Is Wyoming for us? (Gillette, Sheridan: hardwood floors, fit in, sales)

[RamblinRoseRanch]

Let me preface this by saying i'm posting it on a few more western states' city-data forums, so you'll see it there too.

We're, quite frankly, at our wit's end. We like NM, but it sure isn't a two sided love affair.
We've been struggling pretty much ever since we unloaded the horses at the end of May and now we're goin' down for the last time.


What we are:
family of five who love the country life and equine events- be it a rodeo or just a group of friends riding out for a while

horses, cats, dogs, kids

southern accents (so please, don't make fun of us, or our kids, for not sounding like you. A little ribbin' is one thing, blatant disrespect is another. )

not at all high maintenance- a country store or, *shudder* WalMart is all it takes to keep us in the necessities. I.hate.malls. Internet orderin' suits me fine.

simple, drama free and would like to be much more self sufficient

What we want:

a friendly area. No, we don't want to change you and we don't want things how they were where we come from. If it were all that great, we wouldn't have left. We just want to be accepted by you and maybe even make some friends. Drama free, that is.

clean air. I have a respiratory issue that was thought to be totally humidity adverse. Turns out that I can take some humidity, as long as the air is not so polluted it stirs crap up.

four seasons. Snow and cold weather is okay, as long as it doesn't extend to six months of the year and we're not stringin' rope between the house and the barn.

within an hours drive to a city (or town) with a cell phone carrier. That's what my husband has almost 15 years experience in and it's what he'd desperately like to go back to.

I can't think of anything else, so if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask away. Is there anywhere in Wyoming where we might fit in and begin to have the resemblance of an actual LIFE again?

[Brian_M]

There's precious few spots in WY that would *not* meet your criteria. The main deciding points are mountains or plains, Really windy or only a little windy, insainly costly or very affordable.

FWIW, ditto on the areas of MT I know (the middle band from about Missoula to billings, southern to northern border).

[sunsprit]

My reaction is that a lot of your criteria fits WY ... but there's several areas of concern:

1) SIX months of winter ... cold & snow ... wouldn't be exceptional or unusual in most of the state, on the plains or in the mountain areas. Having serious storms blow through where you can't see the barn a few hundred feet away from your house wouldn't be unusual; here in SE WY, that has happened 3 to 6 times per winter for a day or two in the last decade ... and that was during a drought. With average moisture patterns, the frequency of serious storms/snowfall increases. As does the amount of drifting snow that builds up. (For example, even in a light 2-3" of actual snowfall, we can have wind-driven drifts build up of 4 to 6 feet deep across the roads, our fences, or our driveways) Power outages in the winter months aren't unusual, either, for us; some last a few hours, some last for days. Everything from lightning strikes to power lines down from violent winds or the longest outages when somebody crashes into a power pole and it's in a storm where High West Energy can't readily get a crew and trucks out to the location to make repairs.

2) The winds in much of the state pick up a lot of pollens, dust, and debris for at least 8 months of the year, if that's a respiratory health issue for you. There's a lot of dust kicked up by vehicles on dirt roads in the county areas, and from seasonal farming operations. At the very least, you'll notice it when you discover that it's almost impossible to keep the interior of your car clean and for us, in SE WY, the inside of our house. It's a thankless task trying to keep the house dusted and the floors clean ... we have hardwood floors throughout the house, so we really notice the amount of dirt blown in to the house. When we bought the place, it had carpet throughout, which was filthy and not cleanable ... we had to carry it out in pieces because it weighed so much with all the dirt captured by it. I've got a collection of antique kerosene lamps on display in many rooms of our house (and we use them during the power outages, too), and they're impossible to keep clean for more than a day or so after a serious wiping down to get the dust off of them. My wife is a "clean house" fanatic and washes the floors several times a week, especially the mud room entryway and the first rooms you walk into from the entry ... and that's a minimum to keep the house "clean".

You might want to look up a "wind energy density" map of WY to see the areas where there's lots of wind as a guide for places which you'd want to avoid if this is an issue for you. In my experience, the areas of the state without so much wind, however, are desirable and fairly expensive locales to find housing.

3) Job for your husband. WY has been hit with an economic slowdown, and good paying jobs aren't out here for the taking as they were a few years ago. Yes, there is employment available in some areas, but a living wage for a family given the costs of living in the area is another issue. In general, housing in the "boom town" areas where high paying jobs have been has kept or outstripped the wages and local costs of living. Rental housing is particularly expensive when you're seeking a place that will allow your dogs and horses, if it's even available. You'd be well served to have both a job and an affordable place to live lined up before moving here.

[Dinowy]

Sun already touched on the points I was going to bring up, the state sounds great for you guys other than our winters and clean air. The winters here can be long, depending on where in the state you are there are some areas that can and do get snow 12 months out of the year. On the ranch I used to live on until just this past year which was situated right on the Big Horns snow lasted into June and first snow at the house in September (ranch property extended up the face a bit so there were portions that got snow in late August). Now its not the kind of winter that the snow is 4ft deep from October until May (although I wish it was!), but anytime between September and June was opportune for big storms, little storms, ground blizzards. The biggest storms usually come in the fall or spring when there is more moisture in the atmosphere to get that good heavy wet snow. In fact that's one of the big problems we often had out there, early fall storms of wet heavy snow while the leaves were still on the trees. It'd snap BIG limbs off.

And then the clean air, not that the air isn't clean but instead of man-made pollutants we have natural pollutants (well, except for those cold mornings when there is an inversion going on. Everybody is burning their wood and coal stoves and that inversion keeps it all down on the ground). This is an arid WINDY state. Dust, lots and lots of dust, and pollen - its something to see when all the pine trees are putting out pollen on the mountain here and the wind is gusting. I do no kid when it looks like huge plumes of yellowish white smoke. Huge clouds of it just roll down the face of the mountain. Pretty neat to watch, unless I suppose you're allergic to it .

[Kristynwy]

I would definitely recommend a visit out to Wyoming. I would narrow down a few areas you are interested in and come and check it out.
I would investigate the job market for the line work you are in. Some things are starting to slow down, while others are able to keep at bay, but hiring has slowed down in some fields. But there are still some lines of work I am sure hiring.

You can go to http://www.wyomingatwork.com
That will be a helpful resource.

Up here in Sheridan, Buffalo area we are kind of the Banana Belt of the state, lol I use that term loosely though. Because we do get blizzards, we do get cold. I have seen it get down to -30 something before. But usually it is just a cold snap and doesn't last a long time. Plus we have low humidity most of the time so it's a dry cold, much easier to tolerate as long as you wear the proper layers.
If you are into gardening, the growing season here is shorter, but very doable with careful planning. I have grown wonderful gardens here so far. We have a very short fall and short spring. Great summers and winters vary each year, sometimes a little longer, sometimes shorter. Last year we didn't really have a spring, it was June by the time it really warmed up. This year spring came on time during May.

The further south you go the snowier it gets I believe, and the windier it is.

Best of luck to you. I highly encourage a road trip it is well worth the investment to come and look around and get a feel for the community and the area.

[septocaine_queen]

I haven't had an asthma attack since we moved and it is usually from dust, smoke, and other particulates that cause them. I know about bad air, I lived in So Cal for 12 years. When i went to graduate school, i didn't know I was 30 mins from the mountains bc the air was so smoggy.

[georgiainwyo]

I'm in the same town as Sept. Queen (Gillette). I just talked to a new teacher here who moved from eastern S. Dakota. She said she can't believe how much better her allergies & sinuses are. I never thought of S. Dakota as humid, but she said it is MUCH dryer here. When I asked about dust, coal dust, etc., she said she hadn't noticed it at all. She said she did notice how yucky she felt when she went back home over Labor Day weekend, then got better right after getting back to Gillette. Just another person's testimony of how the air has affected them here!

Also, there are quite a few people here in Gillette that moved from the southern part of the country. I work in the schools and have noticed several children with the cutest little southern accents! Also, one of the speech therapists I know moved here from W.V. and we love her accent!

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by septocaine_queen

I haven't had an asthma attack since we moved and it is usually from dust, smoke, and other particulates that cause them. I know about bad air, I lived in So Cal for 12 years. When i went to graduate school, i didn't know I was 30 mins from the mountains bc the air was so smoggy.

I'm kinda' getting a chuckle out of this post .... since I've had two cars sandblasted to near white metal by the winds carrying heavy particulates while I was making sales calls at the power plant in Gillette. I was in the area for less than a couple of hours each time ....

I've flown up past Gillette with intent to make sales calls and the winds were so strong that the obscuration with dust and debris was like looking through the moisture layer a few hundred miles east on a sunny day. VFR flight was only a few miles visibility ... certainly not 5 miles.

I suspect that the Gillette asthma relief may be due to other factors, like escaping the SoCal/SanDiego tropical/semi-tropical pollens/molds/insects and humid climate where they are pervasive for most of the year. With all the mining and powerplants immediately in/around Gillette, it's far from a clear air condition for much of the year. The area is a major center of coal mining and railroad activity hauling it out ....

[WyoNewk]

Well Sunsprit, you know how the prevailing winds are out of the west. All of the coal mines near Gillette are east of town or almost directly north. In other words, not much dust from mines comes through town, so if one stays in town (or west of town) dust from mines will be very, very rare.

That doesn't mean we don't get dust, but it's not bad in most of the residential areas.

My wife has allergies and asthma, but it's not nearly as bad in Gillette as it was in Oregon. She still complains, but she hasn't seen a doctor for it (nor gotten rx meds for it) in nearly a decade.

I had a new car get sand blasted near Muddy Gap several years ago. It was late January, because we were headed to Super Bowl XXI. I replaced the windshield, then the rest of the car two years later.

[septocaine_queen]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

I'm kinda' getting a chuckle out of this post .... since I've had two cars sandblasted to near white metal by the winds carrying heavy particulates while I was making sales calls at the power plant in Gillette. I was in the area for less than a couple of hours each time ....

I've flown up past Gillette with intent to make sales calls and the winds were so strong that the obscuration with dust and debris was like looking through the moisture layer a few hundred miles east on a sunny day. VFR flight was only a few miles visibility ... certainly not 5 miles.

I suspect that the Gillette asthma relief may be due to other factors, like escaping the SoCal/SanDiego tropical/semi-tropical pollens/molds/insects and humid climate where they are pervasive for most of the year. With all the mining and powerplants immediately in/around Gillette, it's far from a clear air condition for much of the year. The area is a major center of coal mining and railroad activity hauling it out ....

Actually I never had allergies in San Diego. Only when I went inland from the beach. I did have allergies at our place in Vegas. I got allergies from the wildfires and air pollution when I lived out near Riverside/ San Bernardino ( which has the worst air in the country) for grad school. My eyes actually burned the first few months I lived out there.

Living in town, the wind is not really bad at all, less than Vegas, but I suspect it is due to living in the city not outside the city limits.