Blizzard Aftermath

I don't know if I should title this 'Blizzard Aftermath' or 'Mayday'.

The power went out.
The phone went out.
The heifers went out.
The steers went out.

The blizzard let up around 2:00 PM Saturday. At times visibility was below a hundred yards (probably closer to a hundred feet). Saturday around noon we lost power. It is still out. We hooked the big generator up so now we have some electricity. We called the electric company and they said that they are hoping to get our power up tomorrow afternoon. I heard on the radio Williston is still without power. There is an estimated 20,000 without power in North Dakota and Montana as of this morning.
After hooking the generator up to open the hangar door, Dad and I flew Sunday morning, the first of May, to discover the carnage. Just about everyone had cows and calves on someone else's land because the wind blew them into the fences (When I say blew, I mean they were trying to get away from the wind and eventually went through a fence, not that the wind picked them off their feet and sent them flying). Just about everyone lost some calves. The snow drifted up in the corner one of our pastures allowing the heifers to walk right over the fence so we had to get them in. The steers bunched up against a gate and broke the gate-stick; therefore, they got out. All and all, it could have been worse. Especially if it had lasted more than 12 hours. It still did a lot of damage in the time it had though.

You know it is windy when...


Icicles are at a forty-five degree angle.


These were taken Saturday evening. You can see the ice still stuck to the deck.



As I mentioned, the heifers got out. The wind blew them about two and a half miles. Luckily they wandered through an open gate into a small pasture. So on Sunday morning we loaded three horses in the trailer and took them to where the heifers were. Mom drove in front of them with the trailer. Here is a picture of the road-grader plowing snow.


Here is a picture of Dad bringing some heifers back.


Jessi, DJ, and Dad.


Taking them up the road.


They wanted to race Mom instead of letting her pass.


Yeah, that wasn't supposed to happen. They went through a open gate instead of straight down the road.


Mom and Dad went down to the river with the four wheelers and got the steers in. Most of them had already gone back though because they wanted to get back to the hayfield.

As you can see, there are still several drifts. They weren't here before the blizzard.


Dad, DJ, and Jessi.


The yard is green though.



Even the pasture is green.


But there are still some pretty bad drifts. Some are easily 8 to 10 feet deep.


DJ