Diggin' It

So it snowed again. As usual, we got a little more of the white stuff than pretty much anybody, with the possible exception of the top of the mountains. 

That's one of my house cows as seen out my front door on Friday morning. She and two others plus their calves showed up as the storm started Wednesday night and spent the duration hunkered in the trees in my front yard. Those three were the only ones we were able to feed on Thursday. We couldn't even get hay up to the expectant mothers in the indoor arena, because of near zero visibility and drifts like these:

Friday morning it was time to dig out. First, we had to get the cows out of the arena, which meant getting the fifteen foot tall front doors open. Greg dug out the biggest part of the drift with the tractor, then I had to clear out the rest with a shovel. To add to the fun, the storm started with rain, making huge sheets and chunks of ice on the wall, the doors, and the track the door runs on. As I tried to push it open, the ice broke loose and pelted me on the head and arms. Meanwhile, forty cows were piled up just inside the door, waiting for me to get it open far enough to trample me on the way out. 


Then it was on to the bulls. All of the yearlings were trapped in the upper lot by a huge snowdrift. The only way to get them out was to shovel a trail, which ended up looking more like a tunnel. For reference, that fence you can see behind the drift is five feet tall. 

Whew. Done. Well, except for the horses. They were in that barn in the top picture. The geldings were no problem, just open the back door and let them break their own trail out through the back corral. But the mares had to come out the front door. The one beside that pickup that's just barely visible under that big honkin' drift. Yeah, that one:

Once all the horses had been freed, all I had to do was shovel out the back of the pickup to find the hay bales, load them one at a time on the four wheeler, and drag them out to wherever I could find a spot that was less than belly deep. 


Then it was back to the house and the most important job of the day. The power had finally come back on. Time to clear the snow away from the satellite dish so the kid could watch his cartoons. 

So much for the morning. Now all we had to do was find the rest of the cows and calves.