CALL ME!I'M ASKING YOU TO CALL MEON WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 7THBETWEEN 8:00 AM and NOON701-852-8498Our locally owned Christian radio station has it's annual fall "Sharathon" that starts on October 7th and I've agreed to man the phone lines (by myself) for the first 4 hours of the Sharathon.Sharathon was created to make up for the revenue the station does NOT make by refusing to advertise liquor, tobacco, casinos, and the like.I support Christian radio because it was instrumental in my understanding and becoming a Christian. I owe them my eternal life!You can learn more about KHRT Radio by going to their website, KHRT.com  10/01/2015

  I went for a walk in the park with my Bride after dinner tonight and I had to take a couple of pictures. The first one is a challenge to Roy Kelley as I am hoping he can tell us what kind of flowwer this is. The plant looks a bit like a cabbage and is about 18 inches tall.The next picture just shows all the great colors of Fall and Summer sharing the same time and space.Last of all I'm just throwing in a look through the zoo fence at an odd couple that has been together for several years. This pelican has mated with a snow goose and nothing ever seperates them.  09/30/2015

         ARE YOU A TOURIST?This is "Spirit" week in Minot, at least in the Minot School system. Today is "Tourist" day where the kids are encouraged to dress as a tourist. This is Tina's offering for today's event.It made me think about how often people "assume" they will fit in to a new environment. An environment that they are usually totally unfamiliar with.Minot ND has been blessed with many years of consistent prosperity. We have had a positive housing market for over 30 years straight. 30 years of a Sellers market. Our prosperity has brought a lot of people here from all over the country to claim their fortune in the oil field or in the construction business.My daughters outfit for today reminded me of the tourist that has come here from a depressed home market expecting Sellers t... 09/29/2015

WOW! I'm so pleased with every ones input about the work my graphic designer is doing on a logo for me. Yesterday I posted a color logo that, thanks to your input (especially Jill Murty, Realtor - Orange County, CA ) is under further construction. You will see some minor adjustments on the logo with this business card sample. The logo below is metallic Gold and will remain so on my card but I will also be using the Red, White, and Blue logo as well when appropriate. The jury is still out on adding more detail to the eagle. There is something to be said for simplicity and also how easy it will be to use this logo for embroidery and screen printing.    09/23/2015

After about 6 weeks of going back and forth with my Graphic Artist, Kayla Cote of Cote Creative, we came up with the design above. It wasn't the easiest of choices as Kayla had some very good work to chose from. It was especially tempting to take one of her designs in Gold or Silver but I felt with my biggest client base coming from the Minot Air Force Base, and the name National it would be best to go with Red and Blue on White. What do you think?  09/23/2015

Minot's New Airport, Out With The Old, In With The NewMinot's old airport wasn't that old and it really was is a nice building but... with the booming economy Minot has had for about 20 years straight it just was to small to accommodate the number of flights in and out of Minot. When it was built I think we had about two commercial flights out a day in Minot.As you can see the new airport is much larger. It is to open yet this fall/winter. I believe we are now experiencing about 30 flights a day.What to do with the old airport? Well it is just across the street from the Fabulous National Marketing Realtors current office so I'm thinking if they will just rent me the old building for say... $1,000. month (utilities paid) it would make a great office for me.  09/21/2015

Minot's BEST Antique & Collectable ShopOne of my best friends owns The Downtown Mall which is a small antiques and collectibles shop. The shop is located at 108 Main Street, Minot ND and you may call Gene at 701- 852-9084. He is on the lower level, same door as the Beauty Collage. Here are a few pictures of Genes' shop.For Nina!My favorite, the Square Chair!                    09/11/2015

If You Are Irish On St Patrick's Day ....Then Sept. 29 - Oct 3rd You Need To BeScandinavian!!!It's PURE SCANDIMONIUM in Minot ND for North America's largest Scandinavian Celebration/Party!It's that time of year again when thousands of people from all over the world flock to Minot North Dakota to party like a Norwegian... or Swede, of Finlander.5 days of non-stop entertainment including Martina McBride, The Band Perry, The Beach Boys, Ronnie Milsap, and to many more to mention. There are free stages that run all 5 days non-stop with quality entertainers as well.The food, the fun, the shopping, it's a 5 day party!Not even mentioned in their own promotion (found here)is that about 1,000 of those who come arrive by motor home and the motor home community is a party in itself.You have 24 day... 09/04/2015

Minot Real Estate 101, It Sure Is Dark In HereI just drove from my office to downtown Minot ND do make a special blog post on a friends antique shop. When I got out of my car and walked to the door people started to stream out of all the downtown buildings seemingly looking for something.They were looking for the light!Actually they were looking for the reason they had no light.Black Out!There has been a lot of construction in downtown Minot ND for the past year and evidently a backhoe operator or someone else cut a main power line just as I got there.I will post about the best little antique/collectible shop soon but it made me think about that 1st time home owner and the black out they have yet to experience.What to do when the lights go out.#1) Step out of the house and see if your n... 08/20/2015

Hey! Do I Have Tomato On My Face?Last night was my favorite social event of the year,The Great Tomato Festival I know I should have blogged about this yesterday but it was a busy day and they sold out of tickets last week anyhow. As far as I'm concerned this is the BIGGEST snob social event of the year. Every year I volunteer to set tables and do what I can before all the people come. From time to time I donate items for the silent auction and I always do my part to bid up items on the auction (hoping I don't get stuck with them). Anyhow, it's a good cause:This year’s proceeds will go to the Minot Symphony Orchestra, Minot Public Library, Taube Museum of Art and the Lewis & Clark Ft. Mandan Foundation.Some records were set this year including attendance and money raised. It's a lot of f... 08/13/2015

Come And Bring Your Appetite!Timmothy (Red shirt) and I spent part of our morning this morning helping set up the big tent for New Member Sunday. Part of the celebration is the church picnic at 12:30. Everybody is welcome. Hey, notice the dunking booth in the background. I may even volunteer to sit in it if you come.I see someone in there... did they get packed away with the tent last year?That post on the right must be the one Bob Timm put up.  08/08/2015

A Fun "Local Boy" ConcertA young man who grew up in our church returns a couple of times a year (to see Mom and Dad) and always gives a free concert at our church each time.NATHAN (NATE) HANCEIs an accomplished pianist and song writer who now lives in the Denver area. While I know you would enjoy his work, he does everything from Beethoven to "Roll Over Beethoven", I thought you might enjoy this short little nonsense piece he calls piano trick shots. Nate has several pieces on Youtube and has CDs available.  08/07/2015

 A TIME TO KILL   Ecclesiastes 3:3  Last night I decided to tackle one of those chores that the Broker/Owner of a small Real Estate Firm often does, repair yard signs. First I repaired a plastic frame that failed to hold up against at 40 to 60 MPH wind. Then I broke out my little welder to repair an open house sign.I set up my little welder out the overhead garage door that leads to the alley and everything went amazingly well... until clean up. I took a couple of tools into the garage and all of a sudden the little basterd hit me 3 to 4 times in the belly even before I saw him. Now I'm pretty fast, I used to work out doing traditional boxing exercises and I raised my left to fight him off and he hit me right in the wrist, again before I even saw him. He was fast.When I finally saw my a... 07/28/2015

1-2-3 Days To Go Til The ND State FairEven at the "mature" age of 61 I love the ND State Fair and can't wait to spend an entire day there. Friday is the 1st day (of 8 days) and Saturday is kind of the big kick-off starting with a 4 hour parade leading from Downtown Minot out to the Fair Grounds.For 1st time parade goers I'd suggest you find your place on the parade route prior to 8AM as there are crazies, like myself, who set up the night before or by 6AM.For this years entertainment line-up check out the ND State Fair website here. There are many FREE stages with top quality entertainers and there are tons of commercial booths as well as the livestock shows. Come! Have a day or 8 of fun!  07/13/2015

The Closest FREE Campsite To Minot NDWhen you have a pull behind camper and an under powered vehicle to pull it you look for camp sites close to home just in case your vehicle says "heck with this" and dies.My 1987 Honda Odyssey with 173,000 miles on it has been a real trooper but I'm sure the day will come when it says "enough".Our maiden voyage to the campgrounds for 2015 started with a Google search. I typed in Free Camp Grounds. Wouldn't you know it, there is even a website called free camp grounds... or something like that. It showed us Buffalo Lodge Lake Camp Ground just 30 miles East of Minot. Off we went. Here are a few pics.Me and the Goddess who puts up with me.Our camper is the little white dot next to the trees.Boat Ramp, fishing dock, and swimming area.I should have include... 07/12/2015

Sometimes A Name Just Doesn't Fit!I was going to make this a rant but after watching some You tube videos I'm not as sure as I was about this company being the dendrolatry Satan I suspected it to be. I'm talking about a large multi-state firm called Wright Tree Service. I wish to avoid being as sophmoric as calling them Wrong Tree Service or Wright Tree disService but I can't help it when I think of the total distruction they weilded on my street and many others in Minot ND.We once had a beautiful tree lined street like the one pictured below.Then they turned it into this...  and then they came back and left nothing at all! Granted, we have power lines. However I sure would rather look at trees, even the butched ones above, then nothing at all. Also I think something would be better tha... 06/30/2015

FREE TV IN MINOT NORTH DAKOTAIf you are like me you like FREE things. Free food would top the list but this post is about FREE TV in Minot ND.We do not pay for TV in our home because there is just to much crap out there on pay TV that we do not wish to expose ourselves or our kids to.We do not pay for TV because we do not need 100 or 200 or 1,000 excuses (some call them channels) to sit on our butts, get fat, and polute our minds with images, language, and thoughts that run contrary to our Christian beliefs.The good news for people like us is you can still receive plenty of HD and standard programing via your good old fashion antenna or rabbit ears.Here in Minot there are 13 channels you can receive on FREE TV. They are:Channels06-1, PBS06-2 World Channel06-3 Minesota Channel06-4 Lifelo... 06/22/2015

DADFEST 2015 Minot NDPlease accept my apology for not posting this before the event instead of after. I knew this event was coming for at least two weeks and I had already decided that I and my family would attend. I hope you will put it on your calendar for 2016.Dadfest is the brainchild and labor of love of one of the local churches. It is open to anyone who has/had a dad, is a dad, or what ever. Obviously it is a festival to celebrate dad and honor our Father in heaven. That being said it is not a religious event.There were 8 to 10 food booths, all FREE! Food ranging from delicious ribs, (I know I had a plate of them) Taco in a bag, burgers and hot dogs, and on and on... all FREE!There were hey rides, a classic car show, a burn-out contest that included a semi truck, live music, boun... 06/21/2015

Can A Realtor Work With A For Sale By Owner?Many home buyers today are confused as to how to deal with a For Sale By Owner, also known as a FSBO.Will working with the home owner directly save me money?Can I have my Realtor contact the home owner and continue to work for me?There are a thousand answers to those two questions ranging from a flat out YES to each of them to a more abstract "Heck No" to both questions.Let's cover some very basic ground on each question starting with Will working with the home owner directly save me money?It might if: The home owner is not up to date on the current market like a professional is and the home owner has undervalued their home. This does happen but it is rare. As a rule most listing offices (a listing office is the office that has a contract with... 06/19/2015

Minot Real Estate 101, What Are Dead Loops?When driving in the Valley area you will see the Mouse River but there are other bodies of water that look like a river but are actually "Dead Loops".After the historic flooding of the Mouse River in 1969 many steps were taken to prevent such a flood from happening again (regretfully none of which helped to stop the great devastation of the flood of 2011). Along with building dikes and dams along the river the Corp Of Engineers redirected the river so that it would flow smoother and faster. Redirecting the river created the "Dead Loops".A little speculation on my part is that they kept the "Dead Loops" for further flood control so they could control run-off after a heavy rain.The Dead Loops have been the subject of many discussions over the yea... 06/16/2015