Blizzards strike fear into the hearts of anyone with animals, well okay, with anyone that can’t just sit safe and warm in a well-insulated home with hot cocoa, marshmallows, coffee, and power! When we get a blizzard warning, we take it seriously. More often than not, we lose power with high winds and we try to take that into account.

Fill the five-gallon jugs with water so we can brew coffee. I mean we do have our priorities. The stove is gas, so we can cook on the stove top; we just have to have things we can cook that don’t require opening and closing the fridge and freezer. Candles are handy, and I charge all my non-electric powered chargers, so I can still work. We open the cupboard doors where we have water pipes, close doors to rooms we don’t need to heat, and dig out the mountain sleeping bags just in case. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The stock comes first.

Make sure all stock tanks are full because water doesn’t pump without power. In advance of wind, bed down corrals with fresh straw so cattle will be nice and cozy when they have to stay in the corral in order to have a wind break. Make sure feed is handy for heifers, bulls, and horses. Trying to put out straw or hay in a strong wind means we weren’t paying attention to the forecast because we eat more of it than the animals will.

Soon enough the wind has pounded that flying snow into hard drifts while scouring the ground bare in other spots, and on we go.