Just When I Thought Winter Was Over

NOPE! Just kidding! We had a blizzard warning on Friday night and Saturday, and let me tell you, it most definitely blizzarded (yes, that is a word. MY word). Friday I got home, went and got the mail (which requires a 24 mile round-trip visit into town). I pulled into the farm yard and see my FIL and g-pa waving at me. So I drive the truck over to the gate into the pasture where the cows are. They say, "We have to get the cows inside before the storm!" So, they hop in and we drive up to the top of the pasture where I see my MIL driving another truck. She hops out and is soaked from head to toe from the rain. And out of breath. While the guys were moving cattle in the lots to make room for the others in the pasture, she was busy trying to round up 200 other cows by herself! She would drive the truck, then get out and run from side to side to get them all going the same direction. Then repeat.

We start driving the cows towards the sheds. Since I didn't have time to change out of my work clothes, I was wearing beautiful white tennis shoes. I can tell you that now they are not longer beautiful OR white. They are more of a "poo" color. The cows were being all cranky and non-compliant because they didn't want to be locked in their pen again. So a lot of them ran past us, or started getting all crazy. We finally got them into the pen.

And booooooyyyyyyy were we glad we did! It was one helluva blizzard! Here are some pics:


We were lucky that we got our cows in. These were pictures from the town of Sidney, where I work. It's about 25 miles from our farm. The local newspaper reported that ranchers who left their cows out lost 40-60 calves. That a HUGE hit for them, to the point where our county government may declare a disaster so these ranchers can receive relief funds. That a total loss of up to $60,000. Just from a snow storm. For one rancher.

There are also towns around here that are still without power. This will be the 4th day they have had no power.

It's crazy, this Montana weather. There's a joke all over the state that I've heard many times: "If you don't like the weather in Montana, wait for 5 minutes." And it's totally true. While this storm didn't last only 5 minutes (more like 10 hours), a lot of summer weather is like that. Please keep these farmers/ranchers in your prayers tonight!