Easiest winter overall in MT (gated, shoppers, garden)

[ElkHunter]

There is no Tractor Supply, but around here we have Shipton's Big R. Just about the same store.

When I was married, the only way the wife would let me go into Shipton's is if she got to hold my wallet and checkbook.

[waymire01]

elkhunter: Hahaha.. I feel your pain.. only our roles are reversed. I can do some serious financial damage in just about any feed/ranch store, but TS is just so convenient it's even harder to be sensible. The "big kid toys" are bad enough- plus my daughter has a serious Schleich Toys addiction which does not help. They are also the only store here that sells Breyer horses.. even more expensive. Last Christmas she wound up with about $200 dollars in spending money.. we have all the major department stores, a Toys-R-Us, a decent mall, etc.. but guess where she picked to go shopping? LOL.

I have to say I really enjoy chatting with you.. I've met quite a few different personalities on the WY board... some good, some bad.. like anywhere I suppose, but I hope most of the people there are more on your side of the spectrum.

[oldtrader]

Recently needed a battery for our lawn mower/garden tractor. No on had one, except Tractor Supply which had about 2 dozen choices to choose from. Great Store.

Had our first killing frost 2 days ago. The tomatoes, and summer squash, and a second crop of green beans was just getting ready to produce, with everything just producing great, and in one night the whole garden died. The weather has cooled off 20 degrees in two days. Maybe we will have an early winter.

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by oldtrader

Recently needed a battery for our lawn mower/garden tractor. No on had one, except Tractor Supply which had about 2 dozen choices to choose from. Great Store.

Had our first killing frost 2 days ago. The tomatoes, and summer squash, and a second crop of green beans was just getting ready to produce, with everything just producing great, and in one night the whole garden died. The weather has cooled off 20 degrees in two days. Maybe we will have an early winter.

How cold did it get? We've had 4 or 5 mornings of 30-32 and one morning of 26 and my tomatos, as well as my peppers (jalapena) are still going strong. I have a few, very few, leaves on the tomato plant that curled just a little bit, but other than that, you can't tell.

[waymire01]

Where are you at oldtrader?

Still waiting on the employer to scratch their heads and come up with an offer.. they do not seem to be in any hurry. "Let us know by Monday, we want to get you here NOW" turned into two weeks of "we will get back to you we are working on it", followed by an insane offer of $750 and $1 per mile for travel which was (politely) laughed at. After explaining that no, we were not paying for our own move.. they quickly backpedaled and swore they would do whatever it takes to make it happen.. just give them a few days.. and so the dragging of feet continues. With every day the weather gets worse.. and therefore more difficult to move/transition. Not holding my breath at this point.

Meanwhile here in Louisiana fall has arrived.. it's much cooler... highs in the mid 80's, lows in the high 60's, and much better humidity.. it was down to 50% the other day. LOLOL

[oldtrader]

My first question in my mind would be, is how financially stable the company is. It kind of sounds like they don't have the money to really do things like move you and are finding a way to scrape it up. They sound like they say they will do anything to get you, but can't come up with something real quick. You may want to look long and hard at the potential future of the company. The big question that would be in my mind, is the company going to be around long enough to make it worth your while to make the move.

[waymire01]

Normally you would be exactly right.. but these are huge companies (oil) and it's really more of a cheapskate/bureaucracy thing. Everybody has 10 bosses, there is a huge chain of command and dump truck loads of requisitions, approvals, and red tape. Halliburton is one of the worst.. they make everything 1000x harder than it has to be. Boggles the mind, it's amazing they get anything done. Right now when he travels he has to go through three different sub-management companies that handle different portions of the travel arrangements. Plus they are notoriously cheap. They think nothing of spending millions of dollars on a single well, or even a single piece of equipment.. but trying to get them to upgrade a rental vehicle to something that can actually drive through mud or put you up in a hotel during a layover is like pulling teeth. He once got stuck for three days living in the airport lobby in Alaska.. and when they finally got their stuff together he spent almost 24 hours bouncing back and forth across the country transferring from flight to flight when a direct route would have taken less than 8 hrs... but it saved them a couple hundred bucks on airfare. He isn't actually changing companies, he works for Halliburton now.. just changing districts/departments.

[Reziac]

Good thoughts, Oldtrader... I'd also look at their actual assets. Frex, a lot of those highly-valued dot-bomb companies of a decade ago didn't actually own a pot to p in, but they sure talked a good line and collected a lot of venture capital.

[waymire comes along with different thoughts] Sounds like too many bean counters and not enough people who actually know how to grow beans

[waymire01]

They (Lake charles Hal who he "belongs" to, and Casper Hal who he is "on loan" to) have been arguing for over a week whether or not he is going to finish drilling the current well, or go to Wisconsin and do a coring job.. he was supposed to leave today..and still doesn't know what they are doing. Devon, the company who is actually running the rig and has hired Casper Halliburton to drill, is saying if he leaves they will cancel the entire contract and hire someone else. Casper is freaking out and Lake Charles is pitching a fit.. it's like a bunch of school kids arguing over who gets the best pitcher on their team. Life in the oil industry.

[oldtrader]

elkhunter

Got down to 29, and it took out not only my garden but others around also. We sit above a mile wide valley, about 300 feet from the valley, wind comes up out of that valley and was blowing about 10 miles an hour that night. Our place is all level, but nothing between us and the valley to slow the wind down. Probably added to the danger to our crops. Did pick all the tomatoes and put them in a cool utility room layered in newspapers. Cool enough they last for weeks. Bring up some and put them in a metal basked in a window and about 4 days later they are ripe. Will take a few weeks to use all of them. Smaller than if had been allowed to grow out, but sure taste good. First ones ripened today, and half a dozen ready tomorrow. Have a number of Zikini squash we salvaged too, but another 100 or so were too small and lost. The squash turned black and dead, the tomatoes were solidly killed and even the stems died. It is a wonder I saved the tomatoes and squash so they could be used.

If I had known the freeze was coming (colder by far than predicted) I would have used the trick I learned in Colorado about 35 years ago and it always worked. Pull the plants and hang them upside down, in our unheated garage back then. The tomatoes kept growing and ripening. Had tomatoes till Thanksgiving. Sounds crazy 'but it works. If I had the warning, would have pulled them and hung them in the barn.