We're from Wisconsin. Ben spent 13 years of his life in MN and 7 years of his life in WI. MN/WI, same difference. He grew up in urban/suburban areas. In each home they had a nice yard and maybe a cat or 2, but they did not ever have to be outside in -20 with snow drifts against the barn doors 4' high. However, I did. I grew up on a horse farm that was close to 90 acres in North West Wisconsin- an hour or so directly East of Minneapolis/St Paul, MN. We had our own show horses, brood mares, and foals that were sold each summer. Additionally, we had horses in for boarding. In my teens we cared for 20-30 horses year round. We had show horses that came into box stalls every night and were fed grain and wonderful hay every morning and evening. We had broodmares that started the same routine in February/March. We had "pasture horses" that were that, pastured. During the winter months they were fed hay under a lean to attached to the main barn and let into tie stalls for grain. The main barn was an old dairy barn. The dairy stalls my father made into tie stalls for the pasture horses. There were 10, maybe 12. Their front feet stood in packed clay, but the rest of their body was over concrete. They had wonderful mangers that held their feed buckets and flakes of hay. He made the stalls so the manure fell into the same manure "ditch" that the dairy cows used. It was just wide enough for a pick fork. The milk parlor was converted into our feedroom. My Dad had built a huge feedbin that held probably a ton of feed that was a custom blended sweet feed mixture. The mixture changed throughout the seasons, which dictated how much of what ingredient the horses needed. The feedroom also contained the well, which was heat taped, and heat lamped for several months of the year. All the water spickets were also wrapped in heat tape. Hoses were drug out, and then returned into the cemented laundry room with a drain, twice a day from early December until at least mid-February. There was probably less hose dragging as my brother and I got older and we could carry 2, 5 gallon buckets of water at a time... The pasture horses stock tanks all had electric heaters. I can remember my Dad had build plywood covers for the tanks so the horses could not pull out/knock out the heaters. The pasture horses were the true indicators of the weather. If it was cold enough, wet enough, dangerous enough- the pasture horses were kept in their tie stalls overnight. The visual remembrance of the pasture horses being kept in is horses coated with icicles. Ice on every exposed hair- eye lashes, nose whiskers, manes, tails, and balls of ice dangling from their fetlocks! We had metal "shedding brushes" that would be used to scrape off the ice. Even more of memory is my fathers own exposed hairs being covered in ice! Namely, his beard and mustache! We lived off a good size driveway. I'm not sure how long, but several hundred hundred yards anyway. The county would come and plow, but to wait on them would often mean days of being "snowed in". (although I can remember times when there was no choice but to wait for the professional sized equipment) My Dad would plow the barn yard and the driveway- many times in the dark. He and the good 'ol "classically aged" tractor- which may or may not be in the mood to fire right up... I don't have to think very hard to remember his rose-red, ice covered face! The things we did to simply make it until the next day on a farm in the mid-west!! We heated with a combination of wood and oil, but I don't remember relying on the oil very much. The wood was found, cut down, cut apart, split, loaded, unloaded, stacked, and hauled in by our 8 hands. Sometimes there was an additional pair of hands, but I don't remember that happened too often. We cut the firewood from our own acreage of woods. The woods was low-lying, so to go out and cut, split, and stack during the "un-frozen" times of the year was not doable. The only time we could get out there with the tractor and F250 was when the ground was good and frozen. It was a weekly event, and as a kid it was a miserable task. As an adult I only see the values it taught me. To be heating in the same manner now would please me beyond words!!! Of course as a kid I only saw the reasons it was a bummer. But what I remember as an adult is all of us being together, working to support ourselves. I remember the brush fires with roasted hotdogs and baked beans. I remember the laughable moments and I appreciate what having to be out there or be cold instilled in me as an adult- I don't remember it as being miserable. In fact I'm envious. I wish my own kids could look back on such experiences. I can remember times the drifts of snow were so deep and high that my brother and I could make snow caves several rooms deep and wide. I can remember drifts high enough that had you jumped from the roof of the hay barn, it would have only been several feet! I can remember cars that had been plugged in all night (southerns don't even know what that means) still wouldn't start in the morning. I can remember the barn cats having a heat light (and they were not pampered at all, so for them have been granted a heat light...), I can remember having to go inside to change gloves/mittens half way thru evening chores because the pair you had on were too crusted with ice to provide any kind of protection during the remainder of your chores. Then after the frozen tundra came the MUD....
Would we ever go back? I don't know. It is such a beautiful area of the country and provides both wonderful pasture and "livestockfeeding" croplands (ie corn, alfalfa) with terrain ranging from near flat, to gorgeous rolling hills. Somedays I think yes, somedays, not so much. My parents have moved to Northern Arizona, so being close to them in pretty much out. We can't afford land out that direction. The rest of my family is the same area I grew up. Ben's family is the same MN area he grew up. To move back to that area would mean we were 90 minutes from everyone but my parents. Land is reasonable. Land there, vs. land here on the east coast is pasture, or pasture/woods combination. Here it is either expensive crop land or all woods that needs to be cleared; a 50 acre farm that's mostly pasture is pretty much non-existent. Here, we deal with the summer misery of heat. We deal with parasites for both dogs and farm animals that never get "froze out" and really take a hold during the hot and humid months- sometimes regardless of how much we deworm and deflea!! But, we do not have to build barns and buildings for our animals that protect against the sub-zero temperatures, and we do not have to "feed" our livestock for as many months. It's all about trade-off and personal choice. We give up dealing with the sub-zero, but in turn have to deal with the summer months of 100 degrees and 98% humidity for weeks and months- not just a few days here and there. The mid-west has "house bound" months, and the south has it's "house bond" months- but they are at opposite ends of the year!! In one area you are miserable outside from Jan-March. In another area you are miserable outside from June-August....
We've been in the southeast for a long time now, but the hot and humid summers are still no less to bear, and are dreadful. Something in my gut says we will end up back in the mid-west! As I age I miss my family. I know the family that is there are not going anywhere. I miss the cold, and I miss the snow. I miss the weather that reminds you just where exactly you stand in the universe! I believe I have come to the conclusion that I would rather deal with the winter than deal with the miserable summers of the south east. 20 below does not last as long as 100 and humid. Although it can be difficult, making livestock comfortable and viable during the short lived 20 below is possibly more manageable than the several hot/humid/parasite infested summer months of the south east...
The midwest seems very compatible to what I want from life. I want to have livestock, largely to produce our own meat, but also as a small source of income. I want to have enough land to train stockdogs to the top level. I would like to have a garden large enough to produce the non-meat staples.
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