Ferguson Avenue

Just north of the intersection with Durston Road. Those trees are not long for this world ;-(

Cadastral map of Montana

A cadastral map shows real estate boundaries and ownership information. So, if you are interested in who owns a particular piece of land and the most recent appraised value, look at a cadastral map.

How to use the official cadastral map of Montana.

Bisson meat

If you do a google search on "bisson meat" you get this good story by Terry Bisson: "They're made out of meat".

Bloggers I have met

I met Wulfgar! today for the first time. He saw me lusting over a 20" iMac at the MSU Bookstore, figured out who I was, and introduced himself. It's cool to be able to put a face/voice to a blogger.

I've seen several student bloggers around campus, but I've never identified myself - don't want them to get weirded out that a professor has seen their blogs.

Meta - defunct blogs deleted from blogroll

I removed the following defunct blogs from my "Bozeman Blogroll":

• Bozeman's Beaten Path


• Life in Bozeman Montana


• Montana Ramblings


• Wisdom Journal

Gopher hole

There seems to be a new gopher hole about every 15 feet on the land behind my house.

Historical photos of Bozeman

• Historic Bozeman and Gallatin County
  


• Postcards at ePodunk
  


• Penny postcards from Montana
  

Dirty dancing

From the Bozeman Daily Chronicle: Dance debate divided on grinding. Basically, the kids at Bozeman High dance a bit more "expressively" than their parents ever did.

Several years ago, I chaperoned a group of college students to an out-of-state conference. If the dancing at Bozeman High is like that which I observed on that trip, I can see why parents would be a bit concerned. It certainly would not have been acceptable at the Methodist-sponsored dances I remember ;-)

Meta - kinja.com

Kinja.com has lots of blog-related goodies. For instance, you can find out more than you ever wanted to know about this blog.

Stormy weather

In northwest Bozeman, Montana.

Newspaper article on Bozeman scuba shop

Re my previous post, the 3/30/06 Bozeman Daily Chronicle had an informative article about the "Sports Cove" scuba shop.

In addition to sponsoring trips to Fiji, etc., the shop hosts scuba diving in Hyalite Reservoir - even under the winter ice. Sounds chilly to me....

Meta - recent changes

1. Comments now require "word verification." I could handle spam comments manually except Blogger doesn't tell me exactly which posts have received comments. I hope this doesn't reduce the extensive commenting on my blog posts ;-)

2. Comments now show the commenter's "profile photo." Now I need to upload a "profile photo" of my own...

MSU: landscape/architecture

MSU is developing some long-term campus plans. See this article for links to photos of what people like & don't like about the campus architecture and landscape.

Amusingly enough, some of their photos are the same as some of my photos.

Peach-Pineapple salsa

So, I went to a student picnic this afternoon. I got some chips and salsa (so far so good). But.... whoever heard of peach-pineapple salsa?!? I'm an old-fashioned Pace Picante man.

Ruff-ruff

I enjoy walking around the neighborhood. This dog barks at me every time I go by.

Stuck

This is what happens if you ignore the sign that says "no vehicular traffic"...

Read the sign...

Sounds like good advice to me.

Riparian grammar

According to Language Log, Missoulians go "up to Hamilton".

RIP - blogger style

This site is slightly unnerving: www.mydeathspace.com.

These hounds are "greyt"

I saw some beautiful greyhounds at the Bozeman Petsmart last week. I forgot to take my camera (of course), but you can see some pics at the Gallery of the Greyhound Pets of America - Rocky Mountain Chapter website.

Gate

This pasture (behind my house in NW Bozeman) will developed later this year.

(I need to learn how to better "frame" my photos - it has a nice view of the sky, but where's the bottom of the gate ;-6 )

MSU - Danforth Chapel

I've been to this chapel a couple of times to attend honor society initiations.

Graphical timeline for 'The Subtle Knife'

When a book involves many worlds, don't be afraid to draw a timeline.

MSU - "The Bent of Tau Beta Pi"

Tau Beta Pi is the national engineering honor society.

This particular Bent is for the Montana Alpha chapter. I was inducted into the Texas Delta chapter circa 1987.

MSU - steel sculpture

I don't understand how the students can resist climbing on this.

Misc notes

Bozeman got a mini-mention on Wonkette.
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We're #168, according to Progressive Farmer.

MSU - Satellite dishes

These dishes are used by the local public TV station, I've been told. In the background, you can see two huge dorms.

Grilling season begins

Earlier this evening, I fired up the gas grill for the first time this year. Of course it then started to rain...

The grilled chicken was excellent, though.

Energy costs in Bozeman

More info for folks considering moving to Bozeman:

1. Electricty and Natural gas - My house's electric bill was $26 in March 2006. The gas bill was $123.

2. Gasoline - currently about $2.43 per gallon.

Bogie

An hilarious Bogart/Frodo video mashup.

Scary song

I first heard "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" on a Dr. Demento CD. Little did I realize that the music video was even more demented.

Info about relocating to Bozeman

A fellow emailed with some questions about possibly relocating to Bozeman, and I promised to answer in this blog.

For general info, I recommend the Relocation Packet from the Bozeman Chamber of Commerce.

1. Is it a real bone chill cold or does it not feel so bad when the sun is out?
> It feels fine to me, and I grew up in the South.

2. How often does it get below Zero?
> Fairly common at night this past winter.

3. Housing seems pricey...
> I think the average cost of a home in bozeman is about $220 K. Belgrade (the next town over) is cheaper, but Belgrade is not as nice as Bozeman (IMHO). For more info on housing prices, shoot an email to our local real estate blogger: Inside Out.

4. Does Bozeman feel like a mountain community or how would you describe it?
> I would describe Bozeman as half "ski town", half "college town" located in a flat valley right next to the mountains.

5. Would you feel the quality of life to be good or is there a lot of hustle and bustle?
> I think the quality of life is good. The folks in Bozeman are very outdoors-oriented. There is a brief rush hour around 7:45 AM and 5:00 PM. (FWIW, I previously lived in Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta which are all traffic nighmares.)

6. (Paraphrase): "small town beautiful" or "small town ugly" ?
> "small town beautiful"

7. High tech or behind the times
> High tech (I work a the university so might be biased in what I notice).

8. Elementary schools?
> As a forty year old bachelor, I can't help you here.

> I'll answer some more of his questions later.