I remember well the March of 66 blizzard. Nasty amount of snow and wind. If i recall correctly it lasted 3-4 days and then a couple of days to clean off the roads and the farm yards.
We were calving at the time and Dad and i went on 12 hour shifts sitting in the calving barn and also feeding the livestock. Dad put a rope up from the barn to the house as once you came around the barn you couldn't see 1 foot in front of you. Distance from house to barn was pretty close to 100 yards. So one could have easily got turned around and went the other direction. We had a great shelter belt with high and low trees to the West and the North but that didn't matter as it was blowing so hard it just piled up in the yards.
When it was all over we had to get the County to come in with their pay loader as our loader was in the quonset and it was a round top quonset. The darn quonset was covered up with snow! Guessing it was all of 20 feet tall in the middle. Wish we could have gotten pictures of it.
Most of the fences in the yard were well covered over with hard pack snow so the cattle once the wind quit could walk over the fences wherever they wanted. Was not a happy time trying to get the snow away from the fences so they wouldn't climb over them. Man a modern day 4 wheel drive tractor and a big snow blower would have been priceless back then.
It wasn't terribly cold being in March but the wind made it feel cold and it felt like the snow was going to go right through your face when walking to the house. Nasty is all i can say.
Never lost a critter to the storm but had lots of frozen eggs in the chicken coop.
Remember the County blade and the operator had the V plow on and he would back up about 100 yards or so and hit those big snowdrifts that were any place from 10 to 20 feet tall wherever something would block the wind a little. He would come flying up there and hit it with the V plow and maybe make a 6-12'' dent in it. Sometime the snow would drop over the top of the V plow if the bank was too tall and he would be stuck. He had to get out and shovel the snow out from behind the V plow so he could back out of there. Wasn't a happy time believe me. Felt sorry for the guy but the equipment back then didn't have much power and it also was not a 4x4 or 6x6 wheel drive either. His chains didn't help much either as didn't have the power to pull yourself backwards from the snow over the V plow.
Hope the one they are talking for the weekend doesn't bother us too bad.
Stay home if it is bad as it isn't worth dying over to try and get someplace! Also would be risking the lives of others who would go out to save you.
Anyone else have memories of the 66 storm?
We were calving at the time and Dad and i went on 12 hour shifts sitting in the calving barn and also feeding the livestock. Dad put a rope up from the barn to the house as once you came around the barn you couldn't see 1 foot in front of you. Distance from house to barn was pretty close to 100 yards. So one could have easily got turned around and went the other direction. We had a great shelter belt with high and low trees to the West and the North but that didn't matter as it was blowing so hard it just piled up in the yards.
When it was all over we had to get the County to come in with their pay loader as our loader was in the quonset and it was a round top quonset. The darn quonset was covered up with snow! Guessing it was all of 20 feet tall in the middle. Wish we could have gotten pictures of it.
Most of the fences in the yard were well covered over with hard pack snow so the cattle once the wind quit could walk over the fences wherever they wanted. Was not a happy time trying to get the snow away from the fences so they wouldn't climb over them. Man a modern day 4 wheel drive tractor and a big snow blower would have been priceless back then.
It wasn't terribly cold being in March but the wind made it feel cold and it felt like the snow was going to go right through your face when walking to the house. Nasty is all i can say.
Never lost a critter to the storm but had lots of frozen eggs in the chicken coop.
Remember the County blade and the operator had the V plow on and he would back up about 100 yards or so and hit those big snowdrifts that were any place from 10 to 20 feet tall wherever something would block the wind a little. He would come flying up there and hit it with the V plow and maybe make a 6-12'' dent in it. Sometime the snow would drop over the top of the V plow if the bank was too tall and he would be stuck. He had to get out and shovel the snow out from behind the V plow so he could back out of there. Wasn't a happy time believe me. Felt sorry for the guy but the equipment back then didn't have much power and it also was not a 4x4 or 6x6 wheel drive either. His chains didn't help much either as didn't have the power to pull yourself backwards from the snow over the V plow.
Hope the one they are talking for the weekend doesn't bother us too bad.
Stay home if it is bad as it isn't worth dying over to try and get someplace! Also would be risking the lives of others who would go out to save you.
Anyone else have memories of the 66 storm?
