LONNNNG WINTER WEEKEND

[Oldtimer]

Snow is still light and mostly coming down horizontally in a 25-35 mph wind--Just a light covering on the ground- altho they are still predicting 3-4 inches today....Wind picked up more as the sun came up...26 degrees...

[Liberty Belle]

23 degrees here and the wind is piling up the 2 to 3 inches of dry, light snow we've got so far with more predicted today. We'd sure take more. Church and everything else going on around here have been canceled.

Yesterday we brought the sheep in and all the cows that hadn't calved yet are near the place so we can check them horseback. The weatherman keeps downgrading the amount of snow we're supposed to get, but we're getting every bit of the wind they predicted!

[Soapweed]

Weather conditions on the northern edge of the Sandhills are: 6-8 inches of new snow, east wind at 20 mph, and the temperature stands at 30 degrees. There has not been too much drifting as of yet. All of our wind protection is geared to northwest winds, so it's hard to plan for southeast winds. The moisture is welcome.

[ranchwife]

they just closed the roads leadingout of ennis to "emergency travel only".....GREAT....my relief is coming in from Helena...could be a long night folks!!

[Shelly]

John (my husband) is coming home from Calgary today. Talked to him last night, and told him the highways are not recommended for traffic the closer he'll be getting to home. He's coming anyways, I think he's missing home.

[Jinglebob]

Well, it's a really nice spring blizzard. Funny how so many blizzards, over the years, have come at this time of the year. We always figured on getting something around the 21 of March. Seems like when we didn't , like last year, we didn't have as good of a year either. Maybe we are back on our regular snow/rainfall amounts and times when they come.

I got everything fed and it really isn't too bad out there, where we live. We have shelter belts planted so we can use any side, so whichever way the wind blows, the livestock have got protection. I'm not supposed to get any calves until later in April, so all in all, I'm enjoying it, right here. We didn't even lose our power for very long last night.

Mrs. Jingles Jr called this moring and they are about 8 miles away, and they didn't hve power this morning. They are on a different line than we are. We could still lose power, but since it's just snow and wind, I don't think we will.

Now if mama could just get home from town, so I had someone to snuggle with, life would be grand!

I do feel for those who are in the middle of calving right now, around here.........






But I just can't quite reach them!



OHHHHH, did I say that out loud?




Naw, I do really feel for them, but most are like us and prepared, so it's not so much, worry of losing calves, as just more work, to keep them alive and going and getting everything fed. Most people in these parts have long memories, and they know we can get bad blizzards, until about the 15 of May. And I don't think too many would be surprized if we got one after that.

[Silver]

It was 30 below here last night, but for a change not blowing and snowing. It's getting a little irritating, but it's not really that much more work. Except you gotta be out there more often. When the water bag shows up they go into the barn, and the calf stays there until it's dry and sucks. We are going to have quite a few short ears this year though, as those nights of -45 with the wind chill have taken their toll.
However, the mercury is shooting up today, -17 already I think, and forecast is for near freezing temps, so it looks like we survived another one.

[Tap]

We might survive this storm , especially if the wind would go down some. It's amusing to me the difference between 2yr. olds calves, and cows calves. The 2's are pretty much out of the wind, and their calves are acting like they are going through the worst blizzard in history. Then we have an early calf on an old cow, that was born 10 days ago or so. He was in the open pretty much, when I fed the cows some hay, but he was just bucking and playing in the snow. Must have to do with the difference in milk quality and quantity.

Liberty Belle, did you get the freezing rain? There is about an inch or two of snow here at most. We were out of power for 3 1/2 hours or so last night. Thank goodness they got it back on. My hat is off to those guys. They do great work.

[Hanta Yo]

Got about 4", snow is still falling, heavy snow warning until 5 am tomorrow. I remember a bad snowstorm in April of 1996, snowed for several days, then came back and smacked us again. Neighbors up north a couple of miles as the crow flies only got a few inches, we got several feet, some calves we didn't find until the snow melted. Night calving (my job at the time) was really bad, couldn't get around in a pickup because the snow was so deep and I'd get stuck. Cows crowded in a pile, would find a newborn calf wandering around outside of the pile, had no idea who it's mother could be, snow blowing horizontally so hard visibility was very poor. THAT was a bad storm, when we finally dug our way out after 2 weeks the neighbors wanted to know where in the heck we came from, since they only had a few inches. Sheesh. Glad we haven't had a bad one since then, and that was the last time we calved in the spring.

[Liberty Belle]

Tap, we did get a little rain last night about 9:00 or so. Not much snow - maybe 3 inches - but that dang wind is awful. Our power stayed on though. We get ours from a sub-station north of here and they didn't get any rain up there that I've heard about, although they do have more snow.