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Only 3 minutes.

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  I remember the days before it, We were picking corn as fast as we could, and it begin to mist. 16 calves were fenced outside because we had filled the pens in the barn with straw bales... and they were very uneasy... and then started escaping the fenced in area ...due to not having the fence electrified since we were going in and out of that area to fill the corn cribs. Dad was picking on the last field dragging the wagon through clay mud that was so greasy you did not want to walk in the crap... He finished up at  about 8pm, putting the old WD with the mounted picker into the shed and went in to warm up and dry off.  I finished up night chores at about 10:10pm  and came into the house where he was watching actual news. He says the weather man says it's going to snow 6"... Well back in those days, our news at 10pm were on channel 4,5,11 (Channel 9 was at 9pm) would have the weather reports staggered ... So he had the first weather on and it showed the path going east of us through Rice Lake, and the next was showing the storm path going through Mora Mn. to the north west... and the third station was showing it going through Spooner / Hayward area, which meant it was going right over us. and they were all reporting 6" snow fall.  they even admitted they didn't know what it was really going to do... I looked at what the three stations said and I turned to dad and said, " We're in for it... 6X6 =36 inches! I put my coat back on and put chains on the 170  w/ the loader on it, put chains on the D17 that was on the manure spreader, and put chains on the WD45... The H Farmall with the farmhand loader already had chains on it.  ... then covered up the corn wagons. By that time it had turned from mist rain to snowing pretty hard. Went back in the house feeling better about being prepaired for the storm...  Except for the fact the calves had disappeared just at dark.

  Next morning...it was like a horror story, deep drifts in the yard, milk truck didn't come in, I started the farmhand loader and pushed snow from 10 am west of the barn, out to the road and across to the house drive way and blew a hose, fixed it and continued back down to the barn to where I had started, by now 3 pm.... only to find it was all drifted in again. ARRGH! Shut that down. Couldn't get to the barn cleaners, and worse, couldn't find the calves. Did the PM milking, Bulk tank got full to the top and running over... dragged up some barrels and dumped milk in them, and the excess went down the drain. And now gutters were full and this will sound terrible, we shoveled manure onto the walkway. Now get some rest for tomorrow...

  AM came fired up the two tractors with loaders and plowed a trail from the barn out to the road again, this time it had quit snowing and blowing... dad had a round bale on the back forks of the 170 for extra traction... we plowed down the road to the corner and came back and called the dairy... They asked if the township had plowed past our place yet... No, but we plowed it out enough for them to get in... and they sent the truck out...9 am... The cows were sure glad to hear the milker pump start up--- i was just finishing up milking and dad says he can hear the calves... They were crying down in the woods... waist deep snow, dad still had the bale on the 170 so he set the bucket part way down and chewed a hole down to the woods a quarter mile away. But got to deep north side of it. He carried a shovel on the tractor and he pointed his finger at it and waved his finger to the woods... Yea, I shoveled a trail by hand  down enough so it was about knee deep, and when I got close, the calves (350-400#) came out of the woods... and followed dad home and went into the barn without any urging. We bucked snbow out of an area and down to the east barn cleaner, and hauled to full loads out of there... and the south cleaner, ... to get to it, it was 6 feet of snow there and mud underneath and could not use the loaders to clean it out... Yea, shoveled a path by hand to it and took couple hours, not able to see over the top.      Finally got that side cleaned... Now to get them moo-moos milked again, ...and tomorrow... and the next day and the next day after were pushing snow and cleaning out... some piles were 17+ ft tall. The loader bucket on the farmhand could raise 21'. Wish I had taken pictures of that...

  Funnier part... Dad said the Winter of 35-36 was worse by far than this was, 9 years later dad's friend back in the day said the same thing at dads funeral. The Halloween snow storm wasn't anything compared to that winter.   Dad told many stories of that 35/36 winter, and it sounded brutal.