Coming out of the Darkness

Anyone surviving ND winter 2014 knows that this has not been an easy one. NO major snow events of apocalyptic nature but the cold just never stopped. Starting in December a below zero cold zone covered the state. We got used to words like arctic, frigid, and polar vortex. Each day we seemed to be greeted with a new factor. Frost levels reaching unheard of depths and freezing water lines, cattle coming off of pasture thin from flooded grasslands and dying because they couldn't eat enough to keep their bodies alive, or calves dying in minutes of hitting the arctic air. Propane prices soaring and or not even being available. There were many days there just didn't seem to be an end in sight. We couldn't really pity ourselves because to the south - earlier this year our fellow brothers in ranching lost whole herds and in other parts of the country whole cities were shut down. And in its bleakest hours we found each other. We came together out of the cold to commiserate, to complain, to greet each other with humor. And humor saw us through. And love saw us through. And sheer strength of will saw us through. We pulled from the legacy of our fathers who blazed trails in this land and held on. It's mid-March and

the weather has turned. Ground is thawing, the sun is shining, and we're still here. We're still fighting. We still believe that we live in God's country - the most beautiful place on earth. We wake up under the North Dakota sky and thank God for letting us survive. Like the crocus we'll break through the ground and face the sun and we'll be here another day.