Recently, I’ve been trying to find some essential home furniture by using the Ikea design inspiration website.  Seems like a worthwhile tool that offers some really nice design ideas on a budget.  I also like the idea of basing some of my thoughts on a rather cheap furniture store as opposed to somewhere that I am going to pay $8,000 for a piece.  I am not sure if everyone likes the type of style that Ikea offers, but for me it offers a good base to start my furniture shopping.  It is especially good for children’s bedrooms.

I’m not following the directions exactly, but I am going to try a rain garden this year.

As far as I can tell, a rain garden is a low spot that collects rainwater and runoff water.  The area contains plants that use the water.

Read more about the concept here.

This AP article published by Minot Daily News states that North Dakotans have been spending money for things like motels, restaurant dining and other fun things…an indication that the economy here so far is doing relatively well.

State taxable sales are up 21 percent.

North Dakota, which has struggled with a declining population, has seen a turn-around.

According to this article, North Dakota has had a 3.6 percent increase in births.  It appears that several new young families have been drawn to the state by the oil boom.

Swine Flu, or the H1N1 virus reached North Dakota around Mother’s Day, according to this KX News article.  So far there have been four confirmed cases in the state. 

The North Dakota Department of Health has posted this page showing swine flu statistics and a map of where the cases have occured.

I knew that North Dakota was the first state in the nation to oust a governor, but I didn’t know that it was tried a second time.  Here is a very interesting bit of North Dakota history from 1934, from Time magazine.

Okay.  Maybe THIS is the place to go for North Dakota fun facts.

I’m sure the tourism department gets hard data for the facts it posts.  Who knew that the parking meter was invented in North Dakota?  Or that we apparently could be behind 216 billion crayons?

This is the site to go if you want to learn some interesting new facts about North Dakota.  I stumbled upon this by accident and really enjoyed some of the fun new trivia I read.

This is such an odd, happy place to live!

Property taxes are an issue in North Dakota.   Bismarck Tribune reporter Brian Duggan takes a look at them in his two-part series. 

From the article:

When lawmakers converged in Bismarck this winter to tinker with tax codes and tax relief, they knew something was going to be different this session — namely the state’s $1.2 billion in its reserves, despite a sour national economy.

Things have changed since then as an estimated $650 million in federal stimulus money starts flowing into the state while the costs of record flooding in North Dakota are bound to capture the attention of lawmakers during the fleeting weeks of the 2009 Legislature.

While the 80-day legislative deadline nears, a picture of what kind of tax relief North Dakotans can expect is becoming clearer, including a $295 million property tax relief package and another $114 million income tax cut that are both in committees. 

“All of it’s a moving target right now,” said Rep. Ken Svedjan, R-Grand Forks, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, currently handling this session’s property tax relief package.

Read the complete first installment here.

Apparently the bottle rocket ban in North Dakota is getting a lot of attention (read here).  If it was just our state passing the ban, I would agree with the editorial as well, but I think North Dakota isn’t the only state that has passed this kind of legislation.  If all states pass something similar, it will be very hard to buy small bottle rockets.