once the price of oil came back up and remained there for a long enough period of time, to make the oil companies start drilling again, it would then take one to two years for the drilling, fracking, and oil service companies to become completely manned with workers again.

The City of Williston recently began legal procedures to force the closure of “man camps”, so that the few remaining workers in Williston would have to go stay in the vacant hotels and apartments in Williston. Why would they force the closure of the man camps right now, if they were expecting the Oil Boom to begin all over again in six months?

I couldn’t stand the misinformation in this article. This is just like in the book/movie “The Grapes of Wrath”, about the Great Depression in the 1930s. All these poor destitute starving homeless people kept traveling across the United State to get to California for the “jobs, there’s jobs in California”, but there weren’t any jobs. You people in Williston need to stop with your stupid shit.

Just before I uploaded this blog post today, I was sitting in a barber shop, and I heard a local person and the barber discussing this news article “Oil Boom Headed For North Dakota! (It’s About To Get Crazy Again)”.  They were asking each other, “Where did this news article get its information?  What are they saying is their basis for the prediction that all this work is supposed to begin again any time soon?  Other news articles are saying that it would take one to two years, after the price of oil remains high, to get all the oil companies, drilling companies, fracking companies, and service companies fully manned again.”

Do Not Speed In Watford City, North Dakota

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Do not speed in Watford City, North Dakota. The police here are very aggressive in stopping speeders in Watford City, they don’t give any leeway or benefit of the doubt, and there are many roads where the speed limit is not clearly posted. Every day that I drive into Watford City, I see that the police have someone pulled over and are writing them a ticket.

Part of what the police are doing, is trying to pay for themselves, they are trying to bring in enough revenue so that they can all keep their jobs. That is why they are so aggressive, and there is no slack given, they have to bring in enough money to pay for themselves. All over North Dakota now, there are local and state budget shortfalls.

The other thing that the police are doing, they are trying to check you out, in ways that you didn’t realize. You probably already know that they are going to check your vehicle license plate number to see if it belongs to the vehicle, or if the vehicle is stolen. They are going to check your driver’s license to see if you have any outstanding warrants, but they can also see what prior arrests you may have. Then the police are going to ask you for your current local address, that, they didn’t have. They want to know where all of these out of state workers are living locally, in case you steal something, or get into a bar fight.

In addition to observing for the smell of alcohol, slurred speech, open containers of alcohol, they are also looking for illegal drugs, drug paraphernalia, weapons, stolen property, anything that could lead to an arrest. If the police request permission to search your vehicle, you are better off saying “No”, even if you are sure that you have nothing illegal. I will tell you why.

I bought a truck from a friend of mine, because he bought a diesel truck and needed to get rid of this one. When I bought this truck, it was all clean inside, but I still found some receipts and an old registration behind the back seat. Also, there was a red pill on the floor in a crevice that was hard to reach. That red pill stayed there for about two years, until I went to work in an oil field in Texas, and saw that the police were stopping people for speeding, then taking everything out of their vehicle to search it. I could not have explained what that pill was, I don’t know if it was a hydrocodone. If it was hydrocodone, which I do not have a prescription for, in Texas, I probably would have been found guilty of possession of narcotics, and been sentenced to several years in prison. In Texas, yes, several years.

In Texas, my Idaho concealed weapons permit was valid, I checked before I left. In Idaho, a concealed weapons permit covers both firearms and knives. In Texas, I later found out, it only covers firearms. In Texas, if anyone has a knife with a blade longer than seven inches “on or about their person”, they are “guilty of possession of an illegal knife”, and in your vehicle had already been decided in court to be “on or about your person”. I would not have gotten arrested for the loaded handgun in my vehicle, but I would have gotten arrested for the fixed blade hunting knife that I bought at WalMart. I didn’t know.

Update & Current Information:  In September of 2016, Highway 23 Business on the east side of Watford City was mostly completed, with permanent clear speed limit signs installed.  The police enforcement of the speed limit on the east end of Highway 23 Business is now fair, and it is a good road.

There are still many poor white out of state workers in Watford City.  The only way that Watford City is livable, with a low assault rate, low amount of theft and burglary, low meth addiction and meth trafficking, is through constant aggressive law enforcement by the Watford Police and McKenzie Sheriff.  I don’t like being followed by the Watford Police every time I go some place, and them wanting to pull me over for something, but it kind of has to be this way as long as there are so many White Trash in western North Dakota.

Beating People With Sticks In Dickinson, North Dakota

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In the previous blog post, I wrote about beating two restaurant owners with a stick in Dickinson, North Dakota. As I thought about it, more people in Dickinson need to be beat with sticks. As the Lutherans are reading this, they are thinking that this is not right, while the Catholics are thinking about what they have in their garage or back yards. I went to Sacred Heart Catholic School, and kids got beat with sticks every day, and nobody died, at our school.

If I didn’t have to remain anonymous, I would formally propose legislation for Dickinson and Stark County as follows:

“Whereas to maintain good order in the community, the City of Dickinson and Stark County hereby enact the Citizen Tree Stick Law: All male citizens of Dickinson or Stark County, having reached the age of 50 years, and all female residents of Dickinson or Stark County having reached the age of 30 years, may possess and use a Tree Stick, to beat others in Dickinson or Stark County, in order to maintain order and keep the peace. The Tree Stick must be a naturally growing stick from a tree, not refined hardwood from the trunk, nor laminate, nor composite, and must not be greater than 1” in diameter. Individuals may possess back up Tree Sticks. Lawful possessors of Tree Sticks may beat others over the age of 10 years, with a lawful Tree Stick, for the following reasons: use of foul or offensive language, discussion of inappropriate subject matter in public, immorality, tail gating, drunkenness, suspicion of drug use, suspicion of drug dealing, littering, pan handling, public urination, wearing leggings or yoga pants, excessive texting, playing car stereo too loud, theft or attempted theft, acting like White Trash.

The only prohibition is that the Tree Stick possessor not intentionally strike others in the eye, or intentionally beat others to death. It is the sole responsibility of others to flee.”

The reason that I thought of this law, is because there is a need for it. I have said a lot of uncomplimentary things about women in Dickinson, but I think that they would be very fierce stick wielders. Even in the really nice neighborhoods where I did self employed work for homeowners, you could tell that some of those wives would knock the shit out of someone with a stick. In those really nice neighborhoods, you would probably drive around and see some unconscious contractor, husband, or somebody who got hit in the back of the head, just laying there on the lawn.

In restaurants like Perkins, I have been in there in the morning when White Trash workers have come in and sat at a table, and started using foul language that everybody could hear, began discussing inappropriate things, and behaved very offensively. There are usually several groups of elderly people, that could probably drive them out of there if they all had sticks.

Some Restaurants I Would Like To See Fail In Dickinson, North Dakota

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One of the reasons why I continue to stay in Dickinson, even though most of the oil field jobs have gone away, is because I want to see everybody get what is coming to them. Though it might be more and more difficult for me to make money, (I have three jobs right now), I want to survive long enough to see some businesses fail in Dickinson. I look forward to it, every day.

I normally don’t want to see anybody get hurt, or anything bad happen to anyone, but sometimes I want people to get what is coming to them. In this blog post, I want to write about some restaurants in Dickinson that made me very angry.

In 2013, I was aware that there was a new pizza restaurant in town, “Wildcat Pizza”, that was not part of a franchise like the Pizza Hut or Dominos Pizza already in Dickinson. I like Pizza Hut and Dominos O.K., but I thought that I would give this new restaurant a try. I telephoned “Wildcat Pizza” to place a to-go order for a small or medium pizza, and they said, “That will be $26”. I said, “You can forget it, and I will never ever call you again.”. At that time in Dickinson, there were two all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants where you could fix yourself a huge salad, have different side-dishes, several main course meat dishes, and many kinds of deserts, for less than $13. Whoever owned “Wildcat Pizza”, I would have liked to have cursed at them in person, and then beat them with a stick. I got the impression that the owner must have been from “New York”, and he was expecting all these “$100,000 per year oil field workers”, “Why everybody is making $100,000 per year!”. The truth was, most people in Dickinson made $11 to $16 per hour. Wildcat Pizza went out of business in 2015. Good, you deserve it.

In 2015, there was a nationally advertised sandwich restaurant franchise that opened in Dickinson. All of their television advertisements boast about how good their subs are. When I went there, and ordered a ham and cheese sub, it was approximately 7” to 8” long, had some lettuce and two tomato slices. I thought, “You have got to be fucking kidding me!”. At Subway Sandwiches, their subs are 11” long, and you can get lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, olives, cucumbers, bell peppers, hot peppers, onions, and all for $2 less, on a bigger sub! Everybody that I talked to says the same thing. I am so looking forward to this new restaurant going out of business. I wish that we could catch the owner, tar and feather him, and chase him through town, beating him with a stick.

My most hated restaurant in all of Dickinson, and my most hated person, is that arrogant Mexican guy, who owns that Mexican restaurant. I have talked to four other people who feel the same way, including the pastor of the Church that I go to. I can’t wait for that Mexican to get what is coming to him, when he goes bankrupt, and he and his wife have to ride burros back to Mexico. The food is O.K., and at first I thought that the owner and his wife were working hard, and trying to do a good job, and have a good restaurant, but once the restaurant became busy, he started acting shitty and arrogant.

The pastor of the Church that I go to, several times he took a group of about ten people to eat at this Mexican restaurant. The pastor and the group began to realize that they weren’t being waited on, because they didn’t order alcohol. Restaurants make most of their profit on highly marked-up alcohol drinks. Of course this group of Church members are not going to order alcohol drinks, so the restaurant owner doesn’t want them there, and he and his staff treated them badly so that they don’t come back.

A friend of mine named Mike, he and I would sometimes eat at this Mexican restaurant. Several times Mike went by himself, and the owner and the staff wouldn’t wait on him. The last time that Mike went by himself, the owner threw the bill at him with disgust. Mike was taking up a table, and wasn’t ordering enough food or drinks.

When I went to this Mexican restaurant by myself, I went and sat at the bar, so that I wouldn’t take up a table. The last time that I went, the owner and his staff wouldn’t wait on me. I felt like saying, ”If you don’t want me to eat here, just go ahead and tell me.”. I just got up and left. I quit going there. I talked to a male worker older than me, who said that they would not wait on him at the bar. I talked to a female DSU student who said that they did not want to wait on her and her friends because they didn’t spend enough money.

This Mexican restaurant was busy, because there were a lot of people in Dickinson, and there was not an alcohol bar at Bonanza, King Buffet, Perkins, Country Kitchen, Pizza Ranch, or Taco Bell. I know not to order a lot of drinks at a restaurant in Dickinson because the police are so aggressive in giving DUIs. My room mate got a DUI on the way home from this location. Mike, who I mentioned, got a DUI several years ago. The DSU girl that I mentioned has got a lot of sense, she’s not going to order a lot of drinks. From everybody that I talked to, that didn’t get waited on, they all believed that the owner wanted them to get the message that they were not wanted. All these people just did not spend enough money to the owner’s liking.

I look forward to this Mexican restaurant getting slower and slower, where it is harder and harder to pay the lease or the mortgage. As this Mexican uses his cash up to keep his restaurant open with the expectation that the oil is coming back, he will only be becoming more and more broke. As he is nearing bankruptcy, I can personally bring him job applications for Taco Bell and Taco Johns. I can reminisce with him, “I remember the good old days, when you used to be so busy, that you wouldn’t wait on me, do you remember? It seems like it was only last year. Oh, hey, here, I brought you a job application for Taco Johns. I put in a good word for you.”

More About Survival In Western North Dakota

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In the South, where I lived for most of my life, you don’t absolutely need a four wheel drive vehicle. I will concede that you might live at the end of a muddy road, and you don’t like getting stuck, but it’s not like you are going to die if you get stuck.

In North Dakota, it’s not that you own a four wheel drive vehicle because you like driving off road, you own one because you are trying not to drive off road. You own a four wheel drive vehicle in North Dakota because you are trying to stay on the road. Going off the road in North Dakota might cause you and your passengers to die, yes die.

Unlike the South, in North Dakota, most often there is no guardrail along highways where there is a several hundred foot drop, less than twenty feet from the edge of the road. On Hwy 85 just south of Watford City, even at the curves, there is a very narrow road shoulder, then a very steep embankment, then a several hundred foot drop. I know from experience, that if you get off the narrow flat shoulder, and onto a wet embankment, Don’t Move!

In North Dakota the embankments contain a clayey soil, they contain bentonite, which is far more slippery than dish soap when wet. If you are on a wet embankment, that has more than a slight incline, Just Stop! If you are just a couple of feet from the edge of pavement, stop, and keep it that way! Even if you have a four wheel drive vehicle with all four wheels locked, if you drive forward or reverse, you will begin sliding laterally, downhill, all the way to the bottom, however far that is. Let a heavy truck that is completely on the pavement, pull you back onto the shoulder from behind, while you are still only a few feet from the edge of pavement. Even then, it is dangerous for the tow vehicle. In wet or icy conditions, even a heavier tow vehicle can get pulled over the side from a lighter vehicle that suddenly gives way.

In the several winters that I have lived in North Dakota, the coldest it has gotten has been about 25 degrees below 0 degrees Fahrenheit. With a small amount of wind, with wind chill factor, it might have been -40 degrees Fahrenheit. If you had on just blue jeans and a hoodie, and tried to walk, you might have hypothermia in about ¼ mile. If you didn’t reach a warm shelter within that ¼ mile, you would die.

In North Dakota, you should do everything you can to avoid unintentionally dying in the Winter. Four wheel drive is not for monkeying around in the Winter, it is for staying on the road, and helping you get back onto the road. If you are driving out of town, you need to make sure that you and all of you passengers have warm enough shoes, clothing, and jacket to be outside for at least ½ hour, because you might be. No kids, especially teenage girls, just wearing pajamas, thinking that they are only going to have to walk no more than thirty feet to and from the car.

Unfortunately, many people do not have extra radiator coolant, aluma-seal, or tools in their vehicle, nor do they know if they have an inflated spare tire or a jack. Their preparedness plan is to try to get somebody else to pull over and help them, using their extra coolant, aluma-seal, tools, fix-a-flat, jack, air compressor, etcetera, give them ride. This plan is not always going to work.

Plan And Statistics For This Blog

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On Tuesday, April 19, this blog had 6,000 views.  I don’t mean all time, I mean on that day.

I was very happy.  I never said it in these words, but in addition to me wanting to tell people from out of state what it was actually like in Dickinson, to tell about some of the bad things going on to warn people, in addition to me feeling like I was treated like shit, I was treated like I didn’t matter.

Because I was not an “important” person at Marathon Oil, Whiting Petroleum, Occidental, Tesoro, Conoco Philips, Continental Resources, Baker Hughes, Halliburton, or wasn’t a large property investor, or wasn’t a large property developer, I didn’t matter.  However, if enough people read my blog, I do matter, I can tell what happened.

I wanted to point out some things that weren’t right.  Television news, newspapers, and magazines were leading people to believe that anyone could move to North Dakota and make $100,000 per year, which was far from true.  This false information was luring poor, unskilled people from all over the country to come here.  Unprepared for a $1,500 per month apartment, they slept in their cars at Wal-Mart, truck stops, and public camp grounds.  The solution, was to no longer allow people to sleep in their cars at Wal-Mart, truck stops, and public camp grounds.  But these people were already here, and more continued to come.

I want to write enough, so that everybody can know what happened.  As long as nobody knows who I am, I can write what the newspapers can’t write.  I don’t want to have to worry about losing my job, trying to please important people, or trying not to anger influential people.  I want to tell the truth about what happened, and what Western North Dakota is really like.

Thank you for reading my blog.

 

 

Survivalists In Western North Dakota

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Regarding people who stockpile food, water, medicine, guns, ammunition, fuel, generators, etcetera in preparation for a coming disaster or martial law, the comedian Eddie Murphy once said, “That’s real good, unless you’re not home when something happens.”.   That’s where I am at. I had all that stuff back in Idaho, but I’m not there. I’m here working in Dickinson and Watford City.

Some of my friends in Dickinson had a survivalist mind set. We would go camping in the summer, and discuss politics, the future outlook, economic survival, preparations, and other things related to survival. Early on in the survival movement, people focused on supplies, and having everything they thought they might need. As time went on, men who had been in wars, disasters, and prison, began to point out that having supplies might only be 30% of the problem. What you would mostly need in order to survive, would be to understand what would actually happen in your environment in a disaster.

As worried panicked people went to the local stores, due to long lines, shelves emptying, ATMs being out of money, people would just take what they could carry and leave. Within about a day, all stores would be empty of merchandise, with no intention of re-stocking. Probably about 15% of the population in Dickinson, and about 20% of the population in Watford City are men who are workers, who have not really set up a home with a full pantry, they probably only have about a one week supply of food. Though some older residents in town, and some families in town in Dickinson and Watford City have cupboards and closets of food, the people in town would constantly be having to fight off and fight it out with all the single male workers who ran out of food.

The long time residents of Dickinson and Watford City that live in rural areas, have one of the most ideal survival situations. The rural areas of North Dakota are sparsely populated, there are not a lot of people wandering around, especially on one’s own property. There is hardly any bushes or trees, so people can’t sneak onto your property, or up to your house. The rural people already have their own well, septic system, and out house. They probably have their own generator, and have already learned how to survive when the power has gone out for a couple of weeks in the winter during a blizzard. For the people in rural North Dakota, life would return to the way it had been about sixty years ago, except for having to shoot white trash workers from the South every day, for a while.

A few other things that make Western North Dakota an ideal survival location. There are no over crowded inner cities anywhere near here. There would be no mass exodus of savages and gangs from the cities towards the rural areas. Because the landscape is so desolate, and barren, and because it gets so cold here, Western North Dakota would have very few homeless people wandering around in comparison to the other states.

A few tips. In order to make the World a better place for everyone, a World where 1% of the population doesn’t use 20% of the oil, a World where an individual farmer doesn’t personally own 3,000 acres, it may be necessary for the government to make some changes. So when FEMA sets up an emergency operations center at WalMart, and everybody needs to come on down and register, just to make sure you’re O.K., there’s free hot coffee and doughnuts, …don’t go, unless you’d like to live in a work camp in Oregon.

Cursed Land In Watford City, North Dakota

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I am sick again in Watford City. I wrote a previous post titled “Being Sick In Watford City”. In that post, I wrote that I think there must be something wrong with the land that I am working on. I wrote that in a half joking way, but more and more I want to know what this land had been before I got here. I don’t want to give the specific location of where I am working because I don’t want to cause my employer problems and myself problems.

I need to go into the Watford City offices to inquire about what had been here. I don’t know if I should say, ”Hello. I am sick all the time, like I have never before been in my life. I am wondering if the property that I am working on is making me sick. Can you tell me if this property used to be the town landfill or dump? Did they dump a tremendous amount of DDT, Agent Orange, hazardous waste, uranium, or something like that on this property?”

Ever since I got here, a coworker has been saying that this property is cursed. I say to them, “You are just kidding aren’t you, you don’t really mean that do you?” They always reply, “No, I’m serious.”

How I found out about the Haven family murder in Watford City in 1930, was because I was trying to determine what had been on this land. I wrote the post titled “Blood Bath In Watford City”. All five Haven family members were murdered on their farm by the hired man, Charles Bannon, who was hung from a bridge over Cherry Creek. Was I working on the Haven farm? So far, from what I can tell, the Haven farm is ½ mile away from the land I am working on.

I thought that this land might have been a paupers’ cemetery, what they call a “Potter’s Field”. I spent a couple of hours trying to explain to a friend of mine that when a person dies, and their body is not claimed by friends or family, the county will bury them in what is known as a “Potter’s Field”, and there is no marking of the grave, and most often no record of the location of the body. I continued to explain, that as time goes on, everybody gets older, a town expands, and property gets sold. A property gets sold with the buyer being told it had been a “Potter’s Field”, but there isn’t a written record of the number and location of the bodies. The property may get sold again several more times, and no one remembers that the property had ever been a paupers’ cemetery. The land gets built on, with just about nobody remembering what had been there.

Strange Dream, Explaining Life

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I hurt my eye first thing Saturday morning, and it continued to hurt, be red, and produce tears.  I had to go do several work related errands in town in Dickinson.  After the errands, I talked to a lawyer who had been practicing law for about fifty years, and asked him what he thought about the blog post that I wrote about the death of Eric Haider.  Among other thoughts he had about it, it appeared that he thought it had been an accident.  I said that when there is an accident, your coworkers just don’t get in their cars and leave with someone buried at the jobsite, this is more like murder actually.

I was going to write a blog post about how it must be the case, that people who have not worked in construction, like the state attorney and the detective, must think that accidents happen on construction sites, and that this must have been an accident.  I don’t know why they can’t make the distinction, that when a loader bucket full of dirt gets dropped on someone’s head, that’s an accident.  When the workers see an unconscious worker crouching against a pipe, keep adding bucket load after bucket load of dirt on top of him, leaving without him, not telling anybody, that is murder.

A police officer or attorney would say,”You don’t know that’s what happened.”  I do know that’s what happened.  Eric Haider went missing at work, his coworkers did not go looking for him and find him, they kept on filling in the trench, and at the end of the day they just got in their cars and left, and didn’t say anything to anybody.

I arrived home, and this stupid dog living in the house where I live, got all excited and knocked over a glass of tea onto my computer.  I went and took some allergy medication because at this point, I don’t know if my eye is stilling hurting and tearing up due to scratching it, or due to allergies.

I was angry, my eye hurt, and I wanted to go to sleep.  Maybe things would be better three hours from now.

I fell into a deep sleep, and I had a dream.  The dream did not seem implausible or irrational as it was playing out, it was merely how things were.

Towards the end of the dream, as I was still asleep, I realized that all of this was symbolism and metaphor mostly, what my brain could use to explain something to me in a short amount of time.  Before I woke up, I was able to ask questions in my mind, about a few additional things.

At first I was shown in general, a few people that had ordinary jobs: a Gardener, a Baker, and a Barber.  The Gardener, the Baker, and the Barber had small children that went to an ordinary school, where they were well looked after by ordinary Teachers, Lunch Room Ladies, and Teacher’s Aides.

In the course of their work, the Gardener, the Baker, and the Barber had to have contact and dealings with people who were the Elites.  Whereas the Gardener, the Baker, and the Barber lived and worked in a village-like setting, the Elites occupied a central area that was somewhat like an Embassy or Castle.

The disturbing part of the dream, was that the Elites practiced and participated in every kind of wickedness that you could think of.  I won’t go into it.

The Gardener, the Baker, and the Barber, these individuals had all seen to some extent what went on with the Elites, and they did not want any part of it, however they had in the daily course of their jobs, to serve the Elites.  The Gardener, the Baker, and the Barber all just kept thinking in their minds that they just wanted their kids to be O.K., for no harm to come to their kids, who were safe back in the school.

One of the Elites explained matter-of-factly, that they can involve anyone they want, whenever they want, and that they really don’t have a choice.  I asked what for.  The Elite replied, if someone caught their interest, like an attractive girl or woman, or someone who was talented, or amusing, they could summon them to come.

I asked who were the Elites.  The Elite replied, some people have money, some people have power, which is traded back and forth.  When a woman who came from the ordinary people became involved with an Elite, she would have some power by virtue of knowing that person and his secrets, and being able to trade that.

I was shown a woman who was physically beautiful, who had come from the ordinary people to live with the Elites.  In time, the workers at the school did not want her to come visit her child, the ordinary adults did not want her to come visit her child, they thought of her as wicked, and as possibly corrupting her child and all the other children, they wanted to protect the children, lest they become like her.

I asked if there was such a thing as Evil, and God.  The Elite showed me that there was no such thing as Evil, they did whatever it is that they wanted to do, there was nothing that was barred.  The Elite said, can’t you really see that what God is, is knowledge of everything.  Having knowledge of everything, that is God.  I thought to myself, that at the highest levels of Masonry, that is what they believe also, and that at the highest levels of Masonry, they behave like these Elites.

I asked a few more questions, then I woke up.

I believe that a person takes in everything that happens to them in life on a daily basis.  In a person’s waking mind, their conscious mind, they develop opinions, beliefs, theories about life, which they use to guide them and make decisions.  Also, I believe that a person’s unconscious mind stores everything that happens to them in life, and that whether you know it or not, want it to or not, your unconscious mind is working on formulations too.  This I believe is why you have dreams that seem to have validity and relevance to you, because they are based on what happens to you everyday.  The shocking part of your own dreams, is when they show you conclusions and possible realities that you didn’t know.

What this dream showed me, is that if you are an ordinary person, you may just want to live your life, do your job, raise your children, and hope that nothing bad will happen to you or your children.  What this dream showed me, was that you have no assurance that either you or your children will be safe.  What this dream showed me, was that the people with power or money, do whatever they want, they do not believe in Evil, so nothing is barred to them, knowledge and knowledge that they can do whatever they want without prohibition, is God to them.

 

 

 

 

What People Are Like In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I first came to work in Dickinson in 2011, and stayed for eight months. I returned to Dickinson in 2013, and have been here since then. Altogether, I have lived in Dickinson for almost four years.

In most of the blog posts that I have written, I have stated that the local people in Dickinson are unfriendly, uncooperative, not helpful, that they dislike people from out of state, and that they dislike each other. I also wrote that in the past in Dickinson, people were unable to get ahead, and the only way they could feel like they were successful, was when somebody else failed, so they developed the practice of not helping people.

The four years that I lived in Dickinson, it seemed like every day I was faced with hostility, meanness, unfriendliness, lack of cooperation, unfairness, and always the threat of something bad happening. I wrote several times that if you wanted to know what living in Dickinson was like, you needed to watch the movies “The Grapes of Wrath”, “Deliverance”, and “Planet of the Apes”.

However, in 2015 I did write a blog post titled “A Different Side Of Dickinson”, where I described a completely positive experience doing self employed work for homeowners in Dickinson. I wrote that the homeowners were very positive and complimentary about my work, that many of them paid me more than I asked when I was done. Through word of mouth only, I have gotten about twelve contracting jobs.

I am continuing to see a different side of Dickinson through working directly for local homeowners. For one thing, there has been a complete lack of hostility, and instead politeness, helpfulness, and civility. I want to briefly describe a few experiences.

I worked for one of the wealthiest people in Dickinson, whose family was from Dickinson. He lived in a modest home, considering that he had long been way past being a millionaire. He and his wife were very pleasant, friendly, and there was not ever even the slightest bit of arrogance. When I see him around town, he says hello and talks to me.

I also have worked for homeowners in Dickinson, who worked for fifty years at low paying jobs, who have been pleasant, friendly, cooperative, and helpful. Recently, I worked for a homeowner in Dickinson who was in his seventies. He grew up on a farm outside of Dickinson. He explained to me how he, his brother, and his father used to have to dig with hand shovels, for $3 per day.

I have tried to explain several times in this blog, how poor the people in Western North Dakota had been prior to the oil booms. I wrote about it recently in “Farming And Ranching In Western North Dakota”, and in “Note To Jessie Vender, And Everybody”. What I want to explain and describe, is that it may have been the sudden drastic changes occurring during this last oil boom that may have led to the unfriendly, uncooperative, unhelpful, hostile behavior of some local people in Dickinson.

Having your apartment rent go from $300 per month to $1,500 per month in a two year period, or your house rent go from $600 per month to $3,000 per month, would make anyone angry and hostile. The local people in Dickinson who had been making $9 per hour at a local business for many years, became aware that oil field workers were starting out at $18 per hour, and were working many hours of overtime at $27 per hour. The sudden huge increase in housing prices, the large difference between what local people had been paid in comparison to what out-of-state oil field workers were paid, the tremendous increase in road traffic with aggressive out-of-state drivers, new businesses and development, I think that it all aggravated and angered the local residents, especially when they couldn’t see any personal benefit to them.

It may be that the people that I am doing self employed work for, they are all long time local homeowners, who did not experience the pain of having their rent quadruple. Maybe that is why they are friendly and helpful. I did want to write about this group of people, to explain that they have all been completely friendly.

However, I want to write again for about the tenth time, that there were property owners, property investors, and property managers who were extremely greedy, who tried to gouge and take advantage of everyone. What everyone who came to North Dakota will remember, was how cold it was, how absurdly high the rent was, and how they were taken advantage of.

 

Outlook For Dickinson, North Dakota

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I have stated that the purpose of this blog is to provide truthful, useful information about Dickinson, so that people from out of state can make an informed decision whether to move to Dickinson. I also want local people to consider what I write, to see what people from out of state experience in Dickinson.

Due to the current low price of oil, almost all oil well drilling has stopped in North Dakota. Almost all of the oil drill rigs have been moved into storage yards. Compared to 2013, before the price of oil dropped, about 80% of the oil field jobs have been eliminated.

The effect of the oil field jobs being eliminated, is that every other sector of the economy has experienced a slow down, except for moving truck rental. Most of the oil field workers who lost their jobs have returned to the states where they came from. One of the main reasons the workers left so quickly was because housing was so expensive here, and it was so cold here, there was no point in staying.

I see no indication that the price of oil is going to quickly climb back to over $100 per barrel. Even if it did, the oil companies would hesitate to restart anything in North Dakota, they would have to wait and see if the price of oil was going to remain high. Then, if they did decide to restart, it would take a year to get all the people, service companies, trucking companies, and equipment up to speed again.

So, for at least the next year, there will be an economic decline in Western North Dakota. Like I said, even if the price of oil did go back up, the oil companies would have to wait and see that it remained high before they could make the decision to start large scale operations again. In Dickinson, Watford City, and Williston, about 40% of the rental housing is vacant. Williston is trying to force the closure of man camps, so that the remaining workers will have to rent apartments.

It would not be a good idea to move to Western North Dakota at this time. Though there are job openings in places like hospitals, overall the number of jobs will decrease. People will continue to lose their jobs and move back to the states where they came from. Though you may have been hired at a hospital, in about a year when the population has decreased even more, they may need less personnel at the hospital, that means you.

Beginning in 2015, though I had a job, I had to begin doing a second job at outside self employment. Then in 2016, I had to begin doing a third job in Watford City. If I didn’t have these three jobs, I would not be able to pay my bills. So what I am trying to tell you, is that it is not very busy in Dickinson, and now is not a good time to move to Dickinson.

I Want To Beat The Chamber Of Commerce In Watford City, North Dakota

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I want to beat the Chamber of Commerce in Watford City, North Dakota. I want to tell people the truth about Watford City. I want people to have correct information before they decide to move here.

On the internet, there are articles titled, “Watford City, The Good Life Awaits”. A more truthful title would be, “Watford City, A Difficult Life Awaits”. I don’t think that it is right to lure people here with false information. Watford City is a small town with less than 5,000 permanent local residents. Most of the permanent local residents are tired of the out-of-state workers, road construction, and new development. If Watford City had had small town charm and friendliness, it got destroyed back in about 2009. The area became completely re-oriented to handle oil field operations and workers. It was like a war or an invasion.

Watford City is very cold and grey from October through April, that’s seven months. There is very little to do, day or night. The only good places to shop are Tractor Supply, and the CENEX gas station. There are very few restaurants, most of them are both bad and high priced. I strongly recommend that no one drink at bars in Watford City. The police are very eager and aggressive in stopping people for speeding and DUI.

One bad thing about Watford City, is that some of the roads were completed in a hurry, they have no street lights, no street signs, no center stripes, no edge of pavement marking, no road shoulders, and no guard rail, just a drop off to thirty feet below.

Another bad thing about Watford City is that there is a shortage of women, and lack of attractive women. The ratio of men to women is about 6 to 1 right now. In order to make things worse, some businesses in Watford City are hiring lesbians, instead of heterosexual women.

Because most of the people from western North Dakota know that there is nothing in Watford City, they will not move here to work. The majority of people in Watford City right now are out of state workers. Most of the out of state workers are poor, many of them white trash, many of them from the South.

Update & Current Information:  In April of 2016, Watford City began making road improvements, which included adding dump truck loads of dirt to the road shoulders on the Disenchanted Highway to make it safer.  By September of 2016, Highway 23 Business on the east side of Watford City was mostly completed, with permanent clear speed limit signs in place.

Due to the large amount of out of state workers, many of them White Trash, Watford City has had to implement strict law enforcement, with many City Police, Sheriffs, and Highway Patrol on duty and being very aggressive in pulling people over for speeding, DUI, suspicious behavior, any reason at all.  This is about the only way to keep large numbers of White Trash under control.  Currently, it is safe for women to be out in Watford City between sunrise to sunset.

Lesbians In Watford City, North Dakota

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There are very few women in Watford City, North Dakota. The ratio of men to women in Watford City is about 6 to 1 right now. During the oil boom, the ratio of men to women may have been as high as 30 to 1, I have read exaggerations of 90 to 1.

For the farmers and ranchers who live here, and for the truck drivers, oil field workers, and construction workers who moved here, there has been a shortage of women for company and dating. I want to know, who is the stupid asshole that keeps hiring all these lesbians?

It has got to be either some government entity, or some medical facility that is hiring all these lesbians. You, the people of Watford City have got to go down there, and say, “What are you doing! You know that there has been a shortage of women in Watford City, what are you doing hiring all these lesbians for?

Is there some lesbian human resources person in town that is hiring all these lesbians so that she can have sex partners available? You people have got to figure out who is doing this. You people in Watford City need to telephone your mayor, and go and speak out at the next city commission meeting.

Ranching And Farming In Western North Dakota

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When I first came to Dickinson, North Dakota, in 2011, I listened to a group of older local people talking.  They were saying, it was a very good thing that this oil boom came along when it did, there were a lot of farmers up around a certain area, (I am not repeating the specific area), that were incredibly poor, that were just struggling, not even getting by, and oh they were so poor, it was good that this oil boom came and saved them.

In this post, I am going to write about four farming and ranching families that I met since 2011, while living and working in Dickinson.

One of the first local people that I became friends with, was a man of about 60 years of age.  He grew up on his parents’ farm north of Dickinson.  His parents had died at least twenty years ago.  I visited his property many times.  He did not have running water or sewer at his home.  His farming equipment was worn out, and always needing repair.  He leased out most of the land to someone else to grow wheat.  There was an oil well on an adjacent property, and he received some oil revenue money from that.  The oil revenue money and the money he got from leasing the land, paid for the property tax and some of his bills.  He borrowed small amounts of money from me, a friend of mine, and another person, when he was broke, which he always paid back.  He worked different jobs.  He had had so little money, that all his teeth were bad, he was missing several front teeth, and he was never able to get his teeth fixed.  Oh, by the way, beginning in 2010 and continuing through 2014, he had been offered up to $2.5 million for his property by developers, which he would not accept.

A local man that I met in 2013, and became friends with, he had grown up on his grandparents’ farm north of Dickinson, he was in his 50s.  His family got their first indoor bathroom built onto their house when he was in the 4th grade.  A few times in the winter, in the entire house, there was no food to eat for the family of seven, they tell me about the time they found one jar of fruit in the basement, that was all they had to eat.  His mother had to pawn her wedding ring several times, eventually she didn’t get it back.  His mother and father both worked outside the home, besides running the farm.  When his parents got into their sixties, they sold the farm and moved to town.  They held the mineral rights to the land that was sold.  In about 2010 the family began receiving oil revenue checks, which the parents and the five adult children used to pay some of their bills.  My friend had never had enough money to get good dental care, all of his teeth are bad, and he is missing many teeth.  He is very ashamed of how he looks.  I got him a job a couple of times working with me.

In 2013, I was working for a contractor that did utility installations.  I had to go to a farm in the South Heart area.  The farmer that I met was in his fifties.  This farmer was alone, he had never married, and apparently he didn’t have any friends, and didn’t ever have anyone to talk to, probably for weeks at a time.  I talked to him for about an hour, even though I was supposed to be other places, because I realized that he didn’t have anyone to talk to.  I came to realize that the reason he had never married, and did not have any friends, was because he and his family had been so poor, nobody had wanted to have anything to do with him and his family.  He was very ashamed of his family house, they had never had running water and sewer installed to the house.  His mother and father were dead now.  He was alone.  Beginning in about 2010, he had a couple of oil wells on his property.  He now had two new trucks.  He had lived poor for so long, he really did not have any use for the oil well money after he bought the two new trucks.

A man that I know in his 30s, has a wife and several young children.  He lives on a ranch in the South Heart area.  Besides running the ranch, he had a full time job, and his wife also works.  He lost his job, and he became broke.  He recently got another job, and he is getting back on his feet.

I wanted to write about these four farming and ranching families to dispel some myths and misconceptions.  Farming and ranching in Western North Dakota is, and always has been very hard.  I am talking about mom pawns her wedding ring hard, one jar of fruit to eat in the entire house hard, having all your teeth go bad and rotting out of your mouth because you can’t afford dental care hard, so poor you can’t get a wife hard, so poor you don’t have indoor plumbing hard.

Note To Jessie Veeder, And Everybody, What Living In Western North Dakota Is Like

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I am still angry after reading Jessie Veeder’s website, “Meanwhile, back at the ranch…”.  Jessie Veeder is from Watford City, she writes weekly newspaper articles about living in Western North Dakota.  She is sometimes a guest on Prairie Public Radio.

I am angry with the comments women have posted to Jessie’s website.  Women from all over the United States have posted comments about how nice it must be living in North Dakota, from what Jessie writes about it.

Jessie writes about living on a ranch, and she takes photographs of horses, flowers, fields, and dogs.  Women read what she writes, look at her photographs, and comment that living in Western North Dakota must be so nice.  Attention Women!, if you are getting the impression that it might be nice to live on a ranch, not have to pay rent, not have to worry about being evicted, not have to go to a job every day, this is not how the fuck it is in Western North Dakota!

Imagine that you are man, you have a wife, a one year old and a four year old.  You have a lease for a two bedroom apartment that costs $2,000 per month.  Your wife does not work because she has to stay home with the kids.  Fisher Industries right now has a job advertisement for welders, paying $18 per hour, yes $18 per hour.  I don’t know if they are working any overtime right now, let’s say they work five, ten hour days.  That’s $990 per week before taxes, about $800 per week after taxes, about $3,200 per month after taxes.

Rent $2,000, utilities $150, cable TV $75, cell phones $50, car insurance $100, car payment $200 (piece of shit car), leaves $625 left over for a family of four, for food and gas each month, if nothing goes wrong.  That’s $21 a day total, for a family of four, for food and gas!  No money for clothes, birthday presents, Christmas presents, vacation, or savings!

Before you try to get smart and say, “You can get a two bedroom apartment now for $1,500 per month.”, people aren’t getting overtime now either, so $18 per hour, 40 hours per week, is $720 per week before taxes, $580 per week after taxes, about $2,320 per month after taxes.  After your $1,500 rent, utilities $150, cable TV $75, cell phones $50, car insurance $100, car payment $200, leaves $245 for food and gas, for the family of four, for the entire month!

On the internet, when you do a Google search for “living in Watford City” or “living in Dickinson”, you get search results back for websites titled, “Watford City, Living The Good Life”, and “Dickinson, Living The Good Life”.  The vast majority of the people in Watford City and Dickinson are struggling financially, and are worried about losing their jobs.

As far as the ranching life goes in Western North Dakota, most of the ranchers that I have known, and currently know, they are struggling financially.  One of these ranchers borrowed money from me several times, and a friend of mine several times, when he was broke.  He had asked to come to work with me.  Other ranchers that I personally know, they have had to rely on their jobs to support their families, and have become broke when they lost their jobs.

I wish that Jessie Veeder would go and talk to the wives that live in the new apartments in Watford City and Dickinson, and talk to them about what their lives are like.  Anyway, I told you, and I am going to keep telling everybody what living in Dickinson and living in Watford City is really like.

 

Jessie Veeder, The Linda Ronstadt Of Watford City

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In Watford City, there is a 32 year old woman named Jessie Veeder, who has recorded about four albums.  She writes songs, takes nature photographs, writes weekly newspaper articles, and sometimes is a guest on Prairie Public Radio.

If I remember correctly, she might have recorded her first album when she was 16 years old.  She was performing then.  When she was several years older, she began touring and playing at small venues.  Her music is described as folk and country.  According to Jessie, her music, writing, and photography, are all about the beauty of rural Western North Dakota.

You can go look at her website titled, “Meanwhile back at the ranch…”.  On her website, Jessie has several hundred photographs of rural Western North Dakota.  The subject matter of her photographs are horses, flowers, dogs, fields, old barns.  You can also read about her music.

In this post, I will acknowledge that Jessie worked hard as a music artist.  She wrote her own songs, recorded albums, toured, and performed.  Somewhere along the way she got a degree in communications and public relations from North Dakota State University.

It is good that Watford City has someone to be proud of, and someone that writes positively about Western North Dakota in the newspaper, and speaks positively about it on Prairie Public Radio.

I don’t want to be too mean about it, but I do want to be mean about it, Western North Dakota has been like being in prison for the vast majority of people for the past eight years.  And before that, it was a cold, barren, desolate, impoverished area.

Jessie, why don’t you take some photographs of the friends of mine from North Dakota whose teeth are rotting out because they never could afford dental care living here in North Dakota, because they were so poor?  Why didn’t you take photographs of all the people living in their cars?  Why didn’t you take pictures of the workers who got burned up on the oil rigs, who got burned up welding tanks, who got electrocuted at a drill site, who died opening an oil tank, who got their hands cut off, their fingers cut off?  Western North Dakota has been a shit-hole hell for the past eight years.  And before that it was poor, cold, barren, and desolate.

Jessie, why don’t you go to the new apartments in Watford City or Dickinson, and talk to the wives who live there.  Ask them how they like paying $2,000 per month for a two bedroom apartment, being on a lease and being scared that their husband is going to lose his job.  How they like having to stay inside their two bedroom apartment October through April, because it is so cold outside and there is no where to go.

Let me point out, that describing a life living on a parent’s farm, not having to pay rent, not having to worry about being evicted, not having to go to a job every day, could make Texas, Tennessee, Idaho, anywhere, seem like a nice place to live.  In Western North Dakota, the vast majority of people are living in overpriced rental housing, are struggling financially, and are in danger of losing their job and their housing.  You should write about how things really are.

Guide To Elfin Women

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In my previous blog post, I wrote about seeing an Elfin woman on Wednesday, and two young Elfin women on Thursday in Watford City. This hardly ever happens, anywhere. However, there were contributing factors to this, it is warmer, the ground is thawing out, many many oil field workers have left the area and it is safer for them to come out, and I think that the Elfin women like Taco Johns.

I thought that I would write a brief Guide To Elfin Women.

Elfin women are not really the same species as humans. However, you can get them pregnant. If you do, they will be very upset, and blame you for it entirely, and there is no telling what else they will do.

You are likely to see only one or two Elfin women in a year. If you happen to find out, or see where an Elfin woman lives, it is bad luck. You are unlikely to ever see one working, because they don’t usually have jobs.

If you do know where an Elfin woman is, you can place an unopened bag of either Hershey’s Kisses or an unopened bag of Hershey’s miniature candy bars in front of her, and say, “Here.”, look at her, and walk away. She will examine the bag, and decide if she would like to eat one later. She may throw the bag away without opening it, but that is O.K., she knows that you like her. Don’t try to give an Elfin woman anything else, other than the two specific items that I just described, or it will upset them. You have to wait at least six weeks before you can give them chocolate again, or it will upset them.

You can send an Elfin woman a card, or write her a letter, but don’t send more than three per month, or it will upset them. You can say once that you like them in each card or letter, but don’t say that you love them. In a letter, it is best to write about your involvement or relationships with other creatures. For instance, you could write that you like to play banjo for fish in a pond, or write that you are teaching your cat to ride a bike. Don’t write about harming animals or people, so don’t write about hunting, fishing, or sports. They will not write you back, acknowledge that they received any of your letters, and they may not read your letters, but it counts in their mind that you took the time to write to them.

Elfin women don’t date anyone. They see you coming way before you see them, and they can disappear, so the fact that they are even still present when you arrive where you think they might be, is an indication that they like you. To them, not hiding from you, is what you might think of as a date.

Elfin women are averse to typical human relationships. They do not want to have children, they do not want to work, they do not like to work, they do not want to be on a schedule, they do not like to be asked a lot of questions, they do not like to be bothered. They do like some of the physical characteristics of men. They like men that are handsome or cute, who make things or build things that they like.

If an Elfin woman trusts you more and more, she may go places with you. Like human women, they like to go places that have nice big clean bathrooms, and tile. They like to ride in big trucks, fast cars, luxury cars, good looking cars, but not beater cars or ugly cars.

Elfin women do not like to be kissed or handled in public. If they have gotten to the point where they trust you, when no one is around, you can hold on to their pants belt loop and kiss them, but you have to have a hold of them before you try to kiss them because they will try to get away.