The Blizzard Arrives

Morning time - 70 years ago today. Location: The Dutch Charley Creek Farm in Redwood County, Minnesota, USA. Lovely day. Farm activities as normal. Managing of cattle, chickens, pigs. Dog and cats doing their security rounds. Armistice Day. . Mother and Father keeping the family and farm in order.

The lovely weather began to change. By later afternoon and evening a survival operation was in operation. Gather the animals! Find the farm creatures and get them into safe quarters! The world began to take on a surreal quality as rain became ice and the wind drove ice and snow into a darkening afternoon. We had no electricity so there was no anxiety about losing power. It was human ingenuity and effort that were the given survival mechanisms. Like a fortress against the forces of nature on the prairie, the farm house and barn were put into order with doors and windows securely closed. Kerosene lamps provided the necessary light with lanterns carried about to guide us on our rounds. Fuel for the kitchen range and heat for the house were gathered.

At 11 years of age I was securing buildings and gathering creatures. At the time we had Guinea Hens and they preferred roosting in trees when threatened. Climbing into the trees to gather these birds comes vividly to mind. The chickens were gathered into the close quarters of the chicken house which came to be surrounded by the wind and driven snow, quieting the usual cackling of the hens and roosters. Even the pungent odor of the chickens was overwhelmed by the sense of an impending night storm.

The usual tight warmth of the barn had not yet arrived since frost closes the gaps in boards as deep winter comes. This early in the season the wind forces cold into the barn until snow either builds drifts or closes the cracks in boards. Insulation was not part of barn design in that era. The sounds and bodily sensations of an arriving blizzard influenced both people and animals. Time no longer moves along at a predictable pace. The overwhelming feel of immense power dominates all of life.

Prairie life was and is personal survival in close contact with the elemental forces of nature. Contemporary technology has given the impression of human domination of the land. However, when floods, tornadoes, straight line winds, blizzards, long time rains storms, heat, cold, drought, and earth quakes arrive on their own terms, the human response depends on human ingenuity and labor coupled with a forward directed attitude and a sense of working together for the common good.