Midwestern Blizzards

Our One-Room Country Schoolhouse

     The winters of 1948-49 and 1949-50 were absolutely brutal in the Midwest.  Some regions had over 100 inches of snow each winter.  The Great Blizzard of 1949 occurred the first week of January.  Much has been written about that record-breaking storm, but there were many blizzards those years and I cannot separate them in my mind.

     As one storm was followed by another with no melting in between, the snow packed solid, deeper and deeper.  The snowdrifts around our farm became so high that the cattle could literally walk across the fences.  The water tanks for the animals froze solid and tank heaters had to be used to make drinking water available for the livestock.  It was always a worry that we would lose electric power because then no water could be pumped from the well to the tanks.

Making Bricks

Threshing oats was a dirty, labor intensive operation in the 1940s,
that is if  children did not burn down your oat field before harvest!

     Bricks seemed like simple things or so we thought based on our lessons at school.  It was nearing the end of a hot, drowsy summer.  My brother and I were in the lower grades but our younger sister would not start school for another year.  We were all bored.

The Back-up Generator

Grammy and Her "New" Farm House

and Farm in the Mid-1930's 

     A basement was put under our small farm house during the fall of 1950. I do not know whose idea that was but we certainly needed the space. It was quite a process for our little old house built in 1867 by Peter Woodson, the original homesteader of our land.

     The house was raised on concrete blocks and tall blue house jacks. After the dirt underneath was dug out, new concrete block walls were built with a number of glass block windows on the four sides to let in some light. Lastly, the house was lowered carefully onto the new basement walls after the mortar had dried.