I was reminded again last night how fast weather can change. We are so THANKFUL to have made it home safely. My husband, being both a farmer & a pilot is constantly & obsessively checking the weather. No evidence of bad weather had appeared when we headed out earlier in the day. The drive home was good until we were 12 miles from home. Snow started & soon it was fast & heavy with forceful strong winds that could easily hypnotize a person. Before we knew it, the road was gone. We were down to 10 mph & soon after, 5 mph was our top speed. It was a stark reminder of past blizzards we had heard about. This was the worst I had ever been in. There was zero visibility. The temperature was dropping rapidly & winds were increasing with no signs of improvement. Mick was able to see a ridge of snow the road grader had left in the road out his side window. Even with the snow ridge it was difficult to verify we were on the road. The snow was coming so fast with high winds that created mini tornadoes & smoke-like effects coming off the road. We had to stop briefly a few times, hoping for better visibility. We thought we were on top of a hill near our house, when in fact we weren’t even to it yet. It took us nearly 2 hours to travel the last 10 miles home. We are so grateful we made it home safely. We had a full tank of gas, lots of blankets & warm clothing. We also had a cooler full of food from the grocery store if worst came to worst. I wanted to share this because it reminded me of a book my dad had me on a mission to find years ago. ‘Looking For Candles In The Window’ by Douglas Ramsey & Larry Skroch. It is about a horrible blizzard on Saturday, March 15, 1941. The blizzard came down from Alaska, affected Canada, North Dakota & Minnesota. 71 lives were lost during the blizzard. Many of you across the region will recognize family names in the book. Two children from Hannah, North Dakota died during the blizzard. They were headed home; 2-1/2 miles north of the country school after a 4-H meeting, but were found 1/2 mile south-east of it. I have recently discovered this occurred within a couple miles north-west of our farm. Many people were out shopping, attending basketball games & St. Patrick’s Day parties. Many were found within yards of safety, but their bodies gave way & they had become disoriented from the wind & snow. In Crookston, MN a large window with 12 panes of glass was torn from the Crookston Fibre Manufacturing building, carried 50 feet and set down in frozen ground without breaking a single pane of glass. Deaths occurred to the southeast tip of Minnesota. The book is available here: 
amzn.to/2169XZo They have also written about the blizzard of 1966 available here: amzn.to/1ScTxhEthey are working on a book for the 96-97 blizzards also.
Tag: Snow
Catch The Moment Week #18
We spent the week preparing equipment for the field, running to appointments and hauling what was left of our wheat. Here are my pics for the week.
Our beautiful sunset just a few miles south of our yard.
What a gloomy day, everything is still very brown.
I made a cake for a neighbor’s church fundraiser.
May 3rd and we had snow!
I brought Sadie to one of my favorite parks.
May 5th was also a snow day!
Our sunset.
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Catch The Moment #13
The days have flown by for me as usual. I even thought I missed getting pictures a few days. But between my camera and phone I had each day covered. I even included extras this week. I cannot even believe March is over! I thought I was going to get so much more done. Now I find myself picking 1 or 2 projects I want to complete before we head south. It will be here before we know it! Here are my pics for the week…
During lent, we have Wednesday church with potluck. I walked outside to get my food just as the sun was setting.
Oh Brett. I left the room for a minute and he fell asleep eating his pizza.
Friday we had lunch at the Dairy Queen in Lakota on the way to Grand Forks.
Saturday was a Bountiful Basket Food Co-op day. I love basket days! It’s a co-op we can order from every other week with pickup in Devils Lake. It’s all volunteer and direct from farmers.
On Sunday, church was cancelled. Unfortunately, it was due to our pastor being hospitalized for illness. He should be out later this week.
The guys took a dip in the hot tub before breakfast. I joined them for a bit too. It was a great start to the day!
This was one of my projects this week. I removed the closet rod, cut some boards, screwed them to the studs, painted and installed hooks. It is so much better! Even my littlest guy can hang up his coat now! The closet was also a test plot for painting our original linoleum – circa early 80’s. I hope to paint the bathroom, laundry and kitchen floor sometime this month. We’ve been wanting to add-on but it hasn’t happened yet. I can’t stand the thought of living with our floor for another year, so this is my solution. I can’t wait to have it all complete!
Brett and Sadie making the slow trek to the shop across the slippery rough ice in our yard. The poor dogs have been wiping out all week on it.
I have some extras for this week, with things starting to get crazy busy around here I’m not sure if I’ll be able to keep up with this regularly.
Tuesday we met Mick just as he was coming down the hill headed for home. He was hauling wheat to the ND Mill in Grand Forks. It’s 140 mile drive and usually means sitting in line all day. Currently he has only been able to haul about once a week. He takes a load whenever they will let him. The ND Mill is the only place around taking wheat and only on certain days for farmers. The other days are for area elevators to haul. There is a huge train shortage in North Dakota affecting grain transportation. It is due to train delays and the oil boom in western North Dakota.
We went flying for a little bit on Tuesday afternoon. This is downtown Hannah, ND. I was standing in front of the sea-green building in the center when I took my first picture above.
This is our yard from the mailbox during the snow melt.
This was taken through our pickup windshield on Friday. For about 20 minutes the sun had a full circle around it. It’s called a 22° halo and from what I’ve been reading is the same concept as sun-dogs.
I drove Max to school one day so he could sleep in. The sun was rising in my mirror on our way.
Do Something Amazing Today!
Erica
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