Western WY city choices (Sheridan, Riverton: homes, employment, transfer)

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

Well. After reading almost every single thread on the 3 states I am looking at, it is time to narrow it down to specific cities. I’ll tell you, that it is a lot of reading, but I highly recommend it to new folks on the forum. You will find a lot of your basic questions answered.

I am trying to get my list of possible cities to look at this summer. I have specific areas of 3 states I am looking into, and I will only have 2 weeks to do it in. The states are, Western MT, Western WY, and the ID panhandle.
Obviously you can only gather so much info from websites and such. Sometimes you just need to find out stuff from locals. I put together a criteria that I hope will help you understand what my wife and I are looking for in an area. We will not have any school age children with us, so schools are not even a factor at all.

1. Jobs: I guess first and foremost is being within an hour of an area that would have jobs available.
I work as an industrial maintenance mechanic/technician. I could basically work in any type of mfg environment. Right now I work for a newspaper here, as a printing press mechanic, but I realize what a dying industry it is, and I really don’t want to continue in it. I have also worked in other industries related to refineries, working on equipment such as pumps, cooling towers, etc. I’m trying not to make it sound like a resume, but I figure the more you great folks know, the better direction you can steer me in.
I will also toss in other options I am looking at as a career change. Getting my CDL and driving a truck is one option, and I have also thought about opening up my own auto repair shop, doing basic tune-ups, oil changes, brakes etc. Basically, non diagnostic work. To much money to spend on equipment this late in life. Any cities in need of mechanics?
My wife currently works for the major electric utility here in Southern California as a service planner. She basically goes out to new construction or remodeling sites, and tells folks where they can put their meters, what type of service they need, etc. etc.
Prior to that, she was a dental assistant, but definitely does not want to do that anymore. She also has an AA in paralegal.
She would definitely like to be closer than an hour to work. LOL.

2. Horse property: We are looking at a minimum of 5 acres. We have 4 horses right now, but it is hard to say how many we will have in 6 years, when we move. Not more than 4, I hope.
Ideally would like the property to be in a treed area. Needs to be something where riding can take place directly off of the property. Ideally it would be nice if our property backed up to public BLM land, I think. Don’t want to have to trailer the horses every time we want to ride.
This brings up another business idea for my wife. She actually would like to have a boarding stable. Could a person make money in these areas boarding horses for folks? Is there much call for it? No training, basically just a horse motel. Could anyone enlighten me on the average cost of boarding a horse in the area?
Oh! I almost forgot the most important part… Price. We are limited to around $300,000 for this minimum 5 acres with a house. I’m sure price will weed out a few of the cities on my list.

3. Weather: Not particularly fond of hot weather. Would like somewhere that never, or rarely sees 100 degrees. Cloudy and overcast skies are fine. Snow. No biggie, unless it snows 2 feet per day. Would rather deal with snow than ice. Prefer less wind, which is why I am not even considering eastern WY, or the eastern portions of MT and ID.

4. Shopping: Don’t mind being a little distance from major shopping, i.e. Costco, Home Depot, Target. Once per month trips we can do. We actually will likely eat out more often than cook, so having some decent eateries (mom and pop places) would be nice. Heck we do that now, even with kids. Being closer to feed and tack stores is probably more important than shopping centers.

5. Utilities: Not a lot of concern. From what I read so far, utilities are far cheaper than here. Even with my wife’s employee discount of 25%, our summer electric bill still exceeds $400 a month, and our summer lasts from about May (starts getting into the 80’s and 90’s) till sometimes well into November December. Heck we ran the air just a couple of weeks ago, because it reached 90 here.

Well, I’m not really sure what else to address. I’m sure I’ll think of more stuff. Feel free to add or subtract cities based on what you know about them. Even list more rural cities I don't know about. Thanks for your help.

Here are the cities on my list:

1. Lander
2. Pinedale
3. Riverton
4. Dubois
5. Worland
6. Meeteet$e
7. Cody/Powell/Clark
8. Lovell
9. Sheridan
10.Buffalo

[imbobbbb]

riverton/lander have about the cheapest homes with land on the list.people do commute from buffalo to gillette,maybe a little over an hour ,a lot of jobs there,and buffalo is at the base of the bighorn mts.you could also go a little over an hour east of gillette to sundance or hulett and be in the black hills,its not too windy in ne wyoming.another place if you like a real small town would be baggs,wyoming.just to the east are some awesome mts in the medicine bow natl forest and right to the west is the red desert,one of the largest unfenced areas left in the lower 48.there are a pretty good number of oil/gas jobs in that general area.

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

Thanks for the info imbobbbb

So I guess most of my choices are considered decent? Anyone else have some input?

[Dir Drill 1]

Vette,

Look into some of the Oil Companies in Wy., like Sinclair, Occidental, Breitburn, Etc.. They have refineries, heater-treaters (boilers), steam generators, etc., and have a hard time keeping people around for very long, because alot of them transfer from states with much warmer climates and the cold drives them out. Most all of these companies have websites they use for hiring, so just do a search using their names.

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

Thanks Drill It would be nice if this boom would last for the next 30 years. It would then see me into retirement. I presonally love the cold weather.

[Dir Drill 1]

LOL !!!!

You can't imagine how many times I have said that, however, this rotten oil business is always up and down... I guess I am just fortunate enough to have been raised in it and have had to live through the up's and down's.. It is very similar to construction, so you know full well what I'm talking about ...

I also prefer the cold to the heat, my wife though "It's how cold out there ??? hahaha She is tough though, and lived through a winter with whiteouts and all the trimmings in Illinois, so I will have to give her a test run in Wy. before I get too serious about buying..

I will do some checking with my contacts and see what I can find along your lines in Wy as far as work...

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

Originally Posted by Dir Drill 1

LOL !!!!

You can't imagine how many times I have said that, however, this rotten oil business is always up and down... I guess I am just fortunate enough to have been raised in it and have had to live through the up's and down's.. It is very similar to construction, so you know full well what I'm talking about ...

I also prefer the cold to the heat, my wife though "It's how cold out there ??? hahaha She is tough though, and lived through a winter with whiteouts and all the trimmings in Illinois, so I will have to give her a test run in Wy. before I get too serious about buying.....

A few weeks ago when it got below 30 here, I was still riding my motorcycle to work. I even ride it in the rain. Guys at work think I'm nuts. LOL

Originally Posted by Dir Drill 1

I will do some checking with my contacts and see what I can find along your lines in Wy as far as work...

I appreciate that a lot. Don't want to put you out, because like I said it wil be about 6 years before I can move I wish I could leave tomorrow.
I'll tell you, if I didn't live in this "Horse Town" and lived in the more populated areas, I think I would go "postal"

[Dir Drill 1]

No problem Vette, I will just get you some contact #'s for whenever you are ready.. I will also get the # for my company which has a Wy. office..( I am only doing the work in Wy., because of a request by the engineering firm handling the wells.)

[rya700]

I grew up in the Lander/Riverton area - the surrounding country is some of the most beautiful on earth. However, unless you are independantly wealthy, I can't say it is a place I would recommend moving to, esp. Lander. It is a very isolated area, employment opportunities are scarce, and the 'locals' tend to be very cliquish.

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

Originally Posted by Dir Drill 1

No problem Vette, I will just get you some contact #'s for whenever you are ready.. I will also get the # for my company which has a Wy. office..( I am only doing the work in Wy., because of a request by the engineering firm handling the wells.)

Thanks Drill. You can PM them to me here or email direct to jprodko@yahoo.com

Originally Posted by rya700

I grew up in the Lander/Riverton area - the surrounding country is some of the most beautiful on earth. However, unless you are independantly wealthy, I can't say it is a place I would recommend moving to, esp. Lander. It is a very isolated area, employment opportunities are scarce, and the 'locals' tend to be very cliquish.

Thanks rya. I found properties within my price range in Riverton, but it is hard to tell how far to a major employment area from there.