Well, are you?  Pro Football?  No, not the NFL.  College Football?  No, Not that either. 

I'm talking the REAL football.  Pee Wee football. 

Specifically, I'm talking the Mighty Jordan Maroon Gremlins football. 

 

What could be more fun that watching 8 and 9-year olds first learning the game?  Yes, it's true, I am interested only because my oldest son is playing.  Otherwise I'd be cheering for the New York Giants and Syracuse Orange to win. 

This football season, however, I'm all about the maroon and silver of the Jordan Maroon Gremlins.  Chris is the starting tight end.  He wears number 91.  Yes, for those of you who know football you know this is not a tight end number, it is a defensive lineman's number.  Again, that's the beauty of Pee Wee football.  To put on a uniform with a number on it and play is enough.

This is his first season of playing organized football.  He is only eight years old and most of the kids on his team are nine.  Yet he is playing well enough to be a two-way player, starting at tight end on offense and cornerback on defense.  He is also the kicker.  The video clip above is a short highlight reel of Chris. 

You could say I'm one of 'THOSE' parents who likes to brag up their kids accomplishments. 
Or you could say I'm one of those parents who values spending time with my son, sharing his passions, recording them for us to share again, to pass along to him when he is older and perhaps wants to show his own children what he did when he was young.  Just like my dad did with me those many long years ago, when he coached my ice hockey and little league baseball teams.

Sure, I think my son has some talent.  Best player on the field?  No.  Best player on his team?  No.  A hard-working kid with a true love of the game?  Absolutely. 

Unfortunately the score of Saturday's game was not what we wanted - Copper Hills defeated the Jordan Maroon Gremlins 19-0.  But we have eight more games to play.  Most importantly, he had fun.

Stay tuned each week for updates on the adventures of the Jordan Maroon Gremlins and the play of #91.

Are you a Tractor Guy? 

. 

I mean a REAL tractor guy - the kind of guy that sees an old tractor in a field while out for a drive in the country, and has to stop the car and walk out into the field to take a closer look? 

 

If this is you, I've found your Nirvana.  Your Mecca.  Your Santa's Workshop at the North Pole. 

It's Crosby, North Dakota. 

Where?  Yes, you read that correctly.  Crosby, North Dakota.

You've never been there, have you?  You've never even heard of it.  Why would you?.  When people describe a place as remote, they usually say "It's in the middle of nowhere."  Crosby is so remote, it's not in the middle of nowhere, it's at a point so far away the middle of nowhere looks like New York City.  I had never been this far from anywhere either, until I went to North Dakota to buy a farm. 

 

This is a modern day tractor, working on my farmland in Williams County, North Dakota.  When I think tractor, this is what I think of.  But I digress.

Crosby, North Dakota is a town of 1,201 people, give or take a couple.  It is in Divide County, the far northwestern corner of North Dakota.  Hard against the Canadian border, unassuming Crosby is the county seat of Divide County.

 

This is the Divide County Courthouse.  It's a very nice building.  In fact, it is the most impressive building in Crosby, and probably the nicest building in all of Divide County.  Of course, there isn't much competition.  So you're no doubt asking yourself a couple of questions as you read this.  Why is this guy writing about Crosby, North Dakota?  Why would anyone go there?  What is there in Crosby, North Dakota, that anyone would care about?

 

The photo above is downtown Crosby.  The anchor store is Hardware Hank's.  That pretty much tells you there ain't much goin' on in Crosby. 

 

This next photo is the other side of the main drag in downtown Crosby.  This makes Hank's place look pretty darn good!  Where are all the people, you're asking?  I would have asked the same question when I was there, but I couldn't find anyone to ask.

But what does all this have to do with tractors?

 

Well, in addition to being the home of the Divide County Fair (which makes sense, as Crosby is the county seat), visitors to Crosby might accidentally stumble upon a lot that is full of old tractors.

 

When I say accidentally stumble upon, what I really mean is that if you happen to find yourself in Crosby, North Dakota, you almost can't help NOT finding this tractor lot.  It's right off one of the two main entrances to town off North Dakota Highway 5.  And if you've driven on North Dakota Highway 5 in this part of North Dakota, you'll probably want to stop in Crosby just in the hopes of seeing another human being.

 

Right off the entrance to Crosby from North Dakota Highway 5, on your left as you drive into town, you'll see a lot full of old tractors.  I never did find out who owned the lot, and I spent about 45 minutes wandering around taking photographs.  Nobody came out to ask me what I was doing, nobody even drove by during the entire time I was there.

For the record, I am not a Tractor Guy.  But I am a drawn to unique visuals, and this tractor lot in the middle of Nowhere, umm, excuse me, Crosby, North Dakota, drew me in.  I was very interested in the old tractors, particularly the details like the one above.



I wondered about the tractors as I walked around the deserted lot.  Who owned them?  How old were they?  Who were the people who first bought them so many years ago, when they were shiny and brand new?  What fields did they work, what crops did they harvest, what families did they help to feed?  What circumstances led to their ending up here, on a seemingly abandoned lot in Crosby?

Unfortunately, there was no one around to tell me.

In addition to the tractors, there were a few old trucks that looked well worn.  I wondered if they still ran.  This one looked like it was waiting for someone to come out, hop in the cab, fire up the engine, turn on the country music station and head off down some remote rural road.

So if you're a tractor guy, and I mean a real, die-hard, crusty old tractor guy, Crosby North Dakota is a place you have to visit.  You won't have to worry about someone coming along and buying the tractor of your dreams out from under you before you can get here.  There doesn't seem to be much of a demand for these old beauties.  Nor, for that matter, does there appear to be anyone around to sell one to you.  So you'll have plenty of time to stroll the lot, examining each tractor in painstaking detail.  You can sit up on the seat and look out, imagining a golden field of what in front of you, waiting for you to bring the harvest in.

Somewhere, an old farmer is looking down and smiling. 

Too bad there's no one in Crosby to share that smile with you!

Let's get one thing straight right from the start.  I'm a city kid.  To be more precise, I'm a suburb kid.  Have been my whole life.  I've never lived more than 15 miles from an Interstate Highway.  I-81, I-80, I-15, I-64.  Never lived more than 20 miles from an airport where you can catch a commercial flight to a city you've actually heard of.  Oh, I've lived in some 'small' towns - Great Falls, Montana; Reno, Nevada; Sparta, NJ.  But I've never lived in the true boonies, places where you had to drive 20 miles or more to go to a grocery store or a McDonalds. 

Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against Rural - it's just that my family never had cause to find ourselves in a rural setting. 

So how is it that I find myself driving from Northern Utah to North Dakota to buy a farm?

I've never in my life considered owning farmland,  In fact it never occurred to me that anyone other than farmers own farms.  Isn't that what farmers do, own land and grow food on it?  Of course it is.

I'm no stranger to investment property.  I own a couple of condos that I rent out.  I get that.  Lots of people do that.  But my brother-in-law bought some land in North Dakota, partly as a private hunting reserve but also as an investment.  We got to talking about it one day and the more he told me about it, the more intrigued I became.  He was not only enjoying hunting on his own land, but he was getting income from it - a rancher was leasing his acreage and paying him cash.  And on top of that, the land had appreciated in value.  It was now worth more than he paid for it.

A non-farmer owning farmland.  Hmm.

So I started to do some research.  I spent hours online looking at farmland all over the county.  It turns out farmland is listed in a very similar fashion to residential real estate.  You find a realtor's website, browse the listings, see if any properties are of interest to you.  However, instead of 3bd 2 ba w/finished basement, farm listings are more like 160 ac, NHEL soil, 85 productivity index.

Why go camping? 

This question can be phrased may different ways - Why camp? Why do you go camping?  What's fun about camping? 

And for each way to ask the question, there hundreds of answers.  No doubt everyone has their own.  Of course there is no single correct answer, no right or wrong answer, and no answer will ring true for everyone who asks. 

But I'd wager that for those folks who do camp, if they are asked that question, they have an answer.  I know I do.  So even though you haven't asked, I'll answer anyway.  So here it is.  And it might be best illustrated by the photo below.

 

We live in the Rocky Mountains.  Within 6 hours of our home we have access to seven National Parks.  See those mountains in the photo?  Can you name them?  Those are the Tetons.  Part of Grand Teton National Park.  Arguably they are the most iconic mountains in the USA (okay, I hear you.  Mt. Hood.  Mt. Rainier.  This is my blog and I say its the Tetons).  And the closest most people get to them is seeing photos like this.

So part of the answer to the question is because we live where we do, we're going to make a point to go and see those beautiful natural features that are a part of our landscape.  While it's not exactly right outside our back door, neither is it a 5-hour plane flight away.  To live here and not experience these vistas seems like a tragedy. 

Another part of the answer is that we have, as a family, made a commitment to spend quality time outdoors.  It's too easy these days to spend time playing video games, computer games, watching TV and renting movies.  Before you know it, summer is gone and what do you have to show for it?  With our two boys, now age eight and six, we are working to instill in them a love for the outdoors - the fun of hiking, biking, fishing, rock-hounding.  We want them to appreciate and experience the natural beauty that is all around them. 

 
A third part of the answer is we want to make the most of the time my wife and I have with our sons. Chris is now eight years old, going into the third grade.  That means we have only nine summers left - NINE! - before he is off to college.  Who knows when we'll see him after that.  So I want to make sure we pack these summers full of memories.  When it's all said and done, and I'm wasting away in some nursing home, when my sons come to (hopefully) visit me, I hope they will say, "Dad, remember that camping trip where we..." and "Wasn't is great when we took the trailer to..." and "I'll never forget the time we..." 

That's what it's all about. 

That's why we camp.