Would Appreciate Your Opinions and Suggestions (Billings, Missoula: homes, subdivisions, living)

[Simple Living]

Originally Posted by MontanaGyrl

Are you liberal, moderate, or conservative, if you don't mind my asking? I live in Missoula (I know, you said no college town), am liberal to moderate, and found the Bitterroot Valley to be waaaay too conservative, politically, for me. We lived in Hamilton for three years and I hated it. Kept waiting to "get used to it" and never did, so we moved back to Mizzoo. Kalispell has also gotten very conservative in the last decade or so. However, if you're conservative then that may be just what you want.

I don't consider myself Republican or Democrat. I listen to each side and see what they have to say, so my research on the candidate and then make a decision. I do tend to be quite conservative, though. I'm a very old-fashioned kind of guy.

Missoula does have a very large community of writers and artists, so being close to that might be nice for you. Have you considered Potomac, about 30 minutes east-northeast of Missoula? It's not an incorporated town but has some really nice people in it. Very country. Lincoln is a nice little town but has a very short growing season; you mentioned gardening. Whitefish has become an enclave of the very rich, IMHO, and is extremely touristy. I haven't been to Red Lodge so have no good advice about it, although it is in a gorgeous setting. Livingston is a nice little town if you can stand the almost-constant wind. It's only about 30 minutes by interstate east of Bozeman, a bigger college town (for your library, nightlife, etc.).

Very helpful! I'm glad to know about the short growing season in Lincoln. I'd like to be as self-sustaining as possible (hence, my screen name.) I want to have a big garden so I can grow extra to help others who need it. I'm not opposed to Missoula being the city I live near. I just don't like living right in a college town.

Nice to know libraries are around. Books are my nightlife! LOL I like getting together with friends to play cards, board games, etc., People in the city just don't do those things anymore. It's too bad.

P.S. An iPhone won't even work here in Montana -- no carriers!

Woo Hoo!

[ElkHunter]

Ya gotta learn to eat green tomato's. haha This year, I bought tomato plants that were already 10 inches tall. I planted them and got a butt load of mators off of them. All green, and then frost from fall hit. But I learned to jar them with some peppers I grew and I can now open a jar and have really good tomato's.

Cuc's got about 5 inches long and they was done. I had really good luck with my Jalapeno's and Cayannes. I canned about 15 quarts of peppers. Canned about 15 quarts of jalapeno's with cherry tomatoes. Put some onion and dill in the jar. Good to go.

The growing season sucks. I would love to can up the stuff I grew, and I did. But mators were green. Once canned and then opened, they're pretty good.

[jimj]

There's always fried green tomatoes, Yum! Anywho... I did tomatoes, deer ate 'em, did peppers, deer ate 'em (funny to watch them dance as they were hot peppers) grew a sunflower to get seeds, you guessed it.....
I've found that if you really want veggies then a hot house is what you need or there's a mini hot house that was featured on Martha Stewart that looked very easy to build and works well in the winter.

[Simple Living]

Sounds like a fair trade. Grow a few veggies and, instead, I get smoked meat.

I like green tomatoes. A word of caution there, though. Eating too many can be dangerous. Green tomatoes are supposed to be toxic.

Hot peppers would be great! Minnesotans (where I live now) think salt and pepper are spicy. It's just sad.

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by jimj

There's always fried green tomatoes, Yum! Anywho... I did tomatoes, deer ate 'em, did peppers, deer ate 'em (funny to watch them dance as they were hot peppers) grew a sunflower to get seeds, you guessed it.....
I've found that if you really want veggies then a hot house is what you need or there's a mini hot house that was featured on Martha Stewart that looked very easy to build and works well in the winter.

Was laughing my ass off. I can just see the deer bouncing around.

The deer hang out in my yard during the winter. Nothing during the summer, but come snow fall, I have 4 or 5 hanging out in the yard. And I don't have a big yard. It's only 8 feet from my house to the fence next door. In back, it's about 30 ft. On the other side it's about 20 feet to the neighbors. But when snow falls, they come into my yard. So they're too late for the garden.

I do have a neighbor that has 2 pugs. One of them, I call houdini. They have a chain link fence that he can walk through. I'm not sure how he does it. Anyhow, last summer he decided he wanted to try my cayann peppers. He only tried them once. He didn't dance, he didn't prance he just went home. Then he was funny to watch later as the peppers made their way through.

For the deer, I do plough the snow so there's bare grass.

It was funny. I set up my video camera and set it to record. Then I went to work. At that time I was working from midnight til 8am. Anyhow, I got home and watched the tape. Nothing. I had left the lense cap on. hahahaha

[jimj]

We get deer summer,spring,fall and winter. There was a 4x4 in the yard yesterday as a matter of fact. They tend to leave the grass alone thankfully and it was humorous to see that deer that ate the peppers looking for a good margarita!

I found you can somewhat train deer, we keep a paintball gun by the back door and a couple of "pops" from that in the behind hazes them off where we don't want them and kinda makes them look cool too! We had 2 fawns (the twins as we call them) that grew up sleeping on our front lawn and now that they're grown they'll walk around the lawn and nibble the weeds but won't step anywhere on it. When they used to we'd go out and tell them "no" and believe it or not they'd get off the lawn and mosey away.

[bsugar]

Hi
Montana is great! As long as you have a income located out of state. Wages are low Jobs few. I attended college in Dillion Just south of Butte, The area you are thinking of is ok less expensive than Big Sky. Mostly the people are great. The fauther up north the more the have a tendicy to not welcome outsiderd. It takes a bit because they don't care for tourists eaither( too bad because it would be a great thing if they would plan , and a clean economic boost if controled) sorry, back to Montana, it is a great place, but it is like moving to a whole new planet, but everyone I met was verry nice just maybe behind in their thinking about 20 years, but that was ok.

[truckingbronco]

Originally Posted by bsugar

Hi
Montana is great! As long as you have a income located out of state. Wages are low Jobs few. I attended college in Dillion Just south of Butte, The area you are thinking of is ok less expensive than Big Sky. Mostly the people are great. The fauther up north the more the have a tendicy to not welcome outsiderd. It takes a bit because they don't care for tourists eaither( too bad because it would be a great thing if they would plan , and a clean economic boost if controled) sorry, back to Montana, it is a great place, but it is like moving to a whole new planet, but everyone I met was verry nice just maybe behind in their thinking about 20 years, but that was ok.

Actually, Northern MT is much more welcoming to tourists/transplants than other parts of the state. A whole new planet? I don't know, it's not much different than other parts of the Northwest. Dillon is another story...

[kuicksilver]

Thompson Falls, Alberton, Charlo, Hall, Avon, Drummond, Philipsburg, are all towns close to the Western Part of Montana, within about an hour of Missoula. They are not touristy or very built up. Wisdom, Jackson Hole, Troy are towns that are pretty far away from large towns but are rustic, quiet areas to live in. If you would like to avoid noise stay away from the Missoula, Bozeman, Bitterroot Valley, Flathead area and Billings. If you want space, quiet and few neighbors move east, almost anywhere except south of I-90, they're all becoming very built up with trophy homes and subdivisions.

[ElkHunter]

got a good fire going in the fireplace. Deer in the yard. it just don't get better then this. Logs just cracklin.