Bozeman Build #10

How many Town and Pumps do we need?

Author

Daniel Zavadil
April 29, 2024

Howdy builders and makers shakers of Montana!

Happy to see you back where we cover blue collar/build topics around Montana, we also zoom out and talk about what’s happening around around the rest of our great Nation.

Today, we are town and pumping out new content around commodities, Hwy 191, water wells, new builds, and more. We greatly appreciate you for being here, please enjoy the next 3-5 minutes of the 10th edition of the Bozeman Build.

Grain bins near Bozeman Trail Rd

Keep the saw sharp,

When, what, and who is the Bozeman Build? The BB is a 1x/week free email newsletter delivered every Monday morning focused on mountain West trades with an emphasis on Montana. The author is Daniel Z who has a background in accounting, commodities, construction, trucking, and has a small business called blockbiome. Daniel is not a financial or building advisor.

Montana commodities

Prices as of Friday Apr/26 WoW is week over week YoY is year over year

Hard

  • Crude Oil $83.72 +.70% Wow + 12% YoY

  • Copper $4.57 +1.70% WoW +18.36% YoY

  • Natural Gas $1.92 -3.45% WoW +11.73 YoY

  • Palladium $959 -7.30% WoW -35.87% YoY

  • Platinum $924 -2.06% WoW -14.20 YoY

Soft

  • Wheat $622.25 +9.79% WoW +1.22% YoY

  • Live Cattle $184.66 +1.79% WoW +11.78% YoY

  • Lumber $512.71 +.93% WoW +9.32% YoY

Big swinging commodities

  • Wheat +9.79% WoW

  • Cocoa cooled -11.23% WoW stepping down from its $12,800/ton record high

  • Indium +19.75% WoW (not really sure what caused the rally)

Local, State, US Wide Trade Pulse

Bozeman trade pulse

Highway 191 study

Morning of April 10th 2024 from 6-11AM we parked along Hwy 191 near Storm Castle to document detailed vehicles and attributes. The report is available for purchase at blockbiome.com/research . If you have interest in a similar project or want an expanded edition of the 191 study, send me an email! For now for the sake of entertainment, here’s two charts:

Vehicle Types of HWY 191

AM traffic flow

Huffine Town & Pump up in a jiffy

Dang this project is wrapping up quick - T&P (not T&C) has their building operations dialed. Breaking ground last May, this Town and Pump will be the eighth store in the Bozeman area, featuring a 6,000-square-foot casino, liquor store,18 fuel pumps, boasting over 32,000 square feet.

May Ballots to determine the dates of a Belgrade State Land annexation

A portion of this space is proposed to be the future site of the City of Belgrade’s School district along with a Central Valley Fire station (im sure some residential development will also be in the mix. If you are a maps nerd, and like to keep a pulse on Belgrade’s rapid development check out the cities interactive maps source for the photo/info being the development map.

Montana State to break ground April 17 on building to house Gianforte School of Computing and related educational programs

Made possible by a $50 million gift - Gianforte Hall will incorporate multiple sustainability features designed to target a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, silver certification. The building will be part of MSU’s South Campus Energy District, a system that helps reduce energy use by allowing buildings to help heat and cool each other. The district includes Norm Asbjornson Hall, Romney Hall and the new Student Wellness Center, now under construction. Additionally, Gianforte Hall will be MSU’s first mass timber structure, a sustainable choice of materials that will help minimize carbon emissions from concrete and steel used elsewhere in construction.

Drilling a residential water well

Offloading drill casings

Adding a new casing

Welding a section of casings together

Threaded button bit

Last week, Excel Pump and Well invited the Bozeman Build to a drill site South of Four Corners to experience the drilling of a residential water well. The drill team includes Tyler (12 years exp), Colton (14 years exp), and Wesley (18 years exp) all super talented, hard working individuals who all gained their experience from the legendary Tom Duffy who passed in 2020 during an aerial firefighting mission. The Excel team continues to carry on his legacy in their work. Excel will tackle projects within a 150 mile radius of Bozeman give them a call at (406) 570-0961. A few watch and learnings include: 

  • Wells must be at least 50+ feet away from septic tanks and at least 100+ feet from a drain field. The MT DEQ enforces this. 

  • Well Casings/Risers are 20ft long 6.625 OD carbon steel casings are welding together using a 6011 1/8 stick (all preference)

  • All modern wells are required to be documented with the MT GWIC

  • The well we bored today (South of Four Corners in the Gallatin River Basin) was appx 47 feet deep sitting 3 feet above a clay layer at 50' below surface. We hit water at appx 16 feet but that did not achieve the same gallons per minute that were experienced at 47' around 50-60gpm

  • The truck mounted drill rig has over 40 grease ports

  • Wells around Belgrade are appx 60-100 ft 

  • The deepest water well Excel has drilled was 880 ft and will go deeper if necessary

MT Groundwater Monitoring Map (this section is near Big Sky Village)

Montana Well Resources: Montana Ground Water Monitor , GWIC , DEQ

Montana trade pulse

Kalispell Montana State University, Logan Health and members of the community came together to celebrate the groundbreaking on a new nursing education building in Kalispell on April 23, 2024. Design by Co Architects contracted by Cushing Terrell KPAX

Montana projects snapshot

A dashboard view of current Montana Architecture & Engineering Division projects in the pipelines. Top three MT facility spends are the University System (471M), Corrections (245M), and Military Affairs (202.8M)

Architecture & Engineering Division - Current Projects arcgis dashboard

Early Szn snow clearing

Photos taken 04/25/24 “Opening up some roads for the Forest Service so they can plant trees near Thompson Falls” - Meadow Creek Contracting LLC

White Pine purchase

Pinedale, WY February 22nd 2024 the Sublette County Wyoming Chamber of Commerce announced that Joe Ricketts will purchase and operate the White Pine Ski Resort starting at the end of the 2024 Ski season which was April 8th. Locals have mixed feelings about the ski area purchase. Cowboy State Daily

Who in the haul?

“Hauling empty is “bad luck” if you are superstitious” - FourOhhSix from reddit

USA wide highlights

Bozeman Builds Construction Dive picks from last week Apr 22nd-26th

Ag, Mining, and Transport

Ag

Mining/Energy

  • FBI says Chinese hackers preparing to attack US infrastructure

    An ongoing Chinese hacking campaign known as Volt Typhoon has successfully gained access to numerous American companies in telecommunications, energy, water and other critical sectors, with 23 pipeline operators targeted, Wray said in a speech at Vanderbilt University.

  • How 14 tribes plan to use the Biden administration’s solar grants

    The Environmental Protection Agency announced $7 billion in “Solar for All” grants yesterday for 60 awardees, including the MHA Nation. The money, which comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, is supposed to bring residential solar systems to some 900,000 “low-income and disadvantaged” households. Six of the grants, totaling $500 million, are going to tribes.

Transport

Historical Build - Our Lady of the Rockies

When Bob O'Bill's wife, Joyce, was diagnosed with cancer in 1979, he promised Our Lady that if his wife recovered, he would build a statue to honor the Blessed Mother on a mountain overlooking Butte, Montana. Sure enough, when Joyce was healed, Bob began work to fulfill his promise.

He foresaw a 7- to 9-foot tall statue that he would position on the East Ridge in the mountains above Butte. His friends argued that a statue that tiny at an altitude of about 8,500 feet wouldn't be visible from the city. So after a lot of discussion, it was decided the statue needed to be about 90-feet tall.

Lee built the statue in six sections that would be joined together on the East Ridge. On Dec. 17, 1985, with the help of the Nevada Air National Guard in Reno, Nevada, a CH-54 Sikorsky Sky Crane helicopter airlifted the statue's base to its concrete foundation on the East Ridge. Over the next couple of days, the remaining five sections of Our Lady of the Rockies were lifted into place. Then, on the afternoon of Dec. 20, 1985, the statue's final section, Mary's head and neck, adorned with an American flag and a Christmas tree, was lifted into place. In Butte, 3,500 feet below the East Ridge, its people watched the huge helicopter put the last piece of the statue in place. The city erupted in cheers. Car horns sounded, sirens wailed, church bells rang out, and people hugged one another. The statue that had brought the financially strained town together was at last a reality. - Marian.org

Quote and Song of the week

There Aint no Good Chain Gang - written by Hal Bynum and Dave Kirby and recorded by Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings

"If ya can't get it, ya can't stay." - If you aren't able to do the job, you're fired

"I smell what you're stepping in." - I understand what you mean

Oilfield quotes

Thanks for reading,

Daniel - NaFBA - Not a Financial or Building Advisor

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