Who Says An Old Dog Can't Teach YOU New Tricks??? Jack is a 12 year old mutt. He loves to fetch but we've never known him to actually catch a ball. Even at the age of 12 he will run after a ball much longer then your arm will hold out throwing the ball. Jack has never done steps. He will run up them (in shear terror) if he has to but forget him ever going down steps on his own. So what will he do if he is in the mood to play fetch and no one is paying attention? He just throws his ball down the steps and expects YOU to go get it. This is new behavior he's learned since we became (flood) refugees living at Grandma's house while our home is being rebuilt. With my office being downstairs (until I relocate into my new space sometime this month) I am usually the one Jack makes fetch the ball... 11/06/2011

HURTING CONTRACTORS NEED TO HEAD TO MINOT ND It's been a while since I sent out a plea for contractors to come to Minot if they want business. Business that they can charge full price for, rebuild their companies and retain their good workers. Minot and Western North Dakota is, and will remain, America's major boom area for a minimum of 5 years and more likely for 20 years. In the last week it has been re-affirmed that Western North Dakota is sitting on more recoverable oil then Saudi Arabia. WAY more! For several years now I've been posting about our major shortage of workers. ANY entry level job, even McDonnald's, is now starting it's people out at more then $10.00 per hour with benefits. Truck drivers are getting $100,000.00 a year or more. Carpenters, electricians and plumbers are g... 10/29/2011

CLEANED and SANITIZED....Really? Buyer BEWARE! If you are buying a home that has been in a flood situation or if you are a Realtor working with homes that have been in a flood situation you really need to understand what to expect when you hear the words "Cleaned and Sanitized". As an Active Realtor in an area that has suffered from wide spread flooding I am very concerned about what is being sold as "Cleaned and Sanitized".  The following pictures are from my own home that stood in 6' of water for more then a month due to the flooding. These pictures are AFTER $3,000.00 of cleaning and sanitizing by a very reputable company that spent 3 days (144 man hours) in my home. The scary thing to me is that after the cleaning and sanitizing I could easily have said "good enough" and started she... 10/24/2011

31 Days Of Positivity! Celebrate Your Heritage! 31 Days Of Positivity! Celebrate Your Heritage (or somebody elses) Let's start October out with a MASSIVE dose of positivity! #1) VOLUNTEER! I love going to the Norsk Hostfest every year. Admittance is a bit spendy but it's free for volunteers. Volunteer shifts are only 4 hours and you can stay all day. It's a week long party celebration and many people volunteer every day. Volunteering to do something good helps make me feel more positive. #2) GET OUT AND MINGLE! I don't remember the numbers but I believe this event brings in 100,000 people or more. Gotta mingle in a crowd that big. #3) PARTY! That's what it is... one big party. #4) CELEBRATE YOUR HERITAGE! I'm German but some where in there I must have a drop of Scandinavian blood. Just ... 10/01/2011

Our Uninvited Guest Pink, our uninvited guest. Yesterday my daughter Tina discovered this little girl hiding in our lilac bushes. We went door to door around our block and also asked the mail carrier if they could identify her and lead us to her owner. I also called the Police Department and the Newspaper but again no luck. She is a great puppy, a little shy of men as if she has had a bad encounter, but she is as sweet as can be. We would love to keep her but we already have a dog and we are selves are still guests in this house while our flood stricken home is in repair. If you own this pup or know who does we would love to re-unite you/them. Pink is well groomed, well behaved, and seems to be potty trained (no accidents in 24 hours). I would imagine that someone out there is missing ... 09/20/2011

I've Got Windows.... and Walls Too!!! Most people don't go around bragging that their house has walls and windows but I'm going to. Every step of rebuilding after a disaster seems so painfully slow. Even the smallest step forward seems like a huge victory. The replacing of damaged wall boards, the starting of the wrap around the house, and most of all the addition of windows (all happened yesterday) feels like the first victory in conquering the monster that destroyed our home last June. There have been many steps in getting to this point. Watching the flood waters recede, removing most everything we owned from the flood ravaged house and placing it on the curb and then removing much of the structure of the home and also placing it out on the curb to be taken to the landfill. Then ther... 09/14/2011

Not All Celebs Are "All Talk & No Action" Often when celebrities open their mouths off stage they prove "even a monkey could do this job". This often holds true when they campaign their "special cause" like saving the planet earth by purchasing a CFL bulb for their 4 million dollar tour bus. I'm proud to report that Minot native Josh Duhamel has proven that he is a man of action not only in The Transformers but in real life as well. Mr Duhamel has always remained active in the Minot community and is an active entrepreneur owning the finest restaurant in town. With one forth of his home town of Minot being destroyed by our recent man made flood Mr Duhamel decided it was time to spring into real life action. Josh asked his wife, Stacy Ferguson, if she would co-host a fund raiser for the ... 09/07/2011

Get To Know Your Minot Public School Board Members I think it's wise to know who your local School Board Members are, after all, they have a lot of say in YOU child's education. When I read the paper I am often surprised at what some school boards around the nation feel is "right" for a child's education. I am thankful that The Minot School Board for the most part has not embraced some of the crack pot things I read about in the paper. I am glad that the only things that upset me with The Minot School Board is their refusal to take bids on items that could save tax payers a substancial amount of money and also it bugs me that they allow the technical department BS them into believing that Apple/McIntosh will prepare our kids for the world after academia. The Minot School Board is: Nanc... 09/03/2011

School Supply List for Sunnyside Elementry in Minot ND Hopefully you did NOT miss orientation day yesterday at Sunnyside School but if you did and if you missed the supply lists posted at Kmart and Walmart here it is. Please pardon the highlighted items as those were what we needed personally for our own Sunnyside student, Timmothy. The flood that destroyed the river vally of Minot was particularly hard on several elementary schools. School has been post-poned a week and is scheduled to start on Tuesday September 6th. Many think that another postponement is inevitable. Some schools were totally destroyed and are meeting in temporary classrooms. Word has it that some have no desks, chairs, teaching materials and so on. It's going to be interesting. I can only encourage you to keep checki... 09/02/2011

What I learned In School Today by Bobby T This post was inspired by Myrl Jeffcoat who commented on my last post, asking how Broker School is going. Today was a definite school day for me. While I only spent 2 hours in the classroom today (virtual classroom) I also spent an hour with my representative from Home Warranty, whom I strongly recommend, and I spent some time at my 9 year old sons school for his orientation and then at my 11 year old daughters school for her orientation. ND requires 60 hours of class prior to being able take the Brokers exam and yet there is no place in ND or anywhere else that I am aware of to get those 60 hours in other the on-line. This is really so much fun trying to learn to study again after nearly half a decade.. trying to put ones life back together ag... 09/01/2011

Free Music, A Nice Little Bonus! I love those little individual serving pecan pies. I picked up a four pack the other day at a bread thrift store. This was on the box. I liked the music well enough that I want to share it with you. The pies were pretty good to but they are gone now so sorry I can't share those with you. I'm not sure what the association is between pecan pies and CW truck driven music is but it works for me. We have two excellent bakery thrift stores in Minot ND. If you live here and you are unfamilular with them they are close together with one just off the SW corner of the Kmart parking lot and the other just SW of the Broadway and 20th Ave MarketPlace Foods. Bonappitite! 08/25/2011

This Flooded House - Rebuilding Help Aug 1 2011 7:09PMKXMCTV Minot Thousands of people across north-central North Dakota are facing a bleak financial future because of the Mouse River Flood of 2011.Jim Olson has information about how other disaster have been dealt with - and how others in this flood are being treated in today's edition of "This Flooded House".Many victims of the 2011 Mouse River Flood are having to recover largely on their ownFor people who suffered losses in excess of the $30,200 maximum payout from FEMA, the finances are daunting(Florence Anderson, Minot Resident) "$30,000 won't do it." (What kind of damage did you have?) "Way over the max. I came from Hawaii, sold my house there and put everything I had in here and I don't know how I'm going to do it." Many people a... 08/02/2011

GOSH, I Hope This Headline WRONG! Please note the sign to the right of the Movie marquee. The river crested a few days ago and has dropped about 2 feet at this point. This is the first time I've seen my office since the mandatory evacuation. That evacuation will most likely be in place another month yet me my area of town. I may be able to return to the office in about two weeks. I hope my color copier enjoyed the bath. Now a post I did NOT get up from Monday. This 4th of July my family and I are celebrating our day at "The Festival Of the Parks". While the two large parks in Minot are still under a lot of water a much smaller but very beautiful park is working out fine. The theme for the event is "Forget The Flood!". Everything is free. Free T-shirts, free foods, and free entertainmen... 07/06/2011

First of all I want to say thanks to everone on here that is supporting Bob through this massive disaster so he and his family can get through this matter. I too, am in the same boat as Bob here when he talks about the flood here, although Bob has suffered more loss/damage than I have. When I spoke with him last he had said that his whole basement was flooded and the main floor has approximately 6 feet or so there. My place didnt get it that bad, me and my fiance lived in a basement apartment of house that we rented and we have 4 1/2 half feet of water that has overtakened and forced us out our home too. I was able to get some photos via the web that are not copyrighted of some different areas of flooding and things associated with the flood in Minot.   The photo left is one of the dams... 07/01/2011

A FLOOD OF BUSINESS DURING THE FLOOD BUSINESS I have been so fortunate to be handling a flood of business during this flood business that it just seems funny to have such a blessing at the same time that I am facing the ominous presence of a situation that could wipe out a third of Minots' homes, including mine, and about a third of it's businesses, again including mine. The scene below is a block from my house. The water is usually about 50' from these homes and about 30 ' lower then the homes (these homes have full, finished, wood basements).   There has been a lot of activity here in Minot with The Air Force Base expansion, the super shortage of housing brought on by the oil booms' demand for rental properties, and now of course we have hundreds of National Guardsmen here building an... 06/19/2011

CUCKOO COUNCILMAN! After my last post, Bob vs the Sewer #3, I received some interesting emails as well as phone calls from Minot locals who had some pretty interesting stories. The most interesting one I found went like this (to my best recollection): An influential fellow and his influential wife living in NW Minot were having a seepage problem in their basement. Approximately a block away from this couple is a tiny little lake with some very nice homes built around it. The little lake is GREAT for the property values of the nice homes around it. None of these homes have a seepage problem and I believe they all have basements. Mr. and Mrs. Influential complained to their friend, a councilman about the seepage and suggested it may be coming from the lake (never mind that the homes right... 06/13/2011

Bob vs The Sewer, Round 3 Bob vs The Sewer, Round 3. Bob won this round but not without a few wounds and the war is far from over. First thing this morning (6AM) there is a smell all to familiar to me, City sewage backed up into our basement... again. Call 911, get the usual wine, "What do you want us to do about it?" Get the family up and enlisted in the battle. Things are bad, my 11 year old daughters floor is wet and other places have up to an inch in the basement. We are struggling to catch up, one pump and two wet vacs... losing ground. Call 911 again. "I called the man on duty after your first call, he will be there as soon as he gets dressed". Still trying to match the flows input with our output.  Man from water/sewer pulls up with pump to sanitary sewer manhole cover, starts pu... 06/09/2011

VBS (Vacation Bible School) in Minot North Dakota Are your kids "BORED" already now that school is out? Getting on your nerves? Don't forget about Vacation Bible School! It's free, every church has it, you don't need to belong to the church, and kids LOVE it! While our kids only go to the one held at our church many kids will go to as many as a dozen different Vacation Bible Schools in a summer. Here are some pictures from this years VBS at Our Savior's LC-MS that is now in progress. The theme this year is Gold Rush. Our very talented Assistant Pastors wife whipped up all these cardboard creations in less then a week before VBS.     06/06/2011

BOBBY T. (RealMan) IS BACK! Bobby T is back in his home and is so grateful to be back. After the worst Mouse River flooding since the 1500's (how the heck do they know that???) the powers that be of Minot have allowed about 5,000 of the 10,000 mandatory evacuees to move back into their homes and businesses. This flood and the threat of major destruction has certainly given me plenty of material to blog about. From the feeling of dread when the Mayor came on the news, as somber as I have ever seen any man, telling us that the destruction of a third of our City was certain, to his jubilant announcement that somehow we dodged the bullet and some of us may return to our homes. Most important to me is that I thank those that came to my personal rescue. Pastor Dan and his entire family stoppe... 06/05/2011

What Zone Am I In and Does It Really Matter? What Zone Am I In and Does It Really Matter? Yes! it matters. As a potential Home Owner or a builder of any kind it is important to know what zone you are in. As a Home Buyer it's nice to know if the serene little street you looking at could soon be a busy thoroughfarethat might be a danger to your children. It's something you need to check if you are thinking about renting out that old apartment in the basement. You may even find that you may not be able to put up a privacy fence on your own property if zoning prohibits it. I am often surprised when working with developers that they have not a clue what the zoning codes mean. So how do you find out? The best way NOT to find out is just go ahead and do your thing and see if the City tells you... 05/25/2011