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Newsletter from Montana
July 2006
Now you can have a hunting ranch and get an income to boot! BJ listed a
643 acres ranch which is surrounded by the Judith, Snowy and Square Butte mountain ranges and is a paradise for pheasants and deer. It even comes with a furnished cabin and a garage or shop. 326 acres are in CRP which pays $ 11,100 annually and 116 acres have a wheat allocation, which pays another $ 1,855 per year. Many trees have been planted to give shelter to the pheasants, white tail, mule deer and an occasional elk. There are two run-off reservoirs on the property as well.
This little ranch is about 40 miles NW of Lewistown,
which sits dead center in Montana and yet off the beaten path. The Judith Mountains, which are a small mountain range, are located just to the north and east of town. The Big Snowy Mountains, which are a very scenic mountain range and rise well above timberline, are located just 20 miles to the south. And, about 40 miles southwest of town, the Little Belt Mountains rise up off the valley floor. Lewistown is part of Fergus County, Montana. The whole county has a population of about 12,000 people. Lewistown itself has a population of 6300 people. Downtown Lewistown is very nice, tree-lined and clean, even though it is not a tourist town. The angler will find excellent fishing in Big Spring Creek, an absolutely gorgeous and restored little river that also supplies Lewistown with its entire water supply. Other nearby fishing holes includes the Judith River, Ackley Lake and Crystal Lake. The hunter will find excellent habitat around Lewistown for mule deer, whitetail deer, elk and game birds. The Showdown Ski Area is only 93 miles from the property!
Check out their website, they have a live cam, but they only update it in summer every few days. Showdown ski area is not huge - but I wouldn't call it small anymore either. A recent expansion and the addition of a new lift opened up quite a bit more terrain on the mountain. Currently, Showdown has 2 chair lifts, two surface lifts and covers about 600 acres. Showdown doesn't have a killer vertical, only 1400 vertical feet, but it does receive a decent amount of snow - on average 240 inches of snow each year. Also the hunting ranch has quite a bit of snow in winter and so the listing will expire in December and we will re-list it in April or so.
Overall, Lewistown is a nice little town that is well worth visiting. For the visitor to Montana who wants to see an area of the state that not many people from out of state ever see, and who also wants to avoid the typical tourist areas, be sure to take a drive down Highway 200 and check out Lewistown and the surrounding area.
The Judith River begins its life in the Little Belt Mountains, which are located to the southwest of Lewistown. The river flows for 125 miles to where it ends at the junction with the Missouri River. In the upper stretches, the Judith River flows through some wide, scenic agricultural valleys that are flanked by the scenic Little Belt Mountains. Following this, the Judith flows through the broad and arid plains on its way to the Missouri River. The Judith River has a surprisingly diverse fish population, with a mix of brook trout, rainbow trout and brown trout found on the upper end of the river while warm water species such as catfish are found on the lower part of the river. Overall, the Judith River can make for an interesting diversion away from the more popular and well-known rivers.
The 73 acres irrigated farm/ranch in northern Wyoming is back on the market. $ 225,000, pole barn, nice mobile home and good fencing!
The manufactured home in Bridger
is now rented for $ 650 a month, which is a pretty good return for a $ 78,000 investment. Rentals are scarce in that area.
The jet stream moved 70 miles farther north and keeps on going. The movement has allowed the subtropics to edge toward populated areas, including the American Southwest, southern Australia and the Mediterranean basin. In those places, the lack of precipitation already is a worry.
This of course affects also the northern part of the United States where the winters became milder and the precipitation less.
There is a also a website regarding drought.
Instead of "Go west young man, go west!" it should now say "Go north young man, go north!" :-)
The hunting ranch near the Canadian border in Minnesota lowered the price to $ 875,000. If you are looking for 200 acres of tree lined fields with a river running through it for hunting surrounded by State Forest, you found it! It is fully fenced and at the end of a county road.
We are having a bunch of fires in the west, and I found a handy website which shows all major fires. I put it on my website, so I can find it again,
At the beginning of July I drove through the night from Red Lodge to Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, carrying ice in the side pockets of my truck and eight cats on a hay bed in between. I had adopted the cats from a piece of property I sold and neither the seller nor the buyer wanted the barn cats. So I finished raising the babies in our solar room at our home in Red Lodge, took them all to the vet and then drove them to our barn here in Minnesota. Now they have a happy life occupying the old cow barn and loft. My husband calls it the "only legal cathouse in the state." They all seem to very grateful, following me around when I am in the garden and always waiting in line to be petted after I feed them.
Minnesota so far stayed nice and moist with occasional cloud bursts. I flew with my small plane from Detroit Lakes in the NW of Minnesota to Minneapolis (230 miles SE of here) on an errand. Around Detroit Lakes the lakes are all bright blue and are reflecting the sky. Actually Minnesota is Native American for "sky colored waters". The soil around here is black with a little clay in it, so it captures and keeps the moisture well. As I flew farther east, I saw big irrigation pivots, there the soil is sandy, it does not keep the moisture in and irrigation is needed. The lake landscape stopped after that, the soil contained more clay and there was no more irrigation to be seen, lakes became scarce. For 150 miles or so I saw nothing but farms. All about 160 acres, each has a little old farm house, a barn and a silo. The landscape is a deep green intermingled with small forests and big trees such as oaks, elm and maple around the homesteads. (The 4 million acres of State Forest are to the north and east of here). When people homesteaded, the government granted 160 acres, because that was just enough to feed one family, which still holds true today. But nowadays more and more farmsteads are occupied by a family with an outside job and they lease the land out to a local farmer, which is still a nice set-up for privacy and comfort of living. Flying in on the west side of the Metropolitan area, we saw lakes again. Here the lakes did not look as clear, and I was wondering if they carry names such "beef stew," "clam chowder" and "duck weed." Some lakes looked ok, though. We flew over Minnetonka where we saw huge homes scattered between the densely forested lakeshores. We landed at Flying Cloud Airport at the west side of Minneapolis in Eden Prairie, which was named the 10th best small city to live.
I think the mosquito stories are just a hoax, I have hardly seen any. Some seem to come out at night, but I haven't seen any during the day. Amazing how a surrealistic beautiful landscape can get such a bad wrap. But that could also be due to the fact that it rains here less as well, and there are no puddles standing around in the fields. All these hills around us are actually a lateral moraine from that huge glacier that once formed Lake Agassiz, which now is also gone, leaving the most fertile soil in America behind. I asked my friend geologist why, if those hills are gravelly moraines, there is such a deep layer of fertile topsoil on top of them, which the farmers use to plant corn, beans, wheat and such. He said next to the glacier the ground was frozen and nothing grew there, so when the earth around it did melt a little on the surface in summer, the warm air over the rolling hills rose and the cold air from the glacier blasted the soil across the hills at 80 miles an hour. It is a silty clay, which holds moisture well and is actually made from the broken down red part of granite. Nowadays we usually have a gentle breeze stirring the air, since we are not far from the plains, which makes it very pleasant.
I made a TV commercial.
My voice sounds a little deep ;-)
The commercial ran in July on the Dish Satellite Network Channel 223 and on DirecTV Channel 227.
To get clean water for your livestock, there is a system that would clean water
that is 4000 ppm tds ( TDS are "total dissolved solids", that means the minerals and contaminants that are part of your water. PPM is "parts per million", the term in figuring out how much non water is in your water.) and create 5000 gallons per day clean water, this would cost about $4000 plus trailer or skid. Many ranchers like those units, since they are on small trailers so they can move them around as needed.
The system takes things out of the water such as arsenic, MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether, a fuel by-product and a common contaminant), Salt and other solids. Or for OIL drilling it takes out Salts and Sulfur and for GAS drilling it takes out Hydrogen Sulfide and CO2. Water over 3000ppm is not fit for animal consumption, over 1000ppm not fit for humans. So this system can easily take water most people think has no value or is of low quality and clean it significantly. The company can build the systems dependent on what you need and the type of water you have. Costs are dependent on how much water you would need per hour per day. Maintenance consists mainly of back-flushing a sand filter. The president of the company is Mark W. Lancaster of Surfside Environmental, Inc. phone: 432-352-6670 in Odessa, Texas 77965. Give him a call and find out what he can do for you. Those systems will become more and more important as the drought spreads and drinkable groundwater gets harder and harder to find.
There is an organic way of fertilizing or fighting pests. You can even get a franchise and sell it yourself. To fight mosquitoes for example, they use a mixture of garlic, canola oil, dish soap and a small amount of pesticide to spray yards every four weeks. The average cost for a season is $280, said Steve Vierzba, co-owner of Mosquito Shield. "We're more affordable and it works," he said.
If you need legal help
and don't feel it is a big enough of a deal to hire a lawyer, there is a website you can consult. They also sell self-help software and books.
There is a new loan out, which will amortize over 50 years instead of over 30 years. The longer amortization rate, will save you about $ 60 per month in payments for each $ 100,000 of your loan. Of course you would pay more interest in the long run, but then you are probably selling the home after 8 years or so again anyway, which I think is the US average.
The number of people in the US had been doubling about every half century, from 75 million in 1900 to 150 million in 1950. The Census Bureau projects it will hit 300 million sometime in October of this year.
By 2050, the United States is projected to have about 420 million people. Well at least it won't double, but still enough to think twice about water and other natural resources.
The green home of the future will probably use geo-source heat pumps, which utilize the constant underground 55 degree temperatures to heat and cool homes, new kinds of insulation, innovative water systems and the like. Ultimately, it should use 50 percent less fossil fuels and water than conventional homes. It might also recycle or reuse 90 percent of organic waste. Something to shoot for in new construction.
Here is a start with Labranza Panel Homes, which offer a house constructed out of insulated panels. On their website it says conventional homes are built out of conventional materials such as wood and insulation was just an after thought. Their construction panels have the insulation built in.
Structural Insulated panels (SIPs) are supposedly 4 times stronger than wood framed walls and can withstand winds up to 150MPH. Your home will be easier and cheaper to build, stronger, quieter and better insulated than a stick built home. It uses a heating/cooling system half the size of a stick built home of the same square footage. A typical 1500 Square Foot 3 Bedroom, 2 Bath, 2 Car Garage Home Shell installed @ of $19.90 per SF = $29,970.00. This includes exterior doors, Low E energy efficient windows and steel interior framing. The shell is waterproof and resists mold and mildew. Pests will leave it alone and the fire resistant panels also qualify for insurance premium discounts. The company offers Solar Hot Water Heating Systems, Geo-Thermal Heating and Cooling Systems, Low E Insulated Windows, Air-conditioned HVAC Systems and many other modern features, SIP constructed homes are the latest in home building "cutting edge" technology! The company is based in Texas: 972-200-5048 or 505-216-0612 labranzahomes@comcast.net
Send me an email if you are looking for land to buy! I wish you a not so hot August and hope to see you soon!
:-)
Best Regards,
Dorothea Lowe, Broker
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