sands-surveying

Been a While

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 19:09:38 GMT

It's been a while, but we're still here!

It's been a while since we have taken the time to make a blog post, but we're still here and going strong. Since the last time we have been through another annual MARLS Conference, lost employees, struggled but ultimately succeeded in replacing some of those employees, and are hopefully ready to tackle the rest of this year. The photo above shows half of the work folders we have in front of us for jobs we have not yet started, there is another one just like this on the other side of the office. We have at least that many jobs that are currently in process. The work is there, the people are coming, and we are happy and excited to continue to get to serve the surveying needs of Flathead and the surrounding counties. Thanks to all of you for continuing to pick up the phone and trust us with your property needs.

Stocked Up

josh@sandssurveying.com (Josh Nelson) — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 17:01:26 GMT

Got Wood?

Took a trip to Doering Trusses in Dillon over the weekend to get restocked on lath and hubs. Should have everything we need to stake houses, set pins, and mark lines for the rest of the year. Give us a call if you'd like us to sprinkle some of these around your property!

2025 MARLS Conference

josh@sandssurveying.com (Josh Nelson) — Sat, 19 Apr 2025 17:26:10 GMT

Getting my gavel

In the photo above Jonathan Ries is becoming the Past President and handing over to me the gavel and the Presidency. At this conference I was also voted in to be the President for the next term as well. I believe it is the first two term Presidency in about 30 years. It was quite an honor to be allowed to be the President of the group once, and twice is certainly another level. We are in the midst of a pretty big organizational shift right now and hopefully with two years with the same leadership we will be able to make headway in the many areas that we just need to update or do a little better at. Thank you to everyone for giving me the opportunity, I hope that it is thought of as a success in the end.

2025 MARLS Conference

josh@sandssurveying.com (Josh Nelson) — Sat, 19 Apr 2025 17:10:17 GMT

Small business round table

One of the conference classes was a small business forum, which I was asked to be part of. The session went well and we were able to showcase that there are a lot of ways you can go about owning and operating a surveying business and still come up with a really good product in the end. Starting at the left is Matt Morris of Morris Land Surveys in Choteau, Joe Kauffman of Big Sky Surveying in Sidney, Josh Nelson of Sands Surveying in Kalispell (me!), and Troy Jensen of Benchmark Land Surveying in Sidney. This is a good group of guys who are also really good Land Surveyors.

2025 MARLS Conference

josh@sandssurveying.com (Josh Nelson) — Sat, 19 Apr 2025 16:55:13 GMT

Drinking and Axe Throwing

It has been a really long time since I have posted anything, but life and business have certainly kept moving forward. The picture above is from our MARLS PAC fundraiser that was an offshoot event at our Annual Conference in Billings this February. The conference can definitely get to be a little stressful, especially for those of us in leadership positions within the organization. This event was a great way to hang out with other Surveyors and blow off a little steam. I also want to give a big shout out to all the employees of Ox Indoor Axe Throwing who helped teach us how to throw and then set up and ran a tournament for us to finish out the night. After losing our first match my team came all the way back and lost in the final in agonizing fashion. Aside from that the night was awesome.

Merry Christmas and Stuff

josh@sandssurveying.com (Josh Nelson) — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:38:43 GMT

Not really my thing, but...

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not a big fan of holidays. Forced celebration and interactions with people are not really my glass of bourbon, and for the most part I believe that "Holiday Tradition" is simply just carrying around the weight of dead people's baggage. That being said I fully understand that I am the outlier on this subject. Our employees certainly enjoy the time off between Christmas and New Years Day and everything that comes with that. It is a great chance for everyone to recharge the batteries a bit because the "winter slow down" that everyone used to experience seems to be a thing of the past. What I do think the Holiday season is good for is providing a time to look back on the year and acknowledge the people that were a part of it. The photo above shows our Christmas Card door at Sands Surveying. Thank you to all of the businesses on that door for providing services, or allowing us to provide you services, throughout the year. Thank you to everyone we work with in the consultant realm for everything you do and for being part of the awesome teams that we get to work with constantly. Most of all, thank you to all of the clients who continually give us the opportunity to help them deal with and guide them through all sorts of processes on their property. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, and I hope 2025 brings continued success to the Flathead Valley.

After the FVCC Night of Trades

josh@sandssurveying.com (Josh Nelson) — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 17:58:46 GMT

The warm body

Last Thursday, October 3rd I was invited to be one of the businesses that represented their individual industry at the FVCC Night of Trades Event. I was able to speak to a number of people about the profession and the needs of companies for students to attend these trades programs to increase our local workforce. While I am certain I am not the most qualified person to represent the industry, it was a great night. Jason Smith with RPA, along with Abbie Steffan who is the Surveying Program Director at FVCC, led the classroom sessions and should definitely be recognized for their efforts.

FVCC Night of Trades

josh@sandssurveying.com (Josh Nelson) — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 20:32:47 GMT

fvcc night of trades

The above is an event that FVCC will be holding on Thursday, October 3rd. I really believe that the trades programs are undervalued and underutilized. Please take a minute to look this up and see what is being offered. After a two year hiatus we are back to having the surveying program in house at FVCC and we like to take every opportunity to talk about it. Please come see us on October 3rd if you have a student who might be interested in, or would just like to know more about, any of the trades programs that the college offers. Yours truly will be there in the hallway to answer any questions you might have about Land Surveying or the FVCC Program and other Land Surveyors will be running the one hour class sessions. If trades are of interest to your student I really hope to see you there!

Surveyor Groupies

josh@sandssurveying.com (Josh Nelson) — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 22:46:03 GMT

We are the g.o.a.t.'s of surveying

While surveying on a property a couple of weeks ago, one of our field crews developed quite a fan base. These goats followed them all around and were big enough fans to jump inside the vehicle and have lunch with the crew. In the picture above you can see the goat (right) and our G.O.A.T. Crew Chief (left) posing for a photo.

Public Service Announcement

josh@sandssurveying.com (Josh Nelson) — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 23:36:57 GMT

Driving in the Fast Lane

Nothing makes me feel more like the photo above then driving down the road to Whitefish or Columbia Falls and having some dork driving 60 mph in the fast lane right next to another vehicle who is in the correct lane making it impossible to pass for the entirety of the drive. To all the locals, lamenting about the influx of tourists and out-of-state transplants will not get us out of this one as you also suck at driving, and the problem has existed for far longer than those folks have been around. For the love of all that is good, stay the hell out of the left lane so I can drive at the speed I desire. Remember, if you are getting passed on the right, you're doing it wrong.

Boys of Summer

josh@sandssurveying.com (Josh Nelson) — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 23:37:40 GMT

Love me some range riders

This doesn't have anything to do with surveying, other than Sands Surveying has 4 season tickets to the Range Riders. The guy on the Cliff's left (photo right) in this photo is Daryl Shilling. Daryl is a client, but more importantly he is a good friend and him and his wife Tracy (who unfortunately was only able to get half a head into this picture) are my Wife Jaimie and my baseball buddies. Our seats are right next to each other and if there is a home game there is a darn good chance you'll find us all there taking it in. Come out and see us sometime in the section behind home plate. GO RIDERS!!

New Letters

josh@sandssurveying.com (Josh Nelson) — Fri, 31 May 2024 02:40:17 GMT

New Letters at sands surveying

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Boss on Site

josh@sandssurveying.com (Josh Nelson) — Thu, 16 May 2024 16:51:25 GMT

Laying down on the job

The best part about yesterday's job was that I actually got to get out of the office and go into the field. I only get to go outside when a job needs to be done without technology as I'm not smart enough to use the equipment anymore, but I can run the hell out of a clinometer. In this picture I am holding the clino to my eye to establish a rough grade for a P-Line and not drinking a beer as someone has already suggested. Anyone who knows me knows I only drink whiskey.

Spring Surveying in Montana

josh@sandssurveying.com (Josh Nelson) — Thu, 16 May 2024 16:25:25 GMT

This is the good stuff

The boys were out on top of a mountain yesterday surveying away from people with views overlooking the valley floor. Springtime in Montana provides some of the coolest surveying opportunities, and views, that we get to experience. Pretty amazing place we get to call home.

Trap League 2024

josh@sandssurveying.com (Josh Nelson) — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 10:39:20 GMT

Winter B League Champions!

The Sands Surveying Sandbaggers took 1st Place in B League of this years Flathead Valley Trap Club Winter League. From left to right: Roger Noble, Daryl Shilling, Josh Nelson, Dan Brien, Brad Bennett, not pictured is Eric Mulcahy. Thanks for being on the team boys and I look forward to defending that title next year!

Back in the Day

josh@sandssurveying.com (Josh Nelson) — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 08:31:51 GMT

Kids 1st day as a rodman

Way back when my Wife was a photographer. There was always a camera around whenever anything was going on. Every once in a while when she's going back through old computer files she'll pull out a gem. This was probably 2005 or 2006. I think we were building a backyard fence at our first house and I thought I might be training a future surveyor. I did get him to come work for me for a stint or two about 12 years after this photo, but like happens with a lot of kids, working with Dad only taught him exactly what he didn't want to do with his life!

Conference Time

josh@sandssurveying.com (Josh Nelson) — Sat, 23 Mar 2024 23:48:11 GMT

This is a subtitle for your new post

This week was our annual Montana Association of Registered Land Surveyors conference. This year it was held in Butte America. The photo above is of all the individuals who were voted in to be board members for the organization. The three good looking guys on the right side the picture are all Flathead Valley surveyors who were voted onto the board. From right to left we have yours truly, Josh Nelson -MARLS President Elect, Josh Lenderman of River Design Group who was voted the MARLS Northwest Chapter President, and Stew Willis of SJW Land Surveying who is one of two MARLS West-Fed Delegates. Way to step up and represent boys!

Here we go!

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 16:11:40 GMT

We Have a website with information from this decade!

I have been the majority owner of Sands Surveying for almost five years. About three years ago I found out that we had a website. Once I looked at it I realized we needed to make some updates as I believe that site was published in the mid 2000's with very few changes or updates after it was created. It took three more years to get annoyed enough to do something about it, but here we are. A big thank you to my buddy Chad Huff for helping us through the process and a big thank you as well to my Wife, Jaimie Nelson, for her help as well. There are certainly tweaks and improvements to be made, but we're excited to be live and updated.