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This is not my story, but something a friend of mine shared, from a woman from Sturgis, South Dakota who experienced the big snow storm in 2013 that killed 1000's of cattle in South Dakota alone.
Rachel Reinhold
It took 5 years for this ...
Five years ago my life was impacted in a very big way. Starting the first Thursday of October 2013 and for weeks to come, my world felt like it was never going to be OK again. It had been a great Summer. The drought of the past couple of years had broken in April and we had good grass, water and lots of hay for the winter! A beautiful September with many warm days with several in the 80-90s. We hadn’t hardly even had a frost yet! You couldn’t have asked for a nicer Fall. So far.
We picked the garden, we planted the winter wheat, they called for snow. We brought the cows home. We fed the horses. It started to rain.
We decided not to go to the missions conference in ND that we always look forward to because they started to call for the first snow of the year. “It was the beginning of October, it shouldn’t be bad, but we had better stay home and keep an eye on things anyway.” It rained though the night. Fall rain is always a blessing... but the next morning after over an inch of rain had fallen... It turned to snow. We headed out to feed the livestock, glad we had decided to bring the cows closer to home.
Then the wind came up. By 2:00 we lost power for good. By night fall we couldn’t see a thing outside. We had to wait out this storm. “It couldn’t be THAT bad!”
Since there was absolutely nothing else we could do we felt good about everything and hoped that it would let up in the night. So we played ‘The Farming Game’ and RISK by candlelight and sat close to the fireplace. The next morning we woke to the wind still howling and snow still flying. “Ok. It’s got to let up soon! It’s the first of October! Right?!”
Through the morning we sat looking at the snow-plastered windows listening to the wind... thinking about the 85-degree day a few days before. Wow. SD can sure change fast.
Finally it let up enough by early afternoon that we were able to get outside.
The first thing we saw as we pushed our way through the snow and out the door was one of our herd bulls, Standing there staring at us. He had been a mile to the north where we left him in good shelter before the storm! The next thing we saw was the trees. Still full with leaves they were completely weighed down by heavy wet snow. Many were completely stripped of all branches. Wow. What a difference had occurred in the last 48 hours! As we trudged our way to the barn we felt exhausted. It was still blowing and it was cold, Wet snow. When we made it around the corner of the shop we saw a bunch of horses standing in the hay yard. 5 were stretched out flat in the snow. 2 were dead and 1 died as I got to him. These horses had been over north with the bulls!
We split up. Some went to clear off the tractor; some went to check the herd of saddle horses in the corral and the milk cow. Somehow they had gotten a gate open and made their way into an old shed during the storm! They looked beat, but fine. The tractor was running now and Dad started to clear snow so we could get hay to everything. One of the horses that was down looked like he might have a chance if we could get him warmed up! He was stretched out and shaking like crazy. Somehow we got him pulled to the barn and started to rub him down. As soon as Dad got the snow cleared I went to help him get down below where we had all the mares and colts, and a batch of young fillies. I pushed open the gate and all at once saw dead horses. I counted 7! I gave Dad the signal and he shook his head in disbelief! That’s crazy! Horses don’t just die that easy! As he worked to get hay I went for a walk through that lot. I’ll never forget that walk. I counted 36 dead horses and had no idea how many more were buried. “Oh God!” was all I could say. I couldn’t believe it. I got back to Dad and told him what I found. We both just stared in silence.
We fed what we could but had to wait for it to clear off some more before we could get out any farther. We got back inside and dried off and warmed up by the fire and told Mom and Grandpa what we had found. We didn’t know what to think.
What we didn’t know. Was that it only got worse.
By late afternoon it quit snowing and the wind went down and we were able to get the driveway cleared a little ways up. The livestock that were in the yard were soaked and completely wore out. They just stood there shaking. Most of them wouldn’t even eat.
The horse in the barn was slowly warming up. We kept rubbing him trying to get the blood flowing.
We finally got up the road far enough to see some of the big yearling steers that we planned to sell that Fall.
Rachel Reinhold
It took 5 years for this ...
Five years ago my life was impacted in a very big way. Starting the first Thursday of October 2013 and for weeks to come, my world felt like it was never going to be OK again. It had been a great Summer. The drought of the past couple of years had broken in April and we had good grass, water and lots of hay for the winter! A beautiful September with many warm days with several in the 80-90s. We hadn’t hardly even had a frost yet! You couldn’t have asked for a nicer Fall. So far.
We picked the garden, we planted the winter wheat, they called for snow. We brought the cows home. We fed the horses. It started to rain.
We decided not to go to the missions conference in ND that we always look forward to because they started to call for the first snow of the year. “It was the beginning of October, it shouldn’t be bad, but we had better stay home and keep an eye on things anyway.” It rained though the night. Fall rain is always a blessing... but the next morning after over an inch of rain had fallen... It turned to snow. We headed out to feed the livestock, glad we had decided to bring the cows closer to home.
Then the wind came up. By 2:00 we lost power for good. By night fall we couldn’t see a thing outside. We had to wait out this storm. “It couldn’t be THAT bad!”
Since there was absolutely nothing else we could do we felt good about everything and hoped that it would let up in the night. So we played ‘The Farming Game’ and RISK by candlelight and sat close to the fireplace. The next morning we woke to the wind still howling and snow still flying. “Ok. It’s got to let up soon! It’s the first of October! Right?!”
Through the morning we sat looking at the snow-plastered windows listening to the wind... thinking about the 85-degree day a few days before. Wow. SD can sure change fast.
Finally it let up enough by early afternoon that we were able to get outside.
The first thing we saw as we pushed our way through the snow and out the door was one of our herd bulls, Standing there staring at us. He had been a mile to the north where we left him in good shelter before the storm! The next thing we saw was the trees. Still full with leaves they were completely weighed down by heavy wet snow. Many were completely stripped of all branches. Wow. What a difference had occurred in the last 48 hours! As we trudged our way to the barn we felt exhausted. It was still blowing and it was cold, Wet snow. When we made it around the corner of the shop we saw a bunch of horses standing in the hay yard. 5 were stretched out flat in the snow. 2 were dead and 1 died as I got to him. These horses had been over north with the bulls!
We split up. Some went to clear off the tractor; some went to check the herd of saddle horses in the corral and the milk cow. Somehow they had gotten a gate open and made their way into an old shed during the storm! They looked beat, but fine. The tractor was running now and Dad started to clear snow so we could get hay to everything. One of the horses that was down looked like he might have a chance if we could get him warmed up! He was stretched out and shaking like crazy. Somehow we got him pulled to the barn and started to rub him down. As soon as Dad got the snow cleared I went to help him get down below where we had all the mares and colts, and a batch of young fillies. I pushed open the gate and all at once saw dead horses. I counted 7! I gave Dad the signal and he shook his head in disbelief! That’s crazy! Horses don’t just die that easy! As he worked to get hay I went for a walk through that lot. I’ll never forget that walk. I counted 36 dead horses and had no idea how many more were buried. “Oh God!” was all I could say. I couldn’t believe it. I got back to Dad and told him what I found. We both just stared in silence.
We fed what we could but had to wait for it to clear off some more before we could get out any farther. We got back inside and dried off and warmed up by the fire and told Mom and Grandpa what we had found. We didn’t know what to think.
What we didn’t know. Was that it only got worse.
By late afternoon it quit snowing and the wind went down and we were able to get the driveway cleared a little ways up. The livestock that were in the yard were soaked and completely wore out. They just stood there shaking. Most of them wouldn’t even eat.
The horse in the barn was slowly warming up. We kept rubbing him trying to get the blood flowing.
We finally got up the road far enough to see some of the big yearling steers that we planned to sell that Fall.