COWBOY LOGIC: Staying put

TOWNER, N.D.--With record breaking amounts of snowfall so far this winter, we've made some adjustments in our winter travel routines.

We've had to reconsider our choice of vehicles. Our mini van may have won awards for family cruising comfort but punching through 2-foot-deep hard snowdrifts is not one of its four-star qualities.

You can leave a lot of plastic pieces on the trail behind you if you ask too much from a minivan on heavy, two track roads when it's twenty below zero.

So we're trying to think of a place in town where we can park the minivan for the winter. That way if we want to go somewhere in fuel efficient comfort, we can load up the family in our four-wheel-drive pickup, ram it through 16 miles of blocked roads to town, then transfer into the van and drive down the highway that's usually passable to all manner and models of vehicles.

If we want to get any use out of the minivan this winter, it might be best for it to be snowed out away from the ranch rather than snowed in on the ranch. That's the question of the season -- state your preference, snowed out or snowed in?

There just isn't any free-wheeling middleground this year.

Getting home

Last night, I was afraid I might be snowed out as I tried to get back home. Even with the pickup, it was drive, shovel, drive, shovel.

I called my wife once in a while to keep her posted of my progress. I got the feeling she'd have preferred being the one snowed out in the cold, rather than snowed in with three cooped-up kids, albeit toasty and warm.

If I didn't make it through the next drift, I'd have cows that wouldn't get fed and a wife that would be fed up. I knew I could make the cows happy with a little hay. I'm still unsure how to make my wife happy, but I knew getting home would be a good start.

So I surveyed the drift ahead. It was long; it was deep. A 180 pound cowboy could walk across the top of it; a 9,000 pound pickup would just get stuck in it. I put my shovel away and called my neighbor. Luckily, he was snowed in, and he was willing to start his tractor and lend a hand.

It took a lot of work with his tractor and an 8-foot loader bucket to clear that spot in the road for me. I'm glad I didn't try to do it with my back and a 15-inch grain scoop.

Thanks to my neighbor, I made it home. I was packing plenty of milk and bread home from town so we can hunker down awhile and wait for the snow plows now.

Pretty soon, though, I might have to leave the pickup in town with the minivan and start shopping for a cheap, dependable snowmobile. Someone told me those three words don't go together. I guess I'll have to decide which word I'm willing to change, cheap or dependable.

Otherwise, we'll have to buy some big bags of flour and powdered milk, sit tight and wait for spring.

Editor's Note: Ryan Taylor welcomes comments about his column. He can be reached at 1363 54th St. N.E., Towner, N.D. 58788; email: cowlogic@ndak.net . Taylor, who ranches near Towner, is a columnist for Agweek.