Snow

Snow can really be a pain in the backside especially on a farm when it makes feeding and watering livestock more difficult. One such occasion stands out in my mind and I figured it would be mildly amusing to share. Here goes:

A few years ago we had ourselves a good old fashioned blizzard. We're talking a few feet of snow. It was almost up to the horses' chest. The weather had stayed cold for weeks and none of it melted. This made feeding hay with the tractor quite difficult you see.

We use big roundbales to feed our herd and that required firing up the old Oliver and driving to the other side of the 40 where Alan kept our supply of bales. Sure it was a great idea when it came time to feed in the back pasture, but not so handy when you had to drive the tractor from the barnyard ALL the way down there in 3' of snow or more.

It was my first MN blizzard and frankly I didn't think it would be a big deal. Tractors can get through anything, right? Wrong. Our old Olivers do not have front-wheel assist (4 wheel drive for tractors) and the front end had basically no steering. That's ok because you can steer with your brakes (tractors have left & right brakes) except for the fact that going forwards was near impossible.

After a few cuss words Alan managed to get the tractor down the cowlane which was roughly half way there when he got good and stuck. So then his dad fires up another tractor and goes down to help. After he hooks on there is much smoke coming from the tractors' exhaust and more yelling. It was about then when I heard Alan's tractor go: Puhpuhpuhpuhhhh.....   Out of gas. That was followed by a few more cuss words which I could clearly hear half a 40 away.

I decided to try and help so I saddled up Trigger our trusty Appaloosa gelding and headed down there. I also thought to tie an old 2x4 plank to the saddle horn to use as a shim for the tractor tire in hope of getting it unstuck. The next matter was getting there. The chest-deep snow was panked down in the tractor track so I rode him in that. It was quite narrow but he handled it like a pro toting the board behind like a trooper.

Al was glad I came down and though the board was of little use, he hopped on Trigger and rode back to pick up a spare can of gas. Horses, the original ATV.