Tag Archives: relocating to Dickinson North Dakota

Banking In Dickinson, North Dakota

May 21, 2016Uncategorizedbanking in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Living in Watford City North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, Wells Fargo Bank in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I have had bank accounts with First Union, SunTrust, Wachovia, Bank of America, Zions, Washington Federal, and Wells Fargo. Over the twenty seven years of having bank accounts, I have had a few small problems with banks. A 35 year old teller with Bank of America put my deposit into someone else’s account, I saw it on my deposit receipt as I was walking away, I turned right around and she realized what she did, and she fixed it. I was not mad at her at all, because she had always been so helpful and cordial.

When I opened an account at Zions Bank, I explained very clearly that I wanted all mail related to my account to go to my P.O. Box, not to my house, that I hated to even give them my home address. I explained that my house was in a rural area, and that my mailbox was down at the paved road with six other mail boxes. Zions Bank assured me that they would not send anything to my home address, then Zions Bank began mailing things to my home address.

I have had a few other small problems with banks. I have talked to friends and acquaintances about banking problems, and I have read about major problems other people have had with banks. A friend of mine with a CDL drove for a trucking company in Dickinson for two weeks, received a check for $1,400, deposited it, and got $200 cash back. The trucking company check bounced, and the bank wanted the $200 back from my friend, which he did not have. This is some of what I want to talk about, banking in Dickinson.

Whenever I would go to the Wells Fargo Bank in Dickinson, every customer at each teller, always appeared to be having problems. It was not a matter of going to the teller that didn’t have problems, it was a matter of getting the teller who only had problems for about four minutes, rather than ten minutes. When I was in line at Wells Fargo in Dickinson, it was like being at a border crossing. It was worse than being at the Department of Motor Vehicles, because the DMV has laws that you can count on, whereas at Wells Fargo Bank in Dickinson, there was no telling what was going to happen.

More than once, as I was waiting in line at Wells Fargo Bank in Dickinson, wondering what in the world could be taking so long to complete these people’s transactions, a man of about 45 years would say to a teller, “I have done business with banks in many different states, including Wells Fargo. I don’t know what it is about this bank, but I always have problems at this bank. Now, I have another bank that I can take this check to, but you have got something wrong here.” I was thinking the exact same thing. About three times I called Wells Fargo Bank and explained what was happening to everyone at this bank in Dickinson, and I was told, “Do not hesitate to call if you have something go wrong at this bank, when Wells Fargo Bank receives enough complaints about this bank, then something will be done about it.”

To my amazement, Wells Fargo Bank in Dickinson suddenly got about four really good, sharp, quick thinking tellers that had no problems. I believed that Wells Fargo might have hand picked some of the best tellers from elsewhere and offered them more money to come to Dickinson, this was about mid 2014. Things went much better at Wells Fargo Bank in Dickinson for about a year. Then, one really good teller moved away, one really good teller got promoted to a desk, one really good teller went to manage a Western store, leaving about two good tellers. I love the two good tellers, but I kept getting “the young witch” and “the slug”. With the young witch, I presented a Wells Fargo check from the state of Idaho payable to me, for a small amount, which she could not cash after about five minutes of trying, so I took it from her, and tore it up and gave it back to her, since she put a hex on this check. With the slug, I can hand her both a check and a completed deposit slip, and she will say, “Are you wanting to cash this check?”

I can’t handle Wells Fargo Bank in Dickinson. I begin to have anxiety and apprehension as I drive to Wells Fargo Bank, with the intention of depositing a two week pay check. I just expect to have problems, and I need to get that money into my checking account. I have sometimes turned my truck around thinking, “I can’t deal with this shit today, I am just going to go cash this at Dakota Community Bank.”.

At the Dakota Community Bank by WalMart, I have had way way less trouble than Wells Fargo Bank, and I don’t even have an account at Dakota Community Bank! Recently, my room mate was out of town, a check came in the mail for him, he told me to take it to Dakota Community Bank and just hand it to them, they would deposit it, and get a receipt from them. They did it, no problem! At Wells Fargo Bank in Dickinson where I have an account, I can’t even get them to cash a Wells Fargo check from the state of Idaho, payable to me!

I contacted Dakota Community Bank in Dickinson by telephone, and explained to the person why I wanted to open a checking account, I was having so many problems with Wells Fargo Bank in Dickinson. I explained that I absolutely did not want to have any banking mail sent to my home in Idaho, because I’m not there. After everything was agreed upon, and I told her when I would be there, she said she was leaving, someone else would help me. I was very very angry, I said, “Listen, I just got done explaining several things to you so that you know and understand. I didn’t want to come to the bank without first explaining what I wanted. I wasn’t just trying to waste my time.” She said, “We have someone who has been here two months who can help you open your account.” I said, “No, no, no, that is exactly what I don’t want.” I said that I was so angry right now, I don’t even think I can come in there today to open an account, let me speak to the manager. I explained to the manager, “I have accounts at several different banks right now, but the only one in Dickinson is Wells Fargo. I have never had problems with banks like I have had with Wells Fargo in Dickinson. I wanted to open a checking account with your bank, I called ahead to explain what I wanted, and what I didn’t want. Everything was understood, then the person I explained this to, says she won’t be here. Someone who has been here two months can help me. If I wanted to have problems with inexperienced people, I wouldn’t need to open an account at your bank, I could just keep going to Wells Fargo.” Maybe they should have said, “Aahh, that’s O.K., please don’t come here.” That’s what I would have said. They just agreed to have me set up my account with a different person.

When I went to Dakota Community Bank and began filling out a form, there were check boxes on the form for personal checking, business checking, personal savings, certificate of deposit, safe deposit box, and ATM/debit card. I said, “On this ATM/debit card check box, is this separate from the checking account?” She said, “What do you mean?” I thought she was being stupid, like at Wells Fargo, and I was beginning to get angry. I said, “Well, I have opened checking accounts at different banks, and with a checking account, you get checks, and you get an ATM/debit card.” She said, “Well, if you get denied for a checking account, you will also get denied for an ATM/debit card.” I said, ”Denied for a checking account? What are you talking about, denied for a checking account?”

The Dakota Community Bank woman said that they were going to do a credit check before they would allow me to have a checking account. I said that I have very good credit. She said, well, we are going to check. The credit check was being run as I was filling out a form. I asked if this was a free checking account, or were there fees? She said that it was free as long as I didn’t have a negative balance. I said, “Negative balance? Are you kidding me?” I was thinking, “Negative balance, what the fuck are you talking about? That’s in default. What the fuck are you talking about?” This bank woman started talking about the other checking accounts that I could choose from that would allow me to run up to a negative $1,000 balance, which I thought was fucking crazy. I said, “No, no, I have never been overdrawn in my life.” When my credit check report got printed out, my credit score was 772, which is very very good. It is not even higher because I only have two credit cards, that’s my only points deduction. I said to the woman, I have never ever had a bank run a credit check before they would allow me to open an account, they had only ever wanted an initial deposit, and my personal information. I said, “Maybe you have so few problems in comparison to Wells Fargo Bank in Dickinson, because you require a credit check.” She said, “If people have a history of owing banks money, why would we want to let them open an account with us?”

As we were finishing up the opening of this checking account, I felt like I was getting the White Trash treatment. They were in no way believing that I would have a good credit report. I wasn’t from Dickinson, therefore I must be White Trash. However, I was thinking, that the most White Trash thing a person could do would be to have a negative checking account balance, which people here in North Dakota think is the commonly accepted thing to do. No, it’s not, it’s called being in default.

The Chickens Gang, Dickinson, North Dakota

May 18, 2016UncategorizedChickens Gang in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

You won’t read about the Chickens Gang in the Dickinson Press. The Dickinson Police don’t really want to talk about the Chickens Gang either.

There is no telling what the Chickens Gang will do next. With that in mind, I think that women in Dickinson should start being more careful: don’t go out alone at night, always be aware of your surroundings, don’t dress provocatively, don’t wear leggings or yoga pants. The Chickens Gang has already shown that they will do anything, so if you don’t want to end up as a sex slave of the Chickens Gang, don’t dress provocatively, don’t wear leggings or yoga pants in public.

People from out of state, I have written in my blog posts for the past several months that about 80% of the oil field jobs have gone away in the past year, there are not many job openings, the rents and housing prices are still very high, and that the price of oil might go up, but the oil companies won’t begin hiring unless the price of oil remains high for about six months. I wrote that now is not a good time to move to Dickinson, North Dakota. Now, with the Chickens Gang, it is not a good time to move to Dickinson, North Dakota until we get this under control.

Some Angry Women In Western North Dakota

May 14, 2016Uncategorizedgoing out in Dickinson North Dakota, going out in Watford City North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Living in Watford City North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, moving to Watford City North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Watford City North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, wht is Watford City North Dakota like, women in Dickinson North Dakota, women in Watford City North Dakotaname withheld

Partly because I got so busy at two of my jobs, I quit going to restaurants in Dickinson and Watford City. For the past couple of weeks I have gone through the drive-thru at Arby’s, or I ate frozen dinners. I have spent a lot less money. I have uncashed pay checks laying in my bedroom and my vehicle.

The other part of why I quit going to restaurants, and why I have uncashed paychecks, is because the women at the restaurants and the women at the bank are such angry people that I don’t want to go there. At the restaurants, there is absolutely no way that I am going to order alcohol because of the way the police are in Dickinson and Watford City. I feel bad for the waitresses because they don’t have many customers, so I have been leaving them a 25% to 40% tip. But they still walk around acting angry all the time, and I am sick of it. I don’t want to be around them.

Yes, many women in Dickinson, Watford City, and Williston really blew it. These women will never, ever, in their lifetime have 30 men to 1 women ratios again. 2007 to 2014, seven years, was their chance to date as many men as they wanted, then narrow it down to the best 3 or 4, and ask them if they were ready to get married. This was the best opportunity that any woman would ever have to pick a husband. But they wanted to have a good time, but they wanted to try to do better, they didn’t think that it would come to an end, but it did. They probably got accustomed to telling men to “fuck off”, and acting shitty towards men. Now, it has dawned on them that they are making $350 a week as a waitress in desolate, barren, cold North Dakota, all the men have gone, and they’re not coming back. Yes, they’re screwed.

These angry women are just reaping what they have sewn. They have no one to blame but themselves. I am going to tell you what their mom and dad are thinking, what their family and friends back in Minnesota or Montana are thinking, what every employer who reads their resume is thinking, what anyone who finds out is thinking: “Yeah, right, you’re a cute young lady that was working in Watford City or Williston for three years as a waitress, and you’re not married? Yes, we get the picture.”. And they would be 100% correct. They were having a good time, that’s why they stayed there for three years. They made their bed, now they can lay in it.

At the bank that I currently go to in Dickinson, I keep getting the angry young women tellers, that are angry that they didn’t catch a man. They not only got to see hundreds of men every day, but they got to see how much money they were making, and how much money they had in their account. One of the young lady tellers is very pretty, and as white as she can be. She picked as her fiancé, a man that you could say was “diverse”. God knows, everyone knows, how bad white men are, white men are practically the source of everything bad in the world. So though there were thousands of white men to date in Dickinson, she could not date a white man. Her fiancé, his mom and dad, loaded their belongings onto burros, and headed back where they came from, leaving this poor defiled white girl behind. Now, every time I go to the bank, this pretty young white girl is acting all bug-eyed and freaked out, and I don’t know if she is going to tear my pay check up, tear my driver’s license up, because I am a white male and I am being paid well, and this can’t be right.

Next week, I am going to take my uncashed paychecks and open a checking account at Dakotah Bank. The people at Dakotah Bank are fairly reasonable local people. I am too scared to go to the other bank, I just never can tell what those women are going to do, they are just so angry.

Holy Shit! I Can’t Believe How Women Have Changed In North Dakota!

May 14, 2016UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Living in Watford City North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, moving to Watford City North Dakota, POF in Dickinson North Dakota, POF in Watford City North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Watford City North Dakota, women in Dickinson North Dakota, women in Watford City North Dakotaname withheld

Though I swore that I would never again look at the internet dating site “Plenty of Fish”, I got bored and looked at it last night. Holy Shit! I can’t believe how women have changed in North Dakota!

In previous blog posts, I wrote that I had never looked at internet dating sites until I got to North Dakota in 2011. There were so few women in Dickinson, I didn’t know what else to do to meet women. When I went to work in an oil field in southwest Texas in 2012, I continued to look at women’s profiles on Plenty of Fish.

I may have written already, that I had thought that I had understood women, but after reading about a thousand women’s profiles on Plenty of Fish, I was shocked to see that I hadn’t understood women at all. I was literally sickened at what I saw. I had always thought that women were interested in romantic love, but in reality, they were solely interested in what you had to offer. In fact, they were very calculating about what they wanted, and if you didn’t have what they wanted, do not contact them. All the women had a list of requirements.

The most common requirement, was that the man should be at least six feet tall, even if they were 5’-2”. This is what they wanted, and if you were not at least six feet tall, do not contact them. Another common requirement was that the man must understand that they had children, and that their children would always come first. There were different financial requirements for the man, such as that he must be a “professional”, he must have at least a bachelors degree, that he must like to travel and be able to travel, which means he must be able to pay for everything.

One of the reasons that I was so disgusted with women after reading so many of their profiles, was how and why did they think they were able to make these unilateral demands? If you have two or three kids, where is your husband? You let some man impregnate you two or three times, now where is he? And why the fuck do you think that you can start making demands of men you have never met?

I had not looked at Plenty of Fish profiles for more than a year. Last night I looked. Many of the same unattractive women in Dickinson, Watford City, and Williston still had their profiles up and were checking them daily. Many of the not very attractive women still had their profiles up and were checking them daily. Many of the O.K. looking women still had their profiles up and were checking them daily. I thought it was sad, they had a list of demands, and no one was very interested in accommodating them.

I was surprised to see profile pictures of some very, very, attractive women in Dickinson, Watford City, and Williston. I read the profiles of these very attractive women, and I could not believe it! Just about every last one of them dropped every requirement. Holy Shit! What happened! There was no height requirement, no age requirement, no income requirement, no education requirement, no demand to pay for their travel, and no condition that their kids come first. One of these very attractive women said, “I’m just looking for a guy that will stick around.”. Some of these very attractive women said that they would like to go out for drinks, or go out to dinner. This is the first time that I have ever seen very attractive women acting reasonable in their profile.

In Williston, the ratio of men to women had been probably 10:1, in Watford City the ratio had probably been 30:1, in Dickinson the ratio was about 3:1. There were about 20,000 men in Williston and Watford City that were desperately seeking women for company, that were being paid high wages due to working many hours, that were willing to spend a lot of money on women. All of that is gone, it is over. About 20,000 men have left North Dakota and gone home. Left behind are these very attractive women who were used to having men fight over them for the chance to spend money on them. They got left here. I guess that when all those guys lost their jobs in Williston, they were broke, and left town, left these women here. Now what are they supposed to do? Well, I will give these very attractive women credit for realizing right away that they had better start acting reasonable. I didn’t even bother reading the profiles of the not good looking women. Any opportunity they had for getting a man is now gone in their lifetime thanks to their list of demands.

Black People In Western North Dakota

May 8, 2016UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Living in Watford City North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, moving to Watford City North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Watford City North Dakotaname withheld

I have stated that the purpose of this blog is to write the truth about what it is like here in North Dakota. I have already offended many people with what I have written. I want to be able to write the truth, like newspapers can’t. In this post, I want to write about black people, and both black people and white people need to read it.

I grew up in the South. After I had enough of getting beat by the nuns at Sacred Heart School every day, I started going to a public elementary school. About half the kids at this public school were poor. About 15% of the kids were black, and they were all from poor families, many of them from single mom households. The black kids fought more fiercely than the white kids. I got into fights with some black kids, I had a few black friends.

In Junior High and High School, I had a few black friends. It wasn’t until I got out of school that I fully understood how poor the black kids’ families had been. The black kids hadn’t really complained about their circumstances that much, probably partly out of pride and not wanting to be ashamed. In all kinds of ways, the teachers and administrators had done things to try to help the black students because they were aware of their circumstances, wanted them to stay in school, wanted to keep them from getting into trouble, wanted them to graduate, and be able to get a fairly good job. In no way were blacks picked on in our local public school system, it was just the opposite.

In the college and the university that I went to, I had a few black friends. One of these black students had the best academic record that I was ever aware of. After six years at this very difficult university when he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering, he had only ever made one B, everything else was an A. He later became a patent attorney.

After I graduated, I went to work in Tampa as an engineer. Later I became a superintendent and had to work from about 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., or later. I could not stand it when I would get home to my apartment, and somebody somewhere was playing “Rap music”, “Ghetto music”, “music from the Hood”, doooom! doooom! doooom! coming from the bass speakers with a 1,000 watt amplifier. I had listened to heavy equipment operating all day long and I didn’t want to hear any more loud banging. It was just as likely to be coming from some white kid’s car as it was some black kid’s car, but I couldn’t stand it.

Partly, the white kids and the black kids knew that it was annoying to everybody in the neighborhood, that’s why they did it. Partly, they liked this music that hyped living on the street, doing drive by shootings, slapping bitches, picking up whores, buying some crack, killing cops. I felt like they should go live in the ghetto if they liked it so much, what are you doing living here in north Tampa in this white working class neighborhood, you should be living in south central Tampa.

I went to the most expensive apartments that I could find. They had a wrought iron gate with a scanner that read a bar code on your car window, opened the gate and closed it behind you. I explained to my current leasing office why I was moving and paid the lease breakage penalty. I explained to the new leasing office exactly why I was moving in. The apartments were so expensive that all the one bedroom apartments were taken, they only had two bedroom apartments available, fine, I’ll take it.

In case you didn’t catch it, I was trying to move away from low class people, hoodlum people, stupid people who played Rap music, Ghetto music, Hood music. Also, I didn’t want to be around trashy, low class, ghetto acting people.

Things were O.K. for a while at my new apartment. My neighbor Eileen was very beautiful, she had been a model, and a dancer on television shows, and I went out with her. Another neighbor was a captain in the Coast Guard. Then one day, doooom doooom doooom from stereo speakers, a black man and his wife had moved in downstairs. Then in order to afford the rent, a black man, his wife, and two adult sons, all moved into the apartment across the hall, splitting the rent four ways. I couldn’t believe it, then again I could.

What makes me enraged, is that black people who have lived in the ghetto, lived in the hood, lived in public housing, know about gangs, drive by shootings, crack dealers, muggings, break-ins, robberies, and they don’t like it. They see nice new clean apartments, green grass lawns, clean sidewalks, new cars, quiet, peace, and safety, and they want to live there. The first thing they do when they get there is to start playing their “kill a cop, slap a bitch, beat a whore, buy some crack” ghetto hood music! And, start to act like and behave like it is the ghetto. Example of acting like it is the ghetto: instead of coming home, going inside, watching TV, working on the computer, reading, talking to friends on the phone, ghetto people park in front of a building, loiter around their cars, stand out there drinking, yelling at each other, talking really loud on the telephone using bad language, and forcing everyone to have to deal with them to get past them and into their apartment. This instantly turns a good, quiet, peaceful neighborhood, into a bad neighborhood.

There are at least three reasons why black people do this. One reason is, they truly want to get away from badly behaving people, and they don’t realize that they are badly behaving people. Two, they like to behave badly just to irritate white people, they notice that no one else is playing music loud, that it is not desired, so they go ahead and do it. Three, they are going to ruin every neighborhood they can, just like they did in the neighborhood where they came from.

Within about two weeks me and my neighbors were loading our furniture into U-Haul trucks, and paying our lease breakage fees. I put my furniture into storage and moved out West. I don’t like gangs, I don’t like the ghetto, I don’t like the hood, I don’t want to listen to ghetto music about the hood, I don’t want to be around people who act like they are from the hood. Even if I bought a $200,000 house in Tampa, the very next day a black family could move in next door and start playing their gangsta music about killing cops, slapping bitches, buying crack, doing time, and acting like people from the ghetto. Not going inside, but remaining in their driveways drinking, yelling at each other, loudly using bad language, and forcing everyone in the neighborhood to have to deal with them.

I left Florida because as an engineer, superintendent, and project manager, I could not earn enough money to afford a place to live where black people would not move in close by and start playing ghetto music, acting like it was the ghetto, and making it be a ghetto.

After living in Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, and Texas, I came to North Dakota to work in the oil field in 2011. I noticed that there were very few black people in North Dakota. There were so few black people, that no one had anything to say about it. By about 2012, through word of mouth, black people all over the United States heard about $12-$15 per hour jobs in fast food, restaurants, and WalMart. That was double the rate of pay for those same jobs in other states. The number of black people in Dickinson rapidly increased.

This is the truth: In restaurants in Dickinson I have seen blacks become so loud, so disruptive, so misbehaved, loudly using bad language, that customers at different tables have gotten up and gone to the managers and complained. I personally know a 20 year old white waitress that was beat up by a black guy in Dickinson six months ago. I quit going to the West River Community Center for a while, because there were groups of blacks that would come in and act like hoodlums and savages. I complained to the staff, and they said yes, we know, we have had several fights break out on the basketball court, and when we have had to go break up fights, it always involves blacks.

Having stated some of my history with blacks, and some of my recent experiences with blacks, I try to be fair with blacks but I prefer to keep my distance. Recently, I became aware on a construction project, that a young black couple was having financial problems, reduced work hours for both of them, they were going to have a hard time paying their rent. One manager that I know was able to hire the wife to work in the office. She seemed O.K. I thought about it, yeah, I could probably get her husband hired. I talked to him, he seemed O.K., I offered him the job pending his background check. They were both happy, they were going to get caught back up money wise.

A couple of days later, here comes this truck with ghetto music blaring extremely loud, driving about twice the speed it should have been driving, right beside the administrative office where moms and toddlers are walking all the time, and it’s some black guy driving and acting like a savage, having no consideration for the value of another human life that he might run over, no decency, like I have never seen anyone else do in the three months I’ve been at this site. And guess who he’s here to see? The black husband and wife that were just about to lose their apartment. I can see now why this black guy’s employer and this black woman’s employer reduced their hours, they wanted them and their hoodlum friends out of North Dakota. And we just helped them with additional employment so they can stay. I am now sorry that we did. I don’t like the ghetto, the hood, inner city gangsters, rap music celebrating abusing women, hood music about shooting cops, inner city gangster music about buying crack, and rude, obnoxious, inconsiderate thug behavior, so I really regret helping this black husband and wife to stay in North Dakota if this is what they are going to bring with them.

Understanding God In Dickinson, North Dakota

May 7, 2016UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Living in Watford City North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, moving to Watford City North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Watford City North Dakota, understanding God in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

When I was about three years old, I believe that I remember something about scissors and the Methodist Sunday school teacher woman being mad at me. When I went to Sacred Heart Catholic School beginning when I was six, I remember getting hit and beat every day. There I learned some more about God, Jesus, the Apostles, and Mary. But I think I understood about God without anybody having to tell me.

When I was a kid, I was pretty content riding my bike, making tree forts, exploring along the river banks, rowing my small boat. I didn’t think that anything bad was going to happen to me, and nothing did, which was kind of miraculous. I unknowingly walked up to a very large alligator when I was small, and it did nothing, it had probably seen me before and I didn’t notice him. I unknowingly walked beside rattlesnakes, and they only made noise when I was past them. I was followed by the largest shark that I have yet seen, when I was small and on a surfboard, but it didn’t get me. All of the aforementioned animals could have gotten me when I was small and by myself, but they didn’t.

I always felt that I was not alone. As I got older and had difficulties and problems, sometimes I didn’t understand what was going on, but I didn’t feel like I was alone. Just like the alligators, snakes, and sharks didn’t get me, my life kind of went on like that. I had good fortune in ways that I had not planned or expected. I was spared severe consequences for some mistakes I had made. More than I can count or wish to recall, there have been men and women who have tried to do all sorts of bad things to me, things that I didn’t know about, wasn’t thinking of, hadn’t even considered, so I was in no way prepared to defend myself, yet none of those bad things happened to me.

As I got older and older, I began to have more and more anxiety, as I recollected things and events that had occurred that I had really not understood at the time. One example, I had graduated first in my high school class, which I had never planned or thought about. I received a tuition free scholarship to a very expensive private college. I didn’t know it, but the dormitory student supervisor from a very wealthy family in New York City, didn’t think that I belonged at this college. I used to go to the lake on the edge of campus to do some of my homework. A female student was jogging not far from the lake, a young man tried to drag her into the woods, unsuccessful, he ran to a dormitory next door to where I lived. The dormitory supervisor who didn’t like me, considered me a prime suspect, and questioned me about my whereabouts in the days following, which I didn’t take seriously at all. After a few days, I was requested by the dormitory supervisor to come down to the lobby, standing in the lobby was a young lady that I had never met, which I walked up to, and a police officer said, “That’s far enough.”. She just smiled and said, “No”, and they left. I was only slightly irritated at the dormitory supervisor, it hadn’t wasted much of my time, and I didn’t give the situation much thought. Next year, a female student was grabbed while she was jogging, but this time the assailant was caught right on the spot, it was Neil from the dormitory next to where I lived. Neil did not look much different from me, and I then realized that it would have been very easy for the first young lady to have mistaken me for him, especially since my dormitory student manager was so eager to suggest that I was the one who did it.

Again and again, it was only later on that I would clearly recollect events in my life that most likely would have turned out very badly if it were not for Divine Intervention. I felt like Wilbur The Pig from the book “Charlotte’s Web”, only to a much greater degree. It was more than blind luck, both my good fortune and my lack of severe punishment for my mistakes. When I began working, I did not stay in jobs for much more than a year. Very mean employers would grind their teeth that I was always getting away with things in ways that normally wouldn’t happen. Benevolent employers promoted me to superintendent and project manager when I was young because things went well on my projects, and they laughed at the odd and unexpected ways that I was getting out of trouble.

I wanted to try living in the West, and I moved to different states, I tried different careers. Most of those years were O.K., some periods of happiness, some periods of anger and frustration. But again I had very good fortune, and was spared severe punishment for my mistakes. Through no planning and no intention, only circumstances, I had at one time two Porsches, two Mercedes, a Jaguar, a Jeep, three trucks, two motorcycles, all kinds of other things, and a house on five acres. A few years after that, I found out that my girlfriend had been an undercover informant for the FBI. I only found out when I did an internet search for her a few years later to see what she was up to. (You can go do a Google search for “Rebecca Flagstaff ATF informant” and you will see many articles about her.). Again, I was very very lucky that I was not in a lot of trouble.

It was not until I got to Dickinson, North Dakota, where the people were so mean, unfriendly, uncooperative, and hostile, that I was not O.K. Looking back, I would say that my Guardian Angel, whatever it was, who had been with me my whole life could barely handle this shit in Dickinson. Several times on jobsites in Dickinson, that I am aware of, that I can recount, I was spared horrible outcomes. A company owner told me that he had turned off a valve to a high pressure steam line at a refinery, for me to disconnect the line, I asked him didn’t it have to depressurize, he told me no, it was. I tried to disconnect it, it would not come loose. Company owner got mad, got up there, it disconnected on him, big explosion, everybody ran out of building to see what happened. Several other things like this in Dickinson, where I could have gotten hurt very bad on a jobsite, a lot of it caused by hostile and malicious North Dakotans, but I was spared through Divine Intervention probably. I feel very bad about the death of Eric Haider on a jobsite in Dickinson, because I was nearly killed several times by my wonderful bosses and coworkers.

Dickinson was so horrible, that I could not handle it on my own, though I said that I had never felt like I was alone, ever since I was a kid, when the alligators, snakes, and sharks didn’t get me, all through growing up, all through my different careers, living in different states. For the first time in my life, I felt that I needed to go to Church, that I should go to Church.

I won’t go into how I found a Church to go to because I don’t want to name it, but I had a lot of confidence in the pastor at first. I had confidence in the pastor, and I agreed with what he had to say. I explained to this pastor that I had always believed in God, I had always believed that God was watching over me, that I had always had very good fortune, that I had always been spared from bad things, and that I had no trouble with faith in God, however I was greatly distressed with the people here in Dickinson. He only partly understood, which I suppose means that he didn’t understand.

After some steady Church attendance, I believed in the people in this Church. I believed that they believed in God, that they wanted to do what was right and good, that they would try. I got to know some of the people in the Church, and they were good people. I gave some money to the Church, I provided some employment to people in the Church.

After some time, I began to have some doubts about the pastor. At first I still thought that he was a good person, he was doing what he thought was right. After more time passed, I thought that he should probably be able to see that some of the things that he was doing were not right. I quit going to Church partly because work got in the way, but partly due to growing doubt. This was troubling to me because I was seeking to be more confirmed in my faith by going to Church, but instead my doubt was increasing.

I discussed with a friend of mine who is a devout follower of the late Herbert Armstrong my concerns about the pastor of the Church that I had been attending. My friend pointed out many things that were wrong. In hours and hours of discussion with my friend, we agreed that the pastor was wrong about some things he was teaching and doing. But I disagreed with my friend also. We disagreed about the necessity of the Sabbath day actually being Saturday, that when you die you are dead until you are resurrected, that I should only date women my own age, and many other things.

I was disgusted. Everyone was believing, teaching, and doing something different. The Catholics in Dickinson go to Mass, and apparently that excuses them for quadrupling the rent and not helping people. The Mormons believe, “Just as God evolved, we too can evolve to become like God, and become God of our own planet one day.”. The Jehovah Witnesses believe that when you die, you are jut dead in the ground, until the resurrection. The Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet, but not the Son of God. The Jews don’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God. And the Church I go to denies that anyone has a parking space for me to put two trucks and two equipment trailers on. The Native American Red Elk teaches that life is our own dream, and that all the people are just players in our dream, and life will play out however we decide in our own dream.

I was disgusted and uncertain. Who is right? Who do you trust? What do you believe? Is there a God? Is this all made up? If it is all made up, maybe I should start having sex with other people’s wives. Maybe I should start stealing and robbing. I stopped short of making a deal with the Devil, that would have been to rule over Dickinson, and smite everyone.

Since the beginning of humans, whether in the continent of North America, South America, Africa, or Europe, people believed that a God or gods affected, guided, or controlled their lives. Sometimes these gods were nature spirits, deceased ancestors, or supreme beings. Does this mean that all human beings have a need to believe in gods in order to comfort themselves, reassure themselves that something is watching over them and protecting them? The Greeks and Romans believed in gods, was this because it made them feel better? Did the Greeks and Romans trade in their gods for the God of the Jews because their God was more appealing?

I have studied a lot of chemistry, biology, physics, math, and engineering, and I know with certainty that atoms with no brain, did not accidentally combine to form molecules, and these molecules did not decide, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking? We can form a cell wall, like a sphere, and it will be semi-permeable to let some things in and keep some things out. You guys over there, you form a nucleus in the center. Let’s keep some things in vacuoles. Let’s just let other things stay in our cytoplasm. We will store energy in our mitochondria. Can you remember all of this, we’ll have to store all of this information in special double helix lattice molecules called DNA. Do anyone of you molecules know how to make DNA? We can have some cells to make white blood cells, some to make red blood cells, some to make muscle, some to make ligaments, some to make a liver, kidneys, heart, lungs, intestines, bone, cartilage, veins, arteries, a brain, eyes, tongue, teeth, skin, hair, has anyone made toenails before?”. Note: atoms don’t have an alphabet or a written language, or a brain.

What you have got to understand, that even though atoms can randomly combine to form molecules, in order to form even a single cell, individual molecules would have to have a brain to conceive a thought, remember that thought, have a language to communicate that thought to other molecules, have sensory perception like eyes and ears, and a means of locomotion, self awareness, and life, which molecules have none of these things, they are merely a combination of atoms. Atoms and molecules do not have a brain, and can not conceive, plan, and direct the construction of even a single cell. Even a single living cell is very complex in its component parts and structures, as complex as a house with a roof, framing, siding, plumbing, and electric. Would you expect non-living atoms to know how to build a house?

We are talking about just a single living cell. How the hell would a single living cell know what a circulatory system is, a respiratory system, a skeletal system, a central nervous system, a digestive system, much less how to construct one. If you expect that a single living cell would know how to do all of this, do you realize that a completed human being medical doctor does not have the knowledge and understanding to create even one human finger. In fact, all the medical doctors living on earth right now working together could not create even one living human finger, because they don’t even have the ability to create living skin. How do you expect a single cell to know how to make a finger, a hand, a foot, a heart?

All human beings on earth right now, working together, all the doctors and scientists, could not create a simple living creature like a mouse. A mouse has living cells constantly building its bones, muscles, blood, brain, heart, lungs, digestive system, and a reproductive system that can create another mouse. All human beings working together could not create even a mouse, but you think that all living things just kind of happened on their own?

We human beings did create bicycles, skateboards, microwave ovens, televisions, telephones, and trains, which are less complicated to make than a living mouse, which we suppose a living mouse just naturally occurred on its own. Why then in nature didn’t much simpler things like bicycles, skateboards, and microwave ovens just occur on their own?

If you understand biology, physics, and engineering, and if you propose that living animals appeared on their own given enough time and chance, then you would have to admit that much simpler things would have also appeared on their own given enough time and chance, things like a record player, a microscope, a telescope, a wheel. Given that a wheel is one of the most simple, yet most useful things in existence, why didn’t it occur all on its own in nature?

We humans use plants for food, medicine, clothing, furniture, heating, and to construct our houses. We give off carbon dioxide. Plants use our carbon dioxide and give us oxygen. The way that plants supply our needs, the way that animals spread plant seeds, the more you look into it, the more you will see that life on earth was planned, designed, engineered, and created. Since we humans with all of our science and technology, with our maximum effort can not even create a small simple living creature, how could all the living plants and animals on earth just create themselves accidentally by atoms bumping into each other?

Life on Earth was created. All the plants and animals are way too complex to have come into existence by random, brainless molecules colliding. Once you realize that life on Earth was planned, designed, and created, you realize that there must have been a creator. He would have had to have been far superior to human beings in order to create all of this. It would have been a tremendous amount of work, even for a superior being. This supreme being that went through all of the effort to create all the plants and animals, probably cares and has some interest in what is happening with what he created.

I came to the conclusion that there was a creator, a supreme being, who had some interest in what was happening with what he created. However, I could no longer be sure that he watched every person every minute of every day, it wouldn’t be logical to think that he did.

I had become so discouraged by the people in Dickinson, that I felt I needed to go to Church. I had wanted to have reassurance that there was a God, and that there were people trying to do what was right, despite most of the people in Dickinson being unfriendly, uncooperative, hostile, and greedy. I did not know that the pastor would cause me to wonder if God existed at all, to begin to feel that this was all a bunch of made up bullshit. Some of the things that he was teaching and doing did not seem right. Every religion that I could think of, was doing things that didn’t seem right. What are you to believe? Most religions want you to believe that God is a loving father that watches everyone, all the time, and that he doesn’t like it when you don’t go to Church, when you go to Church on the wrong day, when you aren’t baptized. Why would you need to be baptized, God created you in the first place. There were many, many things about religious teachings that seemed to be “made up”. For instance, in the Old Testament of the Bible, the Jews were sacrificing animals. Why would a God who created all the animals, want people to go kill his animals?

The pastor of the Church in Dickinson caused me to question and doubt religion so much, that I pretty much had to just discard every religious belief that I had, and start over completely on my own. The only thing that I could continue to truly believe, was that there is a creator, a supreme being that created life on earth, that went through a lot of work to do it, so he therefore probably cares somewhat about what is happening to what he created, but is probably not extremely interested in what each individual person is doing all of the time. Why had I had so much good fortune, and been spared from bad things so many times, I don’t know.

Regional Construction Manager Quit, And I Don’t Blame Him

May 6, 2016Uncategorizedeconomy in Dickinson North Dakota, economy in Watford City North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Living in Watford City North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, moving to Watford City North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Watford City North Dakota, working in Dickinson North Dakota, working in Watford City North Dakotaname withheld

In Watford City, at my third job, the manager of my manager, recently resigned. He was the regional manager, responsible for all construction activities in North Dakota. I was sorry to hear that he resigned. I did not see this coming. He was in his late fifties, calm, steady, controlled, and having more energy than anyone I know.

I don’t blame him for quitting. The owners of this company have management teams in Texas and New York City, and they were calling daily to quiz and question the managers. The management teams wanted to put constant pressure on the managers here in North Dakota, thinking that this was necessary to make them perform optimally. In my opinion, when this happens, you tell management to get somebody else.

The regional manager here in North Dakota was extremely intelligent, highly competent, very knowledgeable about all areas of finance, business, and construction. I see no way that this company will be able to find anyone equaling his abilities. This is exactly the kind of person you let alone to do their job, because there is no one that could do this job as well or better.

One of the reasons that this company did such a stupid thing as to make this regional manager quit, is because they are from Texas, they are stupid, obnoxious, loud-mouthed, know-it-alls. Likewise, the managers in New York City are also pushy, obnoxious, know-it-alls. I don’t know which is worse, people from Texas or people from New York City.

Why do they know better than the regional manager here in North Dakota? Because of the recent internet and newspaper articles like “Oil Boom Headed For North Dakota! (It’s About To Get Crazy Again!)”. In one of my recent blog posts I explained that this article was a desperate attempt by people in Williston to get people to move to Williston to occupy their nearly vacant new apartments. I was angry about this article because it was spreading misinformation that would cause people harm.

The company managers in Texas and New York City read articles like “Oil Boom Headed For North Dakota! (It’s About To Get Crazy Again!)”, where it stated that the population of Williston was going to climb from 30,000 to 80,000, and new construction was needed right now. How could this be? All the managers in North Dakota have been saying that new construction occupancy rates are at 30%, and that 80% of the oil field workers have already left Western North Dakota.

The managers here in North Dakota tried their best to explain what was happening here. In order to operate a business you have to understand what is actually happening in your environment and have a strategy to succeed in that environment. Right now in North Dakota, it is not the time for property developers to buy more property, to create more subdivisions, to build more apartments, for construction companies to hire more employees, to buy more equipment, because most new construction is at 30% occupancy, and may even decrease.

Diesel Trucks In North Dakota

May 4, 2016Uncategorizeddiesel trucks in North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Living in Watford City North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, moving to Watford City North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Watford City North Dakotaname withheld

In the past, there were some diesel pick up trucks, with engines that lasted 300,000 miles, that got very good fuel mileage. The Dodge Cummins diesel from 1997 was known to have a good engine, that lasted a long time, and it got about 23 miles per gallon. That is good fuel mileage for a 3/4 ton or 1 ton four wheel drive truck. My gas engine Dodge 1/2 ton truck gets about 14 miles per gallon.

Whether it was a Dodge, Ford, or Chevrolet, the diesel engine trucks had a higher towing capacity, got better fuel mileage, could go farther on a tank of fuel, and the engines were supposed to last longer. Farmers that had to tow heavy livestock trailers or heavy equipment trailers through muddy fields needed a heavy duty four wheel drive truck. Building contractors and heavy equipment operators needed a heavy duty four wheel drive truck to get equipment in and out of muddy job sites. These people had to have the highest towing capacity four wheel drive truck, sometimes even a dual rear wheel truck.

In order to not feel like a loser, many men went and bought a diesel Dodge Cummins 2500/3500 or a diesel Ford Power Stroke F250/350, four wheel drive, even though they did not own a boat, a travel trailer, a livestock trailer, an equipment trailer, or any kind of trailer, and had nothing to tow or haul. They lived in an apartment in Tampa, Dallas, or Phoenix and only ever had to drive on flat, dry, paved roads. They were envious of farmers, ranchers, building contractors, or heavy equipment operators, and they wanted to pretend to be one. Living in an apartment or a residential neighborhood and hearing a diesel Dodge Cummins start up and idle, I felt like saying, “Are you getting ready to take the pigs to market or something?” And all they would be able to say was, “No, I’m going to the 7-Eleven to get some milk.” Hey, “You’ll probably be O.K. keeping it in 4 high.”

I worked for a construction company in Dickinson and an oil field service company in Dickinson, that both owned a diesel Ford Power Stroke F350. In both of these trucks, the first engine had to be replaced at 100,000 miles, the second engine had to be replaced at 75,000 miles. These two F350s were from the late 1990s, and the engine replacement cost each time was $7,000 to $10,000.

A friend of mine showed me a detailed investigative report on the internet, where a guy bought a used 2006 diesel Ford F350 dually with 100,000 miles on it, from a car dealer for $25,000. Within a few months the engine failed. The Ford dealer service department told the buyer that he needed a new engine. New engine, parts, and labor was $16,000. (In comparison, my late 1990s Dodge truck gas engine costs $1,900, and my late 1990s Ford truck gas engine costs $4,200.)

This woman that I know at work in Dickinson, her dad bought a used 2011 diesel Dodge Cummins 3500 dually with 200,000 miles on it, about one year ago. The engine head gasket recently blew out, and the head gasket repair cost is $5,000.

What I am trying to explain, is that if you are a farmer, rancher, building contractor, or heavy equipment operator, you may have to own a diesel truck. After model year 2000, a diesel engine replacement will cost $10,000 to $16,000, and these engines do fail prematurely sometimes even though they aren’t supposed to. Many diesel truck engine repairs cost $2,000 to $6,000. Farmers, ranchers, and contractors are used to having equipment break downs and costly repairs, but they have to pay for these repairs and keep going in order to earn a living. If you are an idiot who lives in an apartment, and you went to a buy here/pay here used truck lot, and put $5,000 down on a $25,000 diesel truck and began making payments, what are you going to do if you need a new $16,000 engine? No, I mean it, if a $25,000 truck was the most expensive truck you could afford through financing it, and you just took all the money you had and made the down payment, what are you going to do when you need a $16,000 engine? Are you just going to walk away from the truck and let the dealer have it back? You still owe the dealer $20,000 and you have nothing.

If you move to North Dakota, don’t go buy a diesel truck just because you see everybody else driving a diesel truck. Some of them are farmers and they have to have one. Most of the other people are just trying to pretend that they need a big heavy duty truck.

Not Just Problem Women Moving To North Dakota

May 1, 2016Uncategorizedassholes moving to North Dakota, living in Dickinson NorthDakota, Living in Watford City North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, moving to Watford City North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Watford City North Dakotaname withheld

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…

April 29, 2016Uncategorizedgreed in North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, living in North Dakota, Living in Watford City North Dakota, living in Western North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, moving to Watford City North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Watford City North Dakotaname withheld

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.

Lies From Williston, North Dakota

April 29, 2016Uncategorizedlies about the Oil Boom, lies from Williston North Dakota, lies in Williston North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Living in Watford City North Dakota, living in Western North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, moving to Watford City North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Watord City North Dakota, work in Dickinson North Dakota, work in Watford City North Dakota, work in Williston North Dakotaname withheld

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.”

Beating People With Sticks In Dickinson, North Dakota

April 25, 2016UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, women in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

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

April 24, 2016Uncategorizeddining in Dickinson North Dakota, going out in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, restaurants in Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Likename withheld

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

April 24, 2016Uncategorizeddriving in North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Living in Watford City North Dakota, living in Western North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, moving to Watford City North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Watford City North Dakotaname withheld

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

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

April 19, 2016UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Living in Watford City North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, moving to Watford City North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Watford City North Dakota, survivalists in Dickinson North Dakota, survivalists in North Dakota, survivalists in Watford City North Dakotaname withheld

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.

What People Are Like In Dickinson, North Dakota

April 14, 2016UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what people are like in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

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

April 12, 2016Uncategorizedeconomy in Dickinson North Dakota, housing in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, work slow down in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

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.

Ranching And Farming In Western North Dakota

April 8, 2016Uncategorizedfarming in North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Living in Watford City North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, moving to Watford City North Dakota, ranching in North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Watford City North Dakotaname withheld

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

April 8, 2016UncategorizedJessie Veeder, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Living in Watford City North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, moving to Watford City North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Watford City North Dakota, Western North Dakota, what is Dickinson like, what is Watford City like, women in Dickinson North Dakota, women in Watford City North Dakotaname withheld

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.